 |
In The Class Known As 'Humans', I Include Men
[This is a follow-up to Beyond The Terf, where I dunk the idiot's chant that terf is a self referential into the toilet and flush, several times]
We, the terven sisterhood, are often accused of dehumanisation. The hypocrisy would be funny if it wasn't so exhausted, dusty, and served on a shitty bed of abuse and sneering.
In this debate, I see no one being dehumanised. |
To her credit, in her Guardian piece Smythe confesses 'TERF' has been weaponised. To her possible shame (she doesn't elaborate) she accuses us, the labelled, of doing it, too. That makes no sense to me, unless the whole deal is about "both-sides-ing" it where it is possible, and beneficial to her portrayal.
Terf is an accusation, a waiver - "don't worry," it promises, "I wouldn't say this about normal women. "
This is seemingly enough cover for a thousand violent threats or sexualised insults.
That it is spat with such venom appears not to bother Smythe, who likely (I read her twitter feed) goes with the 'accountability', freedom of speech-not-freedom of consequences yawn-prompt.
Why is it, for the trans activist, feminists are the arch nemesis of trans people? We have the same wish for safe spaces, after all. The only difference is that we have a definition of 'woman'.
What did we ever do to justify such hate? Is it feminists who beat Brazilian prostitutes to death? Who go q**** bashing?
No. We just refrain from joining in the happy clappy, chanting, inclusive stuff, while being women.
We work hard to hold boundaries, whether physical, legal, definitional or factual. And they (activists, not trans people, many of whom are on our side) hate us for it, largely because their hyperbole over trans genocide is almost exclusively bullshit.
Smythe wrote the Guardian piece in 2018, and hints at being a trans inclusionary radical feminist, although in several tweets viewable on Twitter she states she that is not a radical feminist at all.
I am yet to understand how it is possible to be a trans inclusive radical feminist (admittedly, my bad. I guess) because: radical feminism looks to the root of women's oppression. It examines our girl-hoods, the implicit and explicit messages forcibly imbibed. It is founded in our messy, hated, desired, fought over bodies and our assumed reproductive capacity. Radical feminism centres all and excludes no woman, no matter how she identifies, which exogenous hormones she has taken or surgery she has had. These are all born of our physical bodies and inaccessible to males.
This is the lie of the acronym (along with 'radical feminist' being applied to people with wholly incompatible, traditional views on gender norms and conservative, even right wing politics - Marjory Taylor Greene, for example).
No one is excluded on the basis of being trans.
Their real objection is no one is included on that basis, either.
What this really rests upon is, what is a woman?
'Woman' - that fifty percent of the population, which is also everyone, except those who opt out
So let's have a look at the cohort we are tearing each other to bits over:
Transwomen - a group so vast it includes:
° People like my lovely, transsexual friend, Chrissy, who transitioned after what had been intolerable dysphoria; who never mentions being trans (except, perhaps, when defending me against accusations of transphobia); who talks and behaves in a way it seems inconceivable she wasn't born a girl; who took on the family carer role as siblings moved away and parents grew old; who won't go swimming in the local pool because of the fear of both using the men's changing rooms and of scaring women. Who, clearly, identifies with women.
° People a bit like my friend, above, but not as dysphoric. Who, like circa 90% of transwomen, retain and intend to retain a penis;
° People such as Eddie "I shout at teen girls" Izzard, Julie Miller / Bernie McClean of Steph's Place, Philip / Pips Bunce, who are 'women' a couple of days a week;
 |
Pips & Philip Bunce; Eddie in 'girl mode' & as man-tart; Bernie McClean & alter ego Julie Miller
 |
| Bernie-Julie lays out the schedule, making it pretty clear "lady-mode" is for recreation |
 |
| Actually Bernie-Julie now claims that Trans Women Are Female - No Debate, which is remarkable |
° A non-transitioning transwoman like Stonewall's Alex Drummond!
° Jane Fae, Jessica Yaniv, Helen Belcher, "Keffals", India Willoughby, Katy Montgomerie, Gemma Stone etc - anyone who 'transitions' in some respect but appear to retain nasty, abusive, sexually aggressive and/or misogynistic attitudes and/or use their status as a power tool.
° Drag Queens - that's right, they also make Stonewall's definition of trans, along with "Two Spirit", "Hijra" and god knows how many more inaccurately appropriated cultural categories 8
And
° Any man you can think of, no matter his machismo, as soon as he utters the magic words "I'm a woman" and, somehow, metamorphosises into one.
***
So that's the group, and you call any of them men and you're a terf, too. That is what happens when no definition is allowed.
It's about inclusion, ok?
And they must all be included. Every. Single. One.
So it's curious to me that in a row over whether or not the aforementioned group is actually part of womanhood, the group with the fully, universally understood and materially defined concept of woman (female, adult, human) is the one cursed with the acronym.
Why would those with the commonly shared views need that? Why not make an out-group of those who believe women can have penises, testicles and prostates? It's like talking about the population of Basingstoke, is bisexual Zoroastrian vegans, except for 'everyone else' who isn't. It's like referring to group A as 'the people', and calling the residual 99.9% of the population 'non QAnon believers'.
Well, according to Smythe this is down to the early terf being unhappy with the moniker 'transphobe". If this isn't a further clue to antagonism which brought it into being, I don't know what is.
Allegedly it was a term used alongside trans inclusive radical feminists - although, since TERF & TIRF are homonyms, I call bullshit.
It's always been the way that women are presented as coming up with new and unreasonable demands - it's an unspoken, insinuated trope, in the heart of a debate among alleged feminists
And that, and what Smythe says about it, is next
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment