Up With Trans Solidarity

[down-with-terf-ideology]

Trying to force labels and expectations on people based on their gender, or the gender they were coercively assigned at birth, upholds the patriarchy.

[down-with-terf-ideology]

Both extremes on tumblr silence trans people and support horrifically violent structures of oppression. 

“Sex-based oppression” isn’t the clean black-and-white chart it’s made out to be.

“Gender-based oppression” isn’t the clean black-and-white chart it’s made out to be.

The patriarchy thrives on forcing everyone into gender binaries, into labels in general that are binary, but the real world doesn’t work that way. 

It’s important to talk about oppression without trying to define the people who experience it. 

The medical abuse against people with uteruri isn’t limited to women. Even in terf ideology, there are plenty of people who were designated male at birth who have uteri.

Internalized beliefs, fears, etc. that are said to only affect women....don’t only affect women. They affect many people, regardless of gender; not all people who were designated female at birth internalized these things, but plenty do. Some non-binary people who were designated male at birth internalize it as well. And, as many of you know already, many trans women internalize this.

The discussions about catcalling, unjust dress code, victim-blaming, not being believed in medical settings, etc. aren’t limited to women either. They affect and endanger everyone that is seen as a women, regardless of their actual gender, or the gender assigned to them at birth.

Solitary between all trans people and all women, regardless of their assigned gender or their actual gender, is an incredibly important matter that I haven’t seen be addressed in activism.

[trapcard]

Trans women who present a certain way do it as a form of protection. Girls who are pre transition and still present as ‘masculine’. If someone like myself goes out and wears feminine clothing and/or makeup there’s a good chance i’m going to get harassed or possibly killed. So me refraining from doing so is not because I want to but because i HAVE to for my own safety. This is not “male privilege”. Saying that a marginalized group has privilege by conforming to an enforced societal norm as protection is idiotic. This would be like saying that a cis woman has “make up privilege” because she wears make up to not be ridiculed, brutalized and ostracized in society. It doesn’t make sense. At all.

And then this whole myth of trans women being socialized as male. The first issue is that the only people saying this are people who are NOT trans women. It’s mainly cis women who have no idea about how life is growing up as trans women that legitimately think that a trans woman and a cis man have the same exact experiences growing up. This is a very blatant form of oppression. A group in power assigning a blanket generalization in order to delegitimize the experience of the marginalized and further the violence against them is oppression. A man saying that women are naturally physically weaker for example is a myth created by men as a tool to further oppression. The myth of male socialization works the exact same way. Trans women are telling you our experiences and you are constantly denying them because they do not fit into your preconceived narrative that allows you to continue to contribute and enable our oppression.

This other idea of trans women not really being women because we do not grow up being mocked for our vaginas is utterly juvenile. Women do not have to check a boxes of instances of oppression to be considered women. Not every woman, cis or trans, interacts with patriarchy exactly the same so even implying that if a woman isn’t oppressed in a certain way then they aren’t a woman doesn’t hold weight. A white woman does not go through the same struggles a black woman but that does not erase either group’s womanhood If a woman is never mocked for her looks then is she not a woman? The same concept applies to trans women.

Trans women are not socialized as male. We are socialized as trans women. There are trans women who start presenting at a very young age. I personally know girls who have been on blockers since before they started puberty and have been out since then as well. The other girls who may not have started hormones till later in life or not at all are still not “socialized as male” just the same as a closeted lesbian woman is not “socialized as straight” and doesn’t have straight privilege because she grew up closeted and presented a certain way. A majority of the time trans women are abused for displaying any sort of feminine behaviour in our child hood. These lessons that our fathers and mothers attempt to teach us about “being a man” don’t absorb the same way they do for cis men because we are not men. These lessons only harm us and reinforce the message that we have to be hyper feminine in order to be accepted. Trans women do not interact with cis women even close to the same as cis men. Whenever a trans woman becomes aggressive, particularly if she’s black, a cis woman will say that this aggressiveness is a result of “male socialization” rather than a natural response to oppression. A trans woman getting angry at being called a man, something that gets us killed and keeps our people homeless and in constant danger, is not a result of being “raised as a male” but a result of constantly being exposed to violence for existing.

At the end of the day trans women are constantly being brutalized, disenfranchised and murdered for simply existing. So for self proclaimed feminists and just women in general to ignore this is oppressive. For these women to see this violence and dismiss it and thus promote it is oppressive. For these women to push the idea that trans women are just men in wigs which gets us murdered is oppressive. For these women to allow this extermination of trans lives to happen and not lift finger when one of us has our lives taken because we at trans is oppressive. Implying that a trans woman is trying “infiltrate womanhood” is oppressive. We just want to be able to exist in safety. That’s literally it.

[korrasera]

Reblogging because this summarizes everything pretty goddamn well.

Also, this touches on the idea of why passing privilege is bullshit.

Privilege is an overloaded term that doesn’t really describe the intricacy of what we’re talking about because it’s focuses on what you look like and ignores your personal experience. If you break privilege down into a system of vulnerability and benefit, then it becomes immediately clear that passing privilege is no such thing. The only thing passing does is render you invisible to the overt violence that targets your community.

Going stealth, because that’s really what passing is, means hiding your identity in order to protect yourself from overt violence. And the only way you can maintain that invisibility is to hide, which means not being able to express your true self while simultaneously living under a knife. Privileged groups take violent action against people who get outed.

Trans women aren’t privileged if we pass for cis men. Trans women aren’t privileged if we pass for cis women. When it comes to gender, trans women do not have privilege. Period.

[radredrecluse]

if loving my female body is problematic you bet your liberal ass i’m gonna do it so help me i am a creature fueled by spite

[down-with-terf-ideology]

I’m glad you love your body! Loving your body is good.

Finding strength, passion, and self-love in the face of horrific oppression is beautiful and important.

I’m a person with a vagina who feels proud to have one and I know that I am lovely and powerful despite the patriarchy which tells me I’m nothing but a fuck toy.

The only thing that’s problematic is saying that female bodies have to look a certain way for them to qualify as female, saying that trans women aren’t allowed to love their bodies (or telling them that they aren’t women if they do), claiming that trans women aren’t oppressed for their bodies (not experiencing all of the same types of oppression doesn’t mean they aren’t oppressed), and saying that vagina = female.

If I assumed anything about your ideology, please let me know. I only went with these assumptions because your post was in the radfem tag, and on your blog, you say that you’re a radical feminist.

[freckledfem]

thought

im not tryna get flamed here for real. this is a legitimate question i thought of. If genitals =\= gender, then why dont people who experience dysphoria get surgeries to change their sex, but continue to live as their gender assigned at birth? do you think anyone ever done that?

[down-with-terf-ideology]

I don’t know any cis person who has gone through with permanent physical changes because of dysphoria, but I definitely know that there are plenty of cis people who experience body dysphoria but identify as the gender they were assigned at birth.

There are many reasons for not going through with physical changes, and I’ll try to list a few.

1.) Still wanting to be seen as the gender they were assigned at birth / not wanting to get misgendered

2.) Not wanting to be perceived as “ugly” due to binarist and cissexist societal views

3.) Not being allowed the resources or financial support (this is a problem for many trans people, but it can also pose a problem to any cis person who may want to physically transition, as many places will turn you away if you don’t have a medical professional saying that you’re trans)

4.) Overall, the action is very much frowned upon in society, even from the trans community, and the lack of support may scare many people away.

All that being said, I do know there are many women with breasts who get reduction surgery due to dysphoria. (I don’t know how many get them fully removed, whether because they don’t want them fully gone, are worried about that much of a change, have violent partners who wouldn’t “allow” it, or don’t have the financial support for complete top surgery.)

Also, there are many trans people who love or are fine with their bodies the way they are, and don’t want to transition physically. 

There are also trans people who have transitioned physically because they couldn’t stand being misgendered, who now experience body dysphoria due to the changes, despite the changes being more stereotypical for their gender.

[freckledfem]

literally the oldest, most violent, and most prevalent form of oppression against women globally has been forcibly controlling our uteri and vaginas and it just blows my mind that trans women think its okay to demand that feminists stop talking about vaginas

[down-with-terf-ideology]

Yes, forcibly controlling our uteri and vaginas is a violent and terrifying form of oppression against people with vaginas.

But even with your view of how gender works, it’s inaccurate to say “women”.

I won’t get into all the biological details or the fact that you’re very much ignoring intersex people, but I felt it was important to be aware of that.

Yes, the trans women who say that discussion about vaginas or uteri should be off-limits are wrong and need to remember that there very much is oppression based around these body parts.

But most trans women simply want people to stop acting like people with those body parts are the only ones who can be oppressed for their bodies, and to stop equating the discussion with gender.

[lezgem-deactivated20160104]

I lose followers every time I say “trans women are women”

so I’m gonna keep saying it until I weed out all ya

[boobkittenprincess]

trans women are women. trans women are biologically female. trans women are womyn-born-womyn. trans women are female-bodied. trans women have female chromosomes. trans women have female reproductive systems. trans women’s genitals are female. trans women’s secondary sex characteristics are female. trans women have female voices. trans women are female-socialized. trans women are female in every possible way you can imagine, except birth assignment.

just in case there were any stragglers lying around.

[down-with-terf-ideology]

Trans women are oppressed and fetishized because of their bodies.

Their experiences differ enormously from cis men.

When they’re closeted, the experience is closeted, dysphoric, and terrifying, not privileged.

If you believe that trans women are privileged as long as they are mistaken for cis men, then you have to believe that of everyone who “passes” as a cis man, including those who were coercively assigned female at birth.

"Passing privilege” isn’t a thing. You can hide, and while hiding be treated as a member of the oppressive group so long as they aren’t able to tell otherwise, but it’s a terrifying , sometimes dangerous, and in most cases, spiritually or psychologically damaging experience. It is certainly not a privilege. 

[fuckoffallies]

On average, you have a 1 in 18,989 chance of being murdered

A trans person has a 1 in 12 chance of being murdered

The average life span of a cis person is about 75-90 

The average life expectancy of a trans person is 23-30 years old

75% of people killed in anti LGBT hate crimes are poc

Think about this the next time you go crying over “cisphobia” and “reverse racism”

[wocinsolidarity]

MESSAGE 

[toobittertobesalty-blog]

As the kid of a doctor and a biologist, let me tell you something that just miiight go over some people’s (*cough cough terfs*) heads:

- XX and XY (or any other combinations - there are others) chromosomes are a thing and are medically important

- genitals are a thing and are medically important

- horomones are a thing and are medically important

- the idea of a “biological sex” is still completely unnecessary. If you have XX chromosomes, you can tell your doctor that. If you have a penis, you can tell your doctor that. If you have high levels of both estrogen/testosterone, your doctor should probably know that already but I guess if you go to a new one you can tell them that. There is no situation in which one has to say “I am biologically male/female”

[sometimestheresgodsoquickly]

^say it a little louder for the transphobic educators who tried to tell students otherwise

[camillahect]

I teach intro biology labs at the college level, and I try really hard to get all of this through my students’ heads at the earliest possible opportunity. The biological definition of a sex is  l i t e r a l l y just:  

Does this organism produce: many tiny energetically cheap gametes, or few large energetically expensive gametes? 

That’s literally it. There’s no other qualifiers, there’s no other anatomical characteristics involved in that definition, and even that scientific distinction exists on a spectrum! No species of animal ever 100% across-the-board conforms to this sexually dimorphic biological system! There will always be individuals of any largely gametically-dimorphic species that exist somewhere in-between, and there are a number species where the sexes all produce gametes of similar sizes!

IN NO WAY EVER does even that gamete size distinction ever confer gender upon anyone. Chromosomes and genitals and hormones ARE medically important, but these characteristics NEVER dictate gender, and they’re NEVER anyone’s business but your own unless you choose to involve another person in discussions of your strictly physical health. 

There is no such thing as being “biologically [gender]”. The idea is a toxic social construct, and don’t let anyone try to shoehorn you into believing otherwise.

[down-with-terf-ideology]

You can’t use abortion laws, higher prices on menstruation products, (coercively-assigned gender-related) voting laws, etc. as examples for male privilege, then turn around and tell trans men that they’re privileged for being men. 

Cis men very much hold privilege. 

But please stop grouping your brothers with uteruses in with the people who are oppressing them. 

[honeycha1-deactivated20181021]

hello children

a lot of young teen lesbians on tumblr r aligning with the terf ideology without knowing properly what it stands for. so as an Older Lesbian with some 6 years of Being Out Experience i wanna clarify some things for you.

nobody is forcing you to be attracted to anyone

nobody is saying that if you aren’t attracted to [insert a trans woman name], you’re automatically transphobic and a terf. nobody is saying you have to have sex with trans girls if you aren’t attracted to them. just as nobody is saying you have to be attracted to every cis woman. and nobody is saying you have to have sex with gay girls you aren’t attracted to.

we are only asking you to respect trans women as women

and that’s really the least you could do! trans women (trans lesbians and wlw in particular) are just other girls out here trying to survive in this hetero world. and it’s hard being a lesbian already - but being a trans lesbian is so much harder. don’t make these girls feel even more alienated, don’t contribute to the hate that is turned against them. 

“but i don’t wanna have sex with someone with a penis”

if you end up never sleeping with anyone w a penis, that’s okay. being a lesbian isn’t just about who you have sex with. it’s also about who you love, who you’re attracted to and who you date. and one day you might find yourself falling in love with a trans girl. 

if that happens, just like in any relationship, you can negotiate your limits in sex. there’s no point in saying “i am not attracted to trans women” - because it makes it seem like trans women are inherently so much different from cis women, makes you sound like you think all trans women look/are the same and like you think of women as walking genitals. which is pretty misogynist! 

so please just don’t listen to terfs. protect your trans sisters because they need it and they will always be there to support you if you support them too. 

[down-with-terf-ideology]

How can you look at all the trans women who have been murdered, raped, and abused due to transmisogyny, and tell them that they’re privileged for it?

Suggesting that women bring about their own oppression because they don’t bow down to the patriarchy is misogyny at its finest.

Trans women are in a lot of danger. Instead of excluding them from our feminism just because they face differences in oppression, why aren’t we helping to support and protect them?

[down-with-terf-ideology]

As feminists,

We need to protect our trans sisters, not tear them down.

We need to recognize that the fear of being murdered in the streets is oppression, not privilege.

We need to support and lift up not only those of us society coercively assigned female at birth (and who are oppressed because of it, regardless of gender), but also those who were coercively assigned male at birth who are not men and are forced to be around cis men.

We need to recognize that the oppression they face is very real. We need to recognize that, despite differences in experience, they are very much in danger and need our support. 

We need to stop telling trans women that they’re privileged for the very thing they’re being murdered for.

We can not call ourselves feminists if our feminism does not include all women, and all people who are oppressed by the patriarchy.