Female Freedom

21 London

[butchfeminist]

controversial opinion: no one is born with gender dysphoria, it is usually caused by larger influences ie. misogyny, homophobia, culture, trauma, etc. there is always a reason if aversion to one’s own sex develops.

[tejuina]

what truly baffles me is that trans/nb “inclusive” language is not actually inclusive at all. people all over the world would recognize my body as female despite me having had a hysterectomy and no longer having a uterus because sexual dimorphism is coherent enough that we all know damn well what “female” means to most people, even if you think it’s a transphobic definition.

you know what kind of language DOESN’T include me? “people who menstruate” or “people with a uterus.”

y'all claim that “terfs” are the ones who don’t account for infertile women, for women who’ve had hysterectomies, for premenstrual girls, for menopausal women, for intersex women. y'all say “terfs” reduce people to their genitals. but the reality is that isolating bodily functions and organs as defining characteristics of a cohesive group of people: 1) actually results in exclusion, 2) actually reduces people to their genitals, and 3) obscures misogyny by pretending issues affecting the female body “affect people of all genders.”

I’m not telling you to change your pronouns or the way you conceive your individual body. I’m telling you to look at the larger picture and realize that misogyny is a societal problem and that it has targeted the female body, and oppression will not come to an end if we cannot name it.

[genericrad]

Just the fact that there even is discourse about lesbian sexuality is telling about the society we live in but what disgusts me beyond measure is the “you need to critically analyse your aversion to my dick” argument, as if most lesbians haven’t tried to do this at least once in their lives when we realised we were having feelings for women and feeling abnormal because of it. This argument is saying that we’re encouraged to like pussy and society tells us it’s the “right” thing to feel when you know damn fucking well that’s the opposite of what happens and I’m sick of all of you.

[lamignonette]

Female students at the Polytechnical University in Kabul, Afghanistan in the mid 1970s (image.glamourdaze.com)

[kali-ma-saraswati]

A sobering picture. History isn’t linear. Those women probably never would have thought that Afghanistan would be what it is culturally for women today. Don’t take women’s rights for granted, they can go quicker and easier than they were won.

[luminousfem-blog]

Individualistic validation is such a narcissistic concept tbh

[vampirecritical-deactivated2018]

trans community: if you’re wondering if you’re trans, then you’re trans. cis people never question their gender identity

also the trans community: people who detransition are not and were never trans

[butchdevil-archive-deactivated2]

I find it disturbing that I see gay women less often describing themselves as lesbians and more often calling themselves sapphic, wlw, or queer.

Meanwhile, every trans “woman” within a hundred mile radius is ADAMANT about the idea that they ARE a LESBIAN. They feel completely and utterly entitled to it while the women who actually should be calling themselves lesbians are changing their identities and comfort zones to include them in it.

Says a lot about male and female socialization, don’t it?

[femalefallout]

Why would you ask homosexuals to examine their aversion to the opposite sexes genitals when you could ask trans people to examine their aversion to their own biological sex?

[hungry-skin-vacant-meat]

BOOM THERE IT IS

[celtyradfem]

They will tell you that’s ‘transphobic’ but telling gay people to analyse why they’re gay isn’t homophobic….somehow

[lisaannoberbrunner]

[femalebyfate-blog]

This held me back for years.

I ‘wasn’t like other girls’ because I felt no pain, I didn’t see any discrimination, and I definitely wasn’t a victim. Everything I had experienced was deserved, and I had persevered, like a GOOD PERSON would. I overcame the struggles presented to me.

I was always in agony, but now I am awake.

And 'overcoming’ means something new.

[twentythreetimes-deactivated201]

Radical feminists claim they want to listen to detransitioners, so here it is; Listen:

If you think you know enough about sex dysphoria to publicly proclaim transition a viable option, then you know enough to start helping detransitioners work on better alternatives.

Not up to the task? Then you’re not qualified to defend transition as “medical necessity.” Here I am y’all, living what I write about and inconvenient as hell for those of you working hard to stay on the “right” side of trans politics so as not to alienate trans people. I am one example among others who decimate the claim that transition is a medical necessity for the sex dysphoric. The results of medical transition were not only unhelpful for me, they were dangerous to my existence.

My strong reaction to this line of thinking is not crazy or self-centered or misguided: it’s a reaction I have out of sanity, concern for others, and a conviction that this particular knowledge I have is one the most important things I can share with others. For that reason, I refuse to stay silent while you approve treatment I have experienced as a drawn-out death.

I don’t think “not enough voices” is the phrase I would use, because FtMs and detransitioners are both rapidly growing groups. FtMs like to complain that us detransitioners are all radical feminists - so I’m a bit confused about why the radical feminist community on Tumblr hasn’t taken more notice to us. The phrase I would use is “There are not enough women listening to detransitioners in the radical feminist community.” We are here already: it is not the number of our voices that is the problem, it’s the number of women listening.

If “most radical feminists” support transition for sex dysphoria, then I am deeply disappointed in radical feminism. This reasoning isn’t actually helping anyone, but you will never know that until it’s already caused damage. “If your dysphoria was successfully treated by transition, then that is just fine.” Note the wording: WAS. If you want to experiment on your body in a way that has permanent effects and it ends up working out, good for you! No. This is not an issue to wait and see if it works in retrospect. Are detransitioners not numerous enough to be taken seriously? How many women have to start speaking up before you’ll pay attention and reconsider your position?

I figured that part of the reason why I thought transition was my only option at nineteen was because I had never been exposed to radical feminism. If this is radical feminism, then I was wrong.

I would never have figured out that transition wasn’t working for me if I hadn’t been forced to go off testosterone for a few months. I didn’t know that testosterone was actually making my mental health worse. Being on hormones changes how you think. Being in the trans community changes how you think. Having well-meaning but ignorant people supporting your transition changes how you think. Being in mental pain - or suicidal - changes how you think. How can you claim to be gender-critical and yet let trans politics decide your stance on trans issues? Why are people on steroids your go-to opinion on how much testosterone really helps? Why are skeezy doctors your back-up opinion? I was convinced that I was much better while on testosterone than off - while I was on testosterone. I was also mentally numbed, had most of my emotions translate to anger, and had little interest in self-expression or digging down to look at the ugly parts of myself.

Your “neutral” position is born of selective listening. Have you been in the FTM tag on Tumblr lately? Have you seen the FtM pro-ana blog, have you seen the dangerously underweight kid saying that their Swedish doctor is giving them testosterone in hopes that it helps them recover from anorexia? If you don’t want to listen to detransitioners, why don’t you listen to the FtMs talking about how their dysphoria got worse or just shifted after HRT or surgery? Why don’t you listen to the FtMs talking about how they have cramps when they shouldn’t, bleeding when they shouldn’t, yeast infections and UTIs after starting testosterone? Are you listening to the FtMs who injure themselves binding, who restrict their breathing on a daily basis for years, who have permanent rib, spinal, or back damage? Are you listening to the FtMs with botched mastectomies, or metoidioplasties, or phalloplasties with “complications” or fistulas? Are you listening to the trans men who are suicidal post-transition?

“Successful treatment.” For who? The trans men you choose to listen to, the trans men who are invested in convincing others that transition is necessary and good and healthy? Yeah, I’m sure you have that friend who’s a trans man and tells you that transition worked for him. In what world? Our fucked-up, patriarchal society? Where’s the control group? We’re not even lab rats.

You might then claim that we don’t have any alternative treatments for sex dysphoria. That isn’t true. A few of us detransitioners do, in fact, and we’re working hard to expand those options as far as possible. Is this job solely ours? Are we the only women who can do the work of figuring out alternatives to transition? If you think you know enough about sex dysphoria to proclaim transition a viable option, then sister, you know enough to start helping us work on better alternatives.

“Medical need.” Medical. Need. Medical need for what?! How about our need for those in positions of authority to take the responsible, caring stance and meet our ACTUAL NEEDS? Dissociating? Here, have some testosterone! Hate being female so much you think your vagina is just wrong and shouldn’t be there? Here, you need testosterone! So anxious about interacting with people as a female that you just can’t take it anymore? Here! Testosterone! Convinced by the “true transsexuals” that you only need testosterone if you’re physically dysphoric? Here, have some testosterone! Wanna claw your skin off because you were raped, but could never bear to admit that you were raped? Obviously you’re sex dysphoric and need testosterone!

I’ve had therapists support my cutting (“well if it helps, and it’s not actually like those other people that cut..”) and support my drinking (“well if you can scale it back to only starting in with the whiskey at noon, it’s ok to use alcohol as a coping mechanism…”) I had my therapists convinced that self-harming was ok for me; it was different. I knew when to stop cutting, I knew how to take care of my cuts, I wasn’t out of control, I wasn’t suicidal. I explained how cutting was my best coping mechanism for certain situations, how there was nothing else in the world that could help me, and this way of “coping” was actually healthy in the way that I used it. Sound familiar? It fucking should. I am disappointed that people who should be the analytical voice of reason are so malleable that they would support behaviors that actually harm.

Radical feminists, there is nothing radical in differentiating between the “bad” transition and the “good” kind. Statements like these are just reverse-psychology for those in-between the polarized points of “I’m a plant” and “I need medical intervention for my sex dysphoria.” No one wants to be the special snowflake, and those who are in-between are subtly pushed into calling their gender dysphoria a medical condition by this thinking. This line is dangerous. You are helping push more women into the category of “sex dysphoric.”

This isn’t a subject to theorize about among others who don’t have a real knowledge about this condition. This isn’t a subject to tie up neatly with a few anecdotes from the trans community. If you took the time to look past what trans men say when they’re talking to or arguing with you, you might notice a very different situation that isn’t so clear-cut or pretty to look at. Women without personal experience with sex dysphoria can’t just throw thoughts about transition around among themselves and come to any sort of knowledgeable conclusion. This condition is a very particular experience. Your “analysis” that supposedly lands in the middle ground is not actually neutral. It is harmful. Stop leaving us detransitioners out of your conversation. It is possible to listen to us without diminishing us to Exhibit A when it just happens to be convenient for your argument.

Appropriately-innapropriate stated that the trans community and radical feminists are natural allies in the post prompting this exchange. I’m glad to see that radical feminists are standing behind and supporting trans men. I’m relieved that this particular example involves listening and being sympathetic to a trans man, rather than an MtF (as is often the case.) However, it is well outside the intent of radical feminism to specifically support the system of medical transition.

I find the lip service paid to detransitioners later in this discussion very interesting, considering that detransitioners are relegated to the ranks of enemy by the trans community, and more often than not treated in a similar fashion by Tumblr feminists who make it a point to ally with trans people. 

Why not listen to those of us who consider ourselves radical feminists AND have experience with sex dysphoria? We exist, and we have a sex-based analysis of transition and dysphoria. You have women with personal experience within your own community: choosing to ignore us says a lot about your real politics. Mulledwine claims that we don’t have enough voices in the radical feminist community: is the issue really our numbers, or is it that you don’t want to digest what we’re saying?

If you care, then listen, and stop taking the easy route out of this complex issue. All my life I’ve perfected the art of staying quiet, I’ve figured things out for myself, and I’ve gone white in the face holding back from reacting to physical pain - but I will not accept being ignored this time - too many women are affected. If these women are not a concern of yours, then you took more than a few wrong turns and ended up somewhere that’s not feminism at all.

[theeleanorvance]

I used to be in group therapy with someone who self-harmed. All of the therapists and group members said, unconditionally, that she should NOT cut herself, that hurting herself was NEVER the answer to her problems. At the same time, her wearing her binder, which she frequently said herself that she wore partially BECAUSE it caused her pain and made breathing difficult, was never questioned by ANYONE in the group. Hurting yourself is hurting yourself, regardless of justifications.

[sapphic-matriarchy]

This must have been incredibly painful to write but…Thank you holy shit this is NEEDED and I hope every radfem who supports transition reads this and thinks about What they’re normalizing

[global-musings]

Passangers on riverboat on the Amazon river

Location: Amazonas, Brazil

Photographer: Michael Freeman

[bitcch]

mom: how are you

me: fine

me: *in my head* ‘terf’ has developed into a misogynistic silencing tactic that aims to invalidate radical feminists who challenge the status quo. its inherently harmful as it redirects attention away from actual oppressors of trans people (men) while simultaneously discrediting any legitimate attempt at deconstructing gender as a social hierarchy

[jewishmagpie-deactivated2018092]

The reason that it seems like so many bisexuals end up in opposite-sexed relationships, generally speaking, has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that there are more people out there attracted to just the opposite sex than the same sex, or both.

Let’s play with some hypothetical, overly simplistic – and LGB exaggerated – maths.

Let’s say that Bisexual Barry has a list of 100 men and women that he could potentially date.

80 are heterosexual, 10 are homosexual and 10 are bisexual. 50 men, 50 women, where each sexuality is equally represented.

Since 40 of those men are heterosexual, now Bisexual Barry only has 60 people left that might be interested in him.

5 of those women are lesbians, so now Bisexual Barry only has 55 people left.

Out of those 55 hypothetical people, Bisexual Barry now ends up with:

40 heterosexual women

5 bisexual women

5 bisexual men

5 homosexual men

So Bisexual Barry only has an 18% chance of ending up with a man, and an 82% chance of ending up with a woman according to this overly simplistic set of maths.

That’s before checking for compatibility through looks, ambitions, personality and seeing if the other person is just as interested, too. That’s also pretending that none of those original 100 people are biphobic.

Bisexuals don’t automatically end up in opposite-sex relationships for “privilege” or any other of that biphobic nonsense. 

Most of the time, it’s basic maths.

[luminousfem-blog]

Well then Bisexual Barry IS privileged then isn’t he because ‘basic math’ colludes to give him easier access to a relationship he is happy with, and one which society is happy with too, as opposed to Gay Gary who has to sit with the 18% chance as the totality of their chances and guaranteed to fall foul of societal standards. But then you complain about access to gay spaces, apparently you aren’t the most in need of it!!! 

[respectthefemalebody]

Every time someone says “trans women experience more misogyny than cis women” or “reproductive rights are just a small part of feminism” I bust a vein from the erasure and trivialization of the experiences unique to women.

No trans woman will ever know what it feels like to have your family think of you as a murderer for having an abortion.

No trans woman grows up worrying about what they would do if they ever got pregnant, knowing that giving birth is the only moral choice, while also knowing that PiV sex is an inevitability.

There is a whole host of ways that existing in a female body, being a woman, impacts my life in major ways. These experiences aren’t insignificant, they define my womanhood.

[luminousfem-blog]

What I find interesting is the weaponisation and appropriation of a very specifically sexed reality of womanhood - infertility and reproductive capability - as a “gotcha” to shatter the final frontier of reproductive rights as an obstacle to male womanhood. 

What’s intentionally hushed is an actual examination of woman’s experience of infertility as reinforcing the significance of their sexed biological bodies, as a process and experience often of loss, of judgment, of belittled womanhood imposed on a woman BECAUSE of society’s deep inherent and entrenched misogyny, rooted, of course, in female biology and the expectation of reproductive labour - a reality which cannot be separated from the socialised reality of being a woman, on account of the female body. 

This is an experience unique to a female in a world which demands and defines her reality from birth as reliant on this intact capacity. Intersectionality can be pushed to find parallels in this experience to that of being a man, possessing a fully functioning biologically male anatomy and then bemoaning the shared experience of reproductive woe - but the prospect that the biological experience of sexed FEMALE body may be varied within the bounds of female anatomy possibility and capacity and indeed may go through change, is not conveniently exploitable enough and thus we bypass that stretch to make larger, more ‘logical’ leaps of male inclusion. 

The concrete definition of adult human female is straw manned as though a woman’s processing and understanding of her reproductive rights will not be processed through the lens understanding and material truth of her sexed body. Indeed, we are asked angrily, where are the trans women in handmaids tale? such are the imagined parallels of the experience and the actual disregard towards female infertility, where not ripe for exploitation. 

The female experience of reproductive variability is an experience in and of womanhood. A Trans woman’s experience of not being able to give birth may identify with the caricatured picture of loss within not embodying a marker of ‘validity’, but the male experience can never be a comparable marker of connection, can never comprehend or understand this inherently female reality.