That Disabled Radfem

Lesbian ♀️ (former enby - no longer view myself within the framework of gender) male-exclusionary radical feminist. If you're a trans man or AFAB enby and you've clicked on my blog because I followed you, I'm just trying to listen and learn. Feminism is about the liberation of everyone of the female sex, including you. So I try to keep up on the problems facing trans men and afab enbies.

[lovefreedompowerlove]

[anyroads]

Happy International Women’s Day to this twitter account and only this twitter account

[joykillerrr]

[sick-sad-world-revolution-now]

And so many gay men are quick to use the word "bitch" as if it was any less misogynistic than when straight men use it. There is no excuse.

[ligmafemalegrindset]

i dont think that there is anything more enraging than when a woke white man starts being blatantly misogynistic but thinks he can get away with it if he puts "white" in front of women despite being, yanno, white himself

[lesb0]

this little glamorized misogyny "joke" has run its course right. can we leave this corny demonic shit in 2023. it is done now. we've had enough.

[flowerlygirls]

this is so absolutely terrifying and .... braindead. do these women never think about consequences, ever?

what if he dies? what if he leaves? what if he controls your money ah sorry HIS money and you cant buy anything at all without direct approval? what if he invests badly and loses the money? what if he abuses you? what do you do once youre no longer this "young hottie"?

and on top of that: do you really have no aspirations in life? travel? doing something that will leave a mark even after years or decades? anything at all besides being an ever fuckable young porcelain doll ready to be placed around the house as decoration? no drive to do something fullfilling with your day? no drive to create and think and act and discuss?

what on earth has convinced these women that there are many men out there who earn major money and totally respect women but want a girlfriend who is their maid and babysitter but will happily spend all their money on her without ever holding her not being employed over her head????

[soberscientistlife]

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

[zaraki-fempachi-deactivated2024]

And why the fuck is gay pride flag there? Oh now straight men can legally call themselves lesbians and enter female only spaces that Japanese women have been desperately fighting for due to an absolutely ungodly amount of sex offenders harrassing women in public. Win for the gays!!!!

[internetkween-deactivated202501]

Japan is the only country in the G7 that does not legally recognize same-sex unions in any form

[coochiequeens]

Turns out men are capable of sharing the prep work for the holidays

[kitchenalia]

if i heard that a woman aborted a fetus because prenatal screening had revealed a disability that i shared, i would simply not shame her

[kitchenalia]

RIP to people who think bodily autonomy is conditional but im different

[kitchenalia]

i’ve been getting a lot of comments/questions about this post. some is good, some is bad. i’ve decided not to respond individually and instead say:

i said what i said. i wasn’t confused about saying it.

if i found out a woman had aborted a fetus because she found out that fetus had a disability that i have—disabilities that i have firsthand knowledge of being painful, difficult to live with, and often resource-intensive—i would not be angry with her. i would not feel like she doesn’t think people like me should not be alive (unless she actually said so).

fetuses are not little potential “you”s. projecting your own anxieties onto a woman’s abortion (”i wouldn’t have wanted to be aborted” is common reasoning in plenty of pro-life circles; it’s not better here) is invasive and nonsensical.

bodily autonomy isn’t conditional. you don’t know a woman’s exact reason for abortion and you don’t need to. women’s rights to abortion need to be protected, even if you feel icky about some potential reasoning behind an abortion, which you aren’t even fully privy to in the first place.

disabled people should always be in the care of people who have the resources and desire to take care of them. insisting that disabled children be born simply to ease your own moral qualms with abortion is frankly unethical in my opinion, resources are often very slim for disabled people. not to mention our quality of life is often just lower in general. you can argue all you want in the notes about “mild” disabilities but you aren’t the arbiter of what constitutes a mild enough disability to make an abortion terrible and immoral and shame-worthy. 

women aren’t vessels. regardless of how morally pure you feel your crusade is, they simply aren’t.

speaking as a disabled person, energy is literally always better spent on changing society—by increasing resources for caretakers and disabled people alike, speaking frankly about quality of life, correcting notions about what disabled people’s lives are like, punishing mistreatment of actual disabled people [not potential ones], and putting research into easing the pain/suffering of people as much as possible—than it is on getting mad about women getting abortions. and it isn’t just better spent that way, it’s just immoral to do the latter.

in conclusion: RIP to people who think bodily autonomy is conditional but im different.

[wtffundiefamilies]

Always relevant.

[draculasdaughter]

Libraries & Feminism, Buttons, 1960s – 1970s.

[security-alert-dumpster-fire]

Idk why people want so much to be oppressed.

It's absolutely fine if you have a relationship with someone of a different sex than you. It's fine. You don't have to call it queer-fuck-punk-banana whatever.

It's also fine (and socially encouraged actually, unless you live in a place where adultery is a crime, but these people are all USians for some reason) to have a sexual relationship with no romantic interests involved.

It's fine to have friends and call them friends.

It's also not hate to point out that you are not oppressed. It's neither a personal attack or an insult.

I can't really believe people are so fucking fragile that I have to spell this out.

[katell-radikal]

More and more I think it's less that they want to be oppressed, and more that they want to make sure they aren't considered oppressors.

Can't do anything for oppressed people, I'm one of you. Can't be held accountable for anything, I'm a victim too.

I remember back in polsci school, (wealthy) classmates were extra likely to downplay their wealth and call themselves working class/poor grasping at any straws they could whenever class conflicts or inequalities were brought up. I feel like that's an example of it.

In a time where oppressed classes can have a bigger voices through social medias, maybe those who are more privileged seek to escape. Also worth looking inward and checking that you aren't doing it too in a way or another.

[nakanx]

this is why it’s so important for feminists to talk about motherhood as well, instead of just saying “everyone should be child free” and leaving it at that. this is a HORRIBLE double standard that i’ve even noticed with my parents (my mom works during the day and dad stays home). when my mom is sick, she still does what needs done. my dad, however, hides in his room and ignores all responsibilities. it has nothing to do with who does the majority of the household duties and everything to do with male vs. female socialization.

[ihatemenandtherearereasons]

Exhibit 2510

[wallflowerpetal]

Documentaries that will radicalize you:

The Hunting Ground (sexual assault on college campuses)

The Invisible War (sexual assault in the military)

Hot Girls Wanted (exploitation of young women in the porn industry)

Our Father (exploitation of women seeking fertility assistance via donor sperm)

Athlete A (sexual assault in USA women’s gymnastics)

Period. End of Sentence (Indian women empower themselves to combat menstruation stigma by making and selling reusable pads)

Surviving R. Kelly (his victims come forward to expose his pedophilia and sexual abuse)

The Bleeding Edge (exploitation in the medical device industry, primarily affecting women)

[princessterf]

See also Eggsploited (Exploitation of egg donors. This will make you hate egg donation.)

[catchymemes]

[back-not-broken]

I’m so frustrated that if I read a book about any form of sexism written in the past 10 years, now I have to first fight through paragraphs on end about the difference between sex and gender and why we’re not talking about gender (cause it’s fucking fake).

[there-are-4-lights]

It's either the "this book is about sex, not self-identified gender, and and here's why" disclaimer (sad but justified), or the "I'm not a terf i swear terfs are bad and here's a one-paragraph bit about trans I'm going to include and not notice that it contradicts the rest of the book" (insufferable).

[spiderfreedom]

The trans disclaimer has to be one of the most cowardly things to happen to feminist literature and historiography.

What gets me about it is that the authors will make the trans disclaimer and then never proceed to talk about trans stuff again for the rest of the book. Like you'll just get "trans women are women!" and then some anecdote and then it will never come up again. It is not integrated into the analysis. It is lazy. It sheds no light on the life and struggles of trans people.

Similarly, I also see some that go "not all of the individuals in this may have identified as women if they were alive today, but we will refer to them as women because that is what we know." This disclaimer will only ever appear in books on women's history. I have never read a book on men's history or even gay male history that cautions me that "not all the individuals in this book may identify as men."

Here's an example from a YouTube video (readers: please do not harass the youtuber or otherwise make me regret sharing this link. I disagree with her but she does not deserve any attack for this.)

Nonsensical understanding of 'woman' and gender roles aside (nobody fits into gender roles arrRGGGHGH), does this video have anything else to say on the topic of people who do "not fit" into these roles? Go ahead and search the transcript for terms like 'trans', 'binary', 'gender', 'queer', 'gay', 'lesbian', etc.....

Interesting, no results except for the disclaimer. So the presenter feels the need to lecture us that not everybody identifies as a woman and some people don't fit into those roles and gender is expansive... why? She never brings up trans people, non-binary people, the term 'queer', gay people, or gender non conforming for the rest of the video. Most people already know that 'menswear' and 'womenswear' refer to socially constructed categories of acceptable clothing. The purpose of this disclaimer seems to serve no real purpose other than to signal the presenter's gender identity bona fides. She has nothing substantial to say on the history of trans people or even gender non conforming people in this video.

I could list examples of other books with "trans disclaimers" that have nothing useful or interesting to say on trans people except that they exist and the author thinks they're super heckin' valid, such as 'A short history of queer women', 'Bitch: on the female of the species', and 'Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas', which is probably the most barefaced of these in terms of having literally nothing to contribute to anyone except to let everyone know the author is cool with 'other expressions of gender':

(During the periods covered in this book, the gender binary was still firmly in place. As far as I am aware, all the pirates in this book identified as female. My use of "she" reflects the available research on these pirates and is in no way meant to invalidate other expressions of gender.)

Who is this supposed to please? Because I'm certain trans people aren't happy with these anemic little scraps. I'm certainly annoyed by it because it wastes my time. It's just a bunch of magic words you apparently have to utter if you dare to write about women exclusively. More authors should just say "this is the scope of my writing, others can write their own additions beyond this scope" and be done with it. Women's history and writing does not need an apology or a disclaimer.

[there-are-4-lights]

You are so right. The trans disclaimer comes out of nowhere and is out of place, not referenced again in the rest of the book. Eve by Cat Bochannon does this apparently (though I haven't read it). Swedish journalist Irena Pozar's book about the aftermath of #metoo has an afterword that does nothing except denounce some prominent women for being transphobic by calling them conservatives.

In fiction, it's also really clunky and awkward. The trans crowd would call this "cis authors can't write trans characters", so no one is satisfied (except the libfem readers who can check off their representation bingo card I guess). Some examples off the top of my head:

Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner has a dialogue that's a character explaining how identifying as a lesbian (as opposed to some broader label like sapphic or queer) is important to her), and her love interest immediately goes "Are you one of those crazy people who think queer is a slur?" "No" "oh thank god i thought you had absorbed the TERF talking points!" and it felt out of place because it's a romance novel, and why can't a character talk about how her identity is important to her without it being inherently suspect?

Another example is You Could Be So Pretty by Holly Bourne, there's an interview with the author that goes around radblr sometimes about writing an anti-porn, anti-beauty culture YA book. It has a throwaway line about a trans girl character and passing, which is like 4 lines and never referenced again. I really don't understand what the author was trying to say with that character (unless it was "reading this anti-porn, anti-makeup novel doesn't make you a TERF, I promise").

[friendlymathematician]

one of my favourite stupid ones in fiction is in a desolation called peace by arkady martine (really good duology apart from this one scene). all characters have this device (basically smart glasses) that could theoretically tell them things like someone's "gender identity". but the sole nonbinary character shows up in the one chapter where that chapter's pov character is not wearing the device, but he still immediately knows without being told that this space craft technician he has never met before and will never meet again is nonbinary they/them.

[haggishlyhagging]

People have called me naive for not being "pragmatic" enough to accommodate the so-called "political realities" of compromise and concession making in my work. But like Douglass, Luther King, Shakur, and Malcolm X taught —institutions do not respond to negotiation, they respond to pressure. Their positions are not based on best practice theory or innocent misunderstandings, but on investment and attachment to power. So, in my view, it is the tactic of polite political negotiation that is based on assumptions that I would call naïve, because political negotiation assumes that politicians and institutions respond to reason and negotiation at all—that they are interested in things like common ground, good-will, good ideas and coherent thinking. They are not.

When we build a movement based on negotiation, it hurts us in two main ways: firstly, because it ignores the way that institutions truly operate. Transgenderism and its denial of biological sex and female existence has turned the statement "women are female" into a political one. What this statement (which used to be a mere fact) now represents, is not an argument or a piece of information, but the reassertion of a boundary that is being violated in the interests of power. When feminists make the now-political assertion that "women are female," but make concessions in the process of negotiating with the powerful (for instance by referring to "transwomen," or "trans rights," in campaigns against sex self-identification laws, by calling men who wear feminine clothing "she" out of "respect," or by shunning women who don't comply with these compromises), these concessions undermine the very boundary that their political truth telling was intended to assert in the first place. We will not get very far, for very long, like that.

-Renée Gerlich, “On Twenty-First Century Patriarchy, and the Place of Women's Hearts in Women's Movement” in Spinning And Weaving: Radical Feminism for the 21st Century

[sichorean]

So what you're saying is

You don't actually want feminist book recommendations

[twoxliberation]

"feminist book recommendations? but don't recommend any actual feminist books"

[friendlymathematician]

"feminist book recommendations? but only things i agree with because i cannot possibly trust myself to entertain an idea that conflict with my current belief system. challenging myself to think about why i disagree with what's written is not fun :("

[dykeplier-deactivated20240511]

Patti Smith, Seventh Heaven

[dykeplier-deactivated20240511]

It's been cool to see everyone's interpretation of her art, but let me clarify that this isn't a transgender poem. It's about womanhood and misogyny. Here's an excerpt of a 2015 Patti Smith interview with Maclean's.

"In the ’50s you had to wear pink ribbons if you were a girl, and you were supposed to become a hairdresser or a secretary. I couldn’t stomach it. Later on, when I fell in love with my husband and had children, that’s when my mother’s earthiness or sense of femaleness kicked in. As an artist, I never wanted to be fettered by gender nor recognized or defined as a female poet, musician or singer. They don’t do that with men—nobody says Picasso, the male artist."

"I’m very comfortable with being a female now but when I was a little kid I only wanted to be a boy. I didn’t want to be a girl. I didn’t feel like a man inside… being a boy was just cooler. [...] I’m 68 years old now and I still don’t bend to anybody’s concept of gender. All I’ve ever wanted to do was create freedom."

[marmorada]

”would have saved him” she is literally alive and well

[woman-for-women]

Prostitution Infographic

*Feel free to repost

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