Transnegation Roundup/2020/08/05

8/5

SRS is apparently cosmetic

16:33 @pinktaxed “just had the misfortune of seeing someone (a TW) raise $35k for a vaginoplasty. someone donated $5k. of all the bullshit happening in the world right now and you need $35,000 for a faux vagina. okay.”

Self-reply:

• 16:35 @pinktaxed “the capital of lebanon was just blown to hell and women and children are in dire need and someone gave away $5,000 for a fake vag. right then.” Appeal to worse problems

Retweeted (tweet and account now deleted):

• 19:41 @DykeRojas (archived) “AAARRGGGHHH . Calm down Anna. Yes I agree.”

Some reality about this::

• Minor point: $35k is rather a lot just for SRS; that must have included facial surgery and possibly other work.
• Major point: This stuff isn't just for fun; it is life-saving, even if the threat isn't immediate. Would they complain about how much a kidney transplant or a knee-replacement costs?

Transition is indeed bloody expensive, and in most states in the US it is not covered by medical insurance -- which many of us can't afford anyway. Yes, by all means draw attention to the expense, but do remember that this is evidence that we're not exactly doing this stuff on a whim.

Note also the "fake vag" trope. (How is it fake? Is an artificial knee-joint "fake"?)

This is apparently the tweet to which they are reacting:

• 12:47 @TheAuntifa “You guys Shia LaBeouf is officially part of the story of my pussy and yes it’s for real 😭😭😭 / WHAT A MENSCH”

Those Scary, Scary Men

20:07 @Femflam1 “We can’t fight stupid. Seriously- these guys are basing all their ideas about trans women on this fluffy idealistic notion of some shy translady just trying to live their life- like the beardy beast with a baseball bat in a “kill terfs” bloody T-shirt is the exception” Demonization

Uh, yes, that trope is in fact the exception. I've never met one. Most of the trans people I know fit pretty well into the "fluffy idealistic notion" described.

How is this not just naked hatred of trans people?

AstroTERF

08:16 @Femflam1 “A young, sweet, mildly woke colleague told me today that JK is a TERF. It took a 3 minute chat for her to realise that she was not, that TERF is a slur and you are not an evil transphobe just for acknowledging biology. Real life is the best place to talk to people”

A suitably skeptical reply (via screencap):

• @MistresSinestra “I'll take "things that never happened" for 500 please Alex.”

I'm feeling more and more like @Femflam1 is a troll account. She only joined in June, and her anti-trans is wayy over the top.

Trans Women Aren't Women, redux

09:48 @wendycockcroft “Sorry, I thought everyone knew. It stands for "transwomen are women." / They're not, they're male. The fighting is about what happens when you treat intact male people as actual women. Tl:dr; it's messy.”

Reply:

• 11:34 @BuckAngel “Haha I didnt even know that”

Reply:

• 12:20 @wendycockcroft “It drives me nuts, Buck. It's open season on women as far as TWAW activists are concerned and they take great delight in getting us to explain the issues to them so they can ignore us and carry on as before. They're awful.”

What is it with right-wingers and the phrase "it's open season"? I guess it's an appeal to the fear of social chaos? (Right-wingers like things to be very orderly.) Same with "free for all", seen below. I'm beginning to think of those phrases alone as red flags, as they are invariably misrepresenting something.

In any case, this is a huge misrepresentation. Trans rights (and LGBT rights in general) actually help women, while this kind of pseudo-progressivism only hurts women's rights as far as I can tell. It makes enemies out of allies.

And dammit, I tried to talk with her, but she was dismissive and dishonest and when it becomes plain that someone is not participating in good faith, it's time to end the discussion.

16:57 @wendycockcroft “This is why we fight. I will not accept a free-for-all where men can perve on us at will and we're called bigots when we complain.” This implicitly equates "trans women" with "men" yet again. Trans activists do not argue that men should have access to women's spaces, nor does anyone advocate that perving would be okay for anyone of any gender unless it's consensual. disinformation

The tweet being boosted is 13:28 @GilmoreJNurse “I don’t subscribe to the concept of male bodiedness. / Bodies are diverse in their make-up. I don’t believe people should be excluded from spaces because of how their body looks”, which is part of an otherwise very transphobic thread.

I asked some friends, as neutrally as I could, what they thought of all this. Here are the replies I got:

“

It's fair for women–any women, of any journey–to complain about men coming into women's spaces to be pervy. It would also be fair to complain about women coming into women's spaces to be pervy. There are spaces where pervy is allowed or encouraged, and those are where that's appropriate regardless. Putting that onto transwomen is not fair or right, and while she didn't explicitly do that, it's absolutely what she was implying.
”

—a (cis) woman friend in GA (quoted with permission)

“

I agree that they are less hostile about men in their space than about trans women. Because they have this bizarre brain disconnect from reality that tells them that it isn't fair this person gets into the space without having to have grown up being treated as a woman in our society. Instead of realizing that if anything, these women have given up that shade of privilege to be who they are inside.

And that it can't possibly have been easier to have lived with that battle inside.

They are angry because they think trans women haven't had the hurt they have. Which makes them fucking self centered martyr assholes.

Sorry, very few things piss me off more than minorities who punch down.
”

—a (cis) woman friend in CA (quoted with permission)