mtfbutches:

• I don’t care about your feelings of confusion around my gender.

• I don’t care about your armchair gender theory, where you tell me how we should “do away with gender” without proposing any solutions to existing oppressive structures.

• I don’t care that your gay friend, or even your white trans man friend, used the term “tranny,” you don’t know the effect of that word and have no right to “reclaim” it.

• I don’t care when you tell me about how you saw this really fucked up transphobic/transmisogynist thing. Don’t tell me, I know it exists and it’s pervasive. This applies to any intersection of oppression I may inhabit. What I want to hear is what you DID about it in that moment. Otherwise, see my previous lack of caring.

• I don’t care about being your go-to “call out” person on all things trans*. If you are my ally, my friend, our relationship has to be more than me calling you out. Putting the onus on me to identify when I need to call you out is exactly the kind of pressure allies are supposed to relieve. Friends get angry with each other, and that is how friendship is tested and understanding is built.

• I care about a lot of things, and that list is far longer. This list itself is in fact an expression of care, a care for myself. Be my ally, wholly and truly in that struggle.

[A/N: presented this as part of my allyship workshop at the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference. People seemed to enjoy it and someone asked me for a copy, so here it is for anyone else interested. -Brynn Cassidy (Cass)]

yes yes yes yes this

oh look they waited one whole slide after Ms. Hudson’s to praise a transmisogynist joke

~totally not a cookie monster though

glitterotti:

i saw that fuckyeahhardfemme and some of my tumblr friends reblogged pictures of kateordie, a popular queer comic artist on tumblr, and her comics. she talks a lot about bisexuality & queerness in her comics/posts and she is a feminist who is all about girrrrl power so lots of queers and feminists flock around her like she’s some icon. i used to love her, too, but damn she fucked up hella bad and didn’t clean up her cissexist, transmisogynistic mess. 

she drew a picture of various vulvae and a banner around them that said “love your lady parts”. she even wrote a little comment that basically said, “i know this language isn’t inclusive but i have trans* men friends so can you just appreciate the art?”. of course hella trans* ppl, including trans* women, called her out but she didn’t reply to anything or issue an apology.

1. this is majorly fucked up esp since kate leth is pretty popular and she has a lot of LGBT youth flocking to her. a lot of comics about bisexuality, queerness, self-harm, EDs, adolescent insecurities seem aimed towards queer teens and a lot went to her for advice about queer issues, coming out, depression, etc. ok, cool, kate, but apparently you don’t give a fuck about the T? what about young trans* girls??? trans* boys? do you give a fuck about non-cis queer kids???

2. she never apologized or responded properly to the call-out. seriously, she didn’t even bother to shit out some half-assed apology. she wrote another post saying a trans* person gave her some advice on to change the wording and tried to change the subject by saying, “well, the pope said gay marriage was going to end the world so that’s something”. then, she proceeded to derail and cry white women tears because someone said her chin was ugly in a flood of anon hate. 

3. she KNEW it was problematic. she KNEW. she wrote a comment under the picture when she first published it. but maybe we can just shut up and enjoy the art??

4. she wrote an article about comics for some website and she criticized everyone because they were overly politically correct and really “nitpicky”. so apparently being not equating vaginae with lady parts is really nitpicky? 

i read through a lot of the call-outs and many of them were white trans* ppl (most of her fanbase seem to be white LGBT ppl) reminding kate, “hey this isn’t cool” but apparently it was too harsh for her? she got hella support, too, so maybe she felt like her anti-trans*ness was justified. she’s another white, cis women whose queer feminism is, as usual, transmisogynistic and trans* exclusive. 

i couldn’t find her drawing or her follow-up post. maybe she deleted it? i don’t know. anyway, kateordie lost a fomerly devoted fan because wow, seriously, way to be a queer feminist by excluding trans* women. 

she also drew a comic responding to the question “So, what’s it like being a woman in comics?” with “Like being a man in comics… …but with a vagina.”

~not like there’s extensive misogyny that she glossed over entirely, no, a trite and unfunny transmisogynist joke is def the way to go there.~

Ugggggh i’ve been digging through my blog’s tags all morning ‘cause I know I’ve already made a post on this but I can’t find it, joy.

SO. JUST TO REITERATE.

“male” and “female” are not gender-neutral, ‘objective’ scientific terms. They are used completely synonymously to imply gender. Claiming that a penis is fundamentally ‘male’ and that a vagina is fundamentally ‘female’ is not ‘objective’ and ‘just science’, because the choice of those labels was not neutral and there’s nothing ‘objective’ about using a word with incredibly gendered meanings while claiming it does no such thing.

If you experience transmisogyny* and are comfortable describing YOUR body that way, it doesn’t carry gendered baggage for you? Fine, whoopee, you do that.

But don’t fucking tell me that I’m relating to my body wrong and pushing these words on me and insisting I MUST interpret them in your light where they’re totally not misgendering. I don’t care if you’re trans too, that does not give you the power to declare that something Is Not Harmful To Any Trans Person. This isn’t up for debate, just unfollow me, fuck.

(And yeah this was brought on by one specific person I was a mutual follower of, if you know who it is, do NOT fuck with her / harass her or anything about this, ugh)

nowavefeminism:

http://supportcece.wordpress.com/about-2/background/

https://twitter.com/Free_CeCe

http://supportcece.wordpress.com/get-involved/

gundma:

“a bunch of transgender people got harassed yesterday for talking about trasngender characters but really there are two sides to this issue, i am a very enlightened unbiased cisgender 3rd party here to tell you why they are at fault”

girljanitor:

schakall:

yourfaveisproblematic:

• on pink slime “Yes, LFTB because our beef now has so many hormones it’s a member of the transgendered community.” (“So I just want to get out in front of this and say that I, Stephen Colbert, apologize to any of my transgender bovine viewers that may have been offended.”)
• “That’s why, fellas, always look for the adams apple! That’s a pro tip. Then, look for the adam’s penis”
• “Nation, President Elect, Obama is meeting every day with his transition team, or in beltway lingo, ‘tr***ies’.”
• “But these days, chewing gum is as supple and flamboyant as a Saigon Ladyboy.”
• “Oh, and the next time you’re waltzing with Matilda, you might wanna check out her adam’s apple, ‘cause she’s a dude!”
• “I’m not talking tasteful private ceremonies, I’m talking parades with floats, throbbing disco music, and sh*m**es tying the knot on preschool playgrounds!”
• “Now, I already an advance copy of the Deathly Hallows and Spoiler alert: Hermione’s a dude…”
• “If you ask me, we can’t trust any of these tr***ies.”
• “You see, I didn’t come here to criticize anyone. I came here to praise one man, one Her-man. Important note: a her-man is not the same as a sh*m**e.”
• “Gee, I wonder how a man called “Hilary” became so obsessed with names… …but, what would this limey sh*m**e have us call the war on terror instead?”
• “I believe that “the Man” is keeping the California republicans down. And, being from California, “the Man” is probably a tr***y.”
• “So, was this just a simple case of a panda that was a female and all along was misidentified due to the breed’s ambiguous sexual characteristics, or is the simpler answer that we’ve got a tr***y panda? Now, I never thought I’d give advice to bears, but here you go. Chinese pandas, here’s how you can tell the difference: if you show up to your breeding pen and your lady’s got a an adam’s apple and big paws, get the hell out of there!”
• “Left to their own devices, these brave young souls could fall prey to some very dangerous characters…” cuts to clips of Sex and the City “…by which I mean tr***ies.”
• “Now, we’ve all been fooled by these tr***y reptiles before…You’re out in the desert with a few friends having a few drinks. You see a lizard sunning itself on a rock. You go over to strike up a conversation. The lizards plays it cool, doesn’t respond. So you drink more to fill the awkward pauses. Next thing you know, you’re back at her place and suddenly you realize what you’re caressing isn’t a cloaca, it’s an enlarged femoral pore! And you just get the hell out of there! Or so I have read.”
• “C’mon democratic party. Play along! If your party does not implode, we’ll have to go with our backup scandal. Ed Rendell is a tr***y!” (screen shows photoshopped image of Ed Rendell) “Hello! I thought we were going to put up a picture of Ed Rendell, not this lovely lady right here.”
• “To get this protection these fair-weather-females and fence-sitting-fellas will have to identify themselves. They will no longer shock and confuse young reporters on assignment in a new town who happen to appreciate ladies with big hands.”
• “Oh, you mean the place of Queens…I thought maybe you were gonna reveal something! that perhaps we had a sh*m**e on our hands, here.”
• This tweet

• This facebook post

• “But, here’s my biggest problem: this race was for female leatherback turtles. What kind of girl’s name is Billy? Ok. Know what I think, folks? Billy is a dude! A turtle tr***y! You can tell by the size of the flippers. And the adam’s apple. Trust me, I’ve been burned too many times. Evidently, I am not alone. They are a menace! Here’s my theory. While Stephanie and all of the other real gals were actually laying eggs on the beach in their nests, Billy fooled the judges by popping ping-ping balls out of his behind. And now he wants a trophy! Well, your little crying game is up, William! No no no, I demand that race officials verify the sex of this turtle, by checking the concavity of its plastron! Oh yeah, I’ve done my research. I do the same thing to all of my dates. And if that plastron is not concave, I am out of there.”
• Colbert: Is there a difference between male-bodied and male, or female-bodied and female?
  Ketchup: Not all people with female bodies identify as women.
  Colbert: So, if I meet somebody down there who says they’re a woman—
  Ketchup: mmmhmm
  Colbert: —I could be in for a rude surprise? Because they may not be female-bodied?

• Colbert: Like What? What? What kind of jobs?
• Cartwright: Like transient farm working jobs.
  Colbert: I don’t care what sex they are, as long as the pick my vegetables.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

NEVER TRUSTING A WHITE DUDE AGAIN

Just in case people didn’t know.

It kinda sucks sometimes to be a fan of his show because satire is supposed to mock the powerful, not the oppressed. It’s frustrating and hurtful. This is one of the most painfully obvious ways that Colbert’s character goes beyond “I’m satirizing bigots by pretending to be one” and is just plain old being a fucking bigot.

Also notice the lack of hate for AFAB people.

jfc I knew about like, two of these, but holy shit.

trannypowah:

I’ve been seeing a spate of middle-class white trans people (women and men) starting “transition fundraisers” or “surgery fundraisers” because their health insurance denied them. I see this and I just fume, because I barely have the money I need to support my family, let alone pay for health insurance or surgery, but not only do you not see me (or really any TWoC) starting fundraisers, but even if/when we do no one donates. It’s white privilege in a microcosm: because we’re poor and nonwhite, we’re less trustworthy with money. We should work hard, and fight to pull ourselves out of poverty. Except, as most of us know, we’re already working our big, beautiful asses off (and doing things more unsavory) to just survive, let alone pull ourselves out of the pit society dug for us.

Maybe it’s bitter of me, but I can’t helped but be bothered by the privilege white trans people enjoy. While trans people already have difficulty with jobs and money, the vast burden of that lays on our shoulders. Same with violence. Same with a lot of things. Then white beauty standards and white ideals dominate the discourse about transition. So for them to then turn around and claim that things are too hard for them to achieve surgery when they enjoy way more social and economic privilege than us is insulting and insensitive. What’s worse, is when they start their fundraisers, they’ll call on the whole community of trans people and allies to signal boost for them, but when it comes to our issues? Crickets.

- Saandusti

theaetherealmeadow:

impromptuonedykedanceparty:

GOD I’m so fucking creeped out

I was looking at the blog of that ~totally not transmisogynist~ radfem I’d reblogged last night (hoping in vain for an apology or something)

and ran into a post promoting THIS:

[Image: a giant banner that says “RAD FEM TRANS* FEM”

Image text:

RADfem/TRANS*fem

Welcome to RADfem/TRANS*fem where two feminists, Pi; a radical feminist who identifies as a gender abolitionist, and Jacq; a trans* feminist who identifies as being gender reflective, discuss issues of gender, feminism and patriarchy from two different perspectives.

Come learn with us about the ways in which people from two different feminist backgrounds, that have been criticized from both sides as being misinformed, bigotted, and oppressive, build bridges together and recognize the importance of creating solidarity between both communities because after all, all of us feminists want to have the same thing: respectful, safe, inclusive and consensual conversations that cause us to reflect on patriarchy, sexism and oppression.

If you have any questions that you’d like Jacq and Pi to answer together, please send us an ask!

….

So I clicked over to this, fearing the worst. And of COURSE, ‘TRANS*FEM’ is not someone who experiences transmisogyny.

Radical Feminist: ravefromthegrave
Trans* Feminist: LIVELAUGHAWESOME

Aside from that introductory post, there are two so far, one by each on gender, and each post affirming that they’re both virulent transmisogynists, here are some excerpts from each:

The more that I’ve talked to Pi (RADfem) though, the more that I’ve come to understand the theory of exactly how much gender is a result of patriarchy and is actually a concept created in order to maintain the oppression of people who are female-assigned. I recognize the validity of the radical feminist belief that we need to destroy gender altogether (gender abolitionism).

(~Patriarchal culture TOTALLY waits to check whether I was female assigned, and upon finding I wasn’t, TOTALLY affords me benefits instead of oppression. Totally.~)

And this gem, ‘cause the radscum of course wants us to know that her entire approach to ‘gender’ is predicated around transmisogyny, featuring a quote from a trans woman completely twisted around to vilify her:

Gender identity is the product of gender. And this is where we often get misunderstood: it’s not that I think trans people’s gender identities in particular aren’t valid - it’s that I think that nobody’s gender identity is valid. It doesn’t matter if you’re trans or not. Gender identity only exists because gender exists. Both are equally socially constructed. And socially constructed doesn’t mean “not real”. I think it was Red Durkin who said something like: “a brick wall is also socially constructed, but it’s still pretty fucking hard to just walk right through it”. And that’s the problem - we can’t step outside of the system. If I could choose not to have a gender assignment, or my assigned gender to not mean anything, I would. But that’s not the point. It doesn’t matter what I choose. Females are still oppressed worldwide because they are female. To say otherwise is to erase female oppression.

There is a difference between sex and gender. Sex is a biological reality, gender is socially constructed roles and norms for these sexes. I know that there are more categories than XX and XY. Those categories doesn’t change the fact that XX and every other category that isn’t XY, is oppressed by XY. To claim that one can identify their way out of their oppression is kind of making a mockery out of women who aren’t privileged enough to make that choice.

(~I’ve never actually BEEN karyotyped, but thank god people check my karyotype before deciding whether to oppress me!~) And on the radfem’s about pages, this, because of fucking course:

I’m in a long term relationship with a FTM transsexual who I met pre-transition (and am still with a year into transition), so I might blog about things related to that, as my personal relationship with a FTM are influencing my politics in this matter.

Ahah. ha. ha.

So yeah. In addition to being terrified and disgusted and before I go hide for a while, I’m just gonna say: this is why.

to allllll the fucking people who don’t experience transmisogyny, the cis folks, the dfab trans folks: this is why we need this language, why we need to talk about it and won’t let you gloss over it and pretend it isn’t there.

This is why you’re automatically assumed to be vile transmisogynist scum.

‘Cause you’ll turn on us and work happily for those who want us dead in a HEARTBEAT if you think you’ll get something out of it - even if it’s just a token of ‘oh, well at least you’re not one of THOSE trans people’ from radscum who’ll go on to misgender and fetishize you.

One thing that stuck out at me is this:

“Sex is a biological reality, gender is socially constructed roles and norms for these sexes. I know that there are more categories than XX and XY. Those categories doesn’t change the fact that XX and every other category that isn’t XY, is oppressed by XY. To claim that one can identify their way out of their oppression is kind of making a mockery out of women who aren’t privileged enough to make that choice.

So, what they’re saying is that is simply that chromosomes, and nothing else, determines who is oppressed. I think they don’t realize the implications of that statement: some cis women have XY chromosomes (complete androgen insensitivity syndrome), and some cis men have chromosomes that are other than XY (ie. men with Kleinfelter Syndrome who are XXY, or men with de la Chapelle syndrome who are XX). So basically they’re saying that some cis women are able to oppress cis men, simply on the basis of their chromosomes, which can only be seen under a microscope. 

If they want to make brash statements about oppression being only based on physical sex, it would really help if they actually knew about the biology of sex. The assumption that a particular genotype always co-exists with a particular phenotype is incorrect.

tbh I seriously doubt they’d care about the implications of that statement, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they well know already and dismiss them offhand; radscum generally don’t give a shit about how they harm intersex cis women either.