#its such an interesting and nuanced look at anthropology and terfs are just out here

[seraphfeathers]

not a terf but was scrolling through the womens rights tag. women have 30% less muscle mass than men and are generally (thought not always) shorter and smaller? we are physically weaker that's why victims of physical domestic abuse are pre-dominantly women and why women are afraid of walking past men in the dark but not the other way around? what fucking planet are you living on?

Hi! Hoping this is a legit question because this is actually a point I think is very interesting - and I’d actually love to discuss it further!

The problem I have is with terfs trying to emphasise that during a celebration of strong female achievement and distinctly attempting to frame all women as weaker than all men - whilst the average is thereabouts, there remains a significant amount of overlap and it’s often less straightforward than it seems! There are also sometimes factors around social restriction or expectation that limits the discourse sometimes, though I admit that’s not a point I’ve looked into much. Either way, an event celebrating the achievements of women breaking through gender segregated barriers is not the best time to advocate for more gender-segregated barriers because “no woman can possibly catch up to a man”, and especially when employing a terf pov! And it really illuminates just how terfs see female achievement!

(I’m reminded of that one poll where many straight cis men are apparently under the impression they could score off Selena Williams in a tennis match.)

I won’t begrudge you on the fear of walking at night part - but here we should probably also consider how it is very much linked to rape culture - which is the aspect that makes it specifically gendered as opposed to simply based on physical traits and strength - an extremely weak man is still likely to be less afraid than the average woman. But I digress.

Domestic violence is also an interesting issue. Again, I’m always eager to hear more perspectives but from what I’ve seen, a lot of the truly horrific domestic violence is distinctly ongoing and continuous. Especially given the context of modernity, with (in most cases) communities and law enforcement, the truly awful cases of domestic violence are about the psychological and social a lot more than they are about the physical. They’re about people being separated from loved ones, having no escape from the situation and unable to receive support from authorities, and suffering silently because they’re unwilling to fight back not just because they might be physically weaker (kitchen knives in tv show melodramas come to mind), but because of these other barriers.

Ofc physical strength is still an element, but from what I’ve seen, it’s certainly not as clear cut as it’s sometimes portrayed, even in sport, (and even biological sex is more complicated than the binary) and given our contemporary society, it’s certainly not the most prominent reason for abuse and fear??