#ok i'll use the trans tag bc i really do want other opinions on this

[dykeotomy]

How do you feel about famous, some might say foundational, radical feminist thinkers, such as Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, both of whom reject the notion of discrete biological sex and who feel that trans women are both true women and provide valuable perspectives in the feminist movement? Why should your view that radical feminism and female liberation are inherently trans exclusive be given any more weight than their opposing views on the matter?

one quote from monique wittig has stuck out to me ever since i first read it: "...for there is no sex. there is but sex that is oppressed and sex that oppresses. it is the oppression that creates sex and not the contrary." (From 'One is not born a woman').

wittig was interesting, to say the least. in this essay she also compared women's oppression to that of enslaved black people multiple times, which ignores black women's realities and is just super misinformed. however, her main point is that womanhood is a class rather than a biological predetermination.

andrea dworkin said that things like lab-created babies, HRT, and transsexuality help create new boundaries and categories for how we think about sex. i honestly disagree with her, and this is where i can also take the time to say that it is okay and good to not blindly agree with every theorist you read.

i bring up wittig and dworkin to make this point: sex, the way i see it, is a biological reality that undeniably exists. male and female sexes have been observed in countless other species. this debate of gender identity and the denial of sexual dimorphism exists only in humans, because we have the ability to think. thinking gives us the ability to create stereotypes, oppression, and discomfort with our sex. gender abolition, aka the destruction of the boxes created to classify sex, would, in my opinion, fix this entire argument. for sex would still exist in a world without gender, but there would be no need to argue about "who is truly a woman" or "what is a woman."

i think that even wittig and dworkin's POVs here are leading to the same thing that i am talking about: gender abolition. we may have slightly (very slightly!) different opinions on how to achieve it, but the end goal is the same, and i respect their views. i can't speak much for catharine mackinnon since i haven't read much of her work yet.

i think you are also misunderstanding my position on trans issues. i have problems with modern trans activism and modern gender ideology for promoting individualism, postmodernism, denial of sexuality, and consumerism/medical treatments without being fully informed on the consequences (and how medical transitioning is encouraged in minors within trans activism). i have no problems with dysphoric people as a whole, nor do i have any problems with grown adults who have made the informed decision to undergo transitioning. i have a lot of empathy for these people.

what i do not have empathy for is people who do not undergo any sort of transition at all (nor do they plan to), and say that just calling themselves a different gender changes their material reality. this is a problem i mainly have with nonbinary people, especially the type that go around saying their heterosexual relationships are gay because they identify as nonbinary. this also goes the same for the absolute hoards of teens i've seen calling themselves "gay trans men" with no intention to transition or even try to pass as men. i find it insulting.

my opinion floats somewhere in the realm of thinking about biology, presentation, identity, and societal roles as things that can be contradictory. when i say women should be able to dress however they want and act however they want and still be women, many people say "i agree! which is why trans women should also be able to do that!" in theory--yes. trans women are people and people should be able to do that. but many TRAs expand on this point to mean "trans women should be able to dress stereotypically male, not change their body at all, not change any of their mannerisms, be viewed completely as male in society, and still be women." i disagree. we can work to abolish stereotypes while also acknowledging the difference between gender nonconformity and gender conformity in "cis" vs trans people.

i more or less agree with chimamanda ngozi adichie's view: trans women are trans women. it is silly to pretend that they are in the same class of people as biological women, and it is silly to pretend that they are viewed as 100% men by all of society. adichie highlighted the fact that in order to address society's treatment of women and trans women, we need to acknowledge the fundamental difference between the two.