#radical transfeminism

[trans-androgyne]

I want there to be fewer MRAs. Do you want that too? Do you want to know what helps us get there, from a feminist perspective?

You may not like my answer: acknowledge that sexism can affect men. Recognize that, although the patriarchy generally privileges men, they are also subject to restrictive gender roles that are harmful to them (shunning all things “feminine,” not showing emotions, being protectors/strong, never admitting being victims of SA/IPV, having to “earn” their manhood, etc.).

Give young men a place other than the right-wing manosphere to be heard about the issues they experience. If these grifters are telling them “only we understand how hard it is to be a man, the left hates you for your gender” and they look to the left and see “men claiming they have ‘problems’ are losers who just hate women, all men are trash,” do you think they’re going to be drawn towards or away from feminism?

Before you leave an angry response: no, this does not mean to center men instead of women in feminism, it just means including them at all. No, it is not “coddling” men to treat them with human dignity, you can and should continue to hold them (and every other gender) responsible for unpacking sexist beliefs. No, this does not mean it is every individual woman’s and feminist’s responsibility to prioritize men’s issues, it just means at the least not shutting them down when they do speak up about sexism. No, it is not “not all men-ing” to point out that “men are trash” sentiments hurt the feminist movement rather than helping it. Ask questions before you make accusations on this post, please. I have been abused by men too, I get it, this isn’t easy to hear.

[taliabhattwrites]

'The Transsexual Empire' is a work of pseudoscholarship that contradicts itself frequently, undermines its own premises, and relies upon a fundamentally Catholic ontology to make its transmisogynistic arguments. It is trivial to dissect ... and yet.

[k0rnym0thafucka]

If y’all can call TERFs “TWERFs” and completely ignore their transandrophobia, then I can call TIRFs “TWIRFs” bc they actually only include trans women in their shit radical feminism

[filmydidii]

If you are a feminist who says "trans women are women" but then reblog from terfs, stay away from me.

[radfemforwomensrights]

This is fantastic. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Social commentary on the state of women’s sports right now. That last line is gold. 🤭😂

Spread this.

[demonpoetlilith]

musings on baeddelism

i don't agree with the common critique of baeddelism, as it relies on a distorted conception of the ideology. for simplicity's sake, let's just define baeddelism as the fusion of transfeminism and radical feminism, which believes transmisogyny is the apex of patriarchy, as it's the clearest shared target between misogyny & queerphobia. most critiques of it come from what's referred to as TMRAs (also transphobic cis women who're upset about not being the center of the world, but ignoring them). the argument begins as the baeddel suggests trans men are agents of misogyny (patriarchy of course fundamentally shapes standards of manhood), who're a sugar-coated bullet, due to rhetoric of experience with misogyny preventing repetition, this paired with a strong distaste for the very relatively privileged cis mainstream feminism leads many leads many baeddels to also dislike most cis women as. this leads TMRAs to the very superficial & bad faith suggestion that we (do keep in mind "baeddel" is a reclaimed slur, which they really shouldn't be using in their tirades) are reskinned TERFs, due to believing there's a bad gender, alternatively TMRAs make the even more absurd suggestion that baeddels believe in AFAB privilege & general AMAB oppression. i think baeddelism's current ebb unfortunate, as it's the highest development of the classical radical feminism's (the era before it was co-opted by the far right) social-constructivism

[gingus-doon]

omfg i always manage to mistakingly think there is nothing left to Know that will shock me and make me reconsider concerning feminist and queer histories but oh my mother fuckin god yall DID YALL KNOW..ALISON BECHDEL SUPPORTED BI LESBIANS

like i just hhn i wouldve had no idea i would not have even known the concept EXISTED and i, here, stand on neither side as i don't know enough about anything to make a firm point (i lean against but hearing ppl say trans women are facing the brunt of anti bi-lesbian sentiment & the strange insistence on Lesbians Cannot Like Men when trans men in lesbian history, right there-- [how can you say this without undermining trans men's manhood? i don't think you can. hence im content to describe lesbian relationships as those without cis men {though not all relationships without cis men are lesbian relationships, for ex trans gay guys or straight trans relationships} & im not one to brush aside the queer history of transmasc lesboys so easily when i know. So many very lesbian tguys] makes me reconsider)

ITS SO FUCKING NUTS TO REMEMBER THAT FEMINIST AND QUEER PPL BEFORE US ALREADY HAD THESE DISCUSSIONS ALREADY SPOKE WHAT NEEDED TO BE SPOKEN IN MANY CASES AND FORGOING THE ADVICE OF OUR FEMALE AND TRANSSEXUAL FOREBEARERS JUST LEADS US TO HAVE THE SAME POINTLESS DISCOURSES ON TUMBLR DOT COM AGAIN AND SEVER COMMUNITY OVER IT AGAIN AND AGAIN OH MY GOD ITS LIKE A CURSE ITS LIKE WE'RE SISYPHUS ALIENATED FROM OUR TEACHERS CONDEMNED TO ROLL THE SAME BOULDER UP THAT HILL

im just going fucking nuts bcauae it's always like this i will cry ahahhh like

LESLIE FEINBERG. HIR PROPHETIC STATEMENT

AND ITS HAPPENINGGGG ITS HAPPENING THERE ARE TERFS AND THE SEX ABOLITIONIST RADICALLY QUEER RADICAL FEMINISM OF OUR FOREMOTHERS HAS BEEN ABANDONED AND NOW NO ONE LOOKS TO THAT ESTEEMED TRADITION BESIDES A FEW BECAUSE EVERYONE HATES TERFS (rightfully so) BUT DONT KNWO THE EXTENT OF RADICAL FEMINISM UGHDHHHG OOHghhuhh OuhchhHHhn SHAKING .

AND I JUST LEARNED ABOUT RIKI WILCHINS AND THEY WERE A TRANSSEXUAL LESBIAN FEMINST!!!!! TRANSSEXUAL LESBIAN FEMINIST A BEAUTIFUL PHRASE AND NOW WERE IN AN AGE WHERE QUEER NON-LESBIANS ARE LESPHOBIC AND DAMN THE ENTIRETY OF LESBIAN FEMINISM WHILE TERFS DAMN THE ENTIRETY OF QUEERNESS AS IF LESBIANISM CAN EXIST WITHOUT IT OR TRANSNESS AND I JUST.........IDK im crying im rocking back and forth i am holding my temples those who do not know their history will be doomed to repeat it truly

[lettucedloophole]

??? gender ideology is literally not compatible with radical feminism

you don't know what radical feminism is 😭 if you were really against gender, you'd understand cis women identifying as women is also based in gender & the concept of sex as an immutable fact which dictates behaviour is gender as well lol. the category of womanhood is inseparable from misogynistic oppression and to dissolve the patriarchy, the category of opressors (men) and the oppressed (women) must also dissolve! good luck with those brainworms, genuinely hope you get better.

also, are we ever going to talk about how the term "gender ideology" is not only used by a bunch of right wingers today, but originated from catholics afraid that feminist theory would undermine the nuclear family and lead to the legitimization of abortion...?

no? okay :')

[cogbreath]

the level of insecurity and bitterness from thst transmascpetewentz guy on this front is insane like this is outright jealousy .......

[anarkittyuwuuniverse]

Terfs really don't know anything about transfeminism at all. I was reading through the transfeminist manifesto from 2001 and already back then transfeminists were debunking and addressing things that Terfs *still* claim the trans rights movement stands for. Some examples: The claim that one can just free oneself from patriarchal dynamics and gender stereotypes by just "identifying out of them": "However, no one is completely free from the existing social and cultural dynamics of the institutionalized gender system. When we make any decisions regarding our gender identity or expression, we cannot escape the fact that we do so in the context of the patriarchal binary gender system." The claim that trans rights activists uphold female stereotypes and see them as what defines their womanhood: "Trans women in particular are encouraged and sometimes required to adopt the traditional definition of femininity in order to be accepted and legitimatized by the medical community, which has appointed itself as the arbiter of who is genuinely woman enough and who is not." "Transfeminism holds that nobody shall be coerced into or out of personal decisions regarding her or his gender identity or expression in order to be a "real" woman or a “real” man. We also believe that nobody should be coerced into or out of these personal decisions in order to qualify as a "real" feminist. As trans women, we have learned that our safety is often dependent on how well we can "pass" as "normal" women; as transfeminists, we find ourselves constantly having to negotiate our need for safety and comfort against our feminist principles. Transfeminism challenges all women, including trans women, to examine how we all internalize heterosexist and patriarchal mandates of genders and what global implications our actions entail; at the same time, we make it clear that it is not the responsibility of a feminist to rid herself of every resemblance to the patriarchal definition of femininity. Women should not be accused of reinforcing gender stereotypes for making personal decisions, even if these decisions appear to comply with certain gender roles; such a purity test is disempowering to women because it denies our agency, and it will only alienate a majority of women, trans or not, from taking part in the feminist movement. Transfeminism believes in the notion that there are as many ways of being a woman as there are women, that we should be free to make our own decisions without guilt. To this end, transfeminism confronts social and political institutions that inhibit or narrow our individual choices, while refusing to blame individual women for making whatever personal decisions. It is unnecessary -- in fact oppressive -- to require women to abandon their freedom to make personal choices to be considered a true feminist, for it will only replace the rigid patriarchal construct of ideal femininity with a slightly modified feminist version that is just as rigid." The claim that trans women deny having or ever having had "male privilege": "However, as transfeminists, we must resist such a simplistic reaction. While it is true that male privilege affects some men far more than others, it is hard to imagine that trans women born as males never benefited from it. Most trans women have "passed" as men (albeit as "sissy" ones) at least some point in their lives, and were thus given preferable treatments in education and employment, for example, whether or not they enjoyed being perceived as men. They have been trained to be assertive and confident, and some trans women manage to maintain these “masculine” traits, often to their advantage, after transitioning. What is happening here is that we often confuse the oppression we have experienced for being gender-deviant with the absence of the male privilege. Instead of claiming that we have never benefited from male supremacy, we need to assert that our experiences represent a dynamic interaction between male privilege and the disadvantage of being trans."

The claim that trans rights activists uphold gender stereotypes by reference to an innate gendered "brain" or "soul": "Trans people have often been described as those whose physical sex does not match the gender of their mind or soul. This explanation might make sense intuitively, but it is nonetheless problematic for transfeminism. To say that one has a female mind or soul would mean there are male and female minds that are different from each other in some identifiable way, which in turn may be used to justify discrimination against women. Essentializing our gender identity can be just as dangerous as resorting to biological essentialism. Transfeminism believes that we construct our own gender identities based on what feels genuine, comfortable and sincere to us as we live and relate to others within given social and cultural constraint. This holds true for those whose gender identity is in congruence with their birth sex, as well as for trans people. Our demand for recognition and respect shall in no way be weakened by this acknowledgement. Instead of justifying our existence through the reverse essentialism, transfeminism dismantles the essentialist assumption of the normativity of the sex/gender congruence."

That trans rights activists are uncritical of cosmetic surgeries: "For many transfeminists, the issue of body image is where our needs for comfort and safety directly collide with our feminist politics. Many of us feel so uncomfortable and ashamed of our appearances that we opt to remain in the closet or endure electrolysis, hormone therapy and surgical interventions to modify our bodies in congruence with our identity as women. These procedures are costly, painful and time-consuming and can lead to the permanent loss of fertility and other serious complications such as an increased risk of cancer. Why would anyone opt for such a seemingly inhumane practice? While we might like to believe that the need to match our bodies to our gender identity to be innate or essential, we cannot in honesty neglect social and political factors contributing to our personal decisions. One such factor is society's enforcement of dichotomous gender roles. Because our identities are constructed within the social environment into which we are born, one could argue that the discontinuity between one's gender identity and physical sex is problematic only because society is actively maintaining a dichotomous gender system. If one's gender were an insignificant factor in society, the need for trans people to modify their bodies to fit into the dichotomy of genders may very well decrease, although probably not completely. However, such reasoning should not be used to hold back trans persons from making decisions regarding their bodies. Trans women are extremely vulnerable to violence, abuse and discrimination as they are, and should not be made to feel guilty for doing whatever it takes for them to feel safe and comfortable. Transfeminism challenges us to consider ways in which social and political factors influence our decisions, but ultimately demands that society respect whatever decisions we each make regarding our own bodies and gender expression."

[v-of-cups]

Radical feminism was not a mistake. Yes, even for trans people

Nowadays people online treat "radfem" as an insult with meaning "progressive-sounding bigot", but they are very wrong.

Yes, in its pure form it's obsolete, but not because it was actually bad - it's because it was succeeded by better framework.

It was radical feminist theory that mobilised female struggle in second half of 20th century and won us a lot of rights. This wouldn't have happened if it was some secretly misogynistic nonsense as people online claim.

Sure, canonical radical feminists had problems with transphobia and homophobia and with absolving white women from their racism, and those who insist on returning to second wave frequently inherit all of this. But there are also bi and lesbian women and women of colour who took core of radical feminist believes and changed them to fit their struggles, and they are winning.

Trans people, all of whom are affected by misogyny and general patriarchy, have to follow their steps. We have to see origins and role of our oppression and adapt theory and tactics of radical feminists to win our rights.

And actually, a lot of trans people do. I am not going to pretend that I am saying something revolutionary, much smarter folks than me wrote it much better. The thought that I am trying to convey is that while we don't have to accept all radfem believes, discarding them as some psyop is stupid and dangerous

[filmydidii]

Actually, I am better than that.

It will get so much better than this.

I am a girl who is tired of systematic racism, transphobia and misogyny against me.

Today starts a real good thing. I will make outlandish claims and I dont need to prove them, just like the rest of you misogynists. And those claims wont be outlandish by the time I am done.

I am biologically female. It is none of your business. My gender assigned at birth will never be your business. I am a 100% female. I am also transgender. I am also intersex. I am bisexual but I am a dyke and a butch. I am a teenage girl who was bullied and tortured by this world but today starts a journey. I am going to make everyone so scared.

[satedsaint]

the woman-identified woman, radicalesbians

[demonpoetlilith]

trans women are perfect angels who can do no wrong, our useless patriarchal society is just too backwards to see that

[radfemforwomensrights]

Okay things you listed for Radfems to like: It's okay to hate your oppressors, non-violent protests, women don't belong in the kitchen. Who cares about eyeliner, it does nothing to solve inequality or protect a women. Women's rights are being stripped (abortion for one). Wearing pink and embracing girly stereotypes does nothing for women's rights.

Do you actually disagree with any of this? Or do you just hate a portion of women and want to silence those you don't like?

Making posts like this then blocking all the radfems and turning off the reblogs is sooooo funny