Judith Bell is a gender-critical feminist from Salem, Massachusetts, USA. Hailing from the original witch-hunting capital of North America, she wears the slur “TERF” with pride and eagerly awaits cries of “Die In A Fire Cis Scum!” from the rowdy villagers. Goody Bell can be reached via email at ciswitch@yahoo.com. And if anyone asks: no, she did not kill Farmer Humphrey’s sheep last week and yes, of course she has a third nipple, how else would she nurse her beloved feline familiar Spooky?
Dear Trans Women
I am a woman. A female. A woman born woman. A vulva-haver, a uterus bearer. A womb-man, if you will.
I don’t like to define people by their genitals, especially not myself. It’s kind of dehumanizing, I’m sure you’ll agree. Usually, I can just use the word “woman” and people know what I’m talking about, because there is so much history and cultural information packed into that word. That word stands in for a whole host of bodily and cultural experiences that are specific to people like me.
Female people.
You know, women.
But lately, trans women- people like you, who were born male, but have chosen to live as women- have co-opted that word. You have forced my hand. You have made me do something I am loath to do. You have made me define myself and everyone else around me by their genitals.
Genitals should not be important. They should be an issue between a person and their partner. And their doctor. That’s it. No one should care about them besides in the limited context of sex and personal health.
Except for one thing.
The fact that 51% of the entire human population, throughout the entirety of recorded history and into the 21st century, have been discriminated against, harassed, raped, abused, and denied full human status based on their genitals.
I can’t believe I have to say this, but apparently what used to go without saying must now be stated clearly and emphatically: I am a woman, and as a woman, I understand the concepts of female sex and gender in ways that you will never understand, because you were born male.
And what’s more: I, a woman, can speak with unwavering authority on the topics of sex as it pertains to women, gender as it pertains to women, womanhood, the female experience, and feminism. I can speak with authority on my own oppression. I can speak with authority on the patriarchy and its abuses. More importantly, you cannot.
Similarly, I have just as much, if not more, on the line in this battle then you do. My opinion counts, and I deserve a place at the table in these discussions because it’s my table. I will to be heard.
I know what you do to women like me. I’ve seen the Twittersphere blow up with rape threats, I’ve seen the thousands of “die in a fire cis-scum” posts. I’ve seen you no-platform the second-wave, the gender-critical, and the radical feminists for the supposed crime of daring to say that there might be more to womanhood than just a feeling, for saying their voice matters.
I’ve seen what you do to women like me and I’m scared. Terrified, actually. But I’m not going to shut up until you listen to what I have to say.
Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat:
As much as you claim that I just don’t understand where you’re coming from, you’re wrong. I get it. I had many experiences of wishing and wanting to be a boy. An example:
Once, when I was six or seven, I saw an advertisement on T.V. for a Hot Wheels toy, and I wanted it so bad. But I kept that wanting deep inside of me, a burning secret that I could not utter to my parents or my friends because Hot Wheels were “boys toys”. Did I feel ashamed? A little bit. But it didn’t stop me from wanting. To this day, I think my childhood might have been happier if that Hot Wheels toy had been mine.
That wanting, that desire for what you perceive you cannot have, is what drives every trans narrative that I have ever read:
“But I wanted a doll, not a truck.”
“But I wanted to play dressup with the girls.”
“But I preferred watching “My Little Pony” to boy’s cartoons.”
“But I wanted to go to the girl’s sleepover.”
Let me be perfectly clear: Those wants are legitimate. Every human being has the right to want what they want. Every human being has the right to express themselves whatever way they desire, as long as they don’t hurt others in the process. It’s called freedom of expression. And yes, freedom of expression includes “gender expression”.
Those wants stem from something that both you and I probably find abhorrent, and I think we can find common ground on this: both of us find the sex roles that were assigned to us based solely on our genitals to be limiting. Both of us want to break free and adopt more expansive social presentations that reflect who we really are inside. Hopefully, we can eventually work together and find a way for both of us to do that. But in the meantime, in your attempts to grab a seat at the front of the bus, you are throwing people like me, female people, under the damn bus.
Here is where you and I differ: You say that all your wants are harmless.
I say some of them are harmless, but many of them are downright toxic to society in general, and women in particular.
You say that you are fighting for basic human rights when you defend your wants.
I say that I will fight beside you to defend your human rights (rights to safety, rights to representation, rights to healthcare, rights to societal acceptance) but not at the expense of my own, which is what you want me to do.
You say it’s selfish of me not to move over and make room for you.
In my experience as a woman, when someone attacks me by calling me selfish, what they are really trying to do is police my femininity. They are telling me that it is a woman’s job to accommodate others and that the ugliest thing a woman can do is to set boundaries. They are telling me that it is my social role to be stepped on, so I’d better let them step on me. And I’d better do it with a smile on my face or there will be hell to pay.
Well, you can’t step on me. I’m not going to stand for it. You are hurting me and people like me. You are taking hard fought and hard won human rights away from people like me.
No one, certainly not me, is going to take your clothing decisions, your hobbies, your friends, your feelings, your medical options away from you. Those are yours. You want femininity? It’s yours. Wear a dress. Paint your nails. Take estrogen. Have surgery. That is yours, if you want it.
But here’s what you can’t have: you can’t have the word “woman”. You can’t erase my body, my biology. You can’t define me. You can’t invade spaces that are set aside for people like me. You have no claim to my identity. You can play with cultural expectation all you want, but you cannot usurp the identity of oppressed people. You can be a man in a dress named “Claire” that uses the pronoun “she/her”, but you cannot be a woman.
You cannot be a woman, because femaleness is a bodily experience. Conversely, femininity is a cultural experience.
It stands to reason that certain aspects of any cultural experience are open game for everyone. You can have those parts of my experience which are harmless cultural artefacts, but you cannot have the rest. And before you partake in the harmless cultural artefacts (such as nail polish and sleepovers) I demand that you at least attempt to understand those cultural artefacts in the greater context. I insist that you have a passing understanding of women’s history, women’s culture, and women’s oppression.
Discrimination vs. Systematic Oppression
When I was a little girl, I wrote an essay about women’s rights for Social Studies class. I remember telling my mother about what I’d learned:
“Did you know that women got the right to vote in 1920? That’s so long ago!” I said, and my mother replied casually, almost off-handedly: “Your Grandmother was born in 1920, you know.”
Suddenly it was very real to me. There was a living, breathing person that was as old as my right to vote. When I looked at my grandmother, I was looking my full citizenship in the face. My seventy-something year old grandmother didn’t seem so old any more, not in the face of the entirety of human history. And when I was older and I found out about Roe vs.Wade, the famous Supreme Court abortion case, I had the chilling realization that I had cousins, girls in my generation, that were older than their rights over their own bodies. And the fight over their bodies and my body and the bodies of all women in this country is still being fought in courts and abortion clinics from sea to shining sea.
This is the nature of the female experience that you refuse to understand: Our equality is not a given. Our rights over even our very selves are constantly in danger. Our bodies are still battlegrounds, our full humanity still regularly debated.
I’m sure that you, the trans women in my audience, feel the same way about your own experiences, so I am confident that you can relate. You feel as if your rights, your bodies, your humanity is questioned at every turn. You have experienced discrimination for how you look and what you do.
In that, we are similar. I, too, have experienced these things. But our experiences are not the same. They are not the same for one simple, yet important, reason:
Systematic oppression.
Trans women may be discriminated against, but biological women are systematically oppressed. The difference between discrimination and systematic oppression is one of intent and sheer scale. Discrimination is when people treat you differently, reject you, hurt you. Systematic oppression is discrimination writ large: entire social structures are built to enshrine your oppression as a matter of public good. You are regulated to a lower class of person, because you are in possession of an exploitable resource that must be controlled. This is the case for women- misogyny is ingrained into every social structure around the world, not by coincidence, but by design.
You see women are female. Femaleness, the bodily experience, involves possessing a body from birth that is viewed as being a public resource in at least four different ways.
The first resource is pleasure: Women’s bodies are sexually and aesthetically pleasurable for the vast majority of those who wield the power in any patriarchy, namely straight men. As such, women are reduced to their image and appearance. “Sexy” women are treated as public property that every man “deserves” access to. Because of this, women are raped and sexually assaulted at startlingly high rates. Even young girls can’t escape the sexualization of their bodies by adult males.
Tracy Emin
The second resource is reproductive value- future generations are how patriarchies are perpetuated and close policing of female bodies allows a male line of descent to be tracked and wealth and power to be distributed. Women have to sacrifice so much of their time and health and money-making potential to give birth to, nurse, and raise healthy children, yet women don’t get to partake of the systems of wealth that their reproductive efforts feed.
The third resource is labor. Women’s unpaid labor within the home is what allowed for the development of industry, science, the arts, and every other fruit of Western patriarchy. Without the unpaid labor of women, society would crumble to its knees within a few days. No aspect of patriarchal culture is possible without massive amounts of underpaid and unpaid female laborers, and yet their contributions are rarely, if ever, acknowledged.
The fourth resource is emotional comfort. Women are seen as the caretakers of children, the elderly, the sick, because women are thought of as somehow more nurturing and emotionally comforting than men. Men take their emotional problems to their mothers, their sisters, their wives, their girlfriends, their female friends. They often can’t be emotional around other men, because emotions are viewed as an unspeakable burden when released around male people. Women’s bodies become shoulders for men to cry on, as well as punching bags for men to take out their aggressions on. (If you don’t believe me, there was a famous study in Scotland that proved that domestic violence incidents went up after sporting events, meaning a significant number of men were taking out their frustration about a sports team loss by beating up their wives and girlfriends.) (“Sports Related Domestic Violence: Exploring the complex relationship between sporting events and domestic violence” Williams, 2013. University of St. Andrews.)
You are a transwoman, so your body is not viewed as a public resource. Your body is, and always has been, your own.
If you’re wondering why feminists care so much about female bodies, and are always going on about them, it’s as simple as this: in a world where women are expected to do free domestic labor, free sexual labor, free reproductive labor, and free emotional labor as a matter of course, in a world where the average woman gets paid 79% of what the average male gets paid, in a world where jobs dominated by female workers are “mysteriously” under-compensated… in that world, a woman’s biggest material asset IS HER BODY. Indeed, in extremely misogynistic societies, a woman’s body is often her only material asset, her only bargaining chip.
The female body is the essence of women’s oppression.
The concept of the female body as a resource is probably a foreign concept to you. Those born male are often valued for their thoughts, their social contributions, their personalities, their perceived power. The male body is not usually valued, as such. Even the physical labor of men is not viewed as “good” or “ideal”. A successful man is a man who can wield power and acquire resources without ever breaking a sweat. Conversely, a successful woman is still often seen as one who can “bag a rich husband”.
The lowest a man can be on the totem pole of patriarchy is a slave. Being a slave and being a woman are in no way comparable experiences (although they can and do overlap) but they have one thing in common: society places the value of both slaves and women, first and foremost, on their bodies.
Women can never bet on their thoughts, their social contributions, or their personalities being valued, but they can always count on their body being valued (or devalued) based on its perceived attractive qualities. Many men seem to think that the biggest compliment they can give a woman is “I’d fuck her”, and that in itself speaks volumes about how a woman’s value is assigned by men and by society.
Since you don’t experience this systematic oppression, let me tell you what it looks like.
Being a child and opening up my history book and seeing women as literal footnotes. Opening up my Mom’s college Art History textbook and seeing paintings by men, paintings that writhed with the bodies of nameless naked women, women who were presented as objects to be gazed upon. Opening up a Bible and seeing women erased- only mentioned in relationship to words like “sin” and “vessel” and “chattel”. Being told in Sunday School that God saw me as an afterthought, made out of a useless piece of a man’s body.
Systematic oppression was being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up and knowing, deep within my soul, that if I answered astronaut, or scientist, or fighter jet pilot, or fire fighter, or President of the United States, that the adults would feel sorry for me- they would pity me for being under the illusion that society would accept a female person in those roles. Systematic oppression was being surrounded from a young age by images of women, nameless and silent, that were selling me things with bodies that I was meant to see as enticing, ownable objects.
The first time I directly experienced the systematic oppression of being a resource for pleasure was when I was twelve. I was being bullied by a boy who pinned me down and fondled my newly grown breasts. I was too embarrassed to tell my Mom what had happened, so I just told her that a boy was bullying me at school. She said “He’s just teasing you because he likes you.” I had difficulty reconciling what that boy had done to me with being “liked” by someone.
The first time I personally experienced systematic oppression for my reproductive value was when I was publicly shamed by my middle school teacher for having to leave class to change my menstrual pad.
The first time I was systematically oppressed for my labor potential was when I was four years old and my mother bought me a toy kitchen so that I could “cook dinner, just like her”. The toy kitchen was seen as a beneficial “learning toy” for me.
The first time I was systematically oppressed for my emotional labor was when I was eleven and the neighbor boy beat me to a pulp. Later his sister told me it was “because he was mad about something” and “usually he beat her up instead”.
Each one of these experiences was treated as being “normal” and indeed, each of these examples are typical experiences for women and girls. But just because something is condoned by society, or even held up as a good thing, does not mean that society is right. Those “common” girl’s experiences are uncommonly cruel and dehumanizing.
Further Parts to Follow.
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Reblogged this on A butterfly's diary.
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Dear Judith Bell,
From your post, it seems that the main thing that bothers you about trans women is that they often classify themselves as “women.” You assert that this is false and provide a definition for the word ‘woman’ that excludes trans women. You seem to suggest that when a trans person claims that they are a woman, they are implying that the unique experiences faced by every “woman born woman” are trivial or unimportant.
But there are many other coherent definitions for the word woman. For instance, it’s often recommended that ‘women’ above certain ages get mammograms to screen for breast cancer. When people hear this, they typically understand that this recommendation probably does not apply to “women born women” who have already had a mastectomy. But it probably would apply to a trans woman who has had significant breast development. In this case, we are using the word woman to mean “a person with significant breast tissue and high estrogen levels.” Under this definition, some trans women are considered women and some “women born women” are not considered women.
One could be offended by the American Cancer Society or the United States Preventative Services Task Force for using the word women in this manner. They could argue that they were reducing what it means to be a woman to breasts and ignoring common features of the struggle that all true “women born women” face. But most people probably would not react this way and instead would understand that we often use language in a context-specific manner.
I think, as a trans-woman, I am doing something similar when I identify as a woman. I am saying that, in some important ways, I feel more similar to women than I do to men. That’s not to say, that I am more similar to women in EVERY important way. I certainly do not intend to communicate that I have faced every obstacle that nearly all “women born women” face. I haven’t. But I don’t think most people interpret my female identification as being equivalent to that claim.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Best,
Asha
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I enjoyed and agreed with this article, but appreciate your thoughtful reply. It is unusual to see a post these days from a transgender person that does not use the words transphobic, bigot, hatred, hysteria. I wish more were like you and prepared to lay down their thoughts in an articulate and reasonable way rather than using insults and slurs.
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A born woman without breasts is still a woman. A born man with fake breasts is not a woman.
Research so far shows that trans women are no more at risk for breast cancer than born men. And women who had mastectomies are getting checked anyway, don’t you think?
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I’d like to point out, that older women, ie post menopause are more at risk of getting breast cancer. The menopause, for women, ie when we cease the capacity to produce babies, we no longer have periods, we end up with vaginal atrophy etc etc, results in less oestrogen. Less. So, older women with less oestrogen are more at risk of breast cancer. (Just like post-menopausal women are more at risk of osteoporosis.) Now, on breast size. Women with small breasts get breast cancer as do women with large breasts.
To define a woman as someone with significant breast tissue and high oestrogen, based on a theory they may be at more risk for breast cancer, is quite frankly ridiculous. And appears to be defining a woman by her sexual value, ie young and with large breasts. Not. On.
And, as Smrekica points out, a small percentage of men, without breasts, or high levels of oestrogen, also get cancer. But bluntly, it’s not cost effective to screen that tiny percentage.
There is a very simple definition of women. And it isn’t based on breasts and oestrogen.
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Thank you for this. Great post!!!
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Thank you. So beautifully written, it took my breath away. You have a fantastic pen!
And the illustrations! Wonderful! Again; Thank you.
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So well articulated and to the point. Will make quotes and extracts to pass on citing you. Just wonderful how you separate the trans-illusion from the biological and social reality of girl to womon, so important. Thank you in Sisterhood
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Reblogged this on My Only Path to Power.
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That was great, but I wouldn’t even give female pronouns of she/her to these men, nor even hormones or surgeries. A woman, and our female bodies are realities, mimicking this and taking over our experiences and lives demeans all women. Women are not just non-male, non-men, low-testosterone or whatever males choose to define us as, women are people. I don’t mind or care what people wear or how they style their hair, but a line has to be drawn at co-opting women so thoroughly we cannot even speak about ourselves and our lives.
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I somehow managed to read through this article but at the end I’m still left asking what you are on about.
Women have always been systematically opressed, sure. And they are to a lesser (but still significant) amount today. But if someone identifies themselves as female, and goes through that social, physical and financial struggle to feel complete, how does it take anything away from you?
A transwoman living in society without announcing to the world how she was born is seen as female, and now must live with the same discrimination. Using the word woman to describe one’s self isn’t taking away the struggles of previous women fighting for rights. If anything, they would now be joining those fights and -helping- the cause for equality.
I don’t deny your claim that you’ve received threats of violence and rape, I’m sure it’s quite true. And that is a horrible thing for anybody to experience.
But these threats come from individual people, not an entire social category.
Just like it took many years for women to gain their rights to vote, it also took many years for people of colour to even be recognised as people at all.
Feminism used to be about gaining equal rights for women, now it should be about equal rights for everyone. Discrimination is unfair regardless of who you are, where you’re from or how you identify.
So why are you trying to take away an entire group’s right to call themselves women?
Individuals can be assholes, but don’t go accusing an entire group of people of an act that only a few are committing, or that makes you the asshole.
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“I don’t deny your claim that you’ve received threats of violence and rape, I’m sure it’s quite true. And that is a horrible thing for anybody to experience.
But these threats come from individual people, not an entire social category.”
As feminists we recognize that sexual and physical violence is done against women by men on a fairly large scale, across cultures and times. Yes perpetrated by individuals, but also often groups, armies, institutions and either backed up or ignored by governments or society as a whole. The idea that this ahistoric phenomenon, violence against women, – that encompasses rape, sexual assault, prostitution, battery, forced marriage, FGM and – imprisonment against women is just a few stray individuals is de-contexualized and politically inadequate.
Threats of violence and misogynistic language in the trans community is not uncommon by any stretch, and it is given a certain bubble wrapping, often excused or ignored. Identifying as a woman does not eradicate early years socialization and a sense of male privilege.
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I think we take issue with the idea that being a woman or female is simply a feeling: it isn’t. As Judith points out with great clarity in her post, those of us born female suffer systemic oppression from the moment we are born. Even before that, female foeticide shows how devalued girls and women are. Living in sexed bodies has significant impacts on our lives, and those born male claiming they are women, as if embodied lives are irrelevant, harm us. Womanhood is being appropriated and erased. Changing language means it becomes impossible for women to discuss issues that affect them exclusively. There are many trans activists out there who work very hard to silence and smear us for challenging their ideology, for not accepting that humans can change sex and for defending our rights. People can identify as they wish, and trans individuals should be free from discrimination and violence. No problem there. But being a woman is not a feeling, and MTTs need to understand and accept this.
As for feminism, no: it’s not about equal rights for everyone. It’s about the liberation of women from patriarchy, as highlighted by Judith. Women face specific systemic oppression, and as a result we have a right to centre our lives in this movement. When our rights clash with the demands of trans people, we’re not going to be silent and roll over. We have to find solutions that work for everyone, and that means we’re not going to give up on our rights to appease others. Demanding that women put aside their feelings and their rights is what is demanded of us all the time. And we’re fed up with it all now.
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I think you need to read the essay again.
So feminism “used to be” about rights for women? Are you implying that women are totally equal now? There is no pay gap, or rape culture, or male privilege anymore? That’s some nerve.
So now, according to you, women are expected to sit back and let the needs of other groups take precedence over their own needs, IN THEIR OWN MOVEMENT? Again, you have some nerve.
It is not hate speech to point out the hate speech that you have recived. And, like it or not, trans activists have a consistent problem with misogynistic haye speech. It is not “bigoted” to point out someone else’s biogotry.
Something tells me that you have no place in feminism, as women already have plenty of enemies. We don’t need “friends” like you.
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“how does it take anything away from you?”
How about the fact that it takes away the very *definition* of ourselves and the language we can use to fight oppression, stopping us from preventing our rights being taken away…there’s just too much to say but there is plenty of writing out there. You are not helping the cause by being inaccurate. Our oppression is based in large part on our biology, which you do not and never will share. Even if this was possible, you didn’t grow up with that biology and were treated as less than human because of it.
“Feminism used to be about gaining equal rights for women, now it should be about equal rights for everyone” No. It is and always will be about liberation for women. When feminists criticize the trans movement for being against women’s rights, this is partly what they are talking about. You’re proving us right by saying this. You are also proving that you are not the same as us and haven’t been socialized the same way – you show a serious lack of understanding of women’s oppression for someone who claims to feel like a woman.
“So why are you trying to take away an entire group’s right to call themselves women?” Because that is how we and our oppressors have always referred to us as and the definition is important in fighting for our rights, I shouldn’t have to explain that to you. It’s our definition and you have no right to appropriate it just like we aren’t going around claiming to be transgender and speaking for you. It’s important to be able to speak clearly and easily about what we experience *as a class* (that you will never be part of).
“A transwoman living in society without announcing to the world how she was born is seen as female, and now must live with the same discrimination” That’s just not true, sorry if that upsets you. The vast majority of transwomen are still very obviously transwomen. Even if they do pass, discrimination is about how others perceive you, I agree, but on top of that, you still did not grow up female, therefore not the same.
How does it take anything away from you to have your own category and not co-opt our definition? Fight against your own discrimination but it is not the same as ours and we still need to be able to talk about our own oppression, thanks.
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thank you so much, judith bell!
we’re still here!
you can’t just take our words!
we’re still using them!
we still need them!
we’re still here!
they are OUR words!!
they MEAN something!!
we mean something!!
did you think we wouldn’t notice you trying to change the meanings of our words…woman, female, lesbian?
did you consciously or unconsciously believe that we didn’t matter…maybe because you’re male and that’s what males are taught about females?
SEE us!
make up your own words!
be your own gender-defying selves!
you mean something, too!!
please…. back off with the cultural appropriation!
if you are willing to know us and not just barge into the room making demands of us, if you’re willing to be yourselves (and not try to be us), you might be surprised to find yourselves with a whole lot of ferocious allies.
thanks again, judith!
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Reblogged this on Hekate's Lair.
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Excellent piece! With great quotable explanations!
Thank you dear Goody. Please keep writing and sharing your keen observations.
All best to you and the Coven.
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Gender is a social construct.
Given that women have suffered such horrible oppression and abuse throughout all recorded history, any biological male that chooses to identify as a female is therefore willing to endure the misogyny that is rampant throughout society, and not only should she (because that is how she identifies) be applauded, but if fact, it should be recognized that she will face a unique set of challenges that far outweigh any of the barriers faced by biological women.
As a woman who understands the oppressed, surely you should be more welcoming.
Bigotry is bigotry no matter how eloquently expressed.
Trans-gendered women are as female as a biological female. Gender is what defines us, not our genitalia.
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Sorry to quote you back at yourself, but gender is a social construct. Since when do we, as forward thinking, progrssive people, let social constructions define us?
The social construction of gender is a tool that changes form over time, but its purpose remains the same: it exists to oppress the female sex-caste, who are positioned as an underclass in patriarchy.
And may I ask, how is a male who lives as a female somehow “brave” or “deserving of empathy” in a way that females are not? Female survival is NOT seen as brave in our society female suffering is NOT seen as deserving of empath yin our society. Why, when men experience just the slightest bit of what we face on a daily basis, do the kid gloves and the awards come out?
Or put another way, was Rachel Dolezal brave for “identifying” as a black woman? I’m sure she was at the reciving end of racism while she was passing as black. Was her experience of racism the SAME as black people’s experiences of racism? Did it effect her in the same way? Was it as much of a threat to her? It would be insulting and degrading to all people of color if you answered “yes” to any of those questions. The same holds true for sexism and women. It is insulting and degrading to think that sexism effects trans women in the same way. It doesn’t. When Paris Lees writes articles about how “affirming” of “her” “gender identity” it is to be cat-called, it is pretty obvious that trans women are trying on our likenesses as costumes, and playing at our real experiences as if it is a game. Well let me tell you, it isen’t a game when your life is on the line.
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How one identifies is who that person is. Biology does not define us. If a woman is born male but self-identifies as female, who are you to say she is not a woman? She experiences FAR MORE discrimination than you. Both at the hands of men and, dare i say it, at the hands of women.
She defines herself, not you. It is not a game, not a costume. To say this, is nothing short of breath-taking ignorance and bigotry.
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The ignorance and bigotry is all yours.
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How one identifies does not define oneself. We are not brains in jars, we live an embodied existance. Your “identity” means nothing in the face of the reality of your embodied existance. If I “identify” as Napoleon Bonaparte, it does not make it so. If I identify as Jesus Christ, it does not make it so. If one’s “identity” is all that it takes to “be” a member of a group, does that mean you support trans-racial people’s identities? Or trans-abled people’s? Or trans-fat people’s? Or are women the only maginalized group that you feel it is appropriate to colonize? If women are the only group that you feel it is appropriate to colonize, maybe ask yourself why this is so- could it be becase of male privilege that you feel that a marginalised group’s experiences are “yours” to claim for yourself? I think you’ve got a lot of privilege un-packing to do.
As far as biology is concerned- biology does define us. Biology makes us humans, not cats or fish. Biology makes us sexually dimorphic. And yes, our biology gifts us with complex brains that allow us to maintain harmful delusions, such as thinkong we are something we are not. Luckly, those same complex brains give us the tools to break free from such delusions- and I suggest you engage yours immediately.
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excellent post!
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Female means having female anatomy: vulva, uterus, ovaries, etc. Anyone who’s born male, that is, with a penis, will never be female. Male and female are neutral, descriptive categories that reflect the potential role each and everyone one of us could play in reproduction.
When it comes to women’s oppression, it is based on our genitalia. We face specific health issues, are the only ones who can give birth, etc. So our sexed bodies are pretty relevant, even without taking into account the roles we’re expected to fulfil and the punishment meted out to us if we don’t comply.
I find it strange to see you claim gender is a social construct and then claim it’s what defines us. Since gender is a construct, it doesn’t define us but imposes on us and limits us. Something feminists have pointed out repeatedly for decades now. MTTs claiming they are women does nothing to challenge this; in fact it reinforces it and contributes fully to the oppression women already face, while adding to it by attacking/silencing/threatening those of us who understand basic biology.
We’re not going to erase ourselves from our own lives because some males claim they are women. They’re not, and the fact they refuse to accept this just shows male socialisation in action.
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A transwoman is not biologically female. I can easily say youre a misogynist for calling females bigots. A woman is not just for people to take, that is the subject of the above post. Perhaps you can respect that, instead of just janking it away w/o any thought as most people do to women. Pretty aggressive. Gender is a social construct. Biological sex is not. And here is the most important thing: when you choose to hate on biological women, we will talk back and make sure our rights are preserved. Its transwomen that want to take some of them away, which furthers our systemic oppression. Lesbians also know transwomen are not biologically female. Its also the meaning of lesbian that transwomen want to have and to change and with that violating lesbian’s rights and lives. Ive never seen such self entitlted, narcissistic, rapey advocay ever before under the guise of ‘human rights’, Get outta here.
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Thanks for the excellent blog post. The delusional replies of “transwomen” (actually biological men) here show just how far we have to go. They just don’t get it. No, feminism isn’t about “equality.” It is about women’s liberation from patriarchy. No, we won’t center men. We will not be your unpaid labor force. You will NOT appropriate our resources further. And no, the bad things that happen to women are not the work of a few wayward individuals; these things are systematic in nature. Women born women are the only women. Transwomen commit violent crimes at rates identical to other bio males. Why? Because transwomen are men. Full stop!
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Reblogged this on Melanin+Estrogen and commented:
A million times YES to this.
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Hi Judith, thanks for this thoughtful article. I have taken the liberty of quoting the four unique categories of women’s oppression from your article on my FB page as I think this information is of interest and importance to feminists generally. Women’s oppression is based on exploting our female bodies as a natural resource, dehumanizing and degrading us as human beings. If feminists know nothing else, they need to know this is the basis of oppression and all the multifarious ways this oppression is achieved may always be connected to these four categories.
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I am wondering and would like to hear your thoughts on the children who (now that it is more safe to vocalize being trans) feel like they were assigned the wrong body at birth. More and more, young people who are born either female or male are coming out to their parents and start living as the gender opposite to what they were assigned at birth. I am the gay father of a FTM trans child. Do your thoughts of appropriation of gender apply in this circumstance as well?
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You are not assigned a gender at birth. You are born a sex. Society imposes gender norms upon those sexes.
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Thank you for this post. As a woman, I have been flabbergasted at trans activist behaviors toward women. They demand access to women’s spaces where women discuss women’s subjects like menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, etc. among themselves. These discussions literally do not apply to MTT. They are important and essential subjects for women to discuss among ourselves. Yet, MTT demand access and then demand that these discussions cease because these topics “exclude” them.
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Thank you everyone! I appreciate all the positive comments and all of the polite discussion, even if you don’t agree.
To Transdad: I don’t think children should be raised with gender. I think they should be free to express themselves however they want without feeling like they have to choose a social box in which to exist. I also believe that medical transition should only be available to adults, becase I don’t belive that children have the mental capacity to understand the long term consequences of what they are doing to their bodies. (Ask anyone who got a tattoo as a teenager if you want to see what I mean. The regret for even simple bodily changes is often palpable.) That being said, much luck to you and your FTM son. I wish you both nothing but the best.
To Apolloyon911- You yourself say that males “choose” to experience female oppression as MTF people. How do you think those who if_don’t_ have the luxury of a choice feel? In other words, those born as women? The fact that you feel it is a choice and you think that oppression only happens on an axis of gender and not on an axis of sex reveals that you have very limited understanding of women’s oppression. Why do you belive that trans women suffer more then women? Becase that’s your party line? One look at the news can show you that is simply not true. One look at rape statistics can show you thats not true. And where is the evidence of millenia upon millenia of tran women’s oppression? Hint: it doesn’t exist. For trans women, “misgendering” is “literal violence”. Women experience far worse every day, the slurs hurled at us are considerd “funny jokes” and if we don’t laugh at our own oppression we are “bitches” who “have no sense of humor”. For us, “literal violence” is rape, domestic violence, and murder, and too often, those who commit violence agaist us get away with it. (Just look at the Stamford rapist.)
So please, try to have a little empathy.
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There is simply no way you can say that women experience more oppression than a transwoman. They are rejected by (most) men, women and even many in the gay community. It does not matter if a millennia of oppression did not exist for transwomen…these biological males suffered in silence. Now they are able to be themselves and still face rejection from women who should know better.
Their suffering is different from yours, but no less real and almost certainly far worse.as they represent a mere 0.3% of the population as opposed to 51% of the population. They are isolated.
I believe it is you who requires a little empathy.
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And who make the lesbians suffer these days? Transwomen. Transwomen are very oppressive to lesbians and our sexuality. Transwomen have no part in that no matter how much you scream and pout and are hateful and full on lesbophobic. How dare you talk about being oppressed.
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I am confused. You yourself said that becoming trans was a choice. Why would someone choose to become something that would make them miserable and isolated, unless they are a masochist? I don’t buy that for a moment.
And this “rejection” you talk about- I just don’t see it. I see wall to wall media stories that are supportive, treating trans issues with kid gloves. I see people who consider themselves progressives falling over themselves to gives trans activists everything they ask for, regardless of the cost to women and girls.
I don’t doubt that trans women suffer- every one who sees themselves as on the margins of society suffers to some extent- but your claims that trans women suffer more; that is just not proven. No statistics point to that. Any intelligent analysis of sexism and the social construction of gender points to trans women’s male privilege. They may not have privilege compared to other males, but the privilege they hold over females is obvious.
The idea that “rejection” constitutes oppression is another issue I have with your argument. Oppression is material and measurable. It is laws keeping women from full control over their bodies. It is a considerable pay gap, despite being better educated on the whole then men. Higher rates of poverty, high rates of domestic violence, and shockingly high sexual assault statistics (between one in six and one in four women experience sexual violence in their lifetime) , that is oppression. Rejection is not oppression. If you think it is, you have not experienced oppression.
Also, you cannot fource people to accept you. Everyone has the right to be friendly with whom they choose. Fourcing people to like you or accept you is a violation of other people’s boundries. If you want to be accepted, I might suggest looking hard at yourself first, becase you can’t fource others to change their feelings on your behalf. Radical self-acceptence is also a great tool, and I suggest it to everyone. 😀
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“There is simply no way you can say that women experience more oppression than a transwoman.”
Imagine this scenario: When you’re born doctors see that you have a vagina instead of a penis. This means you’re a member of the female sex, the biological category of humans who upon hitting sexual maturity produce ova, menstruate, and can become pregnant. This is possible because you have developed Fallopian tubes, a uterus, etc. You’ve most likely also begun to develop breasts, and this in addition to other physical characteristics make it easy for others to identify you as female. Boys and men sexualize and objectify you for this simple fact. In private, they lay claim to your body. You’re told women are inferior, over and over again from your friends, kids down the street, classmates, teachers, clergy members, even your own family. You’re ashamed of your body. You’re told it’s weak, gross, something to be used and passed around, something to be mined. It will never be good enough. A source of temptation and evil. You’re ashamed of your mind too – or the sort of mind they say you have.
Fast forward to a point in your life where you have hopes and dreams. Unexpectedly, you become pregnant. But you didn’t just become pregnant, did you? A man impregnated you. Now you have a fetus growing inside you, a fetus that will feed off your body’s resources and may cause serious health complications. You didn’t want to have a baby but there are no safe or accessible abortion services where you live. You’re at the mercy of your female biology. You wonder what’s going to happen. What about your aspirations to finish your degree? How will you make money to support not only yourself but a child? A whole other person? This man who got you pregnant is off somewhere, not having to think about his body, his education, his career, his financial or health situation. Or yours. He will never understand the challenges, fears, risks, and harms you’re experiencing and will experience for a very long time to come. This is the material reality you face because you were born female.
Tell me again how a male bodied and male socialized person, who doesn’t even have to think about what it means to be female in a patriarchal world, hast it “almost certainly far worse”. I fucking dare you.
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Dear Judith,
I thought your article was so well-written, and as a trans woman myself it gave me a lot to think about.
As for the vitriolic and hateful responses you have been subjected to (from Twitter and so on), I want to apologize, and also say that whenever it is safe to do so, I do my very best to call these people out, and tell them that their behavior is not going to fly. People like that make us all look like abusive psychopaths, and I am so, so sorry that you’ve had to experience that.
It is unacceptable that any woman is told she has to sacrifice her own hard-won rights for the sake of others, especially because as you mentioned women’s rights are still new and remain precarious at best (especially with our current political climate in the united states). I understand that I can only ever be an ally to feminism, at best, but that is something I really do value and want to do the most good I possibly can in that role. Articles like this help me center my perspective in the right places, and for that I am very grateful!
For any other trans women reading this, I feel like it’s important that we understand that male socialization is a real thing that the majority of us have experienced–and that means that we are used to having our voices heard at the expense of those around us. When women talk, we need to listen and process and CARE. Not just immediately jump to defensiveness and anger. (which are very unhealthy and “male” ways of handling adversity!!)
You said:
“Trans women may be discriminated against, but biological women are systematically oppressed.”
I could not agree more. The discrimination I have certainly encountered (especially in the first few years of my transition) pale in comparison to what women experience; being born into a system that is wholly designed to exploit their bodies and emotional energy. I don’t see why it is so difficult for some trans women to just simply acknowledge this. The most important people in my life, those I looked up to more than anything, have all been women–and I would have had to be blind not to notice the spectre of patriarchy hovering over their shoulder from birth, devaluing their work, their ideas, and their very lives.
Yes, I have been shocked to discover how different my life has become since society at large began seeing me as a woman: I’m a nurse, and despite the fact that I work in the same field now as I did before transitioning, now I feel as if I have to fight three times as hard to have my voice heard, and my value as a professional is now based on so many things that have nothing to do with my actual job performance. Doctors routinely ignore my advice or concerns, patients get upset with me if I don’t have time to be a nurturing angel of mercy rather than the very busy healthcare professional that I am. I never used to be asked to change beds or fetch coffee for my patient families, to name just a few examples. On the rare occasion I can get a doctor to listen to what I have to say, he almost always takes the credit for it in front of my patients.
I ride a motorcycle as my primary transportation, and I’ve had to start carrying mace in one of my boots because I routinely encounter strange men who honk and shout things at me, and sometimes even follow me around.
But none of what I’ve experienced since I transitioned can be compared to what women experience, because they were conditioned and pressured from birth to expect these sorts of things and perform that kind of work at a minimum. So our situations can’t really be compared at all.
I think as trans women we need to understand these things, and start our own movement to come at patriarchy sideways. We are not women in the traditional sense of the word, and that’s ok! We are not men either; we are something different. But we were born and often raised as male (even if we absolutely hated every minute of it), and that means we need to be mindful and deferential to women’s voices.
Judith, I’m sorry that this turned into a bit of a screed. =( Ultimately I just want to say thank you for your compassionate and insightful perspective. I hope I am able to get through to at least a few trans people, and get them on the right side of this issue. Emotions are certainly high, but I feel like there is too much at stake to do nothing!
Thank you again.
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I can’t thank you enough for your lovely comment. It is brave of you to take this stance, and I appreciate you sharing your experiences here. Best of everything to you. I hope there are many more trans women like you, becase if there are, I can see us working together in a real sense towards a world that will be better for both of us.
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I feel like there are definitely more trans people like me out there, although unfortunately the “not crazy” among us are also often the most quiet, at least in my experience. =(
I was guilty of this for a few years, because I didn’t want to out myself or make anyone angry. But over the last year or so I’ve started speaking up more often, and surprisingly have encountered other trans people like me who believe that as a group we’re headed in a direction that in many instances can be harmful to women. Of course, I’ve also encountered a lot of hatred and anger from other trans people–possibly somewhat similar as you’ve had to deal with, I imagine.
In any case, thank you so much for your kind response, and I will definitely be looking forward to reading more from you in the coming months. I believe things can and will get better!
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Women cannot identify out of their oppression. Women are oppressed no matter what sociological status they hold. Rich or poor. Red State or Blue state. 99% of transwomen I have know can identify right out of it if it gets too difficult. I was a social worker with a trans population and also one myself .
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