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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Cisgender Lesbians & Trans Women

194 replies

kellyandthecat · 17/02/2015 16:38

www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/02/16/cisgender_lesbians_and_trans_women_how_to_mend_the_rift.html

I am a straight 'cisgender' woman but a friend of mine in America posted this article and I thought it was really interesting to think about 'other' kinds of women. I cant say I know very much about it or feminism with a capital F since I left university but this article definitely makes what it calls TERFS - 'trans-exclusionary radical feminists' look quite bad so I was wondering if anyone on MN had read it and had any thoughts. No one in my house ever wants to have a chat about this stuff Smile

OP posts:
SuperLoudPoppingAction · 18/02/2015 10:48

Well yeah but then there'd have to be campaigns against the main cause of murder of transwomen - the sex industry - when online transactivists generally seem to be into sexual and moral libertarianism, so I don't know quite how that would work.

scallopsrgreat · 18/02/2015 10:25

I think the fact that jasper thinks it is a non problem reinforces the fact that it is and issue women should be worried about Grin.

There isn't a single mention of male violence in that article kelly. Not even in reference to the murders of transwomen. Who do you think is killing transwomen and men? Because it isn't women. It certainly isn't lesbian women nor is it radical feminists.

It is certainly a trick of the patriarchy to focus on women's behaviour and gloss over men's frightening, violent, murderous behaviour. And that is what transactivists do, almost exclusively.

QueenStromba · 18/02/2015 10:15

Billions of women in the world who like penises but they want to put theirs in the minority that don't. I've never heard of any transwomen trying to bully men into having sex with them by claiming that they are bigoted for not being attracted to them. Strange that.

Monison · 18/02/2015 10:13

Yes, it's really frightening. I absolutely support the right of any human to decline sexual activity with any other human for whatever reason. Any alternative is coercive and rapey in the extreme!

TheCowThatLaughs · 18/02/2015 10:03

It's just bollocks isn't it? As a straight woman am I allowed to choose whose penis i have or don't have inside me, or is it just lesbians who have to entertain the possibility of sex with a person with a penis??
It's insane Sad

SuperLoudPoppingAction · 18/02/2015 09:46

bygonebureau.com/2013/10/21/the-best-of-both-worlds/
'Look, it’s not like I require the women I date to be cool with having my dick inside them. In fact, I’m fine if that never happens. But being shut off from the very idea of it, not even considering that having my penis inside you is different from having a man’s penis inside you? That hurts. '

Please please have empathy for lesbian women and see how a form of activism that blithely espouses this sort of idea is harmful for us.

SuperLoudPoppingAction · 18/02/2015 09:43

How are lesbians cisgender anyway?
Even if you buy into a term that seems to define femininity as a desirable and natural state, femininity is about marking women as different and deferent to men, to compliment and complement them - lesbians do not do this.
Monique Wittig was pretty interesting about lesbians and gender.
But yeah this article is horrifying.
If women feel disgust about the idea of sleeping with someone with a penis, who produces sperm, that seems pretty much in line with being a lesbian.

OfficerVanHalen · 18/02/2015 09:12

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TaurielTest · 18/02/2015 07:59

I enjoyed this thoughtful blog post on "cis":
londonfeminist.com/site/what-is-cis-and-does-it-matter/

TheCowThatLaughs · 18/02/2015 07:56

I just feel a bit upset at being rebranded as "cis" albeit hopefully only by a minority of fanatics on the Internet. As if women don't already have enough problems due to being women, now we're being told that, actually, being a woman is something anyone can do, even if they have a penis, and that if we don't accept that then we're bigots. I suppose I just worry that these ideas will spread further and I don't think that would be a good thing.

TheCowThatLaughs · 18/02/2015 06:47

Ebearhug, it's too early for me probably but I can't work out if you're agree sing with me or not? Smile

zozzij · 17/02/2015 23:54

It is completely beyond me how anyone can fail to see that this is a rapist agenda, plain and simple. If someone doesn't want to have sex with you, they don't want to have sex with you, and that's the end of it. Trying to force someone who doesn't want to have sex with you to have sex with you is... oh yeah. Rape. Why can't these people just leave lesbians alone?

FloraFox · 17/02/2015 23:52

Jasper You must have a lot of time on your hands to post such a non-point. Maybe you should get out more.

HouseWhereNobodyLives · 17/02/2015 23:42

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jasper · 17/02/2015 23:40

oh my lord what a non problem
cis
terf

what percent of the population do you think
a) understand
b) give a toss about these terms.

really , get out more

HouseWhereNobodyLives · 17/02/2015 23:30

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

EBearhug · 17/02/2015 23:14

I'm always a woman and no man can become like me by acting like me or dressing like me.

Lots of women are never going to become like me, even though we share the same traits of having a vagina and so on. There's an awful lot more to me being me that isn't to do with my sex or gender - that's only a little bit of me. A lot more of me is down to things I find interesting, how I relate to other people, what things I've experienced in the past, and so on, and that's likely to be just as different from another woman as it is from a man.

One of the things which makes me me is getting annoyed with people who tell me how I should think. Giving me evidence and a summary of the differing viewpoints and leaving me to think about it is much more likely to get me onside that just telling me.

TheCowThatLaughs · 17/02/2015 21:48

I'm a woman whatever I am wearing, however my hair is done, whether I have painted nails or not, whether I am using power tools or cooking, all the time. I'm always a woman and no man can become like me by acting like me or dressing like me. I'm deeply offended that anyone thinks womanhood simply can be put on like a dress. You either are a woman or you aren't (with the exception of certain conditions like intersection people, which in afraid I don't know a great deal about)

MsFanackerPants · 17/02/2015 21:28

I'm not "cis", nor was I assigned female at birth. I am female and I do not believe that surgery, hormones or putting on a dress can make a man into a woman. For this i have been labeled a TERF. Thankfully I didn't do it on twitter so I've not been threatened.

As Parker Molloy still has a penis then he is not going to be welcomed into women only spaces. Even if he puts on a dress, has breast implants and says he feels like a lady. Lesbians don't dig penis, if they did they wouldn't be lesbians. But of course in TransWorld lesbians are just women so their wishes and desires are secondary to trans

FloraFox · 17/02/2015 21:09

I found this article very offensive. I don't see any TAs telling men to accept penis or be labelled bigots or transphobes.

Buffy I think the language issue is very important on this issue. IMO a lot of the problems come from using the word "gender" instead of "sex". I can't link ATM but the WHO definitions for sex and gender should be required reading for any discussion.

kellyandthecat · 17/02/2015 18:36

Definitely a lot more to read and study but I really liked this post from the other post.

"So I can see, from the outside, how this impasse might develop between some feminists and transactivists: one group feels oppressed by never being allowed much of a voice or entitlement to space, often enforced by violence. Another group feels more entitled to voice and space, but feels oppressed both by patriarchy and by the movement that resists a gender binary: feminism. When these two groups attempt dialogue, feminists perceive some of that male entitlement that they identify as the source of their oppression, while transwomen feel excluded by the very people fighting for the gender with which they identify. It is a problem that only mutual respect and understanding can begin to solve, and name calling by either side (TERF or 'man') or trying to set boundaries around what people can say or how aren't helpful"

OP posts:
PuffinsAreFictitious · 17/02/2015 17:50

See! I now get it. I can't spell it, but I know what it is now.

Grin
BuffytheThunderLizard · 17/02/2015 17:42

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PuffinsAreFictitious · 17/02/2015 17:40

Nope, not tired of it.

I still might not have the first clue what epistemwhateveritis means, but you do explain things well Grin

BuffytheThunderLizard · 17/02/2015 17:35

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