Wow that video.
On the face of it. It took me back to when I was a compliant little lib fem, around 2014-15.
Those poor marginalised trans women who have handed in their winning lottery ticket of being a male to become marginalised and suffer the same appalling misogyny. Because they hate toxic masculinity SO MUCH, hate their seed bodies SO MUCH, they want to align with women's values and stand with us to fight patriarchy. I was so moved by that idea, honestly, that it brought me to tears. They deserve our love and protection, they deserve all the solidarity.
I sought trans people out just so I could offer them my support and love.
I met a TW who worked in a cafe. Went out of my way to be kind. We became friends! We were invited to a mutual friend's Halloween party. We were chatting, laughing and I was having a great time.
Later that night that same tw sexually assaulted me.
I was so confused. What went wrong? I confronted my tw friend and demanded why. Tw said he thought my friendliness was actually flirting. I asked why because I am straight and I had already made that clear when tw said they were a lesbian. Tw apologised and said needed to work on their male entitlement.
I forgave the friend. But something felt off. Tw and I continued to be friends and was telling me a story of a trip to the gym where tw used a female changing room. My friend was pre op. Laughed when describing how the women were deeply uncomfortable when they saw tw penis. Called the women "crusty old crones".
A few months later, I found out Karen White, the convicted rapist, also with an intact penis was going to be transfered to the women's prison. I shared the article about it on Facebook, expressing concern that this tw may in fact try to rape the inmates.
I was immediately shut down and cast out by some of my closest friends. Days later, Karen White sexually assaulted women in the prison.
I had also befriended another tw, also with an in tact penis. This one was in a relationship with a woman. They claimed to be lesbians. I asked how this was so because my understanding was that lesbians have female bodies. It was explained to me that lesbian means attracted to feminine qualities and obsession with genitals is a fetish and transphobic.
At that point I had a nervous breakdown because everything I thought I knew was turned upside down.
It took me nearly a year to process and assess what I was being told by transwomen and what my heart and eyes were telling me. My own past sexual assaults came back and I was thrust into very severe PTSD. I stopped going out, I quit the gym, I became a shadow of myself.
I was a proud feminist and I was being called a bigot. My life was about championing minorities and yet I myself was now being called a bully. But my experiences of men and sexual assault, rape, domestic violence and gaslighting were in conflict with being a trans rights champion. I am now the perpetrator?
How can I be?
Every day, the news showed trans women demanding access to rape shelters, prisons, women and girl's spaces.
I finally realised and accepted I had just been wrong and women and girls are experiencing a new wave of misogyny and oppression. Our very language is under threat. I am pregnant at the moment and in maternity, I am being asked to replace woman or mother with pregnant or birthing person. It is seen as bigotry and transphobic to use the word woman.
Everywhere I look, women are attacked and being silenced.
So no Owen Jones. You are wrong. This isn't the square root of fuck all to do with me.
The very legal definition of woman is under attack. Our rights are under attack like never before. Who we can say no to sex with is under attack. Our sexual boundaries, our right to define ourselves legally and medically under attack.
You're the radicalised bigot. You are cruel, you are heartless. You sir are a deeply misogynistic entitled male. And your video has only confirmed my position.
I stand with same sex attracted people. I stand for the safety and dignity of women and girls. I stand for defending and strengthening women's sex based rights. Now till the day I die I will stand for that.