Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think the use of the word transmisogyny is meaningless

36 replies

Pangurban1 · 24/10/2015 01:05

www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/23/petition-urges-cardiff-university-to-cancel-germain-greer-lecture

Late, but I was interested in the use of the word transmisogyny. Misogyny is a hatred of women, not trans people. Tagging trans on the front of it is as meaningless as putting andro in front of misogyny -andromisogyny.

Why is the issue of transpeople who are born male the ones prioritised by the campaigners? Don't see a word transmisandry. It is quite a sabotage of all women's issues.

OP posts:
ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 24/10/2015 17:56

But surely she or he is a description of what sex people are?

MrsTerryPratchett · 24/10/2015 18:01

It does. I have trans friends. I wouldn't dream of calling them their 'old' name or calling them their sex rather than their chosen pronoun. However, that doesn't mean that I believe they are men or women based on their feelings. Luckily my friends tend to be people that can have a conversation about gender, sex, misogyny and the patriarchy without telling me I'm not allowed my position.

Caitlynn Jenner is deeply worrying on all sorts of levels. I can see why GG has issues with that mess of a family.

TiredButFineODFOJ · 25/10/2015 00:36

GG has a point that even if you grew up thinking you are female, if the world percieves you as male and you are treated as a male then you have not had the same experiences as a cisfemale.
MrsTP misogyny comes from two greek words meaning hate and woman. Mis trans would imply hating transexual people. Wheras GG spoke specifivally about male to female trans people, hence transmisogyny. As opposed to the regular cis misogyny. Although the non-binary approach does allow for less labelling and greater diversity which can only be a good thing IMO as then you break down the binary stereotypes which cause damage.

WorkingItOutAsIGo · 25/10/2015 00:46

I am with MrsTP. If this is a case of people born male (or their supporters) trying to silence people born female then I have to say I am on GG's side, even though I have many disagreements with positions she has argued over the years.

Alisvolatpropiis · 25/10/2015 01:26

Yanbu

MrsTerryPratchett · 25/10/2015 01:51

Surely mistransogyny then? Otherwise, surely it is the other side (trans) of misogyny? Which would be misandry (another made up concept in my book) or the love of women. Gynephilia?

RickRoll · 25/10/2015 02:17

It's an attempt to hijack misogyny, so that it is owned by men.

It's also stupid as misogyny is a Greek word, but trans is Latin.

It doesn't make sense either, grammatically, because the 'trans' bit would need to come after 'miso' (hatred) - 'hatred of trans women' makes sense but 'trans hatred of women' is dribbling nonsense.

There is nothing wrong with 'transphobic'.

TiredButFineODFOJ · 25/10/2015 05:30

Transphobic is made up of latin trans and phobia greek! So by your own arguement it's stupid.

squidzin · 25/10/2015 09:00

The reason she is forced into talking about mtf people is because it is the mtf people throwing things at her and starting petitions to no-platform her. She then gets accused of transmisogyny for selecting mtf people to discuss rather than ftm people, because she has been forced into the discussion by mtf people!

Her opinion that "being a transwoman makes you a transwoman. Not a woman in my book, but feel free to transition, and I will still call you 'she'." is nothing to get in such a flap about.

The whole thing smacks of bullying, misogyny - the hatred of biologically born women by biologically born men, and it's another blatant extension of the very problem feminists are trying to diffuse.

GloriaSmellens · 25/10/2015 09:08

Why is there not this big outcry about trans rights or whatever from female to male transgendered people? They appear to just get on with it, even though I imagine they encounter their fair share of shit along the way as well?

Pangurban1 · 25/10/2015 19:47

Maybe something that would represent a disbelief/repudiation/scepticism of the claim that trans people genuinely change sex. Would transsceptic work or is that still the wrong way around? Does the various origins of the individual words matter if they are words now used in english? Mis or phobic don't work in this case as it is not hatred in any sense. It is simply not believing/accepting as true what trans people are claiming. It is a case of not believing a man transforms into a woman by undergoing cosmetic surgery or taking female hormones or adopting attire now usually only used by women currently, in the west. Or using face paint. Or simply by saying they now identify as a woman.

Don't forget men in many places and (certainly in the past ) wear things like wraps/skirts and shifts). The Romans, monks, etc. Georgian men wore make-up. These things are just props. Fake boobies are just that, fake boobies. Being big chested or not is not what makes you a woman, so the employment of silicone doesn't either.

It just appears disingenuous to claim that GG's opinion is contributing to hatred, stigma and violence towards people whose opinion is that they have changed their sex. The campaign group seems to be vociferously the voice and concerns of transpeople born male who seem to want to stop a talk on feminism (and smear the female speaker into the bargain), because their claims are the most important thing and should not be disputed. No change there then.

She even says in that news night article, that she is not saying that people shouldn't become a transperson if they want. Just that she doesn't believe what they do doesn't make them a woman. Her opinion.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page