Are you a feminist, if yes, what does it mean to you?

[YouAreNotBatman]

YANBU = I’m am
YABU = I am not

For me feminism is the idea that women matter as much as men.

Black women have actually been persecuted for their biological attributes in the same way trans women have, particularly in sports. I actually wrote my dissertation touching on this matter and you can happily read it :)

You define yourself as an individual on the basis of your statistical likelihood of being sexuallt assaulted?

That's dark.

You're clearly wrong about "violence as a whole", given that the number of trans murder victims in the UK in the last decade is in single figures, whereas two to three women are murdered every week by their male partner.

Lots of people have experienced discrimination.

Are black men women too? Are working class people all women?

Yy I'm a feminist - not the 'fun' kind as the tshirts used to say.
For me, it means championing rights, access and equality for women in every sphere and every country.
It means challenging the patriarchy and every MRA movement in every guise...and disguise.
It means not shutting up or putting up in the hope men will give us crumbs one day.
It means supporting groups that work on VAWG; donating to micro-finance small businesses run by women in Africa and Asia. It means reading a lot about politics and patriarchy and women's rights. It means writing letters, signing petitions, giving young women a platform when I can.
It means challenging gender stereotypes.
It means not centring men because feminism isn't about them.

Yes I like this. It is liberation in its many many guises, which means different things to different women based on our culture, class, race, age etc etc

But fundamentally liberation (of the female sex)

There's rather a big difference between black women and MTF trans people though, in all areas of life, not just sport.

I agree with you that a descriptor before "woman" does not make a woman any less a woman. Equally throwing a descriptor before the word woman does not make someone a woman. The descriptor "trans" means the person it is describing is the opposite sex to that used with the descriptor so a trans woman is, by definition, male and a trans man is, by definition, female.

Other descriptors (e.g. Black, gay, disabled etc) describe an aspect of the person being described that does not affect whether they are male or female.

I don’t think we are subordinated because we have vaginas, but because we are socialised as women and therefore automatically assumed to be female.

A great deal of the discrimination I have experienced has purely been because I have the sexed body of a female capable of producing a child. Of course it is. From childhood through being denied job opportunities, promotions and educational opportunities due to 'maybe one day having to take maternity leave', to actually having my job terminated because I was pregnant, to having male doctors treat me as a whinging female for my very problematic periods and issues in pregnancy, and I can go on.

All because I have the sexed body of a female. It had absolutely fuck all to do with my socialisation! My lack of fighting back was to do with my socialisation. But not the actions in the first place.

I don't know any theory but I know this: I want parity in all aspects with men in our society. I shouldn't be told, no, you can't do/say/have that because you are a woman.

I don't include TW as women. They are TW, either with GD or AGP. I respect them, I'm polite to them but i struggle to see them as wholly female.

I’m a feminist. For me its the idea of appropriate rights, rather than everyone being treated exactly the same. And I’m absolutely sick of any discussion about women automatically becoming a trans argument.

Oh and it also means ignoring gfs and MRAs who no matter the area of women's lives under discussion try to derail it into NAMALT or 'what about the menz?!'
I see their bullshit so clearly and it's not worth my time.

electrixdreaming

"Lol I’m a gay woman so try again"

But how do you know you're a gay woman leccy?
Doesn't 'gay woman ' mean that you are a female attracted to other females?

If you meet a charming stranger who makes your pulse race a little and your belly tingle, how do you know that the person you're attracted to is a woman?

They might be a trans man, non binary or any other gender for all you know. So how can you say that you are a gay woman if it's impossible to tell if that sexy stranger is a man, a woman or other?

Shouldn't you call yourself pan?

It wasn’t about defining myself in that way - someone asked me what I have in common with trans women and that was my answer. Violence against anyone doesn’t just mean being murdered you know. And in the context of feminism surely the things we should be focusing on are the ways in which we are oppressed - such as sexual violence. I don’t define myself as a woman BECAUSE I’m at risk of sexual/physical violence, it’s just something that I am at risk of due to being a woman. And one of the reasons I’m a feminist. Also I’d just like to point out - I don’t think there’s a black and white answer when it comes to the debate of trans men and women. I don’t think anyones a transphobe for having reservations or concerns, and we should have open and honest discussions about ways to resolve this with trans people feeling comfortable, but absolutely guaranteeing the safety of women and girls. Before the vipers jump at me again for apparently calling anyone a transphobe or being racist or homophobic.

This is another post declaring that because transitioned males are subject to sexual assaults and violence, they should be considered 'women'.

I am very surprised by this. Does this actually pass as a credible reference point in people's minds?

So... what about other males who are very vulnerable to sexual assaults and violence? Should they be considered females too?

Snap! @Pumperthepumper !

I actually do identify as bi/pan, but gay/queer is a generic term. Hope this helps :)

Oof... Looking forward to reading the replies. 🤭

Black women have actually been persecuted for their biological attributes in the same way trans women have, particularly in sports. I actually wrote my dissertation touching on this matter and you can happily read it :)

Out of interest, Black women? Or males who have differences of sexual development who have been allowed to compete in female sport's categories?

Trans women are more likely to be objectified and victims of sexual assaults and violence as a whole

I don't think that's true. I think it's FTM trans people who are more likely to face sexual assaults than MTF. And I don't think there is any evidence that MTF are sexually assaulted more than women. I've seen the sexual assault figures for MTF trans people get compared with women's rape statistics, which of course are lower. But please feel free to provide evidence that states the source of this figure, so it can be examined.

MTF trans people are of course much less likely to be murdered than either women or their own sex, in this country anyway. So it would be strange if the lower level non-sexual assault rate was completely different.

Right, so you have something in common with trans women but it isn't actually something that has anything to do with being a woman?

I'm pretty sure I share the same star sign as approximately 1/12th of trans people.

As @NalaNana bailed out of answering my questions in my earlier post, maybe you could explain what I have in common with my rapist who now identifies as a woman….. (page 5 of this thread, time stamped 17:34)

This, really. All very good points.

I am a feminist, always.

Sorry to keep quoting when I try to reply it doesn’t work. I agree to an extent - but nobody actually KNOWS you have a vagina do they, before discriminating against you? They just assume you have one unless they do a physical examination. And with that comes the assumption that you’ll be the “homemaker”, taking leave to have babies. These, for me, are associations made through gender not sex. Of course women are the ones who carry and have a baby, and often need time to recover, but there’s (again in my opinion!) no actual biological reason women have to be the primary care givers to children, it’s just assumed that’s what will happen. There’s also lots of women who don’t have children and are discriminated against on the basis that they one day will. For me this is more about gender than sex, even though obviously biology plays a huge part in this.

Gender is all about sex. There is literally no other reason for its existence.

Well for me, the fact we’re women is why we’re objectified and at risk of sexual assault, more so than men. Men don’t get sexually subjugated in the way women do. For me, being a woman is more so how you are treated rather than what you actually are. Men with feminine attributes are ridiculed because they’re seen to share attributes with women - it’s the social gender aspect that’s the reason for ridicule, not the sex. I realise most of my arguments in “support” of trans women being women relies on them “passing”, which is why I’ve explained it’s a difficult subject to navigate.