Really? Is it just me who doesn't get the Daniel Craig drag thing?

[Adair]

James Bond. Hardly most enlightened character.

Dressing up as 'a woman' which as we all know involves long hair, lipstick, high heels and a dress .

So an ad for International Womens Day that doesn't actually feature any women (well, the voiceover - but no-one is mentioning that).

yes, left-wing thinking has got a lot to answer for, but left-wing men, deep down, are conservative in many ways. I would say men are inherently conservative insofar as they need to keep the status quo intact and the need the masculine/feminine panto to continue.

I just find it bemusing/mildly amusing that women still can't get the most basic laws passed when it comes to rape and yet trans women have whole patriarchal institutions on their side (medicine and law) . Because "trans" is ultimately anti-woman.
Though it's true that female to male transsexuals exist they are much much rarer, and generally experience gender dysphoria because, well, almost every woman experiences gender dysphoria. The patriarchy often doesn't allow ftm transexuals to be recognized as males. I remember another case in Australia where a woman had mastectomies in order to be allowed to become a man under law and they turned her down. I was literally shocked that the system had managed to convince this woman that having her breasts taken off would be a good thing.

claig, gender and sex are not the same.
Of course we want to eliminate the gender binary because it's oppressive to women and men, but what has that got to do with sex?
No matter what they decide to do with their bodies, or how they try to present themselves, or whatever letter they have on their birth certificate, they still remain the sex they were born: male or female (or in rare cases, intersex. Intersex has got nothing to do with trans)

I don't fully understand the difference between sex and gender. I think I need to read up more about it.

fwiw, i do recognise the binary. i'm just not sure why scoiety is entirely structured around that dynamic.

i wasn't around yesterday, so missed all the replies - sorry, will have a read later when i get back from work. i just wanted to wonder whether we really do know what transwomen think and feel though? we know what they have been conditioned to say they think and feel in order to fit into the niche that society has designated is appropriate for them - is that really the same thing?

you only have to read the 'real life true stories' to realise that it is a very limited genre. aren't we all (those of us who aren't doing the opposite to make a point) just trying to fit into the space that society has designated appropriate for us? not to cause any waves?

i really don't think that you can discuss 'the trans' as a group without resorting to ridiculous (culturally defined) stereotypes. in exactly the same way that you can't discuss 'the women'. or 'the menz'. .

it is ridiculously reductionary. if that's even a word.

i'm a mother of three. i'm married to a soldier ffs. i'm about as defined on the binary as it's possible to be. i just wonder why it's so all important to society that i'm labelled (and made sense of) in this way. and i'm easy to define lol. if i didn't identify as a woman myself, or as heterosexual, or any of the other labels that get attached, i'm sure i'd feel even more strongly about it.

but as i said before (thanks for providing links) i haven't come across feminism in a trans context, so i'll have a read. when i get back from work.

claig, i genuinely love that i'm a left wing revolutionary that's seeking to destroy the natural order. you'd have to know me to appreciate the joke fully - 16 years in the military would probably beg to differ. and they used to call me maggie thatcher at uni.

am reading the blog you linked to Sakura

madwomanintheattic,
your last paragraph is a sign that you're beginning to ask the questions you need to

When you've read the links and you've got any questions feel free to ask me and (if I know the answers!) I'll help you to understand the rad-fem POV

madwoman, there's a trans woman on this thread who said he's a 40 year old girl with a penis.

Girl is the derogatry patriarchal term for women, just like negroes were called boys. He also has a penis but knows he's a girl.
So you don't need to look very far at all to see how trans activists think.

oh god, sakura, don't tell me what i need to think

i still haven't had time to read it, but dh is away tonight, so can spend the evening on the computer without feeling unsociable. will catch up then.

most of my thoughts aren't based on activists per se, though. (of either the feminist or trans persuasion - just chatting to ordinary people and living my life.) i find it interesting that 'trans' has been set up as the socially acceptable way for people with a penis to choose to exhibit characteristics etc associated with femininity. trans is just another way of upholding the status quo in its binary form.

which is really sad. for everyone.

i think we're saying the same thing really (though won't know for sure until i read the blog though). i just think we've drawn slightly different conclusions about choice. i see it as a subconscious response to the binary - you see it as a deliberate response? (i'm asking - not trying to cause a fight?)

am well aware of the connotations of the term girl, thanks.

curious to read the blog. but work beckons... i was late yesterday

sorry, I didn't mean to tell you what to think.
I'm frustrated in general (not at you!) at the absolute piles of shit that radical feminists have to put up with when it comes to trans, for the simple reason that nobody quite knows what we're saying (for the simple reason that nobody bothers to find out because we're women)

no I don't think trans is a deliberate response to the binary in most cases. It is, as you say, subconcious. They don't know what it's like to be a woman, but they know they don't feel like men so they think they must be the furthest thing possible from a man, which is a woman, and that's where the get the idea from that they're women.
I think it's encouraged by the patriarchy, because trans suits their aims.

but rad-fems are not transphobic (we don't have an irrational fear of trans women, for a start, which would be the definition of phobia ) , we're trans activist phobic, transfeminist phobic. Huge difference. It's men stepping on women's toes that's the problem for us.

then we think exactly the same thing . i just haven't got as far as pondering the activism element. but i will.

i do see trans as victims of the patriarchy as well though

in fact - the only trans activist i have come across invited my (male) friend to interview her, with his colleague. when s/he found out the colleague was female, we never heard from her again. refused all phone calls. didn't answer e-mails or messages. was dead keen up to that point.

i never did work out if she thought he was an admirer, someone looking for personal advice, or what. but s/he wasn't keen on talking to a woman at all. weird.

anyway - reading time!