Frank Maloney - Gender Reassignment

[CKDexterHaven]

Lived over 60 years with full male privileges - Check
Rose to the top of a male-dominated profession - Check
Right-wing political candidate for UKIP - Check
Homophobic public comments - Check
Believes in family values and traditional morality - Check
Believes in a 'female brain' (like people used to believe in a 'negro brain' and a 'Jewish brain') - Check

Nasty radical feminists are meant to be the reactionary ones but, to me, it is the transactivist movement that is conservative, homophobic and longs for the days when homosexuality was criminalised and men were men and women were women.

I haven't seen Big Brother but the consensus on social media seems to be that Kellie uses past male socialisation to physically intimidate women and small, gay men when they cross Kellie. Sadly, lots of people are aligning this with taking female hormones and PMT (fnar, fnar, fnar). Yes, because pre-menstrual women frequently go around threatening to slap people they've barely just met.

Yeah no this is completely unsurprising behaviour from a male, highly homophobic boxing promoter.

For me, a huge part of the relief of transition was that I was no longer expected to behave in the way men are expected to. I experienced the male role as both combative and oppressive, and to be be freed of the expectation to behave in that way was a huge relief. Such a relief in fact I was able to address the reasons why I felt unable to shed those expectations while living in the male role.

As for women's experience of the female body - I really hope you're not right. That's not to say I don't believe you, just I sincerely hope that the way women experience themselves is largely a result of the Sapir Whorf hypothesis.

What's the Sapir Whorf hypothesis?

Would you care to elaborate on the Sapir Whorf hypothesis I've not heard of it

Here you are - I googled.

Thanks, I also googled it but wasn't sure of the point or how it related to what was being said here.

Not really Red, but it isn't really applicable to this situation.

CKDexter, I haven't seen the show either, but apparently it's not just women and smaller gay men Kellie is bullying.

This is an interesting radfem perspective on the way Kellie uses his/her status as a powerful white male boxing promotor to bully black boxer Audley Harrison, who looks about twice Kellie's height. A commentator points out that as well as Kellie exercising institutional racial power over Audley by not so subtly threatening his career, Kellie may actually be sexually harassing him (the confrontation between them was sparked by Audley expressing dislike of Kellie 'dipping sexy toes' in his bath). However, Audley is (of course) the one forced to apologise to Kellie.

cherryblossomlifeblog.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/of-interest-to-radfems-audley-harrisson-accused-of-offensive-language-for-not-wanting-to-share-a-bath-with-kellie/#comments

Has the Maloney marriage officially broken down?

Kellie Maloney walks into the bathroom when there are women in there? What the fuck? Why would anyone wander into the bathroom when someone else was using it? What an invasion of privacy!

God, that is so horrible. Audley had his boundaries violated by Kellie but he is the one forced to apologise. For me this is where transwomen intersect with MRAs; they can be racist, homophobic and misogynist but then claim to be the most oppressed group on earth.

Also, if Kellie really was a woman Kellie wouldn't feel entitled to walk in on men in the bath.

The producers massively misjudged the viewers' mood on this one. I frequent a site with a very large Big Brother forum, and one that is usually very supportive of trans issues, and Audley is getting a lot of support on there and Kellie is despised. Audley was also saved from eviction with cheers and the highest votes in the aftermath of this incident.

I've found it really interesting how when Big Brother started lots of posters there were talking about how brave Kellie is, and how great it would be to watch her 'journey.' What they've seen instead is someone who is nasty, aggressive, homophobic and who oozes male entitlement.

Some posters are even questioning if the gender change is a hoax. Frank Maloney was always a nasty arsehole and I was worried that would be brushed under the carpet and Kellie would be getting undeserved plaudits. I'm glad she has shown her true colours and it has opened up wider discussion about how easily someone can be accused of transphobia for daring to have personal feelings and boundaries.

'Some posters are even questioning if the gender change is a hoax.'

Wow - what does that suggest about the view they have of transwomen? That all transwomen must be lovely?!

Tunip that's it though isn't it? I think a lot people think of transwomen and think "aww, bless". Frank Malloney was/is a vindictive, bullying homophobe but now as "Kellie" the behaviour is expected to disappear or is put down to hormones. Can you imagine the public and press reaction to a woman behaving as Kelly has been?

I think that's the thing though, now that she's Kellie, she's expected to behave as the woman she's always been. So, not physically threaten a small gay man, another woman, not to encroach on other women's boundaries and definitely not on men's boundaries.

If she believes she has been a woman all this time, and is now just 'correcting nature's mistake' then, yes, the public at large will expect her to act in a way that the public deem acceptable for women.

Aggressive, homophobic, boorish women are vilified. She's been lucky really, if people weren't giving her the benefit of the doubt because she's 'so brave' etc, then she too would have been vilified.

There was a piece in the Star I know, I know which suggested that she had stated that she didn't want to be a woman anymore, because it's too difficult. No shit, sherlock.

Yes Tunip, there was an initial lot of automatic support for Kellie purely based on the fact that she is trans. She hasn't lived up to their expectations and some are genuinely perplexed that she is behaving like an aggressive, unpleasant man.

To me the fact that people are saying it's a hoax just demonstrates 'The Emperor's New Clothes' aspect of it all. Most people have only seen the transwoman issue through the likes of Hayley Cropper or Laverne Cox or Dana International. Once faced with a late-transitioner, who doesn't pass very well, who doesn't perform femininity very well and who is sexually attracted to women, people think 'Hang on, that's a man!' and can't quite bring themselves to call Kellie a woman. I wonder if people realise that Kellie is more the norm than Laverne Cox?

Capt Chaos but might it be?
downloads.hindawi.com/journals/bn/1989/407435.pdf

You know what? I can't say what I really think of this bizarre world of cis, trans, I'm a man but really I'm a woman stuff, because I would be banned by MN.

I am sick of the tippy toeing around the issue though - but that may be, as one of the commentators on that link said because I am well past the menopause, and we old gimmers are too honest for our own good.

And thus we are silenced…...

andiewithanie not in a any meaningful sense. Thanks for the chapter though, it links in with some work I did a long time ago

One form of silencing post-menopausal women I've seen is a weird 'oh if you want women-only space because of female reproductive potential, nobody who's infertile can go/nobody who's had a hysterectomy/nobody who's past menopause'
When surely the wild and whacky symptoms of menopause are so varied it's more or less impossible to cover them all in a netdoctor page and you really want to be able to sit with women and say 'is this normal?'
And why on earth would having a hysterectomy remove your experience of having had a womb? Are women not allowed to talk about post-hysterectomy health so other women can weigh up the odds of whether to have one?

Yeah I agree with your comments, AnArgument. Nothing to envy here.