Is this parody? I hope it is. (Reproductive rights for people with testicles. What?)

[VestalVirgin]

"I can’t have babies. And no one in the reproductive justice movement is talking about this."

This complaint is uttered by a transwoman. I.e. biological male.

everydayfeminism.com/2015/11/trans-women-reproductive-justice/

Has any actual woman ever demanded that treatment for her very real infertility of her real female body be placed above issues like contraception and abortion in the feminist movement? I cannot remember even one such instance.

But here this transwoman is, and demands that feminism prioritize sperm banking.

Possibly, yes - but I imagine infertile women who work with surrogates sometimes feel like that too.

I do think that, without straying as far as correctional therapy, counselling is very, very clearly needed.

If I presented at the doctors saying I was pregnant, and persisted in the believe even when I definitely wasn't, then I would be sensitively steered towards some mental health care - really that's what needs to happen here. Instead, this person's HCPs and society at large seems to be supporting their obvious delusions.

I felt like freshwaterselfie when I first read this.

At the end of my last post I wrote "in a few years it will be argued that not everyone who gives birth is female" and then I deleted it because I realised that many people already argue that already. Women are already being pushed aside in changes of literature surround childbirth etc.

Luna doesn't mention Transmen at all, or their reproductive rights, they seem to think that menstration and contraceptive pill are things for "real women" and part if me wonders if it's because they somewhere deep down, they view transmen as female still, while also insisting they are female.

Not sure I'm explaining myself well, I'd have thought that they would want all trans people centered because by their own ideology, transmen are male just like other males, and we should maybe discuss how a transmen are not impregnating their girlfriends, just like how transwomen are not getting pregnant, Luna just seems to be all about Lunas wants, and fuck women everyone else.

I only came on here to link the Life of Brian clip and then found it had already been done. Gah.

And what chunkypickle said.

By contrast with the parade of adolescent hurt feelings and outright fantasy that Luna displays (which I agree suggests that they need counselling rather than a platform), we could reflect on the fact that 47,000 women per year worldwide still die from unsafe abortion (from the WHO). I don't imagine those women or their families get much in the way of reproductive justice either. Still, though, by all means let's recentre the debate away from those boring old stats.

I just re-read that and wondered if it came over as if I was having a go at people here, apologies, that wasn't the intention

With the recent developments in womb transplants I guess it's only a matter of time before a transwoman gets one, along with some pelvic modifications and ancillary tweaking.

I can't see how a male person could have a womb transplant, given al the other bits that a womb is attached to. Plus they have to take mega medication while the womb is in situ and I don't know how that would interact with hrt

I'd like a womb transplant, mines an absolute arse. Just like I know many women would like, but are refused, HRT. And don't even get me started on contraception and abortion availability in other countries.
But yeah, we should totally put trans needs first

I was reading about womb transplants the other day - can't remember where (may have been a link from here or on Reddit). Apparently they would be single-use so you have a section and hysterectomy at the same time, and presumably rinse and repeat if you want another baby.

Totally agree with PP that it's all a bit Life of Brian. Also, that poetry is toe-curlingly bad.

It's been going around in my head a bit, but I'm fairly sure, that I don't like the idea of a 'Reproductive Justice' movement. Sounds a little bit... draconian or something.

Reproductive rights I'm all behind, but I associate this more with the right not to be pregnant, or to be allowed to choose whether I continue a pregnancy, rather than the idea that I have a right to be pregnant.

I feel uncomfortable really with the idea that anyone has the right to be pregnant or have children - it feels like a small step from there, to demanding that because I have a working womb, I should be enabling other people to exercise their right a baby by using it (and so surrendering my right not to)

"I can’t have babies. And no one in the reproductive justice movement is talking about this."
If you talk about sterilizing kids identified as trans (since puberty blockers and then going onto cross-sex hormones means whatever gametes you DO have won't necessarily mature), then you can get labelled as transphobic. Reproductive Justice Warriors supposedly AREN'T talking about the sterilization of people who aren't really adult enough to make that decision, and seems the author of the article wasn't mature enough either since they failed to understand basic biology and what cross-sex hormones DO.

As regards the surrogacy route, I'm sad to say that this isn't the only example - the 'famous' transkid Jazz Jennings has said:

"But since my sister has my same DNA, I'm convincing her to carry the baby for me."

www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a40068/jazz-jennings-internets-most-fascinating/

"It sounds like they want to get themselves pregnant with their own sperm?!"
Actually there WAS a rather good Sci-Fi short-story involving surgery and a time machine ("All You Zombies" by Robert Heinlein 1958), where the one character was both father and mother to themselves! So not even a NOVEL idea..................Is sperm freezing the modern equivalent of a reproductive justice warriors time machine? I never dreamt when I read that story many years ago that I'd ever be in a situation where someone seriously wanted to DO that!

I feel uncomfortable really with the idea that anyone has the right to be pregnant or have children - it feels like a small step from there, to demanding that because I have a working womb, I should be enabling other people to exercise their right a baby by using it (and so surrendering my right not to)

I too. There can be no right to pregnancy. I am all for the right that other people not mess with one's ability to get pregnant - be it sterilization, hormones in the drinking water, environmental pollution, whatever.

And infertile women should be able to access treatment because infertility often is a symptom of underlying health problems.

But a right to pregnancy itself? Ridiculous.

Reading the article again (I think I just killed LOADS of brain cells!), I noticed the 'most popular' articles in the side bar. One of which includes the line:
"In short: Cultural appropriation is when somebody adopts aspects of a culture that’s not their own."
Hey, go READ that one people! And stop appropriating FEMALE culture by calling your ejaculation a trans pregnancy................

I've never read this supposed magazine before, and if I'd read this as supposed everyday feminism when I was a youngster, I'd never have gone anywhere near it. I'm SO glad I'm old enough to have surfed the second wave, rather than the blatantly stupid nonsense being peddled as feminism nowadays.

@SomeDyke: I once read a novel about a girl who was only born so her organs could be harvested to keep her sister alive. (She was an identical clone, apparently)
This was dystopian Sci-Fi.

We are not so far away from that anymore, are we? Girls are expected to donate their uteruses for their brothers - what will be next? Kidneys? Livers?

"Girls are expected to donate their uteruses for their brothers - what will be next? Kidneys? Livers?"

Get yer organs out for the lads!

I'm very afraid it has probably already happened -- one man in India seems to have FIVE kidneys after donations from his mother and his two sisters. Given the relative social status of sons compared to daughters in India, I wonder how 'voluntary' those donations really were...........

I hope Jazz's sister tells Jazz to fuck off.

@SomeDyke: Considering that no one needs FIVE kidneys, I don't think they were voluntary at all.

How is one supposed to write a decent dystopic novel nowadays? All the horrible things are already happening!
It's a good thing they have "The Handmaid's Tale" categorized under literature in the library already, if they had put it with fantasy, they'd have to reconsider that.

@venus: That I hope, too, though I am not sure if she will have the strenght, with all that pressure ...
Though there's always sneaky tactics like pretending to be alcoholic or otherwise unfit for pregnancy. I hope she finds a way to avoid that fate, at the very least.

Fucking hell that website is warped. I have just flicked through a couple of articles and learned: trans women are regularly offended by lack of access to "women's spaces like nail salons" ; that showing colleagues photos of my baby is "cissexist"; that the fact that XX and XY chromosomes don't determine intelligence or sexual orientation is proof that they also don't determine sex and that science is quite like maths

Really bizarre.

It could be a satire site, only there's no clear indication ... and Reductress, which is an actual satire site, is way funnier.

I've tweeted to point out that they're patriarchal, neurosexist and oppressing women by erasing their identity. Since I'm a woman I doubt they'll be that bothered.

Vestal, as the noose of gender stereotypes pulls ever tighter, it's looking more and more as if the Handmaid's Tale should be in non-fiction! The logical conclusion of the worldview in this argument is that women=breeding class. Now, where have we heard that before?

^this article, not this argument.

" that showing colleagues photos of my baby is "cissexist""
I think that most of us can accept why some infertile women might not always be 100% beaming happy if someone is showing pictures of their new baby. But it is frankly totally disgusting appropriation (Oh, hardly new, hardly original!) for someone to not only claim they are an infertile woman (cos they're actually male so never HAD a uterus), but that they are specially oppressed if they are constantly reminded of this by your baby pics. Cos CISsexism is obviously so much WORSE than ordinary, everyday sexism! Ditto any remarks about period pains, or using the disposal bin in the ladies loo (or even HAVING one I suspect, unless you have ones in the gents as well!). Being reminded of female biological reality upsets men/males no end though, wherever you put the bin! Free-bleeding is probably even MORE offensive, there you go FLAUNTING your menstrual capacity!

Frankly, I suspect just BEING female is enough, given that every second we just will negligently PERSIST in BEING female without benefit of identification, hormones, or surgery, and whether or not anyone notices us performing femininity, or notices us at all..................