Looking for a neutral summary on trans issues

[catkind]

I won't pretend I don't hold strong (GC) views myself, but I would find it really useful to have a neutral summary of the positions both sides (and subcamps) are taking. I want to be able to explain to friends who have no idea about trans politics what this is about and what the disagreements are, in terms that friends who are on the transactivist side of the debate won't disagree with. Anyone got any good links for me?

If I’m in my standard uniform of DMs, black jeans and a T-shirt in a men’s size then I’m not expressing that I am trans (whatever label you might pick from the umbrella, prolly enbie)... I’m wearing DMs because I like them, they are comfortable and they support my ankles for walking, I’m in black jeans from the women’s section because I like them and they fit and a T-shirt in a men’s size because it fits and is comfortable due to my body shape.

Yy my first boyfriend was like that, rejecting gender... now there is a backlash and I suspect trans stuff is being used in order to impose even stricter rules without the majority of them realising it.

Me too, I find waistbands/skirts etc restricting, like to be able to leap about. Also started wearing this stuff when I was younger as wanted to be seen as more 'powerful' and my DMS had steel toe-caps! All of which made it easier to run at night when I felt unsafe, protect myself and so on.

The hot weather got me into a couple of dresses recently TBH but it’s hard to find ones that actually fit and don’t end up with sexual harassment due to boobage...

I generally wish to be invisible and so sometimes I like to wear make up as an additional barrier between me and other people...

I did this to see the psych and it get’s read as being a sign I am OK because I am ‘taking care of myself’ (had unwashed hair and dirty clothes though lol)...

So yeah, gender affects me, it absolutely is real but it is oppressive.

I haven’t been able to run for ten years... I find it frightening and it makes me feel vulnerable... I doubt a male person could relate to that in the way I do TBH and it is a mix of sex gender and disability stuff IMO.

Wearing of make up is totally proportional to me not being OK... the more makeup the less OK I am.

Also the meaning of my clothes did have significance in terms of being female. Trousers, DMs etc were when I first worn them significant to me in ways not significant to men, as allowed me freedom of movement and made me feel safer as a young woman travelling around at night. It's very hard to run away from someone wearing heels! My gran had deformed feet from years of wearing stilettos, my mum had to wear high-heeled slippers indoors as wearing heels affected her tendons/muscles so couldn't stand flat!

Wearing of clothes I think does have significance, often significance re gender as well as a variety of other things. The problem is when wearing of clothes becomes the way we categorise people based on an assumption wearing of clothes is always about gender.

Now rejecting ‘feminine clothing’ is being shifted towards = expressing a trans identity...

Still catching up. I've been reading some of the Economist series and finding them very interesting.

Will all the 'men' on this thread who dress as men please raise your hand.
Er, not sure, how do I tell? Was that 'man' or man? I mostly wear tops and often shoes from the men's department (it seems real women have pointy feet, another pointer to my having been miscoded at birth) with trousers from the women's. I never wear makeup or heels, I don't own a handbag, I work in STEM, and I tend to be heavily logical with weak people skills. On the other hand I love playing classical music, and need bras to move around comfortably with my anatomy, does that code me back as woman? Bugger, think I must be non-binary like the other 99.99%.

don’t end up with sexual harassment due to boobage...

I'm a 30F.
I'm also a tiny 5' 2".
I have size 4 feet.
I can't wear 'men's clothes'. They don't fit.
I also can't wear 'boys' clothes as I have hips, waist and boobs.

I am kind of limited in what I can wear as a result. I struggle to find 'women's clothes' that fit at the best of times. As I get older, I find it harder as short skirts/dresses don't work the same way when you are 40.

Jeans and a tshirt are a safe and easy bet; I feel comfortable and not exposed in them. Even then, its not exactly easy to find jeans that actually fit.

Women tend to have a wider range of dimensions when it comes to clothes that men don't. Clothes also tend to be designed for people who are 5'8 - 5'10" and have no curves. Most models for high street chains are shaped like this and are frankly closer in build to men than they are to a sizeable number of women.

Its much easier to pick your bust size to match your dress than find a dress that matches your bust size...

I couldn't rock up to the men's suit section of M&S and walk out with something that remotely fitted.

My physical being limits my options of what I can wear... The irony of this is not lost on me.

Rat, letting everyone live the way they choose would include letting women access penis-free spaces if they choose.

That's the problem here. People's needs are in conflict. There are examples of self ID impacting women out there already, I don't think there is a "do no harm" option here.

If gender identity and biological/natal sex are both "choose not to say" questions in all circumstances, we can't easily monitor e.g. relative crime rates. Currently there is usually only one question, and it's left ambiguous as to whether it's gender identity or sex. If we could at least have both questions and an 'I don't have one' option when the question is gender identity, we could maybe start having a mutually comprehensible conversation about which circumstances biological sex is more relevant and which gender identity is.

Freedom = Penis always trumps vagina
In practice.

That's why the bepenised love the word freedom so much. Freedom to fuck, film, share, do whatever the fuck they want and the freedom to have commercial and legal structures to underpin their fuck rights.

Vagina rights are the big boner killer.

The right to say no. The right to avoid penis. The right to justice when errant penis violates us.

If the need /right is to access a penis free space, then anyone with a penis can never access that space anyway, because if they do it is no longer pensi free. Ergo, they don't want penis free spaces. They want women filled spaces.

So true MIdgebabe

I bet there would be pistols penises at dawn if they saw another bepenis in 'their harem' spoiling their fantasy. This town ain't big enough for both of us.

I'm not sure if you understood me Midge. My point was is that a PP's desire to let everyone get on with living the way they choose, while laudable, doesn't work if bio-women want/need penis free spaces and transwomen with penises want/need access to all spaces bio-women can access. There isn't a do no harm option. I think third unisex options might be the closest we can do, but trans-activists aren't happy with that option. Individual privacy for all where possible leaves everyone happy but that's not going to be possible e.g. in schools or prisons or hostels or refuges where people do need to share spaces, single sex sports, or where people need to be vulnerable in the presence of others by the nature of the activity e.g. medical procedures or body searches.