‘I have a handbag therefore I am a woman’

[Lomondstripe]

I’m not sure what the rules are here on posting screenshots of tweets, but I have just read the most INFURIATING thread on twitter where a talks about a gold lame handbag and red lipstick and how it marks them out as so CLEARLY a woman and stops misgendering and dysphoria. Great for them.

But, despite a veneer of gender fluidity and breaking down of stereotypes, why oh why oh WHY are we stating that femininity = female?! It’s utterly bonkers! Am I, a cisgender heterosexual woman, not as much of a woman because I don’t wear red lipstick and carry a gold handbag?

I believe this is what they call ‘peak trans’? Count me on side - I can sit on the ‘oh but maybe we should just be kind’ fence no longer and should have trusted my gut from the beginning!

I was called ‘son’ when I was a teenager. I’m amazed I survived.

It's not about conforming or not conforming to stereotypes based on sex, it's about the fact that none of those traits or stereotypes has anything to do with whether you are female or not. You are not more or less female depending on how well you conform to these traits.

I'm a cat because I eat tuna 😁

Am I a rabbit because I am having salad for dinner?

I had a pot noodle so I must be a teenager.

Let’s boil it down simply for Simon:
XX chromosomes = female
Being born with a vagina = female
Sexist dated stereotypes = bullshit
There, does that help?

@StrangeLookingParasite: "I've never looked like the picture in my head. It used to bother me a lot, then I realised it was actually a tiny part of life and not that important, so I ignore it. Surfaces aren't especially important."

Sorry, this is off the real topic, but this really struck a chord. I have often wondered if I would recognise myself, if in science fiction style,I walked past myself. I have also wondered if I would actually feel a jolt of recognition if I came face to face with, I suppose it would be, my doppelganger

I get told I'm "such a man" regularly as I dont wear makeup or do so called girly things. I haven't taken it personally and my chromosomes are still the same.

When I was younger I had my head shaved and was chatted up by a gay guy who then freaked out when I spoke. I really do think some men really do rely on stereotypes a bit too much.

I have a silver handbag, lots of makeup and nail varnish, long hair, some high heels a lacy bits and bobs. And swords - I have several fencing swords. And Star Wars Dr Who Star Trek Lord of the Rings stuff etc etc. And I love Vikings and pirates. And space and stars. And history and gardens. And and and ... Gendertwaddle can do one.

I don't carry a handbag at all, OH the humanity !

Trandgender ideology is the complete opposite of what I've always instinctively believed. I've always felt the need to prove that if a man can do it, so can a woman, and vice versa. That gender stereotypes were a load of shit, and harming us all to various degrees. I think masculinity is toxic, all the abusive men in my family had fragile egos. They were weak. The woman were the strong ones, who kept it all together. But would be sneered at for it by the dickheads making their lives hell, that they couldn't escape from.

The best way to get me to do something, is to have a mansplainer tell me I wouldn't be able to.

"I've always felt the need to prove that if a man can do it, so can a woman, and vice versa."

Just to clarify, that's excluding biology, which in the end is what decides who your mother and father are, not what their roles in your life will be, outside of breastfeeding (which woman are just naturally equipped for).

Gender is sexist stereotypes, which a previous poster has proven with his nonsense about his partner having ‘female traits’. I am of the female sex and absolutely no surgery, drugs or acting out sexist stereotypes can change that.

This is the point really. I am female because my DNA says so. It also makes me physically different to a man. Why can't we all accept that? Unfortunately, all societies make a distinction between how they treat women and men. THAT's what we should be changing.

Am I a penguin because I'm a bit overweight and love raw fish?

When I catch sight of myself in a mirror, I'm reminded of my mother and as I'm not in contact with her it's a bit of a shock. It's also a shock to not recognise myself in the mirror but that's because my body and face is that of a 61 year old woman, in my head I'm definitely not that fucking old!

I now look like my mum.

That’s actually a bit shitty as she was drop dead gorgeous when she was young (modelled) and I looked nothing like her.

She was poorly from middle age and looked it. I now look like her when she was 70.