Background- I rarely use Facebook these days but I occasionally post the odd article. A year ago I posted an article about a trans identified male who was playing in a woman's football team. A woman I've met socially a few times but only superficially, responded to my post, called me a bigot ,how sad it was that I'd joined the far right, proceeded to lecture me for hours and sent numerous links to 'research'.
She disappeared and hasn't interacted with me since
Yesterday however a mutual FB friend posted somerhing complimentary about Trump and she included in her response 'transgender people aren't the huge problems they want you to believe'
I politely challenged her citing the erosion of women's rights and single sex spaces, and asked her why she seems to care more about trans issues than womens and here is her response.
Note that this was on someone else's wall, so it wasn't appropriate to continue but I couldn't let it stand. I replied to a couple of points (statistics of crimes commited by TIM and her conflation of transgenderism with DSD) and agreed to discuss further privately on messenger. On the condition she ditch the attitude.
She considers herself an intellectual and that she is far more knowledgeable than me because she has a degree in gender studies.
Here it is. Any thoughts? (Btw, I never turned against her. Our last message was let's take a break and discuss again another time and it was all very friendly- and then we never interacted again until this. And we were never good friends. Just acquaintances. We know nothing about each other)
Wow...You don't really think my feminism is a threat against the world, do you? Why don't you take a look at yourself and ask why we were once good friends and why you turned against me only because there were some opinions we didn't agree on? Are you jealous of me, or what is it? We are both blonde and attractive and know the same friends. You know that the town is big enough for both of us, don't you?
It seems that you have misunderstood what feminism is. It's a political movement which is often based on gender research, and strives for equal opportunities. Feminism in my country has given MEN the right to custody, child care and neutral custody proceedings. Did you believe that feminism was only to promote women? I understand an Egyptian man would believe so, because they have no exposure to the outside world and no quality education. But a European woman should know better.
Yes today's feminism is about the erosion of women's rights. Those are reproductive rights, right to the autonomy of your own body/abortion, the rights to education and rights to many of those things you mention.
All of these groups are under attack from the 1% and the right wing establishment. They have ALL been defunded and are under threat by the Trump administration and the far right both in your own country and in those of the EU. The right wingers use the very propaganda you parrot to convince people like yourself that something is under threat that really isn't (there's no transgender mafia that is taking over) and that you don't have to care about your own rights, such as free higher education (something's that the UK don't even have), free daycare for single parents (most often women who otherwise will loose their career because men don't take their parent responsibly) daddy's leave (again so that women don't just stay home and loose their career and so that men get the rights to their children and that young boys and girls grow up with less crimes as criminality in young men has a direct link to absent fathers).
This seems to be too complicated for the masses, perhaps even to you? But these research findings is just a simple Google click away for anyone who is genuinely interested and who doesn't just want to bicker with an old friend for unknown reasons.
But people with less power, marginalized and vulnerable are not only women. It's immigrants, disabled, mentally challenged, the HBTQL community etc etc. Transgender people are one of these vulnerable groups. Have you never heard about "rule and divide"? The right wingers use any meager understanding of history and feminism and politics in general, and heterosexual men's fear of locker rooms (where men are the most vulnerable in today's society) and the lack of women's understanding of where you got your rights politically and historically, so that you'll turn on someone more vulnerable than yourself, and so that you'll vote against your own interests and rights.
There is absolutely 0% research that supports that there's been assaults by transgender people in shared bathrooms, there is ZERO research supporting that there's men "who pretend to be women" (transgender is a very specific biological condition which is both physical and mental and is sometimes recorded at birth because of underdeveloped genitals), and there's absolutely no research found on rape cases from transgenders that is higher than rape in any other group. Again, it's a just a Google search away. Obscure YouTube alternative clips don't count, but actual peer-reviewed research. It's not hard to find.
Please write a private message on messenger and try to be direct with me. Why are you so upset with me? There must be an issue you have with me that explains why you jump at me for no reason whatsoever other than me not agreeing with your conspiracy theories.