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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

What's the deal guys?

1000 replies

shadesOfTeal · 17/02/2026 21:23

I don't think this post is going to last long but what's the deal with hating trans women so much? I've been a women for 13 years of my life since 18 and it's never been a problem. Suddenly I'm not only talk of the town but also an evil man stealing everyone's rights away from them? I wasn't much of a boy as a kid anyway but. I just wanted to ask like what's the deal? Why do you hate the idea of me existing so much? What have I personally done to you that's been so bad? I feel like I need to be careful with my words because it'll be easy to accuse me of all sorts but I've done no harm to anyone. If you want to ask a trans woman some honest questions then please do, I don't usually talk about it in my day to day life and that, I'm pretty down to earth and will help you understand as much as possible. But I'd like to ask the people that hate me so much, can we ever get along? Please don't assume I'm what the internet and the media says I am though, I'm not like that at all! I just want us all to get on and I'm sick of having my life debated every 5 minutes.

OP posts:
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12
onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 22:58

I transitioned in the 80s as a teen, I can tell you people had very strong feelings about the queers.

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 22:59

Greyskybluesky · 17/02/2026 22:54

That is really fucking homophobic.

As someone who was called queer and a fag for most of my childhood, you have no idea.

CassOle · 17/02/2026 23:00

I remember. Queer bashing was horrific, and I hate the word due to the violence against gay men that it brings up.

CassOle · 17/02/2026 23:01

Well, 'fag' just means cigarette to me. So, you are not from the UK?

Greyskybluesky · 17/02/2026 23:01

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 22:59

As someone who was called queer and a fag for most of my childhood, you have no idea.

Oh really?

You assume to know the sexuality of posters on here, I see. And what we've been through.

No...you just didn't think about it.

Catiette · 17/02/2026 23:01

shadesOfTeal · 17/02/2026 21:23

I don't think this post is going to last long but what's the deal with hating trans women so much? I've been a women for 13 years of my life since 18 and it's never been a problem. Suddenly I'm not only talk of the town but also an evil man stealing everyone's rights away from them? I wasn't much of a boy as a kid anyway but. I just wanted to ask like what's the deal? Why do you hate the idea of me existing so much? What have I personally done to you that's been so bad? I feel like I need to be careful with my words because it'll be easy to accuse me of all sorts but I've done no harm to anyone. If you want to ask a trans woman some honest questions then please do, I don't usually talk about it in my day to day life and that, I'm pretty down to earth and will help you understand as much as possible. But I'd like to ask the people that hate me so much, can we ever get along? Please don't assume I'm what the internet and the media says I am though, I'm not like that at all! I just want us all to get on and I'm sick of having my life debated every 5 minutes.

Teal, I'd strongly recommend spending a few hours skimming some other threads to get a sense of why posters are responding as they are. I can pretty much guarantee, if you select a good range of thread titles and stay open-minded, that you'll see the following trends, overall:

1) Posters here are aware, like you, that there are different "types" of "trans people". Within these groups...

a) They are largely sympathetic to trans-identifying young people. They have different views on the best way to support them, but there's a majority consensus that straight-talking and/or watchful waiting are far safer for the child concerned than immediate, emphatic validation.

b) A good number are sympathetic to the genuinely dysphoric and fully committed minority who, previously, would have been known as transexuals. Those who are less sympathetic often began from a more sympathetic position, but this has been eroded over the years (please read on...)

c) All but the newest of newcomers are aware of the reams of research and anecdotal evidence indicating that a significant proportion of those now calling themselves "trans" in fact belong to the group previously known as "cross-dressers", and perhaps have AGP. They, understandably, have little patience for this.

2) Posters here are wearily familiar with "visitors" who seek to "understand" or "educate" them. In many such cases, the opening post itself is abusive, patronising or, frankly, offensively dismissive of the views and arguments presented. In almost all, even in the face of good-faith engagement, the visitor's posts degrade into this sooner or later.

2), above, can mean that the nuances of 1) aren't always immediately apparent, as posters have become very cynical over time. This may seem unjust to a genuinely good faith poster, bemused by the sharp responses to an opening post that showed none of these tendencies...

...but your opening post did show them. From the get-go. Here's another list, of the impressions your post gave us:

  1. "evil man stealing everyone's rights away from them" - Applying playful hyperbole to women's concerns about the loss of fundamental rights, some of which we gained only in recent decades, comes across as rather disrespectful, and certainly suggests a foregone conclusion as opposed to a desire to listen to and understand those concerns.

  2. "Why do you hate the idea of me?" - This reinforces the above a hundredfold in its offensive presumption of irrational prejudice and bigotry.

  3. "...will help you understand as much as possible" - This makes the implicit assumption that posters here don't know or engage with trans people themselves; in fact, so many (most?) of us do.

  4. "Please don't assume I'm what the internet and the media says I am" - And this makes the quite explicit assumption that posters here lack meaningful research and critical thinking skills and are, instead, swayed by clickbait / political posturing. This couldn't be further from the reality. What drew me to this forum was how (sometimes terrifyingly!) rigorous posters here are in these respects - I've never come across anything remotely like it anywhere else on the internet, bar academic contexts.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

And yet, I read your opening post, saw all this, and thought, as many others will have done, "OK, but even then, they may not be aware they're creating this impression; they may be prepared to engage more meaningfully than others..." And you did get some good answers. They were direct, yes, but honest and fair and, in every case, directly or indirectly, told you we don't "hate" you. Only one opened with FFS - and I hope, given 1) to 4) above, you can see why...

But what followed this?

  1. "you lot identify me as a woman" - Language doesn't get much more generically disparaging (outside overt insult) than the delightful 'you lot' (I mean, just imagine this being applied to any other group; to trans people, for example). And as a whole, this outright disregarded all the replies thus far, which had told you that, No, we don't.

As if this wasn't enough, next up was:

  1. "technically there were never single sex spaces to begin with" - By which you can only possibly mean, They may have been written into law, the Supreme Court may have confirmed they always were the law despite others' decision to disregard this law without women's open consent... But despite all this, your legal rights are, I don't know... not real?! not valid?!? And our transgressions into your spaces should be continued on the basis that, I don't know... We got away with it before so why not?!? I mean, what the heck?

Do you realise we've only had women's toilets since the turn of the last century? We got them shortly before the vote, I think. That vote that we've not actually yet held for a full century, by the way. In fact, we've only been able to get mortgages within many of our lifetimes. And we've only been free of from marital rape - in one very real sense, have only been recognised as not our husbands' property - since the early '90s. We know a little something about being seen as sub-human without recognition in law - it really wasn't that long ago that we were actual chattels. Our protections in law have meaning, yet you couldn't have made your disdain for them clearer here.

Then I read the bit about self-ID and began to empathise again despite all the above - but, wow, did you stamp on that, with:

  1. "as all of you so far have similar narritives in your replies I'm going to assume these are bots. Sorry guys, you can't all share the same similar replies in a short amount of time 😅" - Seriously, where to start with this one? "Narrative"? "Bots"? You know that de-humanisation of women I referred to in 6), above? That dismissal, until all too recently, of their voices as invalid, unthinking and irrational?

Can you see the link I'm making here?

If you can't, it's a hopeless case.

If you can, there are many posters here who will engage with you in the way you claim to want.

But to have a chance of this happening, you need to do your bit, too, and make a genuine effort to understand where we're coming from.

(Here endeth the - hopefully helpful, and not itself similarly patronising - lesson!)

Catiette · 17/02/2026 23:02

Woah, looong post. Btw, written after only reading the opening page, if that. Will try to catch up tomorrow.

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:02

Hedgehogforshort · 17/02/2026 22:57

What a load of rubbish. I was born in 1962, so i should know. I was not anti gay and was a participant in gay pride starting 1982.

what a massive generalisation.

you are not any type of woman, you are a man. Nobody in the eighties claimed to be of the opposite sex, the concept did not exist

In the 80s, I was in a youth program at the gay and lesbian centre that was picketed daily. I am very familiar with the people who felt gays and lesbians were merely misdirected and could be fixed

CassOle · 17/02/2026 23:03

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:02

In the 80s, I was in a youth program at the gay and lesbian centre that was picketed daily. I am very familiar with the people who felt gays and lesbians were merely misdirected and could be fixed

Where did you grow up?

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:05

Greyskybluesky · 17/02/2026 23:01

Oh really?

You assume to know the sexuality of posters on here, I see. And what we've been through.

No...you just didn't think about it.

I have no clue, and I really don't assume to know anything. However, I do know yesterday's 'sincerely held beliefs' have frequently evolved into today's phobias and intolerances.

Hedgehogforshort · 17/02/2026 23:06

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:02

In the 80s, I was in a youth program at the gay and lesbian centre that was picketed daily. I am very familiar with the people who felt gays and lesbians were merely misdirected and could be fixed

That is true but you can not attribute that to us here. And i note you were gay??????

Greyskybluesky · 17/02/2026 23:10

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:05

I have no clue, and I really don't assume to know anything. However, I do know yesterday's 'sincerely held beliefs' have frequently evolved into today's phobias and intolerances.

You didn't even stop to consider that there are lesbians, bisexual women and trans identifying women on here before you started mansplaining to us what sex realists apparently think.

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:18

Hedgehogforshort · 17/02/2026 23:06

That is true but you can not attribute that to us here. And i note you were gay??????

In so far as a minor was allowed to be considered gay (hint: only gay and lesbian adults believed this).

I was out as trans, on hormones and attracted to males.

CraftandGlamour · 17/02/2026 23:19

Catiette · 17/02/2026 23:01

Teal, I'd strongly recommend spending a few hours skimming some other threads to get a sense of why posters are responding as they are. I can pretty much guarantee, if you select a good range of thread titles and stay open-minded, that you'll see the following trends, overall:

1) Posters here are aware, like you, that there are different "types" of "trans people". Within these groups...

a) They are largely sympathetic to trans-identifying young people. They have different views on the best way to support them, but there's a majority consensus that straight-talking and/or watchful waiting are far safer for the child concerned than immediate, emphatic validation.

b) A good number are sympathetic to the genuinely dysphoric and fully committed minority who, previously, would have been known as transexuals. Those who are less sympathetic often began from a more sympathetic position, but this has been eroded over the years (please read on...)

c) All but the newest of newcomers are aware of the reams of research and anecdotal evidence indicating that a significant proportion of those now calling themselves "trans" in fact belong to the group previously known as "cross-dressers", and perhaps have AGP. They, understandably, have little patience for this.

2) Posters here are wearily familiar with "visitors" who seek to "understand" or "educate" them. In many such cases, the opening post itself is abusive, patronising or, frankly, offensively dismissive of the views and arguments presented. In almost all, even in the face of good-faith engagement, the visitor's posts degrade into this sooner or later.

2), above, can mean that the nuances of 1) aren't always immediately apparent, as posters have become very cynical over time. This may seem unjust to a genuinely good faith poster, bemused by the sharp responses to an opening post that showed none of these tendencies...

...but your opening post did show them. From the get-go. Here's another list, of the impressions your post gave us:

  1. "evil man stealing everyone's rights away from them" - Applying playful hyperbole to women's concerns about the loss of fundamental rights, some of which we gained only in recent decades, comes across as rather disrespectful, and certainly suggests a foregone conclusion as opposed to a desire to listen to and understand those concerns.

  2. "Why do you hate the idea of me?" - This reinforces the above a hundredfold in its offensive presumption of irrational prejudice and bigotry.

  3. "...will help you understand as much as possible" - This makes the implicit assumption that posters here don't know or engage with trans people themselves; in fact, so many (most?) of us do.

  4. "Please don't assume I'm what the internet and the media says I am" - And this makes the quite explicit assumption that posters here lack meaningful research and critical thinking skills and are, instead, swayed by clickbait / political posturing. This couldn't be further from the reality. What drew me to this forum was how (sometimes terrifyingly!) rigorous posters here are in these respects - I've never come across anything remotely like it anywhere else on the internet, bar academic contexts.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

And yet, I read your opening post, saw all this, and thought, as many others will have done, "OK, but even then, they may not be aware they're creating this impression; they may be prepared to engage more meaningfully than others..." And you did get some good answers. They were direct, yes, but honest and fair and, in every case, directly or indirectly, told you we don't "hate" you. Only one opened with FFS - and I hope, given 1) to 4) above, you can see why...

But what followed this?

  1. "you lot identify me as a woman" - Language doesn't get much more generically disparaging (outside overt insult) than the delightful 'you lot' (I mean, just imagine this being applied to any other group; to trans people, for example). And as a whole, this outright disregarded all the replies thus far, which had told you that, No, we don't.

As if this wasn't enough, next up was:

  1. "technically there were never single sex spaces to begin with" - By which you can only possibly mean, They may have been written into law, the Supreme Court may have confirmed they always were the law despite others' decision to disregard this law without women's open consent... But despite all this, your legal rights are, I don't know... not real?! not valid?!? And our transgressions into your spaces should be continued on the basis that, I don't know... We got away with it before so why not?!? I mean, what the heck?

Do you realise we've only had women's toilets since the turn of the last century? We got them shortly before the vote, I think. That vote that we've not actually yet held for a full century, by the way. In fact, we've only been able to get mortgages within many of our lifetimes. And we've only been free of from marital rape - in one very real sense, have only been recognised as not our husbands' property - since the early '90s. We know a little something about being seen as sub-human without recognition in law - it really wasn't that long ago that we were actual chattels. Our protections in law have meaning, yet you couldn't have made your disdain for them clearer here.

Then I read the bit about self-ID and began to empathise again despite all the above - but, wow, did you stamp on that, with:

  1. "as all of you so far have similar narritives in your replies I'm going to assume these are bots. Sorry guys, you can't all share the same similar replies in a short amount of time 😅" - Seriously, where to start with this one? "Narrative"? "Bots"? You know that de-humanisation of women I referred to in 6), above? That dismissal, until all too recently, of their voices as invalid, unthinking and irrational?

Can you see the link I'm making here?

If you can't, it's a hopeless case.

If you can, there are many posters here who will engage with you in the way you claim to want.

But to have a chance of this happening, you need to do your bit, too, and make a genuine effort to understand where we're coming from.

(Here endeth the - hopefully helpful, and not itself similarly patronising - lesson!)

Edited

This is an excellent contribution, thanks for writing. I do roll my eyes when I see these types of posts appear. I usually can't be bothered to engage - as these posters can't be bothered to read up on the various points of view, nuanced perspectives, informed debates and real-world experiences all ready here and available but then men are notorious for not listening to women.

Hedgehogforshort · 17/02/2026 23:20

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:18

In so far as a minor was allowed to be considered gay (hint: only gay and lesbian adults believed this).

I was out as trans, on hormones and attracted to males.

So you are a biological male attracted to men………..

i would call that gay dress or no dress.

whatever floats your boat mate.

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:21

Greyskybluesky · 17/02/2026 23:10

You didn't even stop to consider that there are lesbians, bisexual women and trans identifying women on here before you started mansplaining to us what sex realists apparently think.

I assume there's someone from every colour of the rainbow here. It sadly doesn't provide them with enough wisdom or self-reflection before applying the same strategies and fables in the battles against trans people as used in the battles against lesbians and gays.

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:25

Hedgehogforshort · 17/02/2026 23:20

So you are a biological male attracted to men………..

i would call that gay dress or no dress.

whatever floats your boat mate.

Yes, in your world view I can see how that works.

I was never attractive to gay men. Which, I believe, is how I lucked it out of the community alive.

Hedgehogforshort · 17/02/2026 23:31

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:25

Yes, in your world view I can see how that works.

I was never attractive to gay men. Which, I believe, is how I lucked it out of the community alive.

well what would you describe your sexuality as then if you are a male attracted to males? And my world view is very logical rather than fanciful.

MarieDeGournay · 17/02/2026 23:34

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:21

I assume there's someone from every colour of the rainbow here. It sadly doesn't provide them with enough wisdom or self-reflection before applying the same strategies and fables in the battles against trans people as used in the battles against lesbians and gays.

Edited

We don't. At the core of our strategies are facts not fables.
Same-sex attraction and believing that people can transition from one sex to the other are two very different things.

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:38

Hedgehogforshort · 17/02/2026 23:31

well what would you describe your sexuality as then if you are a male attracted to males? And my world view is very logical rather than fanciful.

i've dated straight and bi men. My husband was previously married to a woman and has never dated men or other trans people. I would describe our relationship as heterosexual. Edited to add: Gay marriage wasn't legal when we were married.

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:41

MarieDeGournay · 17/02/2026 23:34

We don't. At the core of our strategies are facts not fables.
Same-sex attraction and believing that people can transition from one sex to the other are two very different things.

Anti-gay campaigners also followed strategies based from their facts.

CapacityBrown · 17/02/2026 23:42

Some questions:

  • Why do you think people hate you?
  • What caused you to believe that?
  • And no one denies your existence, why are trans people obsessed with existence?
  • Essentially why do you conflate the condition of gender dysphoria with your personal identity?
  • Why do you take everything personally?
Hedgehogforshort · 18/02/2026 00:01

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:41

Anti-gay campaigners also followed strategies based from their facts.

“Their facts” none of us here are anti gay please accept that it is a big fat fib that women's rights campaigners are anti gay.

As for your version of what your sexuality is defies any logic. You and your husband are both men. Presumably engaging in sexual activities that only two men can engage with.

Which in my book is fine.

You go on about gay rights, and yet you cannot see how homophobic it is to deny your own sex and pretend you are hetro sexual?

How very ironic, and frankly sad.

MarieDeGournay · 18/02/2026 00:03

onepostwonder · 17/02/2026 23:41

Anti-gay campaigners also followed strategies based from their facts.

You know the saying - 'everybody is entitled to their own opinion but nobody is entitled to their own facts'.

Facts don't have possessive pronouns like 'my' or 'your' or 'their'.

Nobody owns facts, so anti-gay campaigners didn't have 'their' facts, they had their opinions.

An example of facts that don't belong to anybody are the fact that human sex is binary, and the fact that it's impossible to change from one to the other.

onepostwonder · 18/02/2026 00:10

Hedgehogforshort · 18/02/2026 00:01

“Their facts” none of us here are anti gay please accept that it is a big fat fib that women's rights campaigners are anti gay.

As for your version of what your sexuality is defies any logic. You and your husband are both men. Presumably engaging in sexual activities that only two men can engage with.

Which in my book is fine.

You go on about gay rights, and yet you cannot see how homophobic it is to deny your own sex and pretend you are hetro sexual?

How very ironic, and frankly sad.

I have never sexually understood myself to be man or male. I would have a hard time trying to believe any of my partners have either..

I've never penetrated anyone, nor did I ever had the urge to do it. Your genuinely held beliefs don't rewrite or recontextualise my sexual experience, nor the experience of my partners.

I cannot deny which does not exist. Your insistence that I am homophobic because my experience does not align with your beliefs is misogynist, homophobic and transphobic.

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