@Taztoy hi taz, I am sorry to read about your experience. I really am. Like a massive amount of women on this board and thread, I am also a survivor of male violence and sexual violence. Sadly we all have our stories to share but can’t always express them online because even though that would be the ideal way to get it out, especially for the neurodivergent community, we don’t want to be writing our traumas to end up in the wank banks of some sexual sadists. Maybe one day there will be a way of verifying who we say we are and having an anonymous space, but with guaranteed privacy. I do know other survivors who’ve found other women who’ve experienced similar attacks and rapes who’ve started facebook groups to share their experiences.
I don’t have a fully concrete reply to your trans question. I have 3 trans friends in my close friendship group. 2 TW and 1 TM.
I will share this, 2 of them are also survivors of CSA and the other was beaten so badly by their father for appearing to be gay, that the shame of their sexuality has been a burden until a later in life transition. And honestly that transition hasn’t made them any happier. (I’ve used they/them so I don’t use their pronouns, for anonymity and also I don’t want them to upset anybody)
I have worked closely with TW before also, who have been sex workers. This was over 25 years ago now. I believe they transitioned because women treated them with kindness, as where men abused them. These people had profound mental health problems.
I personally don’t believe a trans man is a man or a trans woman is a woman. My belief is they’re their own person, a trans man or a trans woman. And I think that they have their own lived experiences that I as a woman can’t relate to, the same way that my TW friends can’t related to periods, pregnancy, endometriosis, I can’t relate to hating having my body so much that I’d go through countless surgeries to change it. That I’d endure bigotry and abuse from the public, just to no longer say I’m a woman.
The trans issue is incredibly nuanced in my personal opinion. So when people say “genuine trans woman”, what they mean is a trans woman who isn’t a predatory male, using the guise of trans to access women’s spaces in order to cause women harm.
Or the men who crossdress for sexual pleasure, not because they have a deep affinity with womanhood and believe they’re in the wrong body, but because they get a kick out of it.
My personal belief is women deserve a protected space just for biological women. Whilst I’m happy to share with TW others aren’t so my opinion is irrelevant of what I’m comfortable with. Other women who aren’t deserve their spaces protected.
The problem is if men want to use our toilets, they could say they’re TM now, big, beefy, bearded TM and access our spaces that way. And yes someone will say, “you can always tell”, well I am sorry but I can’t. I’m sure there are ways to tell but I’m not able to personally.
Men have found ways to attack us and rape us, abuse and kill us without the need of being in bathrooms with us, without being in our changing rooms or even our prisons. I worry that we need to shift that focus back. We will always be raped by men. No matter what they’re wearing, if a man wants to rape a woman, that man will find a way.
I do think there is a lot of hate and bigotry towards TW especially. And that is because often the loudest TW voices have been from a place of disingenuous reasons to be in our spaces. Lots of TW have publicly been noted to have been paedophiles, women abusers and other such problematic individuals. They would not be what I class as genuine TW.
But I am asked, “how can you tell” and I say simply, you can’t. The same way poor posters on here have been married 17 years to perfect Peter and then discovered through an iCloud message he’d been sleeping with escorts/downloading CSAM etc, you can’t always tell a predator. Which is why I think the TW hate needs redirecting because the stories I know from TW are plainly horrifying. Their are so many TW victims who need protection from men, but that isn’t the job of only women, it’s the job of everyone who isn’t a fucking predatory man to work together and find a solution for. I know I’ll get backlash for that, that’s ok, but everyone has a responsibility of safeguarding. We need to protect everyone from predators. That’s my opinion, I don’t care how you present or look or dress, the fight shouldn’t be between women/TW/feminist/TERF (not using as a slur, I don’t believe it is a slur btw) but we need to all accept the world is changing. Trans people have existed for centuries and they are a small minority of the population, predators however are a large percentage. We should be able to protect one another. Do you have to believe that a person can change biological sex? No, I don’t and I love my Trans friends. Do you have to treat people with respect? Absolutely, even if you disagree.
I have spoken at length about my uncle who suffers psychosis. He is allowed out and about and visits the same few places locally to him. The local cafe, the market, sometimes pops into the older people coffee mornings. He is in his early 50s and harmless but believes that he partied with the Beatles, that he was best friends with the Rolling Stones, that he had a fling with Kylie Minogue. All absolute bollocks of course. People just say, “lovely to see you Ken, send ringo our regards” make him a brew and send him on his way. I’m not saying that we should pacify Transfolk the same way but the kindness of not belittling them when out in the community should stand. I’ve been with my friend (TW) and had people walk past us and say, “hello Madame, to me, then, hello sir”, just to be cruel. That needs to stop.
The world is a cruel and dangerous and shitty place for those of us who want to live with peace, dignity and fearlessly away from violence and sexual violence. We are living in times where AI images are being made of the daughters and grandchildren of deeply fucked up peadophiles, where domestic abuse is on the rise, women are being subjected to scrutiny and harassment online for not looking like they’re made by the same creators as Barbie. There is so much hate and prejudice towards women and I worry that energy is being wasted with the hate that is going to TW. Maybe the push back should be towards men who want to hurt us regardless of what they present as, and more so the damage they wish to cause us. Because not every TW is a threat and no you can’t always tell, but those men out there sharing red pill propaganda or being exposed as a domestic abuser, they are the worst threat and they’re getting a very easy ride comparatively to a TW who does just want to exist.