Dedicated To Bisexual Radfems

As an indigenous person, every time a white trans person talks about their “genocide” I’m gonna just start posting facts about an actual genocide that happened in America.

Feminism is unique in the sense that different groups of women have oppression and privilege on different axes, but we still need to work out the best way to have true solidarity on the basis of being oppressed as women.

I don't disagree with you. There's a lot of deliberate weaponisation of woman-on-woman violence by MRA and right wing types that want to undermine everything with "but women are worse, actually!" and it's entirely right to call that out for the distraction that it is.

At the same time, ordinary women who haven't read feminist texts, who are living their lives as best as they can, who then fail to relate to feminism because there's no space to talk about systemic vs interpersonal are then going to dismiss feminism as useless, and we're no further forward.

It's also true that every attack, abuse and act of misogyny large and small from men to women is interpersonal, but we just can't individually promote stories or offer individual protection to every single woman out there. It would be the dream to be able to do that. We can continue to donate to women's shelters and women-focused charities and offer support to individual women in our lives, but feminism's focus is on breaking down the patriarchy.

For me, I think it's more important to do as much as reasonably possible to reach out to women who have rejected feminism or who think feminism is useless to them. If we don't, then all that's going to happen is that feminists will sit and shake our heads and scream until we're blue in the face while nothing changes at all.

We need more women to wake up and be feminist, and telling the daughter of an abusive mother, essentially, "Mentioning your abusive mother is just amplifying the wrongs that women do while men get to get away with the very same thing" is going to do absolutely nothing but inflict more trauma on that victim, and turn her away from feminism, because while you and I will be able to sit back and have a reasonable chat about why that is thanks to the patriarchy, she is going to think feminism is full of abuse apologism, and she can't be near it at all because it's just triggered her PTSD.

One of the things that feminism needs to better grapple with is the difference between systemic and interpersonal issues.

The biggest reason that a lot of women push back from feminism with their additions to #NotAllMen is because those women know and love men who aren't rapists and who aren't physically abusive. It's entirely natural to rail against something that you see as attacking someone that you love.

When feminists advocate for single-sex schooling to protect girls, there's an automatic push back and outcry over the very real bullying that goes on in girl-only schools that have had long-lasting impacts on ex-students.

Glossing over the abuse that mothers put their daughters through often gives the impression that anything that counters any women-supporting-women narrative has to be stamped down on and ignored, or at worst, even denied, for the good of feminism.

It's far too easy as feminists to see criticisms like the above from women and then dismiss them, or repeat more statistics and then get frustrated at those women or call them handmaidens, instead of engaging and understanding why they're railing against what's being said.

No, not every single man is a raping woman-beater, but there are a ton more male abusers than female abusers, and a ton more female victims than male victims. That's a systemic issue, and we need to fix it. That doesn't make those loved fathers, brothers, cousins, friends or partners suddenly monsters out of nowhere.

No, female-only schools aren't perfect and there are bullying scandals in all schools, that doesn't excuse the individual abuse that victims have been through, but in general, they're safer for girls, and girls achieve higher grades than in mixed-sex schools, which is important to discuss and improve on.

No, abuse victims shouldn't be silent over what they've been through, and female abusers deserve to face justice. Continued cycles of abuse and female socialisation and mental illess etc might explain some of the abuse, but it doesn't excuse it. The point of feminism is to free all women from patriarchy, so that even the worst of the worst of women don't suffer with misogyny, not coddle the evil and the abusers just because of their sex.

There is so much difficult nuance, and there's too much reliance on the systemic to the point that the interpersonal is completely erased. It stops individual women from seeing anything in feminism that's useful to them. If they have counter-examples to any systemic issue, then they'll use those personal examples to dismiss that there's a systemic issue at all. If they're met halfway and the systemic vs the interpersonal is explained, then there's a much better chance that they'll pay attention or even go away to think about it to eventually become feminists, too.

I knew it was a TIF because there was a mention of "trans men" in there and wanting to reject the actual use of the word "woman," but I wasn't prepared for the self-satisfied, smug pose on her actual Yale page.

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Actual dystopian level sick this is. Legitimately floored. What the actual fuck.

“”I argue that pregnancy is not to be defined by biological phenomena but instead as a genre of political, aesthetic, and affective experience and expectation. As a multidimensional genre of experience, rather than merely a biological datum, pregnancy can potentially establish a shared ground between trans and cis women. Pregnancy is an existential experience involving birth and becoming in a larger sense. We need a more all-encompassing notion of pregnancy””

Pregnancy is not a haha fun little inclusive to all club. Are you fucking kidding me.

t4t as in terf4terf

im so tired of being unable to say "no/please stop" because if i do the other person will hurt themself

a small reminder to questioning people that it’s okay to read opinions you don’t agree with. there’s nothing immoral about reading and considering what other people have to say. taking in information and learning is not in itself a transgression and your beliefs won’t be shaken by reading things unless you do, in fact, think that they are accurate, which is okay and you should be free to explore that further without anyone breathing down your neck. 

anyone who attempts to make you believe that you can’t read things said by certain people is trying to control you, because they know that alternative opinions could cause some people to stray from being under the influence of their own group, and they don’t care about these individuals’ well-being at all, only their own status and how many people will uncritically listen to everything they say. 

it’s always okay to question. there’s nothing you aren’t allowed to think about. 

I think that's incredibly interesting, but it's also worth noting that the reason that those people feel that way is because they've been trained to see the world that way.

When friends, social media, charities, celebrities and even governments push the idea that a person's identity is a set of tangible things that can be seen and touched and bought, from hairstyles to clothing, then to flag pins and phone covers and stickers, then to be without that is to be without an identity. Without those gender identities, then they're ostracised from their friends and peers indulging in the same thing. Are they even real people at all?

I think it's less that it's a deliberate bridge to cross a social gap, and more a way for them to cling to something tangible that they can then point to in their own minds and say that is why I feel so different and ironically, that is why I feel so alone. Then, they can connect with others that feel just as alone, which whips the social contagion frenzy even higher.

The world right now is one that pushes the idea that to fix something, you need to buy something else. Actual, helpful introspection, figuring out what their hopes, dreams and even hobbies are to connect with others ends up becoming too daunting.

If you're afraid, why on earth would you go out of your way to risk being ignored or hurt or laughed at by someone in the real world, when you can safely buy things and slap flags and different pronouns onto a social media account? Why risk engaging offline with anyone when the online world has a safe echo chamber that tells you how good and valid and perfect you are, and underlines that everything that feels difficult or hurts you is because of others not understanding you? Is it not comforting to have such a strict set of rules to follow and lines to regurgitate, when, if left alone to think for yourself, you might be wrong and end up upsetting someone else and then ending up even more alone? Does it not feel good to be given permission to lash out and hate everyone and cut out everyone that tells you a harsh truth? Isn't it cathartic to tear apart others, just the way that the bullies at home or at school tore you apart?

It taps in perfectly to the stereotypical teenage angst, and it's addictive, too. There is nothing more addictive in this world than the taste of righteous anger and even more righteous hatred - directed, of course, towards the safe (and encouraged) target of women that see through it and just won't play along.

why do you people like gender so much? it's annoying