In both online and real-life environments, I, like many women, have found it increasingly difficult to have productive conversations on this topic. By “productive,” I don’t mean conversations intended to convince the other person of my point of view, but conversations in which genuine and legitimate concerns on both sides (women's rights and trans rights) can be expressed, and heard, and addressed.
Instead, even the mildest expression of a thought that suggests one isn’t fully on board with the idea that women should just shut up about having their boundaries and opportunities steamrollered by fully intact, male-bodied people now gets you called a “transphobe” or a “bigot” and is used to justify shutting down any exchange of perspectives or expression of legitimate concerns.
What do YOU think is the purpose of the mantra "Trans women are women"?
In my experience, it seems to be mostly to try to silence women by telling them they have no legitimate grounds for protesting the imposition of fully intact male bodies in their same-sex spaces, their same-sex sports, their same-sex prison cells, their same-sex domestic violence shelters, and their ringfenced educational and professional opportunities.
It is gaslighting of the highest order, and it does nothing to contribute to a productive conversation about how to move forward in a way that is respectful to the needs of both trans people and women.
In Matt Walsh's recently released video "What is a Woman?'" surgeon Marci Bowers, M.D., told Mr. Walsh, "I AM a woman. I function as a woman in my daily life."
I know trans-identified males who expect other people to "affirm" that these men have "women's bodies." They mean in how they look, not anything else involved in being female. Some of them will say to close friends, "I wish I had a more feminine body," and if the other person says anything but, "you DO have a feminine body," they get angry at the other person for "withholding affirmation" or being a "transphobe."
I have also talked to post-transition "trans women" whose families will say something like, "I accept now that you really are a woman."
In my experience, the original trans people (not Gen Z or younger) were/are concrete thinkers when it comes to sexual identity and gender. They often will offer as evidence for being a woman the fact that as a child they preferred to play fantasy games like the girls, especially admired female actors rather than male stars, that they didn't like rough games and so on. The postmodern nonsense about being nonbinary is a recent introduction.
In the past, gender dysphoria meant simply that a person of one sex wanted to be living as a member of the opposite sex, and to be treated as if he/she was a member of that sex. But, that second part does mean that even in the 1990's, people who transitioned hoped that strangers would not be able to discern their actual sex. Most of the surgeries are undertaken so as to look more like a member of the other sex, and therefore "pass" in public or even under prolonged scrutiny.
In both online and real-life environments, I, like many women, have found it increasingly difficult to have productive conversations on this topic. By “productive,” I don’t mean conversations intended to convince the other person of my point of view, but conversations in which genuine and legitimate concerns on both sides (women's rights and trans rights) can be expressed, and heard, and addressed.
Instead, even the mildest expression of a thought that suggests one isn’t fully on board with the idea that women should just shut up about having their boundaries and opportunities steamrollered by fully intact, male-bodied people now gets you called a “transphobe” or a “bigot” and is used to justify shutting down any exchange of perspectives or expression of legitimate concerns.
What do YOU think is the purpose of the mantra "Trans women are women"?
In my experience, it seems to be mostly to try to silence women by telling them they have no legitimate grounds for protesting the imposition of fully intact male bodies in their same-sex spaces, their same-sex sports, their same-sex prison cells, their same-sex domestic violence shelters, and their ringfenced educational and professional opportunities.
It is gaslighting of the highest order, and it does nothing to contribute to a productive conversation about how to move forward in a way that is respectful to the needs of both trans people and women.
In Matt Walsh's recently released video "What is a Woman?'" surgeon Marci Bowers, M.D., told Mr. Walsh, "I AM a woman. I function as a woman in my daily life."
I know trans-identified males who expect other people to "affirm" that these men have "women's bodies." They mean in how they look, not anything else involved in being female. Some of them will say to close friends, "I wish I had a more feminine body," and if the other person says anything but, "you DO have a feminine body," they get angry at the other person for "withholding affirmation" or being a "transphobe."
I have also talked to post-transition "trans women" whose families will say something like, "I accept now that you really are a woman."
In my experience, the original trans people (not Gen Z or younger) were/are concrete thinkers when it comes to sexual identity and gender. They often will offer as evidence for being a woman the fact that as a child they preferred to play fantasy games like the girls, especially admired female actors rather than male stars, that they didn't like rough games and so on. The postmodern nonsense about being nonbinary is a recent introduction.
In the past, gender dysphoria meant simply that a person of one sex wanted to be living as a member of the opposite sex, and to be treated as if he/she was a member of that sex. But, that second part does mean that even in the 1990's, people who transitioned hoped that strangers would not be able to discern their actual sex. Most of the surgeries are undertaken so as to look more like a member of the other sex, and therefore "pass" in public or even under prolonged scrutiny.