Display:
I'm being terribly remiss in not attending the transgender day of remembrance serice in london, but I've spent too much money this weekend and can't really afford the train fare, the meal & the beer.

I feel guilty, like I've let people down.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 09:29:30 AM EST
Now you'll make me say that blogging is doing, since you write about these issues, spreading information and furthering understanding. And if you can't afford to go, you can't. No reason for feeling guilty.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 09:39:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]
thanks. I appreciate that, but I can't stop feeling guilty.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 09:47:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well... Go at it full tilt for an hour or so, and see if you can't wear it out.

Unless that's hideously cynical of me.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 10:31:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]
It's always problems everywhere
You're jugglin' every one
You do your best each day but
when the sun goes down it's done, it's done
and then, what slips through the cracks is just gonna go ahead and fall
Don't let it keep you up nights,
when you know my friend
You cannot win 'em all

- Steve Forbert

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 10:38:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
A friend posted a Transgender Day of Remembrance diary on the F-word, a well known UK feminist site. nd the first response was this;-

Normally, we consider people who use their emotions in place of reason to be utter fucking morons.

The basic premise of transgender ideology is that girl and boy brains exist, and are different from each other. Girl brains luv pink, and are rilly soft and gentle. Boy brains luv blue, and are rilly hard and aggressive.

The basic premise of feminist ideology is that no such difference exists. Oops, we have a discreptancy!

Since some women are quite the aggressive fuck, they must be a boy. Therefore, they are transgendered. Amazingly enough, wanting a penis is not required for women to be an aggressive fuck, so something is quite illogical regarding your theory.

Perhaps insanity is the answer.

Because so many feminists think like this, I am not a feminist

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 11:35:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Long silence on that one.

It speaks volumes.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 02:17:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"Because so many feminists think like this, I am not a feminist"

Reading this I thought I would be surprised if MANY feminists really thought like THAT.

Out of curiosity I found the site. You don't mention that that comment, and your reply, were followed by a whole series of comments severely criticising the nasty comment and some explicitly stating that such attitudes had nothing to do with feminism:

It doesn't matter why people are trans what matters is that they are punished and killed for it and that is not okay and we all need to work to change that

Also there is no feminist Ideology your feminism has nothing in common with my feminism.


 If you can't say something respectful about people who were MURDERED for not following gender binaries, hello, call yourself a feminist? Or are lives only of worth if people define gender in the same way you do?

HelenG, I know you know this, but mAndrea doesn't speak for all cis feminists. We will remember, and we will add our voices to yours.


Do you actually call yourself a feminist? I would remind mind you that for centuries men did the same to women. You telling a trans woman that she cannot know her own truth is the same as a man dismissing you for being a weepy weak woman who doesn't know her own mind. Does that piss you off? It should.

Of all the posts in the world, you choose to troll the one where we remember murder victims. Have you no heart? No soul? You choosing this day of all days; this post of all posts; only underscores not only your transphobia but also your inhumanity.

Why only quote the one vicious comment and not even mention all the sympathetic ones? It gives a rather distorted view of feminists. There have been some vicious people who called themselves socialists, it's not a good reason for rejecting socialism.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.

by Ted Welch (tedwelch-at-mac-dot-com) on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 05:31:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
people who use their emotions

This is not a feminist by any reasonable person, but a self-demeaning, emotional rageaholic; not exactly reason-able, nor stable, so her (?) claimed platform is irrelevant.  A mature person integrates both.  

You are fighting in the front lines of change and you are bound to run into the extremists of the opposition, but I have not run into a feminist like that, male or female, in my entire life.  Generalizing about all feminists because of such types is not reasonable either.  

If you are not a feminist, what other choices are there that won´t work against you?

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

by metavision on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 07:39:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Unfortunately there do seem to be a fair few of them. I don't necessarily mean these deranged hate-mongers or even their fan clubs but those who have been brought up in feminism 2.0 (essentialism) that reigned from 1972(-ish) through till the early 90s and who retain the same anti-trans prejudices bindel trots out every so often. I know that there are many forms of feminism, and it also varies considerably given cultural values, but this is what I experience.

A good example of that variation is that essentialism was never the dominnant form of feminism in the US as it was in the UK. I say that despite the annual hoo-hah of Michigan womyn's music fest. I suspect it happened because women in the US had different equality battles to fight which shaped the politics that drove it. Also essentialism had been largely discredited by race theory in the 60s and so feminists there never really took on the intensely ideological identity politics that happened here where mangled socialism based essentialist separatism gained a stranglehold.

So my experience is with my feminist peer group in the UK, where casual prejudice against trans is widespread. The transphobic journalist J. Bindel gets her credibility by writing for this group. It is funny that so many criticised m Andrea, even if two of them supported her prejudice but felt able to criticise the way she said it (like, thanks) Yet support from feminists when we were criticising Bindel was rare because they felt that trans-people shouldn't criticise bindel cos she's a vaulable feminist voice in the mainstream. I mean seriously...? how is that not a cis-privileged argument ? It's the equivalent of saying "Shut up you noisy trannie or we'll stop pretending to treat you like an equal". Course it could be an age group thing, younger feminists of third wave persuasion have less time for transphobic prejudice, but they also tend to wave it by as not being "their concern".

I'll believe I'm beginning to be accepted by feminists when I can go to a Reclaim the Night march without feminist groups sending out warnings on their website promising physical violence to any transgendered woman who dares join in. It may be a minority, but they go armed with hammers. I'll take them at their word and know I am unwelcome.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Nov 24th, 2008 at 05:43:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
That few is not representative of the majority.  Aggressive and hostile forms of any activism have the effect of appearing larger through being louder but it is enough to keep people out and to intimidate others who would try to challenge them.

But I experience the same (although without the threat of violence) from a small minority of the Deaf Community, who make it clear that I am not one of them, and it is enough to keep me away or at least on the edge.  Ditto with being bi and dealing with lesbians who loathe me for that.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Mon Nov 24th, 2008 at 08:42:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
It is difficult to know what is representative; with a lot of feminists it still appears to be the default option where they need a reason to be trans-accepting. This dates from the 70s through to the mid 90s where nearly all forms of feminism rejected trans people completely. Whilst a new generation coming through are more accepting, they only seem to unequivocally protest transphobia when it becomes as gratuitously offensive as m Andrea's. Generally we see a grey scale of degrees of conditional acceptance where there severe reservations remain.

It's my impression that some ideas of feminism are inherently transphobic, yet I'm not sure that there is one that is trans-positive. Therefore while questioning remains a widespread ideologically consistent position, acceptance remains an individual act. It will require a philosophical change for feminism as a whole to accept us. And that's why I reject feminism. Trans people didn't declare war on feminism; feminists declared war on us. So it is ridiculous for me to claim a sisterhood I am comprehensively denied.

Feminism has a social dimension as well as an individual declaration. Sarah Palin isn't a feminist, however much she claims it, because what she believes is anti-woman. If I can't join a Reclaim the Night march without a threat of violence, if it means that every contact with feminists has to be cautious and subject to negotiation as if I were still male, then the social acceptance part is lacking : How can I be a feminist ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Nov 24th, 2008 at 10:13:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

It would have been better to do the decent thing and say: "Yes, the overwhelming majority of responses were sympathetic and condemned the nasty post and I should have mentioned them at least."

Instead we get more twisted logic from you.

"It is difficult to know what is representative"

It certainly is if we rely on your selection of evidence. You have no problem presenting evidence when it suits your distortions, e.g. the quotation, but it is generally remarkably absent - because it wouldn't sustain your generalisations.

"with a lot of feminists it still appears to be the default option where [that?] they need a reason to be trans-accepting."

It doesn't appear that way from the responses on the site.

"nearly all forms of feminism rejected trans people completely."

"nearly all forms" "completely" ?! Any evidence that it was that dominant?

"It's my impression that some ideas of feminism are inherently transphobic"

It could be that this "some" amounted to very few and accepted by very few. Some of the ideas of feminism of those responding didn't see it as inherent.

"Therefore while questioning remains a widespread ideologically consistent position acceptance remains an individual act."

Ah yes, any negative examples are not just opinions but examples of the ideology of feminism, positive examples can be dismissed as merely personal opinions. Not biased at all.

"It will require a philosophical change for feminism as a whole to accept us."

Just another assertion - which again doesn't fit the responses.

"Trans people didn't declare war on feminism; feminists declared war on us."

Absurd exaggeration - "feminists" (in general) didn't declare "war" on you. You mean, of course, that a small minority have been antagonistic.

"If I can't join a Reclaim the Night march without a threat of violence, if it means that every contact with feminists has to be cautious and subject to negotiation as if I were still male, then the social acceptance part is lacking : How can I be a feminist ?"

Still ridiculous logic - of the minority of feminists who are antagonistic an even smaller minority will threaten violence - and don't amount to an excuse to reject feminism or feminists in general. If someone said they rejected socialism because of the actions of a small, violent sect calling themselves socialists, I'm sure you'd be the first to point out the lack of logic.

Why don't you post your set of allegations about feminism on the feminist site - if you can't provide any evidence perhaps they can. It would be interesting.  


Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.

by Ted Welch (tedwelch-at-mac-dot-com) on Mon Nov 24th, 2008 at 05:22:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
There are a number of reasons why I don't identify myself with the feminist movement.  But I have to say that I don't think that person is a feminist - just an obnoxious jerk (who spells badly).  
by Maryb2004 on Sun Nov 23rd, 2008 at 08:39:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password
Recommended Diaries
Clipping the wings of a judge
by Migeru - Feb 10
31 comments

Hunger March wins PR battle
by DoDo - Feb 9
3 comments

Romania: protests change government
by DoDo - Feb 8
6 comments

Sarkozy: Enemies Ahoy!
by afew - Feb 10
15 comments

Murdoch - Outsourcing and Hubris
by ceebs - Feb 3
18 comments

Obama wins GOP Primaries (to date)
by Frank Schnittger - Feb 8
8 comments

LQD: Unsustainable irrigation
by Melanchthon - Feb 9

Bristol Pound
by ChrisCook - Feb 7
14 comments

Recent Diaries
Sarkozy: Enemies Ahoy!
by afew - Feb 10
15 comments

Clipping the wings of a judge
by Migeru - Feb 10
31 comments

LQD: Unsustainable irrigation
by Melanchthon - Feb 9

Hunger March wins PR battle
by DoDo - Feb 9
3 comments

Obama wins GOP Primaries (to date)
by Frank Schnittger - Feb 8
8 comments

Romania: protests change government
by DoDo - Feb 8
6 comments

Answers to the Renewable Energy Consultation
by Luis de Sousa - Feb 7

Bristol Pound
by ChrisCook - Feb 7
14 comments

The Imitation Of Germany
by afew - Feb 4
31 comments

Strange Fruit
by Frank Schnittger - Feb 4
14 comments

Murdoch - Outsourcing and Hubris
by ceebs - Feb 3
18 comments

Mismatch with the Natural Gas Market
by Luis de Sousa - Feb 3
22 comments

The Future of Economics
by ARGeezer - Feb 2
191 comments

Desert Island Discs - Helen's distortions
by Helen - Jan 31
48 comments

Gorila
by DoDo - Jan 29
14 comments

Rail News Blogging #7
by DoDo - Jan 29
15 comments

Obama's State Of The Union: LQD
by Crazy Horse - Jan 25
74 comments

Democracy Technology
by gmoke - Jan 24
1 comment

The Hydrogen dream
by Luis de Sousa - Jan 24
49 comments

ET Paris Meet-Up 2012 (2 UPDATE)
by afew - Jan 23
113 comments

More Diaries...
Occasional Series