Ađ§”on the great unanswered questions of our time.
A spool?
You all know them, youâve all asked them and all you get in reply are circular definitions, insults or tumbleweed.
On Twitter? Sure, I suppose. Not a great medium for thoughtful debate, I'd wager. And when people do respond with thoughtful well-reasoned answers, you probably just ignore them, though, huh? But I'll give it a shot anyway, just because letting bullshit like this go unchallenged pisses me off.
1. What rights do trans people currently not have?
Well now, I suppose that depends very much on where we live, don't it? Here in the glorious People's Republic of California I'm doing relatively okay. In other places, they might just murder me for for the lulz. But let's not talk about what rights I have. Let's talk about the rights you most want to deny me. Yes, I'll give you the answer you're so obviously fishing for! Trans people are often being denied the right to use public bathrooms. Here's the part where you say something like "but TIMs have the right to use men's toilets so you still have equal rights". So true. Just like lesbians are allowed to marry men, so outlawing same-sex marriage doesn't deny them any rights. Right?
2. Why is it ok to identify into a sex but not a race/ethnicity/disability?
Hmm. Yes. A compelling argument. No, wait, I mean a very superficial argument. Let's get past the easy ones first. Ethnicity is detetmined by your family history, more or less. What you want to be isn't much important there. And you know, a disability of one kind or another is a definite trait you have or not, identity be damned. Of course with race, things get tricky. Race, of course, isn't really a thing except in the popular imagination. Or more precisely, race only exists as a social construct designed to justify treating people with certain superficial traits as less than human. A lot like how TERFs see gender, I suppose. The key difference? Say it with me now, "sex is real!" That is, there is a biological difference between females and males, but no meaningful way to define race in terms of real biology. What is true but you will never accept is that most people are hardwired with a "gender identity" as they call it. Or as I sometimes like to think of it, a "sense of one's own sex", to avoid the baggage of the word "gender" which IMHO is a rather overloaded term at this point. But we are. Certainly I clearly see myself as female even though I was born with a penis. It's because I have a brain wired for a female body. My brain, in other words, developed as one sex while my external anatomy went the other way. You see, biology is messy and is constantly pissing all over our attempts to sort things into neat categories. So, it's really just about being myself, no "identifying into" anything.
3. Why is standing up for womenâs rights transphobic?
Why should anybody answer a question asked in bad faith? You know damn well that the reason people call you transphobic has jack shit to do with you standing up for women's rights and everything to do with insisting that trans women are really men and using that as a justification for excluding us from appropriate single-sex spaces. You're not standing up for women's rights. If anything, you're working to eliminate them.
4. Why do you care about preferred pronouns when theyâre used if you are elsewhere?
Is that a real question? Look, you're a dumb bitch, okay? I mean, you probably won't read this so what difference does it make if I call you names?
5. If trans women are women what they transitioning from?
I was living as a man. Now I'm living as a woman. I had a male body. Soon I will have a female body. I'd argue I've been a woman my whole adult life, but if you want to make an argument that being a woman requires living as one socially, I'd entertain that. Sex and gender are tricky subjects.
The important thing is that when people say "trans women are women" it's that trans women have female minds. You know, we're women on the inside despite our bodies. And the end result of a classical transition, with hormones and surgery? Well, if having female secondary sex characteristics, a vagina, and a body full of estrogen and little to no testosterone combined with being seen as female by those around me *doesn't* make me a "real woman" boy oh boy do you have a lot of explaining to do. What, exactly, is there that still makes me a man at that point, hm? And don't say "a Y chromosome" unless you can actually explain why that really means something.
6. If trans women are women why do they need to transition?
I need to transition precisely because I'm a woman. Living as a man is unbearable torture.
7. Where are all the middle aged women transitioning?
*raises hand*
Or, wait, you mean trans men actually, I guessing? I mean, they're out there. Really though, it should be the case that over time fewer people will wait this long to transition. I knew I wanted to be female since I was a little kid, maybe 8 to 10 years. That I'm nearly 40 and am only really just starting my transition is a great tragedy that hopefully one day no one will need to repeat.
8. If trans men are men, why are they not dominating menâs sports?
Why... would they?
9. If being trans is not a medical condition, why do you need medical interventions?
What difference does it make? Seriously. Is being trans a medical condition? I don't know that I care. I do know that having a penis sucks, and it's not like I can just wish on a Glob-damned shooting star to get a vulva right? So, you know, doctors and shit.
10.How can you be both trans and non-binary?
I guess because human language is imprecise and often the labels we choose to apply to ourselves are fuzzy and ill-defined? I mean, lots of people have different ideas about what trans means and what non-binary means, and how those categories relate to one another.
Anyway, I don't know why you think this question is such a gotcha. Here are two possible answers. One: being non-binary is a type of being transgender since it means identifying as something other than your sex assigned at birth. Two: if someone who is non-binary takes steps to transition either socially or physically into a gender space other than that which they were born into it means crossing gender categories, or being trans-gender. Or whatever. Can't say I've ever given this all that much thought because, you know, why would it ever matter?
11.Why does it take surgery and drugs to be your true authentic self?
It's because my brain is wired for a female body. That's all there is to it. Having a male body just feels completely wrong. It's not rational. It just is. Until I do something about it, I'll never really feel like a real person. If you woke up tomorrow with s male body, I suspect you'd not be feeling too much like yourself either.
12.Where are the statistics showing trans people are attacked at a greater rate than other groups of people?
Well, I can't answer that without doing more work than I care to. But, you've got to be pretty ignorant to not know that trans people are often demonized and targeted for various kinds of harassment and violence.
13.Why are trans womenâs fears of male violence in single sex spaces justified but womenâs fears of male violence in single sex spaces means they are hateful bigots?
A dishonest question. "Women's fears" includes trans women's fears, so if women's fears of male violence are justification for using women-only spaces then trans women's fears are equally justification for us using those same spaces. You get called hateful bigots for insisting that trans women are really men and that we pose some danger to cis women when we use spaces designated women-only, despite any real evidence that such a danger exists.
14.Why is it not ok to misgender a trans person but fine to call someone âcisâ when theyâve asked you not to?
And what would you prefer to be called, hm? "Cis" basically means "not-trans" or "neither trans nor non-binary" depending on how you define things. This complaint is little more than an Orwellian attempt to eliminate the language needed to meaningfully discuss the issue of trans people is a way that is not demeaning or dismissive of our right to exist.
15.If gender is a social construct and anyone can dress/behave however they want, why the need for transition?
IF. Of course I've already explained the biological basis for gender in the sense of gender identity, so yeah, gender isn't purely a social construct, rendering this question moot. But if gender was a purely social construct? If that were so I'd be inclined to ask why one would have a problem with people transitioning.
16.If sex isnât real, why transition?
IF. Oh dear Glob. Why not try answering that one for yourself, huh? Why indeed would I transition if sex weren't real? Why? It's pretty amazing though that trans people transitioning is both an expression of our not believing sex is real and something that only makes sense if sex is real. It's... almost like your ideology is a bunch of incoherent nonsense. đ€
17.Why do feelings trump material reality
I think that's a question I'd like to ask you lot.
18.Do you believe that adult male born people with a penis should be able to undress in female communal changing rooms with women and girls?
I mean, if they're actually women themselves, I guess so. Contrary to popular belief, one can actually catch a short glimpse of a penis without turning to stone. I know I don't think I'd be comfortable in a communal changing room until I get my genitals converted, but still, if that's my only option it's better than being forced to change with the men.
