"I'm widening the bandwidth of how to be a woman" Alex Drummond https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/this-transgender-woman-has-a-full-beard-and-she-couldnt-be-h
This statement is a clear example of what this thread will explore, the colonial mindset that drives many male trans activists forward. A desire to subjugate & impose their views on women. 1/

This is an area explored by feminists like Nina Paley, so I am standing on her shoulders here, https://blog.ninapaley.com/2018/02/07/gender_colonialism/
However I have not seen anything on Twitter recently. I am particularly interested why it is the bandwidth of women and NOT men that needs to be expanded. 2/

So what is a colonialist? "A person who supports the practice of gaining political control over other countries & occupying them with settlers"
If we broaden the definition from countries to groups, & ideas we have a working definition for the colonisation of women's spaces. 3/

On the basis of that definition, I would argue that in their desire to "widen the bandwidth of how to be a woman", take over language, changing rooms, toilets & other areas which have been woman only, that male trans activists are indulging in nothing less than neo-colonialism.4/

The colonial impulse often seems to have patriarchal roots, so it is unsurprising that it is mainly men who are its keenest advocates and are so deeply unaware of what they are doing - even those leftist men who decry colonisation elsewhere. 5/

And what of the trans community? Are they all gender colonists? I would argue that from research into this area as well as time on twitter, that trans women seem to split themselves into two groups. One group which is neo colonial and one resolutely not. 6/

Group 1: Those who wish to take over women's spaces and dominate women &
Group 2: those that have no desire to impose their control over women as a group and wish to live their own best trans lives.
I would argue that Group 2 are expanding the bandwidth of masculinity. 7/

So what is to be done?
The colonial instinct in trans activism needs to be exposed, along with its roots in patriarchal mores.
Men need to redirect their energies away from colonisation of women's spaces to the CULTIVATION of male spaces to expand the bandwidth of masculinity.8/

This thread is treading new ground for me. If I have trodden on toes, apologies. My motivation is to understand the thinking of men who proclaim themselves progressive, but have no compunction about organising the takeover of women's spaces, against the wishes of women. 9/

As always really happy to debate the ideas in this thread. It is necessarily brief and I am happy to be corrected. End