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Well, women's rooms are a lot safer without you in them.
I wonder how many cis women you've stared hatefully at in the restroom because you mistook them as trans? I wonder how many trans women didn't catch your ire because they fit into your idea of "proper" femininity?
I wonder how many cis women you've stared hatefully at in the restroom because you mistook them as trans? I wonder how many trans women didn't catch your ire because they fit into your idea of "proper" femininity?
Over the years, I've known many cis women who have been told they didn't belong in women's rooms by paranoid cis women who freak out over gender nonconformity.
It's a gift that you no longer frequent women's restrooms: for everyone, trans and cis. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297646617579999232
It's a gift that you no longer frequent women's restrooms: for everyone, trans and cis. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297646617579999232
This is how bigotry & stereotypes function for most oppressed groups of people. They are portrayed as dangerous to society in some way. Stories of violence and moral corruption are spread widely. People used the fear and distrust generated as a justification for visceral hatred.
I've seen the same recipe used repeatedly by the same people (family members) as justification for despising multiple oppressed groups. It's almost reflex with them.
This distorted mode of thinking and perception often doesn't stop with one group of people. It's not healthy. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297650015050096641
This distorted mode of thinking and perception often doesn't stop with one group of people. It's not healthy. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297650015050096641
Its one reason why you find racism, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and transphobia among TERFs.
Prejudice is like potato chips. People rarely stop with just one.
Prejudice is like potato chips. People rarely stop with just one.
I know most people stereotype others to a certain extent, but if you find yourself obsessively applying stereotypes to any group, the possibility of that kind of thinking spilling over to other groups—particularly despised groups with little social/political power—is a high risk.
What I and others have noticed about TERFs is that they tend to hold deeply ingrained gender stereotypes about both women and men. It's no mistake that their tendency to stereotype spills over to trans people in horrifically negative ways.
On one hand, this might seem out of place because they deem themselves as feminists. However, there has been a strong degree of gender essentialism in some subsets of feminism since 2nd wave feminism and long before.
Stereotyping is a human behavior that happens everywhere. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297653772571873281
Stereotyping is a human behavior that happens everywhere. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297653772571873281
It started with the 1st wave of feminism. 1st wave feminists relied upon the "cult of womanhood" to achieve greater political power. They reasoned that since women were "naturally purer" than men, women should hold more political power than they currently did.
You can see similar rhetoric pop up in 2nd wave feminism w/women being portrayed as more peace loving, stable people and hence more deserving of greater political representation, given that men were portrayed as quite the opposite.
The essentialism has always been there. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297655129626120193
The essentialism has always been there. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297655129626120193
And while you can make sociological arguments to try to support those perceptions, in the long run, you risk getting stuck in a pattern of reinforcing the same stereotyped assumptions about women and men that drive sexism in the first place.
It's a risky gambit.
It's a risky gambit.
And those same essentialist ideologies have been used as a means to enforce anti-trans oppression. This is where gender stereotyping by parts of feminism have served as an engine of oppression against a group with far less power than cis women.
Over time, that tendency to embrace and promulgate gender stereotypes has metastasized into a social movement which encourages and promotes sentiments such as this.
While we all do it to a certain extent, it's not a great idea to rely heavily upon stereotypes in dealing w/the world: not even toward one's adversaries & oppressors. The risk of things turning south in quite harmful ways is always there.
TERFism is a case study in that dynamic.
TERFism is a case study in that dynamic.
I also want to include this observation/disclaimer to the end of the thread:
There's nothing wrong with creating incisive criticisms of the collective negative behaviors witnessed in one's oppressors. This is necessary for social and political change.
There's nothing wrong with creating incisive criticisms of the collective negative behaviors witnessed in one's oppressors. This is necessary for social and political change.
If you can't name and describe the nature of the abuse that your group experiences at the hands of those who are oppressing you, how can you ever begin to institute some kind of change?
You can't.
You can't.
At some point, however, it is possible to leave the realm of legitimate social justice oriented criticism of one's oppressors and venture into a practice of habitual stereotyping of others.
It's unlikely that habit will cause damage to those with greater power, but over time, there might be unintended effects which impact those who occupy an oppressed social status of some kind.
I'll give you an example of the kind of risk I'm talking about.
It's a legitimate observation that women, as a group, face a collective threat of sexual, emotional, and physical violence from men. This is a source of widespread sexist oppression against women.
It's a legitimate observation that women, as a group, face a collective threat of sexual, emotional, and physical violence from men. This is a source of widespread sexist oppression against women.
However, it is tempting (and *I* have done this too often, as a woman and a feminist) to embrace a stereotype of nearly all men being violent and sexually aggressive.
This is really tempting. Boys/men have been my primary abusers.
This is really tempting. Boys/men have been my primary abusers.
I have to be careful how far I take this generalization. It's not going to hurt white cishet men, for the most part.
However, when that personal stereotype combines with racism, homophobia, or transphobia, the outcome is potentially far more negative and risky.
Gay/bi men are seen as dangerous sexual aggressors around boys and other men. Men of color, male immigrants, and Muslim men are viewed as sexually, emotionally, and physically dangerous toward (white) women.
Trans women, partially viewed as men/male by cis society, are seen as sexual aggressors, violence prone, and unsafe around children.
My own stereotypes about men, as a group, can inadvertently spill over and reinforce any of those other stereotypes I mentioned, when those stereotypes impact people with lesser power in society's hierarchy.
This is always a danger.
This is always a danger.
The danger of thinking in terms of stereotypes is that this kind of thinking readily combines with prejudices against those with lesser power and forms a basis for bigotry: consciously or unconsciously.
And when this is shared with others, it collectively reinforces oppression.
And when this is shared with others, it collectively reinforces oppression.
This is the thing about recognizing the intersectional nature of oppression in a kyriarchal society. The complexity of the way these forces play out can produce unexpected interplay between oppression and power.
It's not simple by any means.
It's not simple by any means.
We constantly switch roles between oppressor and oppressed depending upon the context of a given interaction with another person. What we experience in one role can spill over into the other.
Nothing exists in isolation in such a tightly woven, complex system.
Nothing exists in isolation in such a tightly woven, complex system.
The way one approaches one's own status and roles in society should take into consideration that one is never just a member of an oppressed group or just a member of an oppressor group.
What we do and what we think in everyday life funnels through both of those social positions.
What we do and what we think in everyday life funnels through both of those social positions.
I don't think I have to say this but just to be clear:
This is not *my* view. I'm talking about transphobic cis people. Their prejudices against us cloud their perceptions of trans people. They don't actually see us as the women, men, and non-binary people we truly are. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297674901395050498
This is not *my* view. I'm talking about transphobic cis people. Their prejudices against us cloud their perceptions of trans people. They don't actually see us as the women, men, and non-binary people we truly are. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297674901395050498
That's the thing about prejudice, right? It's a pre-judgement of another human being, which supersedes reality in the prejudiced person's mind. People's beliefs about a despised group of people usually mask & replace the reality of who that group of people actually are.
Bigots see what they want to see.
Bigots see what their distorted beliefs allow them to see.
Those perceptions of the targeted group are extremely distorted. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297759775288172545
Bigots see what their distorted beliefs allow them to see.
Those perceptions of the targeted group are extremely distorted. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1297759775288172545
Sadly, horrifyingly, there are plenty of bigoted cis people who see trans women as men (at least in some capacity), see trans men as women (at least in some capacity), and see non-binary people in a way which is limited to the gender binary that the bigot compulsively clings to.
This doesn't change the fact that we really are who we say we are.
It does mean that we have to endure a lot of horrible reactions from far too many assholes.
That's not our fault. It's the assholes' fault.
It does mean that we have to endure a lot of horrible reactions from far too many assholes.
That's not our fault. It's the assholes' fault.
Sadly, these bigoted, distorted perceptions of our identities, of our humanness and core of being, shape the stereotypes that bigots apply to us.
I wish this weren't true. I wish all cis people actually perceived us in ways which embrace who we are and accurately represent who we are.
Alas, they do not.
Alas, they do not.
