dealing with "gender critical"
I have a person who i've known for 15 years, who I feel should know better given their profession. A man, they express transphobic views through the excuse-lens of "gender critical", which appears to be a form of feminism that refuses access and rights to transwomen wanting to be accepted as women.
So, what is our response, what are our views, what have you done to debate, challenge, discuss, address these things? because simply cutting off the person won't help educate or shift those biased against us.
xx Pam
So, I wrote this for them
This is my initial writing to the other person. I suspect the wording might cause a little upset or uproar in fellow TG quarters, but it is well-intended as part of a dialogue with the transphobe. I'd appreciate constructive feedback, not arguments or disputes.
Addressing Non-understanding of Transgender for Someone Willing to Broaden their Perspective
This brief article has emerged after I tried to address what I perceived as a lack of genuine understanding of the situation for a transsexual in terms of feminism and pro-radical-feminism and anti-transgenderism aming partticularly the LGB demographic. Where I speak is from my own experience, and I would be wary of generalising too much. I am also choosing to speak only of the Male-to-Female form of transgenderism, though I might make a few words at the end about the F2M in relation to prejudices.
Starting with definitions, the term "transgender" covers a wide sprectrum covering crossdresser, genderfluid and transsexual.
The crossdressers who I have met in person are sometimes men expressing their feminine, and others who are using that as a cover to engage in homosexual relations - they use the crossdressing as an excuse to pretend to themselves and eachother that they are not actually bisexual, as "it does not count" in their words, in terms of being unfaithful outside of their primary heterosexual relationships. Then there are the drag queens; many self-proclaiming their gayness, openly being men interested in attracting men and expressing a very gay-male perception of the feminine. and there are the DQ?s who are straight men who just like to perform in drag. What I have not come across, in any of these men, is a menace towards women.
The M2F genderfluid folks are people whose sense of personal gender changes by the day or even by the hour. They are already suffering enough with this, and certainly in my opinion present no threat to others, and I can't really see why a genderfluid would want to go to a radical feminist group.
The key problem of non-understanding is about the M2F transsexuals. These are women born with male bodies. They do not see the world as men do. Their brains are wired to show either as female-stereotype or as something different from either gender stereotype?s neurology. Most will go through gender re-assignment surgery, and almost all will be at least on HRT or be waiting to receive HRT. As 99% are on HRT or post-op, they are highly unlikely to have any functional sexual equipment, and their strength-power is down to female or below-female levels. Having a large frame without the associated strength is a genuine disadvantage. A transsexual woman with a Gender Recognition Certificate is a woman. As women, they do not present a male threat to other women.
Moving to the radical-feminist, largely male-hating female demographic, I can understand why they want nothing and no-one of male origin among their ranks or among their groups. I can empathise with people hating a demographic for the actions of an evil minority who have raped and abused, and against a world of genuine male privilege that almost 100% of males can?t even see or acknowledge. But the transwomen get this; they understand. They disidentify with the male-pattern behaviours. They hate it as much themselves, and everything it stands for. They are sisters.
Take the analogy of the black man who converted large numbers of Klannsmen to leave, and understand that reinforcing hate and separation does nothing to heal; it only furthers and continues the pain. Consider that accepting others as they are, consider that the only genuine emotion is love, and that any other emotion is a distortion caused by ancient traumas in origin, and you can begin to understand that the transphobic behaviour is a signal for healing not for reinforcing hate.
[... and that's kind of how I'm trying to give this transphobe some sense of there being no danger to drive his protective urge for the radical femininsts.]