Moving on from dogmatic mantras, she or he is fine with me
as long as they aren't being a
click. I refuse to enter the reality distortion field of outliers like
Veronica and Riley, who require a suspension of disbelief too far to engage with on their terms. In Riley's case, it isn't so much the
laryngeal prominence as it is the covert aggression,
cringey inauthenticity, and twisted intolerance. (The unrelenting
jump cuts also do my head in, but it is
the way of things.)
Of the many replies to articles and blog posts and videos I've now consumed on this subject, the winner for pith has to be: "I'm not buying what you're selling."
Apologies to those expecting a post about flip-flop hubs.
Know Your LingoA refresher.
Everything is transphobicSorry about that.
Fact Checking a Widely Shared Rebuttal of J.K. Rowling"After all, you’d have to be an insane pedant to go through the whole thread trying to correct the record. So, let’s begin."
Part 2 (there are 4! – perseverance is amply rewarded) includes the best dissection of 'cis' I've ever read.
Somewhere over the Rainbow, something went terribly wrong"Definitions matter. Respecting people, matters. Criticising bad ideas also matters."
An Open Letter to the Friend Who Thinks I Hate Transgender PeopleSufferin' succotash.
ConundrumSee also
The Many Lives of Jan Morris. Subscription or incognito mode required. Note to self: read everything Morris has ever written.
Is Julia Serano right that transwomen are female?Medium appears to have taken a position on the matter.
I Am a Transtrender and so can youTo live outside the law you must be honest.
Riley J. Dennis Is An LGBTQ EducatorWe're all getting an education.
A Pineapple is Not a Broken OrangeTalented speaker, but TMI, and almost certainly a crowd of the unwary. Cassie doesn't handle
discussion (as opposed to cheerleading) too well, which is fairly typical.
On Gender, Blurring the Line Between Dogma and Farce"The current spasm of social panic..." I find the word spasm triggering.
Decoupled from realityThat train has left the station.
Can I ask trans women I'm dating about their genitals?The comments offer some relief from the advice on offer.
I kind of feel like shock or surprise shouldn't be part of the experience of undressing with someone you're about to have sex with.
Put down the penis, and come out with your hands up.
Expecting people to be attracted to equipment that they're simply not attracted to is -- well, let's call it quixotic.
Yes, it’s Wrong to Tell Trans People
You Don’t Want to Sleep With Them Because of Their Genitals"I would never tell anyone who they should be attracted to. But."
The Secret Internet of TERFsFox News dropped "fair and balanced", The Atlantic picked it up. Worth it to find
Sarah Ditum.J.K. Rowling and the Echo Champer of TERFsSlate are clearly sold on the agenda, as is the author on his talents. Keep an eye out for the tireless JennyAnyDots; marvel at how she's largely ignored.
Responding to J.K. Rowling’s EssayI settled in for an hour of enlightenment, but got stuck on the Maya Forstater coverage starting nine minutes in, which included a brief shot of her "very clearly transphobic" tweets. With a fundamental disagreement on what constitutes transphobia, there seemed little point continuing. YMMV.
World's first Transgender MMA FighterQuite a
speciman.Inspiration Profile: Pips BunceNot technically a wanker banker, but close.
Why I'm Not Getting "The Surgery"Disproves that old adage that men seldom make passes at girls who aren't lasses. Honestly educational. I've assumed cost was the main reason for not going
all the way.So, About This SurgeryAre you sure you want to be scrolling down, braveheart?
Forget What Gender Activists Tell YouHard to forget.
Girl Dick, the Cotton Ceiling and the Cultural War on Lesbians and WomenYou had me at girl dick.
A Glossary Of TransphobiaSpeaking
of which.100 Ways to Make the World Better for Non-Binary People"Embrace the contradictory and confusing." Sure thing, boss.
42. Give your pet gender-neutral pronouns like "they." This is awesome practice. (And ask me about my rant on how we can never know animals' genders since they can't speak to us...)
So many teachable moments, so little time.
"Gender Fluid" Person Confuses EveryoneNicky Campbell needs to be drowned like a kitten. That said, I wasn't confused. Maybe a word that rhymes with confused.
disclaimer
Google informs me that "needs to be drowned like a kitten" has never before been uttered online, which comes as a surprise. The phrase popped into my head and refused to be forgotten. For the sake of clarity, I do not condone the drowning of kittens, television presenters, or indeed any living creature, no matter how hapless. Embracing the contradictory and confusing can go too far.
Next on INSIDE edition: Fisherman found guilty of staging kitten rescue video Why transgender people are ignored by modern medicineA cautionary tale of getting what you want, and getting it good and hard.
Things Not To Say To A Trans PersonAnnoying in that special way the BBC has of bringing it out in people.
First DayDid someone mention
shameless?
Ah, the perils of top tubesIt's not complicatedThat a person can spend as much time as I have wondering if the M in TWAM should be Men or Male shows just how complicated it has become. It should probably be the latter, but it doesn't really matter because both are
considered transphobic.I've Given Birth, But I Am Not My Children's Mother. Where Do I Belong?Possibly on a different site.
Call 'em TheyYou get one yes. Choose carefully.
Boop/bob/beepMay the Force be with thee.
There's no such thing as a non-binary haircutAnother reminder that history rhymes.
Do I need a haircut? There's a binary answer.No, misgendering me is not okay or justifiable. Yes, this is a big deal.That I value civility and thus can live with a degree of cognitive dissonance in aid of those suffering from dysphoria does not mean I agree that corporeal reality must be cast aside in the race to a brave new world.
"Am I not a woman like they are?" asked Amelia in 2014, to which the answer is of course no. A few years later he was
sliced all the fuck up, and although that doesn't change inconvenient biological facts, she's gone some distance to earn the pronoun. I would be more impressed if s/he had been a better
sport all along and competed with men.
In The New Transgender World, Women No Longer Exist"The only way ensure that everyone who knows she is a woman is treated as a woman is to destroy any definition of what it is to be a woman. Is this so hard to understand?"


Assigned MaleUsually found preaching before a congregation of
straw men.
Here's a good critique.
This one's a bit more fun.
Barry makes comicsMore straw. More men.
Motorcyclist Who Identifies As Bicyclist Sets Cycling World RecordWhy J.K. Rowling must dieWith handy flowcharts.
I Am A Transwoman. I Am In The Closet. I Am Not Coming Out."Forced to carry multiple perspectives like bactrian humps" isn't a sentence you read every day.
Are Pronouns Important?"Sometimes I misgender myself."
Eddie Izzard Publicly Requests ‘She’ & ‘Her’ PronounsCollective gender euphoria, here we come.
Can't a girl mode
ride her bike in peace without a big song and dance being made about it?
For the Eddiefication of those who think he's a better catch in boy modeWe need to talk about Ellen PageOK,
I'm listening. "Cheer, hit the ‘like’ button, don’t think too much about it, the marching orders go... And leave it to Big Tech to immediately correct the historical record in Elleniot’s service. There was never someone named Ellen and Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia."
Chloe Dygert apology for social media conduct “not sufficient” says RaphaDefinitely not buying what they're selling.
Cat Graffam"i always land on my feet & throw up on the floor". I'd buy what she's selling.
Gender is not a spectrum"I too believe my thoughts, feelings, aptitudes and dispositions are far too interesting, well-rounded and complex to simply be a 'cis woman'. I, too, would like to transcend socially constructed stereotypes about my female body and the assumptions others make about me as a result of it..."
From the comments:
I find several things wrong with this article.
The first is that the subject of the article suggests an unwholesome self-absorption and self-centredness. Practically all of us have things about us that are socially or intimately awkward. But, most of us, we do not indulge in marathon sessions of introspection in an effort to find out how we would like the world to treat us. In my experience the world, unless it has some political interest it treating you otherwise, will treat you as it wishes.
The second is that it is entirely from a feminine point of view. The author is either speaking for men, dismissing them as inconsequential or simply branding them as ‘the oppressor’. As a working class male my perception of social and cultural reality is entirely different to hers. I have been oppressed by both males and females when they had power over me. Oppression is not the exclusive domain of the masculine male, it goes with the power whether it be physical, financial or economic.
Nature doesn't care how we identify. It assigns us a role in the interests of reproduction and how we handle that role decides the chances of the continued survival and development of our genes. In the general melee of survival some class of society will develop invariably with a pecking order based on strength of some kind. Eventually social and cultural conditions become expressions of the balance of power in society and culture. Whatever that balance is the one certainty is that some of those in power will be oppressors. If feminists currently feel empowered and powerful then, for sure, they are oppressing. But they do not seem to mind.
"We are dying chemical reactors powering about 4 quadrillion binary logic gates."
Should Cis People have the Same Rights as Everyone Else?The indefatigable Katy Montgomerie tries her hand at satire.
A short dialogue with oneself
Addressing The Claims In JK Rowling’s Justification For TransphobiaBeing called a TERF, or transphobic, isn’t an insult. It’s not a bullying tactic. It’s not the same as saying someone has fleas. It’s a description of someone whose views come from a place of irrational prejudice of trans people.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Just how when we are discussing gay rights, women’s rights or the rights of people of colour, pointing out homophobia, misogyny or racism is the first step towards a rational discussion, calling out irrational prejudice of trans people is the first step here.
Go on. I mean, you’ve lost me, but I’m still here.
There is no denying that all of these accusations are sometimes overused or mistargetted, but that isn’t an excuse to instantly shrug them off every single time they are pointed out. How can we discuss an issue that is undeniably, demonstrably surrounded by irrational prejudice if we aren’t even allowed to call that out for what it is?
We may have found common ground.
You cannot address oppression if you cannot name your oppressor.
You shall overcome, eh?
Tulsi tweets the truthThe truth hurts: it is known.
Umberto Eco & The BunnymenEarns a link for the handle alone.
Transtweeting Not a promising start, but went on to raise some smiles.
Public Pronoun ListTruly a public service.
Can someone please explain…A suggestion OP. If you read any of the posts on this thread and find them to be describing things that don't seem to make sense or are incomprehensible feel free to assume that they're actually wrong rather than assuming that there's some profound complexity you don't understand.
TERF's Original SinGuilt-by-association time again. Bonus points for 'Sonderkommando'.
Bunburys Eighth – Sealion training for beginnersMumsnet community disruptors watch, one of a series. Yours truly, outing myself after having set off someone’s spidey senses. (I had to look up Cara Dune. Redux was already in the databanks.) Neither sea lion nor duck, the main effect this had was to nudge me in the direction of so long and thanks for all the fish.
On a side note,
FWR reminds me of
HPC: true believers I happen to agree with, but seemingly a despised minority. Though it remains to be seen how much of a minority they are.
For anyone counting, this will be the first of two times I'm associated with sealioning – stay tuned for Elliot’s post. Given what may be the unusual circumstance of catching flak from both sides, I claim endangered species status.
Backlash"Trans men
are men. Period." You're seventeen, so you should know.
Are we the baddies?Are you spewing hatred and abuse at everyone who has the temerity to disagree? Do you often find that violent imagery is necessary to get your ideas across? If not, then probably not.
Women are not an identity. Not a feeling. Not a legislative status to be awarded with a certificate. We're the people who are born and die female. No lie will ever be powerful enough to cover that reality. Not ever.
UK census, a threadProvided as an example of uncivil discourse. Look for replies to GottogetaGRC. Transphobic? No. A bit mean spirited? Yep. Goady, in the parlance. Not all, but some. "Word it in a particular way and you will get a better response." Yep.
Laé D. BoiNot related to La-Z-Boy AFAIK. Do tell us more about the subtle nuances of being a woman.
My Pronouns are Fluid and My Identity is SolidUtterly exhausting.
The Missing LinkI'm glad you exist, Emma.
My Existence Is Not Up For DebateNot gawking but yawning.
The Wrong Kind of TransDerivation of 'quisling' only necessary insofar as Godwin’s law must be obeyed. I’ve had some time to reconsider Magdalen Berns, and have come to this conclusion: flawed, but correct.
Basic Biology: Somehow ControversialSays it all really.
Transgender ideologyAlways more links.
"I invite you to disenchant all of my fairy tales."