Have been thinking about trans and feminism (still!)...Within 2nd wave feminism there has always existed a branch of radical feminism that insists that gender identity/practice is determined by sex and that sex is fixed. A trans woman cannot be a woman, nor a trans man a man...
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All of this has been clear to me for a long time. It’s a very familiar theoretical/political landscape. I know how to ‘debate’ with trans exclusionary *radical* feminists. This, for me, is old hat-though no less problematic. BUT...
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What I’ve been struggling to understand is a much more recent strain of anti-trans rhetoric articulated by women who identify as feminists. I hesitate to call it a movement as it’s very small. I’m reluctant to call it feminist as it is devoid of the basic values of feminism...
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So I’ll call it a trans exclusionary clan (TEC). TECs are made up *largely* of white middle class hetero women and supported by men from both the Left and Right. They are also aligned with the far right (Free Tommy Robinson campaign) and anti feminist male movements (F for J)...
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So they are not picky, to say the least, about where their support comes from or who they are aligned with. And this is *because* they have no politics as in political history, praxis, values. They are focused - no, utterly, strangely, obsessed - with one issue: trans people...
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So where has this strange clan appeared from? It seems to me that they are largely made up from two demographics: 1) Bored and very bitter women who are desperate for public recognition. 2) Media professionals desperate to sell stories...
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Together, these 2 groups have the time, energy and nastiness to cook up storm. So we are living amidst a moral panic about trans that is engineered largely by nasty women with too much time on their hands and no political values/theory, needy journos and some very dodgy men...
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But like all moral panics, this will pass. The government is not listening to the hype. Neither are the majority of people within feminism, sexual movements, on the Left, or, indeed, on the right. Nor are people living everyday lives outside of political movements...
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And so let’s recognise the TECs for the very nasty opportunists that they are and counter them as needed. But let’s also get on with the feminist politics that really do matter to material everyday lives and look forward to political and everyday times beyond the trans panic...
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And no doubt to the old sex/gender distinction debacles, which, in these dreadful transphobic times, sometimes, seem *almost* innocent
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End of conversation
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I'm the one who wrote the "official post": Andrea Dworkin on transgender. You're welcome. I'm still called terf. How does that work, exactly? https://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2009/08/andrea-dworkin-on-transgender.html … You can see em come after me in the post! I started realizing (slowly!) that *nothing* I did would be enough.
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