There has been a recent flurry of stories concerning the view some feminists have over transsexuals, with Caitlyn Jenner being the touchstone. A recent one, published in the New York Posts tell us more about feminists orthodoxy and beliefs than about transsexualism.
http://nypost.com/2015/10/26/theres-a-feminist-civil-war-bre...
This is by no means a new story. a book entitled The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male by Janice G. Raymond, first published in 1979, put forth this very same premiss. The following is an extract from Wikipedia;
The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male is a 1979 book by the American radical feminist author and activist Janice Raymond. The book is derived from Raymond's dissertation which was produced under the supervision of the feminist theologian Mary Daly.
Raymond investigates the role of transsexualism in society – particularly psychological and surgical approaches to it – and argues that transsexualism reinforces traditional gender stereotypes. Raymond also writes about the ways in which the medical-psychiatric complex is medicalizing gender identity and the social and political context that has helped spawn transsexual treatment and surgery as normal and therapeutic medicine.
Raymond maintains that transsexualism is based on the "patriarchal myths" of "male mothering," and "making of woman according to man's image." She claims this is done in order "to colonize feminist identification, culture, politics and sexuality," adding: "All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves .... Transsexuals merely cut off the most obvious means of invading women, so that they seem non-invasive."
In case some readers here have not noticed, TGs, TSs and whatever other label is currently in vogue are not universally hailed by people you would expect to to understand what the word tolerance means. Even many in the LGB little t community do not embrace us as is generally believed. As late as 2007, when Congress was debating the equal rights bill, HRC, of all people, willing threw the TG community under the bus in an effort to pass the bill.
What does this mean? Well, it all depends on what you believe.
Any who, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Nancy Cole
a.k.a. HW Coyle
Comments
Jumping Ship Early
There are probably as many different manifestations of T as there are T people. Old bitties like these women are like barnacles on the hull of humanity. They may say they have a voice but most real people don't even know who they are.
To me it was unfortunate that Ms Jenner came out in such a splashy, exhibitionistic way and I am still very cynical about her value to the T community, though she does have a right to self expression.
The T folk that I have personally met are an odd lot, though we need to support each other as well as we can.
yes, we can be an "odd lot"
but i think that has more to do with the fact we have had to hide ourselves over the years, some more than others, some in different ways than others. the younger generations that are transitioning just after 18 or starting as kids i think will be "less odd" as they will have closer to "normal" childhoods, more so as it becomes more accepted, and less "controversial" to some who are thinking like Mrs Greer. her and Janice Raymond are just old school TERF's (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists), and personally i think Janice Raymond should be prosecuted for her professional misconduct in her "paper" done in the late 70's early 80's that caused SRS being removed from Medicare practicing standards to "experimental" status because she used the same kind of studies that Ben Carson has cited, and the other Dr at Johns Hopkins who thinks we are not real, and the Cummings, a pair of anti trans trans people (claim to be intersex, unknown if accurate or not, first time i encountered them, this was NOT their claim, so not sure if its their way of making THEIR transition ok) etc. These studies have been known to be unscientific, faulty in the extreme, or very limited in scope so as to be unscientific. I think a lot of us who have ended their lives should be laid at HER feet, Janice Raymond that is. Her paper was found to be faulty and fraudulent in the the case where Medicare now WILL cover SRS, on a case by case basis, that was done late last year i think? or early this year.
Teresa L.
It's the way of incompetent researchers
How is it that they think they can truly understand trans-experience when they are not one themselves? They are more like trying to protect their gains then anything else. That they can write such 'papers' without a truly in-depth sampling and longitudinal study is an insult to science for one and cannot be taken seriously. The book is a volatile mix of ego, male hatred, trans-prejudice, homophobia and paranoia. Clearly she drew the conclusions she wanted to conclude, drawing information from a distorted sample of people who are on the fringes of society who are that way because society pushed them out. Then, very conveniently, society gets to say 'See? they are such horrible people who brought it upon themselves and live such horrible lives!'
She is such a sick piece of cr**
Dangerous Nonsense
All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact,
This is the language of ideology, not science. Apart from the sheer idiocy of Raymond's assertion, by using the word 'rape' she both insults and belittles actual victims of that crime.
What she is really upset about
She of course thinks TS women are 'appropriating' yet another thing that belong to men, the female body which is the core of female identity.
She most tellingly does not ever mention F->M, as if they do not exist at all. Germaine Greer of course does not mention them either. Why is she not saying that they are betraying their sex by caving in to the power and privileges the male form possesses? Quite sad, how she rationalizes things.
TERFs and Intersectionality - a semi humorous response :)
Goodness gracious but it is a bit much when die hard Republicans and Conservatives (like Nancy and I) espouse the doctrine of intersectionality! :)
The comments below were written by me for a well respected and internationally recognised researcher and therapist to support a chapter of a book they are writing. These thoughts are very much my own and if you disagree, and can argue cogently why, I will happily change my stance to incorporate your ideas and suggestions.
Persephone
Non sum qualis eram
I'll drink to that
What she said.
Nancy Cole
a.k.a. HW Coyle
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson