So Lea Delaria, a lesbian comic, caved to pressures from the trans community and backed out of Michfest. Great. Grand. Wonderful. Bravo for her, really. Bravo that she was able to prioritize the concerns of males over those of lesbians, over those of her fan base.
I have to be honest, I’m pretty pissed off about this.
In backing out of Michfest, Delaria cited “in-fighting” within the LGBT community.
There is in-fighting within the LGBT community. There’s no doubt about that. However, might I posit that the in-fighting is due to the fact that “T” does not belong with the LGB?
Gender identity and sexuality are two fundamentally different things. The M2T activists never stop harping on this point. We cannot question their sexuality, we cannot question their penises, we cannot question their histories.
Okay then, let’s at least admit that the problems of a heterosexual man who “feels” like a woman are in no way related to my strife as an actual woman who is an actual lesbian. Maybe it’s time for us to part ways. Maybe it’s time we wish each other good luck, give each other a kiss on the cheek, and say, “Adieu, until we meet again.”
If women’s work was “finished,” I wouldn’t be writing this blog post. If women and girls weren’t being systemically brutalized, I wouldn’t bother with this topic at all. It is, after all, exhausting. But women are still systemically oppressed, brutalized, exploited and therefore I cannot, in good faith, accommodate the “special feelings” of men who have convinced themselves that they are female because they like Barbie Dolls, high heels and the color pink. I just cannot do it.
Frankly, I am all in favor of a world where a boy can like Barbie Dolls and ballerina shoes, where a boy can wear a dress without being surgically or medically altered out of his perfect, human state.
Gender is an oppressive construct, and female/male is a biological reality. Liking pink, wanting long hair, and disliking your body is not “proof” that you are female, it is merely proof you live in a world that is oppressively patriarchal. All women dislike their bodies – by “trans logic,” all women are “trans.”
But we’re not. And you know what? Women and gays need a fucking break from the trans agenda – an agenda that prioritizes gender norms, fetishizes subjugation, and uses stereotypical (misogynistic) markers to define women’s/lesbian’s reality.
We are not in a place as a society, a country, a planet where we can afford to redefine womanhood. We are definitely not in a place where we should willingly redefine “woman”/”gay” based on a straight man’s understanding of that word – and yet, that’s exactly what we’re doing.
As I am wont, I will end this on an anecdote.
When I first moved to the town where I now live, I wanted to get involved in the (very small) lesbian community. Then I realized that the ONLY lesbian group in my town was run by transwomen and populated, almost exclusively, by transwomen – but they were “lesbians,” you see.
Before you flip the fuck out on me, let me tell you that I have eyes. You can invert your dick, take enough Estrogen to kill a cow, and I can still see that you are male. Women are not idiots.
And as a lesbo, I guess I’m a big ol’ transphobe for not wanting to join up with the lesbian group run by heterosexual men.
Fuck it.
Fuck you.
Hypotaxis 
Reblogged this on You think I just don't understand, but I don't believe you..
“Infighting.” An interesting word choice to describe “Women setting a boundary and not having it respected.”
thank you. this portion of your writing (in particular) unlocked a whole wing of my mind from male colonization:
“However, might I posit that the in-fighting is due to the fact that “T” does not belong with the LGB? .. Gender identity and sexuality are two fundamentally different things. The M2T activists never stop harping on this point. We cannot question their sexuality, we cannot question their penises, we cannot question their histories.”
having that talking point handy is so powerful. i will refer to it when i am confronted with the assaults to my reason by MRA/M2T activists.
even if i cannot liberate my body, my mind will be free. so help me, my mind will be free.
As someone who doesn’t have a dog in this fight (I’m not a lesbian, don’t really consider myself a radical feminist, and have never attended MichFest), I don’t understand why transwomen are getting so up in arms about ciswomen wanting to exclude transwomen. It’s a private event. The organizers can include or exclude whomever they prefer. Don’t like it? Organize your own festival. That transactivists get so pissed off over this makes me doubt their motivations. It makes me assume the worst, that they really are men intent on invading women’s space. At a minimum, they’re *acting* like straight men. If they’re so invested in living like women, they should learn to *act* like women and back off.
They’re acting like straight men because they are men. It’s really that simple.
It’s absolutely a sign of male privilege. We wrongly expect women to be meek and accommodating of us, and can’t fathom why they aren’t overjoyed to have us as a part of their female-only event.
Yes. And women’s lack of joy, when males ‘offer’ the gift of their company and feminist leadership, is apparently akin to racial-supremacy-fascism. That’s not an exaggeration. Again and again, male transgenderists compare radical feminists to the likes of Himmler and other high-ranking sociopaths. Women saying “no,” women laughing at men, women pushing back, is on par with men’s large-scale murderous atrocities. Incredible.
Which evil men would they compare us to if we truly, properly lost our tempers?
Reblogged this on graceaware.
What relief to find your site! Thank you for speaking up.
Thank YOU for reading!
I’m late to the party on my response, AUGUSTUSCARMICHAEL, but wanted to weigh in to say that, personally, I’m relieved Lea Delaria isn’t going to be running around loose on the land at Michfest.
I groaned when she was announced as replacement. It’s not my place to say who is or who isn’t a feminist, but I don’t see any signs of it in her. Over the years, I have found her to be objectifying and denigrating to womyn/other lesbians in her comedy routines, media interviews and in social settings, and her glib remarks upon withdrawing from the lineup point to how uninterested she is in any deeper understanding.. she didn’t even take a position in the discussion and debate. But then again, she is participating in an entertainment platform that fetishes, fantasizes, and renders pornographic, lesbians and womyn in prison. She can sing beautifully, but doesn’t choose to make most of her money this way. I wonder why this is? Oh yeah.. men control the money, and therefore the industry. I hear it is harder than ever to be a female musician, for many reasons. bell hooks had a very critical analysis of the industry recently that only got my attention because she called Beyonce a terrorist. An unfortunate choice of words, but nevertheless created a social media dust up large enough to get a broader distribution than it would have. I have now digressed and these are personal views.
Thank you for helping us unpack all the crap that is happening right now. This goes for all the other gender critical bloggers tirelessly, vigilantly, addressing these issues. I personally feel transgenderism is heteronormative, not “queer” or radical in any way, as others would have us believe. I wouldn’t care so much, preferring to take a live and let live attitude to other folks’ self expression, except it has created a lesbian civil war and the distortion of reality, science and natural fact is being used to batter and shame lesbians and other womyn for disagreeing and challenging these arguments. So far, transactivists are winning the story wars, mostly shouting louder and louder the epithets; transphobic, TERF, Cis-scum, and participating in ideological exclusion at the same pace as christian fundamentalists refusing to serve gay people. By way of example, the “no platforming” that Climbing Poetree faced recently really broke my heart.
Please support the artists that perform at Michfest, and to the best of your ability and conscious, support the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival itself. There are many ways to do this.
I hope to see you there..
“If women and girls weren’t being systemically brutalized, I wouldn’t bother with this topic at all.” Feel the same. I have read a few of your blogs now and I feel like I am writing it. You say everything that I feel! I agree with everything! Heck what are we to call ourselves? I like TERF Totally Enlightened Radical Feminist – reclaim the acronym I say. I don’t care for Lea at the best of times, but I was upset when the Indigo Girls pulled out a few years ago…thought to myself, these women MADE you popular, this WAS your audience and a faithful one at that.