Oh, the hyperbole!

Recently, the Huffington Post gave a platform to a transactivist who, in order to open them up to harassment, actively seeks to publish and distribute personal information – home addresses, home numbers, photos – of women who disagree with him. He justified his actions by likening women who disagree with him to Hitler. (And I’m not linking the shit here, but if you want to find it, it’s called “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism” What Exactly Is It, And Why Does It Hurt?” By a person called Kelsie Brynn Jones.)

In the piece, the writer liberally employs use of the pejorative, TERF; TERF is a slur used against feminists whose feminism does not center around the wishes and desires of males. And for the most part, the piece is the same old drivel we’ve heard before from transgender activists with deeply hurt feels – lots of misinformation, and LOTS of hyperbole. Oh, how they love the hyperbole!

So I’m just going to hit upon some of the “highlights” of the piece here.

The author of the piece says, of Radical Feminists, “They have attached themselves to radical feminism as a means to attempt to deny trans women basic access to health care, women’s groups, restroom facilities, and anywhere that may be considered women’s space.”

Um, okay. So I know this is really hard for my ladybrained brothers to understand, but Radical Feminism isn’t actually about YOU. Most radical feminists, at least the ones I know, don’t spend their days conspiring against trans people. It’s not about “attempting to deny trans women” entrance into bathrooms, or women’s groups, it’s about PROTECTING FEMALES from male violence, it’s about trying to ensure that women still have a few little rooms in the world where we can talk about issues that impact women, where we don’t have to center on the sensitivities of men who fancy themselves women, it’s about believing that women have the right to space away from people like the writer of this article.

Oh, and I would really love to see the evidence that points to the idea that a radical feminist ever attempted to “deny trans women basic access to health care.” Most radical feminists I know believe all people, regardless of their special feelings, regardless of whether or not they agree with us, deserve access to healthcare. So I really have no fucking clue where this is coming from.

But this is my favorite part, “Since then, they have continued to use anti-transgender rhetoric, using the banner of feminism in the same way that Westboro Baptist Church uses Christianity. They consistently use rhetoric suggesting that trans women are would-be rapists, that we are “men invading women’s spaces””

In the same way as the Westboro Baptist Church? So now women standing up for women are on par with lunatic fringe groups who picket funerals? Really? Women who disagree with people like the author of this article are the same as Fred Phelps? Disagreement with an ideology is not “hate speech.” In the 21^st century it’s super convenient (albeit intellectually lazy) to label everything that does not cater to the whims and feelings of an individual as “hate speech.” And referring to radical feminists as purveyors of “hate speech” is simply another way to silence us. It’s simply another way of saying, “witch.”

And as to the last part, “men invading women’s spaces” – YOU ARE exactly that. And every time you and your brethren protest events like MichFest, distributing vile pamphlets, every time you threaten to give out the addresses of women who disagree with you, every time you call lesbians bigots for not wanting to fuck you, you show your true, male, colonizer colors. Our “rhetoric” doesn’t suggest that you are “men invading women’s spaces” – your words and actions tell us you are precisely that.

And here’s another trope that baffles the fuck out of me, “When speaking out against the TERF movement, one is at risk of being “outed” on social media.”

So help me understand here. If you are on social media as a “transwoman activist” how the fuck can anyone “out” you? What are you being outed as? An asshole?

I mean, as someone who has been openly lesbian for going on twenty-years, I couldn’t rationally accuse anyone of “outing” me. So who is outing these people? And what is being outed? (P.S. — women have eyes that cause us to also have perceptions. Sorry that inconveniences you.)

And naturally, here we go with po-mo nonsense science, Nature has many variations of physical gender that occur naturally, in fauna and flora.

How many times do we have to go over this pretty basic concept: SEX AND GENDER ARE NOT THE SAME. My dog is male. He has a little dog penis. He doesn’t, however, have a gender. I can dress him in a pink collar or a blue collar, I can call him “baby girl dog” or “baby boy dog” and he doesn’t give a flying fuck. My boy dog enjoys all the same activities as the neighbor’s girl dog. My Schefflera, also, does not have a gender. Gender is a HUMAN CONSTRUCT. Gender is an invention. Sex is basic, grade-school-level science, and it is immutable. It’s really not that hard to understand. (And yes, I realize there are genital anomalies in humans, but that’s not what we’re talking about.)

And now for the “more oppressed than thou” moment, I can assure the readers that I have not met one trans person who would deliberately choose to stand out among their peers to be singled out for abuse, assault, for rape, or to be murdered in the horrific way that transgender women are being killed around the world.

Guess what, hon? Women have been dealing with this shit since the beginning of fucking time, and they’re still dealing with it at a rate that would buckle your knees if you ever bothered to, I don’t know, read a fucking newspaper.

Furthermore, I really love how this “trans women are killed around the world” line is thrown around as some sort of carte blanche for ladybrained males to do and say whatever they want, without consequence. (The same does not work for females; it doesn’t matter that my sisters are being systemically raped, assaulted, murdered as I type this – people like the writer of the Huffington Post piece still want to threaten me, and other women who share my convictions, until we acquiesce to theirs.) I also love how this bit of information is used as though it ought to be some kind of entry ticket whereby women step the fuck aside, eat our feelings, swallow our reservations, and let males who “feel” like women take over every fucking bit of space we’ve managed to painstakingly eke out for ourselves. “Oh? Trans people are assaulted? Raped? Murdered? As a simple cisfemale (I’m using “cis” with heaping amounts of irony, because fuck your “cis”), I am unfamiliar with these concepts of which you speak.” No one has ever fucking cared that women and girls suffer these horrific fates at an astonishing rate, but now that males are subjected to them, women are supposed to bend over fucking backwards to “fix it.” Also, it’s not women and it’s not radical feminists who are murdering and raping trans people. It’s men. Why, oh why, won’t people like this writer use their precious Huffington Post space to address men, the ones who are actually killing trans women? Why squander this opportunity on admonishing women? Oh, right. I forgot. You’re MALE that’s why. Males aren’t in the habit of calling out other males who rape, murder and kill. The burden must fall to females. No worries, us women are used to this line of reasoning.

And you know what? No one chooses to be singled out for abuse, assault, rape, or murder. Not even actual females. The implication of this writer’s statement is sick.

So well done, Huffington Post, for giving this writer space to drag out the same old misogynistic notion that women are responsible for the world’s preponderance of violence and that women who are critical of males and male ideologies are bigoted hate mongers. Never saw that one coming — and by that I mean, I wouldn’t expect anything less of the Huffington Post.