Part One Deconstructing Transgenderism

April 21, 2008

To prove I’m still paying attention, let’s take a gander at the Orwellian doublespeak which commonly passes for working brain cells among the transgender crowd. It’s a sad testimony to our troubled times that this particular ontological manipulation has heretofore slipped betwist the cracks, but rest assured I can put down the Cheese Whiz and cartoons long enough to immitate Twisty one more time*. Before I proceed, however, it needs a disclaimer, most likely one comprised of twenty pages, but a paragraph will have to do.

I love Twisty, I really do. Nobody can rip apart the patriarchy like Twisty when she decides to give it a bigger rectal reaming then Goatse’s best efforts after a five-gallon enema. So I offer a humble apology for not letting her get away with upholding that which she claims to despise. Unless I am mistaken, she likes transgendered folk for the same reason that most feminists seem to like them — they prove gender is fluid. Unfortunately, feminists stop right at the edge of their brain, believing that there is no more to think through. Those kind of mental stop signs do not apply to me, though, because I’m evil. And so we arrive thusly at our next introductory paragraph.

When transgendered folks get through the final stage of transitioning and reach “the end”, all that gender fluidity goes right out the window and solidifies into the crusty crud on the bottom of my boots. They have merely succeeded in upholding the gender binary — the very same binary which has held women down for the last 10,000 years. The very same gender binary which says you need a penis to beat your competitors to the punch (else she’s a bitch), or that you need a vagina to express sensitivity (else he’s a wimp). There is simply no character trait in existence which requires one to possess specific genitalia in order to display said character trait to the world; feminists are clearly unanimous in this belief.

Since you do not need a penis to pick up a hammer, since you do not need a vagina to vaccuum, or validate virility, vanquish vasselage, or *oh my!* vounch for volition, there is also no corresponding need to switch out body parts in order to express what is basically described as internal character, unless the purpose is merely to commodify one’s personality as a dainty girl might wear pink or a goth craves black. The genitalia have been reduced to the status of wardrobe accessory.

And since these folks insist they’re not swapping out genitalia for mastabatory fetish purposes, there too is no need to accessorize oneself with the preferred genitalia of their romantic partner unless they’re also prepared to reverse the surgery again, when they meet someone new who wants yet different genitals to play with.

Here again, the crying girl bats her tear-stained bits, and we are supposed to expose our monster hearts because we have a fucking brain and she doesn’t. Suppose it’s also time to admit that I personally don’t care one way or the other what she chooses to do with her body, but the blowback will continue in earnest until she gets a clue that as a permanent member of the respectable third gender, she has no right to speak on behalf of real women — for when they refer to themselves as “real women”, that is exactly the practical result.

*I lied, nobody can imitate Twisty. Suppose I could imitate pure unmitigated evil, though — it comes naturally to feminazis.

32 Responses to “Part One Deconstructing Transgenderism”

  1. starfish Says:

    I do wonder if you’ll be moderating comments on this one? I expect I’ll find out on the morrow.

    Anyway,

    “…there is also no corresponding need to switch out body parts in order to express what is basically described as internal character…”

    and that’s the nutshell, the boil down; the essence 😉 , if you will… is it?

    I have heard and am moved by many transfolks’ inner realities… Particularly, I’ve been taken aback by what seems the lived reality of some very young children, so that I do wonder exactly what it is that they feel unable to do and be in the bodies they were born with, and is it that simple?

    In many ways I understand transfolk doing what it takes to survive and hopefully thrive, on the personal level anyway (oh,jeebus, how big of me! talk about cispriv, eh?!), although I’d be protective of FAB (assigned Female at Birth, to borrow from polly styrene again) space. And it’s the political ramifications that are exactly what’s under discussion here, I’m sure, rather than purely personal, individual realities.

    Circling back; when transitioning amounts to the dread performativity as in “…there is also no corresponding need to switch out body parts in order to express what is basically described as internal character…” I’m definitely not patient with that at all.

  2. m Andrea Says:

    Tis moderated automatically, no worries. But I personally enjoy opposing views, if someone has an actual point.

    Anyway, I used to know a woman who was schizophrenic. She was really nice during good days and of course deserved respect dignity and protection, but that didn’t stop me from understanding she was insane *all the time*. And there is a good chunk of mental fluff which does not add up regarding transgenderism, though the folks themselves are very nice. The only way it can make any sense at all is if there is a third gender, but that’s still pushing the limits of logic.

    Also, I thought I was oh-so-original with the “reversing genitalia” bit, but the thought popped into my head as I was getting out of bed that maybe it was Stormy or Pisaquari who said it somewhere a long time ago. I suck.

    The question for me is: why do the TG advocates push so hard for it’s acceptance when it is obviously not in their best interest? It’s political/strategic suicide.

  3. m Andrea Says:

    Ah, that schizophrenic? It started when she was a toddler, according to her mother. Just because someone was born with a disorder does not legitimize it, or automatically render it healthy normal or harmless.

    That is what I mean by Orwellian doublespeak, among other things. Also, I should mention for any lurkers that there exists a fundamental canyon-sized distinction between the preferred genitalia of one’s partner(s), and the preference for one’s own body parts. The only similarities between TG and gaydom is that both groups have suffered generalized acceptance issues. It’s actually kind of an insulting to gay folks to lump them all into one catagory when the verdict is still out on TGism.

  4. marytracy9 Says:

    You are aware that you have just opened a HUGE can o’ worms, right?

    I personally love it. I feel this is what “all feminists secretly think but are afraid to say our loud”.

  5. Satsuma Says:

    Welcome back m Andrea!

    This issue is rather a simple one. Transgender people are going to do whatever they want to do. Women who were actually born women will have to stick up for themselves. Men who “transition” to women still, in my opinion, dominate discussions just like annoying men do. If only these transitioned men really would ACT like women; that is not be dominators, not be feminist clueless, and not fall right into sex role stereotyping with all the make-up, high heels and nonsense.

    In real life, people are going to do whatever they want to do. They will justify whatever they want to justify. My primary concern is the harm this does to young lesbians just coming out, who have to deal with MTFs going into what was once lesbian only space. Yes, they do this, and I don’t think the reasons are very affirming for lesbians. I believe they still have male voyeuristic minds, and they seem to fixate (or get their fix) on bringing up sex topics in these groups. The creeped out young lesbians then have to deal with the mental rapists coming right into their space, and this is of course allowed in LGBT places (read lesbian feminism not allowed, or lesbian only as some how excluding the poor transitioned MTFs).

    The truth is, I rarely see MTFs being actually able to be like real woman I know. They are something else — a human being that is something beyond the life experiences of women.

    All it ends up doing is giving that male porno mind access to women’s spaces. I find this behavior absolutley offensive. But they’re going to get away with it if young women don’t defend their spaces, and throw out the mental rapists!

    This is not conjecture on my part, this is what I have actually observed happening in what was once lesbian only spaces and groups.

    It is about character, and the fact that men in partiarchy are not allowed to “act” out a feminine self in public. Women can wear pants, men are stoned for wearing dresses to work. Why people mulitalte their bodies and take drugs is beyond me. Medical science loves this stuff.

    But if we really fought to elimate woman hatred worldwide, we would have no need for genital exchange practices.

    Transgender people have a perfect right to their own spaces, and in mutually agreed upon shared spaces, but when I see lesbians having to deal with “male rape/ porno” minds invading the lesbian world, I have a real problem.

    Maybe I’m one of the few people who has actually witnessed this in lesbian groups. I don’t see young lesbians really getting this, but then again many stop coming to the groups because they don’t feel safe talking about their feelings in front of these very rude and dominating MTFs.

  6. Mary Sunshine Says:

    mAndrea!

    Welcome back. 🙂

  7. bonobobabe Says:

    You’re back! You’re back! Yay!

    I think it all boils down to this:

    Some kid doesn’t fit in with the other kids of his gender. Because gender is so strict and rigid in our culture, if he does what he wants to do, what appeals to him, then he will get made fun of, picked on, maybe even have violence done against him. He reasons out that if he were a girl, he could do what pleases him without fear of reprisal, so he then decides that he must be a girl inside.

    When some male says he’s always felt like a female inside, that creeps me out. How do they know what it feels like to be a female inside? They have a Y chromosome. They are by default an outlier of the group of people who know what it’s like to feel like a female inside.

    If people were allowed to do whatever they wanted, regardless of gender, transgenderism would disappear, I think.

  8. K.A. Says:

    If people were allowed to do whatever they wanted, regardless of gender, transgenderism would disappear, I think.

    For the most part; it has multiple causes though, and the fetishists would remain. No one seems to like the term, but some are autogynephiles and/or fetishists of misogynistic gender role constructs that subordinate women, so the nameless fetish is somewhere on the spectrum of S&M degradation, but not exactly. The fixation on all the ways women are degraded in society is the primary fetish component though, which is the same as any misogynist man, only this is one step further.

    I agree with the people who have witnessed the phenomenon as being one step farther than the typical voyeuristic sexism by actively engaging in it in women’s spaces, while simultaneously TAKING a woman’s body as his own.

    So I basically think it is part of an OCD spectrum disorder sometimes, much like people with amputation obsessions, but then there are a large subset of OCD fetishists, in which case, social changes wouldn’t eliminate those manifestations of this misogynist body fashion game.

    I have never in history seen a MtF NOT have misogynist porn and horrible hentai illustrations littering their photo galleries/blog icons, even if they claim to be radical feminists! This is the same old misogynist porn fantasy about women from men, only in different packaging. OCD + male pornsickness = a large segment of MtFs.

  9. K.A. Says:

    I should add that the numbers of MtFs are much, much higher than FtMs, which lends further support to bonobobabe’s and my observations, i.e., there is more leeway for women to express the full range of human experiences in society without the behaviors being arbitrarily gendered and shamed, and thus there are fewer female children who get fixated on the “wrong body” conclusion early on.

  10. K.A. Says:

    Oops, my comment got cut off. Bonobobabe rightly pointed out the above observation. As for transsexual etiologies of fetishistic origin: men are much, much more likely to have sexual fetishes in general, many of which are even imprinted in childhood, which ties into why there are a disproportionate number of MtF transsexuals.

  11. bonobobabe Says:

    For the most part; it has multiple causes though, and the fetishists would remain. No one seems to like the term, but some are autogynephiles and/or fetishists of misogynistic gender role constructs that subordinate women, so the nameless fetish is somewhere on the spectrum of S&M degradation, but not exactly. The fixation on all the ways women are degraded in society is the primary fetish component though, which is the same as any misogynist man, only this is one step further.

    OK, I’m confused. Are you saying that not only does this male have a fetish about degrading women, he wants to be the woman who is being degraded? That’s kinda weird. Then again, most men are weird.

    I agree with you that fetishes are way more common in men (I think I read that in a psychology book some years ago). When I used to date men, I was always shocked by the strange requests they would make (like asking me to pee on them and other weird things). What weirded me out more so than the requests, was that the requests were made as if it were a completely normal thing to ask! And women are often still struggling with speaking up and asking for orgasms!

    And I’ve never heard of the desire to be a different gender framed as a fetish. I like it. It makes sense in a way.

  12. K.A. Says:

    I’ll try to explain. I think a good number are transsexual for the reason you described, and progressive social changes would thus eliminate the origins of the “switched identity” fantasy.

    But there are people with OCD who have, for example, obsessions about wanting to amputate all their limbs and become disabled. It’s more about losing the limbs than existing as a disabled person in an ablist society. Similarly, there are transsexuals who have an OCD-spectrum disorder akin to this fantasy; they seem inordinately focused on “the parts.” Furthermore, there is another subset of the OCD group–sexual fetishists, as most fetishism is a subset of OCD-spectrum disorders. They are also focused on “having the parts” and sexualize getting to play a “sub” in society in general, while simultaneously resenting the loss of male privilege after satisfying their, ironically, male-entitlement fuelled expectation that all sexual fantasies will be sated by bringing them to their final conclusion. That’s why they are drawn to women-only feminist spaces like magnets; it’s not that “transgender people have thought about gender in a more nuanced way than anyone else” and all those apologists’ defenses; it’s more like, they have an active need to be validated as female, which admission into women’s only space does, while simultaneously addressing their genuine anger over having lost male privilege by simply using his overblown male entitlement to reach the natural conclusion of his personal sexual fetish, which all men are trained to expect.

    So the sexual fetish component fixates on the way porn and society in general treat women, only he “identifies” as being treated that way just as someone in S&M would, and that sexy subordination becomes inextricably entangled with everything associated with women biologically and socially.

  13. K.A. Says:

    I want to clarify a mistake I made; there are fetishists of female bodies, and fetishists of female gender roles. Usually a fetishist does both as someone who sees the social/sexual subordination and female body parts/gender presentation as inextricably related. In your utopic scenario without gender expectations or sexual subordination, only the fetishists of female body parts could possibly remain. For example, even if physically disabled people were awarded all the same rights and fair attitudes in society, OCD people who obsess about self-amputation would still remain, though anyone who fetishized being handicapped as a symbol for greater social subordination couldn’t.

    Basically, fetishist MtF collude with every other misogynist man and choose to participate in the dynamic in an alternate way. They spin it as a handicap when it’s really a male-entitled sexual fantasy that actively oppresses women just as any other pornsick man does. It’s the rape and total control over a synthetic female body, giving him and any other man he includes full access to treating women the way they both love to fetishize treating women. They then strengthen the conditioned response to female parts with their misogynist sex. That’s why you see so many misogynists patronizing MtF prostitutes, and MtF prostitutes happy to do it. Sexist men look out for each other and will cooperate to control women’s bodies in any novel way they can think of.

  14. pisaquari Says:

    “not letting her get away with upholding that which she claims to despise.”

    She praised feministing recently. And went soft on AM’s book with the porny book cover.
    I suppose all bloggers have their days but-UM- wtfffffffffff?

    On your return: HOoorRAy! Will you be sticking around?
    And what a bold statement to have your first post back on transgenderism. You’re in t-r-ouble!

  15. pisaquaririse Says:

    Welcome back m Andrea # 2.
    (why do my comments get eaten?)

  16. Jokerine Says:

    I’m sceptical of your analysis K.A. What I find disturbing is that there is no substantial definition, no substantial marker for this thing called gender EXCEPT your birthcertificate.

    But nobody would argue “I feel like a barry inside” though the birthcertificate says harry. Why then do they argue that “I feel like a woman inside” if all it is, is a word on a birthcertificate and a whole lot of socialisation?

  17. K.A. Says:

    Skeptical…okaaaay…care to elaborate on why? Because I have had plenty of personal experience with transsexuals in my life, which is where I learned about the subset who have a misogynist fetish (my boss was one). And the pornsickness is ubiquitous in their blogs. Anyone who saw the ginmar transsexual battle would have noted that the MtF “radfem” had icons LITTERED with misogynist porn pics and pedophilic, misogynist hentai illustrations as icons. Naturally, all the morons rushed to his (yes, his) defense and he never copped to his misogyny, but did remove them so he couldn’t be found out later. I wish I hadn’t pointed out this universal factoid that could be used as glaring evidence for the obvious, but now they’ve caught on and are removing them.

    If you’re not familiar with male fetishism in general, it doesn’t have to make sense to you. There are men who fantasize about being castrated by a dominant woman until they finally have her do it! It doesn’t seem to make sense, but there it is. So there are also men that fetishize having female parts, without it being about any of the gobbledygook sex essentialism they say it is. But, as I said above, it is not the only cause of transsexualism.

  18. m Andrea Says:

    K.A., that was a most brillant analysis, and needs a wider audience then what is available here. Hopefully other readers will carry your idea to other blogs, because it was perfect.

    “(why do my comments get eaten?)”

    I think the spamdog hates you because I accidently labeled one of your comments as spam once, and now it does it all by itself. Post more, and spamdog will get retrained.

  19. K.A. Says:

    Thank you very much, mAndrea. After the aforementioned MtF fetishist boss sexually harassed me until I quit, an event from which I still have not financially, professionally, or emotionally recovered, I have thought long and hard about this and I’m not going to be continue to be silenced and verbally abused by other feminists in all the ways they claim to deplore, i.e., not believing a woman’s experiences of misogyny at the hands of men, whether it be a rape or sexual harassment. It only compounded the trauma at the beginning, because the only time I’ve ever disclosed it was online and I’m pretty poverty-stricken and isolated right now as a long-term result of the original experience, but now I seem to be handling it better now by talking about it more clearly.

    I don’t know where else I can post this for wider readership, since so many are hostile to undiluted, realistic feminism. Maybe I should get a blog too and throw these thoughts into a formal post though. You’ll be one of the few I’ll definitely link to, though. It’s nice to have a place that takes radical feminism and racism seriously, unlike a particular few who appropriated the radical term as a synonym for merely being anti-porn without any care for why it’s actually called radicalism.

  20. K.A. Says:

    Whoa, sorry for the typos (though) and massive run-ons! I get a little “passionate” reminiscing about that stressful experience since I’ve still never had a single person validate my reality, even though it’s been 3 YEARS since I had this epiphany about transsexualism, gender constructs, and the necessity of feminism (I was not educated about feminism of any kind back then) as a result of the incidents. Luckily, Dworkin was my first foray into theory and analysis thanks to Nikki Craft’s site, so I knew there was at least some segment of feminism that validated the world view arising from my own epiphanies about porn, sexual subordination, and the mythical gender construction. Thank goodness for the real radical blogs like this one that keep me sane! And I mean that literally!

  21. stormy Says:

    Welcome back mAndrea!
    Good points of yours above:
    When transgendered folks get through the final stage of transitioning and reach “the end”, all that gender fluidity goes right out the window and solidifies into the crusty crud on the bottom of my boots.
    and
    The genitalia have been reduced to the status of wardrobe accessory.

    Satsuma said:
    I believe they still have male voyeuristic minds, and they seem to fixate (or get their fix) on bringing up sex topics in these groups.
    Actually, this is one way we have been able to detect male infiltrators (not necessarily trans, but actual non-trans males) into female-only cybergroups. They just can’t help themselves I guess.

    KA. I am so totally on board with much of your analysis. Whilst there is no universal reason(s) to trans, and strict gender roles have a lot to do with, that is only part of the equation. The sado-masocism angle, ultimate appropriation of the female body (or fetishisation of female body parts), the wish to dominate in an arena whereby socialised entitlement expects entitlement in these places, etc. Brilliant.

    Basically, fetishist MtF collude with every other misogynist man and choose to participate in the dynamic in an alternate way. They spin it as a handicap when it’s really a male-entitled sexual fantasy that actively oppresses women just as any other pornsick man does. It’s the rape and total control over a synthetic female body, giving him and any other man he includes full access to treating women the way they both love to fetishize treating women.

    Yes, I can see this!

    As for your unfortunate experience with the former boss, it is very much (trans issues aside) like the males who befriend females, but only in the hopes of turning it into a sexual relationship.

  22. Still Water Says:

    Welcome Back mAndrea! I’ve missed you and I am so happy to see you writing again! *Happy Dance*

  23. Luckynkl Says:

    Hey, mAndrea! Happy to see you back! It’s about damn time.

    I find K.A’s, Satsuma’s and mAndrea’s observations, experiences, and analysis right on the money. It is my observation, experience, and analysis as well, as someone that has had quite a bit of experience with mtfs (and ftms as well, but the phenomenon is predominantly mtf with ftms serving as tokens so the boys can make it seem like a human thing instead of male thing), as well as someone that has often been accused by the transgendered of being transgendered myself, given my history and conditioning during my developmental years.

    I think the mistake most women make is thinking that men think just like them. They don’t. That would be a denial of the very different way the male-born and the female-born are raised, conditioned, programmed and treated by society. Like the saying goes, when in Rome, act like a Roman and when in Greece, act like a Greek. Let’s take it a step further. When dealing with the male-born, act like a male. IOWs, in order to have understanding of what goes on in that warped brain of men, one must stop thinking like a woman and go slightly insane and start thinking like a man. See the world through a man’s eyes instead of a woman’s. Because we see through very different lenses.

    My experience with tranz is that most of their stories and histories are nothing but pure fantasy and completely fabricated. Oh, gee, men lie. Men, in fact, lie a lot. Is this really news to anyone? So why do so many women just blindly believe that men are being sincere and telling the truth once they throw on a frock?

    I think it’s a very common fantasy of males to want to be the only male in a harem full of women. What better way to do that than as a tranz posing as a woman? The fierce competition that so often erupts when 2 or more tranz are put together in the harem is pretty typical male behavior. Each one deems himself to be more worthy of the prize (alpha male) and wants the other males out of the way.

    So there’s another perspective to add to what mAndrea, K.A. and Satsuma have already said.

    I would disagree with one thing tho. The idea that tranz become tranz because of rigid gender roles. That they just want to act feminine and play house and be free of stigma if they like the color pink. I disagree with that because it is a very common stereo-type people have in their heads about gay males. So why don’t tranz just come out then as gay males? Well, part of the reason is because most tranz I know, remain het. Which makes the idea of tranz being lesbians (as is so often claimed) all the more ludicrous. Lesbians only make up 4% of the population. So if tranz are women, why aren’t they attracted to men like the other 96% of the female population? And only 4% attracted to women?

    I think it’s other way way around. When it comes to sexual freedom, men aren’t rigidly confined at all. Au contraire. If orgasm is the aim, the sky’s the limit. Men can indulge in their most wildest fantasies and fetishes. It’s women that tend to be rigidly confined in their sex class, not men.

  24. bonobobabe Says:

    So why don’t tranz just come out then as gay males? Well, part of the reason is because most tranz I know, remain het.

    By remaining het, do you mean, they liked women when they were men, so once they transition, they still like women? Or do you mean, since they’re now supposedly women, they are het, and so now they like men.

  25. bonobobabe Says:

    Also, I wanted to say that I love this thread. I’m learning so much, and I’m being reinforced with the idea that men are seriously fucked up beyond belief. And I ask myself again, “Why are they running the show? They are fucking nuts!”

  26. Luckynkl Says:

    By remaining het, do you mean, they liked women when they were men, so once they transition, they still like women? Or do you mean, since they’re now supposedly women, they are het, and so now they like men.

    The first one. MtFs are male. Surgically/chemically altered males perhaps. But still male. I mean, you can slice, dice, stuff, boil, broil, and bake chicken a 100 different ways, but in the end, it’s still chicken. It doesn’t suddenly turn into beef.

  27. m Andrea Says:

    KA, I’m wondering if you started a blog? I got a pingback from someone claiming to be you, but the IP address is not the same as the one you used here.

    Glad you’re finally beginning to recover from your horrible experiences, sometimes it takes a while.

  28. stormy Says:

    Excellent point Lucky, why don’t 96% of MTF tranz want to sleep with men, because it certainly seems the other way – most MTF declare themselves ‘lesbians’!

    The SRS seems like a costume to me. Like throwing on a frock, but far more dramatic, with hormones.

  29. Jokerine Says:

    @K.A.: This part of Luckynkls (#23) post is what I had in mind

    “I think it’s other way way around. When it comes to sexual freedom, men aren’t rigidly confined at all. Au contraire. If orgasm is the aim, the sky’s the limit. Men can indulge in their most wildest fantasies and fetishes. It’s women that tend to be rigidly confined in their sex class, not men.”

    Then again, I’ve never met someone who was actually transitioned.


  30. […] The term “real women” was used deliberately in Part One, and I for one have decided to not back down from it’s use, because it’s kinda important for all sorts of secret feminazi reasons loosely pertaining to the status of my chocolate stash. Or perhaps because transgenderism itself is a suicidal train wreck waiting to derail the unwary feminist in a few years, as trends progress. […]

  31. ck Says:

    When transgendered folks get through the final stage of transitioning and reach “the end”, all that gender fluidity goes right out the window and solidifies into the crusty crud on the bottom of my boots.

    Do you have any evidence to back up this claim? I’ll offer an anecdotal counterexample: there are FTMs that I know who retain a very genderqueer identity after transitioning (and throughout). They are more comfortable in their bodies–a crucial piece, I think, of the desire to transition–but continue to play with gender. Maybe not the norm, but there are different generations of transfolk, with very different approaches to gender.

  32. thebewilderness Says:

    WTF Karen, are you a twelve year old child or an adult human?
    Count the I’s, me’s, and my’s in your comment.
    Criminy.


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