To the Handmaiden Who Blocked me On Tumblr

Image by prettysleepy1 from Pixabay

I've followed your Tumblr for several years because you've pointed out ways in which the impetus for women to starve themselves to maintain bodies reminiscent of those of girls in their early teens is both misogynistic and racist. You have written about the ways that chronic dieting for women is tied into upper-class white women wanting to maintain a slender figure lest their bodies come to resemble the bodies of the black servitor class. You have written posts about the myriad of ways in which the diet industry promotes eating disorders. 

Yet despite your education, intelligence, and claims of feminist ideology, there is complete cognitive dissonance when it comes to your support of trans rights activists. 

The red flags went up when you first made the claim that the women who suffer most from eating disorders are trans women. No proof offered. You simply bought wholesale into the screed that Trans Women Are The Most Oppressed Of All In Every Way.

Still, I said to myself that you are an educated person well-versed in doing research. Certainly, it will become apparent to you that trans rights activists are trying to silence women with tactics such as claiming that words like menstruation, uterus, and vulva are violence against trans women. Surely an educated person such as yourself will see that using terms like "pregnant people" and "chest-feeders" is an erasure of women. Surely you will come to see that the TRAs TERF anyone who disagrees with them in the least way.

Well, that did not happen, and now I find myself wondering whether your research into the misogyny and racism inherent in diet culture isn't just more virtue signaling to earn yourself Woke Points. You refuse to examine the misogyny and violent rhetoric inherent in trans rights activism. You would rather throw women under the bus, blocking anyone who disagrees with the TRA screed, because "OP is a TERF! Block and stay safe!"

You might claim that the hatefully misogynistic screenshots of real words by TRAs and their allies found at terfisaslur.com are simply the words of a marginalized group punching back at their oppressors. What you fail to see is that this "marginalized group" is not punching back at their oppressors. Their oppressors are the same as our oppressors: the patriarchy. However, they are not lashing out at the men in power. They are lashing out at women, demanding subjugation and silence.

I was like you once. I chided women who pointed out fallacies in the TRA logic. I told myself that it was only fair that I should refer to myself as "cis" even though that term didn't sit well with me from the start. I told myself that these poor trans women were only behaving badly because of all their years of being oppressed. And of course, trans women are women! We need to be inclusive!

Then the cracks that appeared became too wide for me to ignore. You have done scientific research, yet you seem to buy wholesale into the claim that "biological sex is a social construct." Anyone who knows basic biology knows that such an assertion is patently false. You cannot even seem to wrap your head around the basic truth that the TRAs and their allies are conflating sex and gender. Humans are sexually dimorphic. There are males and females. The fact that intersex conditions appear in a minority of the population does not change this fact. Further, many intersex people seem to take umbrage at the co-opting of their condition by the TRAs and their minions.

Biological sex is an empirical reality. Gender is a social construct. 

You blocked me to "stay safe." Yet, you were never in any danger from me. You are still in no danger from me. I am not going to reveal who you are. I'm not going to start a harassment campaign against you. I'm not going to doxx you. If you anger any of the TRAs whose backsides you're kissing, I'm not sure the same thing can be said. They will TERF you without a second thought, and once you are TERFed, you are fair game for their harassment and death threats. 

Being gender-critical does not make me or anyone else dangerous to you or to trans people. Being gender-critical is not the same thing as being "transphobic." Questioning the TRA agenda is not transphobia. Pointing out the TRAs violent rhetoric is not "transphobic." Pointing out TRA misogyny is not "transphobic."

I want the same thing for transgender people that I want for everyone else. I want them to have the same opportunities for jobs, education, and housing that anyone else has. I believe they deserve to be treated with common decency.  I do not believe that they should be harassed, bullied, doxxed, threatened, or ridiculed. 

I do not believe that the majority of transgender people are any kind of a threat. I have only spoken out against extremists with an extreme agenda.

You call yourself a "feminist," but when you throw other women under the bus in order to appear "woke," I say you are no feminist. You are a TRA handmaiden. Hopefully, you will one day open your eyes to the truth. These people are not your friends. The instant you express the least dissent, you will be in for a very rude awakening.

~Sly Has Spoken~