An open letter to cis feminists

Read this post by Queen Emily (Sexual Ambiguities):

An open letter to cis feminists

See also Belle (Fetch me my axe) and Lisa (Questioning Transphobia)

Oh, and Rebecca (Burning Words)

And Drakyn (Monster’s Creed)

Did I mention Ren (Renegade Evolution)?

Also Queen of Thorns (Ideologically Impure)

And, please, leave your various privileges at the door.

Thank you.

——

On the list of bloggers who have linked to Em’s post, perhaps the biggest eyebrow-raiser most welcome addition is Debi (The Corvid Diaries)

…forgive my scepticism, but just maybe there is hope for those <insert> others <end insert> whose feminism is generally to be found under the tag of cultural feminism. Time will tell, no doubt.

And before anybody starts on the same old tired old thread-derailing won’t-someone-think-of-the-radfems (if only they were) (radical, that is) – then please bear in mind a comment of Belle’s on her post, for it is truly Teh Ossom and speaks volumes in a handy 10-point summary of why certain cis women think they are “hurt” by trans women claiming equal status as them:

1) Men Oppress Women

2) I am a Woman

3) I am of the Oppressed Class.

4) Life is simple. Grim, but simple.

5) …but, here is a Man who -wants- to be a Woman; this fucks with my idea that there is anything desirable about being a Woman in this our Patriarchal Patrix;

6) which means I might have to rethink my whole everything again, and that gives me a headache.

7) also, well…they’re MEN. they MUST be Men; if it were THAT easy to cross over, um, uhhhhhh…dammit! You don’t get off the hook that easily! And you certainly don’t get to come into MY SAFE SPACE, you MAN, you.

8) We are STRONG! We are POWERFUL! WE are WYMYN! WE can make BABIES and YOU CAN’T neener neener uhhh not that that means we’re essentialist because essentialism is bad mkay mumblesomething about socialization. anyway, you CAN’T COME IN, you jealous jealousertons!

9) lalalalalalala not listening to a word you say about yourselves, trans people and especially trans men, lalalalalala

10) NO! Women are the most miserable and beaten down and oppressed people in the -world,- and if you boyo upstarts think you’re going to take that away from us, you’re crazy!

***

After that I kind of tend to get lost.

——

Edited to add (Monday morning): Drakyn has linked to three separate LJ posts and I’ve also spotted that Caroline at Uncool has also linked to Em’s post. I’ve added them all here for ease of clickage. FWIW, this blog saw its highest hit count yesterday; so I guess that, if nothing else, people are taking the time to check out what Em is saying.

Well, apart, that is, from the occasional sub-bridge dwelling bully, whose Pavlovian reaction to any word prefixed by ‘trans’ (and consequent failure even to read Em’s post) prompts an outburst of hate speech, hastily selected from their standard range of transphobic thread-derailing templates.

Unfortunately (for them), said trolls no longer have any credibility and are now simply irrelevant, both to this topic and to feminism as a whole. Give it up, why don’t you? Really. You’re just making fools of yourselves now and it’s a little embarrassing to see.

Okay then. Additions:

Caroline (Uncool)

LiveJournal commentary:

• Shemale
• Snugglebitch
• LJfeminist

Monday evening: D’oh! How could I possibly forget to include my link at The F Word? I only posted it 24 hours ago…

I mean, like rilly, y’know?…