Tag: feminism

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Education

If I were just 5 years younger I would now be either a very unhappy trans man or a detransitioner

I am a woman. I am a feminist (any feminism involves a critique of “gender” or it’s not feminism). I’m also a lesbian lady who shaves her head and occasionally wear ties and I have the unsettling feeling if I were just 5 years younger I would now be either a very unhappy trans man or a detransitioner. I wouldn’t experience the joy I feel at singing really high notes (crappy amateur soprano here). And of course, I care about freedom of speech. I won’t be compelled to see others exactly as they see themselves. As Dr. Jane Clare Jones say, that’s a form of ontological totalitarianism.

I’ve spoken to friends and family and all over social media (with my name). I am currently unemployed and lockdown has been quite restrictive over here up until quite recently. But I plan on meeting with other feminists in my home town.

I lost “a friend” because she tried to shame me for being a lesbian in its archaic “terfy” definition. That was the last straw in a wider pattern in our relationship, since it’s not the first time she is emotionally manipulative.

Estela, Language teacher, studying to become a civil servant, Spain

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Students

I dedicate all my time to a fight for equality

This matters to me because it’s important to recognise women as a social/political/legal class. Without it, you can’t have an effective political movement. To erase the definition of a woman and replace it with a feeling serves to entrench sexism even further into our collective thinking which makes it harder to fight with sexist stereotypes (since they’re considered ‘identity’). Further, it serves to get rid of legal protections given to women based on their sex.

It matters to me because I can’t speak out my mind without being considered a bigot while I dedicate all my time to a fight for equality.

I have spoken to friends and family, engaged in online debates and spoken about it on my social media.

I have lost friends and felt excluded from mainstream feminist/ LGBT communities.

AK, bisexual woman, feminist, Poland

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Lesbians Students

As a lesbian I’ve seen the negative effects all around me

I care because I’m worried for the safety for woman. Especially as a lesbian I’ve seen the negative effects all around me. When I was a teenager I was involved in queer trans activist discussions online and those spaces pushed me into wanting to transition.

I’m lucky that I found gender critical thoughts before I voiced that wish and instead learned to deal with my internalised homophobia and accept that my reasoning was not genuine body dysphoria but rather my internalised homophobia and issues with the sexist society we live in and how that affected me growing up.

I have talked extensively about it on social media and will talk about these issues with any friend or family member willing to listen. I’ve also met some radical feminists in my town and have become more active there.

I have been very lucky that there haven’t been many negative consequences and I don’t have to worry about them either. I’m a university student still living with my parents. Even if I where to lose my job, it wouldn’t have much bearing on my life. Despite being a lesbian I do avoid Lgbt spaces, since those tend to be extremely pro trans.

Vanessa, Germany

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Students

I am afraid of my hardly won rights being taken away from me

As a woman, I am afraid of my hardly won rights being taken away from me. I also think vulnerable women will seriously be harmed by this ideology which will ultimately do nothing but to enforce gender stereotypes.

I have written on social media about this subject and started supporting feminist organisations trying to protect women and girl’s sex based rights.

I lost friends. I am scared of future job opportunities being denied to me.

N, I am a 24 year old feminist and socialist woman doing a master’s degree in international law

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Lesbians Students

I don’t have an ounce of hate in my heart

I’m a disabled homosexual woman. Those aspects of myself contribute to my oppression and it hurts me personally to ignore these aspects.

I have started blogs and social media accounts, reached out to local radfem groups, and I have discussed it with people in my personal life

I have lost many friends and loved ones. I have been called hateful when I don’t have an ounce of hate in my heart. I have been isolated and vilified for speaking up about my issues as a female.

Genevieve, 18 yr old disabled lesbian feminist,Canada

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Students

I respect and care about trans people on an individual and political level, will fight for their right to exist

I care because the ideology sustaining a movement be logical for it to produce real change. The identitary narrative doesn’t present a realistic analysis of the world we live in, erases women’s experiences with gender and impacts the building of a serious women rights movement. I believe that it is harmful for both women and trans people as a group.

I respect and care about trans people on an individual and political level, will fight for their right to exist, be respected, protected and have rights side by side, but reserve myself the right to disagree politically on an analysis that is as central to their existence as it is to mine, and consequently disengage from actions backed up from such analysis.

Particularly on the gender conceptualisation, besides running a small blog that translates feminist readings into my native language, I have been occasionally vocal about it on the internet, mostly in discussions on forums or with a few posts in my personal social media. In real life, I discuss this matter only with people who approach me asking questions on my views, usually close friends.

I have felt the backlash online, such as being labeled as transphobic simply for asking questions such as “what is a woman?” or “what is gender?”, before even stating my position.

Mostly, I’ve felt that liberal feminists on my personal circles, who despite being extremely privileged and more than able to do so have never picked up a feminist book to read, not even on identitary politics, have been reactive to statements as simple as “I do not agree with identitary politics “, even though apparently they have no depth into this discussion, which is frankly quite sad.

minni , woman, feminist, critical thinker, Brasil

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Students

I have been a life long feminist.

I care because I have been a life long feminist.

I have shared and discussed my views in gender critical feminist groups.

I have seen other women get threatened with rape or violence.

Juana, bisexual feminist, Argentina

Categories
Lesbians Students

I’m tired of being told to sleep with men and accept “girldick”

I care because I’ve watched my mentally ill friends be neutered and abused by a system that does not care for them. I care because as a lesbian, I’m tired of being told to sleep with men and accept “girldick” and being called a bigot for refusing. I care because the sex responsible for 98% of sexual assaults and violent crimes does not belong in private spaces with women and because the imperative should not be on women to figure out if they’re even allowed to be worried for their safety for fear of being harassed or silenced.

I’ve written emails to larger companies who use terms such as “uterus haver” and “people with periods”. I’ve also raised awareness in my personal life and drawn other women’s attention to how close we are to losing our sex based protections.

I’ve lost friends.

Liz, College-aged lesbian and radical feminist, USA

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Others

Being a woman is not a choice

Since I hit about fifteen years old, I have experienced sexual harassment on a regular basis – and worse, on occasion. I have been reminded to be quiet and still and more lady-like since before I started kindergarten. I have been pressured into wearing makeup and shaving because our society teaches women to be unsatisfied with our natural bodies.

All over the world and throughout history, the same things and much worse have happened to billions of women. Rape, beatings, menstrual huts, female genital mutilation, breast ironing, all of it – it is not done to women because we ‘identify’ as women, but because we have female bodies.

Being a woman is not a choice. I didn’t choose to be this; to endure the things that have happened to me. It is simply my material reality.

As women, we experience oppression on the basis of sex, not gender. That is why I care that sex continues to exist as a legal and social category, and that women continue to have single-sex spaces.

I haven’t done as much as I want to. I’ve gotten involved in online feminist communities using anonymous social media accounts. Mostly, I’ve been educating myself, but I have also posted about my opinions. I’ve also talked about some of these things with people in real life, but I have been very careful with whom I talk to. In the future I hope to get more involved and speak out more.

I have received a number of threats and misogynistic insults to my anonymous feminist accounts – but that’s why I’ve stayed anonymous. I know that if I speak about what I believe under my real name, I will face immediate social and professional consequences. I’m not at a place in my career where I feel secure enough in to take that risk, so I plan to remain anonymous for the time being.

Cass, a young woman who firmly believes in critical thinking, USA

Categories
Students

We are in a dystopian, totalitarian scenario

If we can’t defend something as basic and obvious as sex then we are in a dystopian, totalitarian scenario.

I was horrified because I knew, deep down, that I agreed with the uppity feminists, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find any evidence that they were wrong.

So eventually I accepted myself as one of the difficult women. I want women to be able to name ourselves. I want us to centre ourselves in our own movement. I want us protected in our own spaces. I want language to have meaning and for scientific concepts to stay coherent & reflect reality.

I started by working up the courage to send something to my MP. Then post on Mumsnet. I then wrote longer think-pieces. Talked to my friends & family in real life.

My friends have taken it negatively. I don’t think they see me in the same way. They don’t understand, so we don’t talk about it anymore.

S