Before I peaked, and, as a good liberal, opposed bathroom bills in other states on the grounds that trans ID males were likely to be accosted in men’s rooms and have their heads flushed in toilets for being girly, my position was that no male would want to be a woman unless it was really true. And that’s as deep as I took it, frankly. Because there is a great deal of history in gender and women’s struggles as an oppressed class, I just couldn’t process the necessity of having yourself recognized as a lower social class.
Yes, some people do it as a lark, like Jarvis Cocker wrote in “Common People.”
Everybody hates a tourist
Especially one who thinks its all such a laugh
Men can claim womanhood and oppression with full knowledge that they can go back to being a man once they’ve had their run at being trans. They can go into their office in panty hose and heels and then when they need to be in man mode, they press their slacks for a good crease and demand everyone call them “Joe” again. Or Phillip.
In Scotland the First Minister is insisting on a modification to the Gender Reform Act which would make it even easier for men to be recognized legally as women, and of course the same applies for women who wish to be recognized as men. Women have been raising the points to her on why this further endangers women and girls in vulnerable positions such as prisons and change rooms, but they’ve been rejected as being hateful transphobes and accused of claiming that all trans ID males are rapists and murders.
I’ve honestly been baffled as to why it is so important to SNP leadership, Scottish Greens, and even some Tories, that this bill pass. It’s said to make life easier and safer for trans ID males and females to be recognized as the “other gender,”1 but I can’t work out how it makes anyone safer to be recognized as the other sex. I mean, I am quite aware of the sexual thrill and the exercise of personal power that comes with knowing one has achieved the “respect” of having everyone around them use their chosen pronouns.
I hear the claim made that such recognition makes it safer for them, but I have never had an explanation for how it does. And the importance for knowing this, for asking the question is important for several reasons:
Women need spaces away from men, due to the fact that there are dangerous men who hate women and believe that they have the right or duty to act violently against women.
Women and men have the right to modesty when we so choose, meaning we need places where we can be undressed while out in public. Change rooms in clothing stores, restrooms anywhere, locker rooms at the gym or swimming pool. There are men who will leer at a woman just for the thrill of knowing they are made uncomfortable about it. There are also men who get a thrill out of exposing their dicks to women and girls. I don’t think that is a secret.
Women have issues to discuss with other women while no men are present. This is not only true at rape survivor service centers, it is also true in meetings where breastfeeding is discussed, or other issues that are none of our business. The presence of men inhibits open and honest discussion for women.
Women need places to go when they are being harassed so that they get separation from men, and men have historically recognized that women’s restrooms are a sanctuary for women. No, there is no force field that has prevented men from entering, but now that men think that they have the right to be seen as women, they see no social barriers from entering where they are no wanted.
A prison is not a safe space for women. There is nothing in the criminal code that I am aware of sentencing anyone to rape and abuse for a felony. But in both men’s and women’s prisons this is a fact of life, and prison reform is lacking in protecting prisoners of either sex. Men get raped in men’s prisons, and women get raped in women’s prisons. In both cases, there is no refuge. But a man can get into a women’s prison in the UK, in Canada, and in many states in the US, based on a declaration of gender identity as a woman. The claim is that they are unsafe in men’s prisons, which may be true. But giving them access to women doesn’t help protect women, does it? In fact, it exposes women to greater danger of sexual assault and rape.
The advantages that I can see for granting GRC’s to men is that it gives them access to women who don’t want them in. Women should not have to justify not wanting men in their spaces, but with the advent of transgenderism they are running out of rooms of their own. So I want to know what the justification for this all is.
I am honestly asking how men are made safer by legal recognition that they are women.
The Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. This includes the expression of identity or personhood through speech, deportment, dress, bodily characteristics, choice of name, or any other means, as well as the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, including with regard to human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, through any medium and regardless of frontiers.
The principle is divided into subprinciples. I’ll highlight two of them, though they each contain alarming clauses:
c) Take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure the full enjoyment of the right to express identity or personhood, including through speech, deportment, dress, bodily characteristics, choice of name or any other means;
e) Ensure that the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression does not violate the rights and freedoms of persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities;
Sex is not included in their protections, and so women have no protection in this principle. Transwomen do have protections to be recognized as “women.” And freedom of speech should be curtailed for anyone who disagrees.
So, whose safety is at stake here? If trans ID males are genuinely protected by such laws against male violence, why is that more important than protecting women? It’s difficult for me to believe that women do not deserve legal protection but men do, and the way to get it is to let them be known as women.
If you can explain it to a skeptic, there is a comment section below. Better yet, explain it to the women of Iran who are being beaten and raped while being held for immodest dress.
I don’t think I need to address that a gender identity is not a real entity as much as it is a claim based on sound and fury, do I? That would take up too much post.