emeritusprofessorofnothing:lesbian-lizards:thehowlingwolf:OMFG This is driving me nuts!!!!I honestly
emeritusprofessorofnothing:lesbian-lizards:thehowlingwolf:OMFG This is driving me nuts!!!!I honestly feel that only people who think women are inherently worthless could actually believe this.I think about this a lot, and I think this is why so many girls welcome men who don the guise of a woman because they think that being a woman is worthless so when a man validates it, it somehow has value. Being a woman is worthless somehow unless a man wants to be one.I was discussing this idea with @whyyoualwayssoradical the other day. Why a lot women- especially young women- are so willing to consider trans women as “real women” and allow them into female spaces and stuff. One of the thoughts we had was that they are under the impression that trans women are going to help fight for the same causes as them (you really see this on Tumblr where trans women are considered essential to feminism, and anyone who disagrees is a “terf”. An acronym that literally designates which feminists aren’t “including” tw in their politics). And honestly? That’s what I used to think too. But I used to believe in brain sex and stuff so in my mind it was like trans women are just women born in the wrong body, but because they are women they relate to our struggles. More women fighting = more progress! But then I started seeing discussions of reproductive rights getting silenced and people saying it’s transphobic to be proud of your vagina and woke up pretty quickly. (This is why I say that, like all males, if a trans women actually wants to help support women’s rights they should do it as an ally.) But the another big reason, I think, is the thing you said @emeritusprofessorofnothing. So many young girls have low self esteem at best and outright hatred at worst over their female identity, so when they see that some people actually want to “be women”, and these people are risking violence and shame to do so, it makes them feel like their problems aren’t so bad. For some, it might be a bit of an ego boost, like they have something that these people want and by extension that makes them feel valuable (not a far cry from the way some people think about female sexuality and men).And we’ve also seen a resurgence of extreme femininity in recent years as well, like a lot of women are really getting into that on a higher level this decade compared to like the earlier 2000s (androgyny) and the 90s (tomboy aesthetic) at least in western culture.So these days “being a woman” is very much linked with the performance aspect, and who would bother preforming if they didn’t want to be one? Additionally, better performance = more of a woman. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen libfems post a string of images showing off rich trans women who have had tons of surgeries, covered in makeup and wearing perfect wigs, with a comment like “how can you think these women aren’t real women?" Women are socialized to be sympathetic and accommodating, but on top of that we grow up in a world and culture that constantly belittles us for our sex. Some girls have used gender politics as an attempted escape from their sex but for the ones who stay "women identifying” they are welcoming of trans women for these reasons. -- source link