Tag Archives: radical feminism

I Don’t Care About That TERF Pussy Church And Neither Should You

23 Aug

There’s been a bit of a hub-bub lately over the IRS granting non-profit status/recognition to an anti-trans Pussy Church of Final Judgement or whatever. On the surface, this definitely seems like some seriously bad news.

On one hand, the Trump administration has displayed a growing commitment to redefine anti-LGBT discrimination as a matter of “Religious Freedom/Expression.” On the other hand, TERFs and other typically secular anti-trans movements are increasingly adapting the playbooks and accepting funding from the anti-LGBT Religious Right. Advocacy and acceptance of trans rights and visibility of our needs has been a largely recent thing, and the current political climate has seen increasing hostility and the looming threat of losing what small gains that have been made.

People have been asked my opinion on this, because I’ve had a reputation for dunking TERFs that goes back years before I got a pussy myself. It would be remiss of me to not put something out there regarding The Psychic Temple of Pussy Youth or whatever. So I thought for a bit over what I wanted to write. However, honestly this doesn’t seem quite so dire when you take a minute or two to think about it. I mean –

Okay First Of All That Fucking Name

There was a real opportunity here for TERFs. They could have formalized an organized sect of Dianic Wicca for instance. Called it “The Sisters Of Mary Daly” or something with similar gravitas and sense of reverence. But no, TERFs gotta be oh so clever with everything they do, so now it’s the Super Special Pussy Power No Penis Boys Allowed Church. This is not going to work out well for them in the long run.

I literally cannot wait for a case against this group to go to court. I cannot wait to see a representative of this group argue to a crusty elderly ninth circuit court judge that they have a First Amendment right to discriminate against trans people because they “worship at the altar of pussy” or whatever. That’s practically begging for a contempt of court verdict, no matter how many tax forms you filled out.

You want to see how well this will turn out? Look up any number of cases regarding the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and driver license photos. There’s a handful of wins here and there, but largely it’s a disaster and considered an embarrassing joke. There’s a certain decorum expected when making claims or appeals towards upholding your deeply-held religious belief and expression, and claiming membership in a Holey Pussy Church isn’t gonna win anyone over in that regard.

It Couldn’t Be A More Transparent Honey Trap

So like, at this point it’s pretty well known who is behind this thing. If you don’t know, ask around about it on Twitter. I’m kind of thinking a certain someone must have fallen off the wagon because this scheme is a bit harebrained even for them. But anyway, despite being off the grid for a bit, they seem to be back to their old playbook.

It’s an old, tired playbook, y’all. We should all be familiar with it by now. Can we not be stupid about it this time? They want you to grouse and be upset by their existence and create screen-cappable posts they can claim are “threats” for the sake of their persecution complex and recruitment appeals. You’ve seen blogs compiling these posts, many of which go back to like 2010. Once they find a post they hold onto it forever. It’s not a type of fame you want.

If they can’t find anything they’ll just make stuff up, so why hand them ammo? Even now on r/GenderCritical or whatever they are going over this post with a fine-tooth comb for something to sob over…

“HE… HE SAID DUNKING! DUNKING LIKE IN WITCH TRIALS! THAT IS CLEARLY WHAT IS MEANT BY THAT! TAPPING INTO THE UMPTY THOUSAND YEARS OPPRESSION OF WOMEN BY PENISMALES IN DRESSES! THE USE OF SUCH DELIBERATELY CRUEL LANGUAGE IS PROOF THAT MISTER RANI IS AND FOREVER WILL BE, ON A SPIRITUAL LEVEL, A MALE PENISMAN!”
– somebody on r/GenderCritical probably

The Endgame Is Sort Of Obvious, And Kinda Sad

I know these people aren’t stupid.

The likelihood of this church being used to facilitate workplace or housing discrimination is pretty slim. The idea that they will join forces with the Religious Right to sponsor some sort of Holy Bathroom Police Militia is unlikely. Hell, the idea that they are going to actually find anything more than token lipservice support from the Dark Web Free Speech Vanguard is practically non-existent.

So what are they up to? This may be premature of me to guess, but given what I know about who and what is involved with this organization, I have a pretty good idea. I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts the endgame of this group is to use it as a base to form a new trans-excluding women’s festival around. Yeah, like Michfest, remember ever caring about that? Seems like a century ago.

But anyway, if this turns out to be the case oh my god can we let these people have their sad stinky hippie festival full of terrible music now? Trump is literally going to kill us all and these clowns have made it more than clear they are willing to burn down everything and help erect a Gilead 2.0 if they can at least guarantee making a few trans women’s lives harder along the way.

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This Is What “Gender Abolition” Looks Like.

31 Jul

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I’ve said it before and I say it again: if there was a movement that actually seemed earnestly devoted to the abolition of gender, you couldn’t possibly sign me up fast enough. That gender-crits reframe tolerance and respect for the existence and experience of trans individuals as somehow being “pro-gender” is ludicrous. I, for one, have absolutely zero devotion or loyalty or wish to advocate for the hierarchal structure of gendered social roles, expectations, and behaviors that degrade all women and see women like me as below garbage for somehow “eschewing” some sort of birthright by not being a heterosexual conforming man.

But in practice by it’s proponents, “Gender Abolition” is a buzzword, not unlike “War On Terror” or “War On Drugs”… an lofty claim with no clear plan and more often than not used as an excuse to rationalize shitty behavior they were gonna do anyway. You don’t even have to take my word for it, they’re perfectly capable of making their actual motivations clear.

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But then, this is the Gender Abolitionist/”gender critical” movement, the “radical” movement where lived experience is meaningless and all the “facts” are sourced from FOX News. Where sensible shoes will alleviate gender dysphoria and overthrow compulsive heteronormativity and toxic hegemonic masculinity forever.

Where literally the most homophobic organization in existence is considered “pro-woman” simply by virtue of their mutual hatred of trans women.

gendercrit15Thank god the TERFs are so willing to stand up for the poor, oppressed WBC

Where a “male-born” (their term, not mine) can joke about throwing a “female-born” (their term, not mine) person in a volcano (a form of human sacrifice that claimed the lives of hundreds of women), and it’s a-ok because the “female-born” person is trans.

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Where literally the only original commentary a supposedly “pro-woman” site had to the Eliot Rodger shootings was to make it all about trans women somehow.

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Where “TERF is a slur”, but “f*g” and “wh*re” not so much.

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Where sexualized violence and threats of disclosure against us are literally treated as a joke:

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Where folks display a laughably disjointed historical perspective:

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Where pedophiles can be considered “pro-woman” somehow because of mutual hatred of trans women:

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Where the ideology and positions on gender transition and identity are functionally identical to that of the Southern Baptist Convention:

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Where they coyly claim that their stated desire to “mandate us out of existence” is simply a turn of phrase, and then openly discuss how they will literally mandate us out of existence:

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Where questioning the assumption that you are some sort of unnatural rape monster with interests inherently at odds with other sexual assault survivors, means your own status as a survivor is deliberately erased because you didn’t live up to their specifications:

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Speaking of detransition, I’ve already been there, and managed to snap out of it before it killed me. So, of course I should go back and do it again because you say so:

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Where they preach all day about this imaginary “pressure to transition” that gender-non-conforming gay folk experience from the trans community, when in reality the opposite happens:

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Where they supposedly speak for “every woman”, even the women that go out of their way to make it clear they don’t speak for them. Give it a rest, Whitney.

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Because ultimately what it comes down to is that You Are What They Say You Are™:

yeragayman

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Sheila Jeffries’ Book #GenderHurts, Re-Imagined As A Chick Tract.

7 May

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The Effeminist Manifesto Is A Forty Year Old Pile Of WTF.

24 Jan

In preparation for my cross-country move from Austin to Portland during the summer of 2013, I found myself begrudgingly paring down what was previously my impressive (if I must say so myself) personal library of counter-cultural literature and publications. Part of that daunting task included rooting through the stuff that was not worth salvaging or selling (usually because of damage sustained from previous moves) and tearing out articles of interest to revisit.

While digging through an old Whole Earth Catalog (I think) from the early 70s I noticed this gay culture manifesto that included the word “f*ggot” like 50 times.

What the shit is this? I thought to myself. A quick scan showed it to be a call to arms for effeminate men to reject the masculinism in gay culture. “Fuck. Yes” I thought to myself and put it in the keep pile. I chatted up this discovery with my partner at the time, another trans woman who I’d met on a fetish site, without having any idea of the irony. No joke, I even think we were going out to a drag show that night.

What I’d stumbled across was the fierce anti-trans, anti-BDSM, anti-androgeny, anti camp and gay culture Effeminist Manifesto.

Founded by Steven F Dansky, John Knoebel, and Kenneth Pitchford (husband of old-school proto-TERF Robin Morgan), The Effeminist Movement was a short lived, tightly-knit and controversial group mostly centered around their publication project Double F. The movement, in their own words, “did not seek to the legalization of f*ggotry, quotas or civil rights for f*ggots” but instead spent the majority of their time declaring members of the Gay Liberation movement and other counter-cultural movements “enemies of feminism” and seeking to discredit and slander them. Anyone familiar with a certain branch of radical feminism would immediately recognize these tactics.

Looking over this document, I find myself torn because when I read things like:

F*ggots and all effeminate men are oppressed by the patriarchy’s systematic enforcement of masculinist standards , whether these standards are expressed as physical, mental, emotional or sexual stereotypes of what is desirable in a man.

…This means rejecting of objectification of people based on such things as [physical or facial features], genitals, ethnicity or race, physical or mental handicap or lifestyle…

…Even as we learn to affirm in ourselves the cooperative impulse and to admire in each other what is tender and gentle, what is aesthetic, considerate, affectionate, lyrical, sweet…

I’m like “this is awesome, these are things that really need to be put out there; wish the other 85% of this thing wasn’t crap”. The rest being this campaigning of a sort of compulsory celibacy akin to political lesbianism, but for gay dudes, rejection and dismantling of gay culture altogether, and this realization of the innateness of maleness and femaleness that is “outside of gender”. I have to admit I find myself scratching my head over that last one.

It’s a pretty common argument in that branch of radical feminism, this whole baffling idea that gender is wrong but people should still be categorized by estimated reproductive role and viability. I say tomato, you say transgender identity is a form of cultural appropriation. *shrug*

I really wish there was a situation where all possibility of open, frank discussion of the navigation of gender by people with a lifetime of gender-non-conforming history hadn’t already been hijacked rhetorically by strict binary narratives we have to repack our lives into in order to express ourselves in order to be understood.

Really tho, it’s not too far off from the complications of explaining the social navigation of monogamous bisexuality, something else I’m all too familiar with.

I will say this tho, I kinda wanna reclaim Eonism, which is the term they use in this when talking about trans folks. Even though I’m well aware of the etymology, it still also sounds cybernetic. So any anti-trans jerks reading this should feel free to call me that all you like.

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