1. How exactly do you define “extreme" or “militant" Trans activists? Your terminology is troubling as it resembles that of many TERFs, who lump any Trans woman who pushes back as a “militant TRA".
To me is anyone who acts violently against others to make a political statement is militant. I am not talking about self-defense. To be clear, I reject TERFs and the ignorance they preach. It is unfortunate if I use common words that may be tainted by their use. That is the only connection.
2. You seem to be accepting the TERF narrative of Wi Spa uncritically and without reservation. How do you KNOW that the alleged Trans woman in question was “flaunting” her penis? Also, anyone seeing anything they disliked should also have to answer; why were they looking at her junk in order to see her junk?
Actually in my article I specifically stated that I don’t know the facts of that situation. I wrote about a concept that it brought up.
3. I agree that many cisgender women have reason to fear and dislike men and men’s penises, but you leave out some critically relevant facts. Men’s behavior, men’s violence, men’s penises, and men’s bodies all BELONG TO MEN. Not to you, not to me, not to ANY woman. Women are NOT responsible for men or their behavior, or for men’s bodies. Also, while women overall have a horrible lifetime risk of sexual assault of 1 in 4, of sexual abuse 1 in 3, we Trans women have a 1 in 2 risk. We statistically have a greater reason to fear men’s bodies, men’s violence than they do. Not only are we not a part of men’s sexual violence, we are the most frequent inheritors of its aftermath.
There is no question that we suffer more statistically at the hands of men. My point is that to a cisgender woman a penis is a penis regardless to whom it is attached. That is what I am sensitive to. I want cisgender woman to see me and not my penis first. Unfortunately they need some time to see past it.
4. We are responsible for our own, OUR bodies, and that’s for cis AND Trans women. In fact, that’s a common goal we share, all women, cis or Trans; our rights to seek body autonomy and agency, unabridged by law or custom.
I absolutely agree but at this point it is a utopian gender goal that I hope we can achieve some day.
5. Accordingly, all women should oppose ANY attempts to regulate and police our bodies, because once exceptions are created for SOME women, those exceptions will be used against ALL women. I’ve seen it too many times to recount.
I absolutely agree but we are yet to be seen as women by the vast majority of society. Until being transgender is finally accepted as a fact of nature like red hair, we will continue to battle for understanding and acceptance. Some day we will move beyond body parts to identify gender but we are not there yet.
Bottom line we are all on the same side but use different battle tactics.
