Ah, a compromise
I've written and canned three posts today because of the uncontrollable grudgey rage, so I'm gonna get it out via clumsy analogies for now.
I am a disabled woman. I haven't always been that way, but I am now. Would you ever ask me to give up Wheelson, or ditch the assistive tech. I use, just because I once had the privilege of being able-bodied?
I was born gay, but didn't come out until 1999. Therefore I benefitted from the privilege of appearing to be heterosexual, even though I wasn't. Even now, unless I'm snogging Miss Buttons in front of you and singing 'Glad to be Gay'' then I 'pass'. Am I less of a lesbian for any of that? Do you have the right to call me bisexual or heterosexual because I've kissed boys in my dim, distant past?
You're thinking "Shit, is Burt on crack? Has she overdone the fizzy pop and painkillers? None of this makes sense" You're right, it doesn't. But today I've seen people, people I thought were rational and sensible, ungendering a trans woman, calling her 'It' and 'Him' because she expressed views they don't agree with. Why is this ok? Because "OMG TRANS WOMEN HAVE MALE PRIVILEGE". Really? That'll be why they're raped, and killed, and denied healthcare then, 'cos of their powerful links to the patriarchy. That'll be why they're overwhelmingly poor, unemployed, homeless, marginalised, decimated by HIV/AIDS, because they are DA MAAAAAN. And as we all know, penis=power. YEah, they'll let you call yourself a woman, but put a foot wrong and BOOM, you're an It-girl, and not the Paris Hylton type. Ahem. Sorry for the spillage, I'll clean up later.
Oh and refusion ? Snowflakes are tiny litle things, but that one I noticed yesterday may have actually saved my sanity and dragged me back to the real world. Many smooches.
I am a disabled woman. I haven't always been that way, but I am now. Would you ever ask me to give up Wheelson, or ditch the assistive tech. I use, just because I once had the privilege of being able-bodied?
I was born gay, but didn't come out until 1999. Therefore I benefitted from the privilege of appearing to be heterosexual, even though I wasn't. Even now, unless I'm snogging Miss Buttons in front of you and singing 'Glad to be Gay'' then I 'pass'. Am I less of a lesbian for any of that? Do you have the right to call me bisexual or heterosexual because I've kissed boys in my dim, distant past?
You're thinking "Shit, is Burt on crack? Has she overdone the fizzy pop and painkillers? None of this makes sense" You're right, it doesn't. But today I've seen people, people I thought were rational and sensible, ungendering a trans woman, calling her 'It' and 'Him' because she expressed views they don't agree with. Why is this ok? Because "OMG TRANS WOMEN HAVE MALE PRIVILEGE". Really? That'll be why they're raped, and killed, and denied healthcare then, 'cos of their powerful links to the patriarchy. That'll be why they're overwhelmingly poor, unemployed, homeless, marginalised, decimated by HIV/AIDS, because they are DA MAAAAAN. And as we all know, penis=power. YEah, they'll let you call yourself a woman, but put a foot wrong and BOOM, you're an It-girl, and not the Paris Hylton type. Ahem. Sorry for the spillage, I'll clean up later.
Oh and refusion ? Snowflakes are tiny litle things, but that one I noticed yesterday may have actually saved my sanity and dragged me back to the real world. Many smooches.