OWS – Go Rad Fems!

Someone on the Occupy Wall Street message board was trying to make a point about the movement and posed a question along the lines of “Should sex changes be legal?” Womononajourney linked to this discussion in a comment on her eye-opening post about Woman’s Day of Action at OWS.

I went over to the link and found the whole thing very interesting. I was proud to recognize some Rad Fem bloggers adding their voices to the discussion. In case of deletion (since the original question was deleted) I also took some screen shots. I’m just putting this one up for now because it links back to the issue of trans species, furries, otherkin and so on. While this poster is certainly taking a techno post-human approach to the question we can see where surgical modification leads in some people’s eyes.  (notice his ridiculous entitled screen name)

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Man Arrested for Injecting Cement, Etc

This is who they really are and what they really think of us. This is a male transvestite with a history of crime. His appearance and what he does also says a lot about our racist culture and its objectifying of black women and their bodies.

A fake surgeon who managed to evade police for a year has been charged for injecting a toxic concoction into the buttocks of a woman seeking a curvier figure.

Oneal Ron Morris, 30, has been charged with practicing medicine without a license with serious bodily injury. Authorities have found no phone listing for Morris.

Morris was arrested on Friday in Miami-Dade County and released on bond. Morris has been on the run for one year and has an arrest record in Hillsborough County that details three arrests between 2000 and 2002, once for trespassing and twice for grand theft of a motor vehicle.

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Man2Furry2TransAnimal

In Sex, Gender, Lies&Female Hatred on the RadFem Hub Rainsinger writes:

One of the most common socially approved expressions of this universal Hate, is the continuing metaphor of women as animals, (ie not-human animals), chicks, cows, dogs, bunnies, and often presented as such in advertising, along with gender minstrel performance as a put-down, just as racial minstrel performance is.

Rainsinger is talking about language and the metaphor extends to a visual one as well.  As we well know women are dressed up as “sexy” animals for Halloween and for pornographic purposes. That’s not all I have to say about dressing up, however. The second part of the quote, the gender minstrel performance reminded me of not only the men who claim the label transgender and attempt to cosmetically dress and alter themselves to resemble a caricature of what a woman is, but also of this post about a man who wore a vinyl face mask to disguise himself and gain entry into the women’s bathroom for perverted, sexual reasons.

I had no idea masks like this existed. It even has attached breasts. If I saw someone with that on in a woman’s bathroom I’d be traumatized for life. Click on the thumbnails for the full horror show.

While I did not know about men donning these creepy face masks I do know a lot about other costumes men wear to engage in a sexual fetish and to try to hide/change their identity. That would be the Furry Fandom. Furries are obsessed with anthropomorphised animals.

Furries are largely comprised of men who identify sexually as gay or bi-sexual. Fursuits are costumes that can range from a tail and ears with make-up to fully articulate mascot style suits. Often these suits have strategic holes for penetration while still in the suit. Aside from wearing fur suits at conventions many furries wear them at home and live out the furry lifestyle full time. This includes posting on forums and sites like Deviant Art. I have seen fursuiters at anime conventions and while I’m sure some have a sincere love of crafting and self-expression there is a dark side as well.

So what does this have to do with transgender? Obviously a group made up mostly of men are dressing up as something they are not and using this to try create a new identity. Fursuits might not be problematic on their own, but we find a connection between the concept of women equated with non-human animals and male minstrels when the transgender community comes on the scene.

For example behold this creature known as Bitch. I’m not kidding. The person in the costume is a man to trans.

I blacked out the “eyes” to protect “her” identity. LOL!

Can we say fetish? Can we say false, horrible concept of what a woman is? There are many male fursuiters out there masquerading as a woman out of the suit and then as a female animal in the suit.

That’s not all! Furry art takes on the transgender theme with a vengeance. There’s art of anthromorphised male animals cross-dressing and transgender animals as well. One popular trope is that of the instant “sex change”. Below is a picture that is fairly representative of the style and quality of art that gets posted on Furry forums, deviant art, etc.

Here’s the verbatim quote that goes with this piece of “art”.

“Try new ‘Fox Juice’ Purple Berry flavor (Not grape by the way)!

We found a mysterious breed of berry that were apparently used by an ancient civilization for cheap and effective female sex changes for the men or easy body enhancements for the women.

I find the last part of that quote very telling. In the drawing you can see a human male is transforming into a “female” fox in an instant after drinking this juice.

 

 

 

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Trans Species Pt 2 – I Demand you Approve of Me!

For context please read the first part of this series in the post below or by clicking here.

How does the Transgender, Trans Species, Otherkin, and Therian fit together in the real world? Do these groups want the same thing? Yes. They DEMAND that other people not just live and let live, but believe them, approve of them, and treat them accordingly. Oh Tumblr, why do I even bother with you? This is why, to find out the disturbing trends infecting my generation:

Doesn’t this all sound familiar? In the post below this I already talked about how this coincides with transgender, so let’s look for some examples of that from a forum:

This post is met with responses of yes. Notice that like the trans the Otherkin locates the dysphoria in childhood. This is used to validate it. Frankly I cannot understand how someone could remain so stagnant and not change from childhood. I think it’s indicative of a lot of problems. I still love some of the things I did as a child, like science fiction and video games, but the point of life is growing, changing and learning through self-examination. This seems to have been lost with the glorification of childhood and the smothering presence of helicopter parents.  I digress. Let’s see if anyone else posts anything relevant to radical feminism’s discussion of the trans machine?

:

This woman identifies herself not as a woman, but as a cisgendered wolfgirl. Women are classically equated with the body and the animals in nature that men trample on and destroy. She’s not just a wolf, but a girl. A child. She has accepted the naming of herself from another source, trans, who have no right to call the female sex cisgendered. Disgusting.

Finally, let’s go back to Tumblr and see what else is going on in that discussion:

Wow. Can we even FUCKING believe the logic fail of this person. First, they say “Otherkin is not a spiritual identity”. O RLY? Then they fucking compare it to ANOTHER spiritual identity and one that has nothing to do with the physical body in the same sense that transgender or trans species does. It is also not a good analogy as Christians, Jews and other religious adherents are openly mocked and criticized in our culture from t-shirts and bumper stickers to books and college courses exposing the history of these groups. What a complete fool and a completely inaccurate use of the term straw man. It’s not a straw man. Otherkin have a SPIRITUAL belief that they have been INCARNATED into the wrong body. Guess what, reincarnation is not a scientific theory. It’s a fucking religous belief. Dragons, fairies, elves, mermaids do not exist. If you think you are one there is no biological basis for that. There is nothing. Those creatures are part of archetypal mythology.

However, speaking of Straw Men.  You guessed it. I feel very crunchy and stuffed inside…..

 

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Ask Chaz Bono a Question

CNN is running a little interactive Q&A  in which people can submit a video asking Chaz “The Man” Bono a question. Nice. Check it out. You can vote and comment on questions and there are some good ones that show that people in general can definitely see through this nonsense.

Here’s one that appears to be from a member of Anonymous.

Good question! This seems to be true of other trans folks as well who attempt to cash in on the change and avoid doing actual work. During my trans brainwashing period I delighted in watching documentaries and reality shows about the trans population including Trans American Love Story. With employment protection in certain areas, like now the entire state of California, what’s up with that? Chaz y u no like job? Why is Chaz Bono the worst activist ever?

 

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Braaaaiiiiins, Braiiiiiins

  NOT A ZOMBIE OR UNDEAD!  A LIVING HUMAN WHO EATS BRAINS!

Zombies are TOTES the most oppressed class of monsters! Not sexy like a vampire. Not powerful like a werewolf. No sweet jewelry and curses like a mummy.  Damn. It sucks.

However, when zombies eat brains can they tell the difference between a male and female brain? What do they prefer to chomp down on?

We may never know due to their limited ability to give feedback, but did you know that having a female brain has been PROVEN to be true of men who think they are lesbians and have a penis that they want to stick in a lesbian (as the only form of sex that their female brain allows them to believe in?) If you don’t know what I’m on about click here.

Yes. It’s true and thanks to intrepid commenter of the day Adlai my outrageous opinions on PIV and lesbians can be  put to rest in the ground (see the zombie theme continues, yay!)

Biological facts: Men and women have differently structured brains. Transsexual brains, at *least* with respect to neuron numbers in the limbic nucleus, either match the gender they say they are, rather than the sex their genitals indicate, or are somewhere in between.

Awesome!!! This must be why I excel in a male dominated field and wear masculine clothes. LOL!

Adlai links to this article using dismissive language “big words”. Oh how the big words hurt my female brain or wait is it a male brain because I love boy jeans and have a kick-ass fake leather wallet in my back pocket?

Well, based on my Fibromyalgia post you might guess that I just love me some shitty science in the morning!

What does this landmark study show? Well, it took place in the Netherlands. Did they control for class, race, ethnic group, educational background, etc? We’ll never know, but believe me scientists routinely ignore such issues. Science, the god of the easily led masses, is an older white male (or Asian on an off day) who knows everything! Because? Because! Science!!

How many people were studied? Was this conducted over time? Nope. Like all hastily promoted science we find that:

In the present study, 42 brains of patients were analyzed (for an overview see Table 1⇓). The brains of 34 reference subjects (9 presumed heterosexual males, 9 homosexual males, 10 presumed heterosexual females, and 6 male-to-female transsexuals) ranging from 20–53 yr of age, together with six brains (three males and three females) of patients with sex hormone disorders were obtained at autopsy, after the required permissions had been obtained.

42! The meaning of life and everything! Someone doing this study has a sense of humour.  Do you notice too the words in bold. Nicely done there assholes. Whew, thank Darwin they didn’t study any lesbians or presumed lesbians…. Sigh. When will people realize that studies like this are done because researchers need more money and publishing something salacious that confirms the patriarchy is good for bu$ine$$.

When trans deniers hand you junk science about the brain don’t forget the important issue of neuroplasticity.  In school I studied the work of a neuroscientist who was researching the brains of serial murderers.  One of the most important issues that kept cropping up was the fact that the brain experiences actual physical, structural changes over time according to external stimuli.

Yes. Despite what you might have learned, that the brain is all set to go once childhood is over, your brain adapts over time.

This is both an amazing and scary prospect as we can see how incredibly invasive our culture really is. The patriarchy really can brainwash one into actual sex differences in the brain, but those sex differences are NOT INNATE or essential. They DO NOT mean that a man is actually a woman.

For example women are not inherently inferior in math. Culture influences how women are able to perform mathematically. With a sample size of over 1200 people this study has much more potential to hopefully ignite more of its kinds to see how far the issue of the brain and sex go.

In completely non-sex based news that corresponds to the concept of neuroplasticity are the brain growth patterns seen in British taxi-cab drivers. You can read about that here.

As I told good ol’ Adlai we are still at the beginning of our search into the human brain and its capabilities. It’s hard to separate culture out from biology and the brain’s willingness to change over time makes that more difficult.

What we are learning from cutting edge researchers is that the things that we think are the most set in stone (like gender roles) are not universal and not biological. I don’t doubt that gender dysphoria exists, but it is something created by culture not allowing people freedom of expression.  Why does anyone want to fit in a box anyway? Laziness? Convenience? Fear?

It is my absolute belief that smashing the gender binary and not reinforcing it by men claiming to be women is essential to our culture moving ahead instead of stagnating.  That’s fucking radical.

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Intersex and Other Sexes

When I was 18 I thought I was a man.  Due to my then belief in reincarnation I thought I had been a man in most of my previous lives. I had dreams about being a man in war, having a wife, etc.  If someone had offered me the chance to “be a man” in those days or transition I really may have done it. I can’t say for sure since my mindset has changed so much in a few years, but the one thing I know is that now, having finished college and experienced more in the few years since I would regret horribly if I had started to transition to become male when I was a teen. I suffered from terrible internalized misogyny, body dysmorphia (which I still struggle with) and shame about being a woman.

Eventually reflecting on my travels and what I learned in class I realized that there is  really no such thing as male versus female objects, clothes, etc. Those things are arbitrarily assigned based on generations of habit.  That arbitrary designation hurts all of us.

Today I still dress mostly in men’s clothes, carry a wallet in my back pocket, and all of the superficial associated things that our society assigns as “male”. I hate that our culture does that. I honestly wish that men could wear dresses without feeling bad about themselves or having others make them feel bad about it. Liking female things does not mean you have to be female. In some subcultures like the Goth world men do feel more free to wear skirts, dresses, makeup, and more elaborate outfits because there is nothing wrong with being “effeminate”. In Japan there is a whole musical genre called Visual Kei (among others) that I got some exposure to in my travels. Visual Kei encourages cross-gender expression, makeup and beauty.  It’s refreshing.

I also find it useful that other cultures including Native American there was/is a belief in a third sex or trans identity that does not to en masse try to invade or co-opt women’s experiences. In my mind the problem is not elective transitional surgery, but the lack of positive identity available for those who do so.  The only option left is to try to pass as whatever sex you want to appear like.

And what about intersex people? Their voices are erased in our culture completely.

Consider this post about the problematics inherent in the use of the word hermaphrodite to dismiss/erase intersex folks over at this post on Screw Bronze. You can read a bit about gyandomorphs on the same blog by clicking here.

Also useful to this conversation is the writing of Plastic Girl that asks us to consider a transhumanoid perspective that is very interesting.

 

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Waking up from the Trans Machine

This entry will detail some personal experiences of mine and commentary on a few things I’ve found around the blogosphere and some media that I have watched over the past year.

I started out as a conflicted, but passionate Trans ally, even an apologist.  I was conflicted because growing up although I am a girl and outwardly look feminine I was often called a boy, tomboy, mannish, aggressive, and so on.  I dressed in men’s or boy’s clothing as soon as I could pick my own clothes and pursued the sciences and computer programming. I was bullied relentlessly with verbal insults and physical violence. Other girls did not want to hang out with me because they said I acted “like a man” but I found a group of like-minded nerdy girls and goth kids and got through 7-12th grades.

I’ve never felt like a girl, at least in the way society enforces what being a girl is.  However, from reading and observing others I realized  that gender is a social construct and so my behavior matching whatever arbitrary roles are assigned to a person with my sex organs was not important to me.  It also helped that I got to travel around the world several times and saw in action how different cultures deal with the concept of gender.

Then when I started college in the southwest I met my first trans person, a butch lesbian who felt guilty about being a lesbian due to her parent’s strict religious beliefs.  She went through hormone treatments, changed her name and adopted a suddenly sexist attitude that hurt those around her.  The same thing happened with another woman I knew who became in her words, a gay male, after taking hormones, growing a beard and so on.  She began to make posts on her social networking page about how women were the truly evil ones, abused men, and these rants became toxic and unreadable.

Around the same time I met a guy who told me he was actually a lesbian, hated feminists because they in his words, “didn’t side with me” and told me he wanted to go through surgery, but didn’t have the money.  His only concept of what being a woman was involved “acting like a big bitch” and wearing nail polish.

Since I felt that all of this people were abused in their past and I had empathy for that I at first gave them some room to misbehave, eventually withdrawing from their lives completely when their behavior became ruder over time.  Their belief in rigid sex roles confused me and offended me.  When I tried to tell the male “lesbian” I felt like no gender, he insisted I was wrong and that just meant I was both genders or that I was actually male, etc.

The final straw that began my enlightenment was watching the trans version of the Vagina Monologues called, Beautiful Daughters.  In this there were men with intact, functional penises participating and trying to recast what being a woman was.  I was shocked. I didn’t know men claimed to be women without going through the full surgery.

Recently I read on Gender Trender a piece about men trying to take over women’s sports. It featured a bodybuilder named Chris Tina Foxx Bruce who, although possessing male organs was competing against a woman in a bodybuilding competition. He lost.  Browsing his website I came across this photo of him “helping” a woman work out that perfectly summarizes the issue with trans folks.  It’s about men having power over female bodies.  The original photo is stretched for some reason.

Trans identifiers are a direct result of living in a strict gender binary within a patriarchy and buying into that concept.  None of us has to buy into it and it’s amazing freeing to let go and be yourself.

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