Peak trans: tell your story here

submitted by Sittingonarainbow from self.GenderCritical

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[–]Amazing_Aardvark 87 insightful - 6 fun87 insightful - 5 fun88 insightful - 6 fun -  (26 children)

I created an account on Reddit today and made my first post in r/Gendercritical. A few minutes later, it was gone. So, I’ll rewrite it below:

I don’t quite recall when I experienced “peak trans”, but I know it came hand-in-hand with “peak Left”.

I’ve become more and more alarmed by the censorship, the refusal to debate, the obsession with identity politics and the cult-like repetition of slogans such as “Trans women are women”, which is a circular statement that one can only back up through mangling the English language.

I support people living their private lives as they see fit. If you wish to have surgery, go ahead. If you wish to change your name, OK. But, if your wish to coerce me into denying what I see with my own eyes, buzz off. I won’t do it. Your rights end where mine begin, and I have the right not to participate in an ideology that I find abhorrent.

So, I refuse to say things like “men can menstruate” and “her penis”, because, well, those statements are ridiculous and I don’t want to debase myself.

Other issues that motivate me to speak up include: the vile attacks on women who speak up (sending love to JK Rowling), the erosion of women’s sports (to which I dedicated a large portion of my life), the sterilization of children, and so on.

Though I have generally approached this issue from a liberal perspective, rather than a gender critical one, I look forward to continuing the discussion with all of you.

[–]Shinjin_Nana 41 insightful - 5 fun41 insightful - 4 fun42 insightful - 5 fun -  (7 children)

I peaked left after peaking trans too. It's been politically pretty rough for GC rad fems especially if you lean left on other political issues.

Biden says VAWA in the same breath as TWAW and I'm like, NAAW.

I am happy to know I am in good company.

[–]Barber_Acrobatic 42 insightful - 1 fun42 insightful - 0 fun43 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

I think I'm going through the same peak-left situation currently. Now I'm not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater but I'm deeply uncomfortable with this whole purity of thought, and the ideas that some concepts are beyond the scope of debate. I'm really worried about what the future may hold, although knowing I'm not the only one does help

[–]Shinjin_Nana 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Agreed.

My issues is that with the right, it's the fight I understand for women's rights. With the left it's bottomless... like, hoisting the trans stuff onto a new generation of young women who will take tens of years to clean up. I'm having trouble deciding which is worse.

[–]Barber_Acrobatic 17 insightful - 1 fun17 insightful - 0 fun18 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think the thing that really scares me is if this is seen as over correction to how long it took gay rights to be accepted, and so the trans stuff is just being rushed through, what happens if/when the pendulum swings back the other way. Like say the TRAs get their way, and anyone can identify as a women at the drop of the hat. How long until the dregs of society start seeing this as another way to clamber into acceptance. 'MAP' kept trying to weasel into LGB, and despite the 'who would go to all the effort to get to children' rhetoric the TRAs rely on I kinda think they would.

I suspect it would be incredibly hard to explain to the far right that LGB isn't the same as T, or even that there are people with genuine dysphoria who just live their lives. I worry that the left is on a knife edge of doing permanent harm to our reputation and values, and that past a certain point all the ideas and principles we have will be bundled up and dismissed as 'woke nonsense'.

It feels like it has the potential to blow up in our faces, and a swing to the right would not be something I'd cheer on.

I think I've become a bit of a political orphan

[–]Ofthewoods 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I understand this. I feel politically homeless as well, and betrayed. I do have a tiny shred of hope that non-“woke” liberals and moderate conservatives can work together on this. My impression from older moderate and left-leaning relatives is that they are kind of just trying not to come off as hateful in a world where the definition changes rapidly. I also had a decent conversation with my conservative father after I peaked a couple of weeks ago. I spent a lot of my adolescent years trying to make my religious conservative parents understand the gay rights movement, and they have really come around since 10 years ago or so - they actually have been talking to their homophobic friends and acquaintances at church and in bible study to try and bring them around for several years and it’s important to them. So we talked about not lumping rights for LGB in with the current TRA ideology and how wrong it would be for there to be a backlash there, and hopefully they will talk about that with their friends too. But yeah. I live in a decent sized city, an island of blue and purple in a red state, and I think I’m going to focus on talking with the people who will be least resistant first. I imagine a lot of people are feeling uncomfortable but don’t feel like they can express it without being called out. For reference my parents are loyal Trump voters who love Fox News.

[–]Rationalmind 14 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 0 fun15 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I thought that too. With the right, I know my enemy but with the left, I’m backstabbed.

[–]Shinjin_Nana 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So right now it's 'is the devil you know worse than the devil you don't.'

Someone on spinster insinuated 'hope for a split congress and presidency then use 4 years of gridlock to bide time'

[–]SameOldBS 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Same. I've been on the left my whole life, but I am beginning to despise it, despite my economic values.

[–]Rationalmind 39 insightful - 3 fun39 insightful - 2 fun40 insightful - 3 fun -  (5 children)

I also peaked left at the same time I peaked trans. I peaked left when SJW’s wokespeak started to sound misogynistic, racist, elitist, and classist while coercing speech with pronouns. Thank goodness for radical feminism using a traditional class analysis, it’s been my saving grace.

[–]Anonimouse 34 insightful - 2 fun34 insightful - 1 fun35 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I'd been involved in identity politics for ages. My thing was disability, which is really, really under represented everywhere. It was interesting noticing just how intensely other "groups" focused on identity so hard trying to ignore class. But class is everything. Wealth and the access to the means of survival and meaning is everything. You can't discuss oppression without discussing class.

[–]Rationalmind 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Precisely! I have all my other forms of identity too, but to wipe out class, which is the strongest driving factor, is madness.

[–]JustAMom 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Ive never heard "wokespeak". I've always used "newspeak". Mind if I copy you from time to time?

[–]Rationalmind 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Of course!

[–]marmorsymphata 32 insightful - 1 fun32 insightful - 0 fun33 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

The whole thing becomes transparent when you realize they NEVER say "Trans men are men." It's not really about gender dysphoria and never has been. It's just another arm of misogyny.

[–]Anonimouse 22 insightful - 1 fun22 insightful - 0 fun23 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm sure for some it is about dysphoria. But we don't hear about them. For the most part, they transition and quietly live their lives. They know it's a lie and don't force it on anyone, but it makes their life a little easier.

The groups screaming trans women are women, and abusing people over a simple pronoun do not have dysphoria. This is why they even have a simple dismissive "slur" like TERF for people who think dysphoria should be required.

I have sympathy for people who look in the mirror and feel so wrong with what they see that they'd rather take to their genitals with a knife than continue. And I don't mean surgery, I know two people who have tried diy's during intense dysphoria. But the like of JJY or that piece of shit abusing the game stop employee are not trans.

[–]SameOldBS 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, amazing how many people are able to overlook the complete one-sidedness of this debate. It's always about women.

[–]ComfortableEqual 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You can have some fun pointing out they've missed that out and then accusing them of being transphobic. I mean, it is! We all know they're not bothered about trans men as they know they're women and not a threat to men.

[–]Anonimouse 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They'll bring it back to feminism. TRA and libfem are indistinguishable at this point, so just say it's trans women who need support more than trans men. They'll take feminism like they took lgb.

[–]jelliknight 28 insightful - 3 fun28 insightful - 2 fun29 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

The left has become afraid of discussion. They believe that if we all talked openly, everyone would become Trump supporting Nazis.

I think it's because i few decades ago, racism, misogyny, and homophobia were far more common and accepted and 'the left' was the alternate. Meaning that in order to become left you would have to question the dominant narrative, and figure out what is true and right. Those people don't have to fear debate. Now people are raised in a world where left is the default. They've never had to ask questions like "but WHY is it important that gay people can get married? Really, it's just a piece of paper, a government document and a relic from a time when women were property. What's that got to do with two dudes in love?" They don't have a good answer for that because they've never had to look for one. "This is what good people believe, shut up and accept it." Just like fundamentalist christians they're afraid that allowing outside thought will turn people "to the devil" because they're actually very uncertain of themselves.

WE know that homophobia, racism, and misogyny are NOT morally or logically defensible, because we've checked. We never have to fear discussion.

[–]Anonimouse 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's scary how many posts I'm seeing on social media that basically say debate is only for meaningless subjects.

[–]Ofthewoods 25 insightful - 2 fun25 insightful - 1 fun26 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I have reached peak left too it seems. Politically homeless - that’s a phrase I’ve seen used before. It’s very disorienting because I have identified with left wing politics my whole adult life, and my beliefs are overall still progressive. But the silencing of anyone who even asks questions, the anti-science... I had thought progressives were about critical thinking and science? I think I started hitting peak left several months ago when the word eco-fascist started getting thrown around on Instagram for things like sharing a post about the skies clearing during lockdown. Like these are just everyday people sharing a news story, but eco-fascism!!!! I even saw one eco influencer I followed telling her followers to watch for people to say anything along those lines and confront them about their eco-fascism. Way to alienate unsuspecting people from any kind of environmental movement. It’s like words don’t have meaning anymore and no ones going to find out if you just yell loudly and for long enough to win the argument. And then yeah, the JK Rowling was my true peak trans and left.

[–]1ammyb0dy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I was so mad about eco-fascist being thrown around lightly too. I hadn't really connected it to the TWAW mob before.

[–]100_percent_truth 10 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Same!! They are inextricably linked. When you start to realize that narratives count more than logic, at the expense of women, it's hard to say you support it anymore. I think I may write in Megan Murphy this fall.

[–]MezozoicGay 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Other issues that motivate me to speak up include: the vile attacks on women who speak up (sending love to JK Rowling), the erosion of women’s sports (to which I dedicated a large portion of my life), the sterilization of children, and so on.

Worst part is they are attacking and shutting down even their own - other trans who disagree with it. There is no difference now between far left and far right. Even methods are the same.

I refuse to say things like “men can menstruate” and “her penis”, because, well, those statements are ridiculous and I don’t want to debase myself.

And it should be called "transman menstruation" and "transwoman penis", and they have their problems, because of hormon suppressions and permanent chemical attack on body. My friend transmen saying that testosterone therapy having bad impact on Uterus, and it creates some health risks, and saying that no one even bothering to research this. So women who becoming transmen can be dying or getting cancer from such therapies, and yet no one even carrying about that from any "allies" or goverment.

So what trans people should do? Correct - fight for healthcare specific to their situation. Fight to get spaces for themselves.

What Neo-trans people do instead? Correct - not letting everyone else to have healthcare and their own spaces, because it will "hurt their feelings". And, apparently 0.04% of population feelings are more important than 50% of population health and lives.

[–]venecia 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm a lefty/liberal too. There's more of us than you think. In my circles, everyone was very confused to read the JK Rowling thing and wondering how, exactly, people blew it up into some sort of mein kampft against trans people. Plenty aren't brainwashed by TRA even if they walk the line.