The ever-elusive "feeling like a woman" - what the hell is it supposed to be? Rant incoming...

submitted by vitunrotta from self.GenderCritical

I admit I am fairly new to the gender critical community, however as I think back I recall I always found the so called "gender/trans ideology" somehow troubling. I couldn't quite put my finger on it though, and wasn't really invested in looking into it - it just seemed a bit off, every time I read about it.

I then accidentally stumbled across a discussion on an internet forum where women were trying to desperately figure out this "essence" of womanhood (the magical feeling gender ideologists insist exists, and it's that feeling that defines your sex, not your biological reality). It was an interesting discourse and none of the women could pinpoint how it felt like to be a woman. Essentially, they all saw themselves as human, and their biological sex was just something that they were born into. While it obviously meant that certain things were experienced in a vastly different way to men, the conclusion was: there was no woman-brain. No sensation of being a woman per se.

It was then that I finally had my little lightbulb moment. That was what had always irked me about gender ideology - the notion that womanhood was supposedly some feeling we all shared. I started thinking about it more after that and tried to figure out when had I last "felt like a woman?" Really, strongly, felt like a woman?

Was it when I had refused an unknown man's advances, who then proceeded to aggressively, repeatedly yell at me how he'd "stretch my pink pussy" in broad daylight?

Was it when I woke up in a pool of blood as my period had sneak attacked me overnight?

Was it when I was deadly afraid I was pregnant?

Was it when I found out I was indeed pregnant, and had to go through a harrowing thought process that led me to finally have an abortion?

Was it when I was belittled and underestimated and being called a girl, even though I knew more of the subject than the men I was talking to (and was certainly no girl anymore)?

Was it when I was holding off tears in my workplace bathroom as my period cramps burned through me and I had already taken my last pain killer?

Was it when I was made to believe my biggest achievement in life would be to become a wife and bear children?

Was it when I was being told a woman should never be this loud, aggressive and foul-mouthed?

Was it when complete strangers and intimate partners saw it appropriate to judge and evaluate my body; when they made it exceptionally clear that my physical body and reality was - and would always be - a mere object, a fulfillment of sexual desires of men?

Was it when health care professionals of all areas dismissed and diminished my physical and mental pains, time after time?

These are but a few of the moments when I thought: I would not be experiencing this were I a man. In these instances I acutely "felt like a woman" - and it's absolutely crucial to note: this was only due to my biological sex and the widespread misogynistic attitudes towards women.

I cannot wish away my womanhood, nor do I want to do that. I was born into this female body and there is nothing I can do to change that. I also never felt I had been born into a wrong body, even though - as a lot of women will know - sometimes I kind of wished I could rip off my ovaries, for example.

Just as I cannot "feel" my womanhood away and start living off my life as a man based on that feeling, no man can "feel like a woman" and hijack womanhood by a completely artificial sensation. They can be effeminate, feminine, wear skirts and lipstick - yet, that does not take away their real biological sex (man).

I also strongly refuse to use any pointless prefixes when I speak of myself (or in fact, other women). There is no subclass of women called "ciswomen" - there's just women. To even suggest that natal, biological women are something other, secondary, is blatantly ignorant and derogatory. All the while men who "feel like a woman" get to use the word without prefixes: to suggest they'd e.g. be transwomen, is literal violence - according to them.

To conclude: I am a woman - and there is no mythical sensation that tells me it is so: I know it to be so because I am aware of biological facts.

How about you, other women - have YOU figured out what this Shania-Twain-like feeling would be? This odd notion that allows e.g. a 37-year-old Andrew - with his very male reproductive system, and having lived his entire life as a biological man - claim that he is now a woman?

(Small disclaimer: I am very much aware that there are a lot of women who e.g. don't have periods and so on. I myself, while having being pregnant, will never have my own children and go through childbirth, and so on. And yet, while we all have our own very personal physiological differences, one thing remains: we're all still women. And I'd bet there are as many "sensations of being a woman" as there are women on this entire planet).

Edit: grammar

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[–]MezozoicGay 39 insightful - 1 fun39 insightful - 0 fun40 insightful - 1 fun -  (29 children)

Actual answer is very simple.

You could have noticed that this ideology and activism is appearing only in developed countries, where women are getting rights and never in countries where being woman is very hard.

Last few thousand years men were dictating women what to do, how to live, what to wear.

And now, when women are finally starting to get independence, some men (and in some societies majority of men) are disliking that, as they do not want to lose control over women. They are feeling entitled enough to define what woman is. So how they think "feeling like woman" is - it how it must be and no other way, just because they want to define womanhood same way they were doing it for millenia. And narcissism with paraphilias added to that. But there is one problem - society became more liberal, so they now need to create new ways to paint their urge to control women as something "progressive" for society to accept it.

[–]vitunrotta[S] 18 insightful - 1 fun18 insightful - 0 fun19 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

Well put and spot on. It is, however, infuriating (almost impressive...) how well this snake oil was marketed as something progressive. If you scrape just a little bit you'll find out there is nothing "liberal" here - it's the same ol' misogyny, wrapped in some wokist cape. And the most horrifying thing is that people are buying into this as if it were the new gay rights movement.

IT'S NOT THE SAAAAAMEEEEE screams into the void

[–]MezozoicGay 23 insightful - 4 fun23 insightful - 3 fun24 insightful - 4 fun -  (10 children)

I'd say it is even worse, because "Church conservatives" were conservative and easy to spot on, and they were honest with homophobia and misogyny, while current generation is redefining words, showing themselves as progressive and hiding homophobia and misogyny behind progressive packaging. And unlike previous conservatives, who disliked LGB and women, current ones are explicitely hating them and trying to destroy completely, destroy even the sole idea of such things existing.

[–]vitunrotta[S] 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yup. When the church conservatives (whichever church it may be) start being "woke," that alone should set off multiple alarms in so-called progressives' heads. Yet - stunning silence ensues. They are, after all, a match made in heaven. Pun intended.

[–]PeakingPeachEater 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Yep, the church conservatives are much easier to spot. My Catholic family members say outright that women are supposed to be submissive to men as well as one man and one woman, and that men can't lie with men BS.

I hate this new "progressive" crap, it is very much disengenuous. People will out you for not agreeing with their "progressiveness".

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 5 fun1 insightful - 4 fun2 insightful - 5 fun -  (7 children)

I don't want my wife to be a submissive thing who does everything I say, but I got mad at her for leaving her $900 phone on the floor after asking her half a dozen times not to do that and I said to her, if I tell you to do something, and it's reasonable, you should do it. Maybe that's how women should be "submissive" to their husbands. To do things they're told to do that are perfectly reasonable. Because otherwise, I'm worried one of these days I won't see it on the floor and accidentally break it like what happened to her glasses.

[–]BEB 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

I don't know if this post is serious.

Are you submissive to your wife? If you left the toilet seat up constantly would you submit to her request to put it down so that she doesn't have to get urine on her thighs, or accidentally fall into the toilet if she stumbles in at night and doesn't notice the seat's up?

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

It's as serious as I ever get, although I understand that's not really an answer.

It's funny you mention the toliet seat, some 21 years ago I argued successfully that it was sexist for me to have to put the toliet seat down so I don't. That's different though, me having to put the toliet seat down 100% of the time when I need it up over half is an imposition while her not leaving her phone on the floor just makes sense.

[–]BEB 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

I would divorce you over the toilet seat being up. I am not joking.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

It makes sense, to require one thing of one sex but not the other is inherently sexist. Also there is an implication women are too inferior to have to put a toliet seat down.

But don't worry, you'd never have a chance with me to divorce me.

[–]BEB 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's common courtesy for the man to put the seat down so that the next person who has a bowel movement, whatever sex they are, doesn't sit on urine, or, as has happened to me in the dark, fall halfway in the toilet.

But I can see from your last sentence that common courtesy is not something you were taught.

This is a women's forum by the way, so, rather than insulting women, perhaps you'd be best served by finding a men's forum - I'm sure SAIDIT must have some version of MGTOW for you to shit all over women on?

[–]slushpilot 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (15 children)

they do not want to lose control over women

This spun off into a bunch of different thoughts for me.

Want has to start from some personal motive. That need for power & control is an obvious fact of individual men, but I can't follow the reasoning of how such individuals could decide that the way to regain control over patriarchal values & the entire class of women is to become one.

Such thinking would have to be coordinated with a stated goal, and I don't think it is. Church conservatives can come right out and say women belong in the kitchen etc to rally their movement, but for this subject, it seems too roundabout.

Of course, these individuals can manipulate control over their wives, who now have to contend with them and coddle them and call them "she"... I could see that for sure, but to extend that to a plan that affects culture so broadly in the way it has been?

(A lot of these men—both HSTS and AGP—also seem to have a submission fetish, so I suspect it's a very specific kind of "control" we're talking about here.)

So when you say "they", do you mean individual men, or are you proposing some collective thought? I'm just trying to follow the thread of where the intent (malice) springs from, or if it's actually an unintentional byproduct (systemic result) ...since then it's not a want.

For what it's worth I think their individual reasoning is more likely something along the lines of:

  1. Lust, focusing all their attention on women, women's bodies, feminine clothing, mannerisms etc.
  2. Projection, "women get all the attention"
  3. Self-pity, "nobody pays attention to me"
  4. Self-hate, "I feel so degraded and desperate"
  5. Misattribution & more projection, "this must be what feeling like a woman is like"
  6. Down the rabbit hole

And yes, decadent countries where we have unlimited access to internet porn instead of being forced to live in the real world and build real relationships & meet real people means that indulging this kind of thinking is much more likely.

(In any case, I don't think we can actually rationalize intention from mental illness though.)

[–]penelopekitty 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

The movement, well funded by people like TW Jennifer Pritzker and TW Martine Rothblatt, among others, are pushing this ideology in Universities. It is also being pushed in political parties. The end result will be changing the definition of woman in the law. Once that happens women will de facto lose their right to politically organize for sex based rights because they will no longer exist as a political category. Only gender based rights will be considered valid. It's happening now in the US with the Equality Act, has already happened in Canada with bill C-16 and they've only hit the pause button in the UK on GRA reform.

[–]slushpilot 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

I absolutely believe these tyrant activists & systemic "sympathetic" rot are the most dangerous thing happening to us right now. For me it's more a question of how did we get here... I guess I'm hoping that if we can explain the (wrongheaded or evil) motives at every step, then this could help unwind it.

[–]threefingersam 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

This article I found (probably posted on saidit/ovarit already), talks about "how we got here"

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-document-that-reveals-the-remarkable-tactics-of-trans-lobbyists

In short, trans lobbyists used deceptive and underhanded tactics to gain traction: They drafted potential legislation for trans issues beforehand (i.e. before govt could make their own drafts). Trans lobbyists used the LGB as a shield and camouflage against scrutiny. They also ensured that their actions got limited media attention to avoid getting noticed by the general public.

[–]tuesday 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That addresses the "how did trans take over now" (and it that respect the article is excellent) but not the "why is every fucking generation of young people so susceptible to totalitarianism and fascism"...

I've already started to wonder, what's next after this trans train gets derailed? Cos there will be another and another attack on common sense, decency and women's rights until we address the root.

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

Some would argue that the cause is schooling. Books like Dumbing Us Down and Deschooling Society argue that what schools excel at is conditioning children to conform and obey authority.

[–]tuesday 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

This may be an unpopular opinion but I've personally noticed that it is almost always the young who get sucked into various cults and have extreme difficulty recognizing the criteria of fascism and totalitarianism as expressed in a modern socieety. I'd like to see the schools briefly introduce the concept starting about age 10 and then every year thereafter go into more depth. So they are more prepared and inculcated against that tendency when they become older teens and young adults.

[–]MezozoicGay 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

All totalitarisms and dictatorships are starting from indoctrination of children.

In USSR we had things like "the hero of Pavlik Morozov" and "Pioneer Camps", and majority of propaganda was aimed on kids. Pavlik Morozov was half-made icon, based on real event, but changed to look better, it was young kid who went to thought police and said that "my father is saying bad things about communism and want to fight against it", so father was executed and kid became "communist hero and example for all kids", in some stories father is killing Pavlik right before police came to arrest him. Pioneer Camps is camps where kids are taken for 2-3 months (for full summer) far away from their relatives, and there trained to love communism and communist party.

And same with every authoritarian regime and totalitarism.

This time we have things like Mermaids, who are either indoctrinating kids and teens themselves, or making their parents fear for the health of their kids ("if you don't trans them, they will suicide 100%! You don't want your kid to die? Oh, now your kid is trans, help us to fight for trans rights!"). This time it is even more focused on kids, as gender ideology was created by paedo and is supported by many paedos.

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

Funny how it's always dressed up as wholesome fun too. Pioneers were just like the scouts... with marching and songs and stuff! (Yeah, and so were the German youth... and today it's rainbows.)

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

What about parents? Why assume only schools are failing these kids?

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

In the US, Gender Spectrum, which lives up to its name by going into schools to teach that sex is a spectrum, openly admits that it targets minority children.

In the US, especially in California, where a lot of this gender spectrum type sex education seems to be trialed, 40% speak a different language at home, so the parents might not even know what the children are being taught because they don't speak English. Also they might think it's some kind of American thing and as new proud Americans they don't want to rock the boat.

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

Absolutely! But parents have a tendency to trust schools and not interfere with teachers, so they allow it to be taught. These things don't necessarily come from school though—it could be tumblr... It's really the parents' job to teach common sense.

[–]tuesday 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Want has to start from some personal motive. That need for power & control is an obvious fact of individual men, but I can't follow the reasoning of how such individuals could decide that the way to regain control over patriarchal values & the entire class of women is to become one.

The eunuchs have always been in charge of the harem.

It just used to be more direct. But they can't tell women what to do anymore, not the way they used to, as in a direct order "you will do as you are told little inferior woman who can't vote". So if they can no longer rely on a direct order being immediately obeyed, what else is there besides infiltrating the harem, claiming to be us and then presto, hello world here's what "women" think, now all the rest of you ladies should be nice to the other little women.

It's a very old strategy which has been updated for modern times, that's all.

Guess what? Most romance novels written in the 70's and 80's (and probably further back then that), where the woman in the novels "enjoyed" being harassed stalked and dominated, all those "bodice rippers" back in the day -- most of them were written by MEN with female pen names! Infiltrating groups of women, is what men DO. It's not an accident.

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

The eunuchs have always been in charge of the harem.

It just used to be more direct. But they can't tell women what to do anymore, not the way they used to, as in a direct order "you will do as you are told little inferior woman who can't vote". So if they can no longer rely on a direct order being immediately obeyed, what else is there besides infiltrating the harem, claiming to be us and then presto, hello world here's what "women" think, now all the rest of you ladies should be nice to the other little women.

It's a very old strategy which has been updated for modern times, that's all.

Uh, no. The eunuchs who were in charge of the harems (plural) were enslaved men in the Arab Muslim world and Ottoman empire who were castrated when they were taken into captivity. These men did not have to "infiltrate" the harems, they were placed there by their owners/overlords who wanted the female sex slaves in the harems to always be under the eye and thumb of men - just not men who could fuck them.

But the slavers of the Muslim Arab world and Ottoman empire didn't just castrate their male slaves so the male slaves wouldn't be able to screw the female slaves (or other females, either) - they also castrated the boys & men they took into captivity so that male slaves would be unable to procreate, and thus would never have a chance to have a blood bond with a child or have families of their own. For many/most men in most cultures through history, a man's ability to "spread his seed," "father a child" or brood and "leave a lineage" of descendants has been enormously important, and a great source of pride. Patriarchal Muslim Arab and Ottoman culture placed an especially strong emphasis on fathering children, so removing their male slaves' ability to procreate was done as a special way of showing who was in charge, denying the slaves their humanity, and inflicting an extra cruelty on them.

Also, castration itself was very painful; many boys & men died of it and the infections it led to. Others had pain the rest of their lives.

What happened with the enslaved eunuchs and the harems in the Muslim world in the past is nothing like what's going on in the West today. At all. This is not a useful analogy.

What's more, to speak about harems and eunuchs in this way seems like you're making light of the unspeakable suffering of the millions of girls & women who made into sex slaves and the millions of boys & men who were made into enslaved eunuchs during the long era of Muslim Arab and Ottoman slavery.

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

Lust, focusing all their attention on women, women's bodies, feminine clothing, mannerisms etc. Projection, "women get all the attention" Self-pity, "nobody pays attention to me"

Those first three on your list, totally. Nobody can convince me it's not pure sexual fetish for the AGP. It gets them off, they want the attention back on them, and they do think they're victims with women having "too much power" (they believe it! I don't think they mean societal power, except for the MGTOW who won't shut up about divorce courts, but they mean power to "control" their dicks -- somehow their erections are our fault).

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

Plus, in today's culture, identifying as trans can get someone a lot of positive attention. A man identifying as a woman may get a much higher level of external validation than he ever could identifying as a man. And I imagine there is the cosplay element for many, the fun of getting to try on a new persona and trying to escape one's self.

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

What do you answer to those who say that transexual people were always there in the past but couldn't get out of the closet and therefore it seems they appeared all together in recent years?

[–]MonstrousRegiment 10 insightful - 5 fun10 insightful - 4 fun11 insightful - 5 fun -  (1 child)

Excellent mini-essay!

Not unhinged enough to qualify as a rant in my book. Do better :)

[–]vitunrotta[S] 9 insightful - 4 fun9 insightful - 3 fun10 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

Ahah. :D This made me chuckle (not in a bad way, mind you). My usual rants are, well... unhinged, on occasion. We have this lovely expression in Finnish to describe a person that is losing their shit: "like a bear that's been shot in the ass."

That's my go-to rant mode, but alas - we are on a moderated platform so I try to refrain from the buttock-pained bear version of myself.

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

So much this! My journey has been similar to yours. I always felt like something was off with the rabid insistence of TWAW, especially when it came to sports and sex, because then it's about more than how one feels. But overall I thought okay fine, expand "women". Whatever. I want to be accepting and supportive of people who're struggling with being different from most of the world, so I'll just go along with some things even though I don't believe them. I hate it, but I'll even accept the whole "cis" thing, just as long as there is a clear way to group biological women. The JK Rowling debacle made me look more closely and now the insidious nature of TWAW is so much more apparent to me.

Also, even if there is some way a "woman" feels and some women have a sense of it, how on earth would a transwoman know what that is? It isn't an emotion. All a transwoman knows is how she feels. She knows nothing about how any other woman on the planet feels like a woman. I don't know that about any other woman on the planet. Even when someone with dysphoria gets surgery and feels better, all they know is they feel better than they did earlier. They don't know what I feel or what the 3.5 billion women on the planet feel.

Because of this whole gender ideology, I had friends telling me they think there is a distinct part of them that "feels" female. Okay. I don't have that. Now what? Even if you have it, it's obviously not universal to all women, and I'll be damned if you try to tell me I'm agender or genderless or whatever else. You don't get to define me for me right? I'm a woman.

It's so senseless and pointless and annoying.

[–]MarkTwainiac 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

Great point, OP. Thanks for sharing it.

Also, since you brought up Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like A Woman," to be fair to her I want to point out that it was written by Twain with her then-husband Robert John "Mutt" Lange. In the publishing credits, he gets first billing, which indicates he might have put more into writing it than she did.

Moreover, if we're gonna go after songwriters for helping create and spread the idea that it's possible to "feel like a woman," it only seems fair to also blow a raspberry at Gerry Goffin, Carole King and Jerry Wexler, the songwriters who penned the 1967 song "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman" that was a huge hit for Aretha Franklin.

[–]vitunrotta[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

Always appreciate your insights. :) Good lord, woman, are you a library that came alive!? I had never checked the writers of this song - until now. (Fact check: 100% correct.)

When that song first became a big hit (in our remote little country) it was FOR the women, at least from my perspective. I was very young at that time - on the 7th grade - so I never heard it played on the dancefloor, for example. But even so, I recall it was a song for women only and men could go suck it.

I used it in this rant as we all know the song (most of us do, anyway) and the majority of women & men of my age who listened to it didn't take it literally. It was a rallying song, an anthem for the uterus-havers (heh).

I've heard this song play many, many times since in numerous parties and weddings and women tend to go nuts. It was (perhaps still is) a song about "feeling like a woman" and the fact that there is nothing wrong about that - even if it's a split second of champagne craze where you wildly swing your pretty dress and throw your high-heels away and let loose.

As for "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman" - I only ever knew the Celine Dion version from 1996, but by god I can still lip-synch the entire song (and album, no shame whatsoever, it is one of my favourite albums).

I think all art is a depiction of our times - the songs we used to listen to and love now sound weirdly misogynist and old-school. The art that was once so groundbreaking makes some of us yawn. I recall studying Guernica from Picasso and while I knew exactly what it depicted it bored me to death back in the day; I'm unsure if I like the piece still to this day. (I'm not an expert in arts, maybe that's why.)

In a similar sense the song "Man! I feel like a woman!" was a bit of a different thing for the society then than it would be now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: women can be misogynists just as much as men. Your biology doesn't make you any better or worse in this matter - or any other.

But we are women still, ha! ;)

[–]MarkTwainiac 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Good lord, woman, are you a library that came alive!?

I am so flattered by your characterization, but no. I'm just someone who prior to the internet age spent a lot of time in libraries researching stuff and working as a reporter, investigative journalist, fact-checker, independent historian and such. For some reason, I've always had a weird knack for inquiring into, picking up on and remembering a whole lot of info about all sorts of high and low culture topics that many people see as unrelated.

If I were to write my memoirs I'd want to call 'em "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" - but Richard Feynman beat me to it!

Glad the info I'm am sharing is appreciated, though. I am on in years and quite physically ill in ways that mean I no longer get out much. And my unacceptably TERFy views mean I can no longer get anything I write published in either article or book form. So I'm here trying to share some of the stuff I've learnt over many decades in hopes it will be of help to younger women (and men), and you in turn will pass it on to others.

Keep up the good work!

[–]BEB 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

There are publications publishing GC pieces that might take your work: UnHerd, UnCommon Ground, Quillette, FEMINIST CURRENT, maybe Graham Linehan's substack?

Also, maybe Jennifer Bilek at her excellent GC blog The11thHourBlog.com might want some guest writing?

https://www.the11thhourblog.com/blog

Julian Vigo has also started an excellent GC substack. She is also a very well-credentialed journalist. Maybe she would take some of your work?

https://savageminds.substack.com/

Here are their Twitter accounts - very informative

@bjportraits

@lubelluledotcom

Please everyone, support these wonderful women's ground-breaking investigative work!

[–]MarkTwainiac 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thanks BEB. As it happens, I know all those sites, blogs and publications; support several financially; and am in contact with several of the individuals you mentioned too. Actually, I am writing some pieces for a couple of 'em - and for quite a while now I've been working with some other people who on the front lines, providing editing services, historical perspective, advice and support both emotional and $$.

But right now I prefer to remain behind the scenes coz I am ill. Also, I really like a forum like this coz it's allows for direct interaction with wide range of people, and sometimes very engaging - and illuminating - back-and-forth exchanges with others. Which is fun, and keeps me on my toes. Also, it's much more democratic and equal - publishing an article is much more top-down and one-way, especially in places where the chance for comments is limited or doesn't exist at all. Plus, I think a forum like this might end up having the biggest reach, so what we do here could be like throwing stones into a pond, creating ripples that go on and on. It's why I'm not on ovarit or spinster - seems like everyone in those places is already on board.

I'm hoping that as more people come here and see that intelligent, informed posters like you, vitunrotta and others including me are presenting well-reasoned and researched info and insights - and we are doing so civilly - more will start posting.

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

Great, I'm glad you're plugged in and using all your considerable knowledge to further this cause!

I haven't been on Spinster, and while I think Ovarit.com is just amazing - so witty and tremendous amounts of information- I do think that we need to keep at least some presence in non-GC spaces like SAIDIT so that our ideas get exposed to people outside of a GC echo chamber.

[–]tuesday 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

yes I too have noticed your most excellent contributions. To the point that I always get a little bit excited whenever I see your name in the comments, because it signifies: interesting stuff ahead!

Very glad you're here :-)

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

Seconded!

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

Thank you! That means a lot.

[–]vitunrotta[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

investigative journalist

Ah! My dream job! Used to be at least... maybe it still is. That explains a lot, though. You write so well and are not afraid to question things - I personally would love to read a piece from you. It's amazing to have you here on this platform as well. Always thoughtful and informative, kindly nudging us all forward. We do our best to not let things turn into shit!

The fight is on :)

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

I like being here in part because of the different posters, and because I imagine that for every person posting here there are many more who are simply reading in the shadows. Some might be hate reading, some might be trying to get screen shots to show how awful all the GCers, and some might be sitting on the fence ... But my sense - or maybe it's just my hope - is that

Always thoughtful and informative, kindly nudging us all forward.

You are so nice to say that. I try to be all those things - and always to be civil even when I'm vehemently disagreeing with someone and feeling fed up and enraged. Still, I know being a nudge - and a stickler for accuracy - means I probably sometimes come off as an annoying nitpicker and a real pain in the neck!

[–]BEB 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I've got it! Feeling like prey every second of your life.

[–]vitunrotta[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thread lightly. That is exactly what TRA's are saying...

Regardless of some prettttyyy prettty prettyyyyy maddening data:

https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/GSH2018/GSH18_Gender-related_killing_of_women_and_girls.pdf

And for the trans:

https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender-community-in-2019

Imma just leave that there.

Oh! And if any transperson made it into this comment section: no murder, rape, assault, or beating is acceptable. It is not feminists who are attacking you; it's the very patriarchal, misogynist MEN who attack trans. Let's make that clear. Very clear.

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

Funny how they’re willing to accuse radfems of violence yet they demand access to women’s restrooms because they don’t feel SAFE using the men’s.

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

I woke up in a pool of blood

Was it when health care professionals of all areas dismissed and diminished my physical and mental pains

I'm a dude and I've experienced both of those, the second one quite a bit. The opioid hysteria going on has a lot of people experiencing that one, even people undergoing major surgery.

I don't know fuckall about this topic, but I know those two scenarios.

[–]LasagnaRossa 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Preach it sister! 🙌🏻

You've put into better words what I've understood too.

I don't feel like a woman, I simply am because I was born into this body. Every experience I do, I do it as a woman; but what I am, I am because I am me. My personality isn't linked to my sex and I don't understand how it could.

The more you dig into gender ideology the less it makes sense.

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

Yes! ❤️💪🏻