Of course, life is easier for males - there’s no getting around that. Being a woman is like playing on “hard” mode. It sometimes sucks. But it doesn’t have to suck to the point of constantly (emphasis on constantly) wishing you were born otherwise.
Tomboys, unite.
I don’t understand how ppl on tumblr can be upset about climate change deniers but when someone mentions a biological fact like “males have xy chromosomes and females have xx chromosomes” they’re suddenly like ” no, no, science is a social construct created by the patriarchy and you’re a TERF!”
Obviously the climate has been fluid all along and we’re being judgemental of it
I have been spending time reading the thoughts and experiences of FTMs in their teens and early 20s, in their own words, on their own blogs. In many cases, once past the initial euphoria of transition, I’m seeing a lot of despair, a lot of “this isn’t how I thought it would be.” Dysphoria continues for quite a few, and side effects from “T” are frightening and upsetting to a lot of young people (things like head hair loss, high blood pressure, and internal pain).
What strikes me most is how FTMs have been abandoned in many ways by the medical profession, and how all they can really do is share their experiences and try to figure things out with other FTMs. This abandonment is not because their therapists and doctors don’t care. Most of them care very much. These professionals aren’t ogres. They have prescribed medical transition because that is the treatment that is currently seen as the answer to dysphoria.
But because there are no good, long-term, controlled studies with a large number of subjects on this massive psychiatric-medical experiment, there is a lot that just isn’t known about the longer term experience of girls/women transitioning to FTM. For this reason, many FTM-run Tumblrs act as peer therapy hubs, where they try to advise each other the best they can. When doubts are raised about transition, though, it seems to be taboo to even mildly suggest that detransition might be considered. Mostly they reassure each other that whatever the issue (including serious reservations and regret), anyone who has started transition is truly trans and it is all a normal part of the experience.
J Obstet Gynaecol Res. 2008 Oct;34(5):890-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1447-0756.2008.00857.x.
“The systolic and diastolic blood pressures in FTM transsexuals treated with androgen were significantly higher than those in untreated FTM transsexuals…
Conclusions: Long-term and high-dose administration of androgen is likely to cause increased arterial stiffness in FTM transsexuals.”
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There is a honeymoon period when a person first transitions. The honeymoon is what many gender nonconforming teens see on YouTube. Information about long term health effects, and doubts about transition (expressed by FTMs themselves) is out there–but you have to hunt for it.
Usually I reject the whole “gender hurts everyone” rhetoric because it’s clear that gender is meant to first and foremost subordinate women, and men shouldn’t get brownie points just because they c…
As you might imagine, I’ve received some hate mail (which, per the policy I state at the top of my blog, I delete). Not agreeing to fund hormones and surgery for a child is not what hurts a child. The pressure to conform to gender roles–and if you don’t, transition!–is what causes damage.
The question that most transactivists don’t seem to be able to answer is: What IS a woman? What IS a man?
For young girls who aspire to transition, the motive much more often seems to be a pervasive unease with the strictness of the female gender roles.
“If you are dissatisfied with the sexist expectations of society, you should have your breasts surgically removed, because obviously you are not a real woman.”
Tbh I dont/can’t keep track of who hates each other on this site most of the time so if you see my reblogging from your arch enemy it’s literally because I just haven’t paid attention or am not familiar with the issue, not because I value them over you.
Me too. I’m interested in coalition building. I scan for connections and resonance. I don’t have time to keep track of or engage in the soap operas and personal vendettas swirling around this little Internet whirlpool.
“…gender dysphoria in childhood does not inevitably continue into adulthood, and only 6 to 23 percent of boys and 12 to 27 percent of girls treated in gender clinics showed persistence of their gender dysphoria into adulthood.”
Cognitive-professional dissonance: So tell me again WHY little kids are being put on puberty blockers and called by their “preferred pronouns”? Trans until proven otherwise, despite the odds?
Putting a kid on blockers and using correct pronouns does them no harm.
We will have to agree to disagree on that. I think we may have different definitions of “harm,” and “preferred” does not necessarily mean “correct.”
If I may be so bold… As a second wave feminist, I’m noticing an awful lot of infighting in feminist online communities. So much energy is being wasted drawing lines of demarcation between lesbians, bisexuals, and straight feminists who basically are coming from the same place: gender critical, anti-porn, and heavily criticizing the dominant, watered down, liberal feminist paradigm. There’s way too much holier-than-thou machinations going on.
Progressives and liberals are known for circular firing squads, and it makes for very ineffective politics. Do you want to change the world or don’t you? Keep your eye on the prize. We want to make a big mark on society. It can’t be done if we’re constantly cannibalizing our own. And trust me: our true political enemies revel in and benefit from our civil war.
As the great Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, said, “If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, you know it’s not a broad enough coalition.”
Stop all the squabbling. Political change is serious business. Martin Luther King marched with a lot of white people. We need each other. Aim your anger where it belongs.
“So much energy is being wasted drawing lines of demarcation between lesbians, bisexuals, and straight feminists.”
No. Lesbians are rightfully calling out homophobia and lesbophobia in straight/bi feminist communities.
But do you think the homophobia/lesbophobia is as prominent with **gender-critical** feminists (which is the coalition I am part of and that I’m referring to)? Because I think it’s the takeover of LGB political and social space by the trans agenda that has sown a lot of the dissension, with their asinine accusations of “monosexual”! and “Transphobe!” Postmodern identity/gender politics has poisoned a lot of wells and I think it’s worth paying close attention to which water is actually safe to drink.
Lesbians are calling out feminists—both liberal and radical— for their homophobia and your response to that as someone who is privileged on the axis of their sexual orientation is first to vaguely accuse us of being divisive and next to point at trans activists and say “look these people are more homophobic.” By bringing them up in this particular scenario, you are derailing the conversation at hand.
But the conversation I started was that there is a lot for us to work on together. And for the record, I was not pointing the finger at lesbians. I was saying we **all** have common political goals, and it’s sad to me that we have to fight each other so much.
I don’t know if you’ve read many of my other posts, but I honestly don’t think I’ve been posting lesbophobic comments, but I’m always willing to learn and grow.
