Reply to J.K. Rowling’s post on trans-identity and modern misogyny

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
NP, and I've read your responses, and they just don't hold together.  You seem to take it as a given that it would be too confusing to advocate for women if you have to account for trans women in the definition, but you don't explain why it would be confusing, or how, or give any examples.  And it isn't as obvious as you seem to think.[/quote]

DP.

For a biological woman, having or not having a period can be a serious thing. If we reduce women to "menstruators" we hide that issue. A young woman who's gotten to be age 16 or 17 without having a period may well assume she's just not a menstruator. She may have no idea that's an issue she should bring up with a medical professional. Girls and womens health concerns are undervalued. We are ignored from research to implementation. [b]And now we're supposed to avoid centering womens health and health issues, because a tiny minority of people might possibly have to deal with the fact that their biology is different from the biology of people they'd like to align themselves with[/b].

We don't avoid pushing for prenatal care because of a minority of women who can't get pregnant - even when it causes them serious distress to deal with this knowledge. Why? Because making sure women have access to care before and during pregnancy is critical to the health of those women and the resulting infants. But perhaps we should prioritize women who are dealing with infertility, and just leave it to all other women to make sure they know exactly what they'll need, and that they're effective self-advocates. [/quote]

No one is saying anything of the sort.  We can talk about more than one thing at once.  We can advocate for women's health and health issues, and we can include trans women, just like we include women who have had hysterectomies.  And just like we advocate for health professionals to actually listen to black women's pain even though that isn't an issue that generally affects white women.  We can hold more than one thought in our head at once. We can do all of those things. It's actually quite easy: just don't be a d!ck.  As it were.[/quote]

Yes, people are saying exactly that. If we no longer have a word for girls, or women, if we're reduced to "menstruators" then we are not, and cannot, be centering womens health issues. We've removed the ability for girls to know what is normal as they grow, that periods are normal, that if they're having a different experience, it's not that, oh well, they're just like those other-women-who-don't-menstruate.

Words are important. When you remove the ability of groups to describe their experiences, you remove the ability of groups to center those experience, and demand equity.

We do not remove all public talk about pregnancy to accommodate those who are traumatized by it, because it is important even in its own right, while ALSO being challenging for some people to deal with.

This is one of those areas. If trans men are traumatized by public discussion of womens health issues, I'm sorry. I truly am. But girls and womens health is too important to tip toe around, we will never have our health concerns treated as legitimate concerns if we are not blatant about them, and too many girls and women are dying because of it. Trans men are never going to be able to escape the fact that they were born biologically female, and it's not the responsibility of the world around them to erase every aspect of womanhood in order to make it easier. Just as it's not the responsibility of the world around infertile people to hide every aspect of pregnancy, and it would be irresponsible to suggest it is.[/quote]

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