Taryn,
Your basic argument is that women do not have the right to call themselves ‘women’, or to define ‘womanhood’ based on their bodies and lives; but men do have that right. How do you justify that position?
You claim that my not agreeing that a man can become a woman, though it is just biological reality, is oppressing men. Can you explain how I am oppressing men? And in what ways men are oppressed by me not agreeing with them?
You deliberately conflate the rights of transgender people to exist with my rights to use scientifically and socially accepted terminology to describe things.
You deliberately ignore that feminism is and always as been about liberation from gender and therefore, by definition, has never been about supporting a gender binary, nor about creating more gender categories.
You ignore that most people do not care what men or women wear, or about how they act, or what they believe, as long as no one else suffers as a result. But you are denying that women and girls do suffer under the banner of transactivism. That women are being erased. You are one of those doing the erasing. Your whole article is about denying women.
I do not care what men want to call themselves. I do think it’s incredibly lazy to appropriate “woman” and to not fight against gender restrictions. What I do care about is the denial of science in favour of feelings.
What I do care about is the appropriation of “feminism” to be about centring men and their feelings over women’s rights.
What I do care about is the re-writing of history and the denial of safety to girls.
What I do care about is lesbians being raped by men in ladyface, who are then called bigots by transactivists for speaking out.
What I do care about is the erasure of women from health care information.
Does it occur to you that no other “oppressed” group in history has ever had so much power? That no other “oppresssed” group has ever had so many white men in it? That no other “oppressed” group has ever had such influence on legislation and language?
Meanwhile, transactivists do nothing about male violence. They blame radical feminists for male violence against them. As if by some miracle, men, who have for decades fought against radical feminists, feminists, and women in general, are suddenly taking orders from us? Think about that. Think about all of this. Really, I mean that. Think these things through to their logical conclusion.
If what you’re after is the colonisation of womanhood by men, where do the women go? If we cannot be women because men say that they are women, then what are we? How do we get biologically appropriate health care? How do we organise ? How do we prevent male violence against women when male is female?
Women lose in this ludicrous battle. And you have turned your back on them. And for what? What do you think your reward will be? Think that through to its logical conclusion.