Reddit mentions of Unpacking Queer Politics: A Lesbian Feminist Perspective

> I don't believe that men are in general priviliged over women in this society which is a recurring notion in feminist theory

I don't share your feminist ideals, but I'd like to rock the label, because... equality! Cool?

Ask not how feminists can validate your ignorance, ask how you can learn more on the subject. Do you like to read? Try one of these, this one here, and another too. Books are yummy. Learn about it.

>My father is black and my mom is white. I am really white due to albinism. Not sure what my racial label would be. I'm a natal woman.

Your account is also quite new and this is the first time you’ve mentioned your heritage. ‘Round these parts, I find it can be really hard to believe what new accounts are saying… There are lots of trolls around here. It’s especially weird that you can’t come up with what racial category you’d fit into.

>Not everyone who disagrees with you is a natal male.
True. And even if you are exactly who you say you are, I’ve had plenty of words with brown natal women who fundamentally misunderstand concepts relating to anti-racism. Although I’ve never intereacted with her, one prime example of this is this black woman who argues that slavery was a choice. So, it’s just annoying in a different way than having a natal male fundamentally fail to grasp concepts related to race and gender.


>Your interpretation of transgender people is based on various conspiracy theories.
Proof?

>Attributing the situation in Iran to transgender people as a whole is illogical and ignores the specific cultural context of that country.

I attributed the situation in Iran primarily to homophobia within a repressive, misogynistic and sexist context. Transgenderism is a theory / set of beliefs that emerges within such contexts due to such societies wanting to shove everyone into acceptable categories.

>Homophobic conservatives agree with you in regards to draconian bathroom bills, does that mean you approve of their rationality because you have the same goal? Should we equally blame GC theorists for the implementation of these laws?

These bathroom bills are actually not draconian in my opinion. No one is being strip searched on the way in, they only bar natal males from using female spaces. And bathrooms are really interesting because they are the least concerning, more concerning are dressing rooms, locker rooms, prisons, women’s shelters, etc.

Anyway, you are right that conservatives and GC feminists want these protections for women for different reasons. I actually wish GC feminism had a hand in any of these laws, but I don’t think it does due to its lack of political clout. However, just because you are right on this point does not mean that the homophobic transitioning in Iran is fundamentally different than here in the West.

>How are GNC people being forced to transition in the West? There are very few hardcore Christians who subscribe to this (it's against the Bible anyway). The vast majority of people do not want their children to be trans.

Sure, most people don’t want their child to be anything other than a gender conforming heterosexual. But transition is often seen as a good alternative to a kid being homosexual or GNC. It also allows kids an out of the abuse that pretty much all gender non-conforming people get.

>This is why I say your beliefs are based off of conspiracy theory.

Well, I just refuted every point so you will have to do etter.

>There's no credible evidence that GNC women are forced to no longer as identify as women.

So what’s credible evidence to you? If trans theorists want to have it so that their subjective experience of feeling some gender or other is credible evidence that they are that gender, I really don’t think that they’re in a good position to be demanding hard evidence of much of anything. That said, no I don’t know of any rigorous studies on the topic but what I do know is that many, many lesbians especially have been converting to trans ideology. This also seems to be the group of people most likely to detransition. This leaves many young lesbians unable to find a lesbian partner who is not in some way queer aligned (i.e. natal females who are trans men, non-binary, or some other “gender identity” that isn’t woman”).

>The vast majority of women will always identify as women or not think about identity much at all. Even if 50 GNC women come out as trans this year, that's not even 1% of the female population in the US.

Ha, you in the last paragraph were all like “there’s no credible evidence for this general thing” and in this one you’re like “but this general thing is definitely true”. You trans theorists always want it both ways.

>The obvious trend here is that some people are experimenting with their identity. That doesn't constitute some paranoid Orwellian scenario.

Experimenting with different aspects of personality: fine, great, yay!, have fun, go nuts. Creating a myriand of special “gender identities” that cannot be objectively defined (i.e. defined in any way that is not hopelessly circular) on which are being built legislation and policies that overwrite or impinge on the rights of natal females: not ok, holy shit what is this mess? I guess it’s maybe more Handmaid’s Tale than Orwellian, but it is definitely dystopian and will have disastrous consequences for natal females as a class.

>Ignoring historical oppression of women is almost entirely a MRA/conservative phenomenon.

Haha, there are literally myriad examples of trans theorists doing that in this sub. The level of doublespeak on you people is amazing.

>Queer theory is literally founded on principles of feminism.

Queer theory takes terminology from feminism and distorts it in such a way that it ends up being oppressive and erasing to natal females. This is what neoliberalism generally does; it coopts progressive thinking in ways that feel and may appear on first glance to be progressive but in reality are trojan horses that are even more regressive and dangerous than conservatism. Sheila Jeffery’s book Unpacking Queer Politics has led many natal women to peak trans.

>Whether or not gender is biologically based is irrelevant.

Wrong. It is the crux of the matter. I argue that, in a sense, gender IS definitely biologically based as it is a system of oppression that has been arbitrarily attached to a very real biological phenomenon: that of sexual dimorphisim in humans.

For trans theory to make sense within a material, secular humanist context, it also has to be biologically based (e.g. there has to be sexed differences in the brain and sometimes a male bodied person has to be able to be somehow be born with a female brain). So you are left with either claiming that gender is based in the brain or comes from the ether somehow. It is definitely not irrelevant where it comes from and how it is formed.

>People are going to express themselves how they wish. Shaming them or assuming they've been brainwashed by the "trans cult" (kind of hard to have a cult without cohesive leadership or ideology) isn't the answer. Instead consider that every individual has their own idea of self and you can only understand their view by understanding their individual psychology.

Right, and free expression is what gender abolition is all about. Why in the world do personalities have to be labeled as male or female? That’s regressive. Really, I wouldn’t give a shit what madness people get into in their private lives. Go ahead and identify as Batman if you want. I do, however, start to care when you try to force me to believe that you are literally Batman because you feel like you are or when you start claiming that you’re just as much Batman as the real Batman, but only more oppressed and that you require special legal protections that override those already in place for actual Batmen.


>On an anecdotal note, I'm very GNC and have never had my identity dictated to me by trans women or men. Only by religious zealots and GC theorists.

My anecdata conflicts with yours on this point: pretty much every single trans theorist I’ve come across has said that since I don’t feel gender in any real way, I must be so cis priviliged I can’t see it or possibly agender or possibly non-binary or maybe gender fluid. They HAVE to try to slot me into a gender or their whole ideology falls apart.