From Vice Magazine: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/paris-lees-terf-war-twitter-radical-feminists-088
Aug 20 2014
Unless you’re a fucking loser, you probably haven’t been following the ongoing “war” between a few transgender activists and some so-called radical feminists. They’ve done their best to suck me into their collective madness recently, but I’m not playing ball. Let me fill you in. First up we have TERFs, short for “trans-exclusionary radical feminists”. Basically, they’re full-on internet weirdos hell-bent on telling trans women that we’re not “real” women. They want to stop us using female loos, going to shitty music festivals and, erm, accessing healthcare. I know, right? Throw a few obsessive trans folk into the mix, and a handful of privileged white feminists with nothing better to talk about and, well, you’ve got yourself the perfect pointless shitstorm.
You’re all insane. And you’re all behaving like arseholes. I’m sick of the lot of you. It’s gone past the point of who I “agree” with – though of course that’s trans people and their right to get on with their lives without hassle – but this isn’t about rational debate any more, it’s about an over-educated and time-rich bunch of narcissists on both sides who are completely and utterly addicted to a never-ending slanging match about absolutely nothing. That’s right. You are talking about nothing. Absolutely. Nothing. I can’t even tell you how disgusted I am to have waded into this “debate” just to tell you that you are talking about nothing because it means that I am also talking about nothing. I am talking about you talking about nothing.
Take the “debate” around the word “cis”. It’s Latin for “not trans”. So far, so neutral. Well, a group of bloggers known as “Mean Girl feminists” (although they’re nowhere near as cool as that name would suggest) hate the word “cis”. The Meanies desperately wanted to be the popular girls at school but everyone else thought they were saddos, so now they’re taking it out on any trans peeps that want to join their woman gang. They objected to the term cis from the start because they basically refuse to see themselves as anything other than transparently “normal” – as I’m sure some people hated being told they were “heterosexual” when the gay rights movement made clear that being “straight” was just another sexual orientation.
But well done to you, too, angry trans people. Well done for the “die cis scum” hashtag and all the rest of it that has given Meanies ample excuse to now claim that “cis” is a slur. Good work.
Meanies – if you don’t like the word “cis”, can you just fucking pick another one, please? Literally just make one up. Like “kokadillo”. Or “flumbledumpling”. I don’t know, maybe they can do a call-in for suggestions on Woman’s Hour or something. Because it really would be useful to have a word to describe people, like you, who don’t experience extreme dysphoria in relation to their body sex. Of course, maybe it’s not the word “cis” that you object to at all, but the idea. Maybe you don’t believe in the word because you don’t really buy into all this trans business either? Who knows.
The TERFs and the Meanies call themselves “gender critical” but they’re not, not really. They aren’t obsessed with David Beckham, or Katie Price, or the billions of other people who aren’t trans who perpetuate gender every day. Just trans people, who they can pick on. “Gender critical feminism” is a special form of bigotry paraded as legitimate concern, a modern twist on “Love the sinner, hate the sin”. All they want to do is talk, but they have nothing new to say. And I don’t buy into their “all discussion is important” crap either. Most people talk a load of old shite. It’s like the “discussions” about immigration that are used by bigots as an excuse to express their hatred of foreigners. It’s just ugly prejudice dressed up as fancy debate.
Behind this façade of valid discussion hides a bunch of overgrown school bullies pointing at people who are different and demanding they explain that difference. Asking someone why they are trans is no better than asking them, “Why are you so fat?” Gia Milonovich is the girl in the playground shouting “You’re not pretty like us!” but who never gets into trouble because she’s banging the head of science, Mr Cox. She’ll tell you what being trans is all about. Me, sir! Me! I know the answer! I’ve read the next chapter!
Continue reading at: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/paris-lees-terf-war-twitter-radical-feminists-088
Women Born Transsexual 