Vicious comments from women

[Mandy]

Originally Posted by Bionca

Google ant-trans Feminists or Mary Daley, Janice Raymond, Germaine Greer, Shelia Jefferies.

You can also look up Sandy Stone to read about how death threats and a boycott were used to get a Transwoman fired from the first "woman's music" company.

Yeah, but that brand of feminism is dying, and for the most part queer and feminist women are supportive of TS, much more so than the straight world.

[smc]

Originally Posted by Mandy

Yeah, but that brand of feminism is dying, and for the most part queer and feminist women are supportive of TS, much more so than the straight world.

In my work with a local antiwar group here in the Boston area, I meet a lot of young "queer" and "feminist" women in their 20s. They are almost without exception tremendously supportive of the trans people in the group, and even argue vociferously to ensure that at any public event someone from the trans people get to be a speaker. They then make sure that their trans "status" is openly stated in the introduction, as a means of telling all those gathered that this is "okay"!

Gauging the reaction of the older self-described feminist women, many of whom I have known for a long time, I would say that there is a gamut from complete support to discomfort. I have yet to confront any of them about this, but I will do so. The older Vets for Peace guys seem a bit uncomfortable, too, but they don't seem challenged in the way that the older women do.

So far, I am happy to report that no one has gone so far as to try and stifle the participation of our many trans activists. The younger people seem to set the tone and win the day -- for which I am very happy!

None of this is to diminish what Bionca is reporting, but rather to provide a picture of one small part of the world where things are going a bit better.

[Bionca]

Generally, the support I receive is mainly from non-trans women and feminists in particular. I am active online and offline with feminist organizations. That said, some of the most mean and hurtful comments I have seen and have been directed to me are from Rad Fem lesbians. Lets not forget that the writers I mentioned above along with Karla Mantilla have been used to bar Trans* women from various domestic violence shelters, denying use of medicare for HRT and SRS (followed soon by insurance companies).

In day to day life it is my girls (both trans and not) that made all the difference in the world.

[GRH]

[QUOTE=Bionca;68179]Generally, the support I receive is mainly from non-trans women and feminists in particular. I am active online and offline with feminist organizations. That said, some of the most mean and hurtful comments I have seen and have been directed to me are from Rad Fem lesbians.[QUOTE]

Probably my best friends are a lesbian couple who I LOVE to death! But I know what Bionca is talking about...While feminism in theory is in support of a break-down of gender assignments and patriarchy, there IS a certain cross-current of feminist thought which believes we are NOT women, and will NEVER know what it's like to be women, thus we are not part of "the cause."

Similarly, I think some of the concept of female prejudice arises from the the fact that many transgendered individuals marry straight women without being out. Only after several years of marriage do the straight women discover that they married a "fairy boy" or however they conceive of trans-people. I don't fault them for this...The vanilla-heterosexual conception of marriage is so predominant in our society, it MUST be a shock to find out you married someone who doesn't fit the mold. But I think that shock and disillusionment is where you find many women less than admirable of T-Girls.

[twistedone]

They don't like the competition.