I really don’t know how to begin this post. I don’t know how to introduce it or create some eloquent lead in. All I can say is:
Fuck.
Fuck no.
Fuck you.
Fuck everything.
Exhibit A: Trans efforts to completely erase femalehood from existence. A determined means of preventing any sort of meaningful analysis of the oppression and abuse of women from taking place.
Trans activists are now stating that calling female genital mutilation, an act of violence against females, is cissexist. In reference to female children having their clitorises removed and their vaginas sewn shut, twanzactivists scream “WHAT ABOUT MEEEEEE?”
To all you twanz men out there (no, you will never, ever, ever, ever be women, ladies, girls, or whatever other terms you want to appropriate from females, AKA, human beings (no really, we’re actually fucking human beings) with real, actual nature-made and male-controlled vaginas):
Fuck you, monsters.
Also, if you are reading this, press ctrl+shift+W for free lipstick and bubblegum.
To all you trans/patriarchy obedient funfems:
Open your goddamn eyes and look at what you’re saying.
To trans women (that is, females, AKA, human beings (no really)): My heart breaks for you.
To my feminist sisters:
Get a load of this shit.
What is FEMALE genital mutilation?
FEMALE genital mutilation refers to procedures involving mutilation of external FEMALE genitals, namely the clitoris and labia. It is most often practiced on young FEMALE children, from infancy up to about age 15. The most common procedures are a partial or (usually) a complete removal of the clitoris, often with excision of the labia minora. Another form of FEMALE genital mutilation is infibulation, where the vaginal opening is sewn or cauterized shut. See the WHO factsheet for more information.
Why is FEMALE genital mutilation done?
Trans theorists cannot tell you that. In erasing the femaleness of female genital mutilation, they erase WHY females have their genitals destroyed.
This is just one of the many ways in which trans activists harm women. They reduce the oppression of women down to bullet points of independent, compartmentalized problems that are solved one by one, checking off each box as we go. Feminism becomes simplified down to the same level of mindlessness pervasive in MRAs who complain about how all the workplace deaths are misandry while ignoring the whole bit about women’s exclusion (by men) from those jobs.
By reducing “female genital mutilation” to “vulva mutilation,” they ignore WHY the practice continues. Mutilation of women’s’ genitals becomes just another check box, another item to cross off the list. No analysis is possible of how it originated, why it occurs, or how it is caused by, causes, and is related to other dynamics of women’s oppression.
FEMALE genital mutilation occurs because of the rules and roles society has set up for people born female. No, not people born ~iDeNtiFyInG~ as females, but infants born with vaginas. You see, infants are not born in a socially-free vacuum. They are born into societies. Those infants born with vaginas (referred to by societies as females, girls, and sometimes women when they are respected enough) are expected to act and be certain ways. Depending on the society, they must be quiet, polite, deferring, friendly, nurturing, dainty, vain, innocent. One of the demands for females in society is to be virgins, sexually innocent, and chaste. Women’s sexuality is regulated in a number of ways, and one of the most forceful comes in the form of genital mutilation to remove their sexual pleasure or prevent males from sexual access to their bodies.
Female genital mutilation would not take place if society didn’t put females into socially consequential categories based on sex, and the female sex-based category was not beaten upon constantly and forced into submission to the “male” category. But societies DO categorize on the basis of sex, and these categories ARE socially consequential in nature, and the female category IS oppressed by the male category and by society on a broader level.
Females do not have their genitals mutilated because they have vulvas.
Females do not have their genitals mutilated because they ~iDeNtIfY~ as females.
Females have their genitals mutilated because the societies have decided that people born with vaginas are just human enough to be fucked by and impregnated by men, but not human enough to have sexual autonomy.
As an active redditor (username: GhostOfImNotATroll) I will say that reddit is a toiletbowl for rational discussion.
For all their calling people out on checking their privileges, these folks are extremely bad at realizing that it is the epitome of privilege to call biological sex a non-issue–or one of choice! This whole thing reminds me of what I recently read about calling women ‘menstruators’ because everything else is cissexist (I don’t think it used that word, though. But there was the phrase ‘men who menstruate’ and I’m pretty sure they weren’t being sarcastic).
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/02/11/of-menstruators-and-manhole-covers/
it’s astounding to watch as more and more language is taken away from women.
“Tall” refers to people who are lengthier than most when measured from the top of their head to the soles of their feet.
“Blonde” refers to people whose hair is of a particular pigmentation.
“Right-handed” refers to people whose right hand has dominant dexterity.
“Female” refers to people with vaginas, uteri, and ovaries. When a child is born, this categorization is made. Medical technology has made this categorization before birth.
While lots of categories aren’t important, the sex category is, because the category a person is assigned to has a huge impact in how they are going to be treated and seen in society.
Sex is central to understanding women’s oppression, because it is what their oppression is based on.
But the term “woman” no longer belongs to the people assigned to that category and oppressed based on that category. No, men want in on it.
Then we had left the term “female” to highlight the sex-based nature of our oppression, but no, that no longer belongs to us either, because “female penises.”
Now we’re down to “menstruators,” These labels distance women further and further from the root of SEXism.
May I reblog this using everything you just said as a quote to go with it? You have said it perfectly.
Thank you.
And yes, you absolutely can reblog this.
Pretty soon they will be taking away what it means to be born Intersex as well. I have already seen trans people try and take away the Intersex Name from Intersex people. It seems that they are co-opting Language.
Reblogged this on Pass the Flaming Sword and commented:
“it’s astounding to watch as more and more language is taken away from women.
“Tall” refers to people who are lengthier than most when measured from the top of their head to the soles of their feet.
“Blonde” refers to people whose hair is of a particular pigmentation.
“Right-handed” refers to people whose right hand has dominant dexterity.
“Female” refers to people with vaginas, uteri, and ovaries. When a child is born, this categorization is made. Medical technology has made this categorization before birth.
While lots of categories aren’t important, the sex category is, because the category a person is assigned to has a huge impact in how they are going to be treated and seen in society.
Sex is central to understanding women’s oppression, because it is what their oppression is based on.
But the term “woman” no longer belongs to the people assigned to that category and oppressed based on that category. No, men want in on it.
Then we had left the term “female” to highlight the sex-based nature of our oppression, but no, that no longer belongs to us either, because “female penises.”
Now we’re down to “menstruators,” These labels distance women further and further from the root of SEXism.” – By Women of the Patriarchy
Thank you for this post. It is so important to have places to direct women who are sympathetic to these female-hating men who want to skin us and take our identities, culture, movement, etc. as women. Women feel sorry for such privileged, arrogant men, and then turn on other women, and in this case, girls, without realizing the extent of how they are harming themselves and all women.
But one look at this, should bring the sympathy back to where it belongs….
Reblogged this on Kallmann's syndrome life and commented:
If these Gender queer theorist are now calling Female Genital mutilation cissexist. I wonder what they will say when it’s done to Biological born Intersex people as well. It’s clear that the gender queer theorist are getting weirder by day.
Wow, there is a lot of hate speech in this. I mean a lot.
Aside from that, I’m a bit lost on how replacing “FGM” with “Vulva Mutilation ” results in “completely erase femalehood from existence”. Last time I checked , only the female of the species had a vulva. It would seem that both the acronym and the alternate term both point to the female, and make no effort to make anything disappear.
Oh there I go , with that wacky logic again. Just say ” You don’t get it ” and move on. I’ll be quiet.
“Last time I checked , only the female of the species had a vulva.”
OMG, cissexism!
The only hate speech is your Man speak. It’s clear that your using Male logic here.
You appear to have failed at reading anything other than the title of the post, I guess. The very last lines of the post answer your question:
Females do not have their genitals mutilated because they have vulvas.
Females do not have their genitals mutilated because they ~iDeNtIfY~ as females.
Females have their genitals mutilated because the societies have decided that people born with vaginas are just human enough to be fucked by and impregnated by men, but not human enough to have sexual autonomy.
As a cis-straight-white-male-femenist I try to do my very best to own my privilege, which in most cases looks like me keeping my mouth shut when it comes to women’s issues and just listening and taking it in. But since this is the internet, a place of seemingly infinite space, I’ll take up some and add my two cents:
Firstly, I think the poster’s main point is valid
However with regards to the comment
“To trans women (that is, females, AKA, human beings (no really)): My heart breaks for you”
To my knowlege the term “trans women” actually refers to people born in male bodies complete with balls and cocks and now identify as women. “Trans men” who the poster seems to be directing the fuck you’s toward are, to my knowledge, people born in female bodies complete with vulvae and clitorises. So I wonder if the poster’s reaction to this statement would be different if they knew that the person who originally called FGM “cissexist” was in fact a trans man that was born with a vagina. I could imagine that someone who has a vagina, but does not identify as being “female” may choose to not label their vagina with the descriptor “female”. Perhaps there is such a thing as a “male vulva.”
I understand that people born with penises, regardless of their gender identity do not know what it is like to be a person born with female genitalia and have the experience of being hated, disepowered,feared,belittled, and otherwise oppressed because of it. I also understand that Transfobia is real, and alive and in the process of stating their totally valid position on the issue, I think that their argument was necessarily sprinkled with transfobic comments.
But thats is ALMOST besides the point the term “cissexist” refers to something that priveleges cis-women or otherwise gives them preferencial treatment and excludes trans women. Like say, excluding trans women from a Women’s only space. What I really can’t understand at all is how the practice of Female Genital Mutilation in Africa privileges anyone other than cis-men in those societies. And I know, I know, its about the LANGUAGE here. But really, would the world really be a better place for trans women if the headlines read “Vulva Mutilation in Africa on the Rise in 2013.” This whole discussion makes me wonder what the women who are subject to this practice call it in their language or what the literal translation is.
A man comes into a blog that has as its singular topic transgenderism. When seeing that the terms “trans woman” and “trans man” are used in a way that he is not familiar with, his assumption is that the author must be uninformed, and will change her mind once he explains it to her. Never does the thought enter his mind that she knows exactly what she is talking about, and is making a point of not deferring to trans politics.
Please don’t continue posting here. Your opinions are far less insightful than you think they are.
I never assumed that you were not intentional using the terms “trans man” and “trans woman” to further your own political agenda which is one that is not “unfamiliar” to me. Nor am I under the illusion that I have a chance in hell at “changing your mind” when I out myself as a cis-straight-white-male. I know my opinions are not insightful, thats why I don’t share them out loud. I do however like to contribute to a discussion, as I believe a diversity of perspectives makes for richer dialogue. Rich dialogue is dependent on a consensus of very basic terminology. Chose to respond to your post not to inform YOU of anything, but to clarify for the rest the folks that read your blog that the way you are using the terms “trans man” and “trans woman” are opposite to the way that the trans community at large uses them.
WE understand what she means.
Reblogged this on loveangellove and commented:
So good. So important.
Even the “cis” prefix is sexist.
I totally, agree. The “cis” crap is sexist and erases biological women. Cis is used to slut shame biological women and trans like to push the cis crap to shame biological born women.
Reblogged this on Sifting Through The Pulp.
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