There is also the point that some anti-trans feminists are only nuanced when they are sitting down and making an effort to be. At the kneejerk level of behaviour which governs a lot of social and even political interaction, they are just acting like bigots.
And their bigotry is not only towards trans women and men; it is often towards other women who happen not to share their views - not just our sexual partners, though they particularly get it in the neck. It's the whole 'I cannot participate in feminist project X because you are allowing that person to participate in it' thing - which is not just about 'women's space' but can be about e.g important reference texts.
Also, a part of the bigotry is manifested in the assumption that no trans person is incapable of a nuanced sense of their own position, that none of us have dealt with these arguments in our own lives for decades.
Phobia is the correct term because reasoned nuanced argument for their position doesn't ultimately come into it. Many years ago, I found myself in the improbable position of acting as confidante and advisor in a difficult personal situation to a woman whose other confidante and advisor was a leading theoretician of that school. I just thought it indicated that she was a person with a life; she found my involvement deeply sinister to a point where that became the issue rather than the problem we were advising our mutual friend about.
I haven't found myself in the same position with a conservative Christian, but I suspect that it would be the same. After all, conservative Christians of a Catholic stripe are capable of real nuance even if fundies are not.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-30 09:53 am (UTC)And their bigotry is not only towards trans women and men; it is often towards other women who happen not to share their views - not just our sexual partners, though they particularly get it in the neck. It's the whole 'I cannot participate in feminist project X because you are allowing that person to participate in it' thing - which is not just about 'women's space' but can be about e.g important reference texts.
Also, a part of the bigotry is manifested in the assumption that no trans person is incapable of a nuanced sense of their own position, that none of us have dealt with these arguments in our own lives for decades.
Phobia is the correct term because reasoned nuanced argument for their position doesn't ultimately come into it. Many years ago, I found myself in the improbable position of acting as confidante and advisor in a difficult personal situation to a woman whose other confidante and advisor was a leading theoretician of that school. I just thought it indicated that she was a person with a life; she found my involvement deeply sinister to a point where that became the issue rather than the problem we were advising our mutual friend about.
I haven't found myself in the same position with a conservative Christian, but I suspect that it would be the same. After all, conservative Christians of a Catholic stripe are capable of real nuance even if fundies are not.