I Think One Of The Major Issues In Getting People To Understand What Radfems (or Any Group, Really) Believe

I think one of the major issues in getting people to understand what radfems (or any group, really) believe in is the idea that outliers in a data set suddenly redefine any given concept. People will say that biological sex is a spectrum due to the fact that people with DSDs exist. But that's not how a spectrum works. A spectrum is when all possible options are distributed across an axis and with statistically significant occurrences for all options. If, for example, 10% of the population had Turner's Syndrome, then the spectrum for biological sex would probably be XX, XY, and X, because common occurrences have to be on our radar in order to understand the biological differences and their effects on medical treatment etc. All other chromosomal occurrences would be outliers. It doesn't mean that the outliers don't exist, it just means it is considered abnormal.

I think a better way of understanding it is to look at how we define the human body. If you asked anyone on the street to describe the human body, they would probably say a human has two arms, two legs, a head, two eyes, etc. Every day, lots of children are born missing a vital organ or with too many toes or some other anatomical anomaly. But baby Sally having 13 toes doesn't suddenly make it so that we have a "spectrum of toe counts from 1 to 13". That would require a large portion of the population to have too many or not enough toes. The reality is that she has 3 extra toes. It doesn't make her non-human, it makes her toes an EXCEPTION to the rule of 10 toes.

I just wish people would understand this mindset and how it has such a huge impact on the way data is recorded and thus on health outcomes.

transphobes when they realized that pronouns look different in other languages: 🤯

I had a friend in middle school who was Mormon and at that time, I strongly identified with the Lutheran faith and attended an ELCA church. And even as a politically conservative, Christian 13 year old, I got into some intense religious debates with this girl. And she was prepared for every single one because the teenagers went to church every morning before school for Bible study and my Bible knowledge, as the daughter of someone with a ministry degree, absolutely paled in comparison to their level of indoctrination. So I present to you, a short list of weird things I learned about the Mormon faith as a teenager:

1. They think Heaven has levels. And everyone goes to Heaven regardless of religion, it's just a matter of which level. It's my understanding that the only way to go to Hell is to be an Ex-morman.

2. They don't drink caffeine or alcohol. My friend did drink Mountain Dew occasionally, so I think caffeine may have been more of a personal preference. The bizarre thing about this is that everyone knows how heavily featured wine is in the Bible. These people took communion with water rather than have a teaspoon of wine.

3. They have a holy book that I later learned was "translated" by Joseph Smith from an Egyptian scroll of hieroglyphics, which only he could understand. The only problem is that we eventually found the Rosetta Stone and lots of people learned to decipher hieroglyphics, and as it turns out, none of the information in that book matches what the scrolls actually say, something Mormons choose to conveniently ignore.

Per what I've seen on social media, my friend ended up going to the same college they all go to (you know which one) getting married young (shocker), and surprisingly, getting divorced young. I don't know if she still identifies as Morman, but I have learned that attacking people's core beliefs will just make them double down on them. It is my hope that she has had some time to critically examine her faith through a new lens.

Please explain to me how saying that gay rights are human rights is bigoted.

You know those yard signs that are like "In this house we believe: climate change is science, no humans are illegal, gay rights are human rights" etc. and they basically just sum up the American liberal belief in one easy-to-read sign? I want one of those for radfem beliefs that just sums our talking points up. I'm thinking something along the lines of "In this house we know that:

-lgb rights are human rights

-feminism exists for the liberation of women

-abortion and contraception are healthcare

-hormone replacement and plastic surgery for the purpose of gender transition are NOT healthcare

-Pornography fuels the sex trafficking industry and both industries exploit women endlessly for male pleasure

Anyone else have additions?

As a nurse, I was concerned with how I looked for like the first month, and then I realized that I was showing up in scrubs (and at that point in time we were masking every day) and all anyone saw were my eyes. Nowadays, I am mainly concerned with having clean teeth and deodorant on. I was also coming from Pandemic Nursing school wherein I barely left the house and had largely stopped wearing makeup daily. It is so true that when you are enjoying your job and you have pride and confidence in your abilities and skills set, you stop caring about if you look perfect or not at work.

Also, I have often heard women say that their makeup routine is "for fun" and "to show off their unique personality", and while something like rainbow eyeshadow might be fun, it's also a lot of damn work and it costs time and money. I promise you can be unique without spending an contouring your face. Something I have discovered recently is that there are fun ways to show off your personality through your appearance that don't require obsessing in the mirror every morning and don't cost an arm and a leg:

-fun glasses! My vision just keeps getting worse and this time I bought round plastic lavender frames which remind me, a little of Luna Lovegood, and then a second pair of 60's inspired cat eye frames.

-scrunchies. If you have a sewing machine, scrap fabric, and elastic, you can make these for free in any color or pattern! Here is a tutorial if needed.

-I have a coworker who always wears fun socks and rolls up her scrubs to show them off!

-I like to do different kinds of braids for work. It makes me feel like the main character of a fantasy novel, even if I can't bring a sword to work.

-if you work in healthcare or somewhere you can wear sneakers/trainers/tennis shoes, buy a well made colorful pair next time you need them.

-if you have your ears pierced and you like wearing stud earrings, there are so many unique earrings on Etsy. I have mushroom ones that are my favorite, but I also have racoon ones, pumpkins, fall leaves, snowflakes etc. I will put a pair in and leave them there for a week.

None of these are required of course, but I think many of us have that inner voice that screams you have to be different™️ and unique somehow, so I think these are fun ways to make your appearance "stand out" in a positive way that doesn't line the pockets of beauty corporations. I had a teenage patient recently who complimented my fun shoes, and a 12 year old girl who had on her own glasses told me she liked my new ones. Oh, and one of my coworkers told me exactly what species my mushroom earrings were, which is the kind of conversation makeup could never spark!

The solution to being obsessed with your appearance is just to get a busy job and/or start working on actually achieving things like I promise you can’t waste time on the shape of your eyebrows when you’ve got competing deadlines. I promise you’ll realise how unimportant your pore size is, when you’re kicking academic or career goals or trying to build something or doing some complicated task. I am begging any woman who is fixated on her face/body to get an intellectually rigorous job or a hobby or focus on a high-intensity sport or some shit. Just do anything that takes you out of your head like I’m not trying to be mean but you can defeat this loser, self-limiting behaviour

I have not seen this website posted yet so gyns I am happy to present to you "The Grand Map of Non-Happenings"

All you have to do is zoom in and click on the red tent and it will tell you of a reported instance in that area of a crime committed by trans identified males (even though it totally never happens)

Best of all, it's crowdsourced, and you can submit articles not already listed right at the top of the map

Gyns I pray you make use of this website and to publicize and bring to attention of these crimes that "never happen". Share it, use it, whatever you need. And donate to The Red Tent Collective if you have the means to do so!