Gender Abolition - Tumblr Posts
When you tell women who aren’t feminine/who are uncomfortable with the feminine gender role to consider that they might actually be men, nonbinary or agender, you’re not being progressive - you’re simply reinforcing the notion that womanhood equals femininity and gender stereotypes.
if you’re like me, you’ve thought “if they’re putting trans women in women’s prisons, where are they putting the trans men?”
in women’s prisons, duh. the following are quotes from sagal sadiq, a trans-identified female inmate at the central california women’s facility, about the trans-identified male transfers that she is forced to live with. california, remember, does not require that a male inmate take any legal or medical transition steps before being granted transfer to a women’s prison.
“Under SB 132, these ‘trans-predators’ as I call them… they are just here to try and have sex with the women.”
“Even if it is true that they are at risk of violence in a men’s prison, this is just trading one victim set for another.”
“I submitted a [formal complaint] to housing staff. The officer asked me why I was documenting it and I said this behavior was inappropriate and was I believed that it was going to escalate.”
“Sometime after this, this predator I reported decided to retaliate against me. We were in the kitchen and he ‘shoulder-checked’ me, which means when he walked by me he hit me with his shoulder super hard … in an effort to bully me and dissuade me from carrying on with the [grievance] I had filed,”
“We were thoroughly frisked and put in a cage. I felt I was being kidnapped. They claimed that it was for our protection, but if they really wanted to protect us they would address the predatory behavior of this man, not lock up the whistleblowers.”
“When women complain [or] when they feel threatened … they are just moved. From bed to bed, room to room, and eventually yard to yard. And if you complain a little bit too long … you are put ‘in jail’ [solitary confinement].”
“For me, as an African refugee and civil war survivor – this triggers all my PTSD. You know what happens to women in wars and situations of strife… I don’t want to see that mirrored here. I came to America to be safe. To see this happening, even on a minor level, to my sisters here is very triggering to me.”
“Nobody thought too far into the process of how these ‘trans women’ are being vetted. You can’t just self-declare when you look like a 400-pound linebacker. These people clearly are not [transgender], they’re here for other reasons,” Sadiq says, “But because SB-132 is the law, everyone has a hands-off approach.”
“SB-132 is to protect trans rights, but trans men don’t have these rights. The patriarchy is protecting itself. You’re a biological woman? Stay in your place. You have no right to demand anything. But if you’re a biological man, you can be whatever you want. It’s encouraged. If you want to [be moved] here to prey on these females — who cares?”
“All humans have inherent rights imbued within us, and the idea that a new law was created not to protect, but to elevate a class of individuals above an entire gender, serves only to marginalize women.”
her sworn statement:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f232ea74d8342386a7ebc52/t/6297b41a683f4e20e5e927e2/1654109210863/Sagal+Sadiq+Declaration.pdf
https://reduxx.info/women-being-punished-for-complaining-about-male-transfers-inmate-in-california-womens-prison/
liberals will scream “fuck gender roles” then call themselves non-binary for not conforming to them.
"so when you as a girl or woman express disdain at femininity, it is not because you think "feminine" women are beneath you. it is because you know femininity is beneath every woman and yourself."
it's normal to be insulted by femininity as a girl or woman and it's really simple why.
the core philosophy of patriarchy is that men and women are not defined by their sex but by their sexual roles in the male sexual hierarchy (a naturalistic fallacy). the philosophy of patriarchy cannot allow for equality at any given point, because a man ceases to be a man if he is not dominant and a woman seizes to be a woman if she is not submissive. keep this in mind.
so a woman as defined by patriarchy is a complementary thing (non-human, like animals or "nature") to a man's estate. the woman identity, as construed by patriarchy, exists solely for male pleasure and estate. that means the woman is only a woman if (it/she) is an asset to a male's estate. so it/she must be a wife, a concubine, a tradeable daughter (this is opportunity for wealth), a prostitute or mother. please note, in all these roles, a woman is always meant to be subordinate or she/it is not a woman.
now remember, this is only patriarchal philosophy, but this philosophy/worldview needs to become an ideology and way of life. so patriarchs, in order to justify their made-up bullshit about the sexes and their right to exploit without consequences, must naturalize this worldview. they can create patriarchal religions (for whichever has the power over life and death defines the value and purpose of a soul) and language (whoever defines the world controls how it is perceived).
but CLOTHES are an expression of both. clothes, aside from simply being utilitarian (even in ancient times), were visual symbols denoting things like class, age, sex, nationality, and beliefs. NOW UNDERSTAND, the first class distinction in human societies was between men and women. men were higher humans hence were to be treated as a distinct upper class, and women were lower-class.
class distinction via sex was the first kind of class distinction. so it became increasingly important to the patriarchal state that women and men had to dress according to their class (the Old Testament of the Bible shows that this was indeed important to early patriarchal states in the ANE via verses like Deuteronomy 22:5 which reads, “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.”) In short, clothes do not have sex (no garment can chan he your chromosomes), but they do have sex-class (which is gender).
in the development of patriarchy, the veil in the ancient near east, became a symbol of women's sexual status, publicly announcing them as married, concubines, virgins, etc. (i encourage you to read The Beginning of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner for more in-depth information on all this). clothes then, and today, have always been about determining women as a sexual class and what role they performed in that sexual class (modest, up for sale, married, low-value, lesbian/deviant).
because men get to define what women are, they get to define what our clothes mean. they get to decide if something is modest or if a woman is "asking for it."
what does this have to do with femininity?
patriarchal belief= a woman is a thing, defined explicitly by her inequality to man, that exists purely for the pleasure and purpose of the man. this means a woman can only be a sexual slave (whether as a mother/wife or a whore) and cannot live or exist outside of this male-defined sexuality (temptress/justified sexualization of underage girls) without becoming something other than a woman (a monster, a witch, ungodly, mentally ill). since it was made for man, it cannot pursue interests outside of pleasing him and still be a natural, healthy thing.
enter gender.
femininity (and gender) is how women are regulated by the patriarchal state. it is a costume, a uniform, that signifies an obedient subordinate, but it is also a performance that is constantly tested and scored. women with low scores get re-educated or removed from society (via death or ostracization). femininity is how women are policed. all you have to do is to look at the traits of femininity and it's rules.
the natural female face/body should always be palatable, pleasing and presentable to the man and what he specifically finds attractive (so it doesn't matter that you're from a different culture or of a different class, if you're dressing "modestly" or "promiscuously"--this is the only primary rule: that you please men and that you are tasteful to the man who fancies you)
this means that the woman's health is secondary and her body should be editable, adaptable, picked apart and put back together on a whim, on any and every level to appeal to any man who wants her (cosmetic surgery, corsets, trends)
nurture is paramount to the character of a woman (because a woman is meant to be an excellent breeder)
softness and smallness (signals submissiveness, passiveness, defeat, weakness--all of which are proper womanly behaviour)
martyrdom (a woman exists for the preservation of the man and his estate)
silence (this communicates mental submission which is important, women should not voice their experiences, grievances, frustrations, desires, stories because she is showing agency and none of these qualities aid her identity as a sexual servant)
i want you to look at and analyze, even within your own cultures, what femininity is defined as wherever it exists, and then see if you can find any connection to how it enforces the idea of the patriarchal woman-thing. the entire performance, clothing and behaviour, is enforced in order to justify the fictional woman-thing in patriarchal imagination.
but you are a human being.
you have always been able to think, feel, disagree, feel anger . . . because you are a person with a sense of dignity, history and purpose outside male-defined sexuality. so when you as a girl or woman express disdain at femininity, it is not because you think "feminine" women are beneath you. it is because you know femininity is beneath every woman and yourself.
the capitalistically driven insecurity market that pushes women to seek out the security of male validation is beneath all of us. the performance is beneath all of us. we were human before we were mothers, wives, sex workers. we were beautiful and wonderful before makeup. we were human before men looked at us and called us fuckable. we were powerful and divine before men told us we were demonic and simply angelic, servants of gods rather than goddesses ourselves. we had the capacity to create and invent the world before men told us we didn't have heads for learning.
we have always been human and always will be.
femininity is a patriarchal polemic against our humanity. it's fundamental philosophy disagrees with the reality of us. that's why there's so much anger and fear around this culture.
some of us, as girls, resented the fact that our mothers asked us to swallow the fact that they accepted (as right) their humiliation and ours. that they wanted us to show men and boys that we accepted that we were made to be humiliated. of course we got angry. of course we felt confused. didn't our mothers, sisters, aunts, friends care that this performance was never-ending humiliation as we were forced to parade ourselves in order to compete for male approval? in front of the eyes of men and boys we knew mocked us for everything? so we said, we're not like other girls. other girls want to keep up with this. maybe they like humiliation? but we can't live this way. something must be wrong with us, or with them. they're sheep, or we're disgusting lesbians. but the truth is that we're all just in a world of pain and desperation.
your (feminine) clothes are not made with you in mind, but they are also made to keep you minding yourself. checking yourself. making sure your bra doesn't show. your underwear doesn't slip. your belly isn't too prominent. it keeps you eager to perform your role. to win against a race you can't even define because you haven't ever questioned if it ends. you get approval from the state because you are trained to self-regulate, and you have been trained well. the relief you feel at the approval of other girls or boys is that they are giving you a high score. which means you are safe. you are beautiful, you are a good performer. you will be picked and not left behind.
you may say you dress for the girls, but that's part of the problem, still. you and the girls are. you are still agreeing with the political philosophy of patriarchy when you uncritically wear the uniform of the woman-thing. you think of yourself as the woman-thing. you think of your face and body as infinitely editable. delete the breasts, delete the pores, enlarge the eyes like you're a doll on a Wii avatar creator. and so other girls are scared of being themselves because you all know there's something here to fear. there's rejection and punishment waiting for pretty ladies who don't comply.
but you're a living, complete human being, darling. you are an ecosystem with mysteries as old as the universe in you. you are a person that deserves to be here fully and freely. this is your world, too. our world.
so you see why gender cannot be reclaimed by us in a meaningful sense? it is a performance that is invented, re-invented and validated by the philosophy of our dehumanization. it will never be independent of it in this system.
you are worth the freedom and strength you can give yourself. you are worth the fight out of this.
I know everyone has fun pretending to be Diogenes of Sinope, but in politics definitions are essential because it defines who is impacted by a set of laws, decisions, social pressures, intersecting oppressions, etc. The material lives of individual oppressed people are not helped by philosophical wordplay any more than the average prostituted woman, helot, enslaved person, or otherwise systematically oppressed individual in the Hellenic world was helped by Platonic dialogues, or even Diogenes himself busting in with a plucked chicken. It must be fun to be so removed from the reality of oppression that you can live in this lofty realm of argument and counter argument and muse on the Buddhist tradition and meditate on your identity. Meanwhile women are dying and suffering because Roe v. Wade was lost.
“What’s a woman? Ermmmm okay but like what’s a chair haha”
You know what the fuck a chair is. If you asked for a chair to sit down, and I brought in some random guy, you’d be pissed. But what’s the problem? He identifies as a chair!
Words mean things because that’s why we have words. It is a communication tool, and it is entirely dependent on the mutual understandings of definitions. I don’t believe for a second that “woman” and “man” just happen to be the only words that you cannot define because ohhhh it’s just so messy and tricky and philosophical, bruh! Deep stuff!
If these words were really that unintelligible, that confusing, that vague… then we simply would not use them. Because that is not how words are designed to work. If a word has no meaning, it’s just gibberish.
But, you know what a “woman” is, in your eyes, don’t you? It’s “whoever is feminine enough”… isn’t it? But of course you don’t want to say that, because people would easily be able to pick that apart. You’ve been backed into a corner with this question, so all you can do is dodge it with non-answers until they leave you alone.
We’re not stupid, and you’re not stupid, so quit playing games. We’re all adults here. Grow up and own your shitty ideals.
watching the olympics, it's always frustrating to me that the women are still tryna be so "pretty." like male swimmers will have black swimming caps and black goggles--just neutral shit--but female swimmers will have to make their accessories pink and "girly" all complete with some patriotic fake nails. the beach volleyball females have swimming bottoms riding up their crack like g-strings, men winking and cracking jokes about why they love watching it. female runners with contoured faces, perfect liquid eyeliner flicks and lip liner to suit. hell, you'll be watching female weightlifting and they'll have fake lashes on. like "yeah i know i'm doing something super unattractive to men rn like daring to be stronger and more athletic than them, but look! the pink! the glitter! the false lashes! i'm still fuckable! don't put me in the ugly category!" so tired of women surrendering their power to men lmao
lorde and mitski: stop using make up, dress up more masculine, don't shave
conservatives: they want to be men 🤢👎
queers: they want to be men ❤🏳️⚧️
lets just replace the word “gender” with “sexist stereotype”
sexist-stereotype nonconformity. sexist stereotype identity. sexist stereotype critical. sexist stereotype binary. sexist stereotype validation. sexist stereotype diversity. sexist stereotype fluidity. sexist stereotype dysphoria
The Supreme Court blocked the Biden-Harris administration's re-write of Title IX, for now, which would allow biological men in women’s sports, bathrooms, locker rooms, and dorms.
The rule still needs to be finalized, but no part will go into effect while the case proceeds.
saying I'm 'cis' would be saying that I have an internal identity that 'matches' my physical sex. I fundamentally reject the premise of any internal identity 'matching' either sex. I do not have a womanbrain or a femininemind or a girlgender. my body is female and that has shaped many of my life experiences, specifically because of the ambient misogynistic culture of male supremacy; none of that is innate to my brain. the things I like or do or want are gender neutral and particular to my personality as a human. the idea that the things I like or do or want either 'match' or 'don't match' my body rests on the premise that different personalities are tied to 'matching' bodies on the basis of sex innately rather than artificially. that is a fundamentally sexist premise at odds with feminism.
the term “non binary” is completely redundant. Men and women can act and dress however they want without it needing to be some super special new identity
I don’t know how to explain it but as an incredibly GNC woman I hate being described masculine sometimes. Or like I’m emulating male behavior. Men don’t own short hair, comfortable clothes, natural body hair, not wearing makeup. This is womanly because I’m a woman doing these things. Existing comfortably in my natural body is not masculine or feminine