This post is from a Female identified Butch group I belong to on Facebook. All but the quote below are my own observations/opinions.
K.B. "One point that I want to be clear about. When I say that this is "sick," I mean that the phenomenon of trans-sexuality as a whole is a symptom of a societal illness; it is part and parcel of a world that loathes women. In the transgender POV, there is NO SUCH THING as sex. If a man tells me that he identifies as a woman, there is no argument. HE IS ONE. That is the sickness I speak of.
This has gone so far as to extend to children. Non gender-conforming children--that is, a boy who wants to be a princess, a girl who likes trucks--should be given hormones and surgery, forced sterilization, and "properly gendered" so as to fit in. THAT IS SICK. I am not exaggerating, this is happening right now."-K.B.
I entirely agree with K.B. assessment above in this paragraph. When I watched Chaz on Chaz's documentary, the part that sickened me the most was Chaz sitting in a hottub with a boyish girl, hardcore tomboy who wanted to be a boy, and 'boy bonding', I felt that if they got hold of me now back then, I would have been put on those hormones and such and encouraged to transition to male, and forced into those surgeries at a young age. I was not 'gender confused', I wanted to be a boy because of the powerlessness of girls and women, and I didn't want to be forced into dresses or housework, which girls are expected to do, or the sideline role in t.v. and movies, where she's helpless...much more prevalent in the '60's than it is today, where there are other views and some kickass women characters.....as it was I was put into therapy instead, cuz I never fit in, kissed girls on the head, and preferred boys activities, boys roles and wanted to be wearing boys clothing, not femmy stuff or forced into housework, or imitation housework and playing with dolls and such. These kids need a chance to grow up, not have pink or blue forced on them(and you can see IMMEDIATE SEX ROLE STEREOTYPING THROUGH CHILDREN'S CLOTHES AND TOYS, in a very quick way....all the girls clothes are pepto bismol pink, and some very revealing, and all the boys' clothes primary colors of blue, red, yellow or green. I do remember back in the late '60's/early 70's there came in the unisex movement, and unisex clothes which overlapped, cuz guys were wearing their hair long, and women were wearing pants and jeans...dress codes changed in our schools too where girls were no longer forced into dresses and we could wear pants too, and I was so relieved! So all this 'gender' stuff is merely a smokescreen for the true oppression you get on day one to conform one way or another...instead of just letting kids be kids, and gravitate to what they prefer/like, and putting out there more genderneutral clothes and toy choices....but you'll have to overcome the parents' religious programming as well, which they are likely to force onto kids, especially the more fundamentalist/religiously strict they are, the more gender conformity will be expected, and the more a particular girl or boy will rebel that and think they MUST BE the opposite sex, because the real truth, is if the kid doesn't gender conform, they MUST BE homosexual, and who wants their kid to be homosexual? Which comes to why Butches and effeminate men are hated, and why so many now opt for the surgeries to get out of that.
Baiting is not necessary, and this space(a group for Female Identified/Centered Butches) is incredibly important for female Centered Butches who are a people at the moment terribly under siege, not just from without, from the hetero patriarchal world and religions that shame us, or try to eliminate us, but from within from the LGBTLMNOP communities.....which is even worse. There is no safe space right now for Female Centered Butches...even Michfest is under siege, and almost everywhere we care to land, whether realtime or online.
My committment to Dykes, to womyn, to Butches, to DykeAmazons, to young Butch/boyish/genderqueer, ect. women DECIDING to remain in their female bodies, or even older Butches who get tired of the struggle and want to give up and transition to male, I will continue to speak out, and encourage them, and tell them to 'look into the background', and that being Female, Dyke, Butch, and looking to our Amazonian Selves, owning our deepest sexuality, our spiritual power AS FEMALES, and connecting with one another, and working towards OUR FULL AND TOTAL LIBERATION AS FEMALES WITHOUT COMPROMISE, is another way to be in the world without copping out and 'becoming a dude', and putting those hormones in their bodies, taking the patriarchy literally within themselves, because they feel so unaccepted without...cuz for a lifetime us Butches have been told 'you just wanna be a dude', or worse 'you just need to be fucked by a dude', or 'you're no woman!' Both men and even straight women treat us like pariahs, gay males often dish us, while surrounded by their faghag feminine woman friends, because we are autonomous and do not cater to their or any other male egos. I have seen it over and over, and I've been in the community a good 31 years...even the most male identified Butches I knew in the past, still had an inkling of female pride and power and DEFENDED women and their sister Dykes.....but now, there's the easy out of hormones and surgeries to overcome that oppression, to circumvent it. And so many right and left are flocking right to it. We've lost much of the liberalism and heady times of the '70's, even the early '80's, and really in many ways things have gotten more and more conservative, and the religious right has ascended in power, with the 'Ex-Gay' movement attacking ANYONE who had a smack of Butchness or effeminacy, and humilating both Lesbians and Gays who didn't 'fit in', while attempting to strip them of their homosexuality.
Megachurches and all the rest of the patriarchal religionists have done so much damage to Dykes, to Butches, and to women. If one looks at the trans movement, as many of us have, as another kind of cult, bringing the youth into it, and convincing them they must have hormones and surgeries to achieve liberation, indeed it's a faux type of liberation that only benefits the psychiatrists, the surgeons and the nonprofits that support them. IT DOES NOTHING TO FURTHER THE LIBERATION OF BUTCH DYKES OR ALL LESBIANS OR EVEN BIO FEMALE WOMEN!!!! IN fact it continues to silence and invisibilize us. So after having our necks stepped on and watching our communities, our bookstores, our dyke and womyn only spaces disappear AND our Butch Sisters, and potential Butch Sisters of the future, no matter WHAT sector of the Dyke community we have been in, it hurts us on a very, very deep level. When I quoted from K.B. the term 'sick', it was in reference to putting on the pressure to transition to young kids, kids who don't know yet who and what they are, but differ from the malestream version of what a good little girl or boy could or should be...and as I mentioned, the toys, the clothes, the activities that girls and boys have to choose from is already sex segregated from practically when they are born...and if you don't 'fit in', then you are deemed 'sick' by the parents, the religionists and the medical/psychiatric/psychological establishment and must be 'cured', i.e. have your hormones blocked, until the age you can get opposite sex hormones to conform to the 'proper sex'. This is not consensual, nor is it liberationist, or feminist of any kind. It continues THE SAME OLD STEREOTYPES, but damages now young bodies, at younger and younger ages.....
IT DOES NOT LIBERATE. If there are folks who want to take hormones and/or have surgeries at age 21, then at least they are at a legal age to make their choice, though I would deem that is still too young to think through all the ramifications, and the damages those hormones and surgeries can do, without giving one the results ultimately they want. IN any case, it continues the erasure of us as Butches and as Dykes..and especially of future Butch Dykes/Lesbians as well....
-In Sisterhood,
-MasterAmazon
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