Joe Biden started off his presidency with a bang on Wednesday, signing more than a dozen executive orders unwinding some of the terrible policies Trump foisted on the country, on issues ranging from COVID to climate change to trans rights.
It’s that last one that’s got the TERFs in a tizzy. The executive order in question, as the New York Times put it,
reinforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require that the federal government does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, a policy that reverses action by Mr. Trump’s administration.
Jezebel had this to add:
Meant to tackle “discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation,” Biden’s executive order essentially calls on federal agencies to broadly apply last year’s landmark Bostock ruling, which expanded the definition of sex discrimination to include discrimination based on sexual orientation as well as gender identity. Notably, the executive order included the line, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” and stated that Bostock should also apply to Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination in federally funded schools.
On Twitter, TERFs and assorted other transphobes quickly got a hashtag going, claiming that Biden had somehow “erased women” with the executive order extending basic rights to trans people. I couldn’t find anyone in the hashtag explaining clearly how giving trans people basic protections is a blow to so-called “real women.”
Some were a good deal less polite:
The hashtag also attracted a veritable army of trolls and reactionaries who weren’t so careful about hiding their transphobia — or their homophobic, or their racism.
Some criticized Biden for giving in to “wokeness,” a favorite right-wing epithet for anything vaguely progressive.
Happily, though, the hashtag was quickly overwhelmed with rebuttals of TERF illogic and celebrations of trans rights. By the time I got to the hashtag this afternoon, there were perhaps three pro-trans tweets for every bigoted one.
But in some ways the most heartening tweet was this one:
Celebrate this victory; fuck the haters.
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@Ohlmann I must admit this didn’t occur to me, probably because science-y sounding stuff always seems more impressive to my brain than other alternatives (and I’m going to level with you here, that’s because I don’t understand it to the extent that it seems like magic).
Also to clarify this was very much only in contention for elite sports where fractions of a second can make a difference to whether you win or not, just in case it sounded like I think schools should have to go through that kind of process.
@moregeekthan
Exactly. Most accommodations for LGBTQ+ rights benefit everyone, and it’s only bigots who are upset.
@Elaine the Witch
I love how you put things and agree with what you said and your awesome expressiveness of it.
Looking at their tweets, it’s clear that they think being a woman comes down to having a vagina, and that woman’s rights come from having a vagina, not from being a human. It’s grotesquely reductive.
@LindsayIrene
Meanwhile they also object to being referred to as “people with vaginas” or “people with uteruses” which implies that they don’t think women are people.
@LindsayIrene
I’ve noticed they can lean really far in the Earth Mother, divine feminine direction, with a massive focus on childbirth and rearing. For example, I’ve seen them get heated over the idea of cesareans (in a judging-other-women way) because apparently it’s not ‘natural’, doctors interfere with the process and you should just let your innate female power guide you through the birth experience. Which considering in the small sample set of my friends and family, five of them definitely would have died or nearly died during birth without medical intervention, always p*sses me off.
But then I guess obsessing over wombs, excluding and judging other women and hating on their freely made choices is entirely their focus, because feminism.
Pfft, these people have never seen me struggle to open a fucking jar. Like, what do they think makes “male bodies” stronger? (It’s the testosterone, aka the hormone I’ve had miniscule levels of for two years)
@LollyPop
Yeah, as soon as I hear someone start blathering about the Divine Feminine, I know there’s gonna be some bullshit.
Whenever I hear terms like “Divine Feminine,” I know pseudo-history straight out of Marija Gimbutas and Margaret Murray can’t be far behind.
Re: Divine Feminine
The TERF who goes the deepest into this is Nina Paley, an artist who has gone hard into both goddess worship and transphobia, and makes the very bizarre claim that trans women are “colonizing” womanhood, demonstrating she doesn’t know what colonialism is (and is really insensitive, because a) she’s white and b) colonists killed trans and non-binary people around the world).
The modern idea of a divine feminine strikes me as generally antifeminist, because it implies that women must be feminine to be women and that femininity is somehow pure and holy, the ultimate pedestalization. As well, it usually suggests that being a woman is defined by giving birth and raising children, which is obviously a misogynistic idea. At least, it certainly isn’t feminist.
@Bakunin
It’s also really misogynistic that every transphobe seems to think that AFAB people are always inferior compared to AMAB people. Like, I am pre-HRT and I know cis women who are significantly stronger and more athletic than I’ve ever been.
@Naglfar
I’m reminded of the British poll that found that something like 70% of the male respondents thought they could defeat Serena Williams in a tennis match. TERFs seem to think that this is reasonable.
@Allandrel
Indeed, I’ve heard so-called “feminists” insist that the weakest man will beat the strongest woman at any sport any day, when this just doesn’t seem to be the reality (and is very antifeminist).
I was recently listening to an episode of the podcast Gymcastic that interviewed a gymnastics coach who shared (with the gymnast’s permission) his experience of coaching a gymnast through her transition. She very clearly didn’t gain an advantage over the cis girls in her gym. In fact, it was the opposite. As she medically transitioned, she became very injury prone and her progress in the sport was halted for a time as she had to adjust to her changing body and had some injuries.
If anyone’s interested in hearing the interview, which is really great and in depth, let me know and I’ll find the link.
I have some bad news for you if you eat shellfish, or wear mixed fabrics.
Speaking of transphobes, there seems to be a subset of them – febfems. Bisexual women who will only date people with vaginas and otherwise hold TERF views. So far they’re only on Reddit and Tumblr.
I can’t believe I’m typing, but confronting ignorance is more important than my desire to swear off commenting here….
You have no idea what you are talking about. Muscle mass by definition is just that: muscle.
Sit down and shut the hell up with your ignorant sexism.
/cis female veteran/intermediate lifter who has had ample opportunity to demonstrate in and out of the gym, yeah, I am as strong…in some cases stronger…than a man my size.
It’s training, stupid. No amount of hormones will do jack if you don’t use it. Maybe you should find a real live woman who has trained with men to talk to.
FYI is correct. All else being equal*, a woman generally has slightly less muscle mass than a man of the same weight, for reasons related to hormonal effects on bodyfat distribution, but compensating for that slight difference, everyone’s on an equal footing, muscle wise.
*Which they very rarely are, AFAB people are strongly socially discouraged from both formal and informal athletic endeavors and thus typically enter adulthood with noticeably lighter bones and less muscle mass than their AMAB agemates.
This is reminding me of the men who played tennis in high school, haven’t played seriously in years, but believe they could hold their own against Serena Williams.
@ Vicky P
At least Bobby Riggs had a sense of humour about it; and was gracious in defeat when she thrashed him.
(I only found out recently they were actually really good friends)
@FYI, @Dalillama
THANK YOU, seriously. I wanted to question Richard on that because it sounded biologically dubious, but also didn’t feel confident enough in my own bio/med knowledge? Plus this entire area of Reality is a huge trigger for me because reasons. Anyway yeah it’s like… extremely good to see Hollywood biology like that get debunked, seeing how (I’ve probably said this before) it’s so hard to remember sometimes that this is Hollywood shit, and men aren’t invincible in practice.
Re: trans fem strength particularly
So one thing I feel like is underappreciated is size. From personal experience, having an advantage in size and mass can be a big deal… though also that personal experience was more negligent/clumsy hurtfulness than deliberate physical abuse, and absolutely not any kind of sports deal, so IDK. But anyway yeah, I’ve had some rough times with partners who were physically bigger/heavier than me but not necessarily stronger; and also my own physical size advantage is part of why I’m uncomfortable dating much smaller cis women.
@Cyborgette
Size and mass are also major factors in many kinds of physical competition, yeah. I can speak from experience there, I spent a lotta time in martial arts when I was young and skinny. Unless the smaller person is vastly more skilled than the bigger one, an unarmed fight between someone who weighs 140 lbs and someone who weighs 300 lbs goes really fucking badly for the smaller party.
@rv97:
Speaking of transphobes, there seems to be a subset of them – febfems. Bisexual women who will only date people with vaginas and otherwise hold TERF views. So far they’re only on Reddit and Tumblr.
Okay, this is a new one on me: does this mean that febfems will date cis women and trans people with vaginas, or only the former?
@Full Metal Ox
From my (limited) experience, febfems claim they will date trans men and AFAB non-binary people, though I highly doubt many trans men or non-binary people would want to date someone who constantly misgenders them.
@Lollypop –
Kind of narrowing their pool of potential cis allies, aren’t they? As if massive unfairness and false representations of science weren’t enough.
I haven’t had a C-section but I was born by an emergency one. Otherwise I’d probably have died, since the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around my neck. It’s fairly rare but it does happen.
@rv97 –
Oh, lovely :/
I mean, you can still be bi while having a sexual/romantic preference for one gender, that’s not a problem, but to make it a TERF thing…ugh.
@Dalillama – Yeah, that’s why I like climbing! I was quite active as a kid, but I wasn’t “good” at team sports and races, being short and skinny. But that didn’t matter so much with climbing, which I did on ropes, trees, climbing walls… I’d also freak my parents out by shimmying up to the top of swing sets and sitting on the bar at the top 😀
I’m personally triply ticked off at the “no caesarian terfs” because 1) a lovely girl I’ve known most of her life 2) who was AMAB 3) was born that way in such a hurry that her mom didn’t even get anesthesia, just a quick nerve block.
I’ve always felt that trans women were women. I mean, they’re deliberately giving up male privilege! That’s brave. That’s *earning* the womanhood I was born with. And nothing to do with vaginas. Welcome to the club, sister. I don’t feel erased, I feel augmented.
If a trans kid wants to play on the girls’ team, fine. It’s not like junior high sports are the Olympics or the pros.
How many cis males do they expect to suddenly start wearing dresses, taking hormones, and changing behavior just so they might maybe get on a womans’ team? That’s the stuff of wacky sitcoms, not real life.
And every trans* person I’ve ever met of any gender is firmly pro-choice.
Terfs are fascist, period. Whether they’re MAGAts or Earth Mothers, doesn’t matter. The two ends of the spectrum of nuttery have wrapped around and merged.
(And as a woman who never wanted children I got NO time for anyone who thinks I’m lesser for not being a breeder.)
@Elaine the Witch: I love your posts and admire your strength. Hugs.