You have hit the point exactly. As a trans person, I’m not fighting for the right to obey a different set of social norms than the ones I was assigned at birth.
I’m fighting for the right to not obey gender norms at all, and (relatedly but separately) the right to modify my body to my liking.
In an ideal world, I wouldn’t need to declare myself non religious - I could just not be religious and no one would care. Similarly, in my ideal world “transness” would cease to exist because there would be no expectation of conformity against which I currently stand out by my transgressing them.
Cool. But then isn’t the fight for trans rights sort of the wrong fight? Why not fight directly against all gender stereotypes and inequalities? Which as a progressive 80’s kid, was what I’ve fought for all my life. Dress and act how you like and it shouldn’t have anything to do with what’s between your legs at birth.
Because both matter. It’s a spectrum, and trans rights are just one part of that spectrum: people who feel/identify entirely as though they were born in the wrong body and want to fix that. That is as much their right as those of us who may want to dress and how we like. But there are small-minded people who see that as wrong.
People who have a problem with trans people, will eventually come for those of us who don’t dress or act to fit their stereotype of what our gender should be. They just think it’s easier to scare people about that kind of body modification when we all make choices about hair length, fingernails, piercings, tattoos, etc.
Trans rights are the same rights as my right to paint my fingernails and have long hair as a man. It’s all just bodily autonomy, and there are people like my mother who see both as bad/against God. Give a bigot an inch, and they’ll take a mile.
You have hit the point exactly. As a trans person, I’m not fighting for the right to obey a different set of social norms than the ones I was assigned at birth.
I’m fighting for the right to not obey gender norms at all, and (relatedly but separately) the right to modify my body to my liking.
In an ideal world, I wouldn’t need to declare myself non religious - I could just not be religious and no one would care. Similarly, in my ideal world “transness” would cease to exist because there would be no expectation of conformity against which I currently stand out by my transgressing them.
Cool. But then isn’t the fight for trans rights sort of the wrong fight? Why not fight directly against all gender stereotypes and inequalities? Which as a progressive 80’s kid, was what I’ve fought for all my life. Dress and act how you like and it shouldn’t have anything to do with what’s between your legs at birth.
Because both matter. It’s a spectrum, and trans rights are just one part of that spectrum: people who feel/identify entirely as though they were born in the wrong body and want to fix that. That is as much their right as those of us who may want to dress and how we like. But there are small-minded people who see that as wrong.
People who have a problem with trans people, will eventually come for those of us who don’t dress or act to fit their stereotype of what our gender should be. They just think it’s easier to scare people about that kind of body modification when we all make choices about hair length, fingernails, piercings, tattoos, etc.
Trans rights are the same rights as my right to paint my fingernails and have long hair as a man. It’s all just bodily autonomy, and there are people like my mother who see both as bad/against God. Give a bigot an inch, and they’ll take a mile.
Far.