Transgender Paradoxes đŸ‘»

Talking with terfs, transphobes and/or other assorted bigots about what it means to be trans or gender diverse is often like playing logical whack-a-mole. I thought it might be useful to build up a list of trans paradoxes to help readers combat shifty logic in conversations that they might encounter.

This page will be tweaked and updated from time to time as I encounter painfully notable eye rolling moments.

Trigger warning: if you experience negative emotions when you read this page, I suggest you google “cognitive dissonance”.

  1. Trans women are apparently simultaneously both failed ‘male’ athletes but also winning all of the female prizes and sports, or at least preventing cis women from competing (my hockey team usually doesn’t have enough players so that is a lie). This paradox presupposes that male athletes are at least an order of magnitude more accomplished than female athletes. I, and many others, believe that this paradox is rooted in internalised misogyny. Cis women aren’t necessarily lesser sporters … often it comes down to shitty publicity where their achievements are not trumpeted. There are many examples when female athletes have bettered their male counterparts. I’ll start you off … google Fiona Kolbinger for example. I bet if you put your mind to it you will find more examples of cis women bettering cis men than you will examples of trans women bettering cis women.
  2. Many terfs, transphobes and bigots are quite vocal in arguing that “transgender athletes” (which in their world is code for trans women) should not be competing in sport against cisgender female athletes due to the “massive advantages” conferred on them by male puberty. To the uninitiated this may sound like an arguable point, yet those same terfs, transphobes and bigots usually passionately argue in other conversations that trans teens should be routinely denied puberty blockers, therefore forcing them through an unwanted male puberty, thus ultimately denying them the ability to play in female sports. A two pronged approach that is intended to permanently prevent trans women from ever playing sport with their friends … and yes, when someone mounts these arguments to you, they almost certainly are referring to community sport as well as elite sport. As an aside … there is no across the board, in every sport, in every position, in every team sport innate advantage for trans women … does anybody seriously think that Laurel Hubbard, a 185cm tall weightlifter weighing 147kg could play competitive women’s hockey for example, let alone for a national team? Hockey players are best when nimble and agile. Each body, cis or trans, male or female, has it’s own innate sporting advantage.
  3. Insults hurled at trans women by terfs, transphobes and bigots are nearly always indistinguishable from those hurled by cis female bullies at other cis women. Every time one of these insults is hurled at me I wince because it does hurt, but I also remember to smile on the inside because deep down, the bullies are repeatedly proving to me that they do know I AM a woman and that deep down they still think that there is only one way to be a woman. Newsflash: those days are now where they should have always been … in the bin.
    1. you aren’t pretty enough
    2. you aren’t petite enough
    3. you aren’t sweet enough
    4. your hair isn’t voluminous enough
    5. your muscles are too bulky
    6. you have more than no facial hair
    7. you aren’t feminine enough
    8. you are mentally ill
    9. you don’t spend enough time daily on your presentation
    10. your clothes aren’t feminine enough
    11. you dress like a whore
    12. you don’t have a female figure
    13. you aren’t demure enough
    14. you are too bossy
    15. nobody likes you
  4. Trans people as a cohort are often accused by some of being utterly unfuckable while at the same time trans women are being fetishised in private by a cohort of cis men (the so-called “chasers”) that haven’t yet come to terms with the fact that being attracted to trans women does not make them a pervert. 

 

Plus ça change, plus c’est la mĂȘme chose. Ou est-ce vraiment vraie?

 

  • Riparian zone: the land that occurs along the edges of rivers, streams, lakes, and other water bodies that may be submerged during flood
  • Purgatory: the place (in Catholicism) where sins are punished after death and where a soul is purified before it can go to Heaven
  • Puberty: the process of physical maturation where an adolescent reaches sexual maturity
  • Second age: the second era of one’s life after childhood and adolescence (the first age) but before retirement (the third age)
  • Progression: the process of developing or moving gradually towards a more advanced state
  • Intertidal zone: the area above water level at low tide that is underwater at high tide
  • Interstitial space: the fluid-filled spaces between blood vessels and cells
  • Waiting room: part of a building or a room where people sit or stand until the event or appointment for which they are waiting begins
  • Halfway house: a place where people who have recently left a prison, mental hospital, etc., can live until they are considered ready to live by themselves
  • Hibernation: a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species most usually during the colder months
  • Hypnagogic state: a transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep, in which sensory perceptions can be experienced
  • Buffer zone: an area of land that separates two other areas that is designed to prevent fighting or harm coming to something or someone
  • Interstitial fluid: the fluid that fills interstitial space
  • Regression: a return to a former or less developed state
  • Gender transition (sometimes called second puberty): the process of changing one’s gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one’s internal sense of gender
  • Holding pattern: the flight path maintained by an aircraft awaiting permission to land
  • Limbo: a state of uncertainty
  • Eye: a region of mostly calm weather at the centre of tropical cyclones
  • Demilitarised zone: an area in which treaties or agreements between states, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel
  • Lobby: a room providing a space out of which one or more other rooms or corridors lead, typically one near the entrance of a public building
  • Lull: a period of quiet or calm in a longer period of activity or excitement
  • Migration: the movement from one part of something to another, usually for a purpose
  • Adjournment: a temporary stopping of a trial, hearing, enquiry, or other meeting, whether for a comfort stop, lunch, a new day or when the hearing has concluded

 

Is there a name that describes the period of time between a hearing and the associated judgement? If there isn’t there really, really should be. It appears to have the emotional viscosity of claggy, unenthusiastic custard. Without any warm sticky date pudding to sweeten the deal.

BroadAgenda: Trans people welcomed into community sport despite online vitriol

“Most people will be forgiven for not realising that the Australian Sports Commission published their Transgender & Gender-Diverse Inclusion Guidelines for HP Sport last week.

This is occurring four years after they partnered with the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports to develop and publish Guidelines for the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse people in sport.

What most people probably did notice was yet another week in a seemingly unending wave train of ill- and mis-informed opinions in a sea of hate – they just may not have realised that there was a new catalyst.”

I was honoured to be asked for my thoughts on the participation by trans people in sports by BroadAgenda recently … mostly because the majority of people involved in the discussion are cis people relying on second hand misinformation to inform their opinions. Anyway, here are my thoughts.