Yeah that makes sense. Thanks a lot for discussing this with me, it gave me a lot to think about!

I see your point and definitely hope and believe we are on our way to a more inclusionary feminism - as the original article here shows, kids are getting more and more sensitive and openminded. But still, that doesn't mean we can't be, in a caring and careful way, critical about how we change our discourse and…

I didn't mean to imply any and all criticism of anyone speaking ciritically of trans rights is wrong. But I suggest we take people one by one (Burkett is not Daly) and their points one by one (granted Burkett should have been more respectful to Jenner, that doesn't mean she had nothing valuable to say). That's the…

The pattern of uncharitable misreadings may be understandable, but I don't think that makes it a good thing for the liberal community.

Trans rights have gotten a lot of positive attention lately on a wide range of liberal media platforms and that attention is, bit by bit, translating into real change, all of which is definitely a really good thing. And I don't think anyone would be nuts enough to think trans people have it easy.

yes exactly, sexism is the word for it. I wouldn't say Burkett is blaming trans women *as opposed to* the patriarchy. That is just the kind of uncharitable readings I think are not helping this discussion - the article has enough problems without inventing new ones!

Privileged "among lefties", yes. Obviously, in other sectors of the population, not at all. I don't think this editorial will have an effect either way on the people passing bathroom laws. The issue here is more about how to achieve solidarity and mutual respect within the progressive left

Compared to trans women who are perceived as men? Plenty! Such as not getting athletic scholarships, not getting encouraged to play sports in the first place, getting paid less than (those-perceived-as-) men… Of course these won't be universally experienced, but they are still huge barriers to many of those perceived…

I agree and it makes me sad that I don't see these important issues brought up more responsibly. I wonder if part of the problem is that tran-rights enjoy a privileged status right now among lefties that more reasonable-minded people end up not wanting to speak up. A quote from an article on the dangers of pc: "Even a…

awesome, I love the 'they' as singular. It feels so right, and/so is the only gender-neutral term we can hope for soon. Now if we could just figure out all these other languages that have gender built right into their grammar…

most think-pieces feel pretty capricious to me, I thought that was part n parcel of the genre. And I wouldn't say the article was just about validating herself, but about rather all those treated as women since birth. (I'm assuming you're using 'themselves' in the singular sense, referring just to the author? If you…

Really? I thought her claim that Burkett's support of "women-born women" space "only makes sense if you believe that gender is more biological than socially constructed." was an aggressively uncharitable misread. Burkett was obviously pointing out the *social* consequences of being born "woman" as important issues…

I can see the article as an important contribution to a welcome backlash against pc policing. I think it's important that the current celebration of trans-rights not diminish the feminist advances on behalf of those who were perceived/discrimated against as women since birth. There's no need to dismiss trans…

Hm, I assumed you hadn't seen it because your distinction between the poor and middle class made some sense, but didn't correspond at all the show: You wrote that its drama lay in the idea of meeting greedy immediate self-identification fantasies, and that strikes me as patently false, in part for the reasons I…

That's really unfair; the families shown had concrete, identifiable needs. Yes, the parents of one family took their daughters shopping but come on, that was a sweet, gracious indulgence for their teenage kids (who, as far as was shown, didn't even buy anything at whatever second-hand furniture store they visited to…

Well damn I cried the whole way through. Unethical, sure, but moving stuff. I mean pick your battles - we never mention slave-made designer costumes for characters who are supposed to be working class, right?

"It took me 8 months. I had to quit my job." … and all is von mir aus forgiven. https://www.youtube.com/wat… (also funny people but not punch drunk love those sounds made my pudding sour)

Yeah! And that NYT article is no joke, I vividly remember reading it and trying to craft witty ways to bring it up in convo w/ my own cousin … wonder if he watches community? http://www.nytimes.com/2002…