"The male body (the penis in particular) represent WAY too much awful shit for women to once again force itself upon them in a vulnerable female space"

I think the problem there is that they are making assumptions about the identity experiences of a diverse group of people, and using that to rationalize their exclusion. At the very least it's stereotyping and being insular, and at the worst it's hard for me to see it as much other than transphobia.

I suppose that's true. On the plus side, the gender clinic system got dismantled and access to care has gotten easier - in many cases, much easier than in other countries with dedicated clinics.

Has it been settled in medical fields?

The thing is - in my own experiences, TERFs have not been a tiny, discredited minority. I was yelled off of a stage by protesting TERF Womens' Studies *faculty* at a liberal, west-coast university (I was part of a group doing LGBT education and outreach and my very existence was just too controversial).

Hah, that's cool.

Hormones do change skin moisture significantly, and they can affect nail strength.

I think the costs of HRT are lower than that, at least for oral or injectable regimens. I used to help trans youth who didn't necessarily have insurance, and we found that a reasonable regimen usually ran around $50-60/mo after finding a pharmacy with low prices (Costco was great for this). That said, bloodwork and…

It's similar with me - I suppose you could say that I see "trans" as something that I survived, but it's not really how I want to be seen by the world at large. I transitioned and while I can speak to issues that surround those of us who did...in my day to day life I'm a cis-appearing woman and get a nice bit of…

I've never heard a trans woman use that term. Drag queens, yes - but not transsexual women. I think finnickfiend is overreaching here, and I'm tired of being tarred with the same brush. Most of us are not sexist and we try our hardest to not be self-loathing, though it's all too easy to internalize societal…

This was beautifully put.

At the risk of being offensive: stop. I have been objectified for being trans, and I have been objectified for being a cis-perceived woman. There is a vast difference in both degree and what people assume.

I'm active in the queer community and have a lot of trans women in my social group, and I also follow the careers of trans celebrities. I've noticed many (not all) trans women present themselves in a stereotypically "hyperfeminine" style, with glamorous hair, makeup, tight dresses, high heels etc. Obviously there are…

the latter should not be surprised when people want to talk in detail about the very thing they are using as their "look at me!" gambit.

This is so, so true.

Yeah!

This thread gives me a lot of hope. :)

I think the thing to keep in mind is that trans women weren't socialized as cis men, either. Growing up, society sends a lot of messages to "men" and to "women", and if someone views themselves as both or neither or more of one than the other then those messages still hit home, regardless of how that person looks on…

Don't feel too bad - there were not a lot of trans feminist works out there until the last 10-15 years. That's not to say that there weren't a lot of feminist trans people out there, but there were few in academia (so not a lot of papers from our perspective) and what we thought on the subject wasn't really…

I try - I used to do activism and education around gender diversity. If you're ever interested in hearing more, there are some really good threads that come up on groupthink.jezebel.com regarding trans issues that have both trans people and their friends and partners commenting in them.