Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Germaine Greer: Transgender women are 'not women'

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34625512

BBC News/24 October 2015 Last updated at 09:27 BST

"Australian-born academic and writer Germaine Greer has said that in her opinion, transgender women are "not women"."

I'm not sure what's more surprising to me: that Germaine Greer is still around, or that she thinks anyone gives a toss about what she has to say on the subject of trans women. I think it's pretty clear that she's wildly, wilfully uneducated on the subject. Like her weird tear about how no trans women want uteruses -- five minutes on this site would prove her to be completely wrong. But I don't think she's interested in confronting her ignorance.

I saw this earlier in a different place.  I wish I could say I don't care or just simply dismiss her as a TERF.

But the truth is that it hurts everytime I read things like this. 

I know what I was born as.  I know what my DNA is.  I know what body parts are.  I also know what I have always felt to be true regardless of all that and regardless of everything I have ever done to make it go away.

Is it too much to ask just to be left alone to seek peace?  Why do they take such satisfaction in knocking us down and grinding our faces into the sand? 

I know I'm different and I hate it.  I just want peace but they just slap us over and over trying to deny us that peace.

I try to resist but things like this tug at me to fall back into the putrid pit of hatred.  Not hatred of myself but hatred of humanity.

There, I feel better having gotten that out.


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Cardiff uni facing calls to ban feminist author Germaine Greer over

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/10/23/cardiff-uni-facing-calls-to-ban-feminist-author-germaine-greer-over-trans-comments/

Pink News/By Nick Duffy  10/23/2015

"Trans activists at Cardiff University are calling for a talk from feminist author Germaine Greer to be blocked, because of comments she has made about trans people.
The feminist commentator is due to give a talk at the university on November 18 on for a talk titled 'Women & Power: The Lessons of the 20th Century'.
However, the university is facing calls to scrap the event, from the Women's Officer for Cardiff University Student Union Rachael Melhuish."

She's just another hateful person who's able to spout their venom in the media. The more the movement advances she'll crawl back under a rock.

Ms. Greer, I have a message for you:

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.nydailynews.com%2Fpolopoly_fs%2F1.1814426%21%2Fimg%2FhttpImage%2Fimage.jpg_gen%2Fderivatives%2Farticle_635%2Faptopix-thailand-politics.jpg&hash=f0148b660e68b5c971bf1c895c51c74a66de006b)

As we used to say in grade school, read between the lines!!!

Please remain civil and remember ToS 10. Ive already removed one post, and if this continues I will lock this thread.

I think we should probably have more compassion for someone who missed their moment...

Anyone who read the female Eunuch in the early 70's as I did, cannot have failed to pick up the profound disappointment and indeed perhaps almost revulsion at having been born female that the writing powerfully expresses...

Sound familiar to anyone? It certainly should to 50% of this site.

I honestly think that may be her dark truth - that she was never comfortable with her own perceived gender and yet, for whatever reason, could not or would not pursue the logical solution to that.

I also think that she merely plays with words. Her opinions may be correct when interpreted through her system of meaning and values. It does not have to change what I think, or what you think, or indeed threaten us, unless your secret dark fear is that she might be correct... In which case may I gently suggest that you probably have bigger problems than the opinions of Germaine - whom, incidentally, I have had the pleasure of meeting on a previous occasion.

I don't fear her opinion of me. I know she is wrong, and therefore I can neither hate her, nor will I argue with her. Rather I feel compassion for her pain and confusion.

I'd really like to ask people to be civil. As a news poster I really like to get information out so we can understand better. I've had posts taken down and locked because we let our feelings get out of control. We need information from all angles to understand. We cannot move forward as a community if we blind ourselves to ideas right or wrong , ignorant or intelligent. Thanks

I would like to believe that I don't care what anyone thinks.  But that really isn't true.  I am human.  Humans are social.  Being branded with all sorts of negative labels by society does affect me. 

It does not cause me to question myself but it nevertheless makes me feel bad.


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bigotry is painful to the one on the receiving end. I shudder when I walk by a group of people hanging around a street corner at night not knowing how they see a transgender. I know so well now what discrimination feels like. I grew up in a middle class white neighborhood never feeling the pain. I know now while transitioning how dangerous ideas can become . The other article is about a group of students fighting back against blind hatred. 20 years ago we probably wouldn't of seen a backlash against bigotry and ignorance against us , but it is changing.

I'm not entirely sure why second-wave feminism is still relevant? Maybe it's a cry for attention. Even if it's not, it's still working.

As someone who has been the target of sexist bigotry you'd think she'd know better. The deeper issue though appears to be that she has a lot of contempt for men in general, and because we were genetically born/assigned male she just sees transwomen as "male interlopers into female space who use their socialised male privilege to demand rights over and above genetic women". Yelling abuse and obscenities at her only strengthens this "theory" for her (since that's what chauvinists were doing in the '70s) which is why I prefer to ignore her and her hate. Trying to get her banned from speaking at the university is, I feel, a good way of demonstrating that her attitudes are not welcome (even if, as she claims, she wasn't going to speak about that anyway).

Quote from: Ms Grace on October 24, 2015, 06:21:49 PM
Trying to get her banned from speaking at the university is, I feel, a good way of demonstrating that her attitudes are not welcome (even if, as she claims, she wasn't going to speak about that anyway).

not only not welcome but also not welcome among the people she supposedly speaks for - I'm pretty sure there will be cis women signing that petition.

Always remember, everyone, most of these people who are anti-trans are simply uneducated about us.


In a survey of 4500 American adults which was done back in the year 2013, only 9 percent of survey respondents reported having a close friend or family member who is transgender. NINE percent. (Odds are that in reality that number is much much higher, that many people aren't even aware that a certain friend of their is trans, but still, only 9 percent are consciously aware that a close friend is trans.) That means that absolutely everyone else who is offering their bulls*** opinions, over 90 percent of the people who are weighing in on whether we are legitimate and whether we have a right to be who we know we are or not, don't really know a transgender person personally.

Which means they don't know what we're actually like.

In other words, don't take these opinions too seriously.

We can have a tendency to automatically assume that everyone knows what they're talking about, and therefore feel insulted by this person's opinions that transgender women don't act like women to her judgment...

Well, the odds are that she's making a COMPLETELY baseless opinion based on nothing. The odds are that she's never even met a transgender person in full knowledge.

Therefore she's just making up whatever assumptions about trans people she wants based on her own biases.

Don't take it too personally.

Although it seems like hate speech to me, I'm glad people are doing these seemingly stupid things. The backlash is tremendous these days and it only cements our place in society. So Ms. Greer, spout off please!

Cindi

Germaine Greer will not give Cardiff University lecture because of abuse over views on transgender people

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/germaine-greer-will-not-give-cardiff-university-lecture-because-of-abuse-over-views-on-transgender-a6707236.html

The Independent/Lizzie Dearden |
12 hours  ago|

James Dawson: Author set to be transitioned into a woman defends Germaine Greer over transgender comments

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/james-dawson-author-set-to-be-transitioned-into-a-woman-urges-people-not-to-demonise-germaine-greer-a6707531.html

The Independent/Ian Johnston |
4 hours  ago|

"However, he added that Greer's book The Female Eunuch was a "classic of our time" and her previous good work should not be forgotten."

If you've already had a post deleted from a thread for bashing, going back and posting another is not particularly wise. This thread is locked.