Keep your Boehner out of my Uterus!: Deferring to my betters: Inclusion in the Reproductive Rights Movement →

14kgoldnyc:

I’m down with all that. 

I think perhaps though that you’re reading what I was critiquing as all about what *you* have stated. There were numerous quotes and other commentary in the original post that all together conveyed to me a message of “this is what we should be dealing with now.” If that’s not what was intended, great—but that’s definitely what I got after reading it a few times, and why I decided to respond in the first place. 

I think most feminist and general women’s rights movements have gotten nowhere in the past thirty years specifically because of the failure to embrace the struggles of PoC and queers. But the post I read sounded like just another privileged White person wanting to claim a specific privilege that was being denied them as a non-cis person because they didn’t want to be excluded… it’s hard for me to express fully, so I’m gonna have to resort to metaphor (sorry…): You know how Dan Savage is basically going around saying “gay is okay, don’t discriminate against me because I’m gay” while in turn being an ableist, misogynistic, racist ass? He’s pissed because there’s this one thing that keeps him from being part of what U.S. society considers normal; discrimination that doesn’t affect him, he happily embraces. He dismisses any oppressions that aren’t his own. The original post read to me as someone wanting to be a part of the women’s choice movement without acknowledging that anti-choicers are specifically discriminating against women, whether or not we agree with that framing. So I found it dismissive of the various oppressions women experience *specifically because they are seen as women*.

I think there’s just confusion now. The original post is a conglomeration of writings by a cis woman of color and a transgender woman writing about inclusivity. They wrote it as reaction to conference they had attended in April where the issue of allies of the trans community was discussed, abortion/repro rights movement being the leading example (this is in all the links but not the parts I quoted). And I posted that today because someone this weekend re-blogged something of mine specifically in order to point out that trans people shouldn’t be mentioned in repro rights movement because trans people are “statistically insignificant.” There has been a lot of fallout/discussion on KYBOOMU over the last day or so because of it.

And Jos and Lori’s point and mine as well (though people just don’t seem to believe us, I guess) is that including trans people in the discussion does NOTHING to deny the fact that the antichoice movement is specifically targeting cis women. None of us at all are dismissive of women’s oppression, the history of that oppression, or the reality of it today. To say that is disingenuous of our motives or the actual impact of including trans people in the discussion of reproductive rights. I think at this point, if someone wants to make that argument, I’m gonna need proof. Please don’t say that to me anymore unless you have concrete evidence of this.

I’m literally fighting to justify a note I add to posts that reminds people that more than just people who identify as “women” need and want access to abortion care. As @RebelGrl4Choice told me yesterday on Twitter, that clearly makes me a “radical inclusionist.” I’ll wear that badge of honor proudly. 

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Y’all - I’m so tired of this discussion. I should just make a page where I include all 400 posts about this so people can peruse them at their leisure when they feel the need to come down on me for my inclusive language. 

Of course, my exhaustion of this discussion doesn’t mean at all that I’m not glad to have it. I am HAPPY to be part of the crowd pushing this issue. I don’t want credit for it or pats on the back, it should just be the thing people do. More than anything, I just wish this conversation wasn’t needed anymore. But, clearly, it is. 

And part of my cis privilege - a HUGE part - is that when I am exhausted by it, I turn my computer off and I walk away. I may fight daily in the kyriarchy to prove my worth as a person because I am a woman. But it’s not my daily reality to fight to justify my overall existence. Inclusive language seems like a small, small thing really.  

I hope this shocks people because it saddens the hell out of me: the thing I get push back from more than anything else on this Tumblr is my acknowledgment and reminder of the trans community (which is what? 2% of my entire Tumblr except during periods like this where it becomes the main focus). I get more prochoicers who write me to complain about my supposed dismissal of women and my supposed focus* on trans people than I do antichoicers who call me a babykiller. I expect the latter. I’m just fucking sad about the former. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

*Let me clarify: the focus of KYBOOMU is neither cis or trans women. It’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy FOR ALL! It’s that fucking inclusive. At least, that’s my goal. 

(via aka14kgold)

1 year ago  /  42 notes  /   / /Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus