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I am trying to understand the standard policy on transphobia in online LGBT communities - that making a distinction between women and transwomen is transphobic and as a consequence results in a ban. At present, it is utterly bizarre to me, grotesque even, but I'll try to charitably present their position. Here is a paragraph explaining the rules of the lesbian subreddit, which is in line with most subreddits and forums I've been researching:
There's also an elaboration that since not all transwomen have a penis, and since not all transwomen can easily be detected as having male features, then saying that you are categorically opposed to dating transwomen (because of either a penis or male features) makes you a transphobe.
So their argument is that since (1) there are some transwomen who are physically indistinguishable from women, and (2) there are also women who cannot get pregnant but you would have no problem dating, then (3) your prejudice towards transwomen must be based on the principle that women and transwomen are ontologically different, and therefore this makes you a transphobe.
The main objection here is that there are in fact zero transwomen who are indistinguishable from women with a womb. The paragraph above was written by a transwoman and is, to me, wishful thinking. They link to an Instagram of a transwoman who is supposed to illustrate how women-like their appearance can be, but even with the best filters and makeup there is something off about them, and in person this would be easily spotted. Even if there are some who would realistically pass a first-impression test, their body (hips, jaw, Adam's apple, "vagina", body odor) would soon give them away, and possibly also their behavior would seem incongruent. And all of this is based on the premise that people's sexual preference are based on formal logic as opposed to general trends in a group's appearance - most transwomen are not even close to passing and that's why many men have a categorical aversion to transwomen.
I tried asking this question on a few different subreddits but my post doesn't even show up and I received one ban as well, so here I am. Can anyone try to justify the transphobia policy above?
@aqouta more or less has the right of it.
Trans communities have a vested interest in avoiding dysphoria. That usually includes a level of politeness which you might describe as “playing along,” just like any other social interaction. I’m not going to tell my cousin that his career choice is stupid, or my friend that her boyfriend is an asshole. Not without an invitation to frank and probably-painful discussion. Trans communities are generally not giving that invitation.
It’s hard to talk about these dynamics without bringing up “triggers” or “safe spaces” and their legitimacy. There’s a reason gender politics has aligned so well with Internet leftism. The steelman, there, is that trans people have the right to associate with those who will accept a certain brand of politeness. (And yes, there is equivocation between lacking the power to extend that space of acceptance and having the right to do so, but that’s kind of beside the point.)
Your observations about edge cases, Chinese robbers, and general motte-and-bailey are downstream of accepting this premise. Like every other social dynamic, politeness invites rationalization, if only to deal with outsiders. And like every sexual dynamic, saying basically anything without dissembling is gauche.
Given the colonizing tendencies of that specific type of ideology (as a catch-all term for a world view with accompanying social norms and modes of enforcement), I don't think the freedom-of-association argument holds much water here. Keep in mind that the above quote was scrapped from what was originally a meeting place for lesbians.
Now I can't help but feel an immense amount of Schadenfreude that the identity group that has historically been the main driving force behind authoritarian progressivism and all its underhanded, discourse-destroying memes - namely, white upperclass women [1] - is finally getting a taste of that particular medicine now that the T faction has gained cultural traction. But if I step once again behind the veil of ignorance, the behaviour reminds me more of Albrecht Gessler rather than somebody genuinely concerned with politeness.
[1]NAWUCWALT [2], of course, but if I have learned one thing from identity politics over the course of the last two decades, it's that it doesn't matter.
[2] Not All Upperclass White Women Are Like That. Some, I assume, are good people.
The group in question here is lesbians, though, not heterosexual WUCW. It's not a coincidence that political progressivism has started policing who lesbians have sex with and not the broader group of WUCW.
WUCW are affected via the loss of privilges in other areas though. Exclusive sports leagues, for example.
And hopefully, soon, the erosion of female-exclusives scholarships, mentorship programmes, preferential hiring practices, etc. But I fear the straw fire that is the T debate will burn out before it comes to that on a larger scale.
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