[TW] When women get so desperate ...
Feb. 9th, 2011 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gallinggallaTrigger warning for misogyny and transphobia
... to have a perfect patriarchially-approved body that they undergo dangerous "surgery" by amateurs injecting silicone â that they fly from London, England to Philadelphia, PA, USA and pay said amateurs $2000 USD?
They die.
I want to make clear that the women who obtain these procedures are not responsible for their own deaths or injuries.
I want to make clear that those who run these underground silicone-pumping parlors murdered and assaulted the victims. These underground "surgeons" are feeding off of desperation and making money off of the deaths and injuries of their victims. How can any of these operators possibly live with themselves?
I want to make even more clear that the root of this despicable practice is our cisheterosupremacist society. Cisheterosupremacism denies the fullness of humanity of women and of queer and trans folk of every gender. Cisheterosupremacism reduces us to objects to be molded and shaped to fit standards that have been largely determined by and continue to be enforced by and benefit cissexual heterosexual men. And if we refuse â simply by being queer and/or trans is refusal enough â then our lives are valued even less.
I want to make it clear that many of the women getting these procedures are trans[*]. We, who are often dehumanized by cis women, are even more vulnerable. Maybe it's desperation to be able to pass to avoid harassment, maybe it's because cissexual gatekeepers refuse us hormones or surgery because we're not "trans enough" for them, maybe it's because we can't afford medical treatment, maybe it's because many trans women have no choice but to engage in sex work to survive, and enhancing their breasts, buttocks, and other body parts will improve their ability to attract clients. But in the end, this is the shape of violence committed against us by cisheterosupremacist society.
Remember this: When you make it difficult for trans folk to obtain hormones, you commit an act of violence against us. When you refuse to change the gender on our IDs, or you refuse to hire us, or you try to save us from hell, or you write legislation that discriminates against us, or [TW for extreme transphobia] you refuse to treat us when we're coughing up cupfuls of blood, or you harass us on the street or make tranny she-male jokes, you commit violence against us. Because all of these things drive us into survival sex work, drive us to commit suicide, makes it easier and more convenient for the more violent amongst us to assault us, rape us, murder us.
When you sponsor legislation like HR3 or HR358, when you make pregnant people pay more for abortions, travel farther for abortions, jump through more hoops for abortions; when you deny emergency contraception to victims of rape; when you withhold medically sound information about contraception, reproductive rights, and what consent actually is about from young people; when you tell people with uteri that their[**] lives are disposable through reprehensible legislation like HR358, you commit acts of violence against us.
Because every one of those acts means that more of us will die, more of us will be murdered (including by doctors who refuse to perform a procedure that will save a pregnant person's life), more of us will be assaulted and raped, more of us will despair, more of us will live in grinding poverty and die earlier from preventable causes.
So to those who claim that we shouldn't use the word "violence" to describe acts of discrimination and verbal harassment, keep in mind that these seemingly "non-violent" acts contribute to a climate of violence against marginalized people. The bloke that yelled "guy in a skirt" at me might not have physically assaulted me, but he helped to create a climate where other people will find it easier to commit transphobic violence against me. The Democrats and Republicans who sponsored HR3 might not have blown up abortion clinics, but they are helping create a climate that encourages such violence.
So, I don't want to hear that HR3 and HR358 aren't acts of violence against women, trans men, and other CAFAB trans folk.
[*] So are many of the women doing the pumping. The fact that they are trans ABSOLUTELY does not make what they're doing any reprehensible. But the fact that they are identified as "men" or "transgender men" in mainstream newspapers is yet another act of violence against trans* folk.
[**] I don't have a uterus.
... to have a perfect patriarchially-approved body that they undergo dangerous "surgery" by amateurs injecting silicone â that they fly from London, England to Philadelphia, PA, USA and pay said amateurs $2000 USD?
They die.
I want to make clear that the women who obtain these procedures are not responsible for their own deaths or injuries.
I want to make clear that those who run these underground silicone-pumping parlors murdered and assaulted the victims. These underground "surgeons" are feeding off of desperation and making money off of the deaths and injuries of their victims. How can any of these operators possibly live with themselves?
I want to make even more clear that the root of this despicable practice is our cisheterosupremacist society. Cisheterosupremacism denies the fullness of humanity of women and of queer and trans folk of every gender. Cisheterosupremacism reduces us to objects to be molded and shaped to fit standards that have been largely determined by and continue to be enforced by and benefit cissexual heterosexual men. And if we refuse â simply by being queer and/or trans is refusal enough â then our lives are valued even less.
I want to make it clear that many of the women getting these procedures are trans[*]. We, who are often dehumanized by cis women, are even more vulnerable. Maybe it's desperation to be able to pass to avoid harassment, maybe it's because cissexual gatekeepers refuse us hormones or surgery because we're not "trans enough" for them, maybe it's because we can't afford medical treatment, maybe it's because many trans women have no choice but to engage in sex work to survive, and enhancing their breasts, buttocks, and other body parts will improve their ability to attract clients. But in the end, this is the shape of violence committed against us by cisheterosupremacist society.
Remember this: When you make it difficult for trans folk to obtain hormones, you commit an act of violence against us. When you refuse to change the gender on our IDs, or you refuse to hire us, or you try to save us from hell, or you write legislation that discriminates against us, or [TW for extreme transphobia] you refuse to treat us when we're coughing up cupfuls of blood, or you harass us on the street or make tranny she-male jokes, you commit violence against us. Because all of these things drive us into survival sex work, drive us to commit suicide, makes it easier and more convenient for the more violent amongst us to assault us, rape us, murder us.
When you sponsor legislation like HR3 or HR358, when you make pregnant people pay more for abortions, travel farther for abortions, jump through more hoops for abortions; when you deny emergency contraception to victims of rape; when you withhold medically sound information about contraception, reproductive rights, and what consent actually is about from young people; when you tell people with uteri that their[**] lives are disposable through reprehensible legislation like HR358, you commit acts of violence against us.
Because every one of those acts means that more of us will die, more of us will be murdered (including by doctors who refuse to perform a procedure that will save a pregnant person's life), more of us will be assaulted and raped, more of us will despair, more of us will live in grinding poverty and die earlier from preventable causes.
So to those who claim that we shouldn't use the word "violence" to describe acts of discrimination and verbal harassment, keep in mind that these seemingly "non-violent" acts contribute to a climate of violence against marginalized people. The bloke that yelled "guy in a skirt" at me might not have physically assaulted me, but he helped to create a climate where other people will find it easier to commit transphobic violence against me. The Democrats and Republicans who sponsored HR3 might not have blown up abortion clinics, but they are helping create a climate that encourages such violence.
So, I don't want to hear that HR3 and HR358 aren't acts of violence against women, trans men, and other CAFAB trans folk.
[*] So are many of the women doing the pumping. The fact that they are trans ABSOLUTELY does not make what they're doing any reprehensible. But the fact that they are identified as "men" or "transgender men" in mainstream newspapers is yet another act of violence against trans* folk.
[**] I don't have a uterus.