The DWR Feminist Quote of the Day – The State of Transactvism – ‘Total Disregard’ on the Feminist Current

“I’m not a straight girl, I’m an AFAB demisexual heteroromantic aporagender demigirl, and I’ll prove it by replacing my entire collection of makeup, accessories, and clothing with more excessive amounts of more expensive versions.”

Well, there is no question that there’s money to be made by the way of surgeries, medications, and psych appointments by the American for-profit health care system with regards to transitioning. Not to mention the consumerist component to gender that’s been around to decades – created and profited from by men who have long dominated the fashion and make up industries. But this is all so obvious already – like shooting fish in a barrel.

However I found it interesting that this poster chose to mock AFABs (a radical feminist term), a.k.a. actual women over the outdated stereotype that goes “har har, women are stupid and vapid because they wear make up and think about fashion.” Nevermind that the whole lipstick issue has been debated to death by feminists already, which conveniently takes the focus off the fact that political power is dominated by white Christian men who demand that women behave like craven, shuffling, overfeminized slaves complete with high heels and clothes that restrict that freedom of movement I mean hobbling devices.

This also reminds me of men who sneered down their nose at the Women’s March because some participants went shopping for a rug afterward. What passes for anti-classism dialogue seems more like a sexist reaction to women spending money. Notice how it’s never men who are criticized for wasting gross amounts of money on status symbols like sports cars, owning multiple McMansions, luxurious dinners at 5 star restaurants, or shamelessly expensive cuff links. Maybe they should just be honest and admit that they can’t stand the idea of women having any kind of power, not just consumer power but ANY form of currency (like pretty privilege) that could translate as having any kind of influence in society. Isn’t that the chief complaint among men these days – that women use their looks to get ahead, therefore women should STFU even though women were forced to resort to base methods that prop up men’s privilege in the long run? So sure, let’s sit around and talk shit about women wasting money on make up while men are busy gambling away America’s wealth on Wall Street. Again. Uh huh.

And let’s not forget that it’s men who used identity politics to tell women to STFU in the first place. It was men who decided that every other form of oppression was more important than sexism, and that a woman can’t be taken seriously unless she’s doubly and triply oppressed; thus setting the stage for the avalanche of microidentities and having a choice between 250,000 genders and sexual expressions. Well shit, I guess this falls under the category of “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” They wanted to ruin feminist dialogue with their scorched earth trolling, I guess they better get used to the “new normal” they themselves created.

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@LTC, simple and reality based is definitely the way to go. Women are disproportionately poor, face more obstacles getting high school and college educations (due to pregnancy, trafficking, ect), and many come from religious backgrounds where intellectualism is frowned on. The way I see it, if my narrative isn’t accessible to the women who need it most, there’s just no point. I can’t think of a good reason why the poster replaced the word “intersectional” (a word that is widely used and understood across all demographics) with algebraic terminology (?).

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