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Men really need to stop trying to make feminism about them.
The Bloodroot is a small vegan restaurant. Their crime? Having the absolute gall and audacity to state – in a feminist space no less – that they believe in supporting women born women. It is enough of a transgression to bring the trans-hoarde along with the usual threats, cyberbullying, and harassment (typical aggressive male behaviour) that uppity women (in this case two elderly lesbians) get for not bowing down to prescribed male reality.
“Bloodroot Vegetarian Restaurant has been a beloved staple of Bridgeport, Conn. for more than 40 years, serving up feminist-influenced plant-based fare to the likes of Audre Lordre and Adrienne Rich, as well as dedicated locals. But a recent review alleging that owners Selma Miriam and Noel Furie reject transgender customers has set off a firestorm online.
For many, the fallout has echoes of the Michfest debate, which divided LGBTQ women for more than two decades. And while the review has since been removed, it appears in screenshots on Facebook, and Bloodroot’s own statement in response has kept the conversation going.
In the review from late December, a customer writes that upon a visit to Bloodroot, she was having lunch with a friend when she began speaking with Miriam and Furie about up Lorde having been a friend of the restaurant. The conversation turned to the customer’s own dream of having a “queer and trans intentional community and sanctuary.”
“Immediately Selma and Noel looked at one another and Selma said, ‘[W]e strongly believe in supporting only women born women here,” the customer alleges. “‘[W]e are disgusted by men who think they can put on dresses and nail polish and pump themselves up with nail polish and pump themselves with chemicals and say they are women. [T]hey just aren’t. and we will never support them.'”
The customer then she she felt uncomfortable and afraid, and is now advocating that others “refuse to support them and encourage others to do the same.”
Both Miriam and Furie declined to be interviewed for this piece, but in a Dec. 31 statement posted to their Facebook page, Bloodroot says the controversy stemmed from a conversation with a new customer who asked if they knew of an establishment that catered to trans people.
“We didn’t,” the statement reads, “but since we are not trans, it wasn’t all that interesting to us personally and stated that for us, we prefer women only spaces. This comes from our history. When Bloodroot first started in the 70’s [sic] we were trying to create a space specifically safe for women, since there were so few places like that at the time. Of course even back then we were open and welcoming to everyone, not just women.”
The post goes on to say that customer misunderstood that reply and wrote a post online slamming Bloodroot.
“We understand this is a subject matter that many people are passionate about, but we feel this anger is misguided and misplaced,” Bloodroot says in the statement. “Regardless of how you feel about Bloodroot’s stand on this, we will continue to be a welcoming space for all types of people, including those that are transgender, and treat everyone with respect.”
After the Restaurant’s FB post, Charlie Rae answers the call and deftly puts the situation into perspective (especially the last paragraph).
I keep waiting to hear all the amazing goodness that is coming from this ‘gender revolution’ yet you look at it and it the same misogyny as the old misogyny, and would you look at that, even the gender-crew realizes that being male is the only way to personhood in our society and its not something you can ‘identify’ in or out of. Almost like an admission that biological sex is real (funny that statement should be contentious) and despite any grand delusions of gender, is what the world actually fucking runs on.
http://auntiewanda.tumblr.com/post/169016226771/cumbler-tumbler-gender-critical-appspot-some
This is a next level comment on a thread from a post on The Feminist Current titled “If trans activists truly cared about feminism, they would respect women’s spaces”. Simple no? It’s hard to argue with the tagline, although in the comment section the TRA (trans rights activists) are certainly giving it a go, and predictably being shot down as the commentariat over the FC has little time for male delusions, dick, and the entitlement that goes along with it.
I chose this comment because it is so succinct in describing the problems with the trans activists platform.
Thanks DSQL for laying down the truth of the situation. :)
The Vancouver Women’s Library has withstood the siege of entitled males. The need for female only spaces in our society cannot be understated. Women need a place to share their stories and communicate with each other away from male expectations and the male gaze. When I speak with younger women, I despair because they often know nothing about their revolutionary sisters in history, and sadly even less about feminist theory and praxis. This dearth of knowledge and, more importantly, the transfer of knowledge is not a bug in our society, but rather a feature.
Standing on the shoulders of those that came before you, is how any set of ideas progresses and evolves through time. Females are denied this key step in building their awareness and raising their consciousness and must start their discovery of their history and feminism alone and from scratch almost every time (and generation). This process slows the progress of civilization and retards the moral arc that feminism brings to society, and it is a travesty.
I think it should be an obligation of radical feminists to support their local women’s library, and if one doesn’t exist, start one because education and the sharing of values and experiences is what will reignite the feminist revolution that we are in such dire need of.
A little dark and shameful bit of Canada’s history – (from wikipedia)
“The École Polytechnique massacre, also known as the Montreal massacre, was a mass shooting at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that occurred on December 6, 1989. Twenty-five-year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a rifle and a hunting knife, shot 28 people, killing 14 women, before committing suicide. He began his attack by entering a classroom at the university, where he separated the male and female students. After claiming that he was “fighting feminism” and calling the women “a bunch of feminists,” he shot all nine women in the room, killing six. He then moved through corridors, the cafeteria, and another classroom, specifically targeting women to shoot. Overall, he killed fourteen women and injured ten other women and four men in just under 20 minutes before turning the gun on himself. His suicide note claimed political motives and blamed feminists for ruining his life. The note included a list of 19 Quebec women whom Lépine considered to be feminists and apparently wished to kill. It is the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history.
Since the attack, Canadians have debated various interpretations of the events, their significance, and Lépine’s motives. Many feminist groups and public officials have characterized the massacre as an anti-feminist attack that is representative of wider societal violence against women. Consequently, the anniversary of the massacre has since been commemorated as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.”
Yeah. Dude finally makes his rage fantasies real and murders 14 females. The Wilfred Laurier Centre for Women and Trans People makes the crucial argument – But What About The Men?? – instead of recognizing a day of remembrance for what it is – a day against the sex class based violence against women.
When you see the word ‘intersectional’ these days you can almost assume that the paragraph in question will be loaded with bullshit. Transactivists and the associated ‘queer theory’ is fucking in love with redefining words into senseless, male-pandering flap-a-doodle.
Interesectionality (for the nth time) is the study of how overlapping or intersecting social identities, particularly minority identities, relate to systems and structures of oppression, domination, or discrimination.
Intersectionality for many Transactivists is simple a ‘#WATM?’ transcribed into academic speak in order to cloak the misogyny that underpins the transactivist connotation of the word. And of course, as the post below illustrates this insipid bowdlerization of feminist language servers to erase female history and the class based violence that females experience in our society.
http://auntiewanda.tumblr.com/post/168548589581/shopcatsca-auntiewanda-murmormar
The experience of being female in society, and thus second class always seems like such a mysterious and vague concept to the menfolk. Time to witness the otherside of the coin, dudes and perhaps start to understand that the experience you’re having is *not* the same for the half the world’s population.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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