Miles Harrington, Period 8, 12/20/2021

 Miles Harrington Period 8 12/20/2021

Modern Mythology 2022

Socio-political Consciousness

What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

As transphobia continues to fester in the media and our society, there is a conversation that needs to be had about the power TERFs hold over trans people. There is an important element that allows TERF rhetoric to transcend general transphobia, that being the illusion of concern. Transphobia often manifests in a way that clearly demonstrates the hate and ignorance of the individual spewing it, which damages the reputation and doesn’t make for a strong argument. On the other hand, a TERF’s greatest asset is their artificial worry: worry for women’s safety, worry that men are invading women’s spaces, worry that women in sports aren’t facing fair competition. So now rather than coming off as a bigots fueled solely by malice, TERF’s can pose as reasonable people just trying to protect women and their interests. In reality, TERF’s don’t care that trans women don’t pose a threat to cis women in any way because as previously stated, their concern isn’t genuine. It only exists as a disguise for the underlying disgust and contempt TERFs feel towards trans people. Women (white women in particular) have historically been able to harness their perceived defenselessness against other oppressed groups in society, like how white woman tears have killed countless black men. This exact concept is the strategy that TERF’s employ, with the end goal being to make it so trans people's existence is in direct opposition to women’s liberation. This way, TERFs can use twisted logic to validate an argument for why trans people shouldn’t be allowed to exist at all.

How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

Since I myself am transgender, my experiences are unique as I’ve experienced being treated as both a man and a woman by society. For most of my life, people have perceived me as a girl and thus I’ve faced my fair share of misogyny. While this can be viewed as a bad thing, I’m extremely grateful that I was able to gain this insight that most men lack because it has insulated my beliefs from the effects of toxic masculinity. Although an argument can be made that me being trans means I’ve never genuinely experienced womanhood, my upbringing and understanding of how women are treated in the world has helped shape my views immensely. Now that I’ve transitioned and am treated as a male by those around me, I’ve been able to see the way men speak about women when only men are around. Men have been comfortable divulging to me their misogynistic beliefs because they expect me to agree with them as a fellow guy. While I knew a lot of men were misogynistic before I ever identified as one, having this “insider knowledge” has greatly harmed my perception of a lot of other men in my life.