Dear Cis Sisters: Please Sit Down Before You Get Us Killed
Not All (cis) Women
My recap series for the breakout new Amazon Studios show The Power is going great. In fact, I hit a surprising new benchmark as soon as people saw the first episode.
I kinda feel like I made it when bigots start referencing my work, even if it’s to support ridiculously transphobic tweets.
I really feel like I made it when Christina Dalcher, the author of the critically acclaimed and extremely transphobic novel Femlandia, pops up on Twitter to use The Power and my coverage of the book/show to score cheap shots on trans people and….what? Sell another copy of her book without a thought to the trans people her tweets get killed?
Her book is exactly what people are afraid The Power is. The concept and execution of Femlandia deliberately erases trans people, whereas Naomi Alderman wrote The Power and then worked with a writing team of queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people to ensure the show empowers as many gender diverse people as possible.
Naomi Alderman is most definitely NOT Team Terf. But Christina Dalcher?
Nylah Burton, a writer and sexual assault prevention specialist, reviewed Femlandia for Bitch Media, bringing needed attention to the harmful, dangerous, and deadly positions author Christina Dalcher promotes in her books and on her social media.
This is the shit that keeps getting innocent women killed.
…toxic femininity isn’t limited to hating men, but also manifests in transphobia. That’s a reality that Femlandia does seem to recognize, but falls woefully short of expounding upon, choosing to dig its heels deeper into biological essentialism.
The very first indication that not all is right in this alleged utopia comes in the form of clear transphobia. In order to enter Femlandia, Emma and Miranda are subjected to a strip search and an invasive genital exam. Miranda and Kate, who provides security for the compound, touch on this in a critical exchange:
Her novel was seen as pioneering — and yet drastically narrow minded by the author’s inability to see beyond her prejudice toward people who are not extensions of herself.
I thought well, smart people can disagree. And at least she’s thinking about this stuff, right?
But then she kept tweeting and revealed that she hasn’t read a damn thing.
See also: Why I’m No Longer Talking To Cis People About Gender
Not the book. None of the coverage for the show. None of the interviews with the people involved. Nope, the author grabbed their ridiculous (and yet common?) misperception of the premise of The Power and ran with it to make a cheap shot at trans people.
That tweet is since deleted and gone into the ether (you can still see my replies), but it did help me think through an open letter to cis women like her who proclaim to be allies for women while at the same time harming and killing the ones they declare don't count.
Like JK Rowling, Dalcher’s victims don't stop at trans women. How could they? Their bigotry is founded on such absurd premises that it encompasses as many trans people as it does those who are intersex, non binary, third gender, two spirit...
I get why this feels right for people like her. White cisgender culture feels right and resonates with us even when we hate it because it's goddamn everywhere.
But no matter how fun and persuasive their arguments are, if you stop? If you look at the premises upon which they base their arguments? You suddenly understand the difference between a Valid vs Sound argument.
A Valid vs Sound Argument
A valid argument is internally coherent and persuasive. The conclusion is ****ing dynamite and will change the world. Best of all? You can easily show people how you reached that conclusion. You can help them reach it too — but it’s based on faulty premises. It’s like if you started off by saying, “If we accept marshmallows are just cloud poop…”
An argument has to be Sound — containing both true premises as well as a true conclusion — in order to exist outside of the author’s imagination.
That’s how absurd Christina Dalcher’s assertions are about women who are cisgender but simply need the same gender-affirming care as most trans and intersex people.
That’s how ridiculous JK Rowling’s assertions are about trans people.
That’s why it’s a waste of time to argue with either of them. You are arguing with someone who essentially starts off by asking you to accept that marshmallows are just cloud poop, therefore it’s okay to harm and kill trans people.
Note: I’m being handed a note. It says…Christina Dalcher earned her doctorate in theoretical linguistics. She deeply understands the power of language — yet denies the deadly power of the language she chooses for trans people.
So yep, JK Rowling and this other author who deleted her tweet feel how good their arguments for harming women and trans women are for them and their allies.
They're fun. They're like reading a book. You put it down and you feel empowered. So empowered that you don't hear the crunch of transgender victims you sacrificed for a punchline.
Stop fighting wasted fights — start empowering valuable people.
An Open Letter To Cis Cisters
Dear Cisters,
Please sit down before you contribute to someone else getting tortured or killed.
And for what? So you can forcibly convert an innocent person into the gender you say they should be?
All women, intersex, trans, non binary, and gender non conforming people deserve safety and security from bigotry like yours.
The science and research on this are actually quite clear. A person's gender is a complex manifestation of a person's entire central nervous system.
Not just your brain, though that's a big part.
Not just your genitals, tho some are bigger than others.
Not your chromosomes, either.
It's your ENTIRE central nervous system.
That's why a trans person knows when flooding their body with one hormone vs the other is wrong. It is agony. It is death. It is a fact.
That's why a non binary person knows when their body is fine but their hormones need adjustment.
That's why a bi-gender person simply KNOWS when their central nervous system has shifted just slightly enough that today, they are a boy. Tomorrow, they are a girl. They have joy in simply being until society harms them for simply being.
That's why the message is clear: BELIEVE TRANS PEOPLE
The most you can do otherwise is abuse them into compliance with your assumptions about who they are and who they're supposed to be.
I went through that. I was forced through trans conversion therapy in the 90s. The process nearly killed me. By all rights, it should have. I didn't think until the last few years that I could feel more than panic and desperation. I have found joy by accepting how wrong people like you are. Nothing I did or became would ever be good enough for you.
Meanwhile, you are literally getting women killed with these dangerous positions. These dangerous articles. These dangerous tweets.
Women, intersex, non binary, and all gender non conforming people deserve safety from actions like yours.
I say it again: Sit down. You are getting us killed.
Sincerely,
Stephenie ❤
Catch up with our ongoing exclusive coverage of The Power
- Barack Obama’s Favorite Book Of 2017 Is Now A Trans-Allied TV Show
- The Power: The Basics Of Amazon’s Paradigm-Shifting Series
- The Power: Explaining The Show’s Connection To The Handmaid’s Tale
- The Reason People Keep Thinking “The Power” Might Be Transphobic
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