[Split From] The precautions that come with being a woman

This thread was split from the TWANW part 13 thread

Posted By:sarge

QUOTE=theprestige;14125227]However, as always, the question remains: If transcending sex segregation is taken off the table, what practical meaning does "transgender" have?

It is a fundamental principle of social justice that nothing changes when you change your pronouns. Nobody is to think less of you, or differently of you, if you are a woman rather than a man. Nobody is supposed to discriminate against you, if you happen to be a woman. He or she, nobody is supposed to judge you or challenge you, if they happen to see you shopping in the women's clothing section. Nobody is supposed to stereotype you, if they see you in a beard, or in a full face of makeup, or both. Or neither.

What's in a pronoun, then? Why should the government even have a policy for changing gender in the law? Why bother asking people to get a diagnosis, if changing M to F on their state ID doesn't open the doors of single-sex spaces that are closed to them?

Other than the circularity of preferred pronouns for their own sake, what is the practical application of gender, in public policy and social life?

There is none.[/quote]
Since this last came up I've been giving some thought to what it means to "live life as a woman" in a society with full sexual equality.

For as long as I can remember I've been aware that there are predatory males in the world who are a danger to me, and that there are precautions I can take to reduce that danger. Things like dressing more modestly than I might otherwise have wanted to, not speaking up in mixed company as I much as I would have wished. I once spent months walking the long way round to college to avoid the building site where men would cheerfully call out to me what they would like to do to my 17-year-old body. When I go out in the evening alone, to the theatre or a concert, I make sure to park somewhere I can walk back to entirely on well populated, well lit streets. Once, when I was 20 and driving through Gloucester on my moped on a sunny summer evening, I turned down an invitation to a nearby party from a pleasant seeming man who came up to me when I was stopped at a red light, because I couldn't be sure he wasn't a serial killer. (Which he was. It was Fred West. Yes, really).

So maybe that's something trans women could actually do to "live life as a woman" - just start thinking about and planning their lives in that way. If nothing else, it might help them to understand why so many women are so reluctant to let them into their safe spaces.

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