em·pa·thy
Pronunciation:
\ˈem-pə-thē\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Greek empatheia, literally, passion, from empathēs emotional, from em- + pathos feelings, emotion — more at pathos
Date:
1850
1: the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it
2: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this
[Reads] Wait a tick...
JackGoff - it is not acceptable for a straight white man (correct me if I’m mistaken) to come into a community that is mostly female - and some of us are lesbians and women of color - and start comparing us to people who discriminate against us, threaten us, commit violence and do their very best to make sure that we live substandard lives.
If you think that radical feminists are transphobic, then that is your opinion, but don’t appropriate and exploit our experiences.
I can definitely see the point about it being me that says it. I am a straight white man, and saying that othering transgender people is like the othering of other oppressed groups of people, coming from me, is an appropriation. I would say that I, personally, should not have said anything at Witchy-woo's thread, or at least, I shouldn't have said what I did.
But needless to say, calling transgender people "trans" while simultaneously rejecting the term "cisgender" or "cissexual" because it makes you feel icky is a study in lack of empathy. I should not have used the experiences of people that are not my experiences to use, of course. But regardless, the othering going on by a few radical feminists of transgender people is appalling, and I am not going ever say otherwise.
4 comments:
until these people come down on Rich, not interested. truthfully, probably not even then. hey, I'm a bona fide woman and lesbian and i still agree that they're being fucknuts.
so then it becomes some other reason why it's none of my business why they're hurting people i care about.
piss off.
oh yeah, and if you want to talk about appropriation: please to explain to Mrs. Seelhoff that if she sneers at "queer" or LGBTUVWXYZ (hardeharharhar) or spouts off on gay marriage or the proper way to be a lesbian ONE more time...
wait, don't tell me: the queer women who actually think sex is important and the sex workers and the trans women are morphing into the oppressors, TOO.
"the path of the righteous is beset on all sides."
What Belle said.
Yeah, as Belle says, the objecting to white male appropriation thing fails the consistency test. It's OK to appropriate experiences (even to the point where in some cases it's left unclear, a la Polly, whether one is in fact a straight white man) if one echoes the party line, apparently. That makes what otherwise would've been a halfway decent point by LM (occasionally she manages to hit that mark) fall flat.
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