Friday 30 January 2015

No longer Germaine

To give an idea of the sometimes comic but always spiteful nature of some strains of "feminist transphobia", see http://www.transadvocate.com/sex-essentialism-terfs-and-smelly-vaginas_n_14924.htm
 "Most recently, Germaine Greer made headlines (in queer media circles) for appealing to a bad vagina smell as being essential to authentic womanhood. During a question and answer session at The Cambridge Union, in which she again asserted trans medical care to be unethical, Greer suggested that trans women aren’t truly women because trans women don’t know what it is “to have a big, hairy, smelly vagina.”

Interestingly, prior to Greer asserting that trans women don’t have smelly vaginas, Sheila Jeffreys asserted that trans women have incredibly smelly vaginas, asserting, “The newly carved-out orifices of male-bodied transgenders do not resemble vaginas [and] create new microbial habitats in which infections develop and cause serious smell issues for their owners.
That's fairly typical. First a bizarre test of what sex someone *really* is - this one, genital aroma, is in fact an article of faith amongst TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists), Then the unevidenced assertions that Trans women don't pass the test due to diametrically opposite reasons - one because they do, one because they don't - all asserted without a shred of evidence.

The Religious Right is anti-Trans because Transsexuality undermines a well-ordered society where men are men and women are women, that it's all a Leftist plot to undermine the Gender Binary. (See former pope Benedict's speeches on the subject).

The TERFs are anti-Trans because Transsexuality upholds the Gender Binary, and that Trans people are tools of the Patriarchy.

This appropriation of Trans people is discussed well and with some wit at http://quinnae.com/2010/10/01/i-am-whoever-you-say-i-am/


As an aside, the microbial flora in neo-vaginas is nearly identical to that of the usual kind in premenstrual girls, but that's merely a fact and so irrelevant to the issue.
"Weyers and his colleagues studied 50 postsurgical transsexual women and found microbial microflora that were simiilar to those of premenstrual girls:
Our study indicates that the microflora of the neovagina is characterized by bacterial species from the skin and the intestinal microflora, somewhat similar to what is observed with premenarchal girls…
They also found microbial populations similar to those of women with vaginitis, and they noted an absense of lactobacilii (which is present in the vaginas of ovulating women, but not in girls) in all but one of their subjects."

But to go into this just buys into their irrationality. Like trying to argue with Flat Earthers.

5 comments:

Michele L said...

I recently found what TERF meant and was surprised at the lies that they tell about transsexual women. Since the Y chromosome has fallen out of favor as a marker of femaleness due to the finding of born females with a Y chromosome, the neovagina has become a way of attacking transgender women. This is so silly and errant since transsexual womens neovaginas can be the same as the vagina of normal women with a hysterectomy or prolapse.
Let's examine the layers-the 1) epithelium and 2) lamina propria and 3) muscularis. The epithelium and lamina comprise the vaginal mucosa.
Split thick skin grafting can become normal vaginal mucosa and penile skin can also if thinned enough.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15935544

(note something FISHY about the TERF nonsense when you find Doderlein Bacilli present in neovagina of transsexual proving it is not penile skin anymore).

http://www.giog.it/materiale_cic/703_XXXV_5/6073_vaginal/article.htm

We have seen that skin can become normal vaginalmucos (vaginal layers 1 and 2).

The 3rd vaginal layer is the so called muscularis which is
the pubocervical fascia (PCF) anteriorly and the rectovaginal (RVS) septum posteriorly. The anterior (PCF) layer also is called the rectovesical ligament (RVL) for women AND men. It has the same composition for men and women. With an anterior vaginal prolapse, the mucosa needs to get re-attached to the isolated PCF/RVL. Transwomen, phenotypic women with CAIS (and men) just don't have the PCV/RVL attached to mucosa. But it is there.

http://books.google.com/books?id=FSdjNHrF0fgC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=vesicopelvic+ligament&source=bl&ots=Ljc1d5tsHL&sig=tYy6ln9JoMPV2kQgRlMJiThE1mg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fLVaT8eiCqTi0QHXpJjsDA&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=vesicopelvic%20ligament&f=false

Likewise, the posterior vaginal muscularis is called the rectovaginal septum.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8293598

Transwomen DO have this attached to their neovagina and it does have the same composition even in millimeters (3-6) as do normal women.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14628886

The new (neo) vagina does not necessarily need dilation

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2004056

The new (neo) vagina has function equally with the same capacity as so-called normal vaginas.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13040397

Michele L said...

One adjustment to my post. RVL (rectovesical ligament) should be PVL (pubovesical ligament)

Zoe Brain said...

Thank you!

But those are facts, so irrelevant to the TERF arguments.

frances said...

"The TERFs are anti-Trans because Transsexuality upholds the Gender Binary"

I'm afraid I must disagree at least in part. TERF's are every bit dependent upon the assumed existence of the binary for their social (and sometimes economic) wealth and power as any conservative religious leader or follower.

Anonymous said...

"… trans women don’t know what it is “to have a big, hairy, smelly vagina.”

I plead TMI vs. "Show and Tell!"

(eyeroll),
AnneRose Blayk