Transwomen are Not Female: 12 Years Later

A Retrospective & Critique on my First Gender-Critical Video in 2013

Let’s talk about the epic video I made in 2013, “Transwomen are Not Female”.

In honor of Women’s History month, I’d like to highlight my very first time speaking out publicly against gender ideology.

I created this video because I was fed up by what I was seeing in my local LGBT and “Queer” organizations. Nobody else was talking about the insanity I had witnessed, so I decided that I would sit my fiery butt down in front of the camera and do it myself.

This video became one of the most viewed videos on my Youtube channel, and it is also the reason my channel almost got torn down.

For the past 12 years, I have toggled between making this video public, private, and unlisted. Funnily enough, even during some of the years it was unlisted, people would still manage to find it through underground sources and send me nice comments. For the purpose of this essay, I have made it public again.

Because this video caused such a ripple effect, there are more stories to share about what happened after I shared this video with the world.

Oh, it gets very juicy!

So, this retrospective will be shared in 3 parts.

This is Part 1. Here, I will respond to “Transwomen are not Female”, and share my updated perspectives and critiques on the main points I brought up.

I will also share some reflections on the impact of my statement during the prehistoric time of the early 2010s.

Parts 2 and 3 will get into the nitty gritty of what happened in my world after making this post, and I will also share the old videos I had been posting about my experience.

I recommend watching the full video first before reading, or to read alongside watching, so that you will have a strong point of reference.

Enjoy!

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First of all, let me just say that it took courage for me to re-watch this video. Have you ever felt nervous witnessing an old version of yourself? I was!

So I procrastinated watching this for a while…but once I got started, I immediately recognized how strong I started off.

I really appreciate the energy of this video overall—and I appreciate my message.

This was a great video, and it “peaked” a lot of women.

It has been wonderful to witness my growth through the lens of a time capsule.

That said, there are some ideas and concepts expressed in this video that I no longer agree with, because I have refined my understanding of this topic.

First, let’s talk about the Venn Diagram of “Women’s Oppression” I created.

My Venn Diagram of Female vs Transwomen oppression

I love my Venn diagram…

I don’t agree with it entirely, but I think it’s super cute, and I love that I created one just to illustrate my message.

Some of the points I made were solid. Today, I would just frame them differently.

For example, instead of framing “Transwomen” as having their own unique form of oppression, I would say:

Men can also be hurt by patriarchy

And various sub-groups of men will be impacted by it differently. For example, effeminate men, or men who are physically smaller and weaker—may be hit harder in the realm of sexual abuse, bullying, and violence from other males.

This IS a real problem. However it is an entirely male issue, not to be confused with misogyny.

As I said later in the video, the way in which males are policed based on their gender expression and homosexuality is usually because they are expected to distinguish and distance themselves from the degraded “female sex role”.

That “female sex role” is the space which women occupy, purely based on our biology. Women are often the blueprint for certain forms of male-on-male violence.

But of course, not all males who identify as women are small, weak, effeminate, or particularly vulnerable to other males. In fact, it is often quite the contrary.

So it makes zero sense to draw conclusions about the condition of “transwomen” purely based on their identity.

…

There are also couple of points on that diagram I no longer agree with, namely:

• “Pronouns” and “Dysphoria” are not forms of oppression

Although many of them will swear that people not using their preferred pronouns is literal violence…I beg to differ.

Aside from this being sheer common sense…

My perspective is also rooted in the fact that Transphobia is Not Real.

and…

• Men who identify as women are not “pressured to be feminine”

Outside of gay subcultures, and outside of the self-imposed pressure transwomen place on themselves when they try to pass as a woman—men do not experience any overarching societal pressure to fit into a traditional feminine role.

Even within those unique contexts, that “pressure” to be feminine is not the same as what women experience, which is both an expectation and a form of rigorous social conditioning we experience from birth.

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“Transwomen are Women”

So…in my video, I said that I accept Transwomen as women, but I do not accept them as female.

This was one critique I received for years after this video was made, and rightfully so…

Because it doesn’t make any sense.

See, at the time, I was comfortable with expanding the word “woman” to include both male and female, because I chose to view “woman” as a philosophical term, instead of going by the actual definition of “woman” which is rooted in female biology.

Following this, I said that womanhood is a ‘construct’ and a ‘gender identity’.

That is incorrect.

The cultural roles we are given as a result of womanhood are constructs.

But womanhood itself is not a concept, construct, abstraction, or identity.

Gender ideology distorts language and turns everything gender-related into an existential crisis.

Without realizing it, I was using gender ideology to explain what a woman is, while also fighting against the harmful effects of the ideology itself.

Needless to say, I now use the original and correct definition of “woman” which is an adult human female (XX).

However, I do think it’s rad that I said that I do not accept the cis/trans binary.

WHOA….was that like a radical version of nonbinary?

Bruh…I might actually start saying that in everyday life, just to fuck with the QwEers.

It sounds so kEwL, they won’t even know what I meant.

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I find it very interesting that I held so tightly onto the word “female” as the beacon of reality in this video.

I was doing something there…

Femaleness=biology (fact), and womanhood=concept (fluid).

Basically, I was giving males the word “woman” and saying…OK fine. You can have that, but you can’t have this (female).

I genuinely did not see the problem with it.

That’s because, like most people, I didn’t have a full grasp on what “Trans” identity was all about.

What I didn’t realize is that a few years after men had received legal and social permission to co-opt the word “woman”—they would take the word “female” too¹.

And to boot, they’d claim all of the unique issues that come with being female…like having a menstrual cycle each month, and needing to see a gynecologist!

While the idea of “woman” meaning either male or female is a fun concept to tinker with in the confines of college philosophy classes…

I never in a million years predicted that this little play on language would become the very basis upon which the Trans movement shapes policy that literally throws us into prison cells with male sex offenders…because they too, are “women”.

But even back then, I was strikingly aware of the potential for men to harm and abuse women through the trans identity. I experienced that harm 2nd hand—after my young female friend was sexually assaulted by a man who identified as a woman.

In fact, that very incident is what enraged me to the point of creating this video.

I also pointed out the unfairness of transwomen being able to retain their own exclusive spaces, as they push their way into ours.

So, I was definitely onto something…I just didn’t see the holes within my analysis.

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You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

I was keen on preserving women’s rights through the emphasis on our femaleness.

Yet I was hellbent on separating femaleness from womanhood.

And I was also cherry-picking who deserves to have their “pronouns” affirmed, and who doesn’t:

If you notice, I called the man who assaulted my friend by “he” pronouns, and I called the random transwoman who administered my HIV test by “she”.

But who am I—or anyone—to determine who is “truly trans” or not, when it is all just an identity? This should not be about favoritism.

In my opinion, we should all keep it a buck and use pronouns based on biological sex.

…

Back in the early 2000s, long before preferred pronouns became mainstream, they were a courtesy relegated to tight-knit “LGBT” circles.

For me, calling someone by their “preferred” pronouns was a matter of politeness.

Because I still thought that some people were innately trans, and that everyone should identify however they want…and that we should affirm them, so long as they are genuine and well-behaved.

This clouded me from forming my argument based on the fact that “woman” is nothing more than a natural byproduct of being born female—and that any other definition of womanhood is fraudulent, and bound to harm women.

And that my friends, is the trap that gender ideology creates.

It sets people onto a mental, moral, and linguistic hamster wheel—such that they cannot clearly state facts, without endlessly looping into a pile of contradictions.

As we have done away with the basic language that allows women to clearly and accurately name our gendered experiences, it has made it so much easier for predatory men to co-opt it for their own purposes.

It’s almost impressive!

Except for the fact that gender ideology is so transparently false, a woman like me was bound to figure it out as soon as she took a proper look.

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Even though my video wasn’t perfect, it was still a very strong piece.

It was authentic, and I stood on business.

I made solid points that have stood the test of time, and I got people thinking.

More than a decade later, I still get occasional comments on this video, with women thanking me, saying I spoke words they were too afraid to say out loud, or noting how my message has aged well.

My video has been referenced, mirrored, archived, and even translated into Italian!

To be honest, I’m glad that I shared my ideas in the way I did.

I think the “middle ground” stance I naturally carried—while still having a no bullshit attitude—was an asset that allowed me to appeal to a wider audience, reaching across political lines and identities.

All kinds of people, from radical feminists, to transwomen themselves—were cheering me on.

There was groundbreaking nature to a woman like me saying what I said, the way I said it, at the time that I did…

Which is why this video was easily, the most controversial video I’ve ever published.

I got a lot of mixed responses in the comments: Some good, some bad.

Some—very threatened and very angry.

Trans rights activists can’t rely on common sense approaches—such as civil conversation, or debate that is rooted in fact.

They don’t have much to offer in those areas.

Gender ideology is a fragile academic philosophy that is now being used for a more sinister agenda.

So they employ vicious bullying tactics to silence anyone who threatens their image.

…

After I made this video, a lot happened.

It went somewhat viral, and I found myself in the eye of a storm—with tons of people rallying around me, amidst a major backlash.

Without any knowledge about the broader implications behind my statement—all I could do was take it all in: absorb, learn, feel, and respond to the best of my ability.

In parts 2 and 3 of this series, I will be talking about what came next:

What happened to my Youtube channel, the impact on my personal and professional life, my inner-conflict that led me to “dial it back” and hide my video for years…

And how this whole experience created a ripple effect that led me to an even stronger comeback, one decade later.

1. Merriam Webster dictionary has officially included a valid definition of female as “having a gender identity that is the opposite of male. Laws have been passed using this new definition.