For those of you fortunate enough to be messaging me with no idea what I’m talking about, I’m referring to the popular strawman that is “man who pretends to be a trans woman in order to infiltrate Women’s spaces and assault women,” which causes otherwise sane and rational people to clutch at their pears and say, “Oh… well I suppose that’s possible, isn’t it?”
Which is how a strawman argument gets you: it looks at the environment you want to establish, invents a very specific and unlikely person who could theoretically abuse that system for their own nefarious benefit, and then pretends that this invented person isn’t only possible, but likely! And not even likely, but inevitable! And that this person exists in very high numbers and is just WAITING for you to give them the perfect opportunity- which is, conveniently, the opportunity provided by exact circumstances you are proposing.
The Male Predator Who Forces You To Let Him Into Women’s Spaces, Then Attacks From The Inside With No Recourse is a strawman. And like all strawmen, it is technically not impossible, but so incredibly unlikely and difficult and frustrating to pull off that there are a million other things that could accomplish the same goal that would be far easier and far less of a hassle to pull off. The thing that makes strawmen like this truly dangerous is that people have seen “technically possible, but one in a million” and said “well, someone has to win the lottery” and then dumped their retirement savings in lottery tickets, racing on about how they’re about to be a billionaire and if you do the same then you’ll be one, too.
What I’m saying is, forget what is technically possible and focus on what’s likely. Forget how something COULD be done, and look at how it’s BEING done.
If a man wants to assault a woman, does he need to form an elaborate persona to do so? No, of course not, he’ll just go ahead and do it the same way men who assault women have been doing it forever. He’ll roofie a drink at a gathering, or take pictures up skirts on the train.
So what kind of “Women’s spaces” are we worried about a theoretical male predator sneaking into? Trauma counselling? A spa? A women’s housing collective?
Cool, imagine a man does that. Imagine a man starts dressing in Women’s clothes and using female pronouns and a woman’s name and the women’s washroom and changes his government documents JUST to get into a group of cis women, and then he does it.
Does he assault a woman? Manipulate women? Follow a woman home, break into her house, steal her shit?
Because surprise, if HE could do it by pretending to be a trans woman, then it’s already something any cis woman on the planet could do anyways.
Except this imaginary dude we just made up just made the 99% of his life that WASN’T entirely built around becoming the ultimate predator is now a million times harder.
And that’s the whole fucking point of a disguise.
A disguise for the purpose of crime exists to distance yourself from the consequences of your crime.
I saw a man dress as a woman, rob a place, leave, take off his disguise, and run away. Because nobody on the planet is going to connect that image with him. He isn’t a professional drag queen doing shows in the same outfit on the side. It’s a burner identity, not HIM, and outside of hiding who he is he doesn’t want to be seen as a woman.
Someone who is a woman all the time? Who tells you they are a woman? They’ll be a woman when they leave. They’ll be a woman when they go home. They can change their appearance however they want, but they can’t just become a cis man later when it’s convenient. You see Bethany rob a store in women’s clothing today, she’ll be burning the evidence in her yard wearing women’s clothing later. The harder thing would be spotting her in a man’s outfit, at which point we’ve thrown the whole theoretical shitshow out the window with the bathwater anyways
If it’s possible to abuse the system, focus on what makes that abuse possible and manage that, don’t just attack whoever you think might try. Cause if a cis man could do it, or a trans woman could do it, then a cis woman could do it, which means anyone could do it.
The path to women’s safety isn’t locking other women out. It’s teaching all women how to recognize real danger and avoid it, how to support each other, and actually taking it seriously when something does happen.
The myth of the fake trans woman coming to get you is a cop-out. It’s a fun little distraction that makes you think, “what if a man tries watching me pee? What if a man tries to see me naked?” Instead of, “why should it be possible for ANYONE to watch me pee? What do I do if ANYONE busts in on me changing? If I’m the victim of a predator, what do I do, and will I be taken seriously?”
“what if a man comes along and watches you sleep through that camera we installed in your bedroom?”
bitch WHY DID YOU PUT A CAMERA IN MY BEDROOM
