Did I tell you I really dislike privilege frameworks?

initial thoughts after finishing female masculinity:

terrible book, terribly written. overly relies on media/text analysis and fails to even come up with anything intelligent in that regard. the book relies largely on theoretical discussions and shallow portrayals of reality

his thesis is unclear from the get-go and he even admits at the very, very beginning that he does not have an actual definition of 'masculinity' and he still does not have one by the end of the book. one must ask what the book is supposed to even be for, then

he insists that there are multiple diverse masculinities and this is best exemplified through masculine women, but then adamantly refuses to address anyone outside of butch lesbians and essentially equates 'female masculinity' with 'butch lesbianism'

he also repeatedly equates trans men with butch lesbians and goes so far as to assert that transsexuality is innately misogynistic, homophobic, and even colonialist and extols the virtues of suffering gender dysphoria so long as you don't identify as anything outside of your ASAB

he does not once mention patriarchy and never addresses what gender is, what creates gender, and what material forces reinforce it and why that is. he seems resentful of trans ppl in particular for being able to do what he is too chicken to do (i.e., actually be trans)

he concludes that the subjugation of not only masculine women but women as a whole would be remedied if we allowed women to be masculine and stopped asserting that their masculinity prohibits them from being women and associated roles (i.e., mothers).

the best chapter was the one on drag kings bc he did actually operate within a genuine framework of 'female masculinity.' otherwise his definition of what counts as such was ill-defined and he often forced subjects under that umbrella that would disagree (trans men)

this book is one that sets out to do nothing. it is simply a vehicle for him to mope about being a dysphoric butch who hates transsexuals and talk about stories, characters, and figures that he relates to on pretty flimsy, shallow grounds.

it does not provide any meaningful dive into female masculinity and its relationship with society bc he cannot even define what it means. i am shocked it was even published and that he continued to be a published academic. really awful work.

oh additionally: if anyone were to write an actually good book on this subject, PLEASE actually fucking address trans women. so much of this would have benefited from any sort of acknowledgment of trans women as lesbians and as butches, etc.

Remember this article of a TERF talking about how basically men are better 'feminists' than women because women aren't as likely to be anti-trans? Always remember these are the men they're talking about

so my lease ends at the end of the month (May), my roommate is moving into her own place, and I haven't been able to find a new place so I have to pay month to month or lose housing, and rn the price of that is about $3000. I hate to ask on short notice but... dm for paypal/venmo

i really think trans communities should understand that the historical and cultural transmisogynistic hypersurveillance and objectification of transfemininity is a form of erasure of personhood (dehumanization) and narrative & is generally not 'representation'

'Trans women are ontologically six foot four' just another day on this hellsite.

Feminism is not about simply making sure women can 'choose' between a career and being a housewife. This sort of liberal framing does nothing but obscure both the way the public/private sphere is organized to empower men *and* the way capitalism is built upon feminized labor.

It isn't morally bad for women to be housewives. It's just a 'choice' designed to isolate women in the home and limit independence--neither this nor careerism and its promise of 'escape' from patriarchal restraints by outsourcing to other women is part of a real feminism vision.

'Misandry' is an attractive concept for anyone who doesn't want to acknowledge that class societies in general reify women as a resource. It lets you pretend this underlying structure doesn't exist and reinterpret the destructive nature of masculinity as 'hatred of (some) men.'