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Trans folk are not lying to themselves
It is always interesting to read tweets and other social media posts accusing trans folk of being liars, their identities of being fabrications, and their world views of being delusions. It assumes that being trans is an inherent lie, that the subjective reality cisgender folk perceive is the reality, and that the best use of people’s time is to error correct the silly trans folk into being straight. This assumes a natural order to things, a way of ordering the world that aligns things into neat categories. Which falls apart the moment reality intrudes into this fabricated cis world view.
Cis normativity assumes that there is a natural order to things, a natural law rooted in biology. Its is almost as if St Augustine has risen from the dead. Writers such as Kathleen Stock and Julie Bindel assume that this natural order, where the nasty brutish masculinity should be warded off at all costs, is the paramount reason for keeping trans identities locked up and away from women. Helen Joyce calls trans folk disordered, a societal problem that needs to be tamped down and mitigated. For them biology is the only law that matters.
Which is why most arguments trying to undermine them miss the mark. To Stock, Joyce, and Bindel if you break their natural laws you are committing cardinal sins, in need of penance and coming back to their philosophical truth. If you…
