Inseparable: pessimism and the transsexual separatist writer

You know how I keep saying that the "transsexual separatists are miseries"? Yeah? Well, I read this article, by Jane Brody, about optimism and it occurred to me that they are pessimists as well.


Here's the thing: when you endlessly talk about how downtrodden you are, you actually become downtrodden. Now, I'm not saying that life for the average transsexual woman is a bed of roses - roses do have thorns, after all! - and it can be, and probably is, extremely difficult for transsexual women to get ahead in life. They have to put up with an endless array of challenges that no one else has to. However, if you consistently preach that you're a victim, at some point you become a victim of your own preaching, you become what you preach. When you reliably emphasize the worst in the world, you're not actually making things better. (That's what Fox News does, by the way.)

The dehumanizing helps, too. When you reduce your "enemy" to a mannequin that can be derided you show up the worst aspects of your inhumanity; you're no better than a racist or anti-Semite who dehumanizes "blacks" or "Jews"; the sweeping, derogatory, characterizations of "transvestites" and "the crossdressers", "the panty wearers" and so are no different. Of course, the dehumanizing is so much easier if you feel superior to the despised group. The transsexual separatist writers prove, time and again, that they not only feel superior, but that they consider themselves to be far superior to mere "transvestites".

Excluding others is not optimism, it's pessimism. It's discrimination based on an arbitrary characteristic. The very thing these people claim to be attacking! Radical feminism, the political thinking (if I can be so bold...) that underscores much of transsexual separatism, is an exclusionary "philosophy". The fact that it is a highly prejudiced and jaundiced philosophy fits well with the  supposed superiority of transsexual separatist writers and supporters. Any system of thought that allows someone to posit that "all men know they are shit", as was stated in one well-applauded Radical Feminist article isn't based on humanity or consideration. It has bitterness and hate as a foundation. And we do, indeed, see that the transsexual separatist writers do extoll bitterness and hate when they deign to write of "transvestites" and "crossdressers". Not for them sunshine and hope!

Optimism gains, is about, progress, pessimism preserves the status quo. If you attack others as a group - not individually, as I do - you're not being an optimist. You're most assuredly a pessimist, and need to maintain your "oppression" and victimhood. I suspect the transsexual separatist writer is often frightened of optimism; that's why they consistently go after optimism and the optimistic. (Am I generalizing with "transsexual separatist writers"? A bit. However, I'm criticizing a group based on a common, specific, trait not an arbitrary characteristic.) I, for instance, would love a world where you're judged not on your claims to womanhood but on yourself, as a person. I'm not naive to think that the well-put-together won't have an advantage - that's just human nature - but I do know I can build a business as a transgendered individual and make a success of it. The transsexual separatist writers I've come across don't like that and seem to consider my optimism an affront to their inhumanity. Well, it is! :-) I look around and I see a bright future. Young folk - I'm old enough to be able to use that phrase without embarrassment! - aren't into dictating whom you can marry or your skin color or religion and they don't seem as concerned about dress codes and rigid gender identifications as many others are. Sure, they can produce some pretty odd thinking - that's part of being young and adventurous and while I sometimes criticize it, I'm glad to see it! Being off the wall in your thinking can produce real insights; being rigid in whom you consider worthy of your approval is never going to produce insights. It will produce tortured and hypocritical expositions, however! Just like the Fundamentalist Christian pastors who proclaim against "the homosexuals", the transsexual separatist writer needs to approve others, and let you know whom to approve, as well. You can see it all over their writing!

The people who have brought about change have never been pessimists. They couldn't be! You never heard Martin Luther King give a speech lamenting how oppressed they were and that someone should do something about it! No - you heard him talk about a bright future, where people were judged as themselves and not by the color of their skin. You don't read transsexual separatists writing about a wonderful future where people are judged for themselves and not by their attire. You won't read that because that prejudice is central to their "philosophy"! You won't read a transsexual separatist proclaiming that they can make a success of their business, because they disdain some of their clientele. (Actually, I can't remember reading a transsexual separatist writer musing about starting a business!) Not for those folk the rainbow of life. No sirree, not for them the amazing plethora of gender identifications - some plainly ridiculous, but who cares? No, those people demand definite gender boundaries and like to demean others, perceiving as their "enemy" those durned "transvestites" and their friends, "the crossdressers". The writers preach a dark vision, a  fundamentally depressing world where you're judged not on who you are but on how you identify and how far along you are in your transition and whether you have a penis or not. Or any arbitrary item that takes their fancy - once you're inclined to prejudice, who cares what you discriminate against?

With their endless complaining and exclusionary natter, the transsexual separatists aren't making life better for transsexual women - they're making it worse! Like all pessimists, these people can't shut up about how bad it all is. And yet they'll heartily proclaim they're working to make things better. Yet they see nothing but bad news all around. And then they insist you share they bleak vision.

Cheerful sods, aren't they?

Carolyn Ann