Dear Trans women:

With all due respect?

While you are a woman and belong in women's spaces?

You experience sexism only once you transition. You however prior to this have been raised with full male privilege, and you need to remember this. You may not have wanted it and undoubtedly if you could have changed it you would, that however does not negate the fact it existed.

Being born with a female body is not the same as being born a trans woman. We're both considered women but we both have received different treatment because of our perceived physical gender. That changes somewhat if you transition but it does not erase the differences in experience.

1. You probably were not raised with casually bigoted attitudes towards your perceived gender. Chances are nobody thought your ambitions were stupid or wrong simply because you were seen as a boy and boys don't tend to get made fun of for being ambitious.

Being told one is stupid and wrong for wanting more has a profound impact on the psyche of young female bodied people. Male bodied people are pretty much encouraged to dream as high and as far as they want to.

2. If you chose to play rough, to be loud, or to be assertive, you were probably not scolded for it, and conditioned to be meek, because those who are considered boys are expected to be rough, loud and assertive.

Again, this is behaviour modification overwhelmingly aimed at female bodied people. Male bodied people are given far more leeway with behaviour, this results in more confidence in self expression.

3. If you got angry, people probably took your anger seriously, they probably did not find it funny, because people take it seriously when someone they consider to be a man is angry, but they find someone they consider to be women being angry hilarious/cute/insert belittling adjective here.

Being taken seriously is a massive thing, it's very important to the development of self confidence and self advocating.

4. Chances are nobody made sexual comments about your body when you were still a child, because people don't generally do that to children who are male bodied. Your first encounter with sexuality and awareness of your body changes probably won't have been numerous adult men sneeringly offering gross comments or adult women branding you a whore because you dared to grow up.

I'm not saying you didn't have body issues, however this is unlikely to be one of them. You probably did not receive the message early on that only your attractiveness mattered and that you should only aspire to be pretty, and to accept the sleaze as part of your life.

I could go on, the point is these early messages have a profound impact on the psychological development of female bodied people. Trans-women do not as a whole experience these early sexist messages. Please remember this.

Also?

Unless science produces a goddamn miracle some day? You still will not have the equipment to become pregnant yourself. You are at no risk of reproductive coercion, being forcibly impregnated and forced to give birth, you absolutely cannot die in child birth. Please remember this if you wade into discussions of reproductive rights. There's nothing more fucking infuriating than a trans-woman who will never get pregnant, getting all up in my face about how they think I shouldn't have the right to choose whether to be pregnant or not, or worse being "pro-life" in a safe space.

Also? Your inability and desire to get pregnant? Not fucking relevant to my rights. I don't care if you would have a thousand children if you had a Uterus, you still don't get to tell me or anyone else who can get pregnant what we can do with ours. I won't tell you what to do with your body, so don't presume to tell me what I can do with mine.

Shit like this: http://jennifermccreath.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/nov-22-2011-mccreath-quits-pflag-over.html

Not cool. The idea that we might be able to tell if a fetus is trans in future (fairly unlikely I'd think), does not entitle you to be against the rights of people with Uteri, if you're worried that people might abort Trans fetuses in the unlikely event that a test is developed, work on education, not on banning abortion. Btw, I have the same fucking issue with disabled people who want to ban abortion because some people abort disabled fetuses. Anyone who advocates forced birth can fuck right off.

The other thing is? Displaying misogyny in women's spaces? Not cool either.  Jennifer McCreath is rather fond of slut shaming, telling one transphobic woman that "clearly she had no issue putting Penises in her mouth/vagina" and commenting on how many times she'd been married, cos hey why call someone transphobic when you can call them a slut amiright? There's a billion and one insults that aren't based in misogyny, but often it's the misogynistic ones trans women go for.

There's other examples:

http://leftytgirl.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/cathy-brennan-vs-the-cotton-ceiling/

This was going so well, until the last line, because hey attacking Cathy's looks that's totally not misogynistic or based on the idea that only the outside matters. Cathy Brennan is a transphobic douche, but that doesn't make this misogyny okay.

More examples of Jennifer McCreath being misogynistic:

https://twitter.com/Jenn_McCreath/status/277054355180507136 She totes doesn't judge "slutty behaviour" but zomg "don't ask the taxpayer to pay for your abortion", cos hey supporting forcing people with uteri to give birth if you think they're slutty is so not misogynistic.

https://twitter.com/Jenn_McCreath/status/277054355180507136

According to Jennifer the following people do not exist:
Trans men who are Gay.
Trans women who are Lesbians.
Bisexual female bodied people (I thought the B in GLBTQ gave it away).
Gender queer people who have a uterus.

And clearly rape never happens to female bodied people who are GLBTQ. Also there is absolutely no history of Trans people being forced to accept being sterilised in order to be entitled to be legally recognised as their gender. Nope, never happens at all.

http://feministing.com/2012/01/17/sweden-keeps-forced-sterilization-law-for-trans-people/
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/02/most-european-countries-force-sterilization-transgender-people-map

Because of course since reproductive rights aren't relevant to her, our rights shouldn't be focused on as part of the LGBTQ fight. Cos hey, forcing a trans man to give birth, making a Lesbian cis woman carry a rape baby to term, ignoring bisexual female bodied people, forcing sterilisation on trans people, that isn't a problem for GLBTQ people, except yeah, it totally is unless you're Jennifer who doesn't think GLBTQ rights really matter unless they're relevant to her.

https://twitter.com/Jenn_McCreath/status/277184277702131712

Hear that trans men? Your right to decide what to do with your body isn't a trans right, in fact it doesn't overlap at all according to Jennifer, and she thinks GLBTQ groups should not protect that right for you as a result of her belief that your right to control your body is not a trans right.

I know women's spaces can be transphobic, and that needs to change, but just because someone is pissed at societies bigotry doesn't mean it's okay for them to shit all over female bodied people. So let's see less misogyny, less telling people with Uteri what to do with them and more recognition that having gender privilege has had an impact on you even if you didn't want the privilege.

Oh and Jennifer McCreath can screw off with her "I don't give a shit about issues that don't affect me" crap, and misogyny towards female bodied people.