Comment on What's the best way to respond to someone who says "transracial is just as valid as transgender"?
amino@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day agomaybe stop comparing race and gender then. trans women only pass because we’re women. you can’t pass as Black because if you told them that they’d think you’re a dipshit
SaltSong@startrek.website 23 hours ago
Isn’t the entire premise of the post that someone is seeing parallels here, and would like to understand why the similarities are not meaningful? As I said, I agree that transracial people are being silly, but I haven’t seen an argument here that can’t be used against transgender people.
But there are plenty of transwomen who don’t “pass” despite being women. But they should still be treated as women. Hell, there have been at least a few reports of ciswomen who couldn’t pass as women, at least to sufficiently assholish observers. On that basis, I don’t think we can use “passing” as a factor to determine people’s identity.
amino@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 hours ago
race doesn’t work that way though, does it? it’s impossible for Black people to not pass as Black because it’s been proven they experience racism based on an immutable characteristic.
gender identity isn’t based on appearance, race is strictly appearance based. the fact you’re bringing self-identification into this makes it sound like you’re arguing in bad faith and trying to diminish Black people’s experiences.
SaltSong@startrek.website 20 hours ago
What would be a correct way to distinguish between the two?
“Woman” seems like it works refer to both, to be used in the majority of cases when the distinction is irrelevant.
I don’t want to say “natural” women, or “real” women, as even someone as thick as me can see that’s insulting.
It seems that using the prefix for both makes them equal.
What do you think world be more appropriate?
But they would suggest that as soon as we discover a way to change that characteristic, transrace world be valid.
Further, while gender identity may not be based on appearance, the way one is treated is very much based on appearance. If I look male, I get treated as male. If I look female, I get treated as female. If I look like one, but insist I am the other, people tend to have disagreements between their deliberate and automatic behaviors. (Well, the same people do, anyway.)
I can’t think of a good way to prove it, but I am legitimately curious about this topic. I’m never happy with the answer “because this one is right, and that one is wrong.” There needs to be reasons why.