In a development that makes the world as a whole slightly more depressing, and straight white men in particular even more irritating, two prominent "lesbian" bloggers have turned out to be dudebros masquerading as women.
So, um. Pretty sure I'm still a woman, but if that somehow changes, I'll be sure to let you know.
This reminds me of something that happened on a message board I was on years ago - a "Geisha Jenette" who turned out to be a "John," but he, at least, didn't cause a potential international incident.
ReplyDeleteIf they really want to be girls, can I make them have my uterus right now? I mean, there's more to being a girl than being pretty - there are harsh things to deal with, too! (On a monthly basis).
Well, I mean, I've occasionally pretended to be a guy when commenting on guy-dominated sites, because I know that in spaces like that it's the default, and if I present myself as a gay woman everyone will assume I'm a straight dude pretending to be a gay woman, so it's just easier...
ReplyDeleteBut it's one thing to use the anonymity of the internet to experiment with different personae, and quite another to appropriate minority voices in a way that could well endanger people.
Shadsie, I can't really say what the situation is with your "Geisha Jenette", but I rather doubt it has more than the most tenuous parallel to this situation. This isn't about men who "want to be girls" (which sounds a little trans-hostile in context) - this is about men who have pretended to be very specific women (one who does not exist except on her blog, the other who is an amalgamation of other very real and unwitting women) in order to voice their points of view. Both men have potentially endangered others because they thought that appropriating a female voice would give their arguments credence without thought to the potential ramifications. Perhaps I've made the core issue here a little clearer, and could we veer a hard left away from pejorative language?
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