Protecting their women
Rebecca J. Stones of Nankai University in China and Monash University in Australia has researched the public thoughts expressed by folks about transgender people using public facilities and can formally aver what many of us have already noticed: Men have a lot more problem with transfolk than do women.
Dr. Stones' dissertation was in the field of combinatorics, so she is stepping quite a bit away from that for this paper.
I am currently a postdoc with the College of Computer and Control Engineering at Nankai University, Tianjin, China. I am the recipient of a NSF China Research Fellowship for International Young Scientists for 2015/2016.
--Dr. Stones
Rebecca J. Stones, Which Gender is More Concerned About Transgender Women in Female Bathrooms?, Gender Issues (2016). DOI: 10.1007/s12147-016-9181-6
Transgenderism is a controversial topic about which opinions vary greatly. It also has practical implications. In the USA, for example, so-called "bathroom bills" are being considered. These bills will have to decide whether transgender people are allowed to use facilities that are in line with their current gender identity, or should rather go to ones set aside for the sex they were registered as at birth. Some people feel that allowing the former will cross a societal boundary, and legislators cite concerns about the safety and privacy of the women and children with whom transgender females would be sharing a bathroom.
Dr. Stones analyzed 1,035 comments posted by readers of 190 related online news articles to gauge public opinion about the presence of transgender females in women's only bathrooms. Men were found to be around 1.55 times more likely to express safety and privacy concerns than the very women who would be sharing facilities with transgender females. Women were much less likely to comment on news articles related to the topic, and when they did they used muted, less intense phrases. Women were much more concerned about the possible presence of so-called 'perverts' who pose as transgender females.
Stones says that male transphobia is linked to the male gender role of protector. It is reflected in comments such as, "'I don't want some guy-turned-girl in a restroom while my wife is in there" and, "I have a teenage daughter and I demand that her privacy be protected from a gender-confused pervert that may walk in on her while she's in the restroom!" She theorizes that the concerns expressed by men in their online comments are also rooted in how they view transgender females. They see them not as women, but still as men who are just lying or are merely mistaken about their gender identity.
Consequently they view themselves as protecting females from these males intruding into private, female-only spaces. This may be further exacerbated by a fear of deception and a belief that transgender people are mentally ill or 'sick'.
--Stones
Comments
Women are at risk from cis men, not trans women
If any of these transphobes really cared about women and girls, they'd treat rape and assault as major issues, instead of the "boys will be boys" crap they spew instead.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
So true, blazinAZ. If
So true, blazinAZ. If cognitive dissonance were terminal, we'd be rid of the lot of them. Oops, well that's a pretty uncharitable way of expressing it, especially considering the holiday season, but I'm so sick of the chest-thumping disguised as "concern for the little womenfolks' well-being." Bleah! (No actual harm is wished to the 21st century Neanderthals referenced at this time of year or any other. Instead, may they develop the capacity for sympathy, support, and the ability to follow the logic of their expressed concerns as you have demonstrated.)
Just what do they think they are protecting me from?
Personally, as a women, I would prefer not to share the ladies room with some bearded trans man. Even if he is a very nice guy. Let him go to the mens room where we both feel he belongs.
Yes
In the fearmongering about trans women in women's restrooms, what often gets lost is the question of trans men in women's restrooms. I'm not saying trans men are dangerous. I'm saying they're men -- no matter what their birth certificate says -- and they should not be in women's restrooms.
Trans women are women. Trans men are men.
What also gets lost is that the true risk in public bathrooms is for the trans person. Trans people are not the ones who are the aggressors. They are more often the victims of cis men's violence and hostility. Trans women being forced to use a men's bathroom will be at huge risk of both anti-woman and anti-trans violence. That is not OK.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
I had this discussion with a female friend
who's a little less open minded than I am, but not far off. When I told her that to think of any man who's transitioned to female attire but not yet had surgery perhaps, do you really think that woman is going to expose herself to possible ridicule in the open, by what, peeing in the sink? I don't think so. And there aren't urinals in women's rooms, we all go into the little stall anyway and don't see a thing. It would bother me if that woman still looked like a guy, but what's to stop a real guy, a rapist maybe, from hiding out in a public restroom?
I think people get way too excited about this and think somehow they're personally threatened when I'd bet money that most would not really even KNOW for sure that is a person who's transgender. I've seen a few men in my time dressed and made up as women who were in progress, and I had a real hard time "telling" that it wasn't a woman by birth.
And I could see that for men this is a more difficult thing as they've been socialized to feel they need to protect. At least most of them, the non-abusive ones. But there are days I want to ask people why in hell they worry about this so much? What business is it of mine or anyone's as long as no one is getting hurt? But "we" as Americans, as much as we bray about freedom, seem to have a real hard time with allowing others to have it and mind our own damned business.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Academic Credentials "versus" Expertise
Awesome contribution, as usual, Robyn. but, I do feel the need to pick a few nits.
Academics tend to get "pigeonholed" more than is appropriate given the nature of academic culture. I do not know Dr. Stones, so I have no basis upon which I can evaluate her expertise. I do know that Dr. Stones' paper, "Which Gender is More Concerned About Transgender Women in Female Bathrooms?" published in Gender Issues may not be as far from her area of expertise as you might expect. I know this from my own personal experience: The range of my academic expertise is not constrained, or defined by my academic credentials.
I certainly understand about expertise.
My phD was as an algebraist, but I also have taught college level programming and done research in gender theory.
I intended to highlight the rhetorical effect of the comment.
Sorry, my, "as you might expect.", was heavy handed, and unwarranted.
This particular "bur under my saddle" stems from many years of dealing with "academic" administrators imported from corporate culture insinuating departmental compartmentalization into the University environment.
I have to say
I was a bit taken aback, just last week, when I encountered my first trans-at-the-urinal experience. At least the first that I know of. s/he zipped up, splashed fingertips and headed for the exit without saying a word, so, mouthy me said, "have a good day... " s/he turned quickly, flashed a smile, and out the door s/he went. I would have though s/he would have prefered the ladies room, but maybe just taking advantage of the dangler while s/he still has one. Or, hell, maybe just a straight babe striking a pose at the urinal? I wonder which locker room /shower s/he would prefer? Trans in a Trump world. Talk about living in "interesting" times.
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