One of her pet peeves

Kate Manne again:

Cis women confusing “erasure” with not being at the center of a discourse is fast becoming one of my pet peeves. Why not be inclusive of everyone who menstruates? There is no good reason. Obviously.

Women who purport to be feminists who talk contemptuously about “cis women” have been one of my pet peeves for years now.

You cannot do that and be a feminist – it makes no sense. Women are subordinated and dominated and treated with contempt because they are women, so using a hostile neo-label for them that means actual women as opposed to men pretending to be women cannot possibly be combined with advocating an end to that subordination and domination. Women do not derive “privilege” from being actual women as opposed to pretend women; women derive second-class status and misogyny and violence from being actual women as opposed to pretend women.

The people who menstruate are women and girls. Women and girls are shunned and persecuted still, to this day, in many parts of the world because and when they menstruate. Menstruation is part of the reproductive equipment that so many people think has to be harshly controlled and monitored, and thus part of why women are kept out of school and work, in concealing garments and purdah, from making their own decisions and deciding how to live their own lives. If some women decide they want to escape all that by “identifying as” men, let them, but that’s not a reason to start pretending that menstruation is an issue for men and boys as well as girls and women. It isn’t.

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