Originally a comment by maddog on Anyone with any sense.
If non-macho men use men’s toilets, they will be subjected to humiliation, abuse, and violence.
It’s always been that way. Smaller boys/men, geeks, effeminate guys, brainiacs, gay men, goths, hippies — all of these and others, who don’t perform macho masculinity, have been humiliated, abused, and violently assaulted. Yet, in no other case did society decide that protecting vulnerable men should be achieved by shoving the men into the women’s room.
It’s exactly the same problem:
men beat up other men. In every other instance, the men have had to sort things out themselves. There’s no earthly reason why this case should be any different. It’s not women’s problem.
It’s not as if there is a clear line of demarcation between the victims of men’s abuse, and the men who abuse others. There are plenty of men who have experienced both sides. Just because a man has been a victim of male abuse doesn’t mean he is not an abuser himself. Male victims of male abuse are not cleansed of all capacity to be abusers themselves. They’re not automatically “safe” non-abusive men.
Societies are often organized by hierarchies: A is bigger, and beats up B; B in turn bullies C and D, and so on. The same could apply here. If trans women are targets of alpha-male abuse, trans women could plausibly be expected to bully weaker people in the hierarchy. Who are men always superior to? Why, women, of course. What makes anyone think that the same dynamic won’t play out between the men (trans women) and the women?
But, is OJ’s premise even true? Is the danger for trans women in men’s spaces really that inevitable? One result of MSM’s slavish devotion to T, that a lot more people know about trans women than they did 10 years ago. T’s insistence on being the center of attention — all T, all the time — means that people are aware of what trans women look like, in all their twisted-face, angry, shouty glory. And they’ve seen Harry Styles in a glossy mag photo shoot in a dress. So men should be perfectly prepared for trans women in the men’s room.
I don’t know if anybody has the statistics on how often trans women get attacked in men’s bathrooms. I’d like to see some data before I take it as an article of faith that trans identified men are at substantially greater risk of male violence than other men.
The TRAs scream at women to just “live and let live!” Try screaming at the men instead. That’s who need to learn that skill: the men. Let them “live and let live” with each other.
And, in the last few decades, I think a lot of men have learned a thing or two about coexisting with people who are different from themselves. Maybe it’s not as automatically scary as the TIMs assume.
In any case, men have a much better chance of defending themselves against other men than women do of protecting themselves against men. If the trans women are really afraid, maybe they should take the steps commonly recommended to women:
-take self-defense classes
-practice situational awareness: don’t walk around with your earbuds in, maybe check the men’s room to make sure it’s empty before you go in
-don’t dress provocatively; maybe pornified drag is not your best look for going out in public
-carry pepper spray, or carry your keys between your fingers
-if you’re really scared, there is strength in numbers; get another man to go in with you
– if they are really scared, just reassure them that you are indeed a trans woman, and that you are where you belong.
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