I am a trans man incarcerated in a woman’s prison where feminism is a four-letter word

jeffw@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 131 points –
I am a trans man incarcerated in a woman’s prison where feminism is a four-letter word
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Texas prison system is barbaric.

Texas prison system American incarceration industrial complex

Ftfy

We would also have accepted "Texas' system is barbaric"

So it's like a two cheeks Venn diagram of barbarism.

Okay maybe it's because it's late, but what is this four letter word for feminism?

“Four letter word” is a nice way of saying a curse word (think shit, fuck, etc). So by calling feminism a four letter word, the author is saying that the prison considers feminism a dirty word, basically.

Thank you! That was indeed my tired brain at work. The moment I read your response it went "Duh. Of course"

I was under the impression the literary device 'four letter word' typically referred to the word 'love'

That's a funny misunderstanding and probably changes the context a lot, but no, "four letter word" means a swear word.

Wikipedia has my back.

What I thought at first was "terf" though.

Although it's not about amab trans women this time, I'm still wondering if terfs would have problems with afab trans men. Probably.

Which is why the bathroom law things are so ridiculous, because then you will have trans men going to the women's bathrooms, which I thought was exactly what terfs didn't want; men in their spaces. I think quite a few trans men have been beaten up because of this.

https://www.newsweek.com/trans-man-attacked-using-womens-restroom-ohio-1723432

So, America goes from censoring curse words, to censoring the words "curse word" now? Where does this end? You all talking in riddles like a Sphinx?

Does your native language not have literary devices?

That guy has the world against him and he still stands up for a minority he isn't part of. The world needs more people like him.

Go ask the young daughter of the man he murdered or the person who’ll never see again because of him if they agree.

Oof. Didn't know he was a murderer. Fuck that guy.

Well that cop's remarks took me back a few decades

Yeah as much as I dislike the individual mentioned the news article has an overwhelming Texas flavour to it. I can almost bet the writer or officers statement to the writer lead to the “pair of lesbians” assumption.

A trans man would be far safer in a womens prison. He would get violently raped in a mens prison.

I read it but I am confused as to the point of the article. I mean I can guess the point but it just feels incomplete.

Except… wide swaths of feminism still hate him for what he/she is. Because instead of being just a man, he/she is now a man refusing to adhere to the imposed rules of what women expect a man to be. So he/she is hated by them twice as virulently.

It’s why the term TERF - trans-exclusionary radical feminism - exists. Scratch the thin veneer of most feminists hard enough, and this can be found underneath in some capacity.

I really hope he/she has a strong support network in their friends and family members. They are going to need it.

He. Not he/she. He

Also as someone who knows a huge number of feminists that are militantly anti-terf, it's categorically untrue that strict, trans exclusionary interpretations of who counts as a woman are in any way an intrinsic aspect of feminism

You're right though, he will need a strong support system, and I also hope there are folks in his corner

Hope you are well

You’re vastly overestimating the number of TERFs in the world. Assuming you accept their classification as feminists in the first place, I imagine it’s easily under 1% of those who identify as feminists. I have literally never met one irl

If you're unsure of a person's pronouns, then using 'they ' is probably a better idea than 'he/she'.

Sounds pretty shitty but I'll save my sympathy for prisoners that didn't rob and murder people

Which prisoners do you have sympathy for and why?

The nonviolent kind. People who made dumb mistakes breaking bullshit laws. It's not something I pay much attention to so I don't have a list to rattle off, but they certainly exist.

The nonviolent kind. People who made dumb mistakes breaking bullshit laws. It’s not something I pay much attention to so I don’t have a list to rattle off, but they certainly exist.

Part of the problem with this stance is that the US has a knack for also locking up innocent people.

Take this, for instance, where they coerced a confession, locked up a Dad for 8 months, and the actual perp left a pair of shoes with his name written in them at the fucking scene:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Riley_Fox

That's a valid point. I don't take anything the police or courts say at face value, but does anyone dispute that Xandan is in prison for being a violent piece of shit?

Probably Xandan. I'm not familiar at all with the case but I know the state thinks in every case every accused person is guilty and therefore we shouldn't care about their human rights any longer because they are forfeit.

But the reality is that we're all deserving of rights and basic human decency, even the worst offenders, because treating people who committed horrific crimes horribly does nothing to undo those crimes and multiplies them, and it allows anyone who has been framed for doing something awful to be treated the same way even if you think "an eye for an eye" barbary is any way to solve things, which I do not.

There are many reasons why inhumane treatment of prisoners is wrong, and the chance that the person is actually innocent is only one of those.

I agree, I'm just not interested in hearing about it from someone who is entirely focused on how bad it is for them personally unless they're claiming to be innocent or they're owning their mistakes

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Why?

Because we have a callous justice system that exists to feed slave labor to capitalists. It's not a system designed to rehabilitate or facilitate penance. It doesn't exist to benefit society at large. People who get caught up in it without actually victimizing anyone deserve sympathy at the very least.

My "why?" is asking why you don't have sympathy for those other than the ones you mentioned.

Maybe that's what you meant but that's sure not how it looks in context

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