Here’s a partial list of some reasons why radical feminist activism/theory and trans activism/theory frequently do not go well together. Radical feminists don’t hate trans women, we just have very different goals.

— Trans activism fights for trans women’s “right” to access feminine accouterments. Radical feminist activism fights for females’ right to not have femininity forced upon us from birth.

— Trans activism supports use of plastic surgery and medical industries as a means for accomplishing a highly gendered physical appearance. Radical feminist activism is against the use of such measures as they reinforce the idea that women “should” look certain ways or have certain body parts; radical feminism critiques reliance on patriarchal medical establishments. (Also, trans politics is at odds with the fat acceptance movement for similar reasons.)

— Trans activism supports male people having surgery to construct genitals resembling a vagina and vulva. Radical feminists point out how surgically creating a cavity in a male and calling it a vagina is insulting for the following reasons: it poses vaginas solely as penetration objects (neovaginas don’t give a person the risk of pregnancy, cervical cancer, etc… neovaginas must be penetrated in order to sustain them); vaginas cannot be constructed (they are an organ of their own, not an inversion of a penis).

— Trans politics treats gender as an essential characteristic which every human has; gender is an “identity”. Radical feminism wants to abolish gender; gender is a role (not an identity), constructed through notions of ‘feminine’ characteristics and ‘masculine’ characteristics; gender is a system of violence, not ‘expression’. [Bonus de-colonial feminist framework!: gender is a violent, colonial concept thoroughly involved in the racial dehumanization of non-white peoples.]

Three times a week, Real Bronx Tours takes riders — mainly white Europeans and Australians — on a trip that includes stops at food-pantry lines and a “pickpocket” park.

Last week, on the first stop of the $45 tour, guide Lynn Battaglia, from Pittsburgh, pointed out a housing project. She then mocked the Grand Concourse, modeled after a Parisian boulevard.

“Do you feel like we’re on the Champs-Elysées?” she teased a couple from Paris.

As the bus idled across from historic St. Ann’s Episcopalian Church, Battaglia launched into a description of the crime, poverty and violence that plagued the South Bronx during the 1970s recession.

…

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz slammed the guide as “the biggest fool on the planet.”

“They should tell people about The Bronx that we all know, and that’s The Bronx that’s had the lowest crime rate since 1963 last year,” he said.

“To have foreigners come and gawk at a long line of people who are less fortunate than they are and to make money off of that and to view them as they are some sort of entertainment is pretty disgusting.”