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Being a TRA as Male Privilege
I had an interesting discussion last night that made me realize, and convey to a TRA friend that their ability to hold that position is from a place of male privilege.
My very good friend of 20 years is an aggressive TRA. He is a heterosexual white male, but rocks the "You can pee next to me" shirts and the trans flag emblems/pins/stickers in visible places, and reads and listens to a great deal of TRA material.
Last night we had a discussion about the bathroom question over a bottle of wine, and got into the the subject of my TIF stepdaughter not being able to identify out of oppression. She would be exactly as vulnerable as I am to predators regardless of how she identifies. "I'm a man" is not a get-out-of-vulnerability-free card as she seems to think it is. This led us to the topic of bathroom use.
We established that he is not threatened by TIFs in the restroom because, well, they're women. And he's not threatened by TIMs in the restroom because, well, he's a man. I realized, and got him to actually agree that being able to sport the "You can pee next to me" shirts is because he's in a position of male privilege (which he can't identify out of), and does not have the same vulnerabilities that women do.
I don't think he will peak any time soon, but I'm happy that I got someone to look at things from a different point of view.
Awwww. Sad.