On oppression and statistics. Reblogging for the comments.
The average lifespan of a trans* woman of colour is mid-twenties.
The average lifespan of a cis woman is around 70.
No, you aren’t more fucking oppressed than trans* women, white cis women. Shut the fuck up.
Sweety darling, the only group of people I’ve ever seen use the term “more oppressed” are the trans horde on tumblr.
Stop playing oppression olympics.
Also, you can’t take a random lifespan statistic and use it to make the case that one group is more oppressed than the other; life expectancies and statistics do not actually work that way. Globally, women’s life expectancy is higher than that of men; this is not an indicator that men are overwhelmingly oppressed by women. Females of most animal species typically live longer than the males; there is no single explanation to account for the difference, though most of the current theories are based on genetic differences.
Such statistics are useful in illustrating the long-term effects of oppression vis-a-vis the oppressive class — as is the case, for example, with Black and white populations in the United States. The numbers describe an aspect of the racial struggle rather than define the entirety of it: the people with the highest life expectancy in the United States are not white but Hispanic. This doesn’t even remotely mean that white people are oppressed by Hispanic people.
The people murdering trans* women are cis heterosexual men. The establishments and societal dogma that drive trans* women of colour to suicide are upheld and enabled by powerful white men; these things also harm ALL women. Blaming women “by association” while consistently choosing to ignore the actual perpetrators of oppression is nothing but misogyny.
(I know it’s ridiculous to try and actually reason with any of these people, but flagrant abuse of statistical data is flagrant.)
Well said. Bolded that bit because, well, it needed to be bolded.
(Source: ileolai)
