J K Rowling and the trans furore

If you go just by violence, then you aren’t necessarily getting the whole picture. Major incidents will be reported. But what about behaviors like leering? We have a whole thread going on about catcalls where women say it makes them uncomfortable and men are saying it’s no big deal to give complements. But how many of those incidents get reported? Are those things a problem if we don’t hear about them?

I’ve mentioned many times about the men creepers in the men’s locker room and how nothing can be done about them. For me it’s just a nuisance, but I would imagine that a woman would legitimately feel fearful if a male-looking person was checking them out when they were naked and alone in a locker room. And if the woman felt that the front desk would blame her for being a prude, I would expect she would just not deal with it and not use the locker room again. Just because the leering person didn’t attack her does not mean the behavior is okay.

But I suspect one reason we don’t hear about these kinds of incidents is that the presence of an XY person in a traditionally female space is rare anyway. Transwomen are just a small percentage of the population, so they are only going to make up a small percentage of people in these spaces. And if most transwomen act appropriately, most of the time it won’t be a problem. I don’t think that there’s something magical that makes transwomen never be creepers. There are men creepers in the men’s locker room. I see no reason that some transwomen wouldn’t also be creepers. If 1% of the men in the men’s locker room are creepers, then I wouldn’t be surprised if 1% of the transwomen are also creepers. But since transwomen make up such a small percentage of the locker room population, it’s going to be 1% of 1% or something which are transwomen creepers in the locker room. So it will likely be very rare and not likely to be reported when it happens.