About

My pseudonym is Deirdre Bell.  I am staying pseudonymous on this blog due to having received threats and insults repeatedly (from anonymous transgender people) after stating my opinion that trans women can manifest male privilege.

I have studied the history of America, American Indians, and First Nations people as part of my educational background.  I am white and have white privilege, as well as privilege from having come from a working class household rather than a background involving homelessness or routine food deprivation.  I was a victim of extensive emotional and physical child abuse, and have worked in several contexts in the sex trade, including as a prostitute and as a phone sex operator.  I believe in the existence of sex based oppression, and that even supposedly “gender neutral” policies can reinforce sex oppression.

While I believe that there are issues where our society needs to discuss the role of trans people and whether their identities create problematic issues of appropriation, pronoun use is not one of those issues.  I will always endeavor to use the pronoun people prefer to have used for themselves–a choice which is made out of respect and an acknowledgement that, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, using preferred pronouns neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

I hope you enjoy the blog.  I hope that even if you hate it, you’ll interact respectfully with both me and the commenters here.