Our disdain for Sall is only because her idea of liberating women throws trans people under the bus Women absolutely deserve safe spaces free from harassment, threats, and claims of "not all men!" Claims that trans women jeopardize that in any way whatsoever is not only bigoted, but actively reinforces patriarchal gender roles.

As a man, I cannot speak to the experience of women, nor will I use "as a brother, son" as the only way I can empathize with women. My view of womanhood is secondhand, by reading feminist theory and listening to women who feel comfortable enough to confide in me.

Men's culture is loaded with misogynistic attempts to misgender men as women to insult them. Calling me a woman by saying "dude you're a bitch/pussy" is much less hurtful to me than to a woman, let alone trans people. The man's idea of insulting someone is just saying they're a woman. It has left me knowing that men's liberation is inextricably tied to the liberation of women & destruction of the gender expectations that leave us all feeling inadequate.

Many of the points Sall raises are absolutely valid and affect all women. Harassment, threats, and violence against women are widespread and a scourge on our society. No doubt she faces these regularly explicitly for being a woman. We take no issue with acknowledging this & our contributions to this culture. We do take issue with not only denying that trans women experience also these hostilities, but also pretending that those very hostilities are a result of the very presence of trans women.

I will never experience living in fear of sexual violence. I know women must just to avoid the onslaught of sexual advancements of predatory men. Trans women face this constant abuse from men because they are women!

Sall if you read this, please understand that when you say your app is for "females" our trans friends get an even greater feeling of inadequacy from knowing that society refuses to recognize them as the people they truly are.

When you misgender them or imply they are not real women by disguising it with not-so-clever language, you are saying that they will not find refuse anywhere, not in society and not in women's spaces. You implicitly tell them self proclaimed "feminists" will sell them out because some may see trans liberation as jeopardizing theirs.

Do you think they feel any different when you tell them that their struggles with womanhood are not valid than when a man dismisses yours? Do you not see how this is "all lives matter"ing the trans community?

The hostility you face here is precisely because you make them feel unsafe elsewhere. WE REFUSE TO LET TRANS PEOPLE FEEL UNSAFE HERE, AND WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN! I will not feel ashamed about wishing harm to bigots that hurt my friends. If every rich, white girlboss CEO and their terf friends feel unwelcome here...good. The bullying will cease when the bigotry does. We could be allies, but you chose alienating people more marginalized than yourself to put money in your own pocket.

You can lie and distort my views and intentions as much as you want. Fine. I'm okay with being slandered. But don't you dare bludgeon trans people by implying that support for trans rights is just a thin veil for misogyny! We are unabashed intersectional feminists here. You can claim our opposition to bigotry is bigotry, but we welcome all women here. All we want is for you to stop antagonizing trans women.

Just like other capitalists, you profit off of dividing and exploiting along whatever divides you can. You'll call us misogynists, but a cursory look would show we share the same disdain for the other exploiters and bigots. Search "Bezos" or "Zuckerberg" on this site. Do you think we'd be nicer to them if they took our comments and used them to advocate for bigotry?

When women speak about empowerment, do they imagine being spied on 24/7 to be sold products? Are your advertisers going to be selling $8 pink lavender-scented men's body wash? When your lady devs demand being paid a man's salary, how hard will you resist? What steps have you taken to guarantee your AI can recognize black women as accurately as white women? Are the VCs funding you women or are you exploiting women's labor to enrich more white dudes? It is not our community feigning support for feminism and social justice to excuse our transgressions. It is you.

Maybe we should build an alternative with open source software under the direction of the women of chapo chat. Copy, paste, change some CSS, recruit some women with experience moderating communities, make some posts on feminist communities on reddit & tumblr.

/rant