And, sure, she is kinda a bitch, that's true. But, to be honest, so am I sometimes.
It's like what I told another trans woman before the election, who promptly unfriended and blocked me. What I said, incidentally, was told to me by a cis woman when I was going through a crisis--because she believed I was too nice--and I really took it to heart: Woman up. Being a women (as opposed to simply being a girl) is being real, being powerful, and even being in-your-face scary when necessary. This is why the Hilary/Trump dilemma was such tough a pick. There was nothing authentic coming off that woman.
As for Blaire. What else? I haven't particularly cared for a lot of her political attitudes, I can say that. She's center right, I'm center left.
But...
Apart from that, I can't really say there's anything that incorrect or wrong with the things she's saying. I can't fault her, not one bit. Because in the end, I agree.
I feel like maybe she kind of has a poor grasp on the actual neurological research and the findings of the scientific community regarding sex and gender, as well as a poor understanding of gender in other cultures.
But, as far as advocating binary gender roles in our own Western culture, she's absolutely right. Here she's actually fighting for trans men and trans women, not "trans" wannabe-dyphoric-but-would-never-actually-be-diagnosed-by-a-professional-as-suches. Just LOL.
Sound's pretty harsh? Sure. A little confusing? Yeah, that's the idea.
Honestly it's not, in the end. It's actually extremely important, especially in our current political climate. And I'll get to that...
Blaire does seem kind of new to the transitioning game, despite how pretty she is, just because she does seem a bit clueless about the previous decades. Back when medical intervention was barely ever available, and doctors forced you to publicly crossdress just so you could finally be prescribed hormone replacement. When I started to come out five years ago, there were still horror stories about doctors that strictly adhered to old WPATH standards. We are not that far from that... it hasn't been that long since WPATH standards were redrawn, and even shorter since doctors slowly decided to accept them. But I do think maybe we are far enough at this point, seeing where things are going now...
And that's the point. People can keep all their extra gender identities/expressions as long as they don't expect an entire culture to create new language for them. As long as they don't detract from the people dealing with serious levels of dysphoria, which requires counseling and often medical intervention.
In actual gender dysphoria, there are some neurological influences and some cultural ones--both nature and nurture--but the only thing we really understand fully about gender dysphoria, is that gender dysphoria happens, there are specific symptoms, and finally, transitioning and HRT are the most viable medical responses that have been found.
However, that all fits into a binary culture. It has to. It wouldn't happen otherwise. And you cannot try to force non-binary gender roles and pronouns on a binary culture any more than you can force binary gender roles on a culture that reveres more than two genders. In the end, that's nothing more than politics. It's feminism, pretending to be egalitarian, hijacking a rare but serious medical condition, to further their own cause.
The feminist, SJW, and LGB movements helped trans people and their struggles be recognized across the nation, but some in those groups obviously expect something back from us, something that we just aren't equipped to give them. At least I can't, not with my brain still in tact. It's plain unethical. I don't think my diagnosis should be expanded to include everyone.
Transitioning usually seems to help you see more options in the gender spectrum. At first I thought Blaire didn't, or her transition was so seamless that it didn't. But in her last video, she even remarked that she didn't feel entirely female. It's just that "woman" fits better than anything else for her.
So again, you can't expand the gender dysphoria diagnosis to include everyone, especially when there are trans men and women out there that still need that diagnosis very desperately. Non-binary "dysphoria" doesn't make sense at best, and feels like a mockery at worst. Like I said, transitioning many times brings us to see and accept the underlying non-binary nature in the world and in ourselves. But it's a slow process. It's an even slower process for cultures. In fact, it may never be a thing, and I really do believe that's OK. Surely it's far more important that we stand up for a culture's right to exist, while at the same time caring for the outliers that feel burdened by it. Feminists and SJWs can't go around supporting Islamic culture, while at the same time trying to defame binary culture. That doesn't follow.
If we are all going to survive the turmoil in of our political climate for the next four years, I think it is imperative that the significantly smaller voices of trans men and trans women make a distinction for themselves. Because non-binary people are not going to be the ones that end up hurt or killed or in cells, when binary culture seriously fights back. It will be true transsexuals, like myself, who pay the price. So it's important for trans women and trans men to say, "Hey, trans people are men and women. We're not trying to force anyone to change those values... We just have gender dysphoria, which is a real, treatable thing, with plenty of research behind it."
And, yeah. This is why I have to say something.