I’m going to start compiling a list of common online arguments that try and abuse transgender people. If you see a common abusive trope please let me know and it can be listed with a counterpoint. First up is the Duck Argument.
I’ve come across this argument many times, and in many forms all over forums and comments.
“If you call yourself a woman, than I’m a duck, and you have to accept that or you are being oppressive!” That flips of course if you’re a transgender man. Why most of these people go for a duck or a dragon I don’t know, maybe someone can come up with a theory on that?
Coming across this so often, I thought I write a rebuttal that can be copy/pasted (with whatever changes you want) to use against the transphobic abusive idiots that post the duck argument and its ilk.
This then is how to defeat the duck:
You conflate your supposed desire to be called a duck and its supposed validation against decades of transgender research by the worlds leading medical authorities? You reduce transgender people to nothing more than someone ‘pretending to be something they are not’. You are poorly educated and a bigot; your abuse and reductionist view of the reality of transgender people is shameful.
OK, that’s wordy, so I’d love to hear other people’s views on beating the duck argument in a way that isn’t just Duck you!
I guess “quack quack, mother f’er” is not considered a good argument. Yours looks good but it uses big words that will likely scare and annoy bigots rather than make them stop and think or either of those two. 🙁
True :/ I don’t think an easy solution exists. I just hate when people do this argument in particular.
I think it is the snark in me because I’d be hard pressed not to start treating them exactly like a duck. A trans woman is a woman and a trans man is a man. If they want to conflate and make a false equivalence that they are a trans duck then ducks shouldn’t be in the building so we’ll need to get animal control. It’s so frustrating. At least the dragon one I could say “no you’re a different mythological creature. One associated with bridges.”
I think I have the snark out of my system. Yes. I wish there was a magic set of words that would enlighten people that make stupid statements like this but I’ve never found one. 🙁