People who propose that racism and sexism are over. People that replace analysis with... nothing. I am driven to despair - I thought you better, Bay 12. I thought you better.
No one said sexism or racism is over. The major argument you are referring to is the belief that sexism or racism has gotten to the point where it is repairing itself without the need for radical action.
Except nobody really said that either, and the post is just condemning the entire community for a perceived case of wrongthinking. Frustrating.
That pretending to be a woman is the important part here, and not somebody attempting to manipulate/scam people. This points to the underlying entitlement issues men have over women in that "gifts" are assumed to lead to sex or romantic favor. It's pretty manipulative in itself to give people stuff in an attempt to "purchase" access of their body or affection when there isn't a clean line being drawn about what is expected of the situation.
Chivalry and traditional dating procedure are awful. We're taught to be gentle and kind to girls "because they're weak and emotional". We're taught to pay for dates and buy gifts (at regular culturally-proscribed intervals) because "men are suitors who must earn attention from women, who don't earn money". It's all very backwards, and it trains us to believe those false rationales.
I wouldn't say anyone who gets indoctrinated that way is "manipulative" so much as "an upstanding member of a diseased society who tries to do the right things as he's been taught". But we do agree that the whole mess is terrible and we need awareness about it, to change it.
A woman (cis or trans) could also manipulate people in the fashion feared, but it's misogynistic to couch the incident in terms of her being a woman or that being a woman inherently allowed this rather than a culture that sees favors deserving affection as the status quo. The misogyny arises when people automatically assume a woman's sexuality is to obtain social advantage as if it were a commodity rather than her sexuality. There are people who attempt to seduce for benefits but it is far too often that a woman would be accused of seduction by default whereas masculine people experience almost none of that scrutiny in their sexual behavior.
I've been struggling with how to respond to this. It's really made me think about my position...
I think it just depends a lot on the community. In a truly anonymous place like 4chan, claiming to be female serves almost no purpose other than seeking the instant goodwill and attention. That's why the community there is famously "skeptical" of all women on the internet. It's not actually a denial of women, but a denial of egotistic attention-seeking.
And it's great! People can speak bluntly and on equal footing. Any respect comes from being persuasive, and is instantly lost once the conversation is deleted in a few days. So there's no place for girls, boys, PHDs, whatever. Concise argument or gtfo.
Comment sections on articles/blogs/youtube used to be the same, essentially anonymous. Without the 4chan culture of skepticism, people claimed whatever in order to "win". But, now everything's getting tied in to Google and Facebook, or to some extent Disqus, which mitigate the effectiveness of lying.
In the /tg/ Space Station 13 community, we kept elements of 4chan's culture of skepticism. People tell ridiculous stories of "their life" for laughs. Actually opening up is derided. Respect comes from either being a creative player, a fair admin, or a coder. Like on 4chan, gender - real life status in general - doesn't exist, it's a total meritocracy of masks.
One of the game admins claimed to be a retired air force officer. It was a perfect ploy for his role as a moderator and banhammer. It also worked because he played the part seriously - no claims of airstrikes or ranger teams or other nonsense. He was a somewhat severe, but reliable and unemotional administrator. He actually was. The problem was he was actually about 16, and technically shouldn't have been playing the game at all. So for over a year he maintained the charade. It actually worked out well when he revealed the truth, because he'd built up such a body of respect based on his actions... actions he wouldn't have had a chance to take if he hadn't lied initially.
People who made a fuss over being female have generally turned out to be male attention seekers (the most famous being Penny) and massive sources of drama. None of them claimed to actually be trans, that I know of.
There are a few community members who are female, though. They get female pronouns (except from a few particularly obnoxious trolls who use male ones out of disrespect) and don't make a fuss about it - just like nobody else makes a fuss about being male.
And then there's this community. It's frankly weird to see how people can be well-known, and discuss their real life, without being attention-seekers. Any more than a bunch of people trading stories at a party are seeking attention. It's *weird*, also great.
So basically I'm used to places where claiming to be female is just a ploy.