I am gonna get downvoted by the TERFs for saying this but I don't give a shit: I think that TERFs' (and Blanchard's) insistence that women do not get off at the image of themselves as women is total nonsense and wishful thinking. TERFs' wishful thinking about this is just evidence of the TERFs' own Madonna/whore complex, where cis women are all Madonnas and trannies are all whores. TERFs will bend over backwards and into a Pretzel to deny the fact that oversexed female narcissists truly honestly and unambiguously do get off at their self-image as sexual women, and that there are gradations of this amongst women in general.
I find it very telling that TERFs, in attempting to debunk the idea of women getting off at their self-image, will refer to a woman wearing lingerie, like garter belts and a wonder bra, and insist that a woman getting wet at seeing herself in the mirror or seeing a picture of herself in garter belts and a wonder bra is only getting aroused because The Man/The Patriarchy has brain-washed and Pavlov-trained women that garter belts and wonder bras are
supposed to be sexy and arousing, so that women is only
having a Pavlovian response. Perhaps so, but what about women being asked to look at their own pussies in the mirror (or on a smartphone) during masturbation 101? Did The Patriarchy brainwash women that looking at their own pussies in the mirror (or on their smartphone) is arousing? Or do women honestly sincerely get off at looking at themselves because it's something you're not supposed to see (if only for anatomical reasons)? I am sure TERFs are going to say "that's just to teach them anatomy", but bitches, you know that's bull. During these masturbation workshops, women are not only encouraged to look at their pussies in the mirror/on a smartphone in order to learn the different parts, but rather
to marvel at the reflected image of their own pussies, in other words, to get off looking at themselves being sexually exposed and aroused. Only a TERF would seriously insist that women supposedly only have a purely technical/fuctional view of their own pussies.
TERFs can only emphasize with a completely desexualized woman and any hint of self-indulgent sexuality on the part of a woman is explained away by TERFs as that woman only putting on a show for The Man. TERFs insist that women have no idea what they want sexually outside of whatever The Patriarchy has brainwashed them to want, and TERFs insist that women only learn how to make themselves available and servicable to men, not how to get themselves off by themselves for themselves.
I don't think any woman in her right mind would ever honestly answer the question of whether she gets off at her own self-image with an affirmative "yes", because women know how self-indulgent vanity on the part of a woman is only praised and awarded in some women (young, beautiful and slim) while mocked and looked down upon in other women (old, fat, ugly). The fact is that only certain women are encouraged to be exhibitionistic, and even those women would downplay it because they know that too much self-indulgent vanity on the part of a woman is punished by society.
With regards to TERFs' insistence that regular women never get off at themselves as women, I think TERFs like to forget that regular women do not have the inhibitions or hang-up about sex that TERFs have, so these women are more likely to flaunt it where TERFs don't see it. TERFs have this extremely annoying habit of expecting all women to be as self-conscious as themselves (
this comment thread is a perfect example of that, with TERFs all piling in to insisting that no woman has ever masturbated in a public bathroom
or even in their own bathroom).
I think TERFs only hang out with other TERFs and this echo-chamber shields them from just how narcissistic, exhibitionistic and over-sexed regular women can get when they feel like they can get away with it or when they feel like this behaviour on their part is going to be positively received. Because of their isolation from non-feminist women TERFs only deal with images of women and this distorts their perception of women outside their echo-chamber.
I think TERFs are extremely invested in their desexualization of other women because they have internalized the sexist idea that only a completely desexualized woman is worthy of protection and credible victim status under law. Instead of challenging this ridiculous assumption on the part of the legal system TERFs have accepted and internalized it. TERFs want that legal protection for themselves but they will desexualize women in general to claim blanket-protection for their "class".
Suffice to say no self-respecting women would ever entrust a TERF (or Blanchard for that matter) with their true sexual desires or sexual ambitions because why the hell would a woman confess these things to a judgemental crank who is going to call her a "cum bucket" and a "HOP" for being sexual? It's therefore plainly ridiculous to expect TERFs to know what women really want or how women really feel about themselves sexually.
That said, a male fetishist getting off while cross-dressing in feminine fetish wear and LARPing at being a stereotypically horny woman is obviously not the same thing as a woman just being openly sexual, even exhibitionistically or narcissistically so. Only delusional TRAs like Julia Serano insist that's these two different things are supposedly same thing, but then again, I guess this is why Julia Serano divorced his wife within a year of transitioning. Because he really has no fucking clue about women, even while claiming to be one.
