Subtle Misinformation: The Joys of Modern Transphobia
Hatred isn't a feeling I'm often attracted to, but when reading the disgusting, transphobic, hateful rhetoric of J.K. Rowling, Helen Joyce, and Germaine Greer it's hard not to reflect a little of the hate they radiate.
I was watching a clip from the British TV show Good Morning Britain, ironically this evening, in which the presenters (Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid) are discussing J.K. Rowling's (at the time) new, allegedly transphobic, tweet, which read:
'People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word foor those people. Somebody help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woodmud?
Isn't that a jolly little thing to laugh about! J.K. has observed that the woke left is using accurate terminology for, literally, people who menstruate, and she's decided that's bad because she's a transphobe. Anyways they've invited fellow bigot, Professor Kathleen Stock to speak on the issue, captioned as an 'Author and philosopher, University of Sussex.' Actually, the University of Sussex employed her as a Professor of Philosophy, so not really - and c'mon, anyone can be an author. I'm becoming an author in writing these very words, which I promise is taxing only to my psyche. I say 'employed' past tense because she actually got fired for being a massive transphobe in 2021. The pleasures of writing from the future are just immense. She says:
Menstuators is not a natural term in english that most people are familiar with - everyone is familiar with women; girl, not all women menstruate, but noone ever thought they did. So for decades, centuries, we've been able to talk about women and girls without thinking that we must have the term that describes exactly that demographic [boring, incoherrent babble] but we've got a rough n' ready generalisation that covers... (cut off my Piers' shouty complaints)
Literally, any data would be really appreciated, although TERFs aren't normally very receptive to requests for actual evidence. Also, Dr Stock got her B.A. in French and Philosophy and her PhD in Philosophy, so I don't think she's even qualified to give a trustworthy sociolinguistic evaluation of the use of the word 'femmes' in French let alone 'women' in English. I'll admit, I don't go around talking about 'people who menstruate' but that's because my job doesn't revolve around talking about abortion access or female (not women's) sexual health. If it did, 'people who menstruate' is truly the best option, because I'm not even talking about all women. I'm literally talking about 'people who menstruate,' regardless of how that person might choose to identify, I'm genuinely catering only to those to menstruate, and purposely excluding women who don't. Piers Morgan replies:
I'm absolutley with the trans... uhh... rights groups, when it comes to their battle for equality - I am for everybody. Y'know any marginalised group, right to the point though, when it clearly damages women's rights [...] I'm talking about women born to biological female bodies and not trans women. [...] The trans lobby want to be called women - or men if they go the other way - and in doing so, it seems to me, creating this firestorm, where many women feel they are now being marginalised.
I'm going to brush swiftly past the 'or men if they go the other way' and Piers' general ignorance of non-binary people and the queer community in general because I think he's coming from a good place. Remember, it's 2020, Piers hasn't quite lost it yet. I think he's drunk a little bit too much of Dr. Stock's TERF juice, though, and he's come to see the furthering of trans rights at odds with the furthering of women's rights. Piers has decided that something that furthers trans rights must negatively affect women because trans people aren't women, which is false. Something that uplifts the trans community must also uplift women because many trans people are women. It's the whole foundation of transfeminism, that the bettering of trans rights and women's rights are both essential, as both groups have shared members. Women absolutely do feel marginalised, but they aren't being marginalised (by this issue.) In the words of famous transphobe and all-around idiot Ben Shapiro 'facts don't care about your feelings,' and neither do I. I don't give a damn if women feel pressed for positive developments in the trans community because their feelings are a product of their transphobia. I don't care if transphobic women feel that trans women 'invading' their spaces makes them feel unsafe because factually, they shouldn't feel like that, nothing bad has ever happened! I think one of the biggest problems in combatting transphobia as a cis person is acknowledging that society is institutionally transphobic, and a lot of people you love are transphobic too, but it helps to recognise that these people don't hate trans people - that's not what transphobia is - they're just scared, and it's absolutely your duty to educate them on the behalf of trans people. Dr. Stock continues:
Yes, Absolutley! The government and all the political parties at the moment, up until the weekend anyway, seemed really on board with the idea, that it's gender identify - that's feelings of being a woman or a man - should beat sex in any context when one of them has to be important so single-sex spaces or umm... how we call or speak to each other, or prisons, so, there's lots and lots of issues that impact directly upon 51% of the population, and yet so far they haven't had really a proper say in how all this is being arraned, and I think [J.K. Rowling] was paying attention to that, and I think that's very important.
So, here Dr. Stock seems primarily ecstatic that she's found an echo chamber to be transphobic in, a safe space if you will. Here she's talking about gender, and she's mixing that up with sex - they've very similar and yet quintessentially different things. Sex is biological, and refers to our reproductive organs and genetics, and different sexes include Female, Male, Intersex, and more - very cool non-binary person, trans activist, medical doctor, and sexologist Dr. Esben Benestad observed SEVEN unique sexes in humans. Sex is primarily a medical definition, and isn't influenced at all by our identity or feelings. Gender, however, is the socially constructed role that people may choose to identify with. Some genders included men, women, and non-binary people. It is neither binary nor static and can change. When Dr. Stock describes 'single-sex spaces' she's actually describing single-gender spaces, like most bathrooms - although she probably wishes they were actually single-sex. She's complaining because she thinks that the government (BoJo at the time) believes in gender over sex when processing people in the prison system, using preferred pronouns in official capacities, and policing single-gender bathrooms. Whilst this is technically true from a policy perspective, it's almost comical to imagine Dr. Stock earnestly believing that Boris Johnson's Conservative Government were of the belief that Gender holds more socio-political capital that Sex. Dr. Stock's worry is that trans people are invading women's spaces - which they absolutely are. The only difference is that I see women invading women-only spaces, and I think 'this is normal, logical, and safe.' and she's a transphobic TERF who needs highlights and a bob.
When will philosophy professors stop talking about biology and sociology like its politics, none of which they are experts in.
07/11/2022
by Frankie E.J. Robinson
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