Yes indeed: "Asking women to forgo their safety, privacy, and dignity in the name of “inclusivity” is not progressive—it’s regressive." Every part of gender ideology is regressive.
How on earth did we get to the point where tenured faculty at highly regarded universities, official statements of prominent scientific and other learned societies, top ranked corporate law firms that have for generations provided the highest cabinet and diplomatic officials, and the popular entertainers, who lots of people imagine know what they're talking about, are taken seriously by courts, legislatures, and journalists when they spout laughably false statements, ideas to which the only reasonable response is "oh, horsesh*t!"
It does give credence to the hypothesis that we are living in a simulation. When I watch someone as smart as Neil deGrasse Tyson say absolutely stupid things on gender, it makes me wonder.
Tyson is virtue signaling. He’s also lazy. He’s leaning on his scientific credentials to justify his ignorance, pretending that an astrophysicist has special inside information about all the sciences that regular people lack. Then he buys himself extra points by being kind, tolerant and understanding towards “trans women” while throwing actual women under the bus.
Sometimes a person can be highly intelligent and profoundly dumb at the same time. I also detect a generous pinch of hubris sprinkled on top.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is also, most likely, "in the club" that George Carlin famously spoke of. A member of the Freemasons or some other secret society that purposefully distorts reality for nefarious purposes.
What Carlin was referring to by "in the club" wasn't secret societies.
And it wasn't the Freemasons, who've never been known to support the trans agenda or gender ideology. If you have evidence to the contrary, feel free to present it.
Accepting transsexuals as members...hard to believe there's much interest. Usually trans is quickly bored by anything that doesn't constantly center them and their fetish. Regardless, not seeing how that translates to nefarious purposes on the part of freemasons. Especially since legally just about every group is required to "accept" these people. Even lesbian bars haven't been able to keep these men out.
Carlin was referring to the elites, the very rich, the so-called movers and shakers.
Seems improbable he's connected intellectually connected to George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and at least a third of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional Convention or to Sam Houston, Wm Travis, or so many of the defenders of the Alamo that they are believed to have held Lodge meetings during the siege. It seems to me he's more likely under the influence of the Thirteen Rabbis who meet at the Prague Cemetery every ten years to plan everything that will happen for the world, you know, like what's recorded in the Protocols. (Davos is misdirection; the Masters 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 are Skull and Bones, though some scholars think that's just a front for the deeply concealed survivors of the Templars.)
The sad truth is that we’ve always been this self-involved and stupid, it’s just the the trans issue was the perfect storm for exploiting all of our weaknesses as lefties: too much empathy, bad boundaries, trouble saying “No” when it causes hurt feelings, self-selected identity above all else in importance.
Reality was simply the last obstacle to fall in our steady progress towards Ultimate Self-Actualization.
I ‘m not convinced that someone as smart as Neal DeGrasse Tyson is as smart as Neal DeGrasse Tyson. His views on Covid protocols put him forever on my list of the intellectually—and morally—suspect.
I feel so lonely because almost all the people and institutions I used to respect are on this bandwagon. I have never before felt that my world was turning upside down. To see one of the most highly regarded science journey in the world be captured by this ideology—unbelievable.
There may be a simple explanation: people who have friends with trans kids would rather avoid the discomfort of alienating friends and family. Willfully ignorant solidarity solves that problem. It costs nothing to look the other way.
Thank you, LeAnne, for your crystal clear explanation of reality and womanhood! As always, you bring us all back down to earth with your writing! We must never let womanhood be driven by the absurd language that compels us to believe in a so-called “inclusivity.” Women are women and not a mosaic of body parts and feelings to be appropriated by men. AND we should never be afraid to say that!!
I must say, the "old fashioned red-neck misogyny" common to my youth in the 1960's - almost looks like chivalry compared to today's new hideously demeaning and regressive - "trans-misogyny." Who would have guessed that the way to "normalize" the hatred and erasure of women in supposedly "liberal" and "progressive" Western societies - would be to simply empower - validate and celebrate the very worst and most vile delusional hatred and misogyny among those "men" who've taken to wearing dresses and lipstick?
If you want to understand the money and power behind this, which explains why it is being supported from within the West's institutional structures - read Jennifer Bilek's work - her excellent book is titled: "Transexual, Transgender, Transhuman."
And sadly , it’s so-called liberals who support this. Look at what just happened to Bill S-9 to protect women in sports. It was killed by Democrats , who all voted against women’s safety!
It is absolutely surreal Gerda. I retired as a clinical social worker and therapist in 2014 out of Alaska, before this madness really took off. Since that time my profession of social work has been completely captured by gender-ideology. It is all rather Kafkaesque actually - like some kind of waking nightmare that won't end. Though I have long been an Independent politically and have always considered myself far to the left of the Democratic Party on economic and foreign policy issues of war and peace - I find their current stand on gender to be an absolute abomination. I am much more frightened of politicians who can openly support the mutilation of children's bodies - than I am of any boogiemen those politicians might conjure up in their TDS addled brains. To see the entire Democratic Party captured by this madness is truly astounding.
I agree. The Democratic Party has hitched its horse to the "crazy-wagon" - and I really don't see how it can survive this massive mistake/miscalculation. Who in their right mind would ever vote for these clowns and charlatans in any future election. I've come to the conclusion that not only do they no longer know - "what a woman is" - but they've also completely lost touch with - "what a voter is." : /
When I was a kid people would walk up to me in public and ask me if I was a boy or a girl. I mean a kid who had no expectations of what a boy or girl was. I was naturally gender nonconforming. But nothing can override biology. We need to let kids know it’s okay for boys to be effeminate and girls to be a tomboy.
We also need to let parents know that it’s okay for boys to be effeminate and girls to be a tomboy without believing that they have a problematic “trans kid”on their hands.
I am getting old. I'm 80 and sometimes do have trouble recalling some of the sesquipedalian words I know full well but rarely use, at least out loud. 😁
But one of my gravest difficulties is in trying to understand how feminists and nominally feminist organizations of long-standing have executed spectacular backflips with a double twist and landed on their feet supporting the most ancient and threadbare of sex stereotypes. I thought "feminism" had been exceptionally successful, to judge from the number of women now routinely graduating law and medical schools and rising to prominence in their professions, not to mention the visible numbers of women in less prestigious occupations such as the building trades. So what are they doing, advocating in behalf of the supposed "rights" of those suffering from a mental condition that the DSM defines by listing nothing but a catalog of old stereotypes causing "distress"? It's even more disconcerting than the prominent feminists who excused President Clinton's predation of young women subordinates.
As a gay man who had his own difficulties with that, I'm equally puzzled and personally alarmed by the number of gay men and lesbians who support what is in fact a movement that advocates what may be summarized as "trans away the gay". I try to be charitable and assume it's because they are simply ignorant of the fact that 80 to 90 percent of the youngsters showing the behaviors commonly taken as signs of "Gender Dysphoria" will mature to being perfectly ordinary gay teens. I feel no such charity for the organizations that once were strong advocates for gay equality but now are merely sock puppets for a couple of millionaire AGP fetishists. What alarms me is the evidence that the preposterous demands being made on behalf of a supposed "LGBTQIA+ community" are provoking a backlash, threatening to pull down the progress toward gay and lesbian equality along with the rejection of the nonsensical "...TQIA+” policies. When naked boys are traipsing around the girls' locker rooms, I want to know, Where are all the girl dads, especially the girl jock dads?
The greatest gift you can provide yourself is to know who you are and to be who you are.
One of my dearest friends is a very “masculine” looking woman. She dresses in men’s clothes and has been unapologetically homosexual since the age of about a week. But once she said to me, with her wonderful laugh: “Italian men are impossible! They even whistle at me!” Because she is so comfortable with herself she’s never had to think about being in the “wrong body”, the body she’s born in will be just fine.
This is such a meaningful piece of writing. Thank you. I will use this in my language to the people who work against me. Including my family. Seriously, thank you.
Great article! The only thing I disagree with—if I understand it correctly—is “… It prioritizes male feelings over female rights.” Most men do not share these feelings. Indeed, most of us have utter contempt for autogynephiles—sexual fetishists—who claim the right to enter women’s spaces. I would also argue that there’s far less tolerance for this by the majority of males than females. This is a minor nit but I thought it should be clarified.
I agree with you, Andy. Just because gender ideology is deeply woman hating doesn’t mean that it’s a men’s rights movement. It’s true the ideology demands that women give things up so that men can have the option of appropriating womanhood, and it demands absolutely nothing of men as men. Though the ideology affords men tremendous optionality, the reality is that the vast majority of men have no interest whatsoever in exercising that optionality. Many men recoil from the idea. In addition, my strong (but rebuttable) impression is that women in the aggregate support this ideology more than men do. These things don’t fit the pattern of a men’s rights movement.
Women lean towards the empathic (a much overused and misunderstood word). So it’s easier to con them into thinking “trans rights” are a positive thing. Men are more pragmatic, so it’s harder to toy with our emotions.
Moral and intellectual certitude are possibly the root of the problem. People who believe so strongly that they are “good people” and “smart people” don’t question their motives. It’s simply, “I’m a good person, therefore, whatever I do is good.”
Chest feeding isn’t about taking anything from anyone—it’s about making sure all parents who need support get what they need. The term is mostly for trans men, who don’t connect with the term breastfeeding. It also helps trans women and adoptive parents who want to bond with their baby in that way, receive education about. La Leche League exists to support feeding and nurturing, but if a space isn’t right for someone, they don’t have to join. Resources should be available to all who need them. We’ve got to stop harming and limiting others because of our fear of men. These people did not hurt us. They are trying to do life. Biological men doing patriarchy male things did.
I see what you are saying, but "if a space isn’t right for someone, they don’t have to join" in my mind translates to, "Women who are uncomfortable sharing a women-only space with men are out of luck." La Leche can take that position, to be sure, but it's no longer providing a safe space for women. And maybe the organization feels that's the direction in which it wants to move, but let's be clear about that.
Also, I am not sure that making a space women-only is necessarily about a fear of men. Last weekend I got together with my gay friends for a homo-only dinner--not because we fear straight people, but because we wanted to make a space in which we could speak freely and without worry of offending someone. I think every demographic should be able to enjoy these sorts of spaces, but those spaces must of necessity be exclusive.
I'm sure that "making a space women-only is not necessarily about a fear of men." But it depends.
In the prisons, fear of men is paralyzing. Rape, molestation, and nonstop harassment are part of a normal day for female inmates. Recidivist rapists, murderers, and child molesters have figured out that claiming a woman identity rewards them with an instant get-into-women's-jails-free card. Not required: a doctor's note, any form of medicalization, not even a history of dysphoria. It's amazing how grown men suddenly discover their trans identity after being sentenced to 20 years behind bars for raping and murdering a woman.
In sports, fear of men is also understandable. Payton McNabb, a high school volleyball player, was seriously injured by a tall trans-identified man. He jumped high into the air and spiked the ball all the way across the court right into McNabb's face. The spike was later clocked at 70 mph. McNabb suffered whiplash and fell to the floor, where she lay, unconscious, for 30 seconds. Today she has brain damage, paralysis on the right side of her body, vision issues, and cognitive impairment. She has trouble walking due to balance issues. Will she regain her ability to play sports? Dubious.
We could fill a book with the injuries and humiliations inflicted on women when men are allowed to "compete" in women’s sports. "Competing" is in quotes because when the level playing field has been corrupted, it's no longer a competition, it's an obscene joke. Then there's the loss of medals, scholarships, and advancement in their sport that occurs when just one mediocre male athlete participates in women-only athletic events.
So yes, we're afraid of men.
There's a bogus narrative that claims women's insistence on women-only spaces is a symptom of "transphobia.” That’s wrong.
The problem with trans-identified men in women's sports and prisons is not that they're trans.
I think a little of it is because of whatever is driving their desire to take and wear women's persona. Typically, men competing against women pull their punches a little bit. And, I played volleyball. Spikers are able to aim. Typically I think you're aiming for somewhere difficult to respond to but that doesn't make the head the ideal target. I haven't seen the incident, but if her face hadn't been in the way would the ball have landed in bounds or out of bounds?
I wish I could find the clip I saw of the incident. If I can locate it at some point I'll post it here.
The man in question was by far the tallest person on the court. He had the strength and agility to jump high into the air in order to make contact with the ball as it came towards him, and then he bashed that thing with impressive speed and accuracy, directly into her face. She was fairly far back from the net, maybe in the middle of her side of the net. Whether he was aiming for her face or just letting it rip, knowing that nobody would be able to return the ball, is something we can debate all day.
The speed of the ball was clocked at 70 mph. What we know for sure is that as a man with impressive size and strength advantages over the women on the court, his goal was to score a point, which he attempted to do by using all the skill he possessed. He wasn't pulling his punches, he was going for gold, the way he handled that volley ball.
So now Ms. McNabb is partially paralyzed and suffers from a range of mental and physical disabilities that will probably render her incapable of participating in sports for the rest of her life, or at least for a long time, depending on her rehab prospects.
Regardless of his motivations, the bottom line is that he didn't belong on the court in the first place. This policy enables men to humiliate and injure women and then be rewarded for doing it. Talk about perverse incentives.
So does size have anything to do with it? What about people who have had mastectomies? And sometimes people with different levels of hormones who wouldn’t have breast, but now do? These conversations can get complicated real fast and it’s not just as simple as what you just said.
But we limit people to our own experiences and understanding of things. And it’s ridiculous and inhumane.
We won’t get into the undertones of what you meant because we all know what that’s about.
No size has nothing to do with it. Biology and reality has everything to do with it and negating the feeling of women biological women even the ones who call themselves transmen.
It’s like the word “bigot” now. It’s been thrown around that much, it’s lost all meaning. My response to someone trying to silence me by calling me bigot is always, “And?”
I’d rather be a bigot over being a mindless useful idiot to the men’s rights movement.
I am a woman who spent 10 years breastfeeding my children. I am also a woman who had a double mastectomy for breast cancer. These are facts and no matter how far we try to stretch the idea that “feelings” and “inclusivity” over ride biological reality, it won’t happen. No man will ever be able to understand the hard reality of being female and inhabiting a woman’s body. The absurdity of thinking otherwise is an assault on womanhood; an assault on reality- which none of us can ever escape.
LLL was not formed to support chest feeding. Nice try. It was formed by women to support women and breast feeding. To infants who produce natural milk. Not a chemically induced fake substance that men would like us to call milk. Encouraging anyone to feed that to a vulnerable infant is, in my opinion, encouraging child abuse. Babies could die. Are a man’s feelings more important?
Additionally, men who believe they are women, are NOT women. They are not a subset of women. They are MEN. They are men performing their stereotypical belief about women. So, if they want support with chest feeding (a new category of wtf is wrong with society) then they can go form their OWN support group. AND THEY CAN STOP BARGING THEIR WAY INTO SPACES MEANT FOR THE SAFETY AND DIGNITY OF WOMEN.
Full stop. Just stop it. This is not a thing.
There are plenty of other ways to support adoptive parents that do not infringe on women’s privacy.
One of the grossest things I’ve ever seen is a video of a man who had somehow—through drugs, I suppose—been able to secret “milk” from his nipples. Feeding that to a baby is barbaric. Pure, malignant narcissism.
Now quit teaching 3-year-old girls to vamp like Madonna like the one in the photo, and we might actually make some progress with the next generation.
Yes, I’m looking at you, women. Strong women, empowered women, feminist women who I constantly have to fend off when they insist upon perpetuating the Male Gaze-prep on my unsuspecting-but-starting-to-sense-there’s-something-wrong 11-year-old.
You are the Patriarchy now. You have all the power and rights our mothers and grandmothers fought for and won for you. What are you doing with them?
I’m too pissed off to even read this article right now, but I’m commenting so I can hopefully come back later when I calm down. This is wrong. This is very sad. When I was a new mother, I attended a lot of meetings
Yes indeed: "Asking women to forgo their safety, privacy, and dignity in the name of “inclusivity” is not progressive—it’s regressive." Every part of gender ideology is regressive.
How on earth did we get to the point where tenured faculty at highly regarded universities, official statements of prominent scientific and other learned societies, top ranked corporate law firms that have for generations provided the highest cabinet and diplomatic officials, and the popular entertainers, who lots of people imagine know what they're talking about, are taken seriously by courts, legislatures, and journalists when they spout laughably false statements, ideas to which the only reasonable response is "oh, horsesh*t!"
It does give credence to the hypothesis that we are living in a simulation. When I watch someone as smart as Neil deGrasse Tyson say absolutely stupid things on gender, it makes me wonder.
Tyson is virtue signaling. He’s also lazy. He’s leaning on his scientific credentials to justify his ignorance, pretending that an astrophysicist has special inside information about all the sciences that regular people lack. Then he buys himself extra points by being kind, tolerant and understanding towards “trans women” while throwing actual women under the bus.
Sometimes a person can be highly intelligent and profoundly dumb at the same time. I also detect a generous pinch of hubris sprinkled on top.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is also, most likely, "in the club" that George Carlin famously spoke of. A member of the Freemasons or some other secret society that purposefully distorts reality for nefarious purposes.
What Carlin was referring to by "in the club" wasn't secret societies.
And it wasn't the Freemasons, who've never been known to support the trans agenda or gender ideology. If you have evidence to the contrary, feel free to present it.
It was widely reported in the mainstream media (BBC, New York Times, etc.) in 2018, Freemasons were accepting transsexuals.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45030075
If George Carlin wasn't referring to secret societies, what was he referring to?
Accepting transsexuals as members...hard to believe there's much interest. Usually trans is quickly bored by anything that doesn't constantly center them and their fetish. Regardless, not seeing how that translates to nefarious purposes on the part of freemasons. Especially since legally just about every group is required to "accept" these people. Even lesbian bars haven't been able to keep these men out.
Carlin was referring to the elites, the very rich, the so-called movers and shakers.
Seems improbable he's connected intellectually connected to George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and at least a third of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional Convention or to Sam Houston, Wm Travis, or so many of the defenders of the Alamo that they are believed to have held Lodge meetings during the siege. It seems to me he's more likely under the influence of the Thirteen Rabbis who meet at the Prague Cemetery every ten years to plan everything that will happen for the world, you know, like what's recorded in the Protocols. (Davos is misdirection; the Masters 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 are Skull and Bones, though some scholars think that's just a front for the deeply concealed survivors of the Templars.)
It’s not “ kind” to lie and to hurt women!
The sad truth is that we’ve always been this self-involved and stupid, it’s just the the trans issue was the perfect storm for exploiting all of our weaknesses as lefties: too much empathy, bad boundaries, trouble saying “No” when it causes hurt feelings, self-selected identity above all else in importance.
Reality was simply the last obstacle to fall in our steady progress towards Ultimate Self-Actualization.
I ‘m not convinced that someone as smart as Neal DeGrasse Tyson is as smart as Neal DeGrasse Tyson. His views on Covid protocols put him forever on my list of the intellectually—and morally—suspect.
I feel so lonely because almost all the people and institutions I used to respect are on this bandwagon. I have never before felt that my world was turning upside down. To see one of the most highly regarded science journey in the world be captured by this ideology—unbelievable.
There may be a simple explanation: people who have friends with trans kids would rather avoid the discomfort of alienating friends and family. Willfully ignorant solidarity solves that problem. It costs nothing to look the other way.
Money ..the green kind and the man, Money!
Thank you, LeAnne, for your crystal clear explanation of reality and womanhood! As always, you bring us all back down to earth with your writing! We must never let womanhood be driven by the absurd language that compels us to believe in a so-called “inclusivity.” Women are women and not a mosaic of body parts and feelings to be appropriated by men. AND we should never be afraid to say that!!
I appreciate your kind words as always.
I must say, the "old fashioned red-neck misogyny" common to my youth in the 1960's - almost looks like chivalry compared to today's new hideously demeaning and regressive - "trans-misogyny." Who would have guessed that the way to "normalize" the hatred and erasure of women in supposedly "liberal" and "progressive" Western societies - would be to simply empower - validate and celebrate the very worst and most vile delusional hatred and misogyny among those "men" who've taken to wearing dresses and lipstick?
If you want to understand the money and power behind this, which explains why it is being supported from within the West's institutional structures - read Jennifer Bilek's work - her excellent book is titled: "Transexual, Transgender, Transhuman."
And sadly , it’s so-called liberals who support this. Look at what just happened to Bill S-9 to protect women in sports. It was killed by Democrats , who all voted against women’s safety!
It is absolutely surreal Gerda. I retired as a clinical social worker and therapist in 2014 out of Alaska, before this madness really took off. Since that time my profession of social work has been completely captured by gender-ideology. It is all rather Kafkaesque actually - like some kind of waking nightmare that won't end. Though I have long been an Independent politically and have always considered myself far to the left of the Democratic Party on economic and foreign policy issues of war and peace - I find their current stand on gender to be an absolute abomination. I am much more frightened of politicians who can openly support the mutilation of children's bodies - than I am of any boogiemen those politicians might conjure up in their TDS addled brains. To see the entire Democratic Party captured by this madness is truly astounding.
Not only astounding but also anti-democratic! The gender ideology is authoritarian and based on lies, and the Democrats are supporting these lies .
I agree. The Democratic Party has hitched its horse to the "crazy-wagon" - and I really don't see how it can survive this massive mistake/miscalculation. Who in their right mind would ever vote for these clowns and charlatans in any future election. I've come to the conclusion that not only do they no longer know - "what a woman is" - but they've also completely lost touch with - "what a voter is." : /
Absolutely well said!! What is it about this that some people don’t understand, or worse, perpetuate!!
When I was a kid people would walk up to me in public and ask me if I was a boy or a girl. I mean a kid who had no expectations of what a boy or girl was. I was naturally gender nonconforming. But nothing can override biology. We need to let kids know it’s okay for boys to be effeminate and girls to be a tomboy.
We also need to let parents know that it’s okay for boys to be effeminate and girls to be a tomboy without believing that they have a problematic “trans kid”on their hands.
Exactly! These regressive sex stereotypes are part of what got us into this horrible mess!
I am getting old. I'm 80 and sometimes do have trouble recalling some of the sesquipedalian words I know full well but rarely use, at least out loud. 😁
But one of my gravest difficulties is in trying to understand how feminists and nominally feminist organizations of long-standing have executed spectacular backflips with a double twist and landed on their feet supporting the most ancient and threadbare of sex stereotypes. I thought "feminism" had been exceptionally successful, to judge from the number of women now routinely graduating law and medical schools and rising to prominence in their professions, not to mention the visible numbers of women in less prestigious occupations such as the building trades. So what are they doing, advocating in behalf of the supposed "rights" of those suffering from a mental condition that the DSM defines by listing nothing but a catalog of old stereotypes causing "distress"? It's even more disconcerting than the prominent feminists who excused President Clinton's predation of young women subordinates.
As a gay man who had his own difficulties with that, I'm equally puzzled and personally alarmed by the number of gay men and lesbians who support what is in fact a movement that advocates what may be summarized as "trans away the gay". I try to be charitable and assume it's because they are simply ignorant of the fact that 80 to 90 percent of the youngsters showing the behaviors commonly taken as signs of "Gender Dysphoria" will mature to being perfectly ordinary gay teens. I feel no such charity for the organizations that once were strong advocates for gay equality but now are merely sock puppets for a couple of millionaire AGP fetishists. What alarms me is the evidence that the preposterous demands being made on behalf of a supposed "LGBTQIA+ community" are provoking a backlash, threatening to pull down the progress toward gay and lesbian equality along with the rejection of the nonsensical "...TQIA+” policies. When naked boys are traipsing around the girls' locker rooms, I want to know, Where are all the girl dads, especially the girl jock dads?
The greatest gift you can provide yourself is to know who you are and to be who you are.
One of my dearest friends is a very “masculine” looking woman. She dresses in men’s clothes and has been unapologetically homosexual since the age of about a week. But once she said to me, with her wonderful laugh: “Italian men are impossible! They even whistle at me!” Because she is so comfortable with herself she’s never had to think about being in the “wrong body”, the body she’s born in will be just fine.
They are a cult, and cult thinking is never rational.
Well done- thank you
Thank you for supporting the Courage Coalition. We must acknowledge biological realities, or we risk unraveling the very fabric of our society.
Several la leche leaders resigned, I think?
Thank you for writing this!
This is such a meaningful piece of writing. Thank you. I will use this in my language to the people who work against me. Including my family. Seriously, thank you.
Most women in the world today dress in a “gender non-conforming” manner.
Great article! The only thing I disagree with—if I understand it correctly—is “… It prioritizes male feelings over female rights.” Most men do not share these feelings. Indeed, most of us have utter contempt for autogynephiles—sexual fetishists—who claim the right to enter women’s spaces. I would also argue that there’s far less tolerance for this by the majority of males than females. This is a minor nit but I thought it should be clarified.
I agree with you, Andy. Just because gender ideology is deeply woman hating doesn’t mean that it’s a men’s rights movement. It’s true the ideology demands that women give things up so that men can have the option of appropriating womanhood, and it demands absolutely nothing of men as men. Though the ideology affords men tremendous optionality, the reality is that the vast majority of men have no interest whatsoever in exercising that optionality. Many men recoil from the idea. In addition, my strong (but rebuttable) impression is that women in the aggregate support this ideology more than men do. These things don’t fit the pattern of a men’s rights movement.
Women lean towards the empathic (a much overused and misunderstood word). So it’s easier to con them into thinking “trans rights” are a positive thing. Men are more pragmatic, so it’s harder to toy with our emotions.
I also don’t underestimate the sense of moral superiority women feel as motivation for their “allyship.”
Moral and intellectual certitude are possibly the root of the problem. People who believe so strongly that they are “good people” and “smart people” don’t question their motives. It’s simply, “I’m a good person, therefore, whatever I do is good.”
Chest feeding isn’t about taking anything from anyone—it’s about making sure all parents who need support get what they need. The term is mostly for trans men, who don’t connect with the term breastfeeding. It also helps trans women and adoptive parents who want to bond with their baby in that way, receive education about. La Leche League exists to support feeding and nurturing, but if a space isn’t right for someone, they don’t have to join. Resources should be available to all who need them. We’ve got to stop harming and limiting others because of our fear of men. These people did not hurt us. They are trying to do life. Biological men doing patriarchy male things did.
Using “chest feeding” as a term is participating in the delusion that biological sex can be changed which is neither kind nor loving.
Biological men pretending to be women is the most destructive patriarchal men's movement I have seen in my lifetime.
💯it is the most regressive and destructive cult like movement negatively affecting women and children in my 78 years on this planet.
I see what you are saying, but "if a space isn’t right for someone, they don’t have to join" in my mind translates to, "Women who are uncomfortable sharing a women-only space with men are out of luck." La Leche can take that position, to be sure, but it's no longer providing a safe space for women. And maybe the organization feels that's the direction in which it wants to move, but let's be clear about that.
Also, I am not sure that making a space women-only is necessarily about a fear of men. Last weekend I got together with my gay friends for a homo-only dinner--not because we fear straight people, but because we wanted to make a space in which we could speak freely and without worry of offending someone. I think every demographic should be able to enjoy these sorts of spaces, but those spaces must of necessity be exclusive.
I'm sure that "making a space women-only is not necessarily about a fear of men." But it depends.
In the prisons, fear of men is paralyzing. Rape, molestation, and nonstop harassment are part of a normal day for female inmates. Recidivist rapists, murderers, and child molesters have figured out that claiming a woman identity rewards them with an instant get-into-women's-jails-free card. Not required: a doctor's note, any form of medicalization, not even a history of dysphoria. It's amazing how grown men suddenly discover their trans identity after being sentenced to 20 years behind bars for raping and murdering a woman.
In sports, fear of men is also understandable. Payton McNabb, a high school volleyball player, was seriously injured by a tall trans-identified man. He jumped high into the air and spiked the ball all the way across the court right into McNabb's face. The spike was later clocked at 70 mph. McNabb suffered whiplash and fell to the floor, where she lay, unconscious, for 30 seconds. Today she has brain damage, paralysis on the right side of her body, vision issues, and cognitive impairment. She has trouble walking due to balance issues. Will she regain her ability to play sports? Dubious.
We could fill a book with the injuries and humiliations inflicted on women when men are allowed to "compete" in women’s sports. "Competing" is in quotes because when the level playing field has been corrupted, it's no longer a competition, it's an obscene joke. Then there's the loss of medals, scholarships, and advancement in their sport that occurs when just one mediocre male athlete participates in women-only athletic events.
So yes, we're afraid of men.
There's a bogus narrative that claims women's insistence on women-only spaces is a symptom of "transphobia.” That’s wrong.
The problem with trans-identified men in women's sports and prisons is not that they're trans.
It's that they're men.
💯 the UN has declared males in female sports (I’d add spaces) is violence against women.
It certainly is. Now, what is the UN going to do about it?
Pass a strongly worded resolution. Yeah.
I think a little of it is because of whatever is driving their desire to take and wear women's persona. Typically, men competing against women pull their punches a little bit. And, I played volleyball. Spikers are able to aim. Typically I think you're aiming for somewhere difficult to respond to but that doesn't make the head the ideal target. I haven't seen the incident, but if her face hadn't been in the way would the ball have landed in bounds or out of bounds?
I wish I could find the clip I saw of the incident. If I can locate it at some point I'll post it here.
The man in question was by far the tallest person on the court. He had the strength and agility to jump high into the air in order to make contact with the ball as it came towards him, and then he bashed that thing with impressive speed and accuracy, directly into her face. She was fairly far back from the net, maybe in the middle of her side of the net. Whether he was aiming for her face or just letting it rip, knowing that nobody would be able to return the ball, is something we can debate all day.
The speed of the ball was clocked at 70 mph. What we know for sure is that as a man with impressive size and strength advantages over the women on the court, his goal was to score a point, which he attempted to do by using all the skill he possessed. He wasn't pulling his punches, he was going for gold, the way he handled that volley ball.
So now Ms. McNabb is partially paralyzed and suffers from a range of mental and physical disabilities that will probably render her incapable of participating in sports for the rest of her life, or at least for a long time, depending on her rehab prospects.
Regardless of his motivations, the bottom line is that he didn't belong on the court in the first place. This policy enables men to humiliate and injure women and then be rewarded for doing it. Talk about perverse incentives.
Women have breasts. Men have chests. Nuff said.
So does size have anything to do with it? What about people who have had mastectomies? And sometimes people with different levels of hormones who wouldn’t have breast, but now do? These conversations can get complicated real fast and it’s not just as simple as what you just said.
But we limit people to our own experiences and understanding of things. And it’s ridiculous and inhumane.
We won’t get into the undertones of what you meant because we all know what that’s about.
No size has nothing to do with it. Biology and reality has everything to do with it and negating the feeling of women biological women even the ones who call themselves transmen.
The tactic of attempting to shame women into silence by hinting we are not compassionate doesn't work anymore.
It’s like the word “bigot” now. It’s been thrown around that much, it’s lost all meaning. My response to someone trying to silence me by calling me bigot is always, “And?”
I’d rather be a bigot over being a mindless useful idiot to the men’s rights movement.
I am a woman who spent 10 years breastfeeding my children. I am also a woman who had a double mastectomy for breast cancer. These are facts and no matter how far we try to stretch the idea that “feelings” and “inclusivity” over ride biological reality, it won’t happen. No man will ever be able to understand the hard reality of being female and inhabiting a woman’s body. The absurdity of thinking otherwise is an assault on womanhood; an assault on reality- which none of us can ever escape.
Do you think Trans are trying to limit people to their experience?
LLL was not formed to support chest feeding. Nice try. It was formed by women to support women and breast feeding. To infants who produce natural milk. Not a chemically induced fake substance that men would like us to call milk. Encouraging anyone to feed that to a vulnerable infant is, in my opinion, encouraging child abuse. Babies could die. Are a man’s feelings more important?
Additionally, men who believe they are women, are NOT women. They are not a subset of women. They are MEN. They are men performing their stereotypical belief about women. So, if they want support with chest feeding (a new category of wtf is wrong with society) then they can go form their OWN support group. AND THEY CAN STOP BARGING THEIR WAY INTO SPACES MEANT FOR THE SAFETY AND DIGNITY OF WOMEN.
Full stop. Just stop it. This is not a thing.
There are plenty of other ways to support adoptive parents that do not infringe on women’s privacy.
One of the grossest things I’ve ever seen is a video of a man who had somehow—through drugs, I suppose—been able to secret “milk” from his nipples. Feeding that to a baby is barbaric. Pure, malignant narcissism.
Nonsense.
Great essay, this is exactly right. For those that are interested this essay summaries the many ways gender ideology is incoherent.
https://open.substack.com/pub/sanesociety/p/the-madness-of-crowds-and-the-new?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4av3x8
Awesome 👍🏼
Now quit teaching 3-year-old girls to vamp like Madonna like the one in the photo, and we might actually make some progress with the next generation.
Yes, I’m looking at you, women. Strong women, empowered women, feminist women who I constantly have to fend off when they insist upon perpetuating the Male Gaze-prep on my unsuspecting-but-starting-to-sense-there’s-something-wrong 11-year-old.
You are the Patriarchy now. You have all the power and rights our mothers and grandmothers fought for and won for you. What are you doing with them?
This is a powerful and beautifully written statement! Thank you!
I’m too pissed off to even read this article right now, but I’m commenting so I can hopefully come back later when I calm down. This is wrong. This is very sad. When I was a new mother, I attended a lot of meetings