Also it’s not true
I’m reading Jesse Singal’s review of Helen Joyce’s book in the Times, and I’m interrupting my reading to say this one thing.
A primary goal of those who adhere to gender-identity ideology is to enact “gender self-identification,” or the idea “that people should count as men or women according to how they feel and what they declare, instead of their biology,” into norm and law. According to self-ID, as I’ll call it henceforth, once an individual reveals their gender identity, that trumps anyone else’s understanding of it. If you say you are a man or a woman, or both or neither, that is exactly what you are.
When followed faithfully, gender-identity ideology has important implications.
Yes, it does, but this is why I had to interrupt my own reading – it does, but I would hate the ideology even if it didn’t because I hate being bullied into endorsing a lie. The implications are important, but the claim itself is also important. It’s important because things like that are important. We do need to be able to see what we see, to rely on our own senses and perceptions, to have a stable sense of some basic realities.
I say “basic” because once we go beyond “basic” our senses and perceptions are helpless or wrong or both. We have no idea how big the moon is or how far away it is just from our own perceptions, and you can apply that to an infinite number of other realities, so I’m not saying our perceptions are infallible, but I am saying there are some basics that shouldn’t be thrown out the window on a god damn whim.
Sexual dimorphism is one of those basics, and I resent being ordered to pretend otherwise. I take it personally, and so should everyone. Don’t tell me to repeat a lie and call it true. Just don’t. Back off.
That’s it, that’s the interruption.
Today I listened to Katie Herzog’s conversation with Meghan Murphey which made up the better part of this Blocked and Reported episode (not sure when it starts, but they do a bunch of throat-clearing and yammering about a whole lot of internet nonsense beforehand, so aim for the half-hour or forty-five minute mark and click around).
I must say, such frank and open honesty was refreshing, as well as breathtaking. Someone frankly saying that she doesn’t have to indulge other people’s delusions about themselves, and the rest of us shouldn’t have to, either. Of course, for that opinion she has been permanently banned from Twitter, which shows just how far we’ve gone down the road to the trans caliphate. And their discussion of the Yanniv madness was edifying. That’s definitely something that deserves to be remembered.
O, I think being bullied into endorsing a lie is one of those implications Singal refers to. Otherwise one could as well take a “live and let live” attitude. That’s an argument I see frequently–“they’re not hurting you, why should you care how they ‘identify'”?
That’s when it’s important to point out that this ideology is not just about other people’s subjective feelings about themselves. We’re required to agree, and law and social policy to reflect that agreement.
Yes, but there’s also a bullying issue there. Because there’s a way of finding out the truth of the less basic things, but we’re not allowed to talk about that, either.