Guest post: Claims of eliminationism
Originally a comment by Eava on A world with.
I feel like this rhetoric runs in parallel to that of some disability rights activists, deaf activists who oppose cochlear implants as destroying deaf culture, autism advocates who oppose therapies to help reduce or eliminate autistic behaviors, that instead we need to embrace “neurodiversity” just like gender diversity/gender expansiveness, etc. There is research being done on treatments for children with Down Syndrome that can improve their cognitive abilities, it would not be a “cure” but it would help them live fuller, independent lives, but this leads to similar claims of, if not genocide, eliminationism. Which is so ironic because if there were treatments for Down Syndrome that could help those children become functionally independent, I would bet more women would opt to continue a pregnancy vs have an abortion if they got a prenantal diagnosis of Down Syndrome.
The idea that we’re all perfect how we are born gets twisted by TRAs and disability rights advocates to make any attempts to cure or repair disabilities “genocidal”. Of course, the irony is overwhelming where a surgery to restore a child’s ability to hear is verboten, but surgeries to remove or create body parts, leading to sterility and lack of sexual function, is “life saving health care”.
I think the other big sleight of hand at work here is equating being trans with being gender nonconforming. This rhetorical tactic is trying to say Gender Critical feminists not only want to eliminate trans people, but they want to eliminate people who don’t conform to the societal stereotypes for their sex. It completely misses the point that GC feminists don’t believe we have a “gender identity” and nothing about how we dress, how we behave, or who we sleep with changes that.
I want a world where no one feels they have to physically alter their bodies to be happy, where a gay boy and lesbian girl are free of the homophobia that makes them feel the only way they can live the life they want is to alter their bodies and claim to be the opposite sex. Where a heterosexual girl does not feel targeted, devalued, and unsafe in her female body, so worthless because of misogyny (familial or societal) that the only way out she sees is to make her body appear male and claim a male identity. And a society where pubescent boys can find treatment for AGP behaviors before it becomes their identity and way of life.
I do think there will be people who can’t get to the point where they make peace with their body and natal sex. There are people for whom no treatment, psychological, medical, etc. helps them achieve peace. I believe we can make space in society for people who can’t find relief any other way than transition. But that number is incredibly small and doesn’t require rewriting laws and language to accommodate them.
I recall reading something online (Stock? Jones? A commenter here? Can’t remember.) where it was suggested that trans activists seem to think that feminists “believe” that “only women should be allowed to perform femininity,” as if what feminists were defending was the exclusive use of the trappings of the sexist stereotype of “woman.” This was said by the commenter to make sense only to the degree that it seemed to explain trans activist accusations of “biological determinism” hurled at feminists. That feminists want to get rid of gender roles completely seems to escape them. But getting rid of the roles does not mean murdering the players, though men in womanface who are really invested in embodying sexist stereotypes might take the stereotype’s retirement through reform as “eliminationist,” in the same way as those decrying the “elimination” of deaf culture noted above. If they can’t see themselves outside of, or beyond, their performance of stereotypes, then taking that target image away, making it no longer “legitimately” available because it is tastelessly archaic like Jigaboo dolls, or Negro Lawn Jockeys, might make them feel like a non-swimmer who is being stripped of their life preserver.
In addition to the “wanting no one to be X is anti-X genocide” nonsense, the genocide charge also gets rhetorical support from the ludicrously broad use of “transphobia”. The activist calls something transphobia. Transphobia is then defined as including genocide. This something therefore includes genocide.
Yes, it’s stupid and obviously fallacious, but what isn’t in this whole debacle?
I’m asthmatic. It’s something I’ve lived with all my life. When I was a kid, I had some pretty horrendous episodes, and more than once had to go to the doctor’s office in the middle of the night to get a shot of adrenaline (fortunately her office was on the ground floor of her house, and she cared deeply about her patients, and didn’t mind mopping up my puke). Being asthmatic is most definitely part of who I am, and it has colored my life in a lot of ways. But if someone told me tomorrow that they’ve found a cure for asthma, my reaction would not be “So you’re trying to genocide me?” It would be “Well why the fuck did you not come up with it 60 years ago?”
To be perfectly clear, I want no one to be asthmatic.
I didn’t know there was such research going into Down’s Syndrome taking place, and I feel I need to look into this issue some more.
Nullius in Verba :
An example of this “something I dislike = transphobia = genocide ” move is this tweet by the writer and extremist trans activist Elizabeth Sandifer, who tweeted:
“Bans on puberty blockers are genocide. ”
https://twitter.com/ElSandifer/status/1471114957911732234
I made this very comparison yesterday in response to KM’s tweet, and got the inevitable:
DID YOU JUST COMPARE BEING TRANS TO CANCER
(No, I compared “being trans” to HAVING cancer, numbnut.)
Redefine words however you like, if that’s genocide I am very much in favor of genocide.
The worship of imperfection is just so weird… it’s like something out of a fantasy novel.
At least in the latter case there is no doubt that many disabilities are indeed part of “how we are born”. It has not been established that the same is true of trans identity.
Under the Infinitely Elastic Trans Umbrella, it’s something you’re born with AND something that develops over time. It’s fixed AND fluid. Everyone has a Gender Identity AND some people are Agender. Expressing doubt, criticism, or questioning of any of these positions is genocidal.