The imbalance
Prospect gives us a typically smug “what’s all this fuss about trans rights?” piece by a typically smug dude who isn’t affected by the issue the way women are, and who is so smug he doesn’t notice or care that he isn’t affected by the issue the way women are.
You may have noticed, whether or not you are interested in transgender issues, a fascination with them in the press that borders on the obsessional.
Ur hur hur, fascination, obsessional, ur hur hur, Y R people so interested?
It’s no skin off his ass so why is it skin off anyone else’s ass?
You may have got the impression, because much of the writing asserts or implies this, that trans people are a threat to women, want to abolish lesbianism, send disgusting messages and make ridiculous demands, and that dangerous ideologues are rushing young girls into operating theatres if they show an interest in things traditionally considered male.
Aren’t people silly??? Zero trans people of either sex pose any threat at all to any women anywhere, as everyone knows. Lia Thomas? No threat to women at all in any way! Rapists in women’s prisons? No threat!! Men taking women’s prizes, jobs, scholarships? No threat!! A cosmetic surgeon who rejoices at yeeting the teets? Not a threat!!
The imbalance is not confined to the conservative press. Take one BBC article, which concerned trans women allegedly pressuring lesbians who are cisgender—identifying with the gender they were assigned at birth—into having sex with them. It uncritically quoted a transphobic individual and cited partisan and valueless research. It’s still there, though with the headline changed and the more questionable material removed. One trans woman who doesn’t want to be identified—I’ll call her Clare—says that “you wouldn’t see stuff like this about any other group. It is the acceptable face of bigotry.”
Stuff like what? We don’t know. All we have is “It uncritically quoted a transphobic individual and cited partisan and valueless research,” which is 1. vague and 2. entirely according to the clueless and biased Rowan Moore.
In contentious debates where there are two or more positions to be taken, the media often take the one least favourable to what most trans people feel are their rights.
Ok, bub, then spell them out. Spell out the rights. Is it a right for men to take women’s prizes and places on teams because they claim to identify as women? If you think that’s a right, kindly go on to explain why you think so and how you explain away women’s rights in that situation.
Supposed victims of cancel culture are given the opportunity to lament, loudly and often, that they have been silenced. Meanwhile, in the storm of words about their identities and their futures, the voices of transgender people are hard to find.
The hell they are. The voices of “transgender people” are loud and everywhere.
To a reasonable person, this proves that concerns are not solely being raised by conservatives and hence those raising concerns cannot be assumed to be conservative. I wonder if the author will notice this.
This is so disingenuous. So okay — transwomen aren’t pressuring lesbians into having sex with them. So you say. BUT:
1.) Lesbians are attracted to people of the same gender, which includes both female and male bodies.
2.) A lesbian who categorically excludes male bodies is a bigot.
3.) A lesbian who “just happens” to not be attracted to any lesbians with male bodies is suspect. Especially if she keeps her transbian friends in the friend zone. That’s just odd, almost like it’s more than coincidence.
4.) There is no place for bigotry in the lesbian community.
5.) No lesbian should want to be a bigot.
6.) The male bodies of transgender lesbians feel & smell female. Really. They do.
The pressure is built right into this. There are many ways the pressure comes from the beliefs themselves. Once these tenets are accepted, internal pressure in the lesbian, and transgender people acting in good faith, will BOTH encourage lesbians to enjoy male bodies.
They either deny these 6 points or shut up about the “unfair” article.
“I am the father of a transgender son.” — If he’s not “misgendering” his “son” then she is a biological female. I think he’s missing the difference between the M to F problem and the consequences to women vs. the F to M one with it’s lack thereof.
Women should wheesht because Rowan’s offspring is trans is unpersuasive.
@twiliter #3
And if someone replied that her daughter was a gender-critical feminist, how would Rowan respond?
@ Colin, Right. Or if his daughter were required by some ideology to carry her rape baby to term (hypothetically), would he be against the feminist position on abortion, or would he proceed to defend an ideological position on abortion, based on the notion that people who aren’t affected shouldn’t take sides? I think defending trans ideology is very much like defending religious ideology.