About that capacity to persevere
That letter from Museum London [Ontario] merits close attention.
That second paragraph. The Ontario Human Rights Commission says “the words people use to describe themselves and others are very important.”
Are they though? Especially the ones they use to describe themselves? People have a tendency to think more about themselves than others, to flatter themselves more than others, to puff up their descriptions of themselves more than others. People have a tendency to think they matter more than others. Maybe all this huffing and puffing about idennniny and the words people use to go on and on and on about themselves is not a new form of Justice or Empowerment or Incloosion but just more of the same old vanity and self-absorption we’re so accustomed to in humans. Maybe we really don’t need more of it, but rather less.
At any rate, even if you agree that we should all care deeply about how other people label themselves, there remains a difference between truth and lies. “Misgendering” someone in the sense of not lying about what sex they are is not a form of illegitimate or wicked “discrimination.” Women absolutely need to know which people are men and which are not, and we need to be free to warn other women about men who are disguising themselves as women, whether for the purpose of attacking them or stealing their athletic prizes. Museum London is way out of line ordering women to pretend some men are women, and punishing them if they refuse.
I recently came across the phrase “Therapeutic/Affirmation Mode” to describe the common set of assumptions which came out of both the Therapeutic Culture of the 70’s & 80’s and the Self-Esteem Movement of the 80’s and 90’s. Reasonable and compassionate ideas were lifted out of their original application to children and adults who were struggling and applied wholesale to everyone. We are all vulnerable, with no expectation of resilience but every need to be catered to.
Here’s how Freddie deBoer describes it in his essay “Prologue to an Anti-Therapeutic, Anti-Affirmation Movement:”
https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/prologue-to-an-anti-affirmation-movement
There’s more. It’s worth a read I think.
Those highlighted paragraphs in an official letter looks like helicopter parenting. It’s always okay for Mommy to step in to a business meeting if the feelings of the littlest ones are getting hurt.
Ach god yes the self-esteem fad is crucial to all this.
The funny thing about what Freddie deBoer says is that NONE of that stuff applies to women these days. It applies to trans “women” the most, and to real women not at all.
Reading the FdB piece [thanks for the link!] and
Perhaps Museum London is preparing her for the next round of this exhibition by giving Hutchison further opportunities to “persevere through all kinds of different challenges.” Being cancelled is just another “different challenge.”
And as for any trans participation in this event, surely there’s no greater challenge than standing up against what is possible in the realm of material reality. A man claiming he’s a woman demonstrates a Sisyphean resilience in the face of the permanently unattainable. Or to throw in another classical allusion of perpetual torment, being constantly misgendered is just like the punishment of Prometheus, having his ever-regrowing liver eaten anew each day by an eagle. Yikes! So it’s like these guys are rolling rocks up a mountain while having their livers eaten!! Every day!!!* By all rights, this presentation should be nothing but TiMs.
*Of course neither Sisyphus or Prometheus had the Canadian Powerlifting Union or the Ontario Human Rights Commission looking out for their interests by cancelling Zeus, so it’s not exactly the same. Had they had these two organizations batting for them, it would have been Zeus’s liver on the line.
@Ophelia
Oh, self-esteem does applies to women. Freddie deBoer again:
https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/women-do-not-need-lunatic-overconfidence
I like this:
I meant women in relation to pretend women. When the trans women issue is raised it’s never women’s self-esteem on the line, only the men’s.
But I’m wondering why I haven’t been reading FdB all this time. He’s a gold mine – thank you for the nudge!
[…] a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on About that capacity to […]
deBoer has a good head on his shoulders for sure, thanks Sastra. I found myself reading several of his pieces.
“That second paragraph. The Ontario Human Rights Commission says “the words people use to describe themselves and others are very important.”
Except for women. Because if women describe ourselves as women, and call that word important, all hell breaks loose. Ditto lesbians and gays.
Despite countless human rights organisations and representatives claiming ad nauseam that “no one’s rights are harmed by letting people self identify”, the above happens almost without exception. Trans rights good, women’s rights bad (except insofar as women’s rights are necessary to enact trans rights).
Re: Perseverance
When does it become harmful?
To yourself or to others.
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2023/10/29/yanss-272-how-to-develop-the-mental-skills-required-to-know-when-to-stick-to-your-plans-and-when-to-abandon-them/