But she persisted through them all
I hate it when we (the non-Fox part of the world) give Fox ammunition.
A children’s “chapter book series about women who spoke up and rose up against the odds” and is targeted at kids ages 6 to 9 years old is set to release a book about Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2021 who is now the new assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Children’s book series about women who spoke up to do a book about a man. Progress!!!
Here’s me speaking up: this is bullshit.
The book, which includes an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, states it is the “perfect choice for kids who love learning and teachers who want to bring inspiring women into their curriculum” and provides a “list of ways that readers can follow in Rachel Levine’s footsteps and make a difference!”
How is it the perfect choice when he is a man?! How is it a perfect choice when he benefited from being a man for 54 years before he “transitioned”? How is it a perfect choice when he had the manly right to speak up and rise up for the first 54 years of his life? How does that make sense?
The book, “She Persisted: Rachel Levine” by Lisa Bunker will be released on June 6, 2023, and was inspired by Clinton’s picture book series by the same title that tells the stories of women like Oprah Winfrey, Sonia Sotomayor and Greta Thunberg.
The stories of women. Not the stories of men who call themselves women.
“As the first openly transgender government official to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation, the first openly transgender four-star officer in uniform service, and the first female four-star admiral in the commissioned corps, Rachel Levine faced many obstacles throughout her life,” the book’s online description reads. “But she persisted through them all and showed kids of all genders that they can succeed in their dreams too.”
But he didn’t face the obstacles women face as women throughout his life, because for the first 54 years of it he didn’t even pretend to be a woman.
I notice at least one time he is referred to as “female”. He is not, by any stretch of the imagination, female. The trans lobby long ago moved from gender to sex as a target, even while claiming they are talking about gender. If Rachel Levine is a female, I am not, for it would be difficult to find too much biological common ground. It also would be difficult to relate our actual “lived experience”, since Levine had the privileges of being male that I lacked, being female.
If putting on a skirt and lipstick is what makes someone a female, I have to bow out. I wear somewhat feminine outfits, rather quirky ones, but I don’t wear skirts. I don’t wear make up. I don’t wear lipstick. I do have long hair, so is that enough to do it?
I am so sick of this bullshit. Calling a bull a cow does not mean the mis-gendered bull can produce milk or calves. If P.Z. called himself a woman (or female) he would still be male. If Joe Biden “came out” as non-binary, he would still be male. None of that changes anything, except your own self-perception. And everyone seeing them will know that truth, but too many would play along, and we’d suddenly hear about how “brave” they are, and how we have the first “woman” president! Or if he was non-binary, the first president who is nothing at all?
It was so insulting to women for Levine to be lauded as the first woman to become a U.S. Admiral, given the sexist obstacles so many women have had to face when they aspire to positions of leadership. And no, Levine as not been and never will be female no matter what the story above may claim, because you can’t be a transwoman without being male! What madness.
Levine, if he were female, would still not be the first female US Admiral, nor the first female US four star admiral. Alene Duerk became the first female US Admiral (rank of Rear Admiral, Navy) in 1972; Michelle Howard became the first female US four star Admiral (rank of Admiral, Navy) in 2014. Levine is the assistant secretary for public health, a position that automatically makes him a four star admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a nonmilitary uniformed service organization. If he were female, he would be the first female holder of that specific position, but that’s it. People are extrapolating Levine’s appointment much too far, erasing several women’s stories in the process.
To be fair, I’m sure Levine has faced many obstacles. Having AGP is no picnic, and even though AGPs are now at liberty to inflict their condition on others, I think this does little to alleviate their suffering (and if anything, ultimately increases it).
Were I dictator of the world, or even only of Florida, I should institute an immediate ban on all books intended for children, whoever or whatever they are about, that are morally ‘improving’, and in their banal and well-meaning way have a design on children; and I should allow only books that are enjoyable and mischievous. How I hate those relentless and humourless do-gooders who write and publish books about ‘successful’ people, or whatever, that are ‘targeted’ at children of particular age-groups – ‘targeted’ seems the right word, since they are aimed at destroying enjoyment and intelligence.
Tim Harris: and more perniciously, training the future consumers/workers into their proper obedient roles.