How dare this woman
They’re upping the pressure on Amy Mangano of Artifacts.
Signs noting that gender is a biological construct are posted onto a downtown Athens store’s front door, causing some citizens to reach out to City Council with complaints about the signs.
Complaints…about signs that say “humans can’t change sex” and “say no to men in women’s sports.” Hey listen City Council there’s this woman who doesn’t believe humans are magic and able to change sex at will. Have you ever????
During Tuesday’s Athens City Council meeting, At-Large Council Member Micah McCarey said he received several emails and verbal complaints about Artifacts’ signs from citizens asking that the city do more to promote diversity and LGBT inclusion, particularly in uptown businesses. He received the messages both as a council member and as the director of Ohio University’s LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) Center.
What about inclusion of women? What about diversity in the sense of women, who are different from men? Why not diversify by including more women? Real women, not men who call themselves women.
Athens’ Deputy Service-Safety Director Andrew Chiki said City Hall is aware of the matter and has been discussing it internally.
What “matter”? The matter of women who know what women are? Women who speak up for women, not men who cosplay as women?
Nearby at Casa Nueva on West State Street, the restaurant has posted a sign in its window that says “We support and stand with our trans and non-binary workers, community member and friends. Casa Nueva is proud to be an inclusive and safe space.”
Blah blah blah. Shorter: “We don’t support and stand with women.”
“My friend Kaycie Tillis and I decided to organize the protest due to the outlandish propaganda Artifacts has on their door, going as far as to label transgender women as predators since they don’t fit into what radical feminists have decided is the ‘perfect woman,’” said Rylee Lee, one of the organizers of the protest. “The point of the protest is to reaffirm that feminism is for all women, and that the Athens community does not tolerate hate in any capacity.”
Jesus. It’s tragic. A whole lost generation. Can you imagine alert committed young Black activists sneering about “what radical BLM activists have decided is the ‘perfect Black person'”? Hell no. But when it’s women – those bitches have to be punished and ostracized and mocked for saying women get to be in solidarity with women.
Today, for the first time ever, a student came up to me after class and said, “I want you to know I’ve just added your class, and I use they/them pronouns.” I was so taken aback I just smiled and said, “Thank you.”
Urgh. I hope you can get through the semester (or quarter or whatever it may be) without having to refer to them/them except by name.
I doubt there are signs posted saying “gender is a biological construct”. I suspect, if there are signs worded in that manner, they refer to “sex” rather than “gender”. I question what might be meant by “biological construct”, anyway; it looks like a lazy editing replacement of “social” in the phrase “social construct”.
Based on photos of the storefront (mostly here), I don’t think there are any signs worded in that manner, and someone is garbling the message and missing the point entirely. Which is, unfortunately, entirely expected.
Mike B, oh, lucky you! :-P
I had my first student who felt it necessary to “present” themselves like that a few years ago now… at the start of a second sentence that sounded like it was part of a rehearsed script I got out a curt “I don’t expect that will be a problem”. I’m pretty damned proud of myself for not including “…, since I’m never going to need to refer to you in the third person in your presence, and anyone else I’d be talking to about a student doesn’t actually care about your personal preferences.”
Sackbut: yeah, that was my reaction too.
Mike B., I also have a student using they/them pronouns. They was in my English class last semester. They is in my Biology class this semester. In Biology, sex matters.
I refuse to worry about complaints. I am retiring in May. I have always taught that there were two sexes, that humans are sexually dimorphic, and that the presence of a Y chromosome is what determines maleness. I have never taught that you have to have blonde hair, blue eyes, shapely legs, and white skin to be a woman, nor have I ever taught that you must have all of the parts that identify a woman – uterus, ovaries, etc – because some women have them removed, and some are born without them. A woman is a suite of characteristics, some of which can put them in the category of woman all on their own, but their absence does not entail not woman as long as other characteristics are present.
I have no intention of changing my teaching. The only other trans student I had in that class was a top student in the class, didn’t fuss about the lessons on human reproduction, and it made me sad to think that here was a data point saying that the best student in the class was male when in reality the best student in the class that semester was female…and the one that almost matched (her) score was also female…and not trans.
When one is up to one’s neck in bullshit, a mouthful of seawater can no doubt taste like the finest champagne.
Not just “garbling the message” or “missing the point,” but studiously misrepresenting the message and hiding the point from anyone relying on this person’s take on the story. There’s not one speck of hate in any of those signs. None of them use the word “trans.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard a trans activist give an accurate, good faith summary of feminist arguments. Just like theists seem incapable of giving an honest precis of atheist thought, but turning it into “You just Hate God!” or “You just want to remove any limits on your selfish, sinful desires!” In the case of transactivism, the translation tropes lean to things like “You just hate trans people!” and “You want to limit womanhood to rich, white women!”
Unfortunately, even the media cannot be trusted to convey the facts in cases like this, as they’ve already taken a side, with institutional capture hidden in style guides and pronoun policies that dress undisclosed partisanship in courtesy and faux neutrality. They’re engaging in the same mental (mis)translation as activists when reporting on women’s rights issues, turning clear concise statements in favour of women’s sex-based rights (like SAY NO TO MEN IN WOMEN’S PRISONS) into vague unquoted messages that are characterized as simply “anti-trans.” This is the technique that has resulted in huge swathes of the media taking it as a given that JK Rowling is “transphobic.” Amy Mangano isn’t as well known, but she’ll be smeared just the same, and for the same reason; she’s standing up for women. This is something that trans activists cannot allow to happen if it means losing access to women’s single-sex spaces. ARE WOMEN’S SEX_BASED RIGHTS HATEFUL? No, but it sure looks like trans activism is. “Be kind” is a one-way street down which trans activists drive their rainbow-sparkle tanks.
The media have learned the lesson to centre trans in all things, even when they’re not mentioned. It’s become a filter through which all such reporting passes, colouring its coverage so that readers or viewers unable to see the signs for themselves cannot judge for themselves, thereby missing the fact that the report itself is biased and flawed by a combination of self-censorship and hidden, internalized, pro-trans editorializing that constitutes an undeclared conflict of interest, one that’s stacked against women.
Ah yes, moar diversity.
Providing it isn’t diversity of thought.