Originally a comment by Artymorty on Yes but.

Trans women won’t cease to exist because five judges decided the legal definition of a woman within the Equality Act 2010 does not include them, even if they hold Gender Recognition Certificates.

No, they most certainly won’t. So what’s the fucking problem, then?

And now they have to navigate a world that is crueller than it was before.

No, they fucking don’t. There is absolutely nothing cruel about acknowledging anyone’s biological sex, ever. If a man cannot cope with other people acknowledging his biological sex, he’s clearly got his mind tied up in mental knots and he needs serious therapy to untie them.

But most of these men absolutely can cope with acknowledging that they’re male, quite easily. They just don’t want to. These privileged, entitled men don’t want to let go of the luxuries they’ve embezzled from women.

I keep thinking back to the trashy, campy daytime talk shows of the nineties, like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich. They often had transsexuals and crossdressers on them, acting outrageously, being silly, goading the audience into boos and cheers. There’s one clip in particular that comes to mind, featuring members of some death cult I believe. They were actually just gothy, eccentric young artists performing at being in a death cult to get on TV. One of them was Nina Paley, who is now a gender-critical cartoonist. Another was a transwoman. He didn’t really “pass” as a woman; it was pretty clear he was a man. But he was passed off as a woman until near the end of the show, when in a climactic moment, after he’d riled up the audience with some shocking statement or other, he leapt out of his chair and announced, as if putting the cherry on top of his shocking sundae: “And also, I’m transgender! That’s right — I’m a man!”

That’s right — I’m a man.

They used to just come right out and say it. In public! Even on TV! For fun!

Nobody dies when crossdressers admit that they’re crossdressers. Nobody suffers, really.

Well… I don’t doubt that there will be some discomfort as they come back down to reality. And to some of them, it will feel like suffering. But it’s like the suffering of the rich losing their fortunes. Like the Ratliff family in the latest season of the White Lotus, basking at a Thai wellness retreat, blissfully offline, unaware that back home in North Carolina, all hell has broken loose, the FBI has raided the family business and all the money is gone. Their life of luxury had been bankrolled by embezzlement, and the thought of losing it and having to go back to living normally like everyone else seems unbearable.

Here’s Parker Posey, in a high camp Tennessee Williams southern drawl: “I just don’t think at this age I’m meant to live an uncomfortable life. I just don’t have it in me. I don’t think I ever did.”

Right now in the UK, a lot of men are like the Ratliffs at the end of their vacation at the White Lotus, when they got their cellphones back and discovered they’re about to face the same reality as the rest of us. Tough luck, guys.