Lying by headline
Crappy deceptive sloppy manipulative writing steps up to assist wild claims yet again.
Headline:
Trump claims there are only ‘2 genders.’ Historians say that’s never been true
That is, the reporter, Alexandra Mae Jones, was able to find more than one historian willing to say that’s never been true – but it comes across as historians in general, historians as a group, say that’s never been true. Guess what: they don’t. (There’s also the usual manipulation of talking about “genders” instead of sexes. If you mean eccentric hair, sure, kid, lots of historians will agree that eccentric hair is nothing new.)
Subhead:
History is filled with examples of people changing genders or living between genders, historians say
Blah blah. Again, depends on what you mean by “genders” and depends on how many historians you asked. 2? 3? An honest reporter would be clear on whether she means historians as a group or two historians who answered her email.
Historian Mo Moulton watched with dismay last week as U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the U.S. will only recognize two sexes, male and female, and that they cannot be changed.
“There’s been so much energy expended trying to police people into fitting into just two boxes,” Moulton, a history professor at the University of Birmingham, England, told CBC News.
Ah. We have our answer. The curious reporter sought out a historian who would say what the reporter wanted her to say. Wikipedia:
Mo Moulton is an American author and historian of 20th century Britain and Ireland, interested in gender, sexuality, and colonialism/postcolonialism. They are a senior lecturer in the history of race and empire at the University of Birmingham.
Of course they are, all one of them.
There’s a difference between “historians in general” and “two historians who have bought into the current gender ideology.” It’s very misleading and manipulative to pretend you mean the first when in fact you mean the second. A decent editor would know that and rewrite the headline and lede accordingly.
I see they’re bringing up the “colonialism created the gender binary” waffle again. Never mind that separate male roles and female roles were enforced in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamian societies.
Another question begged by this obfuscating nonsense is what interest any government might have, what value it might find, in recording any citizen’s gender? And by gender I do mean gender, rather than sex, as that is the heavy implication here. What would be the point?
If you read Gerda Lerner’s 1986 book, “The Creation of Patriarchy” she traces the origins of different male and female roles to Ancient Mesopotamian societies.
Claiming Indigenous Canadians had the same beliefs about gender as modern, Judith Butler-reading Westerners is false and misleading.
That’s an aspect of the issue that needs to be emphasized more. Definitions of gender always end up being utterly sexist, or utterly meaningless, or somewhere between the two. Generally speaking, it seems there’s been a shift away from explicitly sexist definitions towards vaguer ones, which prove harder to oppose on the mere basis of sexism. Maybe their utter lack of utility would prove to be a better talking point.
So? Show how that is wrong. You can’t, though, because it’s true.
As much as I hate giving DJT credit for anything, on this item he happens to be correct.
I don’t know maddog, that one single point of agreement is starting to look like small potatoes. I’d almost put up with the trans silliness at this point, if it could only be dismissed as silliness like it should have been in the first place, and the boys and men were just told “NO” flat out. No infiltrating women only spaces and endeavors, be trans till the cows come home if you want, but no one said no to them when they crossed those boundaries. Now some are doing something about it, but probably for much different reasons (or should I say attitudes). Now the trans cult may be given something to whine about.
Another dishonesty in the response: Trump signs an order using the word ‘sexes’ specifically, and the response to that instead switches the word to gender.