Neither original nor persuasive
Benjamin Ryan is happy to bully women in general, but when there’s a sleb involved suddenly he wants to chat. Toady.
“I’ve read all the arguments about femaleness not residing in the sexed body, and the assertions that biological women don’t have common experiences, and I find them deeply misogynistic and regressive… It isn’t enough for women to be trans allies. Women must accept and admit that there is no material difference between trans women and themselves…
“As many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head. ‘Woman’ is not a pink brain, a liking for Jimmy Choos or any of the other sexist ideas now somehow touted as progressive. Moreover, the ‘inclusive’ language that calls female people ‘menstruators’ and ‘people with vulvas’ strikes many women as dehumanising and demeaning.”
I elaborated on my views in the podcast “The Witch Trials of JK Rowling.”
In February of this year I wrote in response to another male journalist on X:
“If an adult feels they can only exist comfortably and authentically in this world by dressing in the opposite sex’s clothes, having surgeries and taking hormones, or in adopting one of the many gender labels, I wish them safety, happiness and health, as long as they’re not harming anyone else. You, however, seem to think that for a trans-identified man to be ‘comfortable’ and ‘authentic’, everyone in the vicinity must abandon their freedom of speech and belief to accommodate his ‘identity’.
“Women are not validation props, comfort blankets or support animals. We aren’t a rest home for men who don’t like being men. If a person’s happiness and self-esteem resides entirely on whether or not they can compel everyone around them to lie, whether out of fear or pity, I would respectfully suggest they are unlikely to have a very comfortable life, and are about as far from being ‘authentic’ as it is possible to be.”
For five years, men have repeatedly tried to argue me out of my belief that it is anti-freedom of speech, coercive and paternalistic to tell women they must be ‘kind’ and call men women if that’s what the men want. In short, I’ve stated my position on this matter multiple times, as clearly as I can, and, with respect, I’ve already read your own arguments and I find them neither original nor persuasive.
So there, toady.
One of the first things that came to mind is the guy who thinks he can “convert” a lesbian because he’s so awesome in bed. “Give me a tumble; I just might change your mind!”
After Jesse Singal, Benjamin Ryan has done some of the most important reporting both on clinical studies as well as critical journalism about TRAs, see his recent https://benryan.substack.com/p/insidious-the-aclus-chase-strangio?. “Insidious”: The ACLU’s Chase Strangio Slams The New York Times In Leaked Audio
So while you are disagreeing with him about pronoun usage, I would recommend his substack and journalism.
[I am long long time lurker, first time posting. A question: how do i post or send to your attention TRA or gender-critical feminism articles that might be of interest to you or to comment on?]
Hi, and welcome to posting.
I had a feeling Ben Ryan had written sensible stuff – and I thought I had checked to see if I’d shared any of it here, but if I did I seem to have missed this which I found just now:
https://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2025/shared-realities/
So yes, agreed.
Miscellany Room is the handy-dandy place for alerting us to articles of interest – and thanks in advance!
https://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2025/miscellany-room-13/
Ophelia thank you for the nice welcome, i have been reading and liking your posts for decades i think, (well before there was this platform) and you were the very first person i ever saw get [attempted] cancelling because of your integrity and critical mind, before it was even a thing ”cancelling.” I well remember it, but would share here public only if you want me to. I do want to thank you for all the time and effort and great insight and snark you put into this day after day for years!
Thanks for the reminder, Wes. Even though we may disagree with Mr. Ryan about several points, and even though some of us (i.e. yours truly) may enjoy the spectacle of Ms. Rowling correcting him about pronouns, he has done work that helps increase awareness of the perfidy of characters like Chase Strangio and Rachel Levine and the weight of trans activism on children and families.
Wes – well thank you! And thank you even more for “great insight and snark” – who could want a better compliment?! Feel free to share.
Ophelia, This is many many many years ago, i don’t recall if it was facebook or another platform and someone asked you point blank: are trans women women?
And you had been writing for long time about gender issues not necessary trans issues and you wanted to pause the conversation and ask what does that mean, that with your background in gender issues, you said, you had some questions before you responded, and more generally, you said, you would ask questions before answering questions.
the person–i don’t recall the name nor would i put it here if i did, but it was a woman, you might recall, said: NO, no questions [allowed], you must answer the question as is, are trans women women?
i THINK if my memory is correct you refused to answer whatsoever without further clarification of meaning of the question and terms, and then that woman and a bunch of others really turned on you on the platform, it was an early version of purity tests on the left.
while i didn’t understand the issues like i do today, and also the issues and meaning of that phrase has evolved since then to more extremism with that belief, i was quite honestly very very impressed both by your skepticism [we both had some ties to CFI at that time, my very minor] and your integrity in the face of a purity test that look like it might have cost you connections or friendships.
So i am also a long time fan of yours for that public combination of skepticism/critical thinking and integrity, despite perhaps social costs. thanks for letting me finally acknowledge what that moment has meant for me to and thank you for my witnessing that, best wishes!
I think that was probably on the blog network I was on for several years, until the trans thing made it impossible. Freethought Blogs, it was called – ironically! It was so long ago I’ve forgotten the many annoying details. I do remember that people lined up to do a separate post denouncing me, so that was fun.
CFI, I’m sorry to say, seems to have surrendered to the ideology. If it hasn’t it’s very very quiet about it.
Your mentioning it motivated me to dig up a couple of pages of posts from back then. The way those former colleagues carried on was and is quite astonishing.
https://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/notes/page/1197/
Ophelia, I don’t have the links handy at this moment, I had the same thought about CFI, but then read some of their posts/essays and saw that they are one of the few organizations that have not been ideologically captured on the trans topic and still standing up for science which is part of their mission, of course the best as you know are F.I.R.E. and Heterodox Academy.
It may well have been FreeThoughtBlogs, that i stopping reading when you left.
So did I!