Originally a comment by quixote on Misogynist made human rights boss.
Gender critical voters are feminists.
(The clue is in the name. They’re critical of gender. They view it as stories we tell ourselves. They’re happy for you to tell yourself any story you like. You’re male and you like to knit? No problem. Knit all you like. No need for vaginoplasty to enable you to knit. What they’re against is people who tell others which stories to believe.)
They’re also rare right now in the US, already concentrated in liberal districts, and hence unlikely to move the needle as voters. Politicians are infinitely aware of how little gender critical feminists matter to them.
What the Dems do need is the votes of people who tell themselves they don’t care about any of that. They just want their kids to be safe and successful in gym class.
Trans rights activists’ instant outrage at the assumption that trans people could be perverse makes no sense to these voters. It’s not about trans people. It’s about their kids. (The concept that anything could be not about trans is very confusing to TRAs.) If anyone can declare he belongs in their daughter’s gym class, what’s to stop real pervs from lying their way in? Have TRAs never heard of some of the scoutmasters in Boy Scouts?
The sad fact for TRAs is that people do lie to get what they want. Reality has a huge gender critical bias. So even though voters ignore gender issues, their sense of “No!” goes off at the idea of males being included among women when biology matters.
And the Republicans use that to the max. Voters aren’t deep into linguistic usage when they hear “they/them.” All they hear is “I’m one of the loonies who lives in la-la land.”
Republicans come at it from a different universe, of course. To them, gender is the only thing that matters. They’d rather you change sex to play the right part than make the least dent in the strict divisions and hierarchies of gender. (That leads to stuff like the Iranian mullahs allowing sex change operations rather than tolerating the slightest deviance in dress codes. Early on, Republicans, eg Rick Santorum, leaned this way too, until they noticed what it said about them.) So Republicans “agree” with feminists that sex matters, not because equality requires recognition of differences, but because that’s the only way they have to lock you into one of two boxes.
The Dems don’t help themselves by their desperation to avoid any taint of feminism. (What could be more uncool? Really. What?) If they could shake that off, it’d be simple. And because it’s true it would resonate with all those voters who “don’t think about it.” As Rowling said dog’s years ago, “Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill” / X 2019/12/20.
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