Tag: Rachel McKinnon

A little McKinnon for refreshment after all that Trump on crack.

You: “I like dick”

Girl with dick says ‘Hey, wanna date?’
“Oh…no…I only like dick on guys”

Guy responds to date ad: ‘Sup girl’ …guy has a vagina
“Oh, sorry, I only like guys with dicks”

Both cases trans people are left in the cold. ‘Genital preferences’ are transphobic.

But not wanting to have sex with X isn’t phobia of X. We’re not obliged to want to have sex with anyone and everyone, with no preferences of any kind. McKinnon’s assertion makes nonsense of both heterosexual and homosexual – it asserts that we all have to be omnisexual. But we don’t have to. We don’t have to stop having preferences, and we don’t have to have sex with “Rachel” McKinnon. “Rachel” may be left out in the cold but that doesn’t translate to we are all obliged to have sex with him if he asks.

I don’t think there’s a principled distinction between:

1. “I like dick, not vaginas,” and
2. “I like ‘real’ vaginas, not trans women’s vaginas”

If you think (1) is okay but (2) isn’t, I don’t think you can draw a principled reason, it’ll have to be ad hoc.

But 2. contains a lie. Trans women don’t have vaginas. They have inverted penises. Fun fact: an inverted penis is not like a vagina. This apparently comes as a nasty surprise to many people, but it’s true. Trans women don’t have vaginas, and what they do have doesn’t function like a vagina, so there are plenty of reasons to prefer a vagina to an inverted penis if vaginas are your sexual preference.

Y’all, I think many of you have let the transphobes condition trans women to vehemently reject this for fear of looking ‘rapey’ (which is NOT what the cotton ceiling is about).

You have a right to be loved and appreciated as you are, and people who don’t are transphobic.

No. You don’t. Nobody does. I daresay that formula sounds right and “inclusive” if you don’t think about it at all, but it’s complete nonsense. We don’t have a “right” to be loved. (Children have a right to parental love, or a damn good simulacrum of it, I think, but that’s a special case because the parents make those children, so they owe them.) If we did, what would follow from that? How would we police it? How would we monitor it?

We don’t have a right to be loved at all, and we doubly don’t have a right to be loved as we are. What if we’re smelly and bad-tempered and selfish? No. Love isn’t a right or a duty (except for parents), it has to have reasons. Different people have different reasons, so different kinds of people can find love, but that’s not because anyone has a right to it “as they are.”

I’m not sure I think McKinnon is a very good philosopher.

Wow.

“Rachel” McKinnon a couple of hours ago:

Sorry Twitter won’t let me embed tweets any more. The skeleton is dancing and bopping joyously around.

“Jessie the Cute Tran” is amused.

Heh :D :D

You do make me laugh Rachel.

GIF of people jumping up and down.

I hate people.

Meanwhile though that talk McKinnon was scheduled to give has been cancelled (or, tactfully, “rescheduled”) because no one was interested. It has already been scrubbed from the How To Academy and Eventbrite pages.

A tweet:

P.S. I’ve seen an e-mail saying that ticket numbers for McKinnon’s talk were “embarrassingly low” and that How To: Academy has actually received more objections to McKinnon’s talk than tickets sold. On that basis, it has been CANCELLED.

Further elucidation:

To pre-empt McKinnon’s lies that TRANSPHOBES were SOLELY responsible for cancelling his talk, I attach an e-mail from.the director of How To: Academy which explains that ticket sales were so low it was EMBARRASSING TO RUN THE EVENT.

I wonder if the talk on Fairness in Sport failed to resonate with his audience because it’s hard to think of anyone less qualified to talk about fairness in sport than a man who calls himself a woman and competes in women’s races.

McKinnon is working on motivation. Athletes need motivation.

‘Is this what a world champion would do?’ is a question I use often to get through the hardest workouts. I’m putting together a killer garage gym for my lifting needs. I’m designing up a personal motivational poster. Thoughts?

I have a thought. My thought is that R. McKinnon is not a genuine world champion, but instead is a man who stole a world championship from a woman by competing against her. My further thought is that the exhibitionistic bragging about this feat is quite astonishingly repellent. Even if you buy the fairy tale that men can “become” women by saying the magic words and doing some hormone-fiddling, it still doesn’t follow that they are justified in then using their physical advantage to trounce women in athletic competitions.

Shorter: R. McKinnon is not a genuine world champion and looks like a sleazy fuck claiming he is.

Speaking of McKinnon – there’s an event in London in October:

Fri, 11 October 2019

6:45 pm – 8:00 pm

Transgender Athletes and the Science of Fairness
Dr Rachel McKinnon

VENUE

The Tabernacle (Off Portobello)

34-35 Powis Square, Notting Hill, London,

W11 2AY

Less than four years ago, in October 2015, I wrote about Magdalen Berns’s candidacy for Women’s Liberation Group Convenor at Edinburgh University and the obnoxious way they labeled her “whorephobic” because she’s not pro-pimp. She wrote a guest post here in January.

She promptly went on to become a genius feminist star on YouTube – so the misogynist bit of the universe took her out with glioblastoma, pretty much the worst brain cancer there is. Last week she moved to hospice care. My opinion of these latter developments is that they suck.

“Rachel” McKinnon on the other hand is a fan.

Eh, if they’re a trash human actively trying to harm marginalized people because of who they are? I think it’s justified.

Even Adrian Harrop was taken aback.

You honestly think it’s acceptable or a sign of decency to take pleasure in hearing that another human being is going to die, at a relatively very young age, from an inoperable and incurable brain tumour? And then to express that pleasure publicly on social media?

Sure, dude, sure.

Again, if they’re going out of their way to harm an entire marginalized group? Sure. I’ve already posted about why it’s okay to be happy about shitty people like Koch dying.

Maybe live by the maxim whereby, “Don’t be the sort of person who people you’ve harmed are happy you’re dying of brain cancer”

Oh dear, McKinnon is misunderstood.

And, again, transphobes can’t read: I never said that *I* am happy that Magdalen is dying of brain cancer. I merely said that I think such an attitude is ethically justified when the person dying has engaged in extreme harassment of a marginalized group (she’s a HUGE transphobe).

Hey, remember when an entire sports stadium of people started CHEERING at the announcement that Bin Laden was killed?

Go clutch your pearls somewhere else, transphobes.

Hey, one, I do remember the raucous cheering outside the White House, and it made me cringe.

But also…

Magdalen is IN NO WAY COMPARABLE TO OSAMA FUCKING BIN LADEN.

Bicycling Magazine tweeted a couple of days ago:

.@rachelvmckinnon is going to continue racing—doing what she loves to do, which she has a right to do—no matter what internet commenters or competitors say.

The linked article is from January.

The wording of the tweet is odd. It sounds like any male abuser or schoolyard bully…you can almost hear the word “bitch” as you read it. That “no matter what competitors say” – that’s a defiance too many, I would think. “McKinnon is going to continue cheating no matter what competitors say” – they really want to go there?

It’s also an odd picture to use. McKinnon towers over the woman, which underlines the fact that he’s cheating.

Reactions are not uniformly impressed.

So brave of you to encourage and support cheating. So very brave and…predictable.

And a female athlete is excluded every time Rachel competes. So inclusive.

Women rarely win against men in competitive sport because male bodies are bigger. That’s why female categories were established, not to accommodate the inner ‘feelings’ of individuals.

Of course Rachael has a right to compete, IN THE MALE CATEGORY.

As usual my question is, who came 4th? Because that’s the woman who’s been cheated out of a medal & a place on that podium, that’s the woman who may now not get a sponsorship, that’s the woman who has trained hard but lost to a man. McKinnon isn’t a world Champion, he’s a cheat.

There’s just nothing quite like it for reminding us that we – women – don’t matter.

McKinnon wins again.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0rNc1wFlm_/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0tJqKvFxcp/

Meanwhile, ratcheting continues.

https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1112697781997707267

That’s the new Twitter header.

Does anyone else do that? Say something and sign it Dr. Important Person (2019)? I don’t think I’ve seen one like that before. And then using it to frame violent imagery of flames and a brick, muscled arms and threatening scowl, all of it directed at women…this ain’t social justice.

https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1112709409397006336

https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1112712794867228674

https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1112728237849919489

Note how I put my fist right up in front of your face but didn’t actually touch it.

Furthermore, “throw bricks at transphobia” is meaningless. There is no thing, transphobia, to throw bricks at. You could throw bricks at cars, or through windows, but not at “transphobia.” McKinnon is getting his jollies here by continuing his threats against women while repeating his “I’m not hitting you” taunts.

I wonder how future competitors are going to feel about racing against him. I wouldn’t ever want to be anywhere near him.

It sounds so familiar…

https://twitter.com/Godstopper1981/status/1110067426786529280

McKinnon blocked me on Twitter but Google finds the tweet easily.

https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/689798240095571968?lang=en

That ONE tweet. Fancy being silly enough to focus on that! Just because McKinnon refers to lesbians as “cis” and then refers to their sexual orientation as “genital hangups” and then says they can “cope” just fine with penis. Silly silly cis lesbians, refusing to be charmed by giant arrogant medal-stealing DOCTOR Rachel McKinnon when they could simply “cope” or “adjust” or “deal with it” or “shut up and spread them.”

Also…

McKinnon’s latest triumph:

https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1103427361268219904

What? What has Kelly Holmes done to deserve McKinnon’s efforts to Get Her In Trubble? Besides winning gold at the Olympics?

I guess it was this.

https://twitter.com/damekellyholmes/status/1102475186866147328

Oh no, not agreeing with Martina! No wonder McKinnon is trying to get her sponsors to drop her.

Specialized took the bait.

https://twitter.com/iamspecialized/status/1103493290760892417

So that’s McKinnon’s latest triumph.

McKinnon may have gone a step too far yesterday.

pic.twitter.com/hZcowmJ4Qd

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) March 5, 2019

Hadley Freeman on Rachel McKinnon’s triumphant own goal:

Two weeks ago Martina Navratilova, one of the greatest athletes of all time, leaped into the notoriously feverish gender debate and wrote that self-identified trans women should not have an automatic right to compete in women’s sports because they have unfair advantages from having been born male. The media, terrified of being on the wrong side of history, responded predictably, and headlines said that Navratilova was “criticised over ‘cheating’ trans women comments”, although this criticism came largely from a relatively unknown cyclist, Rachel McKinnon, with a history of incendiary remarks (such as that lesbians such as Navratilova should “get over their genital hang-ups” when it comes to choosing sexual partners). When Navratilova published a further blog last weekend, firmly restating her position, the headlines again suggested wrongdoing on her part, such as the BBC’s “Navratilova sorry for transgender ‘cheat’ language as she re-enters debate”.

This is what I kept saying – the Guardian and the BBC kept using infuriatingly loaded language. Freeman points out that the support of other star athletes got less attention.

One can firmly defend a person’s right to live in the gender identity of their choosing yet also look at photos of trans women athletes such as Gabrielle Ludwig, Natalie van Gogh and McKinnon standing alongside their strikingly smaller female team-mates, and think Navratilova’s arguments are worth investigating instead of dismissing with cries of bigotry.

That’s because a person’s right to live in the gender identity of their choosing can’t be completely free of qualification without bumping up against other people’s rights. Rachel Dolezal can “live in” whatever racial identity she likes, but she can’t claim prizes or roles intended for African-Americans without bumping up against the rights of African-Americans.

Feminists and the LGBT movement are usually allies, and yet they have become antagonists on this issue – and if there’s one person in this country who has, at the very least, exacerbated this, it’s Maria Miller. In 2017, as chair of the women and equalities committee, Miller produced a report on transgender rights in which she recommended that changing gender should be through a process of “self-declaration” rather than after consultation with a doctor.

But changing gender isn’t changing sex, as feminists have been pointing out.

Miller set off a savage culture war in which the losers were women, trans and not, all of whom felt unfairly attacked; and they were all correct. Biological women felt like they were being told to engage in magical thinking, deny their lived experience and accept the irrelevancy of biology, while trans women felt like they were being asked to defend their identity.

There’s quite a large gap between those two sets, though. Being told to engage in magical thinking, deny one’s lived experience, and accept the irrelevancy of biology is a good deal more basic and all-pervading than being asked to defend one’s “identity”…especially when what is meant by “identity” is so squishy and variable and already-politicized. The identity woman is rather different from the identity man who feels like a woman. Women can’t identify their way out of forced pregnancy.

About as “nifty” as interviewing Rachel Dolezal for Black History Month.

https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1102980693217431552

Listen up, people, words are magic, and that’s all you need to know. Simple.

https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1102265197547474945

Self-identification=reality. Simple. In other words, what people say about themselves is true, period, end of story. Simple.

So if someone tells you she’s a beluga whale, she is a beluga whale. Simple.

If someone tells you he’s Denali, he is Denali. Simple.

Words are magic. Simple. Anyone who says otherwise is An Enemy of the People. (What if she says she isn’t An Enemy of the People? That question is against the law.)

Now that we know words are magic, life is going to become a whole lot simpler. I can’t wait to get started.

Rachel McKinnon may now be regretting his bullying of Martina Navratilova yesterday, since it’s getting some unfavorable attention.

I wonder if the cyclepath that is Rachel McKinnon has woken up today thinking, 'Shittttttttt – did I REALLY say to Martina, 'Don't you know who I am?'

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) December 22, 2018

.@Martina Navratilova was a beacon for gay pride and dignity at time when there was no cyber wall of liberals to defend her. She is no ally. She was the vanguard.
She is a veteran.
Respect, won already. #OverAndOut

— Alison Moyet (@AlisonMoyet) December 22, 2018

Lucy Bannerman and Gabriella Swerling at the Times:

She won Wimbledon nine times and is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, so most people would agree that Martina Navratilova has earned the right to discuss fairness in women’s sport.

Not everyone. Rachel McKinnon, a transgender cyclist from Canada, has been accused of bullying Navratilova on social media, demanding she retract and apologise for “transphobic” comments about transgender athletes competing in women’s sport.

They give the background on the new orthodoxy that “biological males should be allowed to compete against women if they identify as female,” and the dissent from the new orthodoxy that points out that men have physical advantages and can be a hazard to women. They quote Navratilova’s tweet saying you “can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women,” then they quote three of McKinnon’s, including the prize-narcissism entry:

She added: “You . . . realize I’m a world champion trans athlete who happens to publish and speak worldwide on trans rights . . . right?”

This obnoxious disordered narcissistic twerp tries to impress Martina Navratilova with how important he is, being a world champion cheater athlete who promulgates his Cheater Bullshit “worldwide” (i.e. on Twitter). Result: now more people know what a narcissistic cheating twerp he is. Bit of an own goal?

Rachel McKinnon’s world championship Saturday is raising more eyebrows.

Cycling’s first transgender world champion has fired back at heated criticism surrounding her breakthrough victory at the 2018 UCI Masters track championships.

Canadian philosophy professor at South Carolina’s College of Charleston Dr Rachel McKinnon endured a torrent of online trolling after taking to social media to celebrate her world championship win in the women’s 35-44 sprint final at the Velo Sports Center in Los Angeles earlier this week.

An image of McKinnon standing tall above her competitors during the medal presentation ceremony has spread globally in the wake of her controversial victory — just as she predicted.

So McKinnon’s good at predicting as well as cycling.

But was it predictable because people are such nasty transphobic bigots? Or was it predictable because McKinnon has the body of a large man? Was it predictable because people are irrational and hostile to Difference, or because McKinnon has an unfair advantage over the women in the competition? McKinnon of course would say it’s for the first reasons, but then McKinnon has an interest.

An elated McKinnon claimed, to her knowledge, she is the first openly transgender athlete to win a world championship in any sport, after nudging past Van Herrikhuyzen on the final straight in a time of 12.903 seconds.

But it doesn’t make sense to put “transgender athlete” in one giant box, given the fact that sport is divided into men’s and women’s because women and men are sexually dimorphic and men have huge physical advantages on most criteria. It’s just not a genuine “first” for a male-bodied cyclist to win a race against female-bodied cyclists, even if it is in the literal sense “the first openly transgender athlete to win a world championship in any sport.” It’s not a genuine first because it’s not a genuine win; it is, to put it bluntly, cheating.

I would think this would be obvious even to the most ardently dogmatic trans activists. I would think that if only on pragmatic grounds – it doesn’t look good. But then I would also expect McKinnon to be able to see it, and that’s apparently a lost cause.

McKinnon hit out at the criticism immediately following her victory both on social media and in interviews.

She told velonews.com she enjoyed no physical advantage over her competitors despite being born a male.

What utter bullshit. McKinnon’s legs are like trees.

She said there is no research to suggest that testosterone and body development would in anyway enhance the physical performance of transgender athletes.

She recently told USA Today that policing the testosterone levels of transgender athletes violates their human rights — declaring that should override all debates surrounding potential unfair playing fields for transgender athletes.

“We cannot have a woman legally recognised as a trans woman in society, and not be recognized that way in sports,” McKinnon said recently.

Yes we can. We can make an exception for sports. That’s a thing we can do.

“Focusing on performance advantage is largely irrelevant because this is a rights issue. We shouldn’t be worried about trans people taking over the Olympics. We should be worried about their fairness and human rights instead.”

Oh no it is not. There is no “right” for people with male bodies to compete against women in sport. That pretend “right” is at least as absurd as the claimed “right” to have one’s chosen “identity” validated.