What makes a cult?
We all come pre-programmed!
Dr. Steven Hassan thinks he knows. “After my deprogramming from the Moon cult in 1976, I became interested in mind control… but needed a master’s degree to receive ethical training in hypnosis… I have been attending workshops (and giving them) ever since.“
Feminists on Twitter have latched onto Dr. Hassan’s words from last June, “Young people are not getting good ethical counseling regarding their trauma, their body image issues, their gayness… They are being rushed to taking hormones and in some cases surgery.“
Why does anyone care what he thinks? Dr. Hassan literally wrote the book on cults.
He laid out the BITE model used to identify them and is personally responsible for most of what we know about them. His field Neuro Linguistic Programming is essentially the basis for what we know as Self-Help, along with many other therapies.
Dr. Hassan accusing Trans Activism of cult behavior carries some real weight.
Amidst the inevitable mudslinging, I saw three people insisting Dr. Hassan turn his spotlight the other way. The Gender Criticals are the true cult! We have proof!
This proof takes the form of personal essays. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Our transman author says she was pulled into the fray after not toeing the party line on a government survey.
Then she wanders off into personal narrative for about 1,000 words. “I’m more than happy to refer to myself as an adult human female… I’m less comfortable with ‘woman.’ Woman, to me, seemed to connote a particular set of characteristics that I do not possess.“
And rather than ponder this, she simply disregards the definition she doesn’t agree with. “So no, woman is not a term I am especially comfortable with.” How nice for you. Unpacking why would be a waste of time, obviously.
To be fair, she was busy going through lots of personal stuff, which she tells us about in excruciating detail. “Meanwhile, my video with Benjamin Boyce was released… I was on a crusade to sort out definitively once and for all the issues between gender critical feminism and trans activists.“
No wonder she went a little crazy – Pretty sure this is impossible.
“When I look back on it now, and my current take is – literally none of it matters” Good thing you did all that soul-searching! “Because there is nothing wrong with transition.” Oh, honey, there was nothing wrong with you to begin with.
She was driven away from GC because they insisted she had to detransition. I have to agree – This is a shitty way to treat someone who clearly needed our help.
“I was already on testosterone at this point, and it made me sincerely wonder – is my body already damaged by hormones?“
Yes, darling! That level of testosterone has devastating effects on female organs. “I wonder how detransitioners feel about this language.” This is something that will need to be addressed, as more young women desist and GC and RadFem communities are the only places they can speak.
In the end, she split because the feminists couldn’t accept the idea of her staying on the trans path. I get this, it’s heartbreaking for many a former tomboy to watch her younger sisters break bodies they have barely had a chance to use.
But, unlike that whole White Supremacy nonsense, I think there’s actually a real issue here.
Wait a minute! Are we sure a faster current is a good sign??
Both of these examples begin with teenage trauma and end somewhere in the gender weeds. Both authors admit to being in a bad place when they found gender criticism.
Also quite a long read, I’d begun to wonder if I had clicked the wrong link. “You see the tactic played out online, often with women much younger than you. It feels very much like a recruitment drive.“
I have literally no idea what she’s talking about. I stumbled into RadFem stuff on my own and was stoked to find anyone who knew what I was talking about.
“If you have young people who have been treated poorly… throwing feminist grand theory at them is not going to take their pain away.” No one should be promising this. “I have, dare I say it – safeguarding concerns over young people being indoctrinated.“
Hey, me too! We better go snatch that gender theory stuff back out of the classrooms …right?
Gender criticism and radical feminism teach that people can be whoever they want. Just not whatever they want.
Her essay reads like Kerouak but she does a good job painting the cliquey picture. “Quite suddenly I had other women who wanted to talk to me about their concerns. It is ironic… a group of women talking in secret from women who claim they cannot talk about their concerns without being silenced.“
Passing on bad behavior without realizing it is common as mosquitos. This is what made my head tilt to one side, and it appears in both pieces. It’s the only criticism I see in stuff like this that I think really holds water.
“Leaving the GC also makes you a TRA by default.” I have definitely seen this employed as a cover for the encroaching despair of losing team members.
The temptation for purity tests is strong. Everyone is grasping for certainty, it’s nice to have a banner to fly to know who’s friendly.
I’ve met women who say men can’t be feminists. I’ve met those who insist straight women can’t be radfems. The Staniland Question is popular, but creating a hard rule almost dares someone to find an exception.
How about the tried-&-true ‘women are people’?
Sometimes I wonder if forgetting this truly is our problem! “This is the lesbophobia you don’t see… Being told to be nice or I will be too aggressive, too masculine, or the eye roll and ‘lesbians’ muttered under their breath. This is a universal experience.“
It sure is! Insert whatever word or slur is convenient, and you just described every woman. “I don’t think you get [rage] when people express discontent… They aren’t often that… triggered. It is how you dismiss them… entirely. They are a nuisance, someTHING to be sent away.“
It’s annoying how hard this was to read, because it’s important. “After enough of this, people simply give up trying to communicate with you.“
It never occurs to her to turn this around, of course.
She does shine the briefest light on the elephant in the room – “Individuals who harp on about sexual orientation being immutable then have this batshit concept of political lesbianism. There is no context in which I do not find this concept utterly fucking offensive.“
Hard to argue! I have touched on this before and probably will again, but… we can do better.
Conclusions
They both possess an uncanny abililty to ramble about themselves in public with little apparent embarrassment.
They go on and on but manage to miss some meaty introspection: “I already felt bad for transitioning. They’d already got me to that point.“ The answer is always external. Never stops to ask herself why she reacts like she does.
“I was expecting more people to invite me onto other podcasts. I was desperate to be on the podcasts of Twitter famous people.” When did we forget the answer isn’t out there anywhere?
Our second example seems unable to get out from under herself: “It is about how you are treated in society when you do not play nicely. How easy it can be to have your own womanhood quietly stripped… because you do not play the game, and therefor are less of a woman.”
Women get docked for so many things! She is so identified with her anger, it never occurs to her we can all relate.
Don’t worry, I’m not like these bitches!
She begins, “Much of my relationship with gender critical feminism also involves my relationship with a teenage version of myself that I subconsciously keep locked away in her bedroom.
“If I sat in a room with my teenage self, I know we would both hate each other – and I don’t know how I feel about that… I could keep that teenager, with all her feelings of despair and loneliness, locked in that fucking bedroom. Sometimes I think that would be the best thing.
“Then gender critical feminism hits you like a truck, and whether or not you realise it – that teenager is throwing a teentrum in your front room whilst you’re sitting there thinking ‘where the fuck did you show up from?’ The problem is she doesn’t look or sound like you. You hear yourself in other women, usually much younger than you. It’s the same pain.“
She tells us that gender criticism activates parts of herself that she hates.
This is why we have to be gentle.
Maybe I’m just tired, but I keep seeing the same things over and over. A few people didn’t like my post last week about trauma, but both of these women have been wounded by life. Both of these women identify themselves as victims.
And I’m not even sure they realize it. With the victim mentality, all the world’s a cult!
People like Dr. Hassan have helped us understand how wounded people are susceptible to the wolves among us. Trauma therapists will tell you we project our expectations onto new situations.
“So, in the true survivalist nature of PTSD, one supposes, it is easier to see you all as one and the same.“
Now, if we could just get it into our heads that everyone else feels the same way, we might even get somewhere!
No, gender critical feminism is not a cult. Trans activism seems to be, and a wounded world is easy prey.
Recent Comments