Men-Only Spaces: Patriarchy’s Next Gambit

“I just don’t want men in women’s spaces, and I don’t care how those men identify.”

Pushy Dude

Geez, Gary – I’m not gonna marry you just because you say so!

The clip is Kellie-Jay Keen (AKA Posie Parker) attempting to converse with someone called James Max, “It’s up to everybody however they want to live their life, but when it impinges on my life – ” 

“How does it impinge on your life?” Jim is cavalier in his home field advantage.

“If I want to go into a female-only space and there’s men in there who decide that they’re women, then it’s no longer a female-only space, is it?”

I snagged this one as it floated by, so jam-packed with goodies I knew I could pull something out of it. But, beyond that, this guy is so busy being arrogant he forgets to stop running his mouth!

He’s so convinced Kellie doesn’t understand the game he’s playing that he shows most of his cards: “But then, men were told that. They wanted to have men-only spaces and then they were told that was discrimination. They weren’t allowed to do it.”

Right, because everything used to be men-only! – Education, commerce, Law, the Clergy, everything. From at least the Middle Ages until within living memory, people felt sorry for a working woman because it meant her husband was failing to support her in focusing on the homestead. Working women were a manifestation of poverty, of cutthroat economic forces.

Outside of learning a trade to support her family, women were excluded entirely from huge chunks of society for centuries.

When we did venture out, Man’s World was a hostile place. The amount of hard and soft pushback has been completely out of proportion to the threat men face in recognizing women as equals. This scenario where equality means obliterating all boundaries also means scrubbing the record of how overwhelmingly one-sided the threat really is.

Georgian Card Player

Oh shit, did I get played??

Kellie recognized this, of course, “So, men are more unsafe now that they can’t have their golf clubs?”

“It’s not a question of safe. It’s cake-and-eat-it, isn’t it?” Jimmy’s smugness betrays a deep ignorance of a life where you’re romantically and sexually attracted to people who could easily kill you, should the mood strike them. He comes across as one of those guys who thinks a broken heart deserves a broken arm.

“It’s a question of safety for women.”

“So, all men are predators?” This is absurd. But all men are male, regardless of any medical intervention.

“No, not all men. Some are, and we don’t know which ones they are. That’s why we have segregated spaces.”

Everyone knows this. Even if Time started over in the year 2000 and Kellie, Jim, and I all forgot the first few decades of our lives, the story continues – Sarah Everard was killed by a man she didn’t know, distracting from the thousands of women every year murdered by someone they trusted.

But Jim blithely assumes a paradigm that finds equality a great loophole for shoving these skeletons back in the closet. He literally shakes his head as he says, “Right. I mean, isn’t it better that we train all people to be a bit more respectful to each other?”

Can’t we all just get along? I dunno, Jimmy, can women just have some privacy?

“Well, when we don’t have any men committing sexual assault, rape, and domestic violence, then I will totally agree with you. But, until that happens, I’m afraid…”

“So, women don’t commit those crimes as well?” Interrupting her to accuse women of violence without evidence. Is there some kind of Man-Splaining award he’s going for?

“Not at the rate of men, no.” Not by a million miles. Not even close. Not even in the same ballpark, in the same town, in the same fucking country, dude. This has been known since the beginning of time, it was the rationale for women being kept at home – To keep us safe! You know, from men.

Tea Party Chatter

No, really, that’s what he said – I need a man to defend against men!

“Right. OK. I am slightly staggered by your views.” He stammers theatrically for a moment, as if she’s just told him men should be exterminated from the face of the earth.

“That biological sex exists?”

“I may have to change my mind – Maybe it was right that, if you take those views, maybe you should be canceled.”

“Wow.” My thoughts exactly. Kellie doesn’t get defensive at this incendiary statement. She brings her tone down and takes a breath. “You’re on talk radio, right?”

“Yes.”

“OK, and you think people should be canceled for – “

“No,” He cuts her off several times through this exchange,  “I don’t think people should be canceled, and I would like people to have different views, but – It’s just – I find it staggering that you would want to have this kind of discrimination perpetrated against people who are born different from you.”

Those poor, beleaguered transwomen! Stuck in private spaces with pigs like Jimmy here, that’s gotta be a bitter pill to swallow. If such a creature existed, they would inspire great pity for such a predicament.

But Kellie isn’t distracted, her sights fixed on calling out this rhetorical imposter.

“No, I want men out of women’s spaces. That’s not ‘born different.’ That’s a biological fact, and that biological fact determines whether someone is a risk to women.

And, just like that, we watch him drop the pose of Concern for Transwomen as soon as she calls out their real name! His direct response to this is, “So, is it OK if men said that they wanted women out of their spaces?”

And what would you say qualifies as ‘Men’s Spaces,’ Jimmy?

Crystal Ball

No crystal ball required to see where this is going!

“Do you mean like private spaces, like toilets and places where men might undress?”

He gives a coy little shrug, “Might be.” Might not be. Might be Parliament. Jimmy can’t tell the future.

“Absolutely, of course women shouldn’t be in those spaces.”

“OK, and what about other places?”

“Like what?”

“I dunno – Bars, restaurants, or anything else. I mean, can we just go back to segregated society?” Then we can stop wasting time talking to women.

I think Kellie gets a bit flustered by this idiot so boldly talking out both sides of his mouth. She kind of fumbles the next part, failing to concisely convey how the world used to be a men-only space, and why that had to end.

“The reason feminists of old decided that they wanted to eradicate some of those men-only spaces is because, in those corridors of power, that’s where important conversations were taking place. And women, by not being allowed in those spaces, were out of the conversation.”

Government made decisions effecting women’s lives all the time, usually with no input from us at all. We were bound by rules we had no hand in making and, eventually, we had enough. This is why suffrage was the first organized push of Women’s Liberation – If we’re not in Government, we’ll never get anywhere else!

Jimmy doesn’t bring this up directly, but his angle is understood. Jangling this old chain rattles Kellie a bit, and she doesn’t call him on essentially admitting that transwomen are men with his if you can keep us out, we can keep you out maneuver. 

“That is a very different thing than wanting to keep men out of women’s spaces, like where women are undressing.” It sure is! How did we get here, anyway? He was arguing for men all along, and we’ve gone from poor transwomen using the Ladies Room to men-only clubs in a single step.

Refocusing, Kellie returns to the center of her fight: “Does my 15-year-old daughter have the right to go in a female-only space and expect there only to be females?”

And Jimmy, for his part, returns to Start as well – “If somebody is, or if they have transitioned, then they are a female.”

No. That’s the simple answer here. No, they aren’t. Kellie humors him with some stats before getting there: “Well, ninety percent of men who say they transition have no intention of taking hormones, or losing their genitals.”

Not the point. A man can have all kinds of surgeries to look like anything his heart desires, but those desires betray their source. A man madeover into a woman is only and forever that, nothing more. Full stop. How many of which surgeries he’s had is irrelevant.

Date With A Pigeon

I’m sorry, Reginald – I can only see you as a pigeon!

“And so, as far as I’m concerned… You don’t transition anyway, there’s no such thing. Nobody ever changes from one sex to another.”

This is where this ploy ends. And Jimmy was kind enough to tip his hand and show us what this Male Supremacy movement’s next move might be.

But Kellie is thrown off by the cocky gamesmanship, “What we’re talking about, predominantly with men, is men over the age of forty deciding that they want to dress as women. It’s what we used to call transvestites.”

She tries to bring it back together as the segment ends, “This whole ‘transgender’ [thing] just totally loses the fact of what’s really going on. Most people who call themselves ‘trans’ are not transsexual, they’re transgender. They’re transvestites, in old language.” But Jimmy’s only too happy to cut her off.

“Right. Ok. Well, then, let’s leave the old language.” You’d like that, wouldn’t you? It’s amazing how redefining everything manages to erase so much progress.

This short video speaks volumes, most of it not from our side. I don’t fault Kellie for anything she said, she was factual and goal-oriented. It didn’t matter anyway, Jimmy blocking her with the customary accusations of bigotry.

But the arrogance on display here is truly next-level. He didn’t just dismiss her outright – He toyed with her like a sneering, spoiled child, before tossing her away as she sputtered. I’m not sure what Kellie expected, but our pal Jimmy obviously never had any intention of engaging with anything she was going to say. 

His argument boiled down to, Women shouldn’t have private spaces away from men. And, if they do, men should get whatever spaces away from women strike our fancy. You want private bathrooms? We want private clubs.

And, again, the subtext is clear – Let us in, or you will pay dearly.

Snuffed Cigar

The male ego will be appeased!

And when Kellie discarded the ‘True Trans’ ploy, sweeping away the whole argument and clearing the board by insisting they’re all men anyway, Jim didn’t demure like he was supposed to. Instead of retreating to the fallback stance of Trans Advocate, he went in for the kill. That’s masculine aggression for you.

Writing afterwards in The Spectator, Kellie quotes Jim as saying, “I just get the impression she hates men.” She explains this away as sleight of hand, to cover his lack of rational arguments for the destruction of women’s rights.

I think it’s more devious than that – Some men yearn for the good old days. They hate our independence, blaming us for a lack of control in their own lives. By smearing that hatred onto us, they can destroy us and pretend they are justified. Burn the witch!

To claim a woman married to a man hates men carries an insurmountable burden of proof. Kellie just isn’t worried about protecting transwomen, the ultimate straw man. She wants those men out of what were once women’s private spaces!

Jimmy Max acts like his world is ending and Kellie has her finger on the button, just like any child throwing a tantrum and blaming his trigger. She made me do it! Cancel her!

The recent boldness of smug men like Jimmy is frightening. But if we listen to him where he refuses to listen to us, we won’t be surprised by the tricks up their sleeve.

 

 

 

Female-Presenting People: What Leftism Isn’t

“We define our sexual orientation as one thing and you’re changing it to another, and that’s the issue.” Self-described “old-school lesbian YouTuber” Arielle Scarcella sits stubbornly at the center of our cultural confusion.

0passed Out On The Stairs

I shall not be moved!

“Now we have people telling us things like we have ‘complicated relationships’ with genitals? I don’t think me being a lesbian is a complicated issue. I think it’s just me being attracted to females,

“…Or female-presenting people.”

Posted back in December of 2019, Arielle becomes unusually quiet here. She hangs her head and mutters, “There’s nothing complicated about the fact that I like – that, that I’m attracted to boobs and vaginas. I mean, it’s that fuckin simple sometimes.”

She tries very hard to keep it that simple.

I don’t mean to imply that Arielle is somehow not really a lesbian. I was touched by her confusion and pain –  It’s a pain straight women have been feeling for a long time: I’m attracted to men, I just don’t like them very much!

Arielle wants to see her sexuality as straightforward – Being attracted only to other women makes her a lesbian. We’re about the same age, I remember when this was assumed. Homosexuality was a fact of life, and female homosexuals were called lesbians. A straight man being a lesbian inside was nothing but a cheap punchline.

Although she’s been on the scene since 2009, Arielle is fairly new to politics. She built her personal brand on frank talk about lesbian sexuality, assuming a liberal social environment that’s beginning to dry up. After making waves when she “left the Left,” she still spends a lot of time critiquing them. The ‘Woke Left’ is the ex that Arielle just can’t get over.

Wistful Moor Girl

I wonder what Bernie’s doing right now!

Which is weird, because she doesn’t seem to know who she’s talking about.

Which Way Is Left?

According to Brittanica“Left, in politics, the portion of the political spectrum associated in general with egalitarianism and popular or state control of the major institutions of political and economic life. The term dates from the 1790s, when in the French revolutionary parliament the socialist representatives sat to the presiding officer’s left.”

Fun fact –  It’s not random, arbitrary directions or concepts!

But Arielle talks about ‘The Left,’ ‘The Woke Left,’ and ‘The LGBT Community’ interchangeably as she describes distancing herself from all of the above: “I don’t think like these people, and I no longer want to be associated with them.”

Fair enough, right? But then she says things like“The Left is so far left at this point that they are suggesting conversion therapy,” such as insisting anyone with a sexual orientation is a ‘genital fetishist,’ “and hiding it behind the idea of ‘queer progressiveness.'”

…The egalitarians are so egalitarian, they’re using social pressure to enforce conformity? You keep using that word – I do not think it means what you think it means. And she is far from the only one I have heard use it this way.

Britannica continues, Leftists tend to be hostile to the interests of traditional elites, including the wealthy and members of the aristocracy, and to favour the interests of the working class. They tend to regard social welfare as the most important goal of government.”

Taking a Political Compass quiz, Arielle and of one of her new ‘right-wing’ friends casually agree that taxes are useful because they fund government programs. Arielle says she supports things like publicly-funded museums, because “Art is important.”

Sage wisdom, indeed. And upon discovering she qualifies as a ‘Left-leaning Centrist,’ Arielle still fails to find any definition for any of these words!

Red Book

The book matches my dress! Cute, right??

She also glosses over the binary axis of the quiz – Social is laid across Political to arrive at a grid point, allowing extremes to cancel each other out. Someone who wants to drown Government in the bathtub but doesn’t give a shit who you sleep with comes out as a moderate on tests like this, too.

No True Authoritarian

Arielle repeatedly ignores giant clues that she’s not dealing with Progressives at all – “Why is it that the only things required to include all people start out female-based? ‘Feminism’ equals ‘equality for all,’ and women are expected to just sit back and take what’s given to us.”

“Shaming women for their sexual choices is not activism,” Depends on what you’re agitating for. “And it’s certainly not progressive.”

Ding ding ding!

But Arielle resists making inferences about the movement she helped build, “I don’t think the trans community at large is doing this, it’s the loud extremists. But those are the ones being heard, unfortunately.” She doubles down on the ‘few bad apples’ hypothesis before admitting it’s taken her a decade to speak up about it.

As for why that might be, she answers this in a video from a year earlier, in 2018 – “What other lesbians, and even gay men at this point, aren’t telling you is that they are fucking terrified to even touch on any trans topics; How often other LGBTQ YouTubers agree with what I’m saying but avert their eyes and don’t say anything, because they’re terrified of being labeled a transphobe.

But in taking the long way around, Arielle seems to have missed this connection. She claims, “No one wants to talk about the fact that trans activists are making shirts with slogans like, ‘Kill All TERFs.'”

…There are evidently some corners of cyberspace Arielle has yet to discover – Plenty of us are talking about it!!! But that Cancel Culture censorship your friends are all terrified of keeps most of us from ever being heard at all.

Female-Presenting People

Navigating by instinct, Arielle seems to be caught in the false dichotomy of Right vs. Left, conservative vs. liberal. These simplistic labels blur social and political concepts, turning social liberals into political conservatives when Gender Studies overtakes Poli Sci.

Runner

I’ll be good, I swear… Just let me sit down!

Arielle’s relaxed social views are intact, but she only has her own perspective to defend them with. Underneath all her steadfast posturing, Womanhood for Arielle is determined by her own impression. This reasoning falls apart under the slightest pressure – It’s very White Feminism to insist you support transwomen, so long as they spend thousands on hormones and surgery!

Arielle’s impassioned defense of ‘gatekeeping’ and boundaries is undermined by her self-serving adherence to presentation. If you pass, you get a pass!

She even pulls Rose of Dawn in to tell us why the female gender role doesn’t need redefining – A hypothesis that any brand of Feminism would disagree with! Liberation of female people from our oppressive social role was the whole point of all this, remember??

But Arielle is happy to let Rose cling to the very traditions that oppress him, because Good Trans keep the questions at bay. She seemed to be on the edge of something in December 2019, right before she ‘left the Left.’

But she hasn’t changed her views much, remaining pro-choice even as she grows more pro-gun. She just stepped back from the community she helped build, filling the space with criticism. Arielle is reinforcing a refuge of reasonableness for herself as the stability of her position is assaulted from all sides.

Having founded her identity on her membership in the LBG(TQI+) community, she’s tethered to the sinking ship. Deeply enmeshed in the performance of her sexuality and unwilling to face her own contributions to the current situation, Arielle is still following the will-o-the-wisp that found her surrounded by “the mentally unstable.”

But if she admits that even the most attractive transwomen are men, Arielle has to ask herself some uncomfortable questions. Her advocacy will always be shallow because she contradicts herself on a fundamental level.

Some men have figured out a way to get at women like Arielle, to cloud their vision with the smoke and mirrors of ‘gender reassignment’ – Some men have learned to present as female. This disquieting spectre, and her own complicity in creating it, keep Arielle cuddled up to the pussy where she feels safe.

Pussy

She’s naturally protective!

Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off

 The Left ‘left the Left’ a long time ago, and anyone who stumbles into material analysis gets mobbed. Arielle could be a powerful advocate for women if she hadn’t been betrayed by her government and her community. Watching her struggle to make sense of it all reminds me of the importance of definitions.

Identity Politics has flipped the script, enforcing an oppression hierarchy and placing transwomen – Men – at the top. Those with clout have used it to create an illusion of oppression.

Arielle Scarcella is a perfect example of how entwining politics and identity leaves us vulnerable to manipulation. If she could loosen her grip on that one word – Lesbian – just enough to admit there’s no True Trans, she could become the spokeswoman lesbians deserve.

“Repent, Motherfucker!”

However you feel about Dave Chappelle, he’s too big for the mainstream to ignore. His special The Closer has broken the cultural dam, unleashing the torrents of questions TRAs have worked so hard to keep us from asking.

About Time

It’s about time you got here!

The Flow Of Information

The staff walkout at Netflix made the news. NBC probably spun it the hardest, summarizing the day of protests as, “The media giant [was] forced to listen to its workers.” Because a longtime pillar of the establishment, now owned by Comcast, is just happy to see workers getting their own back, right? 

With friends like this, who needs aggressive protesters?

The local Fox affiliate gave us two interviews, one from each side of the fracas. The difference in tone could not be starker: “I’m out here because Dave Chappelle is harming our kids.” Amusingly, the auto-caption has spelled this out as, ‘they should bombing our kids.’ This woman does look terrified!

“He doesn’t realize that the speech that he’s putting out is harmful.” Points for giving him the benefit of the doubt, I guess? “It’s harmful to children.” Chappelle’s material is completely inappropriate for children! “It’s harmful to trans people everywhere, and their allies.”

How this is accomplished by a middle-aged comic using his own thoughts and experiences as grist for the cultural mill is not established. By anyone, anywhere that I could find.

Fox LA’s second interview is with the now-infamous Sign Guy, sign still in hand. “We’re out here to show our support for jokes, comedy, and everything that’s great about America – Free speech!” Holy shit, I think he’s serious! “And I love [that] all these people have free speech, as well, I’m glad we can have a discussion.”

The Jester Tells The Tale

I don’t think Sign Guy was prepared for what he actually encountered that day. His real name is Vito, and his own video regarding the incident is very illuminating.

Illuminated

I can see exactly what’s in front of me!

Billing himself as a Professional Idiot, Vito is more Court Jester than Steve-O. He mostly reviews movies and games, but said he and his friend felt moved to come out in support of Comedy.

“We believe this is an absurd protest. It’s absurd to tell Dave Chappelle not to make jokes about trans people. Transgender issues are huge right now, we’re all talking about it. The idea that a comedian is not gonna talk about it is ridiculous. 

“So, we are being equally ridiculous by chanting, ‘We like jokes.’ And the fact that everyone is mad at us just adds to the absurdity of the situation.” If only absurdity were a guarantee of something being funny.

Vito laughs at himself shouting silly slogans, but his buoyancy sputters as he watches the confrontation from a new angle. The full scope of what he experienced comes into view, and it spooks him a bit.

“Later in the day, when they had the trans speakers speaking, I tried to join in the fun. I was going, ‘Trans lives matter.’ But, again, I’m there to support Comedy – I want my sign to be seen, I want people to hear my message.”

This is when Vito came face-to-face with what he was actually dealing with – These people were there to stifle speech, and they don’t give a damn about your rights if you’re on the Wrong Side of History.

No Debate

He lets it roll a little, then stops to narrate a bit, “This dude in blue is real mad. [He] grabs my sign, rips it out of my hand, puts it on the ground, starts stepping on it.

“A couple people came to me and they say, ‘He’s a writer at Netflix.’ I’m not gonna identify him, I don’t wanna be a part of that. But it is a pretty bad look from Netflix.” To put it mildly. Some crude humor aside, Vito impresses me with his composure through all of this.

Oh Snap

Oh, snap! Did we find a real one??

He acknowledges that some people may see him as a jerk disrupting a protest, “I have every right to be in this public area as much as anybody else and have my voice heard. And my voice is you guys are nuts, and Dave did nothing wrong.” He suggests they should have protested inside the building if they wanted it private, “But if you’re out on the street, the fat guy’s allowed to be there yelling, ‘We like jokes!'” 

Refocusing, he carries on, “Anyway, this Netflix writer destroys my sign…” Vito trails off, momentarily absorbed. Now an observer of his own moment, what he sees begins to bother him. “This guy who broke my sign now goes, ‘He’s got a weapon!’ He knows he broke my sign.

Literally the only reason I can think of to yell that is that you want immediate harm to come to that person. Luckily, the crowd was not that stupid.” Nor Security quick to respond and, for once, I’m glad!

“When I thought someone random in the crowd yelled that I wasn’t as mad, but now that I know a Netflix writer tried to get me killed, I’m a little not happy. That’s really shitty … I’m having feelings all of a sudden, I am not happy about that.”

“I’ll try to move on, but now I really am like, ‘ Ooh, what the hell?'” 

The Fear Of God

As the clip rolls, the high-pitched voice of irony is heard approaching – “Excuse me! Excuse me! Excuse me!” As Thursday Vito launches into a final plea for Comedy, she enters the frame with a large tambourine. In her righteous zeal, Tambourine Lady says the quiet part very loud. Over and over, she shrieks the true mantra of the Trans Rights Movement – “Repent, motherfucker!”

Which leads into my favorite part of Vito’s commentary: “I could not even tell what this chick was yelling at me. I hear it now. What am I repenting for?” He rubs his eyes in exasperation. “This is becoming like a cult. ‘Repent!’ What religion is this??”

Repent

Oh, merciful Gender, Please just let me stay out of the kitchen! Athem!

The wording may be different, but we all know the feeling of someone trying to put the fear of God in us. The US has always been home to strange and unique religious interpretations, having already experienced four ‘Great Awakenings’ where we rediscovered Puritan fervor. This latest Woke wave is nothing but another authoritarian wolf in secular clothing.

“I don’t know what I did. I made a sign I thought was funny and I showed up to support comedians. I was kinda mad that more comedians weren’t out there, instead it’s me and Dick Masterson. I feel like every comedian in Hollywood shoulda showed up.” Sorry Vito, but if Chappelle is threatened by this, everyone else is probably terrified.

He comes to the end of the clip and fumbles halfway through his lighthearted recap, tripping on his words. “I’m all flustered cause I found out a Netflix employee tried to kill me!”

He’s being glib here, but his hyperbole falls flat between nervous chuckles. In an environment where a British transwoman calling himself Phoebe felt *safe* threatening to make The Spectator “the next Charlie Hebdo” for the Movement, we should all be nervous.

Fear Is Exhausting

Vito relates a couple more incidents – One where his friend was pushed down hard enough that his head hit the pavement, and then someone chased their car as they left. “The whole day was crazy. People were going a little too hard here!”

He thanks his audience for their support, since he’s probably not getting a mainstream media job any time soon. “The fact that I’m on the side of Dave Chappelle is gonna get me blacklisted. Think about how crazy that is – Because I’m on the side of one of the greatest comedians of all time, they’re now gonna say that I’m a crazy bigot. It’s madness! We live in madness.”

Cult Girls

Don’t worry, we’ll help you – We’ve been stuck here for a while!

Yep. What the average person does with this information will make all the difference. I hope more of them react like Vito does.

“They’re trying to cancel comedians! They don’t want us to make comedy.” Vito flinches at his own words, “They fucking hate us. They hate that I can go online and find an audience. They would love if they could control it all, like they always used to. But they don’t anymore. You have the fucking control, and that’s beautiful.

“Thank you so much, I need to lie down.”

I bet! Vito has stepped through the Looking Glass into Bizarro World, and there’s no going back.

I’m surprised to find someone like him in the thick of this, a lost lamb who seems to actually believe what he’s saying. But the wolves are in charge, and the mask is slipping in their greedy haste.

Blurring The Party Line

The popular spin on the walkout is outrage over the firing of the rabble-rouser. But not only was she leaking internal company stats, she also turns out to have an axe to grind against Asians, for whatever reason. The Poor Victim of racist execs is actually quite the prolific racist herself!

The universal weakness of the narrative is causing loyal adherents to question the movement’s leadership, if not the movement itself.

I wager that’s still too close to home for many. This whole scandal – The walkout, the outrage, the repetitive spin – looks like one giant exercise in distraction. We are told to be angry that Dave Chappelle poked fun at trans people, so angry we won’t listen to the point he’s making.

Alchemy

I call upon my dark powers to keep you off-balance!

Dave tells us in detail how the so-called Trans Community is destructive. It’s destructive to women, to culture, and to its own members.

Vito learned this the hard way, seeing first-hand that freedom is not their priority. The hypocrisy of people claiming to treasure safety physically attacking someone – For simply disagreeing with them in public – is shockingly bold.

But we have Reuters’ coverage giving us gems like, “We are here today, not because we don’t know how to take a joke, we’re here because we’re concerned that the jokes are taking lives.”

How’s that work, exactly? I’m still waiting for a good explanation, but I’ve heard a man’s greatest fear is being laughed at. I suppose it’s the old affirmation-or-suicide threat, and we’re expected to understand that hurting trans people’s feelings is a step away from murder.

Never mind the hundreds of women actually murdered every year. At least those privileged cis bitches got to have a period!

Heretics Get The Wall

This movement that claims the title Feminist for itself, screeching about supporting the marginalized, ignores the struggles of anyone who isn’t Trans. Never mind that they can’t agree on what exactly that means! Their comfort is vital – More important than the safety of women and girls, or even fat comedians.

Their comfort is more important than free speech, that precious principle those who lived through the last authoritarian flareup warned us to guard with our lives. It’s more important than comedy. More important than the truth.

The truth is, if we’ve reached a point where one person is favorably comparing Trans Rights to Islamic fundamentalism, you can bet he’s not the only one. They are on a righteous mission to convert the whole world, and you’d better be ready to Repent, Motherfucker!

Or prepare to have all your signs destroyed.

 

 

“If Cis Women Stop Wearing Makeup, I Will Never Pass”

A powerful tool in our fight to preserve women’s rights may be staring us right in the face.

Vanity

The answer was inside me all along!

It’s easy to take the obvious for granted, and confronting this social norm is a flashpoint for many of us. 

But why is makeup mandatory? It’s obviously a holdover from older, stricter ideas of what women should be. What a corset does for the waist, contouring does for the face. And we all know it’s at least as bad for us.

I’m not going to lecture anyone about harmful chemicals or animal testing. There are plenty of other people more qualified to take on these very important issues. 

I want to talk about Womanface, and how we begin taking back our identity.

In one of her many excellent videos, Vanessa Vokey spotlights an episide of a Jubilee video series called Middle Ground. Her featured episode showcases a diverse panel discussing makeup, the pressures, practices and their personal feelings.

Vanessa points out the clear double standard: “Both of the males, even though one is presenting as a man and one has altered his body to appear more like a woman, they still have basically the same attitude toward wearing makeup.

“And it’s almost a childlike attitude, this idea that putting on makeup is sort of like dress-up, putting on a costume, putting on a cape like a superhero would.” 

Vanessa cuts to a woman who says she felt sorry for people having to see her bare face. Her cognitive dissonance is clear: “Makeup makes me feel very empowered and beautiful, but then I resent myself more when I take it off.”

Radical feminists in South Korea have it right: “I realized that the makeup and outfits [were] not my decision and I do not actually like it, so I choose to take off the corset.”

Their Take Off The Corset movement rebels against a culture of unattainable goals so intense, it’s driven some to take their own lives. Western culture is trending in similar directions, but circumstances have given us a moment to step back and ask ourselves if this is what we really want.

Pinned

Hey, this wasn’t part of our agreement!

2020 brought many lessons, like how lipstick is completely pointless behind a mask. Foundation is invisible over Zoom and contouring looks heavy in bad light.

Masks aside, no one should be ashamed to show her natural face. We are pushed to conform and given short-term rewards if we do, but it’s time to coordinate for the long game.

Everyone everywhere has been forced to reevaluate our priorities at the same time, and we should take advantage of the chaos.

Through the new tears in the social fabric, we can glimpse strange new possibilities that were unthinkable even a few years ago. Maybe we can bring back cloaks. Maybe we can be more self-sufficient. Maybe the consumerism we were raised with is toxic bullshit.

Makeup is a multi-billion dollar industry that supports child labor, which Vanessa also covers. If we all abandon it together, we can hit capitalism and the trans movement at the same time!

It would be so simple to demonstrate that women are whole individuals. Female impersonators of all shades rely on us perpetuating the impersonal stereotypes that they steal. 

If enough of us stop adhering to the standard, it’s no longer standard. Normalize your real face. Peoples’ perceptions will adjust. Challenge them to see you as you are.

The Bareface Challenge is especially harrowing for those of us who like our War Paint, but you only feel naked until life distracts you. You don’t need the Painted Veil to be presentable.

Let your presence as a woman in the world speak for itself. It’s something no man can imitate or own.

Tempest In The Wi Spa: A Case Study In Mass-Gaslighting

“If you are concerned with other people’s genitals, that is a *you* problem.”

Girl And Wheat

As if we could have one conversation that doesn’t somehow come back to your dick!

So concludes a response to women’s discomfort with men in our spaces. This was the first justification I saw trotted out in the aftermath of the Wi Spa viral video. Since then, the narrative has hopped from victim-blaming to saying the incident was staged, and finally to insisting OP made the whole thing up!

The latest coverage in the Los Angeles Blade wants to be conclusive: “Anonymous sources within the LAPD tell the Blade they have been unable to find any corroborating evidence that there was a transgender person present on that day.”

“Treatment at the Spa is by appointment only, and a source at the Spa told the Blade there’s no record of any of its usual transgender clients on its appointments guest list on the day in question.” 

But I hear so many of them pass so well! Maybe no one noticed, right? 

“Cubaangel’s Instagram account is almost exclusively Christian memes, which begs the question why she chose to go to a spa well known for being LGBTQ friendly.” This doesn’t neccessarily follow. Some people cite their Christian faith as their motivation for being more tolerant – imagine, following Jesus’ example! And this woman lives in LA, not exactly a conservative town.

But her religion and her failure to film inside a nude sauna means we can disregard the whole thing. “No transgender person can be seen, and no other witnesses have come forward to confirm the allegations made.”

To obscure the very similar and more detailed story another woman wrote in 2018, the Blade throws the link to her complaint in here: “It’s also not the first time Wi Spa has been targeted for catering to transgender people.” 

Let’s see what ‘catering to trans people’ meant in 2018.

“I would give this place five stars a week ago but…. Last night I had the most disturbing experience in the women’s locker room.

“Upon checking in, the clerk advised us that “there was a transgender male in the women’s locker room” … Ok… No problem, I’m not the type to discriminate people, but once in the women’s area, I saw the mentioned “transgender” individual naked in all his glory, and he still had a male organ hanging there…ok…no fuzz… That surgery is very expensive

“Anyways, so I go on my routine and I get to the shower room, he was almost next to me showering too when I start to overhear hearing the conversation that he is having with a lady that was also in the shower area.

“I clearly heard him say that he has had sex with probably one hundred women and that he was looking for a female girlfriend to share his time with…. He also mentioned that he uses cocaine and LSD to “relax” … Ok…not my business what he uses to relax…”

This woman wrote this in a Tripadvisor review, and doesn’t mention informing the police. The man in her story acts totally inappropriately, but his behavior just triggers the No True Trans subroutine in her programming.

Haunted Bed

I feel a presence watching me!

“But hey, a transgender person does not act like a guy around women nor they state how much they like women nor how much they like having sex with them! This guy is Not transgender, he seems to be just a “pervie” and given his accent he is from another country, Europe I believe.”

Oh yeah, those dirty Europeans, amirite? American snobbery aside, this man’s bad manners are what qualifies him as male in her eyes.

“I heard from other ladies there that he goes there quite often.” They must feel like the luckiest ladies in LA!

“I have nothing against gay people or transgender etc. but every gay guy I know uses the men’s locker rooms when in the spa.” Most female impersonators are straight, just twisted.

“Management said that according to the Law there was nothing they could do.” And this is where we find ourselves in 2021. “Yes, they can reserve their right to provide services to anyone, that’s not against the law. They can deny entrance to this person based on his behavior, not on his gender.”

How exactly this Picasso portrait of the Marquis du Sade doesn’t get him the boot I can’t quite wrap my head around. Our intrepid author has a hard time with it, too.

“I enjoy going to the Wi Spa and it is not fair to me or other women to be put in this position where you basically have to leave the Spa because you feel uncomfortable in such situation. I wouldn’t have minded the situation at all if that guy was really transgender, but obviously he is not.” Because transgender people are all delicate flowers!

But isn’t gatekeeping transphobic?

“I’m concerned about my safety and the safety of other women in the spa.” TERF! “Like I said, I wouldn’t have minded if he was really truly transgender, and preferably without that wig he took off to wash…

Oh for fuck’s sake. That man had no right to make those women watch that.

“This is a call to the owners of the Spa to protect their valued customers, thank you.” They have apparently less than zero interest in doing this.

And the Blade has no interest in objectivity: “After the alleged, unconfirmed incident, Wi Spa was deluged with 1-star Yelp! and Trip Advisor reviews.” Oh, the humanity! This writer takes great pains to downplay any possibility of such a thing having ever happened, anywhere, ever.

But if this is what qualifies as ‘catering to transgender people,’ it’s obvious why women are upset!

Unfortunately for us, since white nationalists are also angry about the trans movement for their own reasons, no woman has any reasonable objection, ever. “The video quickly made the rounds in far-right, and Trans-Exclusionary Feminist (TERF) sites. Anti-trans ‘feminist’ websites like Mumsnet, Ovarit, and Spinster were sharing content by far-right provocateurs known for disinformation, like Ian Miles Cheong, by June 27th.”

The shoutout is nice (complete with links!) but I spend probably too much time on Ovarit and ‘TERF’ Twitter and have no idea who this person is.

However, a few prominent feminists have been getting chummy with the right, home to fundamentalists of every flavor. In a game with only two teams, falling out with liberals doesn’t make flirting with conservatives suddenly a good idea.

Eve

He says he’ll keep me warm!

Because those people are still nuts! When a suspect in the latest incident was floated, the worst elements took aim: “She received multiple death threats and harassment, including a picture of a masked man brandishing an assault weapon threatening to shoot her.”

And this is where hanging with conservatives comes back haunt us. The picture and accompanying caption are terrifying, a lot like things I have received from self-appointed TERF-hunters. The line between Mainline Republican and Conservative Nutjob has been washed away in wave after wave of corruption and pandering. Is this who we want to be seen with??

“All of this fits into an emerging pattern of the alt-right, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists,” Woa, where did this come from? I have dug into how they connect the dots from radical feminists to white supremacists, but the logic is strained and this reference comes out of nowhere.

And our Blade writer runs with it. “Violent far-right groups like the Proud Boys, the religious right, and anti-trans ‘feminists’ are collaborating and coordinating as they share the same media streams.”

As evidence for this, the Blade links to a Dame Magazine articleThe Far-Right And Anti-Trans Movements: An Unholy Alliance. This in-no-way-clickbait title heads a pile of interesting data points, such as, “violent white nationalists are separate from, but adjacent to, the Christian right.” I think we’ve all seen enough evidence in the past year’s news cycles that they are two sides of the same coin. They’ve been pretty blatant about it for a while now.

Then there’s this chestnut: “At the 2017 Values Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council, Meg Kilgannon outlined the religious right’s plan to co-opt anti-trans feminist groups, and use their feminist-sounding language to seem more secular while hiding the true motivation behind their animus.”

This is an unflattering paraphrase of a mutual agreement. But has it ever occurred to us that the religious right are not coming into this blind? Those who tend the flame of Colonialism are not the simple folk they present themselves as.

Considering how anti-religion radical feminism is, and its absence from pretty much all radfem spaces, it doesn’t seem like this has had much internal, practical effect. But when the opposition stubbornly refuses to look into things, optics become vital to communication.

Back to the LA Blade: “Rhetoric against transgender people in popular right-wing media like Fox News has grown both more frequent, and more extreme. In April, Tucker Carlson (who serves as a gateway to the far right) declared that transgender people are a threat to the “perpetuation of the species.”

Tucker Carlson’s populist gibberish is only a gateway to anything if you pretend he’s not heir to the Swanson’s Frozen Foods fortune. And it’s recently come out that he’s a well-known source for dirt on his colleagues, apparently an open secret among reporters.

Wink

Snitches get stitches, right Tucker?

Most of the radfems I know are leftists, and not the kind of person who watches Fox News.

But the LA Blade quotes Dr. Joe Mulhall, head of research at the UK’s anti-extremist watchdog group Hope Not Hate, “If you talk about trans issues it opens the doors to the mainstream.”

Who knew you could run a watchdog group from under a rock? Fox may have the best ratings in cable news, but that’s the penthouse of a burning building.

Feminists appearing on right-wing platforms to defend women’s existence only to be undermined and reinterpreted shows how the left has abandoned us. These days, speaking up against anything Trans is the fastest way to lose your job, your friends and even family members.

Still, Dr. Joe insists, “The far-right are saying things they know will be echoed in the comment pages of the right-wing press.”

Plenty of things in this situation are still confusing, not least of which is this comment. Since when is there a right-wing press? What happened to the liberal media??

Rich governments, Amazon, The New York Times, The LA Blade, the World Health Organization, The Olympics, GLAAD, libraries and school boards and the stuffy old BBC are all behind this. Still, they see enemies everywhere.

Regardless of right or left, things are moving forward quickly: “Flyers are circulating online advertising a second protest against Wi Spa on July 17th. “

Hey, that’s today! Police are mobilizing to prevent a repeat of last time, and I’m still not convinced that the first protest wasn’t a TERF trap.

But we can all look forward to continuing unbiased coverage in the LA Blade: Robert Lansing is a pseudonym for a long-time investigative trans researcher and writer-journalist.” 

I have my own biases, of course, but sharing a sex phenotype with half the planet is not a mental illness. Biases born of material reality are stubborn things. They don’t stop being true just because you don’t like them.

Such as women’s objection to males in our private spaces.

“It does not matter AT ALL if the person peeing next to you is doing so with a penis. If you are concerned with other people’s genitals, that is a *you* problem.” How we wish this were true! Right ladies?

Dreamy Seamstress

If only the world were perfect!

It would be wonderful not to worry whether any men were around. To just go about our business and pay them no mind. What bliss!

But of course, we’d have to be ignorant of all of human history. How men decided their penis was a weapon and wielded it to terrible effect. How they systematically raped us, locked us up as broodmares, and killed many who disobeyed.

Ignorant of how, to this day, night jogging is not a good idea. How the leading cause of death for pregnant women is murder. How ‘rough sex’ is a common defense for it.

To suddenly insist that an uninvited penis is not a flashing neon warning sign is to deny the entire history of civilization. And the most ambitious gaslighting play of all time.

The Libfem Reckoning Is Coming #MarionMillar

If Marion Millar’s case were getting any real press coverage, feminists of every shade would be spazzing out over it.

One young Englishwoman stumbled upon it, and her conscience demanded she say something… Even if her understanding of politics obscured exactly what.

Galatea

I’m just gonna sit down right here and have a good, hard think!

The Authentic Observer is my new favorite YouTube channel. YouTube has pretty much become my TV, I’ve somehow even managed to recreate my middle school viewing habits of bouncing between The History Channel, VH1 and A&E.

The Authentic Observer focuses on literature and culture. Galatea – TAO‘s young writer, director, editor, costume designer and star – gave herself burnout at the end of last year birthing a Halloween video that is truly a work of art. Her posts have been pared down and less frequent since then.

[Edit: I meant to link the Halloween video, but it’s disappeared. She mentioned worrying about the follow-ups she promised, but I hope she reconsiders and puts this one back up. It really struck me, and I’m just glad I watched it twice!]

So, no way I was gonna miss her latest video, what’s happened to free speech? The lack of capitalization shows the flare of a passionate imperative.

Libfem Freakout

“I feel compelled to talk about this. I normally script my videos, this is very unscripted. I’m not gonna really edit it, either.”  She devotes the first 1:26 to apologizing for the video, “I just felt like I wanted to talk about this, and kind of wanted to talk about it now.”

“So, I just heard about this case, and I found it incredibly shocking.” The emphatic urge to speak up pushed Galatea to hit record, even though she’s not sure what she wants to say. Making it public is a small but passionate act of defiance.

“I kind of feel like it should be all over the news in this country, and it’s not. And I also have a suspicion that this is gonna be really controversial, um, which… I mean it might not be, but I feel like it probably will be, which is something that I would find very confusing.

“I don’t think this necessarily should be controversial.” Perhaps the lack of coverage is part of what gives her this impression?

At the 2:00 mark, she finally feels safe enough to tell us what’s going on. “Marion Millar … she’s facing, potentially, up to two years in prison, for tweets.

“And I’ll talk about the content of the tweets, which, like, I just wanna make it clear as well, this video’s not really about the tweets and whether or not I agree with them, or whether or not, you know…”  women are full human beings, and all that.

“I feel like that is kind of irrelevant to this, to be honest.” I mean, yeah, it definitely should be.

Galatea sure seems to wish Marion’s words didn’t mean anything. She also seems to understand on some level what this is really about, but every time she’s about to turn that corner she stops and redirects herself.

“I just feel that, unless you are directly threatening someone, or directly calling for violence, um… you shouldn’t be facing prison time for tweets, however offensive they are. I’m sorry if that’s controversial, I don’t think that used to be controversial.” Not old enough to remember the Before Time, relying on the accounts of others is the Twentysomething’s dirty secret.

The benefit of being a little older is, I know that Galatea is correct.

Counting Cards

I’ve been counting cards this whole time, hon!

“I don’t know why, it seems to be over the last few years, that it’s become a dirty word to be for free speech. And people seem to project… If you support free speech, people are accusing people of that being a dog whistle for the Alt-Right.

“If you support free speech, that’s just you saying you want to hate people and you’re, like, an anti-liberal. Which I find really ridiculous.”

Right again. I wonder if the question of Why will inspire her to do further research.

Because she dances very close to the flame here,Why is the Left giving free speech away? It just doesn’t really compute in my brain.” Because they’re about as Leftist as I am English; Probably somewhere back in the mists of time, but it’s been so long they have forgotten what any of it means.

“Why are you giving it to the Alt-Right? Surely that should be a fundamental liberal right.Neoliberalism is just an update of Classical Liberalism from the 18th century, when ordinary citizens amassing their own wealth was a new thing.

Freedom of speech was a dangerous idea that the Free Market found to be unprofitable a long time ago. Discrediting it would leave us with only official sources for information. That’s the bedrock of authoritarianism in all its forms.

And Marion Millar’s case lights up this black hole of modern liberal hypocrisy. “From what I understand, she’s been charged for a lot of different tweets, most of the tweets relate to the trans movement.”

Galatea describes Marion’s photo of the Suffragette ribbon. “As I said before, the question of whether that’s offensive is kind of irrelevant. And whether or not she’s being horrible to trans people…” This would be the part that’s actually irrelevant.

“Again, I’m not saying people can’t be criticized for things like that,” Galatea is careful to let us know she is a nice girl, because she doesn’t want her society to reject her, too.

Old Dress

Oh shit, this old dress fits great! But I could never wear it anywhere…

“But to face up to two years in prison…” She trails off into fragments, unable to complete this thought. “It’s implied in the tweet, anyway… for when did people tweeting implied things… I just think it’s… yeah.”

“I’m really shocked,” at the idea that the ribbon looks like a noose. “I think that’s a bit of a stretch. It is… possible… that that is… is what the message was… I really doubt it, though.”

Galatea tries to square the circle, but she can see the pieces don’t fit. Even still, she feels the need to couch a very straightforward objection in opinion: “I think that’s kind of a loose interpretation, which I think is a dangerous way to interpret the law.

“I know there’s more tweets, but… and the point being, again, I really wanna clarify, I really wanna make this clear – Whether or not her tweets were offensive is kind of beside the point.” Generally, yes. But Galatea can’t address it anyway, because she really, really wants us to know that she’s not badmouthing the trans movement. 

“I just happen to think that, in a free society, people have a right to be offensive.” The blunt truth of this causes a small short-circuit, and she redirects herself again.

She has the right to be offensive, but she’s not comfortable using it. Or, maybe her society isn’t free.

“The other thing is, do trans people want this? I can’t imagine that they do!” Who do you think has been brow-beating the authorities to interpret the law this way? Two words: Mermaids and Stonewall. 

“I mean, maybe some trans people do, but… I don’t know. I could be wrong, but I can’t imagine that… I mean, they all have different opinions on this, most likely, and taking offense at that’s a different thing, but I can’t imagine…

“Would most trans people want someone to go to prison for tweeting out offensive things? That’s not to say that they can’t find it hugely offensive and criticize her for it, but…” this has gone too far. 

Her eyes go blank for a second or two, then she comes right back to the nitty-gritty of it: “The mother of two young autistic children is facing two years in prison because she tweeted an image of a suffragette women – “

I triple-checked this Freudian slip. She meant to say ‘ribbon,’ of course, but I have to wonder if this isn’t the true subject of her rant peeking through.

Adjustment

Lemme adjust this, it’s coming in a little too clear!

” – and is criticizing trans people… whatever your opinions are on that…” She rallies herself a bit and the next words come out strong, How is that grounds for prison? What is going on in Scotland??” 

Galatea tells us the point of her video is the linked petition to change the statute. But she already reminded us that interpretation is 9/10 of the law.

She seems to go through all five stages of grief trying to absorb the facts of the case. Her mind races and her mouth struggles to keep up. “I’m really getting worked up about this … It’s just tyrannical. You can’t convict people for free speech.

“I just don’t see how it can be anything other than… like, it’s just tyrannical.” Preach! “I think it’s just tyrannical and authoritarian.” Galatea is very sharp. The younger half of my generation fill me with hope.

“Would most trans people, in the case of Marion Millar, want her to go to prison?” Another excellent question. You’d think the media would be tripping over themselves to sell ad time for this one.

Unless, of course, the answer to Galatea’s question is a bit politically incorrect. “I think it’s kind of doing them and their movement a disservice, by painting them as authoritarian.” Yeah. Funny, that.

“If you don’t support people’s right to be offensive, then you don’t support free speech.” And someone who doesn’t support free speech is not someone who should be in charge of anything. I thought we all agreed on this a long time ago, too, Galatea.

She is totally flabbergasted. This young woman is in utter disbelief how her country, which glorifies the ‘law and order’ they brought to the world, has come to this. And she didn’t see it coming.

Liberal feminism as a whole is speeding down this same dead-end road. This confrontation of ideas is being delayed by the so-called ‘thought leaders’ on the so-called ‘left,’ who can only repackage tired mantras so many times before they wear through.

As pushback has grown, gender activism has shed layers of subtlety. When ‘TERF’ started losing its punch, the rhetoric was stepped up to accusations of white supremacy. Because TERFs are Nazis, right?

But those layers also shrouded it and protected it from the harsh glare of logic.

Who’s Driving This Train?

“The so-called ‘gender critical’ movement is a radical anti-trans movement with ties to far-right organizations like the Heritage Foundation. Indeed, it is a hate group that (predictably enough) engages in precisely the kind of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorizing that one associates with QAnon, probably the closest US equivalent to the UK GCs”

So wrote Grace Lavery this week, one of the few besides Galatea commenting on the Scottish Government’s startling test of our freedoms. Lavery is a TIM married to a TIF called Daniel. And, if that weren’t enough reality-bending, Daniel took Grace’s name, pronouns be damned.

An Associate English Professor at UC Berkley, Lavery is credited as, “the most followed transgender scholar in the world on social media.” Lavery is also English, originally from Birmingham. In his UC Berkley professional statement, he says, “My work in trans feminist studies is focused on the belief that transition works; that it is truly possible to change sex.” A strange focus for someone listed as specializing in Victorian literature and culture!

The Thought Leader continues, “I have been involved in anti-cop politics for a long time, and do not support the arrest.” Such a relief!

“Indeed, I imagine that most trans people I know are equally opposed to the use of the police state to apparently safeguard our interests.” Not gonna bother to actually ask them, though? Other people’s opinions don’t seem to interest him much.

But I’m sure his dedication to the cause is why he wrote this post, demanding The Guardian pull one of the only mainstream sources on Marion Millar’s case. That’ll teach those cops!

No comment from Grace on whether he supports prison time for Tweets.

Did You Proofread

Honey, did you proofread this??

I can’t know how well Galatea is acquainted with Grace’s musings, but these ideas have seeped into just about every corner of mainstream culture on both sides of the pond following a direct effort by busybody academics just like him.

And Miller’s case spotlights the elephant in the ladies’ room – Not only has trans rights hijacked both feminism and the gay rights movement, women remain the only underprivileged group without specific government protections in many countries.

Attack a black man because he’s black? That’s a Hate Crime. Beat up a kid just for being gay? That’s a Hate Crime.

Hurt a woman just for being a woman at the wrong place at the wrong time? Oh, they’re having a domestic. Best stay out of it, I’m sure they’ll settle it between themselves.

In the US, it’s technically illegal to discriminate against someone because of their sex. Or, at least, it was until a few months ago. But the Equal Rights Amendment has been languishing for over 40 years.

The only case to invoke sexism in recent memory was a fellow who felt his employer forbidding him to wear dresses was discrimination.

Women are often treated as lesser in our daily lives, but it’s seldom been taken seriously by the law. #MeToo exists because we need a political movement to say, ‘Don’t rape us!’ 

How many do you suppose #MeToo missed? If us Mean Old Feminists had our way, a lot of what many consider normal male behavior would suddenly be criminalized. The enforcement logistics alone would be mind-boggling.

And who polices the police? My confidence in them is not exactly surging lately.

House Of Lies

We live in a house of lies!

Galatea resists falling into this dark place. Her focus on the ‘right to offend’ isn’t wrong, but even the best law is subject to interpretation.

She compares Millar’s case to a conviction from a few years ago, where a man taught his girlfriend’s dog to do a Nazi salute to upset her. Details are few, but the bare fact of women’s rights being compared to Nazis in official precedent tells the tale.

Why we consider certain things offensive needs to be discussed!

Libfems are quickly running out of time to decide whether TWAW, or if Radfems have a point. The question will have to be asked, ‘Do I really support prison for tweets?’

New battle lines are going to be drawn. ‘Be Kind’ just isn’t cutting it anymore, and young women like Galatea are going to have to reckon with their conscience after all.

Trans People Are Mentally Ill (It’s The Comorbidities, Silly!)

I am done mincing words.

Truth Coming Out Of The Well

Liar! Liar! Pants on fire! …Hey, those are mine!!

Comorbidity sounds really heavy, but it’s just a psychology term referring to someone dealing with more than one mental issue at the same time.

Psychologists have noticed some enduring patterns. It’s very common for someone to deal with, say, depression and anxiety together. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 7% of the US will suffer through a major depressive episode at some point.

There’s reason to believe it’s much higher than this. Besides life being hella depressing sometimes, the stigma surrounding mental and emotional struggles keeps many people from talking to anyone about them.

And it’s usually difficult to tease out what causes what. Depression and anxiety go together particularly well, functioning almost as a negative continuum between action and inaction.

I bring all this up to point out that mental illness also has some predictable effects on someone’s life.

Depression and anxiety both shorten your life because they change how you choose to live it. Depressed people are more likely to smoke and drink, so they have higher rates of stuff like alcoholism and cancer, too.

Whenever I hear about how trans people have a ‘very high incidence’ of things like suicide, poor health outcomes and violence (for varying definitions of ‘violence,’ I assume…) I find myself yelling at my screen, “Yes, that’s because they’re mentally ill!”

Everything seems to be en pointe lately, I can’t seem to get away from it. This week at church, Father Mike’s thesis was, “Crazy people are just like the rest of us, only moreso.” This got a good chuckle from the assembled group, but I found it to be a dangerous oversimplification.

He prefaced his speech – Sorry, sermon – by saying he first encountered ‘real crazy’ his first year in seminary. Which I guess is why he finds such glibness amusing.

Some of us had adventures in the Land of Make-Believe a lot earlier. Some of us went against our will, not out of the kindness of our heart. Some of us have been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and burnt it.

Some of us recognize this stuff when we see it as well as we recognize our own family.

Kowch No Turning Back 08

There’s no place like home!

A video celebrating what’s become of Ellen Page made the rounds last week, and I couldn’t get through it. Hearing her talk about finally being comfortable in her body – only after having prominent parts of it removed – broke my heart.

Only finding happiness under the scalpel is mental illness, end of. That is not up for discussion. Anyone saying anything else is selling something. Find me proof the euphoria doesn’t wear off, that it’s not an addictive rabbit hole.

We all understand that people like Catman and the Human Barbie are both a little sideways, but they’re not hurting anyone. They’re not insisting laws recognize their right to live in a zoo, or to lay naked on the floor of little girls’ bedroom closets.

That’s the problem here. The Human Barbie is not going to sue you if she overhears you tell someone she isn’t the real Barbie.

Because she makes no claim to that. Even the Human Barbie knows that would be absurd.

Trans people suffer high rates of all kinds of bad outcomes because they are mentally ill. They lack the wherewithal to properly care for themselves. And they often do encounter prejudice in their daily lives, stemming from the stigma surrounding mental illness.

It’s all fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. Their need to be seen as a new, unique brand of creature just looks pretty damn narcissistic. Narcissism has a very high comorbidity with depression, because life never seems to quite live up to their bloated expectations.

I am sick of being told how vital it is that trans people get ‘affirming’ care. Because no, it isn’t. I’m sick of hearing how dysphoria that persists beyond puberty is a sign of real transness. (Gatekeep much??) This is exactly the opposite of my experience.

Dysphoria beyond puberty is a symptom of unhealed trauma, full stop. Healing is scary because we have to go to the dark places, but the only way out is through. How arrogant to suggest anyone is exempt from learning hard lessons in life!

Can't Even

Seriously y’all, I just can’t even anymore!

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. Marion Millar has been charged with two counts of ‘Malicious Communication’ for tweeting about women’s rights, which is so Orwellian they ought to make him an honorary Scottish citizen. Hubs has been cranky and the kids are all home from school, again.

But I couldn’t let this go any longer. All the droplets condensed into a downpour in my mind and it overflowed onto my keyboard.

Trans people are mentally ill. Indulging them in their parallel ideations serves no one but those looking to profit off of them.

I’ve learned not to be upset when someone accuses me of hating trans people, but sometimes it bites back at me in the form of a stubborn lump in my throat because nothing could be further from the truth. Sometimes loving someone means telling them a hard truth or two.

I can’t affirm someone’s destructive delusion, no matter how many authorities they may invoke. I won’t be beating about the bush on this point anymore, I have seen too many mastectomy scars. For all of the women who I love, I have to rise to the occasion.

It Really Is About Cuttlefish!

Science has been kinda dodgy lately. Foundational psychological studies are defying replication. Sexed brains don’t exist, then they do, then they don’t.

Mal87783

I mean, there’s men’s and women’s hands, but it’s not like that!

But today, science really came through for me.

If you’ve been fighting in the TERF wars for a few years, you’ll remember the infamous cuttlefish comparison. I came in on the end of it, but the basic idea was that sex is a spectrum because some animals can switch their sex in certain conditions.

The very idea of switching sex seems to imply that it’s not a spectrum, but let’s move on.

This example has gained more traction as an emblem of TRA silliness than as a serious argument. I still giggle at the occasional reference, the bespoke specificity of the deceptively-spelled totem is an evergreen nugget of absurdity for me.

I don’t know if cuttlefish really change sex, but the mating strategy of so-called Beta Males had my jaw on the floor. Then I laughed for a solid minute.

Writing for The Ethologist, Julia Henning uses a personal anecdote to introduce us to ‘The Sneaky Fucker Strategy’:

“You’ll have to excuse my language because ‘sneaky f**ker’ is the actual, legitimate, honest to goodness, scientific term coined by John Maynard Smith to describe subordinate, beta or low-status males who opportunistically mate with females while the dominant or alpha males are otherwise occupied.” 

She censors the f-bombs, but I’m just not that classy.

“Also known as Kleptogamy or sneaky copulation, this mating strategy is observed in many species, often with elaborate deployment.

This is the funniest thing I have read in a very long time.

“One such species is the giant cuttlefish. This species takes the cake for flawless and creative execution of a sneaky f**ker strategy.”

I definitely have an ex or two who’d give them a run for their money!

“Male cuttlefish are much larger than their female counterparts and display a darker, more vivid pattern on their backs. During the cuttlefish’s mass annual mating, hundreds of thousands of cuttlefish come together to find a mate.”

Sounds like every single day in human life.

“Males display their size and power and, if a female is interested, she will draw in her tentacles. This triggers the male to guard her underneath his body. If a smaller male was to try to access her, the larger male would attack and send the smaller male packing.

“To avoid this, some small males have developed a cunning ploy. Thanks to sacs of pigment on their skin capable of producing different patterns, cuttlefish are masters of camouflage.

Like some other species I know…

Tea With Chad

You are the most beautiful woman in the world, and I would never do anything to besmirch your honor… Give us a kiss!

“The small male uses this advantage to change the pattern on his back, mimicking that of a female. As he approaches, he reinforces the ploy by drawing his tentacles in, triggering the dominant male to hide him under his body where the female is waiting.”

So he presents himself as female to gain access to actual females. Where have I heard that before?

“Once the small male has mated with the female, he casually heads off, appearing to any males as just another picky female looking for a mate.” In human terms, this would probably be called assault. Miss Cuttlefish didn’t invite the Sneaky Fucker in!

The farcical parallels go on and on – “Some researchers have reported seeing this ploy used skilfully while males are searching for a mate. Swimming lower than the larger males but above the females, the small males display a female pattern on their back where the larger males can see it and ignore the smaller male as a threat.

“But below they show a different story, displaying a male pattern on their belly where the females can see. Thanks to this clever use of colour, they can go undisturbed by the larger males and still advertise their interest to the females.” 

‘Interest’ is a relative term. Sometimes men’s methods of showing their ‘interest’ veer directly into creep territory. These cuttlecreeps are presenting as female to other males, meanwhile showing the females their true colors! The metaphor could not be more perfect, just not quite how they intended.

Ms. Henning’s article is nearly a year old, and I can only guess if she saw it like this.

She brings us home with a few generalizations that just deepen the analogy, “It is worth noting that the sneaky f**ker strategy only occurs in species where mate selection is restricted, usually due to female monopolisation by a male or group of males,” Like patriarchal cultures giving powerful men harems?

“…Mate guarding,” AKA marriage!

“…Hierarchies or because sexual behaviour outside of the ‘system’ is punished.” Check, and check.

Funny Papers

Transwomen might be cuttlefish, after all!

But like a true skeptic, Ms. Henning leaves herself wiggle room, “While we may see similarities between these acts and our own, it would be a mistake to think that the two are the same. My wingman was sneaky that’s for sure, but the cuttlefish are the real sneaky f**kers.”

I have met some human males with pretty elaborate mating strategies. Humans in general are definitely not above employing deception to get laid!

This may not be the hottest topic, but let me know if you thought this was as funny as I did. Ms. Henning has accidentally hewn a priceless comedic gem that invites us to question how our animal nature informs our human actions.

Working on something a little different for next week in support of a couple things happening in the wider world. Meanwhile, I’ll be finding ways to slip cuttlefish back into the conversation…

Bathrooms Are Separatism

Control over men’s physical access to us is the very essence of women’s liberation.

Redhead With A Gun

No means no, goddam it!

Which is what they’re taking from us right now. The spectacle of Trans Rights is a shiny distraction from the erosion of our rights, but it’s such a compelling one because it goes right to the heart of the matter.

It literally hits us where we live!

A US federal judge recently ruled against a religious school’s petition for exemption from co-ed everything. She agreed with the Housing Authority attorney that irreparable harm couldn’t be established. That the Biden memorandum “does not specifically address the kinds of issues the college has raised here – showers, or bathrooms.”

The college is not going to leave it there, and if Trump’s conservative SCOTUS puts a dent in Trans Rights I may die from irony. Just think – The knee-jerk conservative rejection of change might actually work in our favor for once!

But a lot of us are having trouble articulating why our privacy is so precious. Separatism is a very important component of women’s liberation, and I’m starting to get pretty frustrated with the pageant where the most extreme version gets trotted out and shot down, over and over.

Frankly, this being such a taboo, misunderstood topic that we have to frame wanting space to ourselves as a political philosophy demonstrates to me how totally brainwashed we all are! The stereotype of extremists abandoning all males forever is what keeps this vital point out of the conversation.

Many women want nothing to do with men and who can blame them? But they don’t speak for all of us, and the mainstream embrace of this straw woman keeps us reenacting the same scene forever.

Spectral Pianist

Her spirit keeps reappearing, as if she’s trying to tell us something!

I learned a ton about this recently, and I was embarrassingly surprised to find out that separatism is just maintaining strong boundaries around female-only spaces.

Putting ourselves first doesn’t mean we don’t care about anyone else. It’s only natural that we need to focus some energy on ourselves to further our interests! What does it say that we need to put it like this, and wring our hands over it so much??

Women-only spaces should proliferate and if someone wants to dedicate herself to that as a lifestyle, I don’t see why it’s much different than going all-in on any other philosophy. I adore women-only spaces and like being able to go home to my 50%-male family.

Because that’s my part that life has given me to play. But how are we ever going to hash out a modern agenda for women’s liberation if we can’t get a moment’s peace?

Twitter Mobs: Just Another Day In TERFLand

I knew something was up when I woke up to 19 notifications.

Waking Up

The Woke won’t wait for coffee!

They had me right – A smallish account with only so much energy to defend myself. But they just really hated my Cyberpunk article!

After the original poster proclaimed it was “NOT ok to insult anyone because of their opinion,” a group of them wasted no time dogpiling me to tell me why my opinion meant I needed to die.

Hardly bothering with ‘transphobe,’ they labeled me ‘vile,’ ‘disgusting,’ toxic,’ (of course!) and even abusive. My writing was referred to as “a pile of dog shit.” I was told to take ‘feminist’ out of my bio. And called a bigot and a fascist, for good measure.

The tortured reasoning behind TWAM = Fascist could fill its own post. Most prominently displayed, however, was the classic actual fascist crosstalk of Enemies being both Big&Bad and Sad&Pathetic.

I’m a bigoted fascist spreading lies that get people murdered. And a loser who no one will defend.

It’s true – Only a handful of people came to back me up. After months of reaching out and jumping in, this did sting a little.

Beach Body

My friends will be here any minute… Really!

The real problem was I was sick as a dog, chasing my toddler around the house between trips to the bathroom.

I got frustrated a few times, but I think I held my own for the most part.

And considering the quiet from feminist Twitter – with the fact that even my web developer is scratching his head wondering where the numbers are – I have to wonder how they found me at all!

There were three main skirmishes in the battle.

#1 insisted misgendering the author of the Cyberpunk 2077 review meant I wasn’t a feminist. Wasn’t interested when I pointed out the burden of proof lay with the person claiming something extraordinary.

Then there were the two furries – A purple-haired wolf and a grayscale… puppy, I think – First the wolf pounced with insults and tumbled quickly on to threats. When one intrepid soldier brought up biology, he became fixated on cows, “Cow tastes good when properly cooked … You’d make a good roast, maybe a casserole.”

After he called me a Nazi, I reminded him that probably meant he’d lost the argument.

His friend Grayscale informed me this was “a common misinterpretation of something called Godwin’s Law.”

Mansplain much? Now let me define ‘glib’ for you.

Dandelion

Like seeds in the breeze, the minutes of my life… blow back in my face!

The third volley came from a Canadian transwoman. Most confusing of all, this person was very conversational while telling me to go fuck myself.

When I shared a different transwoman’s article I had featured because she made a good point, they actually went and read it!

And hated it, of course. But I gotta respect doing your homework!

After swapping swings for about a day, I was confused why we were talking if they hated me so much.

“I never said I wanted to talk to you!”

I guess you got me there, but you were the one who struck up this conversation.

Overall, not the most fun ever – 2/10, would not recommend. I prefer being mobbed on Facebook – That drives more views to the blog.

I guess Twitter mobs aren’t interested in supplemental reading (Except you, Canada, love you babe!) Despite making connections and learning a lot, I’m not sure what to make of it all at the moment.

It’s been a demoralizing few weeks, stair-stepping setbacks carved into my flat numbers. The sick was a weird sick, too, where I just can’t get myself to eat or wake the fuck up.

Thursday the sick and the mob both dissipated as suddenly as they had appeared.

None of this changes anything, of course. Except maybe how much time I spend on Twitter.

Men still can’t decide they’re women. The law saying otherwise doesn’t change how humans make more humans.

But the best part is that, unfortunately for them, I don’t do this for attention. I don’t do this to express hatred. I’m aware that I’m not famous or important.

Vanity

When you finally find the person who is going to give you everything you want in life

I do this for my own mental health. Because sometimes, the only way I can properly process some bit of insanity, and stop it rattling around my brain knocking things over, is to write it out.

Sometimes they make the blog, if I don’t see anyone else hitting the same angle.

It’s sublime when it reaches someone, but I write for myself.

…And any other magpie minds out there prone to picking up the shiny things along the edge of the path. This week’s regular post waits for pictures and editing.

Costume historian Bernadette Banner tells us how pockets reveal the state of women’s liberation. Because knowing the past lets us understand the present, and plan the future.