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Something went wrong between the 2nd and 3rd wave of female political action. The class based analysis so firmly rooted in the second wave seemed to have been gradually pushed to the margins and replaced with a the conception of intersectionality that in its initial phase could have gone hand in hand with the more traditional feminist analysis. Intersectionality is the idea that people can experience different layers of discrimination simultaneously based on their race, sex, and class served to furtherfill out traditional radical feminist theory and increase the sensitivity toward women with diverse race and cultural backgrounds.
So far so good? Right?
Well it would be all good if we just incorporated this utilitarian and useful 3rd wave innovation. The notions of ‘identity’ and ’empowerment’ were also gifts from the third wave and where some of the analysis began to go off the rails.
From the notion of ’empowerment’ we get most of the dead branch known as Liberal Feminism that is about doing actions in society, that if they feel good and make you feel good, they are in fact empowering acts. This leads to the idea that activities like pole dancing and stripping can be ‘feminist’ acts because they are empowering the individual woman with agency (?) and power within society.
Many feminists would pause here because like most features of society, patriarchy operates on the macro as well as the micro level. To return to our previous example, the occupations of both pole dancing and stripping may indeed provide empowerment on the level of the individual, but on a boarder social analysis both serve the male gaze and continue to reinforce the commodification and objectification of the female body. So perhaps we can see where some friction exists between these two theoretical feminist standpoints.
The notion of identity is also useful in certain contexts because it allows discrimination and oppression that exist within society to be categorized and analyzed with greater precision. Identity is a tonic against the sometimes homogenizing nature of theoretical work and allows theory and praxis better able to respond to the needs of women from diverse backgrounds.
Identity has now metastasized. In certain ideological circles it rests above nearly all other theoretical concerns. More importantly the notion of identity has been severed from the social, material reality we all share. What we think about ourselves now has a certain reified air that precludes any sort of questioning or critical examination.
For instance, it is now popular to ‘come out’ as non-binary. Being non-binary is a vague notion that an individuals personal expression isn’t tied to their sex – so a male person can have a ‘boy-day’ or ‘girl-day’ depending on their mood. You gentle reader, would not be alone in concluding that people claiming be non-binary may just be fulfilling the need to feel edgy and special in society. It’s nice to stand out I suppose, but adopting male or female stereotypes and demanding that others play along with your wacky pronouns and related charade seems like a rather cumbersome and ultimately anti-social way to go about achieving that goal. Furthermore, since no person embodies all of the stereotypes of their sex but rather a mixture of the two, we are all, in fact, non-binary (just with less narcissism that those boldly ‘coming out’).
Another particularly problematic aspect that has arisen is the notion of self identification and that one’s personal declaration of gender somehow overrides the societal norms and expectations we all follow. The most common point of friction is when men, because they have gender feelings, decide that they are women and should therefore have access to female spaces, services, and sports. The problem is that self id does not change the male socialization, nor the male patterns of behaviour that require all inhabitants of the class of men to be excluded from female only spaces.
Transgender ideology is deeply misogynistic. Women who disagree with gender ideology and men in their spaces are ostracized, threatened, and called bigots because they have the temerity to raise concern with the erosion of their boundaries and sex based rights within society. Transgender ideology is also an impediment to the safeguarding of women and children as again, male gender-feelings are given precedence over female safety in society. The conflict will not resolve until the men involved in the transgender movement respect female boundaries and the female ‘no’.
Being gender diverse is fine, but one must respect the material realities of sex and sex based oppression that exist within our society.
This from a major Canadian ‘news’ website.
Forget about ‘just wanting to pee’ wedge issue bullshit – this is what we are in for in Canadian society; this is the upside-down, nothing has any meaning, timeline that trans ideology has in store for us.
Do not believe your eyes, but rather what some individual says about who they are. This is where belief in gender-magic takes us, where male violent crime is somehow called ‘female’ violent crime because the violent male has fucking delusions of gender and we need to respect that.
No. The word must get out of what is happening here and the bald-faced misogyny that is transgender ideology must be stopped.
“She is charged with sexual interference with a person under the age of 16 and sexual assault. Eby is set to appear in a Toronto courtroom on July 21.
In a news release issued on Tuesday, police said investigators believe there may be other victims.
Police are asking anyone with information related to the investigation to contact investigators or Crime Stoppers.”
How in any possible sane world is that person a she? In Canada this male can, and will probably be detained with other female prisoners. Read that again. This sex offender will most likely be housed in a target rich environment lush with captive and accessible female victims. Why (trans rights are male rights)? Because he *feels* like a woman. That is all it takes these days to be seen in the eyes of Canadian law as a woman – a simple declaration and *poof* a woman is nothing more than a set of feelings inside of a man’s head.
No ducking thank you. Women are adult human females and have every right to reject men -especially predatory men- from their spaces and services. You would think that the our prison service and government would be able to understand how bad an idea it is to house male sexual offenders in a female prison.
What? Yeah. This ‘progressive’ trans movement is so evil inclusive that it campaigns and is getting men into female prisons in Canada. What could go wrong?
Meghan Murphy on the issue and and interview with Heather Mason who is leading the charge against having men in female only prisons.
“The Canadian government has been transferring males who identify as transgender to women’s prisons for a few years now, keeping the public mostly in the dark about this, and the impact on female inmates. The harassment and assaults that have taken place at the hands of these males has also, for the most part, been ignored — both by the government and the media. Only a few brave women have been trying, tirelessly, to force this conversation, and force people to care about these inmates, whose rights are being ignored as a result of Bill C-16, and new gender identity policies. Heather Mason is one of those women. Heather Mason is a 31-year old-mother to two children and a first time federal offender. She was sentenced to three years at Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener and is currently on Statutory Release in Toronto. She is an advocate for women in conflict with the law and a prison abolitionist. Heather recently co-founded a nonprofit organization, whose goal is to break barriers for women in social issues that lead to incarceration.”
So, the time to take action was yesterday, but it is never to late to act and to start to speak up for the rights and boundaries of Canadian Women. Call your MP, share this story widely, read up on what is happening in Canada in the name of misogynistic transgender ideology.
In the frenzied rush to sound and be ‘on the right side of history’ people are throwing away all the knowledge and experience that has been gleaned about our society and human behaviour to appeal to some sort of mystical standard of ‘equality’.
What else could make a supposedly feminist voice want to erase the boundaries and protections of other females for the sake of males with confused gender feelings?
Also, the OP is most likely stirring the pot as they want free advertising because their selling their word drivel needs a boost, thus I link to the response and not the OP.
The rights of females are being trampled in California as women’s boundaries and safety are being ignored in favour of male gender fantasy.
“Crazy California laws occasionally go national. Take SB 132, which took effect in January. It allows transgender-identified male state prison inmates to transfer into women’s prisons based on “individual preference”—no hormones, surgery or time spent living as the opposite sex required. Spokeswoman Terry Thornton of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says 264 male prisoners have declared a nonmale identity and formally requested transfer to women’s facilities.
If Congress passes the Equality Act—the House already has—incarcerated biological men who identify as female would be entitled to transfer into women’s federal prisons and possibly also state prisons nationwide. How’s that working in California?”
This has never been about trans gender rights. This is about endangering and erasing females as a class in our society. It is bullshit and it needs to stop.
“But according to Tyrina Griffin —who served 20 years at Chowchilla for second-degree murder and whose wife, Rachelle Johnson, is currently serving a life sentence there—many of the men who are transferring there aren’t even on hormonal medication. “They’re getting a full erection,” she said. “So you’re locked in this room, 24/7, with a man and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you tell the police you don’t want to live with a man, or you’re afraid or whatever, you’ll get a disciplinary infraction. So you’re basically punished for being scared.”
Because female inmates are typically far less violent than male ones, women’s prisons like Chowchilla don’t separate inmates based on the severity of their crimes. “We’re all mixed together,” Ms. Ichikawa said. “The people who’ve murdered their children are in the same room as the people who’ve stolen boxers from Walmart. ”
Also unlike men’s prison, inmates at Chowchilla are housed eight to a room, with a sink and toilet inside the cell and only a cowboy door for modesty. The California law specifically states that no inmate may be denied a housing request for “any discriminatory reason,” including “genitalia” or “sexual orientation.” According to some surveys, a majority of biological men who identify as trans women are sexually attracted to women. “How are you going to prevent these people from having sex?” Ms. Ichikawa said. “And how do you then decipher what’s sex and what’s rape?” The women told me—and studies confirm—that the vast majority of incarcerated women are sexual-assault survivors.”
If your ‘feminism’ or supports this active harm being inflicted on women, let me assure you it isn’t feminism.
“The California law also directs cavity searches to be conducted “based on the individual’s search preference”—meaning if a biological male who identifies as transgender would prefer to be cavity-searched by a female officer, he is entitled to it. It’s just “another opportunity to violate women, every woman in the facility,” Ms. Ichikawa said. “I don’t know why it was written so callously. I feel like there’s so much hate for women,” she said.
Ms. Thornton, the Corrections Department spokeswoman, stressed that the department evaluates transfer applications on a case-by-case basis. It has approved 26 of them. “We haven’t denied any requests so far,” she said.
She also confirmed that although there are many female prisoners in California’s women’s prisons who identify as men, only seven have requested transfer to the men’s prison. Why so few? I asked Ms. Ichikawa, who answered: “They would get killed.”
Funny how that works. The reality of sex remains despite all the gender obfuscation from the gender religious.
What isn’t funny is that females are being put at risk and harmed because somehow it is easier to believe in male gender feels that it is to believe in female safety in society.
This dangerous policy of placing males with females in prison also exists in Canada.
*edit* – Did you want to fight back and stand up for female rights and safety here in Canada – Heather Mason has a campaign and a fundraiser to promote female safety in Canadian Prisons.
Speaking your mind can be a dangerous activity. In the halls of academia though, it is purportedly the name of the game. Please go and read Dr.Bert’s full post and enjoy her eloquence and clarity of thought in full.
I thought I would highlight some of the points that should be of interest to those who believe in academic freedom, and freedom of speech in general.
“[…]
‘I am a sociologist after all—and interrogate this current moment in which a certain contingent of social activists have deemed it not only justifiable, but proper, to silence any discussion about sex and negotiation of competing sex-based and gender-identity-based rights. Some might say, and I might agree, this is part of the larger ‘woke’ movement among those who identify with the Left. I might note that my political beliefs position me on the Left, but I believe in the importance of evidence, reason and logic, and a material reality in which we all exist).'”
Her resignation letter (from the Division of Women and Crime) really knocks it out of the park, it is a clarion call to those who remain on the non gender religious Left. (**ed. It was mistakenly reported here that Dr.Burt’s letter was to the Editorial board, when in fact it was from the Division of Women and Crime – change applied to the relevant parts of this post and apologies to Dr.Burt**)
“However, a division that traffics in mantras and refuses to engage with people raising valid concerns (dismissing people for ‘hateful wrong think’), is not a group I wish to be a member of. For those of you who consider me a ‘meany’, baddie, hater who is a transphobe, you’re probably relieved. But you are wrong. I am not a transphobe, and I do not hate trans people or males or anyone.
Just this week reports came out of a male who self-ID’ed into the women’s prison in Washington state and raped a female prisoner housed there. I think that’s something to discuss; your explicit position is that doing so is hateful transphobia that must be silenced for inclusivity and the well-being of transgender people. But what about females and transwomen who would be harmed by predatory males self-ID’ing into women’s spaces?
Many of you were part of the LGBT movement in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and some of you weren’t. I was. We didn’t effect change by refusing to engage, dismissing those who disagreed, and censoring any discussion of negotiating gay rights. We were successful because we talked. We tried to understand the positions of others and helped them see ours. Maybe your attempts to censor any discussion of sex will work to effect the change you wish to see in the world. Maybe it won’t. Regardless of the outcome, I do not find the division’s silencing discussion of issues, which are complex and multilayered and sometimes uncomfortable, acceptable in academia or in the Division of Women and Crime.
I wish you well, and I’m sad to go. But I refuse to go along silently with a group that calls discussion of gender/sex-self-ID ‘transphobic’ when there are real issues to discuss here that have everything to do with the safety of females and transwomen and nothing to do with hate or bigotry.”
Wow.
*applause*
bleatmop
The Intransigent One
Mystro
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