All very true, but what do you replace gender ideology and identity politics with? I am a Center-right, classical liberal European so I have no beef in this fight, but I do see a few problems here. First is to put forward feminism and gay rights ideology as somehow part of the solution. But they were the matrix for this, so how do you square that circle? Women and sexual minorities are not oppressed in the West anymore, even if of course vast swaths of the Left refuse to recognise that fact, so the leverage here is very smalll. Second, the fact that the Left has nothing else than identity politics in its ideological arsenal, except environmentalism, another idea that crossed over from the radical right and, just like identity politics, structurally favours conservatism. What is going to replace gender ideology and identity politics to structure the Left? Socialism is dead and clearly not a candidate; identity politics came about exactly for that reason. And I really see nothing else on the horizon, the Left is ideologically sterile to an amazing degree. Third, the Left has lost the working class and now represents the educated, keeping in mind that much of that education, starting with all the grievance studies, are in fact crude political stances rather than knowledge with an economical value in the workplace. So they have an economic stake in not letting go of all that nonsense. Frankly, I think the Left as you conceive of it is dead. It’s a zombie. In positional terms the Left today are the classical liberals, people like me, who oppose the conservative and the radical right because we believe in liberal democracy, free markets and the rule of law. We are back in the 18th century.
Took ten years for someone to say this. The left pulled its pants down in for ring the entire world. This will take a generation to recover from. Yes, we all knew 14 year old girls are traumatized into not wanting to be girls by porno and social media. Only the left missed it . Occam’s Razor
I am a left Democrat or rather democratic socialist. I agree with the author’s analysis. I have always thought that being left or progressive has more to do with supporting working class people of all races and genders. The Democratic Party and most middle and upper middle class people with higher degrees have taken up the cultural equity mantra and have abandoned economic class based struggles. And here we are, smaller and more irrelevant and all the so called progressive social equity agenda has been cancelled within 3 weeks.
Can we, the progressive left, find our way back to uniting working class people rather than dividing them into a myriad of tribal categories? Its past time.
As a biologist, I find all the "science says sex is complicated, sex is not binary, it's a spectrum (or bimodal distribution) tropes a bit disturbing, especially from people that normally say "trust the science". I'm (while not an expert) aware that we've made great strides in the last 30 years in understanding the genomics and development consequences in people with variations in sex development. But those findings do not discount the fundamental fact that sex as a reproductive strategy is binary, and that there are species specific dimorphisms in anatomy and physiology to fulfil that binary.
The variations we have learned about (which are often referred to as intersex) have been subjected to "corrective" medical actions on the past before those people had any agency, and that was barbaric, but we're gotten away from that (I think). People of these various groups (which are quite small) are each going to have unique (depending on group) challenges as far as personal actions and dealing wit society. It really irritates me that these people have become pawns of gender activists.
Also a bit irritated that these people are not accounted for when EOs and legislation is passed having to do with sex. If it weren't for gender activism, we could probably have a more intelligent conversation about sex, where the binary nature of sex is accepted while at the same time acknowledging that there are small number of people that, as result of their genomics, have atypical development of sex characteristics such that they appear to be mixed. I know that examination of a persons genome and characteristics can make the argument "that person is male, they just don't have this gene". Which is valid in one sense, but I don't know how that makes a person with CAIS feel. Anyway, sex is a spectrum, biology is so complicated, is nonsense. But so is crowing XX, XY all day. But I'll blame that on gender talk.
I'll also point out there are people we used to call transexuals (and that's what they call themselves) who transitioned with due consideration, and are just trying live quite lives and not rock any boats. Typically sensitive to women's spaces and against children transitioned. And these people are pretty typically pretty put out with gender activists. But I would estimate that there are a pretty sizable number of people that look down on them.
If you are a trans woman there are a few things that you need to understand. First of all is that you are still a man because you can't change your biological sex. It's okay to dress any way you wish and to adopt any superficial, stereotypical attributes of women that you desire. Live your life. No one should care, I certainly don't. However, because women are entitled to be treated fairly and to enjoy privacy from men there are certain things that are prohibited to you and me because we are men. You can't compete against women in most sports because it would be unfair. You can't go into women's private places like restrooms and locker rooms because that would make them feel unsafe. Finally, if you are a criminal you certainly can't be imprisoned with women.
This is one of the best analyses of the gender ideology that I’ve read! You cover all the bases, the anti-science almost religious aspect, the authoritarianism, the harms to the rest of society .
The left is definitely shooting itself in the foot. However, I don’t see how they will change their tune. They are so embedded in this ,as was shown when they balked at even not allowing men in women’s sports. Listen to AOC‘s rantings on this .
Very few will admit that Trump‘s victory was in some ways a reaction to the gender cult. A cult is a hard thing to break because cult thinking is really a religious belief. I am very cautiously optimistic that there will be some changes, but I am not holding my breath.
Really?Anyone connected to the Trevor Project , no matter how much science in their background, is suspect.
There are millions of years of evolution behind the fact of the binary of sex. Denying that fact is just plain false…deliberately so.. The gender ideology can haul out all the “ experts” it wants, but evolution will prove them wrong! Gender ideology is not based on truth but on lies!
Notice how this person puts Intersex in the mix. Why? Intersex is so rare as to be insignificant, yet it’s always trotted out as if it were another sex! Lies!
The gender ideology is not based on science and no reputable scientist backs it up. It is an authoritarian ideology based on lies .It is a dangerous ideology that has harmed more people than any recent ideology!
An ideology based on lies must be destroyed!
If Democrats can’t see that, they will lose many of their former supporters! Maybe not such a bad thing!
Started them, then saw immediately that they were anti-science propaganda, so I stopped.
Humans have only two gametes: sperm and egg. There are only two sexes that produce these gametes: males produce sperm and females produce eggs and this is as irrefutable as the world is round. Cry more.
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (primarily women).
Others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Finally, it's past time for the LGB community to separate themselves from the trans activists who are trying to take away the rights of women to fairness in sports and to privacy and safety in their restrooms, locker rooms and prisons. They also advocate for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children many of whom would grow up gay.
Their actions are evil and the
understandable negative reaction to the harm they are causing is spilling over to innocent people who are just going about their business, marrying and leading their lives.
If you go to that trans loving cesspool Reddit, you will see the authoritative leftist man in dresses badgering young lesbian women to deny their same sex attraction as that makes them "transphobic." These poor young women who want to be 'inclusive' and toe the party line often wind up having sex with these guys to prove their allegiance. They express their disgust with the sex, and therefore themselves, and many times go underground to be exclusively with women without being harassed. This authoritative nonsense has no place in a party that claims to be tolerant and inclusive. Thank God common sense is starting to prevail.
Wow! This is a much better version of what I passionately wrote on my family email chain today (which received not a single response.) So I just sent them this! They're all devout lefties, as am I. The only difference is that I majored in Women's Studies in the 80s and I did happen to notice when women become so cool (see: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Captain Marvel) that men just couldn't stand it. So they had to steal it from us! F that. Plus, the children, I will not feel bad for standing up for them!
Excellent article! What is upsetting is that I’m being put in a position to either accept or reject transpersons yet my being a woman and a female-born lesbian (I am not a “cis”) is not!
Many feminists and other liberals, people who have been proud to be leftist, know that gender ideology is built on a flimsy base that is beginning to crumble. And it can't happen fast enough!
I can never fully trust the left again. Throwing women to the wolves the way they did, along with their vile antisemitism, soured me to my former party forever.
All very true, but what do you replace gender ideology and identity politics with? I am a Center-right, classical liberal European so I have no beef in this fight, but I do see a few problems here. First is to put forward feminism and gay rights ideology as somehow part of the solution. But they were the matrix for this, so how do you square that circle? Women and sexual minorities are not oppressed in the West anymore, even if of course vast swaths of the Left refuse to recognise that fact, so the leverage here is very smalll. Second, the fact that the Left has nothing else than identity politics in its ideological arsenal, except environmentalism, another idea that crossed over from the radical right and, just like identity politics, structurally favours conservatism. What is going to replace gender ideology and identity politics to structure the Left? Socialism is dead and clearly not a candidate; identity politics came about exactly for that reason. And I really see nothing else on the horizon, the Left is ideologically sterile to an amazing degree. Third, the Left has lost the working class and now represents the educated, keeping in mind that much of that education, starting with all the grievance studies, are in fact crude political stances rather than knowledge with an economical value in the workplace. So they have an economic stake in not letting go of all that nonsense. Frankly, I think the Left as you conceive of it is dead. It’s a zombie. In positional terms the Left today are the classical liberals, people like me, who oppose the conservative and the radical right because we believe in liberal democracy, free markets and the rule of law. We are back in the 18th century.
Took ten years for someone to say this. The left pulled its pants down in for ring the entire world. This will take a generation to recover from. Yes, we all knew 14 year old girls are traumatized into not wanting to be girls by porno and social media. Only the left missed it . Occam’s Razor
I am a left Democrat or rather democratic socialist. I agree with the author’s analysis. I have always thought that being left or progressive has more to do with supporting working class people of all races and genders. The Democratic Party and most middle and upper middle class people with higher degrees have taken up the cultural equity mantra and have abandoned economic class based struggles. And here we are, smaller and more irrelevant and all the so called progressive social equity agenda has been cancelled within 3 weeks.
Can we, the progressive left, find our way back to uniting working class people rather than dividing them into a myriad of tribal categories? Its past time.
Great essay.
As a biologist, I find all the "science says sex is complicated, sex is not binary, it's a spectrum (or bimodal distribution) tropes a bit disturbing, especially from people that normally say "trust the science". I'm (while not an expert) aware that we've made great strides in the last 30 years in understanding the genomics and development consequences in people with variations in sex development. But those findings do not discount the fundamental fact that sex as a reproductive strategy is binary, and that there are species specific dimorphisms in anatomy and physiology to fulfil that binary.
The variations we have learned about (which are often referred to as intersex) have been subjected to "corrective" medical actions on the past before those people had any agency, and that was barbaric, but we're gotten away from that (I think). People of these various groups (which are quite small) are each going to have unique (depending on group) challenges as far as personal actions and dealing wit society. It really irritates me that these people have become pawns of gender activists.
Also a bit irritated that these people are not accounted for when EOs and legislation is passed having to do with sex. If it weren't for gender activism, we could probably have a more intelligent conversation about sex, where the binary nature of sex is accepted while at the same time acknowledging that there are small number of people that, as result of their genomics, have atypical development of sex characteristics such that they appear to be mixed. I know that examination of a persons genome and characteristics can make the argument "that person is male, they just don't have this gene". Which is valid in one sense, but I don't know how that makes a person with CAIS feel. Anyway, sex is a spectrum, biology is so complicated, is nonsense. But so is crowing XX, XY all day. But I'll blame that on gender talk.
I'll also point out there are people we used to call transexuals (and that's what they call themselves) who transitioned with due consideration, and are just trying live quite lives and not rock any boats. Typically sensitive to women's spaces and against children transitioned. And these people are pretty typically pretty put out with gender activists. But I would estimate that there are a pretty sizable number of people that look down on them.
I largely agree with you as regards transgender and DSDs/intersex. I submit that the key points are:
- There are only 2 sexes. DSDs/Intersex does not introduce any additional sexes.
- The vast majority of trans identified people do not have DSDs (are not intersex.)
- The vast majority of DSD/intersex people do not identify as trans.
- Chromosomes are generally a good surrogate for sex, but they do not determine sex. Sex is determined by the biological pathway followed, leading to the gamete an individual is optimized to produce. (See https://lascapigliata.com/2020/09/10/on-intersex-transgender-and-womens-sport/ and https://www.realityslaststand.com/p/understanding-the-sex-binary)
Why are repeating the lie that women earn 85 cents to the dollar of a man? Certainly not for the same work and hours!
If you are a trans woman there are a few things that you need to understand. First of all is that you are still a man because you can't change your biological sex. It's okay to dress any way you wish and to adopt any superficial, stereotypical attributes of women that you desire. Live your life. No one should care, I certainly don't. However, because women are entitled to be treated fairly and to enjoy privacy from men there are certain things that are prohibited to you and me because we are men. You can't compete against women in most sports because it would be unfair. You can't go into women's private places like restrooms and locker rooms because that would make them feel unsafe. Finally, if you are a criminal you certainly can't be imprisoned with women.
That's it, just like me.
Great analysis. Thank you.
This is one of the best analyses of the gender ideology that I’ve read! You cover all the bases, the anti-science almost religious aspect, the authoritarianism, the harms to the rest of society .
The left is definitely shooting itself in the foot. However, I don’t see how they will change their tune. They are so embedded in this ,as was shown when they balked at even not allowing men in women’s sports. Listen to AOC‘s rantings on this .
Very few will admit that Trump‘s victory was in some ways a reaction to the gender cult. A cult is a hard thing to break because cult thinking is really a religious belief. I am very cautiously optimistic that there will be some changes, but I am not holding my breath.
You guys are the science deniers.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RgMiyp5bwrg&pp=ygUrdmVyb25pY2EgZHJhbnR6IHRoZSBnZW5kZXIgYmluYXJ5IGFuZCBsZ2J0aQ%3D%3D
Really?Anyone connected to the Trevor Project , no matter how much science in their background, is suspect.
There are millions of years of evolution behind the fact of the binary of sex. Denying that fact is just plain false…deliberately so.. The gender ideology can haul out all the “ experts” it wants, but evolution will prove them wrong! Gender ideology is not based on truth but on lies!
Notice how this person puts Intersex in the mix. Why? Intersex is so rare as to be insignificant, yet it’s always trotted out as if it were another sex! Lies!
The gender ideology is not based on science and no reputable scientist backs it up. It is an authoritarian ideology based on lies .It is a dangerous ideology that has harmed more people than any recent ideology!
An ideology based on lies must be destroyed!
If Democrats can’t see that, they will lose many of their former supporters! Maybe not such a bad thing!
God you’re stupid.
How many sexes are there in the human species? Please educate me. I am stupid.
Yes, you are stupid. Because apparently you didn’t watch the videos I posted.
Started them, then saw immediately that they were anti-science propaganda, so I stopped.
Humans have only two gametes: sperm and egg. There are only two sexes that produce these gametes: males produce sperm and females produce eggs and this is as irrefutable as the world is round. Cry more.
I don’t think you are quite in the same league in terms of science as Karissa Sanbonmatsu or Veronica Drantz.
Actually, they aim at body parts that are higher up.
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (primarily women).
Others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Finally, it's past time for the LGB community to separate themselves from the trans activists who are trying to take away the rights of women to fairness in sports and to privacy and safety in their restrooms, locker rooms and prisons. They also advocate for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children many of whom would grow up gay.
Their actions are evil and the
understandable negative reaction to the harm they are causing is spilling over to innocent people who are just going about their business, marrying and leading their lives.
If you go to that trans loving cesspool Reddit, you will see the authoritative leftist man in dresses badgering young lesbian women to deny their same sex attraction as that makes them "transphobic." These poor young women who want to be 'inclusive' and toe the party line often wind up having sex with these guys to prove their allegiance. They express their disgust with the sex, and therefore themselves, and many times go underground to be exclusively with women without being harassed. This authoritative nonsense has no place in a party that claims to be tolerant and inclusive. Thank God common sense is starting to prevail.
I am a progressive Democrat, and I endorse this message. Very well done, and thorough. Thank you.
This is excellent and thorough!
Wow! This is a much better version of what I passionately wrote on my family email chain today (which received not a single response.) So I just sent them this! They're all devout lefties, as am I. The only difference is that I majored in Women's Studies in the 80s and I did happen to notice when women become so cool (see: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Captain Marvel) that men just couldn't stand it. So they had to steal it from us! F that. Plus, the children, I will not feel bad for standing up for them!
Excellent article! What is upsetting is that I’m being put in a position to either accept or reject transpersons yet my being a woman and a female-born lesbian (I am not a “cis”) is not!
Many feminists and other liberals, people who have been proud to be leftist, know that gender ideology is built on a flimsy base that is beginning to crumble. And it can't happen fast enough!
I can never fully trust the left again. Throwing women to the wolves the way they did, along with their vile antisemitism, soured me to my former party forever.