Gender Critical | ContraPoints
Gender Critical | ContraPoints
Unsurprisingly, the #Starmtroopers choice to lead the UK's #EHRC has solidly #transphobic credentials. Mary-Ann Stephenson has a ten-year history with the so-called "#gendercritical" mob, aka #TERFs
Paywalled original: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/keir-starmers-pick-to-lead-ehrc-defended-gender-critical-feminists-28h62qgtq
Archived full text: https://archive.is/yTEFt
Why is there such a generational divide in views on #sex and #gender in #Britain? | Susanna Rustin
Under the guise Of a rational and quiet argument, Susan Rustin is nonetheless just giving into common missconceptions about the entengangled relations between #biology and #socio_anthropology, simultaneously making #SarahHrdy a sort of scientific caution for #gendercritical thesis.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/05/generational-divide-views-sex-gender-britain
I am sorry. Not for who I am. Not for who I love. And not for the words I write.
I am sorry for you.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/to-the-gender-critical-crowd-i-am-sorry-48fc710251b4?sk=165ad47db02aeb0ae2b3a5cae695c589
You see, in the UK, being “gender critical”, aka anti-trans, is protected free speech and a protected belief under the Equality Act. Calling out transphobia? Not so much, apparently.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/maggie-chapman-and-the-silence-of-anti-trans-free-speech-warriors-0ec8d42edab4?sk=8685126ef8002ee3b499e97e74d187d2
Does your Autism get mistaken for TQ+?
Autistic Not QueerSend me your experiences about having autism go unrecognised, misdiagnosed or ignored, by the professionals and civilians.
Do you feel autism has become second place to identity politics in autism spaces?
https://auntieautism.wordpress.com/2024/07/31/autistic-not-queer/
How #Transphobia ‘Crowded Out’ Real #Feminist #Issues in the #UK #GeneralElection.
#Research shows #rightwing #media #coverage of #Gendercritical #culturewar #activists like #JKRowling led to #women’s and #feminist #election #issues being #ignored.
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #UK #Tories #Labour #TERFS #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Genocide #Discrimination #Transphobia #TERFIsland
The gender-critical obsession with single-sex spaces also harms cisgender women because it distracts from the real issues which impact women.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/how-transphobia-crowded-out-real-feminist-issues-in-the-uk-election-d48c29bfdbdb?sk=2ef75237055f0f9436a58f18245b8ac8
This was a story I was waiting on a share link for...
I would like to point out what #Feminist author #JudithButler says about #TERFS (#GenderCritical).
A “#GenderCritical” and “#TERF” #Primer for readers trying to make sense of “#feminists versus #transgender #activists” #debates
This #essay is about one particular strand that is sometimes called “Gender Critical” (GC) or “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism” (TERF).
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Feminism #TERFS #Hate #Bigotry #Transphobia
My new article 'Challenging Words' in the Spring 2024 Issue of Index on Censorship! discusses how a recent ruling in the Jo Phoenix harassment case may have concerning consequences for UK academic freedom more broadly, including trans rights. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/03064220241243235 #transrights #gendercritical #academicspeech #feminism #freespeech #harassment
#HarryPotter fans: If you knew that #genderCritical #billionaire #JKRowling unapologetically mixes #Holocaust denialism in with her #antiTrans propaganda, then would you finally stop supporting the franchise?
A #gay #man #calledout #JKRowling’s #transphobia. Her #fans buried him in #homophobic #slurs.
“#Gendercritical” #feminists, or #TERFS, have been #dying on the #antitrans hill for quite some time now. But it seems they’ve pivoted to just being straight-up #antigay #bigots at this point.
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #UK #Scotland #TERFS #Hate #Bigotry #Homophobia #Transphobia #TERFIsland
#Dragqueen #accuses #antiLGBTQ+ #documentary of ‘#tricking’ her into taking part.
A #Rightwing, #gendercritical, #antiLGBTQ+ #film called #TheWaronChildren was launched last week, with the trailer gaining more than 30 million views on The #Toxic #Socialmedia #hellsite #Twitter (#X).
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #RepublicanParty #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Genocide #Discrimination #Transphobia #ThePartyOfHate
https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/11/the-war-on-children-film/
I met up with a friend at a bubble tea place chosen for its location halfway between our homes.
It turned out that the shop had a special #HarryPotter theme going on. It was elaborate - on-theme drinks, a potion mixing station, well crafted decorations everywhere you looked, etc. As someone who read all the books, I could appreciate it, but as a #trans person, I was horrified. We were supposed to cancel that #genderCritical billionaire. We went elsewhere. #terf #cancelJK
@Susan_Larson_TN I'd also add it's vital to not only state as a #therapist in my #privatepractice that I'm #LGBTQ & #nonbinary myself but also that I'm fully #transinclusive as there's real fear for #trans #UK clients of discovering their counsellors to be #gendercritical #terfs since a ruling a while back that they can work in my profession, which has caused widespread horror. We are supposed to be #nonjudgemental, not #bigots operating covertly. But yes. They infiltrate.
****DISCLAIMER****
This article is not about ‘Self Diagnosed’ Autistics. This article uses autism and neurotypical as a subject to look at identity politics as a whole.
The Self Diagnosers demographic is made up of Neurotypical people, Autistic people and People with Other Neurodiversities. The only self diagnosers that could be included in the following scenarios are the ones who are neurotypical, the rest do not fit the scenerios.
Identity vs Lived Reality
This article provides 3 thought-provoking scenarios that highlight certain situations when chosen identities are no longer a personal, neutral act, but cause a ripple effect throughout the demographic being identified into.
Ramifications of Identity Politics
These are fictionalised scenerios made up to inspire philosophical questioning and encourage critical thinking about ideas. The scenarios can be applied to any other scenario, such as: a white person identifying as black, an able bodied person identifying as physically disabled, a male identifying as a female. Consider these as you read.
Photo by hitesh choudhary on Pexels.comBeing autistic is a neurological fact
Being autistic is a neurological fact for me. I haven’t chosen the ‘identity’. It isn’t an identity at all, it’s a lived reality. I was born this way. I was created this way in the womb. No matter what environment I was born into, no matter what life experiences or support or understanding I could ever have recieved could change the very real, immutable fact of reality, that I am an Autistic person. My brain is and always has been an autistic brain. I cannot turn this off. I do not exist without my autism. There isn’t a cure, there isn’t an off switch, there are no times when I’m not autistic. Autism isn’t something I have, it is what I am and it is inescapable. I do not have any ability to opt in or out of this. You either are or you aren’t. I can never, ever be a neurotypical person.
I can never be a neurotypical person
Now, I would like to put forward 3 scenarios as a way of looking at potential problems with ‘Chosen Identities’ vs Lived Reality.
Neurotypicals identifying as autistic
Scenario 1
Skewed data
The Autism DSM-5 is changing and being redone. Professionals are conducting new research into autism and how it presents and affects our lives and they are asking for autistic people to come forward to take part in the research and be part of the change in the new assessments process. This will change the criteria for diagnosis. What information goes into this research will change how autistic people are perceived and assessed, what is looked for in the person and whether they will fit the new criteria of autism, resulting in either getting a diagnosis or not getting a diagnosis for future generations. This will form the definition of Autism.
Scenario 2
Autistic accommodations
A company is expanding and promising to be inclusive in hiring. They are holding interviews specifically for autistic people where there are adjustments made for the autistic people being interviewed to give them the opportunity to be authentically autistic and have their needs met so they can show their suitability for the job.
They promise to hire an autistic person for the role and make reasonable adjustments for them in their new job.
Unemployment rates for autistic people are shocking, so this was designed to aid autistic people with getting employed and into jobs that are designed to accommodate them.
The interviewer will also be autistic so as to help the autistic person being interviewed feel more at ease and understood
Scenario 3
Safe spaces
There is an autism support/social/dating group
A group has been made for autistic people to find and connect with other fellow autistic people where they may feel more comfortable and understood. They may have been struggling to feel understood and accepted by neurotypicals in the past and so joined a group that ensures they will be in company of other autistic people. This could help them feel safe, secure and dignified.
How does reading this make you feel?
Can any identity be adopted or can it sometimes not be justifiable when you take into account the effects it can have on the people whose identity you are adopting?
Where do we draw the line?
Does it just come down to politeness and respect of people’s expressions of themselves? Or can someone’s expression of an identity have consequences for others?
Are there times when it is necessary to admit someone’s expressed identity is not reality?
Changing laws and policies to place chosen identities above neurological/biological realities can have dire consequences.
Most people will be polite and refer to you as you wish, most people will accept you as you wish to express yourself. But we do actually know the difference, we just don’t say it because we don’t want to cause any offense or undue upset.
But when there are changes made to policies and laws that say you must affirm these identities, it is no longer harmless. As soon as it’s enforced, rights are lost.
Identities are important for many reasons and should not be eroded to make room for people who are not part of that identity.
It isn’t disrespectful to say this, but it is disrespectful to the people whose identities are being eroded to accommodate others at their own disadvantage. How is this inclusive?
How can you protect what you can’t define?
The only way we can create policies and laws for people is by being able to DEFINE people. If there is no definition of an autistic person, how can we understand them? If there is no definition of a woman, how can we protect her? If there is no definition of a disability how can we accommodate them?
If people are branded hateful for stating truths then what kind of society are we creating?
©
https://auntieautism.wordpress.com/2024/01/23/i-identify-as-3-thought-provoking-scenarios/
I believe in gender liberation.
Female oppression and the oppression of women is real and it sucks. I hate that a false hierarchy of male over female (and by extension man over woman) has been created in so many societies and religions — and I hate that some feminists are insisting on maintaining that hierarchy just so they can be transphobic. I hate that some feminists think this means we need to destroy religion, thereby invalidating and erasing the work of millions of feminists of faith who have worked so hard for equality within their religions.
Male and female aren’t as different as extremists on both sides want you to believe. Males and females are in fact equal! We are in fact biologically very similar. Sex is not and has never been a binary; it is a spectrum, with a bimodal distribution. Believing in bioessentialism, that there is an insurmountable gulf between male and female, and that males and females have inherent traits and behaviors, is antifeminist.
Gender, as a social construct, is complicated. It can be a form of euphoric expression, a way to connect to your culture or religion or ethic identity and express joy in belonging, to connect to your ancestors and your descendants — but it can be also way for that culture to oppress you.
Trans people are on the forefront of dissecting all of this, of playing with gender and sex in ways that tease it apart from the oppressive systems our societies built simultaneously with these identities. We are, in essence, abolishing the traditional social construct of gender and building it anew as as a form of individual human expression, not a system of oppression linked to birth sex.
And if gender critical feminists, radfems, and gender abolitionists aren’t on board with that, then I’m not sure what more trans folks could possibly do.
https://hadeantaiga.wordpress.com/2023/11/24/gender-liberation/
https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/staffpridenetwork/2023/07/05/decoding-the-hidden-messages-a-look-at-dog-whistles-in-the-gender-critical-movement/ "Decoding the Hidden Messages: A Look at Dog Whistles in the Gender Critical Movement"
Looks like the University of Edinburgh staff pride network has an excellent short little article examining a number of the more common TERF/GC/Gender Critical dog whistles and their meanings.
Just a nice little summary if you need something to explain some of the ideas behind these to people who aren't constantly faced with it.
Now #Trans #Women #Supposedly Have An #Unfair #Biological #Advantage At... #pool?
#Rightwing #conservatives and those who identify as "#gendercritical" are up in arms after #WorldEightballPoolFederation #allows #trans #women to #participate.
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Entertainment #Sports #Pool #Representation #Culture #TERFS #Hate #Bigotry #Discrimination #Transphobia
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/now-trans-women-supposedly-have-an