The Skeptic Community's Blind Spot for Gender Theory

So, who is going to send this thread to Robin Ince, then?

Good thread, OP. Been discussing this with some atheist friends. They agree (more from a free speech than a feminism angle) but aren’t willing or able to go public with their views due to potential backlash.

I think a lot of ‘skeptics’, particularly those in the public eye, aren’t really all that skeptical or rigorous in their thinking. I think they are attracted to the prestige of being an intellectual, free-thinker and mocker of silly orthodoxies, but aren’t willing to take the flak from the present-day inquisitors in defending a deeply unpopular truth.

I think they are cowards and their posts ought to be screenshotted for posterity. Forgiveness is an irrational religious value, after all.

just quickly

from his current website

"“My early published papers were reflective of a far more psychoanalytic approach to transgender which I have since moved away from having refined my understanding from both my transgender patients and also advances in our understanding of transgender from the areas of psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychology, social sciences, feminism, queer theory and other areas. Patients who have had professional contact with me will be familiar with my aim for them to explore what gender means to them and my encouragement for them to challenge and subvert normative binary frameworks of gender interpretation in themselves or which they perceive within society and replace this with an individually tailored authentic gender identity which they feel suits them irrespective of whether this fits in with a conventional binary gender framework.” – Dr Az Hakeem, 2015"

I think that this has me confused

The bit about "subvert normative binary frameworks of gender interpretation" sounds good to me. I am planning to read some primary sources on queer theory in the near future, however from the criticism of it I have read here, it seems to be a theory that undermines a GC position.

got to go for now but will read more later :)

Thanks Old Crone

I have a hospital appointment soon but will read later

also see, re Sam Roddick and Jerry Hyde

I don't see the evidence that Az Hakeem has moved to a 'woke' position. This is from his current website.

For these people a specialist form of psychotherapy for issues relating to gender may be useful. Such patients may include those with autogynaephilia, those with non-binary gender identification, and those with intermittent fluctuation between gender dysphoria and transvestism. Other patients may have previously had physical gender reassignment procedures and have since changed their mind and once again find themselves with a gender identity incongruent with their physical body.

So he acknowledges both autogynaephilia and detransition, which seem to be ignored or denied by the totally woke.

Az Hakeem and his book were discussed on here last year on a number of threads. This is one of them, but if you search for his name you'll find more.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3303573-This-is-what-the-Portman-Clinic-had-to-say-about-Gender-Transition-in-2002

also, while the skeptical / rationalist feminists are here

the Mail has an interesting piece on a new women's empowerment organisation

I am extremely concerned about this kind of women's organisation, the likes of which are opening everywhere and are infiltrating feminism with horrible new age bullshit and misogynist theories

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7147495/Can-new-women-club-really-make-alpha-female.html

Also, for the record, re the drug use in various new age projects;

I think that our drug policies need significant revision

I accept that many people find illegal drugs more useful and less harmful than pharmaceutical prescription drugs, especially for pain control

I believe that many psychedelic drugs may have therapeutic potential, especially for some mental health problems and for people facing life limiting illnesses

Our current situation is appalling in that the gatekeepers to many of these substances are dubious therapists who do not have the interests of vulnerable people at heart

Both Grayson and Philippa Perry have strong connections to the School of life and to an extremely controversial new age therapist Jerry Hyde

In fact Philippa Perry recommends Jerry Hyde's book Play from you Fucking Heart in her recent book

books.google.co.uk/books?id=YHxqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT224&lpg=PT224&dq=%22philippa+perry%22+%22jerry+hyde%22&source=bl&ots=CJknTzV-ud&sig=ACfU3U1dmwNw8XdfTqwN0DiOR3GyAzmulg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi22daWqvDiAhUVVBUIHVxaAgoQ6AEwC3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22philippa%20perry%22%20%22jerry%20hyde%22&f=false

Interestingly Sam Roddick is also an associate of Jerry Hyde

Hyde is also involved with a highly dubious new age druggie / neo-tantric project called Spirit Horse

www.facebook.com/SpiritHorseUK/posts/285075458232149

Interesting youtube channel featuring Jerry Hyde, Sam Roddick, and Grayson Perry amongst others

www.youtube.com/user/superbytimai/videos

www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/posts/at-his-kinky-sex-sermon-grayson-perry-remarked-that-the-stroking-action-for-the-/280276812042615/

Re The SoL also see

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140910211752/lecturelist.org/content/view_lecture/6029" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20140910211752/lecturelist.org/content/view_lecture/6029

just a little link for those interested in the trajectory of Hakim's transition from GC to woke

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180525042418/drazhakeem.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20180525042418/drazhakeem.blogspot.com/

A person of interest is Brett Kahr, one time (current?) director of the School of Life's psychotherapy service and ambassador for The School of Life

He is the author of one of the chapters in the batshit insane publication Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse, edited by Valerie Sinason

also

Academic Consultant to Confer Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy & Mental Health at Institute of Psychotherapy & Disability
Chair of the British Society of Couple Psychotherapists
Chair of the Professional Association of the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships
Ambassador to the School of Life, Holborn, London
Director of the School of Life's psychotherapy service
Consultant for Dynamic Change Consultants, London NW3
Consultant and narrator for mental health issues for BBC television and BBC Radio, including being the Resident Psychotherapist for Radio 2
Trustee of the Institute of Psychotherapy & Disability
Contributed The psychoanalytic concept of repression: historical and empirical perspectives to Memory in Dispute edited by Valerie Sinason, Karnac Books, 1998.
Contributed Multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia: an interview with Professor Flora Rheta Schreiber to Attachment, Trauma and Multiplicity: Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder 2nd edition, edited by Valerie Sinason (Routledge - Informa PLC, 2010)
Has appeared on TV in shows such as Esther, Trisha, ITN News, Channel 4 News and BBC 1's Breakfast
He was the consultant psychotherapist for the first four seasons of Big Brother for Channel 4.
He was the on-screen commentator for I.T.N for their live coverage of the funeral of Princess Diana.
In addition he has served as Consultant Psychotherapist for BBC 1's Doctors and Channel 4's Wife Swap amongst other programs.

source: (scroll down)
dramatispersonae.nfshost.com

please note that the link is an old one some things may have changed

also, for a connection to Kids Company see

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100219215123/www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/child-prostitution-suitable-material-for-a-musical-976526.html/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20100219215123/www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/child-prostitution-suitable-material-for-a-musical-976526.html/

Kahr's connections to networks promoting SRA conspiracy theories, to the BBC, Channel 4 and other MSM outlets, to The Tavistock, to networks of philosophers, to various psychotherapy charities most or possibly all of which promote pseudoscientific conspiracy theories make Kahr a very interring person.

He is also widely published and consulted by the media on issues of sex, sexuality and gender.

His favourite books are listed here (note - there is a real stinker there - the Sinason)

web.archive.org/web/20190324084501/www.confer.uk.com/booksof2018.html

In the "Briefly Noted" section Kahr states:

"For those of you who wish to keep up to speed with the fast-changing world of non-binary approaches to sexuality and gender, one cannot do better than read Dr. Az Hakeem's wonderfully lucid Trans: Exploring Gender Identity and Gender Dysphoria - A Guide for Everyone (Including Professionals). I learned a great deal from this fine book".

Interestingly Hakim seems to have moved from a gender critical position to a woke one

"“My early published papers were reflective of a far more psychoanalytic approach to transgender which I have since moved away from having refined my understanding from both my transgender patients and also advances in our understanding of transgender from the areas of psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychology, social sciences, feminism, queer theory and other areas. Patients who have had professional contact with me will be familiar with my aim for them to explore what gender means to them and my encouragement for them to challenge and subvert normative binary frameworks of gender interpretation in themselves or which they perceive within society and replace this with an individually tailored authentic gender identity which they feel suits them irrespective of whether this fits in with a conventional binary gender framework.” – Dr Az Hakeem, 2015"

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621180510/www.drazhakeem.com/specialist-psychotherapy-for-gender-dysphoria/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20160621180510/www.drazhakeem.com/specialist-psychotherapy-for-gender-dysphoria/

I think that the attention of skeptic and rationalist feminists could usefully be drawn to The School of Life, an interesting organisation founded by the philosopher Alain de Botton

This organisation has long been of interest to me as it has a strongly woo influenced agenda, many promoters of conspiracy theories re satanic ritual abuse are involved with it, and it claims to offer education and training on a range of life and professional issues. As a network of highly influential psychotherapists and philosophers it is definitely an organisation of interest.

I have studied various different models of psychotherapy over the years and have an interest in philosophy (but far from an expert re philosophy) and I am realising that the academic language used in both the psychological and the philosophical arenas mean that most lay people feel inadequately educated to challenge various prevalent discourses.

My impression is that both psychology and philosophy are arenas where social engineering is taking place and where bizarre and pseudoscientific theories are infiltrating academia and then being spread throughout society.

There is an urgent need to examine some of the foundations of both psychological and philosophical theories underpinning recent controversies on a range of issues.

“On certain subjects, they are absolutely immovable if countered. You can set a thousand studies at their feet and they'll shake their heads and wag their fingers in superior ire if those studies don't support what they've been told to think, or what they've determined one should think.“

What subjects are you talking about?

Apologies if this has already been posted, but here is a shocking account by Janice Williams of OBJECT (and humanist celebrant) about the disgraceful way she was treated by Humanists UK after her part in the peaceful lesbian protest at London Pride 2018: www.objectnow.org/news/2019/6/15/a-witch-hunt-at-humanists-uk

There is legitimate skepticism, wherein one critically examines the available evidence in order to come to a conclusion, and then there is the skeptic community. The skeptic community is as dogmatic and belief oriented as any other I've ever encountered. On certain subjects, they are absolutely immovable if countered. You can set a thousand studies at their feet and they'll shake their heads and wag their fingers in superior ire if those studies don't support what they've been told to think, or what they've determined one should think.

Thirty years ago, the skeptic community joined in the big backlash against the Second Wave's exposure of CSA and incest. (I may be wrong, but I think this is the time period when the skeptic community began to coalesce, or took off, as it were.) They took the perpetrators' side, and adopted fully their propaganda, ignoring or lying about legitimate research. I am not surprised at all they support gender ideology.

Humanists UK are dreadful on the trans issue. They don't respond to members who write in with concerns about gender identity ideology. When I wrote in with serious concerns and rational arguments which pointed out the hypocrisy of their position (supporting self-ID), the CEO (Andrew Copson) refused to discuss any of the points I raised and instead chucked me out! A sure sign he didn't feel confident enough to defend their policies against well-reasoned arguments. Pathetic actually.

I find the sceptical movement, (and atheist movement), as a whole, to be less about critical thought and more about proving how much more right they are, than the general run of sheep.

Given how that dominant voice is so often stridently male, the ducking and weaving on the topic of gender identity doesn’t surprise me. Men would rather agree with other men, no matter how barking, than align themselves with women, let alone feminists.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald

I think AnyOldPrion’s point here is an important one and worth its own discussion.

Given the mooted links between AGP and other paraphilias and fetishes, and the number of in prison who are there for sexual or violent crimes, I think we have to stop pussyfooting around the fact that SOME men who identify as women are part of the issue.

According to Transgender Trend, 41% of the (identified) transgender prison population are there for sexual offences - compared with 19% of the general male population.

Helen Zaltzman’s another disappointment.

@mermoose. I haven't engaged with him on it. He's a toxic individual all round.