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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Tell me you don't know what a cult is...

402 replies

Seethlaw · 14/08/2026 09:23

... without telling me you don't know what a cult is.

I grew up in a cult-ish church. It had some very unpleasant aspects to it indeed. The very concept of the GC movement as a cult utterly baffles me, and irritates me quite a bit, I must admit.

Where is our Leader? Some say JKR is that, even though she obviously didn't create the movement, since she joined it after it already existed. Okay, but then where is the cult of personality? Where is the hanging onto her every word? Where is the compulsory study of her life? Where is the regular and compulsory show of support of her as our leader?

What are the specific beliefs that random people outside the movement don't believe? "Men can't become women and vice versa" is not such a belief, since loads of people who would never call themselves GC also believe it. So what are our specific beliefs?

What is the rite of entry into the movement? How does one know that they themselves or someone else is a member of the movement?

Where are the big gatherings where the leaders speak The Word? Where are the regular gatherings where the members reinforce each other's beliefs?

What are the demands made of the members? Where are the compulsory meetings? Where are the financial requirements? Where are the specific behaviours we have to adhere to?

Where are the punishments for leaving the group? How do you even know you've left at all? And where are the stories of abuse and control told by the former members?

I could go on forever.

Accusing GC people of belonging to a cult is just as ridiculous and offensive as claiming, for example, that there's a trans genocide going on. It's deliberately appropriating the real suffering of other people to make a completely false and unsupportable point because there's no actual valid point to make. It's utterly reprehensible and shameful.

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KinderOfKinder · 14/08/2026 09:39

Well, I think the situation - as with so many situations - is nuanced.

My guess is most people calling the GC Cult a cult are referring to 'cultish' or 'cultlike' thinking and behaviour which, to be fair, is pretty spot on.
They could instead have called it the GC Tribe and had (largely) the same implication.

I don't think they are referring to the group as an actual, literal, cult as you describe it (but then, I suspect you know this already and are purposefully drawing a dramatic and fallacious comparison in the hope of deflecting further criticism from those who feel you belong to a cult).

As to the 'cult of personality', whilst it's clear there are many MNetters who slavishly and unthinking seem to deify JKR - judging by their clear posts - I don't think she - or anyone else - is the head of this particular cult; more likely, it's the GC ideology that is held up as the mantra and ruling law of the cult, rather than any individual.

I've seen cult mentioned many, many, many times over this area of MN - sometimes said with intelligent, reasonable sincerity, and sometimes just thrown out as a seeming insult - but the point is that, like it or not, there is a cultlike behavioural model that seems to dominate here, and that those who speak out against it, or call it out, are reacted to in ways I'd imagine a cult reacts to dissenting voices.

BridgetYourFortyDaysAreUp · 14/08/2026 09:35

I assume this is a spin off from the Other Cult One (which I've been studiously mostly avoiding)? Seeth, I think we sex-realist women have to be in a cult, because then what we say and believe in (the truth and reality) can be denigrated.

If we weren't in a cult, then everything we say would just be Truth and Reality, and they can't have that, can they?!