Jo Bartosch in The Critic: ‘Her Penis’ and Other Facts

[GrinitchSpinach]

Excellent piece:

The cult of gender demands total obedience from followers, compelling the faithful to deny what they can see with their own eyes and to rise above the material reality of the flesh. One would hope that the function of a fair and democratic state would be to check such fanaticism, not to fan the flames.

thecritic.co.uk/her-penis-and-other-facts-we-all-should-know/

Excellent article. She's absolutely right; this has got to be said, plainly, with no holds barred, while it's still just about legal to speak the truth.

Good article, except for the phrase "For most men the desire to prance about in lacy pants is pretty benign" - why "prance" and not simply "wear"? Horrible sneery tone creeping in there when the rest seems relatively even-handed, really doesn't help her argument. Either sex should feel free to wear what they want otherwise we're back to sex stereotypes, surely?

This is an amazing article. Things for everyone to think about include:

"If you believe that there are only two sexes, male and female, you may well be a bigot. And if you choose to express that belief on social media you deserve to be fired. This is the upshot of a ruling in December 2019, which was heralded as a victory for equality by transgender activists."

"According to the NHS and WHO, each of us has an innate gender identity, and this may or may not correspond to our biological sex. No conclusive evidence has been found as to where exactly this feeling of gender resides, or how it might be expressed without relying on sexist stereotypes. We are told proof rests in the small proportion of the population who feel they have been born in the wrong body. That people feel discomfort in their sexed bodies cannot be disputed, but the idea that this is because of a mismatch between gender identity and their sex is unverifiable, not to mention a substantial leap of logic."

"Analysis from the world’s largest free pornography provider, Pornhub, suggests that this is a growing fetish amongst men, with words relating to transgenderism becoming the fifth most searched terms by those aged 45 to 64 through 2018. "

thecritic.co.uk/her-penis-and-other-facts-we-all-should-know/

why "prance" and not simply "wear?... Either sex should feel free to wear what they want otherwise we're back to sex stereotypes, surely?

That sentence is clearly in the context of the need to talk openly about autogynophilia. A phenomenon that is definitely not merely about wanting to be 'free to wear what you want'.

Women shouldn't have to cover for men's fetishes with fake decorum that pretends a fundamentally sexual motivation is really about freedom from sex stereotypes. Men certainly feel no need to hide the true nature of their panty-wearing desires in any of the zillion 'sissy porn' videos they create.

Great piece by Jo. The forthright and witty language is particularly welcome, and will cut through to many readers who have previously found the whole issue too confusing to engage with. I disagree that her argument would be stronger if her words were more anodyne.

"According to the NHS and WHO, each of us has an innate gender identity, and this may or may not correspond to our biological sex. No conclusive evidence has been found as to where exactly this feeling of gender resides, or how it might be expressed without relying on sexist stereotypes. We are told proof rests in the small proportion of the population who feel they have been born in the wrong body."

Why is the proof of the existence of a feeling I (and many other females, I suspect) do not have to be found in the brains of people who feel their brain is in the wrong body?

There is, to me, no greater argument for something being a mental problem than the feeling of one's entire brain being displaced, and as such, what happens inside of such brains shouldn't be heralded as proof of what is happening in the brains of 52% of the otherwise healthy human population.

There is definitely a difference between prancing and wearing.

Wearing suggests simply getting on with one's day in whatever clothes one chose, with it being none of anyone else's business. Prance covers more the selfies on Twitter of males in lingerie in female changing spaces, the duck pouts and the coy comments about leaving the curtains open in the hope that a female walks in and 'catches' them in all their glory.

That isn't neutral wearing. Like standing with a sword in the middle of the ladies isn't neutral using a loo. And wanting to talk to little girls about how to put in tampons isn't neutral womaning.

There is, to me, no greater argument for something being a mental problem than the feeling of one's entire brain being displaced,

Quite.

And in other forms of body dysphoria, for example someone wanting their foot amputated because it isn't their foot and they feel dysphoric about it/it's causing immense mental distress, or someone believing they are hideously fat when they're five stone and desperately ill, no one questions that the answer is urgent mental health support.

Very clear and well written. I've tweeted it.