Institute of Race Relations article says gender critical feminists are just a tool of right wing fundamentalism because of arguing for the reality of biological sex

[stumbledin]

Sorry, bit late to be trying to say anything coherant about this article but I can see this being picked up (as it already has by Pink News) by trans activists that anyone who doesn't accept you can change sex is either a right wing fundamentalist, or so dim they will become a tool of right wing fundamentalists.

Enjoy!

irr.org.uk/article/feminism-biological-fundamentalism-attack-on-trans-rights/

Unsurprising article as there's a big overlap between Queer Theory and Critical Race Theory. It's a bandwagon for fairly privileged young people to jump on. I've noticed a growing trend for privileged young people in the UK from minority backgrounds attaching themselves to this race industry that has blossomed around CRT. Opportunities for endlessly writing puff pieces moaning about white supremacy this and that (with a dash of 'won't someone think of the trans people of colour') without actually doing anything that would bring tangible benefits to people's lives. If the Gal-Dem profile is up to date, she's supposedly 22 and currently interning at The Times (that terrible, right wing, white supremacist publication!!). It's not a career choice that would necessarily put food on the table if one actually lived in Pakistan / India hence why the rest of us have degrees in engineering and science.

Oh, a classic trick here, starting with a false analogy.

Just as scientific racism centred on supposed biological differences to classify humans in a rigid racial hierarchy (this is true, racism did this) ‘gender critical’ feminists are propelling biological arguments that essentialise sex and its relation to gender identity, contending that sex is purely biological depending on what reproductive organs you have. (No, this isn’t the same as racism, this is feminists stating a basic biological fact.)

Their arguments amount to a fundamentalist approach to biology, that labels anyone who doesn’t conform to a normative view of ‘womanhood’ or ‘manhood’ as abnormal (and here we’ve taken a huge sideways leap from recognition of biology to imposition of sex-stereotypes.)

No logical progression there. In reality, it’s the genderists who insist that people who don’t conform to their sex’s stereotypes must be the other sex. But pad it out with enough sciency-looking waffle and hope that covers up the gaping holes in your argument….

Their arguments amount to a fundamentalist approach to biology, that labels anyone who doesn’t conform to a normative view of ‘womanhood’ or ‘manhood’ as abnormal

This contradicts itself. Yes, male and female are biological terms. 'Womanhood' and 'manhood' relate to social expectations - e.g. gender stereotypes. A woman is an adult human female, but 'a normative view of womanhood' implies expected behaviours, and that is not what feminism is about at all.

Sophia Siddiqui would learn a lot from watching the next WHRC when it's uploaded (4 June event): A Woman's Place is Holding NGOs to Account.

It was eye-opening and maddening. From Gita Saghal's Twitter it took her a couple of days (as ever) to recover from re-telling the story of what happened to her with Amnesty.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCWECmp5Tk3epYSkjs0qAKKQ/videos

This may not be the best place to post it, but for anyone who might be interested, this Sunday (13 June) at 1 pm BST is the India WHRC Launch Webinar.

You can register for it using this link
us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Djq515q5RNiaq7gYmbMy4A

Announcing The Launch Of Women's Human Rights Campaign India Chapter.

With Speakers From India And Sri Lanka. Discussing Legal, Sociopolitical Challenges In Achieving Women's Sex-based Rights.

13th June, Sunday at 5:30pm IST (1pm London Time)

Speakers:

Vaishnavi Sundar - writer, filmmaker, country contact WHRC India (host)

Linda Louis - a lawyer specialised in international human rights law and women's rights. Originally from Chennai, Linda graduated from NLSIU Bangalore in 2012, has a Masters in International Law and Human Rights, and worked with prominent NGOs such as the International Commission of Jurists with their Women's Rights and SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) Divisions.

Shefali Sequeira - works as a teacher of French. She is also a member of the LGB Alliance India.

Saranya Das Roy - a STEM student from the Northeastern state of Tripura. She desisted about a year ago and is also a member of LGB Alliance India.

Thulasi Muttulingam - a journalist based in Jaffna, Sri Lanka from where she reports on post-war issues, particularly those affecting women and marginalised minorities.

That article is full of logical fallacies. I suspect it is written in a deliberately obtuse way in order to sound intellectual and therefore impress people who don't know anything about the topic.

tl;dr: Rubbish article.

@AlfonsoTheMango

That article is full of logical fallacies. I suspect it is written in a deliberately obtuse way in order to sound intellectual and therefore impress people who don't know anything about the topic.

tl;dr: Rubbish article.

I see it's a piece posted on the site rather than a paper in a journal so in that way it's akin to Guardian Op-Eds.

I can't quite grasp their intended audience for this as it's neither accessible in style for a general audience nor rigorous enough for a decent journal.

Another fail by the author, @EmbarrassingAdmissions!

@NonnyMouse1337

Unsurprising article as there's a big overlap between Queer Theory and Critical Race Theory. It's a bandwagon for fairly privileged young people to jump on. I've noticed a growing trend for privileged young people in the UK from minority backgrounds attaching themselves to this race industry that has blossomed around CRT. Opportunities for endlessly writing puff pieces moaning about white supremacy this and that (with a dash of 'won't someone think of the trans people of colour') without actually doing anything that would bring tangible benefits to people's lives. If the Gal-Dem profile is up to date, she's supposedly 22 and currently interning at The Times (that terrible, right wing, white supremacist publication!!). It's not a career choice that would necessarily put food on the table if one actually lived in Pakistan / India hence why the rest of us have degrees in engineering and science.

Adolph Reed has talked about this a lot in the US, that activism has become a career path for certain members of minority groups, mainly middle class people, who bring middle class interests to the role and are advantaged by centering those and platforming themselves as the leaders in race relations questions.

It's interesting because when you see in depth polls around political views in those same groups they often are not overlapping especially with the activist leaders' views.

The IRR does have a disclaimer saying articles aren't the view of the organisation, but the author.

And as a suposedly reputable organisation I was dumbfounded that they printed what seems like a silly school girl (sorry student) trying to impress a group she wants to be part (woke leftery).

They could have had a well researched article on that fact that what might appear as superficially the same demands dont have the same intent, and wanted outcomes.

That was partly why as an after thought I included the little bio about the author. gal-dem - oh dear.

But it shows on one level how many supposedly proper thinkers, are still just going along with what has been the rainbow trend.

(In another newspaper yesterday they had a whole article by a man saying avery body who was turning on Stonewall was wrong, they had the correct interpretation of the law, ie EHRC, MoJ, Liz Truss, et all are all lying. If it had been Pink News you would think they would publish such misinformation. Its one thing having opinion pieces, but articles that are just factually are now being printed as valid opinion. I despair. )