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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

The de-radicalization of an anti-trans activist

153 replies

malloo · 19/11/2021 07:20

rabble.ca/lgbtiq/the-de-radicalization-of-an-anti-trans-activist/

This is interesting, some hints and tips for anyone looking for a route out of being part of extremist gender critical hate groups Grin. Worth reading the whole thing but below are a few excerpts.

This nascent anti-trans movement is known as “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism” (or “TERF”) to its opponents and some neutral observers. To its proponents, however, the movement is more commonly described as “gender critical feminism”: a euphemistic rebranding of trans-exclusionary politics that tries to pass it off as something more respectable and enlightened than it is.For my part, I will use “gender critical” here to emphasize that, no matter what name it goes by, the movement is transphobic to its core.

Already, gender critical feminism has its apostates: people who initially participated in anti-trans activism, sometimes intensively, but have since desisted.

These “ex-gender criticals” are rarely profiled. De-transitioners (people who begin but later stop gender transitioning, sometimes becoming anti-trans activists themselves) figure much more prominently in the media discourse on transgender rights.

(So-called gender criticals themselves are to thank for this. They like to bandy de-transitioners around as proof that trans people’s experiences of their gender is not “real”; that trans-affirming medical care is too easy to access; and, that people can, in the end, be rescued from “transgenderism.”)

The relative absence of ex-gender criticals from the public consciousness does a disservice to trans people and our allies.

Trans-inclusive feminists have much to learn from the experiences of ex-GCers. For one thing, the trans-exclusionary movement is not nearly as solid as it might appear from the outside. It is possible for even hardcore members to join the cause of trans inclusion.

.........

The making of a transphobe
It was the fallout from trans woman Jessica Yaniv’s unsuccessful campaign to force aestheticians to wax her genitalia that set Alicia Hendley on the path to radicalization.

She still considered herself a trans ally in January 2019 when she connected with Morgane Oger, then the vice president of the B.C. New Democratic Party. Allegations were circulating that Yaniv had engaged in predatory behaviour online: in at least one instance, targeting a twelve-year-old girl for sexual harassment. Hendley, a sexual assault survivor herself, was concerned.

Oger suggested she try to identify some of Yaniv’s other alleged victims. So Hendley reached out to Irish transphobe Graham Linehan.

True, she and the gender criticals on Twitter had not gotten along in the past. “I saw them as transphobic and bigoted,” Hendley explained to me. “The GCers disliked me, and I disliked them. A lot of insults were tossed about.”

But the gender criticals were the ones talking about Yaniv the most — to their mind, Yaniv’s behaviour confirmed their worst fears about trans women to be true. Surely, then, a gender critical as prominent as Linehan could connect Hendley with the right people.

The road to hatred isn’t necessarily paved with hatred. It wasn’t for Hendley, whose descent into the bowels of anti-trans activism was as much a trauma response as anything else.

Linehan referred her to others in the gender-critical movement, and Hendley quickly found common ground.

The GCers speculated that Yaniv might not be a trans woman at all, just a man abusing gender self-identification to prey on vulnerable (cis) women and girls. Hendley found this possibility terrifying.

Perhaps the man who assaulted her could do this, too. Perhaps he could do this to victimize her daughter.

Radicalization is a highly personal and individual process. That is one of the reasons it is so difficult to combat. But it often flows from the unsatisfied needs that lead people to seek fulfillment in extremist movements and ideologies in the first place. There could be a need to heal from some earlier trauma, for example, and to feel safe from further victimization.

The transphobic, erroneous claim that permitting gender self-identification exposes women and girls to male violence stoked Hendley’s fears. Joining the gender criticals in their crusade against the rights of trans women in turn gave her a way to resolve them.
.........
Pandemic school closures meant Hendley’s children were at home much more than before. Her focus turned to providing them with the all-day supervision and care they required. Protecting “sex-based rights” began to seem less urgent.

She picked up a new hobby, learning German, and found she would rather spend her free time on that.
.....
“We were one group-think,” Hendley explained to me. “An echo chamber, a hive mind, with our mission to be ‘protecting the sex-based rights of girls and women’ (that meant cis).”

It’s wrong — and more than a little counterproductive — to assume that the people who join, or even found, hate groups do so because they lack intelligence. Hendley herself holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Windsor.
.......
Rather than argue ad nauseum that trans exclusion is anti-feminist and contrary to Canadian values, trans women and our allies ought, instead, to mobilize ex-GCers like Hendley to combat transphobic hate. Whatever such people have done in the past, they are in a unique position now to pull others out of the gender-critical movement. That makes them invaluable allies.

Recruiting ex-GCers requires, of course, knowing that these Formers exist in the first place.

“I will forever be cognizant of the harm I caused,” she told me recently, “by initiating the creation of caWsbar (not to mention my subsequent involvement). That’s on me, and no one else.”

But it is not too late for her — or any of the increasing number of ex-GCers out there — to make amends.

OP posts:
Ereshkigalangcleg · 08/09/2022 18:19

I speak to Alicia sometimes

That's nice, I remember her from when she was active on Twitter and she wasn't particularly fun to talk to then, so rather you than me.

ImherewithBoudica · 08/09/2022 21:02

Having basic pattern recognition skills is not an act of prejudice. 🙄

NotTerfNorCis · 12/09/2022 08:00

Alicia on Twitter:

GCers: You can't have an opinion of The Ink Black Heart! You haven't read it!!!

Also GCers: You can't have an opinion of The Ink Black Heart! You're just looking for ideological impurities!!

Actually, Alicia, it's great that you're reading it! You've obviously gone in to find evidence of transphobia, racism, ableism etc. After all, according to TRAs it's awash with those things. If you don't find anything, or you have to twist things around to make a case, I hope you let the other TRAs know!

bellinisurge · 12/09/2022 08:08

Some baldy gobshite was on Twitter yesterday talking about how he just walks with determined confidence into women's toilets and no one gives him a second glance. I'm sure he's a lovely person but he is talking silence for acceptance rather than fear.
And that arsewipe Izzard talking about how men and women in their sixties look the same so it's all good
These aren't Yaniv or White and they are no doubt seen as "the good ones".
Misogynistic wankers.

bellinisurge · 12/09/2022 08:09

Taking not talking.

NotTerfNorCis · 12/09/2022 08:28

bellinisurge it's amazing where a massive sense of entitlement can get you.

ImherewithBoudica · 12/09/2022 08:39

bellinisurge · 12/09/2022 08:08

Some baldy gobshite was on Twitter yesterday talking about how he just walks with determined confidence into women's toilets and no one gives him a second glance. I'm sure he's a lovely person but he is talking silence for acceptance rather than fear.
And that arsewipe Izzard talking about how men and women in their sixties look the same so it's all good
These aren't Yaniv or White and they are no doubt seen as "the good ones".
Misogynistic wankers.

Quite. As has been evidenced here in discussion with TW many times.

Women drop their eyes or smile (smiles can also work as a fear grimace), respond as they do to a threat, and get the fuck out of Dodge as discreetly as possible because you want to do nothing to anger the person in the room you are frightened of.

This is taken as 'they didn't even realise I wasn't female and nobody minded'.

There is absolute zero comprehension of female signals and body language and culture. Zero comprehension of what it is like to be a woman, and that it is wholly predicated on being born in and living in a female biological body. Which is smaller, weaker and something that some males feel entitled to access and use sexually with or without consent, whether that's by ogling, leering and staring which is sexual intimidation, whistling and shouting sexually intimidating things which are in fact veiled threats of 'I could if I wanted to and I might' while enjoying the female's discomfort and anxiety at their power, poking cameras under or through doors for a glimpse of private bits of it when she thinks she's safe enough to undress, touching and groping, or flat out assaulting and forcibly taking. It's all just degrees on the same wholly inappropriate path.

I'd argue if you're a biological male entering female spaces where they are undressed and vulnerable, knowing this is without consent (possibly hoping to deceive them into believing they're safe because you can 'pass' so well) and accepting that some females will not be able to enter the space because you're there? And you're doing it because of your own agenda and to use those women undressed in that space to meet your needs, emotional or otherwise? You're on that path too. You are using women and their bodies with the belief in your male power and entitlement to do so. And relying on their female socialisation and fear of males and greater intimidatory power and physical confidence via your biology and own socialisation, that they won't argue back or be any kind threat in response to your behaviour - evidenced by they never try pulling this crap on males, they are afraid to. You don't need their consent or to care about getting it because you know damn well you can just force it. And so do so.

'Enjoy ur erasure' and 'suck my lady dick' and so on makes it all fairly clear really. Not that females had any trouble understanding it to start with.

NotTerfNorCis · 20/09/2023 21:43

Alicia seems to have forgotten she helped found caWsbar.

In 2020, I left @cawsbar, a fear-based "gender critical" group. Today I was 1 of 100s in #Guelph, standing against ignorance & hate, to protect rights of trans kids & promote accurate sex ed. We were peaceful, united, & strong. We'll never be silenced. #TransRightsAreHumanRights.

They like to pretend no one leaves, but we do. Just had to make my own exit door!

https://twitter.com/maggie_xer/status/1704520838374953169?t=v5B8QI8T-wI344TzzUXDpQ&s=19

https://twitter.com/maggie_xer/status/1704520838374953169?s=19&t=v5B8QI8T-wI344TzzUXDpQ

ChokkaQuokka · 20/09/2023 22:32

I remember Alicia from Twitter before she supposedly became GC, and then once she had. I also remember her reconversion to TRA-dom. In particular I remember the painful conversation with the GC tweeter who used to ask people if it was ok that some people are exclusively same-sex attracted – so basically the Staniland question but for the Cotton Ceiling. AH seemed to be extremely hard of thinking.

there are never any other ex GCers mentioned anywhere except her and Amy/Beau Dyess, who is clearly mentally unwell.

ChokkaQuokka · 20/09/2023 22:34

Am I also correct in recalling that cawsbar was a singularly ineffective group that just did online stuff and no IRL lobbying?

Ereshkigalangcleg · 20/09/2023 23:33

I remember Alicia from Twitter before she supposedly became GC, and then once she had. I also remember her reconversion to TRA-dom.

Me too.

Transparent2 · 21/09/2023 00:13

Did she ever find what she was looking for in "Ink Black Heart"?

MapleTerfLady · 21/09/2023 00:19

OP you are hilarious! Thanks for the laugh! 😄

DarkDayforMN · 21/09/2023 01:01

NotTerfNorCis · 20/09/2023 21:43

Alicia seems to have forgotten she helped found caWsbar.

In 2020, I left @cawsbar, a fear-based "gender critical" group. Today I was 1 of 100s in #Guelph, standing against ignorance & hate, to protect rights of trans kids & promote accurate sex ed. We were peaceful, united, & strong. We'll never be silenced. #TransRightsAreHumanRights.

They like to pretend no one leaves, but we do. Just had to make my own exit door!

https://twitter.com/maggie_xer/status/1704520838374953169?t=v5B8QI8T-wI344TzzUXDpQ&s=19

Is Maggie Alicia? Has she changed her name to make it seem like more than one "ex-GC" exists?

Rightsraptor · 21/09/2023 08:01

So many words to say so very little! I have to congratulate Alicia for that alone.

She takes JKR to task for repeating stats cited by three academics about sex offenders, with which she seems to disagree, but I think they're the MoJ ones and are correct. Not only are they correct but they are consistent across the world, it seems.

She comes across as desperate.

NotTerfNorCis · 21/09/2023 08:07

Alicia's main motivation is to be recognised and approved of, it seems. She switched back to the TRA side because she got bored of GC activism during the pandemic, because her fellow GCs expected too much effort and weren't giving enough applause, and because the people around her - including her son iirc - were of the TRA mindset (unsurprisingly, as she used to be a TRA before a brief GC epiphany).

HagoftheNorth · 21/09/2023 09:07

So, I read the article, despite it being quite old now, in case there was an explanation of how anyone could go (back) from an understanding that reality exists to a trans ideological mindset. It was, however, more a “with one bound she was free” children’s storybook narrative, with no logical (or even just a little bit flawed) explanation of Alice’s though processes.

Why would anyone imagine Alice’s vacillating emotions would serve as a model for an intellectually sound movement, rooted firmly in critical thinking?

I would be genuinely, deeply interested in an explanation of why trans rights should trump women’s rights, or how they can reasonably be considered to not. Apparently, that’s not a question I’m generally allowed to ask 🙄

Froodwithatowel · 21/09/2023 09:29

Yes. I've never understood why a woman would suddenly decide that she and other women shouldn't have rights, equality of access etc.

It's like the mad posts that go 'I did think women should have equality, but you're all so nasty I'm going to join the TRAs and embrace being part of the slave class'.

To which the answer is <shrug> you do you love. This isn't a group think tank, no one wants to stop women who are desperate to undress with male strangers, some of whom with very odd behaviours and open sexual interests in the situation if you're not too naive to have read their own accounts of this. They just want to prevent said women enforcing it on other women who don't consent.

'I wish to force non consenting, distressed women to either get undressed in front of male strangers (with unknown and potentially worrying agendas) or be punished regardless of the reason or their need' is a bit of an odd world view really. Particularly if at the same time you're trying to claim to be about inclusion and kindness and social awareness.

MargotBamborough · 21/09/2023 09:35

Thanks for resurrecting this thread. I had never heard of Alicia Hendley before.

I am deeply sceptical of the idea that you can go from believing TWAW, to being gender critical, and then back to TWAW again.

It would be like going from believing that the earth is flat, to accepting that it is round, and then going back to believing that it is flat again.

The fact that trans women are not women is something that, once you see it, cannot be unseen.

Is Alicia genuine?

Because to me there are only two likely possibilities.

Either she saw the light about gender ideology, briefly came out as gender critical, and then got so much shit from her family including her children, her friends and maybe her work colleagues that she got scared and recanted. (Being gender critical in Canada seems quite dangerous at the moment and could certainly result in you becoming a social pariah or even losing your job.)

Or she was TWAW the whole time and faked the entire thing.

MargotBamborough · 21/09/2023 09:42

Also, to go off on a slight tangent, I love JKR and the Strike and Robin series, but the Ink Black Heart was my least favourite of the series so far. I wanted to love it, but so far it's the only one I haven't re-read.

I think it's because people whose real lives are played out entirely online using imaginary identities, as is the case for most of the characters, are really boring.

PermanentTemporary · 21/09/2023 09:48

I think it's possible to flip backwards and forwards a bit. I don't like the GC insistence that trans people aren't vulnerable or aren't at increased risk of self harm or crimes of violence - that's patently not true, and goes along with GC recognition of the vulnerabilities that are often comorbid with transition, and the existence of homophobic and lesbophobic violence, plus if anything increased risks of self harm post transition. So I get pretty sick of GC discourse when that comes up. Trans people are vulnerable in our society, including vulnerable to a cultural message that transition will fix that vulnerability.

None of that vulnerability means that sex doesn't exist though. So I remain GC, and I don't bother trawling novels for wrongthink because what the hell would that prove??

Grammarnut · 22/09/2023 10:27

DogDaysNeverEnd · 19/11/2021 07:36

Read the article and not clear why the ex-gcer changed her mind? Seems to boils down to - bored of her mates and learned German? Fortunately I already have a smattering of German so maybe I'm safe. Oh, and identify politics. It's increasingly frustrating to be bundled in with a political persuasion because of a single issue. I feel like it's ok to be a GC socialist, but apparently I'm wrong.

I'm a GC socialist too. I do not see any contradiction, whatever the Labour Party thinks.

pattihews · 22/09/2023 14:37

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pattihews · 22/09/2023 15:03

Oh, what did I say? Is the word 'peaked' now banned? I guess I'll find out.

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