NY Times: the horseshoe hatred of women

[Pinklimey]

Excellent article about how (extreme) leftwingers and rightwingers hate women. Goes along with the horsehoe political theory that at the extreme fringes, there isn't much to differentiate the left and the right.

www.nytimes.com/2022/07/03/opinion/the-far-right-and-far-left-agree-on-one-thing-women-dont-count.html?smid=url-share

Although it says ‘share’ at the end of the link. I was unable to open it. It looks very interesting though.

I think the woman who wrote this was subsequently suspended on twitter. Or at least she seemed to be when I read it a few hours ago. Fuck knows why, I suspect a mass report but I'm GCC where twitter's concerned.

I can't post the link as it will be deleted, but it can be read at
archive dot ph/XIUfa

Its a quality article;

''Women didn’t fight this long and this hard only to be told we couldn’t call ourselves women anymore. This isn’t just a semantic issue; it’s also a question of moral harm, an affront to our very sense of ourselves.''

She writes very well, particularly on the erasure of the word “woman”.

As reported by my colleague Michael Powell, even the word “women” has become verboten. Previously a commonly understood term for half the world’s population, the word had a specific meaning tied to genetics, biology, history, politics and culture. No longer. In its place are unwieldy terms like “pregnant people,” “menstruators” and “bodies with vaginas.”

Planned Parenthood, once a stalwart defender of women’s rights, omits the word “women” from its home page. NARAL Pro-Choice America has used “birthing people” in lieu of “women.” The American Civil Liberties Union, a longtime defender of women’s rights, last month tweeted its outrage over the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade as a threat to several groups: “Black, Indigenous and other people of color, the L.G.B.T.Q. community, immigrants, young people.”

It left out those threatened most of all: women. Talk about a bitter way to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX

Thelnebriati· Today 22:40
Thank you for the archive link.

"The American Civil Liberties Union, a longtime defender of women’s rights, last month tweeted its outrage over the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade as a threat to several groups: “Black, Indigenous and other people of color, the L.G.B.T.Q. community, immigrants, young people.”"

This is absolutely shocking. If a civil liberties organisation can make no reference to women in a statement about abortion rights something has gone badly wrong.

eurochick · Today 23:06
"The American Civil Liberties Union, a longtime defender of women’s rights, last month tweeted its outrage over the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade as a threat to several groups: “Black, Indigenous and other people of color, the L.G.B.T.Q. community, immigrants, young people.”"

This is absolutely shocking. If a civil liberties organisation can make no reference to women in a statement about abortion rights something has gone badly wrong.

Yes, and it’s more or less insane.

Sorry my link didn't work. Thank you @Thelnebriati

what a world!

I also genuinely don't understand how abortion law particularly affects the LGBTQ community. I mean, I would have thought that this community would be less likely than any other to be affected by an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. For instance, in what way is a gay male more likely to be affected by abortion law than a heterosexual woman? Or even a lesbian woman? I understand that lesbian women will be affected by the law to an extent (eg cases of rape), but surely the law does not affect them more than a heterosexual woman.

I have come to the conclusion that people spout this stuff automatically without stopping to think about what they are saying.

Even if you believe TWAW, abortion law very very clearly still affects women MUCH more than any other group. And yes, WoC and immigrant women, poor women and marginalised women more than anyone.

But still women, regardless of your thoughts on TWAW or not. Which means leaving women out of a statement about abortion is a conscious erasing of women. Because gay men won't be affected proportionately. And 'G' was left in the statement.

If you believe TWAW you wouldn't say, "only women will be affected". But leaving women out of a statement about proportional effect is callous, stupid and short-sighted. 'Women' has become a dirty word in some places.

Yes, the author was suspended from Twitter after the article was published, and probably by coordinating reporting by a large group of trans rights activists. Because Twitter uses bots for the first round, coordinated reports tend to get someone suspended, even if there is nothing in any of the tweets that would violate the rules. She will now have to appeal to get her account back.

The hilarious thing is that I saw one activist tweet about: "Why does the NYT publish transphobic garbage by a writer whom Twitter banned??"

On the piece itself: It covers the issues we have often talked about here, but it's good that they were actually posted by the NYT.

This is absolutely shocking. If a civil liberties organisation can make no reference to women in a statement about abortion rights something has gone badly wrong.

Have a little read about Chase Strangio, the 'Deputy Director for Transgender Justice' with the American Civil Liberties Union:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_Strangio

elizamondegreen.substack.com/p/dear-chase-strangio

ykright.substack.com/p/passing-strange

The ACLU was infiltrated long ago, and is now nothing but a men's rights organisation. They were happy to quote Ruth Ginsberg, but not happy with what she had said, so felt free to change her words to remove any mention of women:

The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a [person’s] life, to [their] well-being and dignity. When the government controls that decision for [people], [they are] being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for [their] own choices.

• *They didn't even seem to understand why [people] would be annoyed by this.

An excellent article - the recent shakeup at the NYT is s-l-o-w-l-y bearing fruit, hopefully?

It does work, you just have to register (for free) to use it.

Is anyone on the thread still unable to access the text?

I've wondered in the past if people who are on the extremes of political positions may just be inclined to be extreme people in general. So it's not always that their extreme ideas are intrinsically connected, it's more their thought tends a certain way.

In my experience among more moderate people misogyny is not found more on the right or left. You might say that men on the right are more likely to be conservative or those on the left might be less inclined to see people take traditional sex roles. But neither seems to imply or prevent hatred or disdain for women and both seem to be compatible with respect and liking for women.

an excellent article. I tried to post a comment but they were closed.

Black, Indigenous and other people of color, the L.G.B.T.Q. community, immigrants, young people

The first three - yes lack of abortion will affect women in these classes more than others because their maternal mortality rate is way higher than white women. Can't understand why poor women weren't mentioned - they are the principle group who will endure the misery of a forced pregnancy. young people of means will be just hunky dory no matter where they live. The LGBTQ community - can't see why they will be most vulnerable just because of that classification.

I live in the US and even my TWAW daughters are incensed at the "pregnant people" shite that is going on. I think this could be another Lia Thomas inflection point. All women understand that someone with a gender confliction/transman/whatever might get pregnant and need an abortion. But come on - we all know who is going to die or suffer injury or have their lives changed irrevocably by this SC decision - the people they hate -- WOMEN.

oh and I heard a piece on NPR the other day -- just a couple of minutes - about "in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision the transgender community want to make sure people understand that they need access to healthcare too around abortion and this must be brought forward" fucks sake is there nothing that affects women that can be left for women.

I'm well sick of this trans hijacking of my life, my words, my experience, my risks, everything.

@TheBiologyStupid what is the recent shakeup at nyt?

That article was very good thanks OP. I'm glad they also dragged the U.K. into it in parts too.
Hopefully things are starting to turn for the better now. It takes so much strength to stand up against the bullies, thank goodness there are still people willing to do so.

I read most of this via Jess de Wahl's Instagram stories. As always with these things it was clear, factual and intelligent. That the writer has been hounded off Twitter already is appalling.

Nepeta - 23:51
On the piece itself: It covers the issues we have often talked about here, but it's good that they were actually posted by the NYT.

Although the general issues have all often been talked about here, before this article I had not quite realised the level of systemic, illogical, and virtually insane thinking working its way through the U.S.

It is odd how much of it has found it’s way here: you recognise it from the terminology. People are not embarrassed to have given up thinking for themselves even though they think of themselves as free, independent, thinking, non-dinosaurs.

“Intersectionality” and “privilege” are often key words. However thoughtful the original US academics might have been, by means of Chinese whispers, their ideas have become American cheap, sub-grade imports applied out of context and bandied around for credibility.

Which recent shake-up?

Is there a more recent one than the one that saw Bari Weiss recruited but from which she then had to resign?

"truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else."
…
There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly “inclusive” one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are.
If a person’s ideology is in keeping with the new orthodoxy, they and their work remain unscrutinized. Everyone else lives in fear of the digital thunderdome. Online venom is excused so long as it is directed at the proper targets.

www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter

@timeisnotaline @EmbarrassingHadrosaurus ,

In April, Joe Kahn was appointed as the NYT's new executive editor. According to The Guardian at the time:

'Two weeks ago the paper’s outgoing executive editor, Dean Baquet, issued “a reset” in the paper and reporters’ approach to Twitter, long held up as having undue influence over some aspects of the Times’s editorial approach'.

Also from The Guardian:

'This week, a Times insider told New York magazine: “There is a sense – and this makes a lot of people very happy – that [Kahn] is much less willing to indulge the complaining and the constant cries of activism and that he is somebody who has expressed little patience for the newsroom culture-war eruptions that have been such a distraction for us lately.” '

www.theguardian.com/media/2022/apr/24/cnn-new-york-times-us-media

A lot of truth on that Mangy. I used to know lots of ppl in the Revolutionary Communist Party in the 80s. When it collapsed they didn't just join less barmy left groups or Labour. Many of them are in the Conservative party. Or on the libertarian right. They run Spiked. One is in the House of Lords as a Brexit supporter etc.

This should work: www.nytimes.com/2022/07/03/opinion/the-far-right-and-far-left-agree-on-one-thing-women-dont-count.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhkT1UbACbSRdkhrxqAwuTPzfkyj2W7NimaSSoHxuIZRoaJ4QLJaKR_ItI8xTmWAdhHdbgpSbluzu5ZMAlyTAylpN6In5IZZi4ytISvGGMq2paHFZYJzQjXVEjrYuFu2O_4-BucLDm7BfDChnR3dF5vpMR6JQ6p3GgPxq2RDu8h2IJh3PgrA8gsRTsFYSLdrOCoX0slQKiOaB3c6wcyWOtLC3qEzZPHteV2IEgFAknGTXh__W859NpaXdsVN636JBQmE9Hs1fRTUic7adf0WOBiAtTchL5osrXSqBKTyMvQx_w-F6tcvr-soX-PtB0YUBjAyKYB-S1GMVfG&referringSource=articleShare