Judith Butler tells lesbian she should stay home if she doesn't want to see penises in female-only spaces

[IwantToRetire]

A non-binary gender theorist told a lesbian activist that she should stay at home if she doesn't want to see a penis in a female-only space.

Judith Butler made the remarks after being questioned over their views during an event on Thursday in San Francisco.

Local activist Amanda Kovattana questioned the 68-year-old over whether trans women who still have penises should be admitted to female only spaces.

Kovattana asked Butler: 'If gender is to liberate us, why can't I as a lesbian, have a d*-free space? A space that is for women only, without penises?'

Butler quickly fired back at Kovattana, saying: 'I think you can do that in your home', which was welcomed with applause from the audience.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13531045/non-binary-author-lesbian-female-spaces.html

"Applause from the audience" ??!!

Can also be read at https://archive.ph/RjDvS

WomensReel twiX thread in article at https://x.com/WomenAreReals/status/1801625752393421243

I think that even if those of us on FWR, and no doubt an even larger number of women think she is nonsensical, for them she is the useful idiot they can quote about how those of us who believe in sex based rights are "out of touch", transphobes, because they have made her far more important than she actually is.

So although starting a thread like this help us laugh at the absurdity of it all, the reality is that (apart from right wing papers) she will now confirm to them that lesbians can have a penis.

ie in much the same was as I said about the not very feminist set of demands from the "Women's Sector" is now going to be used by every TWAW politician to say that the issue of sex based rights isn't important, because groups funded to provide support to women haven't listed it as an issue.

We need to know this, because otherwise being on FWR will just be an echo chamber, and some then seem surprised that every party bar 1 (2?) aren't concerned about clarifying sex in the EA, etc..

What? You mean they have been listening to women?

I wonder how many transwomen JB has had sex with over the years ? If it is 1 or more - by her own choice - then she isn't a lesbian

that's an image that will take some time and effort to eradicate from my mind. Please dont do that again.

😂 😂 😂

See this Twitter/X thread for an alleged answer to this question. (“Alleged” because this is a massive allegation, and I’m not aware of any public comments by students to this effect... Other academics may remember Butler’s intervention when Avital Ronell was accused of sexual harassment of a student. Butler essentially said that a scholar of Ronell’s standing shouldn’t lose her job over a sexual harassment claim because of the quality of her academic work - i.e. Butler was arguing that if one is a senior/famous enough academic, then accusations of sexual harassment shouldn’t have professional consequences. Butler ended up having to make a public retraction of that - although the retraction letter is interesting in itself as it has no apology and little if any contrition.)

Ah, 'gender' liberates men by shoving women with boundaries back into their homes, is that JBs take home message?

Idiot.

Thank god for small mercies.

Yes!

A non-binary gender theorist told a lesbian activist that she should stay at home if she doesn't want to see a penis in a female-only space.

Transgenderism is so transparently male supremacist, so openly misogynistic, that I wonder how any woman can accept it.

This is genius!

Someone up thread refered to JB's comments about Hamas.

Just thought if anyone wanted to know more about it this is an opinion piece from Haaretz an Israeli paper from a few months ago.

The Global Left Needs to Renounce Judith Butler
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-03-21/ty-article/.premium/the-global-left-needs-to-renounce-judith-butler/0000018e-61e7-d507-a1cf-63f7bc380000
Can also be read here https://archive.ph/LObtB

I hope this wont derail the thread into one about Hamas / Israel, but if someone thinks important happy for your to take the links to this article to create a thread to discuss.

From the OP its just so depressing that someone who is given plaudits all over the place (a quick google finds that in the past week she has had a pod cast, a new course at a US college is to start just focusing on her writing, Red Pepper has written a review of her book saying she is too kind to tranphobes) it baffling.

That doesn't sound intimidating at all! 🙄 I'm glad the police were sensible for once!

@IwantToRetire There was a thread about her comments at the time. I could not believe it. That and her comments about the rape at the Nova festival makes me wonder why she hates women who are victims of male violence so much.

why she hates women who are victims of male violence

This is an unsophisticated not thought through feeling I have about her (and some other women).

She herself doesn't think she is like other women because she has totally swallowed the gender stereotype about women. Weak, emotional, not able to think independently, and being a lesbian for her is bit like the weird idea of lesbianism as set out in the Well of Loneliness. That because she thinks like a man (ie is clever) than as a "man" she can love other women without actually accepting she is a woman (so not really a lesbian which means female). And in this male perspective of the world, of course men flashing penises or acting violently towards women is just something that by now women should expect as inevitable. Men will be men on an animal level. But at the same time have highfalutin ideas and concepts about liberation and internationalism and ...

Meanwhile in her intellectual ivory tower she doesn't have to engage with the messy business of women's trauma, and the impact of real life events, she can just glide over them whilst developping theories that in reality no one is living or aspiring to live.

On one level she would do better to be writing scripts for scifi movies as it is all just her fantasy. Not trying to impose her mind games on other people.

"Judith Butler tells lesbian she should stay home if she doesn't want to see penises in female-only spaces"

And what about rape survivors? Does she think they should just stayat home if they dont want to see a penis in ma female only safe space?

It could just be that she's not really capable of empathy.

I have no memory of what this was about