How women have been hounded throughout the gender wars - Victoria Smith

[UtopiaPlanitia]

This is an excellent article discussing Jenny Lindsay’s new book.

https://thecritic.co.uk/nice-people-need-to-read-this-book/

“It is a common feature of many women’s houndings,” writes Lindsay, “to see statements or acts they believe to be fairly neutral or, if definitely ‘gender critical’, well-expressed statements or reasonable opinion, be reframed as less benign or even malicious”.

Like so many others, I have lost count of the number of conversations I have had with people who declare themselves “in the middle” — meaning, they agree with some or all of the core beliefs Lindsay sets out, but have convinced themselves that “TERFs” must believe something different, otherwise no one would treat them so badly. Or else they agree with the beliefs, but justify their silence on the basis that they are kinder and more empathetic than the women who dare to express them out loud (the kindness and empathy tend to be somewhat selective). Or else they find it inconceivable that anyone would make the kind of statements trans activists make if they were not in some sense true. Scratch the surface, though, and what it often comes down to is a combination of ignorance and fear.

For years, cowardly politicians have been telling feminists that what the gender wars needs is “more light, less heat” — a response that ignores the sheer quantity of sober, reasoned discourse that has already been provided, instead suggesting that everyone just needs to calm down.'

Thank you for posting this. I wanted to read Lindsay’s book anyway, particularly given the context of what she has gone through. You just wonder, as Smith (herself such a calm and clearly expressive writer) suggests - how much more clear and rationale discourse do women have to partake in before people actually start listening?

You’re very welcome @hholiday

I have Lindsay’s book on my reading list as well - there’s been so much excellent feminist work published in recent years that I have a pile of books to get through. And as you say, women are just politely and calmly stating that ‘humans can’t change sex so please stop allocating our rights/spaces to men’ but they are routinely being calumnied with accusations of being irrational and nasty.

Saying 'no' to men is classed as being unacceptably unkind.

That is good, thank you. I'll buy the book.

This quote from Butler stood out:

"This is not the same as simply having a different viewpoint and a reasonable disagreement, since the TERF stance is nullifying the claims that trans people make about their lives, their bodies and their very existence.”"

Because I honestly, genuinely do not understand why genderists think the logic above is valid but this :

"This is not the same as simply having a different viewpoint and a reasonable disagreement, since the genderist stance is nullifying the claims that women make about their lives, their bodies and their very existence.”

Is not.

I'm sorry to say, I genuinely think it's a kind of intellectual and cultural snobbery, an underlying assumption that a small group making disruptive claims against what most people believe must be right because most people are dumb, so saying the opposite thing to most people must be smart.

Likewise, anyone saying "no, what everyone thought was true is actually what is true" must be wrong because most people are dumb so thinking the same as moat people means you are dumb.