Is it too early for a post mortem?

[Appalonia]

So, now that America has categorically rejected transgender ideology, which I do think will affect the rest of the world, is now the time to ascertain HOW did so many institutions, including the Democratic and Labour Parties get so completely bamboozled by this ideology? Which is crazy, not based in material reality, disadvantages half of the population, has physically damaged thousands of young people, and that they didn't think that people would see through it?

I know a lot of people dislike Matt Walsh, but his documentary, What is a Woman, was jaw dropping! We must NEVER let this dangerous idiocy happen again ( and yes I know it's not over...)

It's no more bonkers than most religions. Many of them have gained far more power and caused far more harm than gender ideology ever did.

When yoy say 'healthcare' I imagine you mean abortion ( which even in the minds of pro choice people ( of which i am one) sounds very suspect. Very anti children, very anti natalist and very anti motherhood in certain respects, as if pregnnacy and motherhood is the worst thing that could ever happen to a woman). Besides most of the states that had implemented bans have now over-turned those bans in the last round of voting.

If the new administration prevents men from identifying into female spaces and sports.......i'd say that is very pro women....regardless of anything else you have to say about Trump. Democrats don't have the last say on everything to do with women's rights and dignity.

By focusing entirely on Trump, and not on the issues, and not on what the majority think and feel you are burying your head in the sand.

Women are not one dimensional beings. Lots of issues matter, and some are clearly more immediate and important than the theoretical right to access an abortion. How many abortions do women require each year, or even in their whole life-time?

The problem with making abortion front and centre as an issue is that it turned many people off and fed into the impression that most Democrat supporters were mainly middle class, college educated ,coastal women - the exact same women that support men in women's sports and changing rooms.

Not on immigrants... but on illegal migrants. Not exactly the same thing.

My first response was dismay for the women of America and a now certain increasing lack of autonomy over their own bodies.

Women's rights are not in any danger of being reinstated over in the states. Conversely, their rights in comparison with the rest of the western are being eroded practically to prehistoric proportions.

And yet again, women suffer.

'Hung up' on Trump? He's been elected the most powerful man in the West! Again!

I could throttle every alleged left-wing activist who gifted this issue to shore up the right-wing vote. Reminds me heavily of unilateral disarmament back in the 80s. Except that unilateral disarmament was at least based on an element of fact (nuclear weapons are terrifying and having a massive arms race is very dangerous). Not actual lies.

Anyone who thinks this election was a win for women is unhinged.

Y'all haven't even glanced at Project 2025 and it shows.

Tonight on Channel 4 News Krishnan interviewed an American, Albert Eisenburger, an Republican political strategist about Trumps controversial appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jnr to be in charge of health, given his conspiracy theories and anti/vaccine anti fluoride views to name but two extreme ideas.

A E said that he thought that in practice Kennedy would really just act as a counter- force to balance out the over medicalisation of the young that goes on in America. For an example he mentioned too many and too frequent vaccinations for children in the USA , including those for flu which their own immune systems can fight he said.

He then brought up as another example that we in the U.K. have put brakes on puberty blockers for children but that in America many children were being treated with them. Krishnan shut him down. He said he did not want to talk about that as it affected so few people. The man replied that it was tens of thousands, to which K retorted curtly ‘but of millions’ and again that he did not want to talk about it.

Of course not.

But Trump knows how to exploit his opponent's weak spot in order to win an election.

I don't think that's what people think.

I'd love there to be an election in which a win for women was possible. Imagine having a pro woman party to vote for. But it's not happening in the UK or USA in 2024.

Yes, way way way too early. Laughably early. See you in a decade

This is my concern. I don't want gender critical feminism to be associated with Trump.

Direct your ire towards the supposedly smart people who would be better at running the country but for some reason decided that demonising everyone who doesn't believe humans can change sex was a good idea.

Trump didn't win the election, the Democrats lost it.

Put it this way, in 2024 I would far rather leave my child alone in the company of a Catholic priest than with someone who works for Stonewall or Mermaids.

Anyone thinking a Democratic win would have been better for women (and children) is brain dead.

Why's that then?

It seems to me that women in the US have put the safety and good education of their children before any other considerations (even all the sly word fudges on abortion) - something that leaves men and democrats very confused!
Kamela building an army of AGP prisoners using tax payers money didn't go down too well either.
If you listen to any of her speeches, they are meaningless - word salad with nice, cosy warm dressing to cover the horrors of what she is actually supporting (experimentation on children).
What still surprises me is that this war on woman, which is terrorism, has spread around the world and snuck into the UK and is yet undetected by MI5 and MI6!

Yes it is too early for a post mortem. The fight is not over yet, not by a long way.

But as for how this ideology came to be so successful - I think it was a 'perfect storm' of several factors.
A key factor was Stonewall. After gay marriage was legalised in most of the Western democracies, they should have turned their attention to the rest of the world.
Instead they decided to back the 'trans' idea. Because they had vast amounts of money and needed to do something with it.
As soon as the name Stonewall got attached to this ideology, and the T became lumped in with the LGB, every mainstream ill-informed person, i.e. most of the population, assumed it must be the right thing to do to support the T.
This was particularly apparent with young women, socialised to 'be nice' in all circumstances, and terrified of being thought of as prejudiced.
The Stonewall champions scheme was a money spinner for them, and instrumental in getting the ideology into many big institutions, with ignorant mangers seeing the name Stonewall and assuming this could only be good for their image.

Another factor was misogyny. Once the 'trans rights' bandwagon began to roll, every woman-hating male saw an opportunity. It was a great excuse to verbally abuse women, invade their spaces, and even get violent against women - which is what they love doing.

A third factor was the demise of economic class-based politics on the left, particularly in America. If the professional political "left" is full of wealthy middle class people who don't like high taxes, what is there to distinguish them from the right? the answer is "woke" identity politics. They grabbed it with both hands and quietly dropped all that old fashioned stuff about wealth re-distribution.

How to unpick it all?
The third factor has taken a big blow with the defeat of the Democrats in the US, but Labour are still here in Britain and it is not certain what path they will take.

Stonewall was in a mess (not sure what is going on with them now?), and luckily many organisations are cutting costs, so paying Stonewall for a 'badge' is an easy thing to cut. However, a lot of damage has been done and a lot of people have careers at stake in training and diversity initiatives.

And of course the misogynistic men will be with us to the end of time.

We just have to keep fighting back.

A lot has been driven by US gender doctors and gender pharmaceuticals. It is all big business.

I don't think anyone is implying it is a" win for women", in the same way that a Democrat administration would not be a "win for women". Women are not a monolith, and they have a wide variety of interest and concern. When it comes down to it, people vote on bread and butter issues and on issues of culture more than they are vote for candidates. This U.S election, though, became all about the candidates.

The Democrats need to take a look at themselves, though I'm not sure that they will. People didn't want to buy what they were selling.

Because the Democrats appear on one hand to talk about 'women's rights', and on the other hand talk about permitting male people to access female spaces, services and sports. In doing this they deny even understanding what a woman is...and by denying that they not only insult women ( by parading and lauding Dylan Mulvaney, for example), but they also undermine and compromise the dignity of women and girls - by championing males in their sporting categories, and by ignoring women's needs for dignity and privacy in public facilities.

Many women are also mothers, with families.....and they care about them.

The Democrat position on women It is totally schizophrenic....and people can see that.

Maybe start thinking in terms of issues, then, rather than in terms of group identities and 'alignments' - whereby you are supposed to support everything one party does, and nothing the other party does.

A lot has been driven by US gender doctors and gender pharmaceuticals. It is all big business.

Despite the gains made in the UK by feminists campaigning on this, I sometimes feel as if the issue is out of our hands. In the US, you have wealthy and powerful people and organisations pushing the trans agenda. On the other hand, you also have wealthy and powerful people (Musk, Trump etc) clamping down on the trans agenda. At this point, we are bystanders. We don't know who's going to win, and almost nothing we say or do will influence the outcome.

It's not how I think about it, it's how other people think of it.

I don't want, for example, the Labour party saying that gender critical beliefs are far right because look, Trump is clamping down on gender ideology.