cancel2 2022
Canceled
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This is written from a British perspective, the trans lobby in the UK are truly bat crazy. Graham Linehan appears to be a notable exception to the rule.
Why are women attacked by the trans lobby while we men get far less abuse?
Three years ago, on this page, I took the plunge. To be specific, I wrote a column on how women's access to exclusive private spaces was being eroded in the name of 'trans rights', and argued this was a threat to women's safety and dignity.
I say took the plunge, because I had been warned that I would be attacked mercilessly by those who regard as evil any distinction drawn between biological women and those who have changed their gender from male to female.
I also recall a conversation I had with Dr Kathleen Stock, who has been hounded out of her tenure as a distinguished philosopher at Sussex University because of her 'gender-critical' views (set out with remarkable clarity and force in her book Material Girls).
Dr Stock had warned me: 'You may well encounter very unpleasant consequences. If you do, please don't recant. I would rather you didn't write about this at all than speak out and then retract.'
Torrent
As it turned out, I encountered no abuse at all, just a lot of mail from female readers of this newspaper to the effect that they were delighted I was speaking up for them.
Yet I am sure that if I were a woman and had written such a column in the issue of April 8, 2019, I would indeed have been monstered on social media, especially Twitter.
Look at what has happened to J.K. Rowling, who has endured death threats and the foulest of personal abuse after she defended Maya Forstater.
This is the woman sacked from her job at the London office of a U.S. think-tank, the Center For Global Development, after expressing her belief — one might say, the fact — that it is not possible to change one's biological sex.
One reason Rowling had encountered such a torrent of personal abuse, after tweeting '#IStandWithMaya', is that she, most unlike me, is a writer of world renown and unparalleled success. When she speaks, the world listens.
But the fact she is a woman also has much to do with it. When I asked Kathleen Stock why that might be, she said: 'Men would prefer to attack women than other men because they risk less, and women would prefer to attack other women for the same reason.'
I suppose this is an evolution-based argument (men have always been more dangerous) and also reflects the fact that men have been more powerful within society.
Whatever the reasons, it is an observable fact that women, regardless of the issues under discussion, receive much more toxic abuse on social media, and generally, than men. We call this misogyny, and it is a real thing.
But I had another explanation, which is that women, such as Dr Stock and Maya Forstater, who say, 'You can't change biological sex' are telling those who are born male but feel viscerally that they are 'in the wrong body': sorry, but we won't let you into our club.
For many trans women (though by no means all), this is an appalling insult, and actively cruel. Whereas I, as a man, am entirely irrelevant to this and possess nothing that they want.
Last week, Ms Forstater and others launched a campaign — with the slogan, 'Respect my sex if you want my X.' This was tied to the forthcoming local elections.
These feminists are particularly angry at the way the Labour Party (perhaps their natural home, politically) finds it difficult to accept that — sorry to be crude — women can't have penises.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/...women-attacked-trans-lobby-men-far-abuse.html
This is written from a British perspective, the trans lobby in the UK are truly bat crazy. Graham Linehan appears to be a notable exception to the rule.
Why are women attacked by the trans lobby while we men get far less abuse?
Three years ago, on this page, I took the plunge. To be specific, I wrote a column on how women's access to exclusive private spaces was being eroded in the name of 'trans rights', and argued this was a threat to women's safety and dignity.
I say took the plunge, because I had been warned that I would be attacked mercilessly by those who regard as evil any distinction drawn between biological women and those who have changed their gender from male to female.
I also recall a conversation I had with Dr Kathleen Stock, who has been hounded out of her tenure as a distinguished philosopher at Sussex University because of her 'gender-critical' views (set out with remarkable clarity and force in her book Material Girls).
Dr Stock had warned me: 'You may well encounter very unpleasant consequences. If you do, please don't recant. I would rather you didn't write about this at all than speak out and then retract.'
Torrent
As it turned out, I encountered no abuse at all, just a lot of mail from female readers of this newspaper to the effect that they were delighted I was speaking up for them.
Yet I am sure that if I were a woman and had written such a column in the issue of April 8, 2019, I would indeed have been monstered on social media, especially Twitter.
Look at what has happened to J.K. Rowling, who has endured death threats and the foulest of personal abuse after she defended Maya Forstater.
This is the woman sacked from her job at the London office of a U.S. think-tank, the Center For Global Development, after expressing her belief — one might say, the fact — that it is not possible to change one's biological sex.
One reason Rowling had encountered such a torrent of personal abuse, after tweeting '#IStandWithMaya', is that she, most unlike me, is a writer of world renown and unparalleled success. When she speaks, the world listens.
But the fact she is a woman also has much to do with it. When I asked Kathleen Stock why that might be, she said: 'Men would prefer to attack women than other men because they risk less, and women would prefer to attack other women for the same reason.'
I suppose this is an evolution-based argument (men have always been more dangerous) and also reflects the fact that men have been more powerful within society.
Whatever the reasons, it is an observable fact that women, regardless of the issues under discussion, receive much more toxic abuse on social media, and generally, than men. We call this misogyny, and it is a real thing.
But I had another explanation, which is that women, such as Dr Stock and Maya Forstater, who say, 'You can't change biological sex' are telling those who are born male but feel viscerally that they are 'in the wrong body': sorry, but we won't let you into our club.
For many trans women (though by no means all), this is an appalling insult, and actively cruel. Whereas I, as a man, am entirely irrelevant to this and possess nothing that they want.
Last week, Ms Forstater and others launched a campaign — with the slogan, 'Respect my sex if you want my X.' This was tied to the forthcoming local elections.
These feminists are particularly angry at the way the Labour Party (perhaps their natural home, politically) finds it difficult to accept that — sorry to be crude — women can't have penises.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/...women-attacked-trans-lobby-men-far-abuse.html
