Activism in action
Here’s a video of the belligerent “protest” at (and of) the launch of the Vancouver Women’s Library the other day:
https://vimeo.com/202847662
The very tall loud person demands what the library organizers have done to support sex workers.
The person in the orange toque says the organizers have been very violent and harmful.
The very tall loud person tears down a poster, and several people cry “Get out!” The very tall loud person does not get out.
About 2:40 The person with bangs next to tall loud says “No SWERFs! No TERFs!” The very tall loud person immediately shouts “NO FUCKING TERFS in this FUCKING NEIGHBORHOOD.”
Note: if I had been there, I would have started to find the very tall loud person intimidating at this point.
At this point talk becomes general, and less shouty…until at 3:00 the very tall loud person says with loud emphasis “BECAUSE WE DON’T WANT YOU IN OUR FUCKING SPACES.”
Women from the library gather in front of the very tall loud person (who looms over them) and the very tall loud person shouts at them. At about 3:45 the very tall loud person bellows at them “NO YOU’RE ATTACKING THE WRONG FUCKING PEOPLE.”
The conversation goes on, mostly centered on the very tall loud person. Whenever tall loud person talks louder (which is often), TLP also flails an arm up and down for emphasis – and, perhaps, for intimidation. That may be unconscious, or it may not.
About 4:40 – again with the shouting and flailing the hand up and down, inches from the face of one of the library women. No, I don’t think that can be unconscious.
5:12 the very tall loud person shouts into a woman’s face: “I’M A WOMAN.”
Ok, the very tall loud person says at the beginning “as a trans person” and a bit later “you said I’m not a real woman.” At 5:12 the very tall loud person spells it out (by shouting into a woman’s face). But here’s the thing: the trans woman is carrying on exactly like an angry entitled bullying man with no scruples about bullying women. The trans woman is carrying on like Donald Trump. Isn’t it interesting how this particular kind of “activism” apparently functions as permission for large people with loud voices to do that? Isn’t it interesting that this “woman” has zero inhibitions about using typically male advantages of size and voice volume to bully and berate women?
5:25: tall loud person says “Your politics kills my friends.”
The organizers call the cops, and the “activists” file out; tall loud person’s parting shot is, “And you’re fucking cop sympathizers.”
Tall, loud “fucking-trans” person’s behaviour looks like the Canadian version of that of the NPD/BPD person who used to be in our local trans support group, until they went against protocol – and specific instructions to refrain – by standing up on a table (at a posh dinner for local LGBT groups to thank the council for all the support over the previous five years) in order to make an incoherent rant about sex-workers.
When they were thrown out instead of getting the group support they felt was rightfully theirs, they then tried to get the group secretary sacked from her government job, including calling a radio station to spread lies about her.
Nasty, nasty people.
Nasty and dangerous.
Why do they attack women so? Women are the least likely to employ the services of a sex worker, and are therefore the group least likely to pose a danger to them.
Is it because they know that sex ‘work’ is inherently unequal, and dangerous, and want to blame anyone other than their clients (because they want the money)?
I don’t know. I think it may be just because they share the general, ingrained, “natural” hatred of women that so many people seem to find it so very hard to get rid of.
The general, ingrained, “natural” hatred of women as in…
When you’re a kid, it’s easier to blame Mummy for sending you to school, than blame the bullies?
For ‘easier, read ‘safer’.
Mummy will still love you after you let off steam in a tantrum.
Funny how women can be told that they are not welcome in “our fucking spaces” by someone, but when women tell that someone that they are not welcome in theirs, suddenly it is “Your politics kills my friends.” So for the record:
Transwoman (i.e. biologically male) exclusionary = bad, violence, extermination etc.
Woman exclusionary = fine, sometimes perhaps even necessary.
Funny how a) cis privelage never – or at least, very rarely – seems to justify screaming at men, only women; and b) is used as justification for the claim that certain physically male people must never be excluded from female spaces. No haven for you.
And so often the only thing people have done that is “violent” or “harmful” is to question the vision of gender as being something inborn, inherent, and essential. Feminists are the group that question that, so feminists are the enemy, because we choose not to be put in a box by doing what we’re told a woman should do, but don’t have any desire to be the other sex. Our only desire is to see society accept that a woman is no one particular thing, but are just as rich and diverse in possibilities as men.
Speaking of violence and harm, I’m a little surprised that the tall transgender woman, when she was yelling right in the library woman’s face, didn’t receive a swift knee to her balls (and that’s something I never thought I’d write – a knee to her balls!). Impressive self-restraint; I doubt I’d have remained so passive, but then one thing certain to get my hackles rising is big people intimidating smaller people in such a threatening manner.
These people seem to be cut from the same cloth as the Trump creature — fanatically impervious to reason, trenchant but civil debate, and anything that even mildly challenges them.
Which suggests that trying to engage with them in any serious way is an utter waste of time and energy because they have decided in advance that they will refuse to change their views in any way, shape, or form no matter what.
Exactly like religionists of all stripes who tell pollsters that they will instantly and forever reject any scientific discovery they hear about that contradicts their cherished wish-fulfillment fantasies.
Meghan Murphy has more details:
http://www.feministcurrent.com/2017/02/07/vancouver-womens-library-opens-amid-anti-feminist-backlash/
Thank you for the link to the Meghan Murphy piece. One of the comments there got me to thinking: the vandals and their friends claim to be feminists, so does this mean that “feminism” has become so inclusive that people with vaginas that identify as women are no longer welcome?
Okay, I concede, you were right, I was wrong. It was stupid of me to compare this to 1970s lavender menace. I was shooting my mouth off before doing due diligence. I apologize.
Since yesterday, I’ve done due diligence, and come across that video, and I agree that fucker is misogynistic as fuck. I mean the dude doing all the shouting and intimidating. I don’t believe for one second he’s actually trans. Not only are there no signs of gender dysphoria, but according to Meghan Murphy at Feminist Current his name is Jason Riach and he’s well known in the area. He used to be a skater boy. Not that that’s evidence he isn’t trans, but skater culture has an element of “bro” culture, so it’s suggestive. The most damning thing is Murphy linked to an Instagram of his, and his handle, or ‘nym or whatever it’s called is “@bornfrommydadseed”. Does that ring any alarm bells with anyone? It does with me and I’m a bloke. It sounds like something Paul Elam or Elliot fucking Rodger would use. It sounds male supremacist. Oh, so you’re not from a womb, you’re from your dad’s seed? :-/
So yeah, I concede, and apologize for suggesting otherwise, that this protest was not misogynistic.
However… (you knew there was a “but” here somewhere)
I still think it’s unfair to call this “trans activism”. This isn’t trans activism, it’s some misogynist fucker hijacking trans activism as a weapon. Real trans activism is about:
1. Access to appropriate health care; counselling, hormones, SRS.
2. Access to public facilities; toilets specifically, so one can take a piss without being beaten up
3. Yes, opposing transphobia — the propagation of anti-trans myths in the same way gay people opposed myths about themselves 50 years ago (they’re mentally ill, it’s unnatural, they’re dangerous predators, etc… ).
The tall angry person might identify as female, but if I had been in that room I would have perceived a big angry man getting very aggressive. I’d have been wondering whether they would escalate from property damage to assault.
For the record, I don’t consistently perceive trans women as men. However, that person looked, sounded and acted exactly like a man.
Silentbob @ 11 – Ah well then we’re not as far apart as you’ve long been insinuating.
Yes, I know about the info Meghan posted – note the link to her post in my comment @ 9. I hadn’t seen that when I wrote the post though.
It’s interesting that you say you “don’t believe for one second he’s actually trans.” The trouble with that is that the current Correct meaning of trans is simply “identifying as” – if you say you’re trans, you are; if you say you’re a woman, you are. We’re not allowed to say “Hmm yes but you’re very large and loud and you’re certainly acting very much the way angry entitled men act toward women who fail to do what they’re told.” Didn’t you just a few days ago call Julie Bindel “cruel” for saying pretty much that, linking to her tweet about Danielle Muscato? There’s some tension in your thinking here.
I agree with you that this doesn’t represent all trans activism or trans activism per se. That’s why I put “activism” in scare quotes so often when I’m talking about this. I agree with you that it’s a wrong turn. Maybe where we disagree is that I think it represents way too much of visible online trans “activism” and you think it’s just a tiny minority?
Addendum: I do think it’s entirely possible and indeed likely that the visible online type is a tiny minority overall – I just think there’s a lot of it online. Social media megaphone and all that.
@Ophelia
A tiny minority of trans people, maybe. I agree that they might be a minority of trans people–though there seems to be a lot of bandwagoning going on and a lot of the people at least claiming to be trans buy into this stuff 100%–but it seems to me to be in the forefront of transactivism. Transactivism has become more than just the things Silentbob listed. It’s people getting Toronto’s Gender Identity Clinic closed and Ken Zucker fired; it’s people spreading lies about Michael Bailey and his children and trying to get him fired; it’s people like GAG, it’s the people who might have succeeded in intimidating the Working Class History Museum into cancelling Julie Bindel’s talk, had the pushback been less vigorous and the library people less determined. It’s propagating cultlike dogma and shouting at anyone–especially feminists and gender critical trans people–who questions it.
Sorry if ranty.
The other thing I was going to say and forgot, is that I came across a story about the library from before the opening:
So the “settler-colonialist TERF SWERF” stuff seems to be all made-up bullshit anyway.