Yes but if you switch the labels that changes everything
Once in awhile Twitter will show me completely random tweets, from people I don’t follow and don’t want to follow, so occasionally I see a wack tweet I didn’t even go looking for. Like:
https://twitter.com/alanalevinson/status/1149329288564314112
Oh yeah, it’s only conservatives who dispute the claim that men can get pregnant. Definitely.
So I followed the link.
The subhead:
Pregnancy is still believed to be something only a woman will experience, but trans men and non-binary people can and do get pregnant too
Language games. Stupid language games. Pregnancy isn’t believed to be a woman-only thing, it simply is a woman-only thing. The gotcha has no got. Yes of course trans men i.e. women who call themselves men can get pregnant too, because they are women. Yes of course “non-binary people” can get pregnant if they are women. “Trans men” and “non-binary people” are just labels, and they don’t change the underlying reality. The fact that people have come up with new labels such as “trans men” and “non-binary people” does not change mammalian biology.
The article is not an improvement on the subhead.
Like you, I find these dishonest language games very annoying. When these “conservatives” said “men can’t get pregnant,” it is trivially obvious that they meant “people who get pregnant aren’t men,” not “I don’t think trans men and non-binary females can get pregnant.” Alana couldn’t not know this, but rather than acknowledge the disagreement arising from how she and they define “man” and “woman,” she pretends that it must be because they are ignorant about trans healthcare.
She sort of acknowledges that it’s a disagreement by saying “conservatives” but she also pretends to think they just don’t realize that some women call themselves trans men and/or non-binary. Games; it’s all they’ve got.
You know the standard, too-cool teen stance: “I hate labels—don’t label me”?
I think some people, on the other hand, worship labels. Labels are all-powerful. They really believe (or just claim to really believe?) that it’s just labels all the way down. We’re attracted to people not because of who they are or what they are, but because of what label they’ve attached to themselves. Gender identity, not sex, is all-important. “Real” lesbians, “proper” lesbians, are potentially attracted to people with the “woman” label, for instance.
I can call myself a bicycle and ask you to oil my chain, but I don’t actually have a chain…
“Those fucks”.
Will there ever be a time when these. . youngish asses face consequences for their aggressive, spitting profanity?Is that just the new normal at work and play now?
Ben @ 3 – it’s a recurring theme with humans, getting way too excited about the magic of words. “And in the beginning was the Word” etc etc.
It is the new normal at work and play now… I do it and most of the people I know and work with do (no matter how their politics/morals skew).
I always think of this:
Imagine bringing someone (anyone) into a room full of all different kinds of people: men, women, different ages, different races, etc. There are a hundred people in there.
Now you say to the person you brought into the room, “Do you find any of these people attractive?”
Is there even one single person on earth who would answer by saying, “How should I know? I’d have to ask them all for their gender identities first”?
Speaking of label changing, I’m sure I’m not the only one that has seen it argued that if a person I am attracted to (a woman, as I am hetero) declares herself male, and I am still attracted to her, that makes me gay. Or a huge bigot.
Holms,
There’s also the reverse: where a person wants to transition to the other gender and is shocked, shocked, that their partner might not be sexually attracted to them anymore. Case in point: today’s Savage Love letter of the day. Short version: previously “genderqueer female” LW decides, after 17 years with her male hetero partner, that she really identifies as a man. Partner reacts with support, but warns that you know, as you transition to male, I may not still be sexually attracted to you and we’ll have to become a platonic loving co-parenting relationship. LW is outraged that the sexual characteristics of LW’s body, which are so important to LW that LW is willing to undergo dramatic and expensive medical therapies, is actually a matter of some relevance to LW’s sexual partner. I mean, the sense of entitlement and selfishness that goes with that, I can’t imagine.
The Lobster Special
The scene, an upscale RESTAURANT. ALAINA HYPE LEVITATE is shown to her seat. A WAITER fills her water glass and offers AHL a menu.
AHL: That’s okay, I know what I’m ordering. I’ll have the lobster special and a glass of the house white, please.
W: An excellent choice! Coming right up.
A few moments later, the WAITER returns with a glass of milk, and what looks very much like a plate of mashed potatos.
W. Here you go, the special with house white.
AHL. Where’s the lobster?
W. It’s right there on the plate.
AHL. That looks very much like a plate of mashed potatos.
W. This is what you ordered, the “Lobster Special.”
AHL. But that isn’t a lobster. I’ve had lobster before, and unless it’s buried under the potatos, there is no lobster on this plate. (Digging with fork). Nope, nada, zilch. This is NOT lobster.
W. I assure you it is. It’s our speciality; nobody else prepares them quite the way we do.
AHL. Well I’m sure that everyone else is using actual lobster.
W. Well, I don’t know about the recipes used in other establishments, but ours is renowned for its bold, transgressive presentation. Cruelty free, too.
AHL. Only if you ignore the disappointment of those expecting, you know, LOBSTER!
W. (In full flight now) Our chef has gone beyond the mere shape and appearance of “lobster.”.Some people are so hung up on extraneous, picayune details-
AHL. The complete absense of lobster is not a DETAIL when you’ve ordered “lobster.”
W. -which channels their expectations and narrows the realm of possibility-
AHL. I EXPECTED LOBSTER!
W. Some people figure that lobster can only be one way. They’re stereoyping. Others are put off by the “big bug on a plate ” look . They’re lobster-phobic. Our Chef goes beyond both those who have particular expectations and those who are fearful of that expectation.
AHL. Your so-called “lobster ” was dug out of the ground and probably hasn’t even seen so much as a photograph of an ocean.
W. Oh, so you’re a biological determinist!
AHL. I”M A LOBSTER SHY OF A MEAL!
Out from the kitchen comes the CHEF.
C. Is there a problem?
AHL. (Pointing to the plate) THIS? THIS IS NOT LOBSTER!
C Oh, but it is. It came out of a bin. The label on the bin says “Lobster.” So, this is lobster.
AHL. Lobsters don’t come in bins.
W. Ours do.
AHL. SHUT UP! (WAITER withdraws to kitchen, muttering).
C. Great big bin. Big Label. Big red letters. L-O-B-S-T-E-R.
AHL. (Trying to speak calmly, but it’s clearly a struggle) I don’t care how big the bin is. I don’t care how big the label, or the size and colour of its lettering.I don’t care what the label says, the label on the bin doesn’t change what’s in the bin!
C. Nothing’s changed, it’s always been lobster. It’s on the bin. Big label.
Everyone likes our lobster. It’s won awards!
AHL. (Pointing at plate) This is potato. P-O-T-A-T-O. Mashed potato. Not lobster, L-O-B-S-T-E-R. It doesn’t matter if you carve them into the shape of a lobster, or put them into a great big bin with a great big label, or call them by another name. They will ALWAYS be POTATOS. They will NEVER be LOBSTERS.
C. Okay, for the sake of argument, let’s call it “mock lobster.” Better than lobster really, because it’s vegan.
AHL. You can call it bloody “mock alligator,” or “mock bicycle” or “mock otter” or bloody “mock POLAND,” but it’s still mashed POTATO!
C. You’d be surprised at how many genes are common between potatos, lobsters, and otters. To a visitor from another planet, they’d all be close cousins.
AHL. I’M not from another planet and I can distinctly tell the differences between all those things, and I’m not seeing a lot of lobster in the general vicinity. There’s a lot less lobster than I was led to believe I was going to be encountering. I see no crustaceans of any kind whatsoever on this plate or on this table.
C. You didn’t read the menu, did you.
AHL. I knew I wanted lobster. It’s on the sign outside.
W. (coming back from the kitchen with LOBSTER bin, brandishing a scoop of what looks very much like mashed potatos). On the bin, too.
AHL. SHUT UP! (turning to CHEF) Lobster is lobster!
C. Well, obviously your concept of “lobster” is really restricting and narrow, when it’s really a broad spectrum. Quite fluid, really. Delicious, too. Go ahead, have a bite!
AHL. You can’t just redefine “lobster.” A lobster is a particular creature. How the HELL can it be a “fluid spectrum?”
C. How do you know it isn’t? You’d never seen a vegan mock lobster until today, had you? Our lobster is not confined to your confining label. It yearns to be FREE, to be what it’s always wanted and felt itself to be!
AHL. Well it’s all mock and no lobster.
C Don’t forget the vegan part.
AHL. A lobster is an animal and can’t be VEGAN!
C. But there’s some right in front of you on your plate! You’re just too attached to your narrow dictionary definition “lobsterism” to admit it!
AHL. AAAARRRGH! I’ve HAD ENOUGH. I’m LEAVING. (AHL stomps out, muttering.)
W. (indicating plate of mock vegan lobster) Did you want a doggy bag?
W. (Turning to CHEF) You know at this rate, we’re never going to use up those potatos.
C. Yeah, but isn’t this fun?
W. Sure! It’s a blast! It doesn’t help generate repeat customers, though. (Drinking from the glass of milk, then holding it up to the light, admiringly) Pity. She didn’t even get to the “house white.”
C Ha! Well at least it is actually white. (motions to the kitchen) C’mon It’s almost close. We’d better clean up.
WAITER and CHEF go back into the kitchen. The LOBSTER bin, which had been set down on the now vacated table, shudders and shakes as a huge LOBSTER starts to climb out of it…
Related, but somewhat off-topic: I’m really troubled by the fact that people who actually think critically about gender and the implications of trans ideology find themselves nominally aligned with heinous groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom (https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/06/19/girls-say-connecticuts-transgender-athlete-policy-violates-title-ix-file-federal-complaint). It’s obvious we’re opposing the same thing for wildly different reasons, but can be smeared by the association.
Butter my potatoes!
It’s been a long week alright. I’ll now go home, have a glass of wine, or possibly scotch, and try to be a bit more seemly. Just a bit mind you.
I remember being so disappointed when headlines screamed, “man gives birth…” Thomas Beatie was an utter letdown; why couldn’t everyone see that this was as miraculous as every female ever giving birth.
Nan, which is both miraculous and mundane at the same time.
#10 Screechy
Wow, the mind-blindness! ‘This is how things are from my perspective, what’s wrong with you that you don’t see it the same way??’
And then I had to laugh at “At the same time I may do some male-male sexual self-care on the side.” This person is demanding the sexual attraction of their partner despite heavily changing her body, and is even willing to get sexual attention on the side if necessary… but specifies that this sexual attention must come from a male. There’s no question in her mind that she is attracted to the male body and only the male body, but she can’t accept that her partner is warning her that he is attracted to the female body and only the female body.
Another datum in the soaring pile that trans theory is a haven for narcissism.
not Bruce, brilliant; absolutely brilliant!
Thanks, AoS! I was originally going to write a comment about “What would Levinson do if she went into a restaurant and …” when this scenario presented itself. With more than a little inspiration from “Dead Parrot'” “Cheese Shop,” ” Dirty Fork” and “How to Defend Yourself Against Fresh Fruit.”
Well I know what I have to do!
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