An entirely different universe

Gender Heretic went to a reproductive rights panel at a progressive conference early in Trump’s dictatorship.

Donald Trump had just been sworn in, Roe v Wade faced its greatest threat since 1973, and activist friends were writing how-to books about home abortion, but the panel discussion was taking place in an entirely different universe.

There were no new strategies for activism on display. Instead, I heard lectures on the importance of pronouns.

Which is odd, because what could be less important in that context than pronouns? Every woman in the country could say her pronouns are he/him, it wouldn’t do a thing to protect abortion rights.

“Inclusiveness” and “intersectionalism” and validation exercises were vital things we all needed to learn and practice and be mindful about in everything we did to advance the cause of abortion rights.

Huh?

The only alternative was right wing bigotry, I was told. Abortion rights could be saved, and the larger progressive agenda succeed, only if activists spoke the cant correctly, in ritual format.

“Gender neutral” language would now replace the staid, second wave language of our foremothers in the new rituals of social justice purity. This meant changing our words and what we meant when we said them.

And what will happen then? We will no longer be able to talk about women’s rights when we talk about abortion! Hooray!

Reminds me of this:

And then it struck me: nobody was talking about women.

The word had not been erased, exactly. It had simply changed its meaning. “Woman” was no longer a kind of biology that is subject to patriarchal oppression because of its role in human reproduction.

The entire premise of reproductive rights activism had become unmentionable once again.

I was learning that “woman” now included men who say they are women, and that I needed to remember that not all people with female bodies identified as women, because avoiding “triggers” is more important than clear communication with someone about their own medical care.

I feel very avant garde, having been “reminded” of all that way back in 2014.

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