If you say it six times it is true
Amnesty UK decides the important thing to talk about right now is gender identity.
That’s not how their how-to guide starts though. How does it start? With a pack of lies.
THE BASICS
Your anatomy doesn’t determine your gender identity and neither does the “gender binary”.
Scare quotes on “gender binary” but none on gender identity. What is “gender identity”? The fatuous idea that sex is not determined by the body but by thoughts in the head. Translated into non-nonsense that sentence would read “Your anatomy doesn’t determine your sex and neither does the fact that humans are sexually dimorphic”…which is far more recognizable as an absurdity. Your anatomy does determine your sex, and the fact that humans are sexually dimorphic is just that – a fact.
But Amnesty wants us to ignore all this in order to “be kind.” How about getting Amnesty to “be kind” to us by ceasing to tell us to lie about sex and anatomy?
What is the gender binary? The gender binary is the idea that there are only two genders – male and female.
Two sexes, and it’s not an idea, it’s material reality.
In reality, gender is much more like a spectrum – it isn’t set in stone and some people have fluid or fluctuating gender identities.
Notice the unmarked jump from gender to gender identities. It’s all so sneaky, this shit – they pretend gender is the same as sex, and then in the next breath they pretend gender is the same as gender identity. Thus endless bales of bullshit get stacked mile-high.
Sex is not a spectrum. Stone has nothing to do with it. People have “fluid or fluctuating” personalities, but their sex remains their sex.
And on and on it goes. We know all this, but it’s just so exasperating to see adults keep insisting on all this trump-level bullshit…especially during a pandemic. Are our last words going to be “men are not womennnnnnnnnnn”?
Even were sex a spectrum, that wouldn’t get them to their desired conclusion. Color is a spectrum, but that there is a spectrum of color between green and blue doesn’t entail that green and blue are not actual, objective categories determined by wavelengths of light rather than “color identity”.
It’s like dealing with first cause arguments for the existence of God. Even granting that there’s a first cause arguendo doesn’t get us to a personal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, intervening god.
Ha, yes, I’ve spilled thousands of words arguing that last one. Even granting a first cause why do you get to call it god and what on earth makes you think it blah blah blah. Millions of words, probably.
Also did you leave out a “not” between “blue” and “are” or am I hopelessly confused?
1. Most people are always and only this or that tight bundle of stereotyped behaviors and attitudes.
2. Some special people aren’t that.
1 is not true. 2, however, is false.
The transgender trans activist at Amnesty International apparently chose this particular day to post this because it’s the Trans Day of Visibility.
Translation: Your anatomy doesn’t determine whether you consider yourself “masculine” or “feminine,” which is how we talk about “gender,” the often restrictive ideas and assumptions about how men and women have different kinds of personalities.
In reality, personalities are a spectrum — they aren’t set in stone, they aren’t different for men and women, and “gender” is bullocks.
I read somewhere that the belief in “natural genders” is like the belief in “natural race.” Just as you can’t have racism without the second, you can’t have sexism or homophobia without the first.
I almost agree with this. For many people, including myself, it starts with the mistaken belief that trans issues are basically the same as gay/lez/bi issues. I certainly want to be kind to people who are discriminated against, and that also plays a role, but what a ‘trans ally’ is actually being asked to do is switch their brains off. Just learn some phrases by rote without thinking to deeply about them, and even if you do feel a reluctance to say some things that seem self-contradictory, just say them anyway to stay on the team.
Expressing any doubt, pointing out any of the inconsistencies, will cause you to be excommunicated and declared evil.
#1 #3
Yeah, it looks to me that the word ‘entail’ was perhaps supposed to be ‘refute’.
#5
:O omg they’re stampeding!
@Holms # 7:
Oh, dear. Close the gait.
Sorry, I meant to say, “doesn’t entail that they are not,” but my puppy peed on the carpet, so my attention got, um, broken.
Trans Day of Visibility always cracks me up, as there is absolutely no lack of visibility.
That’s what I thought. Fixed.
@5, not only are personalities not set in stone, even an individuals personality is not set in stone. My current personality is similar to the one I had in my 20’s, but is still markedly different in key ways. Compared to the personality I had in my childhood I am very different now, sharing probably only stubbornness, a deep sense of trying to be fair and being a natural introvert. Life gave the introvert in me a kicking and to survive I had to wrestle that into subservience.
@10, sure there is a lack of visibility. Gender critical women are still talking, taking up valuable time and space that could be used for trans visibility.
Naturally they would choose a day during Women’s History Month for Trans Day of Visibility. There might be someone out there actually thinking about women, and history, and the horrors that accrue to a lot of women in history, and the brave women who have done their part to make life better for women. Why would anyone want to think about women’s history when they can think about Trans Visibility? (I’ve never actually seen an invisible trans person, but then, if they were invisible, I wouldn’t see them, would I?)
Yes, you would, on Twitter.
(To be clear, I’m not saying I want trans people to be invisible. I’m just saying there seems to be no danger of that happening at all. None.)
Wait, stop, time out.
I want to hear more about Nullius’s puppy!
Amnesty International is also anti-Nordic model. Whenever I see the barbed-wire candle symbol, I think “Poor persecuted penises.”
Meet Remy
He’s a four month–old Catahoula leopard dog mix I picked up from the Humane Society last Monday. He immediately developed a respiratory infection, so that night was punctuated by multiple crate-cleanings of brown goo. The next morning was a vet visit for antibiotics.
And then, that very evening, my Doberman bloated, and I had to rush him to the emergency animal hospital to save his goofy life.
So taking care of my doggies has been a nearly non-stop project for the past week. Thankfully, sometimes they sleep.
Awww look at the blur that is Remy’s tail.
Nawww thanks Nullius, I’ve been missing dogs. I mean, my dog is taking his responsibility of lying on my lap at all times very seriously, but the occasional bonus dog doesn’t go amiss. Poor Dobie! The Cone of Shame is never a lot of fun.