Reasoned?

The unpleasant Dawn formerly Don Ennis, managing editor of OutSports, posted a New Year’s message to TERFS, starting with admitting he was name-calling.

The subhead tells us what to think in advance.

Outsports Managing Editor Dawn Ennis offers this reasoned response to hateful messages targeting trans women athletes and all transgender people.

We’ll decide for ourselves whether it’s reasoned or not, thanks. Talk of “hateful messages” and “targeting” in the subhead is not a good start if you want us to think the response is “reasoned.”

Dear TERFs, anti-trans activists and transphobes:

Again: not a good start.

It’s a new year, and I’m using this occasion to address you directly.

I know, you’re not keen on being called “TERFs” or any of those other names, or “labels,” as you call them; Which is odd since you seem to have absolutely no problem labeling me and people like me “transgender,” “trans” and “biological male.”

Yes, that’s a really bad start. Cheerily agreeing that you’re calling us by pejoratives that we reject is not a good start. Adding “but you started it!” is not a good start. Treating “transgender,” “trans,” and “biological male” as all one category is not a good start.

For the record, the label I choose for myself is “woman.”

For what record? At any rate, choosing a label for oneself is one thing and trying to force the entire world to adopt your chosen label is very much another.

We get that you call yourself a woman. That doesn’t mean we have to agree that you are one. Donald Trump could call himself a Guatemalan child separated from her asylum-seeking mother by ICE, but that wouldn’t make it true. Labels do not make reality. Assertion is not a magical power to make something true. Just saying is just saying.

Anybody can choose any label, but there are plenty of situations in which doing so can lead to a quarrel or an arrest. Fraud is a crime, and it’s not unknown for people to perpetrate fraud by labeling themselves something they’re not. We can choose the label “doctor” but if we start taking patients without the requisite training, we can get ourselves in big trouble.

Then he says yes yes I’m transgender but you care about that more than I do.

So, as a gesture of goodwill, for the rest of this post, I will refrain from using words that might provoke further animosity. Provocation is not why I’m reaching out.

Oreally? Then why start with the provocation and then agree that it’s provocation?

Zero for rhetorical skill, here. Take the class again.

The rest of the letter is too boring to deal with.

11 Responses to “Reasoned?”