A locker room is not genocide
Man cannot grasp that women exist and have rights.
Unfortunately he’ll probably be an MP.
Note that he turns the question “What is your message to women asking for single sex services, sport, and care?” into “asking about trans people’s right to exist.” No it fucking isn’t. Telling men to get out of the women’s toilet or the women’s football is not telling them not to exist, it’s telling them not to invade, not to shove their way in, not to intrude, not to grab and take and steal and usurp. They can stop taking our stuff and still go right on existing!
It’s such a bullying move. “We want to keep our spaces and sports.” “Murderers! Slaughterers!! Genociders!!!” The guy isn’t 10 years old, either, he’s a grown man with an academic job.
When did we become so easily cowed by being called mean? Seriously. Was being a crybully always so effective, and I just didn’t notice? Or is it a more recent development?
Well actually being mean is bad and should be discouraged. Ironically, calling people “mean” for simply defending their own rights could be seen as…mean.
It’s certainly nothing new. A good chunk of the backlash to the New Atheists was along the lines of “you are rude to even ask this question, and it’s MEEEEAN to those nice believers you’re mocking.”
The problem is that we can’t just dismiss “how dare you ask that offensive question” reactions as bullying, because there truly are questions that are obnoxious, offensive, and not worthy of one’s time. A political candidate in a Western democracy in 2024 who’s asked something like “explain to me why women should be allowed to work outside the home” needn’t dignify the question with a thorough response, it’s ok to dismiss the question and disparage the questioner.
But it’s a reaction that has to be used sparingly and carefully. When you start dismissing as offensive questions that a nontrivial number of reasonable people have good faith doubts about, you’re getting into dicey territory. (For example, there are countries in the world today where, unfortunately, that question would merit a detailed, serious response, because you have to work with the culture you have, not the one you wish you did.)
True, true. The Chris Mooney Paradox.
The Chris Mooney Paradox sounds like a band name. Maybe they could open for “Wally Smith and the Polly-Os.”
Ah yes, when women’s rights to words/spaces/facilities/sports etc results in spontaneous non-existence of trans people: I believe JK Rowling calls that Tinkerbell Syndrome.