They have autonomy over who they are
The complete replacement of thought by wild assertions keeps surprising me, at least when it’s done by people who identify as Dr.
People “have autonomy over who they are” declares the doctor. Really? Do we? Do we have the autonomy to be absolutely anything we can put into words? Can we be dinosaurs, planets, the universe? Can we be a tooth, a bulb, a pebble, a cell, an atom?
The reality is there are very narrow limits on what we can be. We can grow and change and learn, certainly, we can improve or deteriorate, we can change ourselves to a considerable extent, but we can’t be just anything, and we especially can’t be just anything simply by saying so. We can’t be surgeons or engineers or lawyers simply by saying so; we have to put in the years of training first. We can’t be snakes or oceans or blizzards even with training. We can’t be the sex we weren’t born even with training.
If someone says something that flies in the face of their supposed training, do they have to refrain from using the title that training was originally put towards?
Asking for a “doctor” friend.
The phrase “non-binary trans girl” means any assessment of whether that person is a woman is wrong. “No, I’m non-binary” or “No, I’m a girl” or “Yes, I’m a woman” are all expected responses to “Are you a woman?”.
I suppose this man identifies as under the age of 18 as well, given the “girl” rather than “woman” part.
This valorization of self-autonomy and people having the RIGHT to choose “who they are” is usually accompanied by the explicit or implicit modifier “… because it’s not for us to say that they’re wrong.” It’s not our place.
In fact, it’s not for anyone to say anyone else is wrong for quite a while now. I encountered it in the 90’s as an atheist. Many people found the idea of atheists writing books against religious belief horrifying not because God existed, but because it was interfering with the sacred Right to Believe Whatever We Want. It wasn’t just religious belief. High School teachers started reporting difficulties having discussions about ethics and morals in senior civics/social studies classes. The teens were very, very reluctant to say that other people who held a firm personal belief were wrong. Any other people. Nazis? Who are we to judge? No right; no wrong; just different.
Though of course you’re WRONG if you disagree with that.
I could be wro — mistaken, but I’m guessing that when people who should know better blithely insist that people can choose to be things which defy actual facts, they’re ignoring those facts out of a primal fear of being the kind of person who tells other people they’re wrong.
So Victoria, did you have to meet the requirements of an external validating organisation to be able to use the honorific Dr, or did you just decide that you were one? If it’s ok for a bloke to decide that he’s a girl (a non-binary girl whatever that is), why can’t people just ‘decide’ that they have a doctorate?
So if I identify as Dr. Victoria Fielding, will she give me the keys to her car?
Well WaM, as Victoria has clearly said, you have autonomy over who you are, and it’s not her place to tell you who you are not. So clearly you have a right to your own car!
So, “autonomy” over who you are is like everything is a choice? So they “chose” to be trans? Just like Victoria autonomously decided to be a woman? And other people choose to be hetero or homosexual? Or Black? Or White? Or human?
It’s like with Judith Butler, or Julia Serrano, or the whole Gender Scholasticism; puncture the verbiage and it turns out the balloon was filled with shit.
Dr Victoria Fielding should read David Hume.
Her PhD is in marketing. Explains a lot.
So literally a PhD you can identify your way into getting. Figures.
Goebbels and Stalin would have had degrees in marketing had they offered such ridiculous things back then.
I have a respect for marketing. I don’t like what it is, essentially manipulation, but I don’t doubt there’s a lot to the field, and I believe people with doctorates from reputable business schools have rightfully earned them.
I think a degree in how to identify and resist marketing would be more valuable. Marketers, advertisers, solicitors, panhandlers, grifters, propagandists, evangelists, gurus…
These are the things I can do without.
There are such degrees, but of course marketers vastly outnumber their critics.
Rob @6,
But what if the car identifies as a donkey? I’d be out of my element then.
https://youtu.be/2xltOxZTd1s
As for the Doctor thing, Ask Dr. Fielding. She knows more than you do!
Sackbut, I don’t have any respect for marketing. There isn’t as much too it as people think. It’s more like televangelism than it is like psychology, but a lot of people have been conned. I’ve been to a number of marketing classes in various jobs, and all it does is depress me. Techniques for manipulation aren’t as hard to learn and incorporate as people think they are.
In Megan Phelps-Roper’s episode 6 of the JK Rowling Witch Trials podcast yesterday, she interviewed two trans ID people. One was a man who ID’s as a woman, and the other was a young woman who has “transitioned” as a late teen to affirm as a man. In both cases they talked about how they loved Rowling but were incredibly hurt by the things she has written and said. The man minimized the experience of detransitioners as being just a few poor unfortunate souls, as if they are collateral damage. They played up the risk of suicide, etc, and while I do have empathy for people who hate the role that their sex plays in gender, and think that there probably are cases of genuine gender dysphoria, neither of them would acknowledge the idea that there are men who will play around with the ambiguous nature of gender to gain access to women’s private spaces. it was considered a “moral panic,” secondary to their experience and the experiences of self-hate of all the little trans kids around the world who must have medical intervention to stay alive.
I bring it up in this thread, because with the forced “no debate” nature of trans activism, the general public does not understand the problem with the libertarian idea of “they are who they say they are.” We just have to accept that most people are ignorant about gender ID, affirmation only care, and do not believe that males would pretend to be trans (or enby) just to get access to women without safeguards. The purpose of a bathroom selfie is not validation, it is an expression of power that men have over women. It means “you can’t escape.”
Fielding will never understand that. She’s naive and ignorant on the subject, and with the power of calling bigotry that she has been granted by trans activists, she will not have to listen to anyone who can help her understand.
★If, as she claims, a doctor of marketing can identify as someone who gets to tell us that anyone can be whoever they claim to be;
★And if that claim is materially impossible (such as a grown man claiming to be a girl, or a doctor of marketing being an expert in what constitutes reality);
★Then, according to her, everyone has to believe the claim and behave according to the wishes of the claimant.
In that case, I declare that I am pregnant and demand that she is going to be my obstetrician. If she refuses, then she’s a bigot; and I’m going to sue her in any case if she fails to present me with a healthy baby at the end of nine months.
ikn @16 I may have related this story before, but I had a group of God botherers show up at my door one day, so I went out and pointed to the ‘no soliciting’ sign on my porch railing. They said “we’re not selling anything,” to which I replied “But you are, you’re trying to sell me God.” They they started to argue so I added “You’re trying to sell me the idea of God, and I’m not interested.” They left quietly, looking a little confused, but I don’t think they ever had it presented that way before. I’ve seen them in the neighborhood since, and even waved to them, but they don’t walk up my driveway anymore. If I want God, I know where to find her.
twiliter, the God botherers apparently put the word out in my neighborhood; no one has come to my door since the day I offered to take their Bible if I could give them an atheist book.
Good one. I might have to borrow that next time, I can part with a couple old books if necessary. :)
Somewhat related: when I was living in Madrid, a couple of Mormon missionaries came to our door and tried to tell me in very bad Spanish the good news about Mormonism. I took pity on them and told them I was American. They were so pleased to meet a fellow Yank that they completely forgot their mission and instead started telling me how “rad” Salt Lake City is.
Ha! That’s pretty funny.