The man making the threat doesn’t know
Joan Smith on Humza Yousaf and misogyny and law:
Scotland’s First Minister, Humza Yousaf, let the cat out of the bag when he revealed yesterday the real intention behind the SNP’s proposal to bring in a standalone law on misogyny.
Yousaf claims that men can be victims of misogyny — and that they’re as or more likely to be targets than women. “Trans women will be protected as well, as they will often be the ones who suffer threats of rape or threats of disfigurement for example,” he said, offering no evidence for the assertion.
And also, of course, offering no reason to believe that men can be women.
Yousaf doubled down, repeating one of the most cherished illusions of trans-identified males. “When a trans woman is walking down the street and a threat of rape is made against them, the man making the threat doesn’t know if they are a trans woman or a cis woman,” he claimed.
Yeah right.
Very few men who have gone through male puberty are able to “pass” as women, a fact revealed by constant complaints from trans women about being “misgendered”. One of the first things we notice about another human being is their sex, and understandably so — because men are responsible for the vast majority of violence against women.
Now Scotland’s most powerful politician is telling us that trans women are indistinguishable from biological women. Not just that: he is arguing that a law against misogyny is needed to protect the very people who categorically cannot experience it.
And who categorically can express it, act on it, big it up.
It’s a backdoor way of getting the courts to recognise “gender identity”, creating another opportunity for men to be addressed as women in the criminal justice system. Misogyny is real and it affects every woman, but the law should not be misused to affirm men’s “inner feelings”. Do we really want to risk a ludicrous situation where a gender-critical woman finds herself in court, accused of misogyny by a man who claims to be a woman?
We don’t, but they do.
The only way to make his claim even close to true – even then it falls very short of the mark – is if you count “misgendering” as being at least as serious as rape and murder. The problem is, trans do. They think it’s actually worse.
I suspect even if you count calling a TiM a man, the number of TiMs suffering “violence” is still far lower than women who suffer day to day harassment and misogyny.
I think it’s possible to make an argument that isn’t prima facie crazy that men can be victims of misogyny. You’d start with the link between misogyny and homophobia, arguing that the latter is primarily a product of the former. From this, you’d move to patriarchal norms that encourage hatred and abuse of boys and men who exhibit any sort of feminine trait, interest, or behavior. On this view, boys and men could experience misogyny in ways that are simultaneously direct and indirect. Direct in that the abuse could be of an immediate physical nature. Indirect in that the root motivation is systemically constructed on the denigration of something they are not and can never be: female.
Of course, none of that is what TiMs and Yousaf are talking about. In fact, the sort of direct misogyny experienced by males on this view is incompatible with the TiM fantasy. To punish a male for transgressing norms for the sexes requires recognizing the male as such. The idea that they’re not mistaken as female is unacceptable. Indirect experience of misogyny is right out, as it necessarily entails they aren’t women. For them, it’s all or nothing. The olive branch I devised specifically to allow males to experience misogyny isn’t good enough. Only total capitulation will suffice.
I’m quite tired of being a good, little philosopher charitably interpreting everything my interlocutors put forth. At some point, the other side has to reciprocate. Instead, every charitable concession just becomes the new starting point from which a new concession is made. It’s not a negotiation toward a middle ground, but instead a fish being reeled inexorably to shore. The fishing metaphor recalls one of Grimm’s fairly tales, The Fisherman and His Wife. TRAs are apparently illiterate and never learned that there’s a limit when exacting wishes from fishes.
Really? When people post gender critical arguments on twitter, the TRAs sure know their sex. The women get a vast tide of rape and murder threats, and the men don’t.