I’ve chuntered about progress as a myth for years now. Mostly – it has to be said – out of a contrarian instinct not to get caught up in the mainstream notion of things are always getting better – when clearly – some things certainly are not. But it’s not something I’ve really given a lot of thought to or thought deeply about. That needs to change.
What got me started was this very short video by YouTuber @PatienceXina that came via my Twitter feed yesterday.
Watch: and tell me what you think:
That was interesting to hear. How progressivism has gone so far that it’s regressing itself.
Full video:https://t.co/xGv3XCSIya pic.twitter.com/p4tcME99cQ
— DutchLGB 🏳️🌈 (@DutchLGB) April 28, 2023
That was interesting to hear. How progressivism has gone so far that it's regressing itself.
Full video:https://t.co/xGv3XCSIya pic.twitter.com/p4tcME99cQ
— DutchLGB 🏳️🌈 (@DutchLGB) April 28, 2023
It’s been clear from the start that the “gender identity” movement is not at all progressive in any previously accepted understanding of that word. Like a deadly contagion escaped from a lab, it has swept so much of what was formerly considered progressive to the side. Women’s rights for example. The gains of the LGB community, and protocols for the protection of children.
Gender identity ideology is rooted in stereotypes about the sexes and about what it means to be male or female. It has insinuated itself into the discourse and embedded itself in DEI/EDI work as a so-called modern and progressive way to think about ourselves. It has planted the dangerous idea that children can be born in the wrong body that can lead them to believe that it is possible to change sex (No one ever has. Whatever we do to ourselves, we remain male or female. One or the other. Change is not possible.)
Gender identity is not the new frontier for civil rights It claims to be about social justice. The opposite is true. It is more than merely regressive it is actively dangerous across a wide range of issues including medicine and the collection of meaningful data to monitor social and economic progress and sex equity.
This is especially so for easily influenced children and young people who are led into thinking that if they dress a certain way or play with certain toys they might actually be the opposite sex. You’re a boy who likes pink? Perhaps you’re a girl. Girl with short hair? Maybe you’re really a boy. And the kids at most risk are those with a sense of emotional alienation from their sexed bodies many of whom – if allowed to grow up – would become gay or lesbian. Many are autistic, come from troubled and unsupportive homes, or suffer from a range of emotional issues. These patterns have been confirmed by research.
Not to mention that it is shot through with blatant homophobia and deep disrespect for women.
What is Progress
So what is progress beyond the measures of economic and material well-being? What are the indicators of progress aside from the usual indicators of material comfort, life expectancy, infant mortality etc?
When we turn to racial and sexual equity we begin to see where we really need to measure and see progress. The most significant economic and social equity divide in the world is that between the sexes. Women are universally discriminated against, afforded fewer privileges, and are at greater risk of violence and poverty across the world. In countries that have seen improvement in the last century or so, that progress is being steadily eroded and rolled back by gender identity ideology.
Gender identity ideology is one of the most aggressively regressive forces in history.
So here are some rather random statements and questions I’m pondering and asking. Some are weighty and some merely thought-tickling. (You can decide which is which!)
- Why do we use the term ‘sex reassignment surgery” (when sex can’t be changed) but the phrase “race reassignment surgery’ would be considered ridiculous?
- Do I lose anything if I excise the word “gender” from my vocabulary except when referring to ideology or linguistics?
- Why was Rachel Dolezal mocked for saying she is black while Eddie Izzard is considered stunning and brave when he says he’s a woman?
- Is it possible to be born into the wrong race?
- Why are cultural appropriation and blackface shunned while sexual appropriation and womanface are admired and applauded?
- Why are all our liberal and left politicians – who mock the right for climate science denial – in such deep science denial when it comes to men competing in women’s sports?
- What are all the ways that gender ideology negatively affects transexuals, LGB people, women, and children?
- Why would we never say something like: “I want to have gender with you?”
- Why is it acceptable to be transexual but not acceptable to be transracial?
- What are the conflicts of rights created by gender ideology and what must we do to roll back and reverse the damage done in ways that ensure rights for all?
- How do we explain the paradox of tolerance and why we should not tolerate the intolerance of gender ideologues?
- Given that differences between the sexes -morphological, physiological, and hormonal- have a much deeper biological basis than racial differences, why is transsexual acceptable but transracial is not?
- In what areas might we be said to be making progress in society and where are we not? What does it look like and how can we promote it?
- When might progress for one group to the detriment of another group be considered progress?
- The difference between change and progress. Change is inevitable but how do we judge whether we are making progress?
- The Paradox of Tolerance: If we are tolerant of everything then it is inevitable that eventually the intolerant will seize control and forcibly impose its intolerance on everyone else. That is already happening with gender identity ideology. What should we do about it?
And – just because it popped up this morning: Please listen to this young woman speaking at a school board meeting;
“Why are we affirming the mental confusion of this boy and putting the safety of women in jeopardy by allowing mentally confused men to use women’s spaces?”
👑 ❤️ 👑 A young women bravely speaks out at the Riverside Unified District Board Meeting on 4/27/2023
A boy has been… pic.twitter.com/6XHUVMZoNP
— WomenAreReal (@WomenAreReals) April 28, 2023
I won’t join in with the discussion since it makes my head explode after thinking we had made it clear in the 1960’s that no one had to conform to any stereotyping. Meanwhile the focus on “identity” has managed here to pit people against each other in a race to claim the status of the most marginalized. What happened to agreeing that we have humanity in common?
It IS mind-blowingly crazy!
The actual meaning of progress is movement, it can produce improvements or regression; an ambiguous mixture of technique and ideology, however, all political movements will interpret the term to suit their interest and culture will modify its meaning to its current trends. But despite many apparent gains, history will judge progress by its current ethical standards.
Yes. The measure of whether the change is actually “progress’ depends on the socially determined notion of the word. One group’s idea progress is another’s regress,
By many of the social indicators I look to, we are living in regressive times.
I’m so angry about trans ideology, I don’t care anymore who hates me for speaking out against it. I don’t care how people choose to live their lives, including transpeople (not all transpeople agree with this perverse ideology pushed onto us in their name), if it hurts no one, but women and children are almost exclusively bearing the cost of it. As you say, it’s regression, but just with different packaging.
I’m with you. Defending the rights of women, children, gays and lesbians is neither hateful nor transphobic.
I support the rights of trans people to live their lives with respect, dignity, and equal rights. Always have. Always will.
The transactivist and lobbying organizations (e.g. HRC, StonewallUK, and all the rest) are not doing trans folks any favors with this. Unfortunately, they and their money have the ear of the Democratic politicians (in the US) who are now in the position of defending a totally unscientific position when it comes to women and sports. What a betrayal!
What is progress? Here is George Bernard Shaw’s definition:
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, but the unreasonable man tries to adapt the world to him — therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.”
Yay! That brings to mind that it’s the grit that makes the pearl in the oyster shell.
It’s why debate and discussion and difference are healthy! Without it we are all stuck.
Thanks mistermuse.
Like (clicking the “Like” at the end of your reply wouldn’t ‘take’).
Josie, I too question the idea of progress, and I think many people do, whether they are on the left, feminists, environmentalists, economists, or plain old believers in democracy. Back in the Victorian era there was this Darwinian notion that we were all inevitably getting better and better, moving onward and upward toward perfection. Most of us, no matter what our political persuasion, have become disabused of that notion by now.
When you move to the issues of sexual and gender equality, there is also plenty of scope to question how much progress we have made. From my perspective, and that of many others I dare say, the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and the sweeping and punitive anti-abortion laws being enacted in state after state are clear evidence of regression when it comes to women’s rights.
Broadly speaking, I feel that extending the same rights to gay and transgender persons that have been fought for by African Americans and women (among other disenfranchised groups), makes total sense. The issues are complex, to be sure, but surely not so complex or so threatening that we can’t entertain them calmly. I don’t think that the issue is a social crisis, or that it threatens the progress that women have made. For transgender people, though, it is an ongoing crisis, and the current effort to roll back their hard-won gains are making daily existence much worse for them. Like you, I am a retired teacher, and greater acceptance of different gender and sexual identities was a non-issue to my college students, even the first-years. They simply didn’t find it threatening. I think it’s mostly our generation and to some extent their parents’ generation who see this changing scenario as a threat.
I like the idea of posing questions for consideration as you do in your post. Several of them could lead to illuminating discussions. As a reader, though, I find that the sweeping pronouncements that pepper the post make it seem as if your position is already fixed and intractable.
If you’re interested, here’s “Why is Gender Identity so Important?” a TEDx Talk from the UK (c. 2015) that I have shown to students in the past. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFBU7h7fqLc
Of course it’s just one person, Rikki Arundel, speaking about her personal experience, but I think it usefully sketches out the differences between sex, gender, and gender identity and raises some helpful questions about issues such as the “pinkification” and dumbing-down of girls. Clearly, this one transwoman is a feminist in her concern about how gender stereotyping hurts girls.
Sorry this reply has been so long.
Best wishes, Josna
Yes! – “the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and the sweeping and punitive anti-abortion laws being enacted in state after state are clear evidence of regression when it comes to women’s rights” – Absolutely.
But women’s rights are also being eroded by gender identity ideology when it takes the form of men insisting that they are now eligible to play women’s sports, win women’s awards, and to have access to the spaces and places that have been reserved for women in order to provide places of dignity and safety. This insistence often being just a matter of self-identification. The current plague of sex offenders changing their pronouns and being placed in women’s prisons is an extreme example of this. “I am a woman because I say I am and I have the right to enter any woman’s space on the basis of my seld-selected identity.”
And lesbian and gay rights are also under attack by this movement. Heterosexual men are now declaring themselves to be lesbian and demanding access to what were formerly women-only spaces. (There’s a big trial going down right now in Australia on this very topic of whether men can be excluded from an app designed to be for lesbians only.)
Of course, trans rights are human rights and they should have the same legal rights as any other group. And they do. Thanks to the long struggle for equal rights by the women’s and LGB movements they have the same legal protections and rights as other groups – the right to marry, own property, drive a vehicle, serve in the military, have a credit card, attend school, vote etc. (This is not true in all countries of course where discrimination against women and LGB people is enshrined in law.) This is as it should be. What they do not deserve are any additional rights that erode the rights of others.
Thanks for the link. I will take a look. It’s the gender identity ideology that is the problem, not the people. Rights do not have to be in conflict. There are solutions that can offer equal protection for all – in sports, in prisons, and everywhere else. The solutions start with recognizing that there are two sexes; we are all one or the other; and that no one has ever changed sex. And that – in some circumstances – sex really does matter.
Thanks for the comment Josna.
I utterly and totally agree with you Josie. It’s the most conformist “movement” ever and it’s about as sexist as can be. Your two videoed are pearls of wisdom. I especially relate to the young woman’s observation at the Riverside Unified District Board meeting.
In terms of progress—it’s a hoax. Other than imagining and believing having more money etc is progress, I see the touting of progress as a brainwashing tool, to keep us all not living in the present but always in a hurry to get somewhere else! Progress, if indeed it exists, would be: no more violence, no more killings, no more abuse! See what I mean? Progress is an illusion.
Totally. In terms of the Riverside Unified District Board meeting – there’s footage online of some of the violence that led up to it and also of the full meeting. Haven’t watched it all yet.
I think people confuse progress with change. Rather in the way gender and sex are confused and we inevitably get into a muddle in any discussion. It’s why we need to stop using the g-word whenever we actually mean sex.
And those two young women – good stuff!
Thanks for the comments Ingrid.