Men are not to blame for trans culture

There has been some predictable femsplaining from journalist Victoria Smith, writing in The Critic (here). Victoria is one of those ‘prolific’ journalists who could turn winning the Euromillions lottery into a feminist oppression narrative. I put ‘prolific’ in inverted commas because, in reality, she publishes the same articles over and over again. Predictably, she comes from the standard pathway for media feminists, the English Literature degree – see here. Though I write about Victoria Smith she is, in fact, one of many journalists trying to rebadge the problem as trans-culture as one brought to us men. You would almost think it was Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate calling for self-ID, not Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP or Lorna Slater of the Green Party.

Victoria argues that the creation of trans-women is an example of medical misogyny; she is wrong. Her article relies on a combination of flawed logic, confirmation bias, and erasure of the feminist underpinnings of trans-culture – the belief that gender and even sex are not defined by biology.

Victoria opens with standard boilerplate feminist claims that health care is misogynist. The evidence points in the other direction, spending on women’s health exceeds that on men’s, we have reports and initiatives that focus exclusively on women’s health but none on the other half of the population; even though, at all ages, the outcomes for men are worse than those for women. I could go on but I have covered this issue elsewhere here, here and here.

From this flawed premise, Victoria argues the creation of trans women is a continuation of medical misogyny and that women’s bodies are seen as men’s bodies with a few alterations. The problem with this is that the predominant direction of trans-travel is from women to men, this is a two-way street with two to three lanes going one way and one the other. Are we to argue that female-to-male transition is medical misandry? I don’t think it is. Of course, biological males in female spaces pose a greater threat to women because we are a dimorphic species, but the philosophical underpinnings are the same regardless of the direction of travel and it isn’t misogyny or misandry.

Victoria Smith fails to observe the role that women in general and feminists, in particular, have played in promoting the culture of biological denialism inherent in trans-culture. This has been well covered by many authors including Janice Fiamengo here. It was feminists such as Kate Millett not MRAs who sowed the whirlwind by denying that there could be any biological basis for behaviour. Judith Butler, feminist and queer theorist, even went on to argue that sex as well as gender was socially constructed rather than grounded in biological reality. Judith Butler is not some fringe crackpot but a respected (in some circles) academic who gets column inches in the Guardian. Professor Emma Renold, who developed RSE curriculum for Wales is a disciple of hers who seeks to ‘foment a revolution along Buterlian lines.’ The tentacles of this culture run wide and deep almost everywhere except the men’s rights movement.

Another step leading to ‘trans women are women’ culture was the promotion of physical equivalence between men and women. Here, once again, it was not men who made the running, but feminists. Take an obscure Belgian cycle race that made it onto the BBC News headlines and newspapers such as the Guardian. It was alleged that the race had to be paused when the lead female rider caught up with the men’s race that started 10 minutes earlier. You can guess the story that was spun from this. A tale of men holding back a more talented female rider. It was suggested that the men’s race should have been paused to let the women’s race pass. The truth? Nicole Hansman, the lead female rider, caught up with a tailback of the following support vehicles. She was by this time 13 minutes behind the leading male rider. The story was one of lazy reporting, poor fact-checking and perhaps poor race organisation. For more detail see here.

The myth of physical equivalence between men and women has also been pushed in movies where it is not uncommon to see women beating up larger men. In a similar vein, take the film ‘aeronauts’ that depicted an epic ballon adventure and at that time, in 1862, the greatest height to which humans had ever ascended. The balloon kept ascending and the two male pilots could not release enough gas to halt the rise. One had already lost consciousness and was freezing to death. At the limit of his endurance and displaying immense courage as well as strength, Henry Coxwell managed to climb the rigging and release some gas from the top of the balloon and slowly the balloon began to descend to safety. Of course, that story wouldn’t do for a film, Henry Coxwell was replaced by a female character who was, naturally, stronger and smarter than her male partner. Another small step towards a culture of biological denialism.

The cultural origins of trans-mania lie in hyper liberalism or woke and this is an area where young women rather than men predominate. This is partly because women outnumber men at universities and particularly in humanities and ‘studies departments’ where these ideas first took root and are expressed in their most virulent form.

No surprise then, that it is predominantly women we see pushing biological denialism. In Scotland, it was Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP and Lorna Slater of the Greens who pressed for self ID, against the wishes of the public. It was Scottish MP Mhairi Black, not an MRA, who turned up at a primary school in Paisley with a drag queen in tow, to teach children about gender fluidity. In the UK Labour Party it was predominantly younger female MPs pushing for trans rights including self-ID. Even feminist MP Jess Phillips managed to tie herself in knots by suggesting that trans-women were not actually female, but should still be treated as women. In politics, it is predominantly women pushing this ideology.

The panicked and frantic attempts by feminists such as Victoria Smith to rebadge this problem as one inflicted on society my men and MRAs is wide of the mark and I suspect they know it. This is a masterclass in feminist hypocrisy.