Jane, Stiles notes, is not an outlier, as many other white-collar feminists are contemptuous of women who choose full-time motherhood. The feminists’ disparagement of child rearing has placed enormous pressure on women to continue working whether they want or need to.53 Women who make their own decisions, contrary to the dogmatic dictates of the radical left, are inarguably more liberated than “liberated” feminists.
In Why Women Have Better Sex under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence, University of Pennsylvania professor Kristen R. Ghodsee argues that women under Communist Eastern European regimes had more independence from men and better sex lives than women in other countries. Ghodsee blames the patriarchy and the oppressive capitalistic system for the abusive cycle whereby women quit their jobs to become full-time mothers, with their husbands tightly controlling their spending. Being trapped in this situation, women ostensibly finagle more money from their husbands by having sex with them.54
In 2018, Princeton Students for Gender Equality and Princeton Students for Reproductive Justice held their third annual Menstruation Celebration which, according to the Daily Princetonian, “aims to destigmatize conversation about periods.” Signs at the event read, “You can lose a tampon in your vagina,” “Period week = blow job week,” and “PMS is not real.” One sign urged people to stop referring to menstruation as a women’s issue since transgender and non-binary people also have periods.55The notion that a person with no female reproductive system can menstruate, of course, contradicts basic human biology. “Despite this social deconstruction, men who identify as women are still biologically male: transgender and non-binary individuals who menstruate are still biologically female; and regardless of thought or perception, nothing will change the immutable biological characteristics of those born with XX or XY chromosomes,” writes Frank Camp of the Daily Wire. “Although the mainstreaming of these flagrantly anti-scientific ideas may seem quite extreme, we must accept the possibility that this is only the beginning of a long-term campaign to dismantle reality as we know it, the consequences of which could be dire.”56
What with gender insanity being a global phenomenon, we see the Scottish Parliament renaming gingerbread men as “gingerbread persons” in its coffee shop in Holyrood, where staff is outright banned from saying “gingerbread man” because it’s not gender neutral.57 In Hitchin, England, a thirty-eight-year-old mother was arrested in front of her children—a ten-year-old autistic daughter and twenty-month old son—at her home and locked in a cell for seven hours for referring to a transgender woman as a man on Twitter.58 In Spain, a transgender woman represented the country in the Miss Universe contest, declaring, “Having a vagina didn’t transform me into a woman. I am a woman, already before birth, because my identity is here.”59 In this instance, feminists were again victimized by trans advocates, who ensured that the biologically male Miss Spain garnered far more attention at the pageant than Miss Philippines, the female winner.60 Where are the anti-patriarchy activists when you need them?A final example comes from a shopping center in Auckland, New Zealand, where a statue called “Santa Poppins,” with Santa wearing fishnet stockings and carrying a carpet bag and umbrella, was erected.61 This is in line with a burgeoning call for Santa Claus to change genders. A GraphicSprings survey of eight hundred people in the U.S. and U.K. showed that some 11 percent want Santa to switch genders, while 17 percent prefer he be gender neutral, which means that only about 70 percent want Santa to remain male.62
Notwithstanding gay activists’ perpetual denunciation of the “hate” and “discrimination” they allegedly face, one gay conservative says that the stigma of being conservative today is worse than that of being gay. “To be a conservative means to be forced to choose when to speak and when to remain silent, since offending someone on the left, even mildly or by accident, is a social battle you may not be able to win,” writes Chad Felix Greene. “To be a conservative means carefully regulating your speech and constructing opinions in such a way as to avoid being banned from the public square. To be a conservative means to be a marginalized voice, suppressed and dehumanized; bullied into hesitating to speak out.”63 Leftists pilloried Greene for voicing his opinion, thus proving his point. Celebrities like Sarah Silverman denounced him on Twitter while John Cooper, chairman of the Democratic Coalition, tweeted, “Chad, you’re such a snowflake! Did you know that 40% of LGBT high school students SERIOUSLY CONSIDER SUICIDE? Don’t you dare compare being openly gay to being openly conservative!” Cooper also claimed religious conservatives are mostly responsible for gay teens’ high suicide rates.64 Deadspin sportswriter Lauren Theisen derided Green in a piece charmingly titled, “Conservative Gays Need To Shut The F*** Up.”65
A Texas mother of a six-year-old boy sought to revoke the parental rights of the boy’s father unless he treated their son as a female. Having dressed their son as a girl following a therapist’s diagnosis of gender dysphoria, the mother accused the father of child abuse for continuing to treat him as a boy. The father, however, saw no signs of dysphoria and insisted the boy didn’t identify or dress as a girl when they were together.66 A bill has now been proposed in the Texas legislature to prohibit terminating someone’s parental rights for acknowledging or refusing to acknowledge the child’s gender identity or expression.67
San Francisco has created Compton’s Transgender Cultural District, the world’s first transgender district, to stop the alleged displacement of trans people from the area and provide a place to teach trans history. “Many of our traditions are passed down through queer bars because those are the places where our elders interact with younger generations,” said Mahogany, Compton’s district manager. “Drag is often seen as a way of storytelling and passing on stories of previous generations.”68
A new rule proposed in Vermont would allow children and teens who claim to be transgender to have taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgeries without having to wait until age twenty-one.69 Similarly, Wisconsin Medicaid announced it would begin covering gender reassignment surgery following a decision by a federal judge that it’s unconstitutional to exclude such surgeries from taxpayer-funded healthcare.70 “Discrimination comes with a cost, and for the state of Wisconsin the bill has come,” said Larry Dupuis, legal director of the Wisconsin ACLU.71 In another case, a federal judge in Houston ruled that the male-only military draft is unconstitutional.72
The website BarbWire provides a number of disgraceful gender-related stories that occurred in 2018, including: colleges recommending that four-year-olds engage in sexual activity; sixth graders in Washington state being asked if any of them questioned their gender identity; the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade trying to normalize teen lesbianism; numerous states and cities banning conversion therapy, thereby forbidding teens from receiving counseling to overcome homosexual feelings, even in the case of sexual abuse; a federal judge in Chicago dismissing a suit against physicians who performed female genital mutilation surgery on little girls; and more clinics opening in children’s hospitals to perform gender transition treatment.73
As a shocking indication of the radical inversion of our societal values, the father of former porn star “Aurora Snow” told his daughter he was proud of her career. In response to critics, he asked how much money they make having sex, pointing out that his daughter made hundreds of thousands of dollars. “If I could have made hundreds of thousands of dollars having sex I would have done it too,” he said.74
Transgender freelance writer Serena Sonoma tweeted, “We’re going to stop giving attention to transphobes and start using their bones to make a bone broth. It’ll be healthy for our babies when we get our womb transplants.”75 Use of the term “transphobic” is itself a form of bullying because it implies that those who don’t agree with the radical trans agenda are bigots and haters.
“Januhairy” is a recently conjured feminist endeavor that encourages women to grow out their body hair. The craze was hatched by Laura Jackson, a drama student at the University of Exeter in t
he U.K., upon realizing how great she felt after growing her body hair for a role. “Though I felt liberated and more confident in myself, some people around me didn’t understand why I didn’t shave/didn’t agree with it,” she wrote. “I realized that there is still so much more for us to do to be able to accept one another fully and truly. Then I thought of Januhairy and thought I would try it out. It’s a start at least.” An Instagram user explained she was participating in the movement to show solidarity in discussing “the importance of young women taking back ownership of how their body should look, whether that means being hairless or not, it’s up to individuals to decide.”76
The Cuba Libre restaurant in Washington, D.C., was fined $7,000, ordered to implement new staff training, and required to post a sign showing that D.C. law allows people to use the restroom that matches their gender identities or expressions. This was punishment for the restaurant manager having questioned a transgender activist who used the women’s restroom and having insisted on seeing the person’s identification. The manager said that D.C. law requires that a person must be designated as a female on her ID to use the women’s restroom.77
TransKids.biz is a transgender youth website that markets gender expression gear and resources for transgender children. A few books offered are My Dad Thinks I’m a Boy, which features a drawing of a young girl on the cover, and Sex Is a Funny Word. The site recommends other books, including Who Are You? The Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity and Are You a Boy or a Girl? The site, run by a person named Searah, sells garments and prosthetic penises for kids ages eight to thirteen. “Searah hopes that all parents coming here can trust that this is a safe and affirming place, where helping your kids live fully and embodied is our only goal.” One prosthetic, called the extra small packer, is described as follows: “While most trans boys don’t start packing until they are teens or older, sometimes young kids want to have a prosthetic and what is on the market is really just too big for most folks under 10 years old. So our friends who make our Silicone Packers came up with a mini version for young and/or smaller kids.”78
Already notorious for its “toxic masculinity” ad, Gillette released a commercial that featured a father teaching his transgender son Samson how to shave. “I always knew I was different,” says Samson in the commercial. “I didn’t know that there was a term for the type of person that I was. I went into my transition just wanting to be happy. I’m glad I’m at the point where I’m able to shave. I’m at the point in my childhood where I’m actually happy.” Sam’s father encourages him as Samson brags that “everybody around me is transitioning.”79
A London student has designed a kit to enable men to “chestfeed” children to overcome the gender inequality of women-only breastfeeding. The kit contains the drug progestin, which stimulates the production of milk-producing glands in males.80 Another drug regimen causes lactation. The kit is in the planning phase, and could be available for purchase in five years.81
California representative Julia Brownley introduced a bill to rewrite federal laws using gender-neutral terms. So in all federal laws the terms “husband” and “wife,” for example, would be replaced with “spouse.” “While the landmark Supreme Court decision ending the ban on same-sex marriage was a historic step in the right direction, there is still more work to be done to ensure that the LGBTQ community is treated equally under the law in all respects,” said Brownley. “Our words reflect our values, and every gendered reference in our federal code undermines and de-legitimizes same-sex couples.”82
In a conspicuous effort to promote “gender equality,” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of recently elected California governor Gavin Newsom, announced she won’t use the title “First Lady.” She identifies herself in her Twitter bio as the “First Partner of California.” The First Partner has been a proponent of re-examining gender roles and has produced two documentary films on the subject: Miss Representation explores the underrepresentation of influential women by the media, and The Mask You Live In asserts that traditional masculinity is detrimental to boys.83
Microsoft Word has developed software to suggest edits to make your writing more “gender inclusive.” It will use artificial intelligence to help people avoid gender discrimination in their writing.84
There’s no end to the strangeness in the world of gender fluidity. A British lesbian couple, who identify as straight, plan to transition their five-year-old son, who likes dresses and despises “everything about being a boy,” into a daughter. The couple, Greg and Jody, are both women, but Greg identifies as male and also identifies as stepdad to Jody’s twenty-year-old son, Jayden.85
The ever-entertaining AOC admitted that she possesses a privilege. “I’m a cisgendered woman,” she confessed. “I will never know the trauma of feeling like I’m not born in the right body. And that is a privilege that I have, no matter how poor my family was when I was born.”86
Though five hundred to seven hundred people attended a pro-life rally in Virginia in early February 2019, the Washington Post ignored it, even though the previous week it proudly reported on a mere forty “activists calling for ‘menstrual equity’ at the Education Department.”87
Unhappy about supposed gender disparities and the social clout and economic opportunities of fraternity members, three Yale students sued the university and certain fraternities to force the frats to gender-integrate, i.e., permit women to join. Oddly, the women wanted to join even after alleging that men groped them at fraternity parties. Ah, but there are priorities.88
On March 13, 2019, Nancy Pelosi introduced the Equality Act, which would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes under federal civil rights law. The Heritage Foundation observes that while the original Civil Rights Act of 1964 advanced equality by guaranteeing African Americans equal access to public accommodations and material goods, this proposed legislation would promote inequality by penalizing Americans for their beliefs about marriage and biological sex, as similar state laws have already had that impact. The groups who would be affected include employers and workers, medical professionals, parents and children, women, and nonprofits and volunteers.89
The Equality Act would also create a federal right for biological boys to compete as girls in all sports. The mother of Selina Soule, the sixteen-year-old runner referenced above who was prevented by two biological males from qualifying for the New England regionals, said that if the act passes, “women will be completely eradicated from sports.”90 Of course she is correct, and female Olympians are coming to the same conclusion. Sharron Davies, who won a swimming silver medal in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, tweeted, “I have nothing against anyone who wishes 2be transgender. However, I believe there is a fundamental difference between the binary sex u r born with & the gender u may identify as. To protect women’s sport those with a male sex advantage should not be able 2compete in women’s sport.” This isn’t debatable, yet the transgender activists accused Davies of “fueling hate.” Here again we see the left’s nasty tactic of twisting the term “hate” to bully people into accepting their unreasonableness.91
The University of Birmingham in the U.K. assigned experienced white male professors “reverse mentors”—younger female scholars from ethnic minorities. The purpose is to teach the older professors about their biases and find ways to increase diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields.92
California Democrats introduced a bill that would protect pedophiles who rape children.93 SB 145 would authorize a person convicted of certain sex offenses involving minors, including luring a minor with the intent to commit a felonious sex act, to seek discretionary relief from the duty to register as a sex offender if the person is not more than ten years older than the minor.94
Some Americans are beginning to fight back against this insane gender activism. Students in Alaska and Iowa are engaged in a pro-biology rebellion affirming that men and women (and boys and girls) are equal but different and complementary.95 They
are actively protesting the use of girls’ bathrooms by “transgender” boys.96
Women don’t monolithically support Democratic female candidates, and that’s a problem for the left. In a survey, Rasmussen Reports asked respondents how important a political candidate’s gender is in determining their vote, and whether they’d vote for or against candidates based solely on their gender. Seventy-six percent of likely voters said a candidate’s gender is not important to their vote, with 51 percent saying it’s not important at all. Only 12 percent said it was very important.97 Independent Women’s Voice similarly found that voters are less concerned with a candidate’s gender than his or her qualifications and policies. A whopping 84 percent of women and 85 percent of men said gender was not a determining factor in their vote in the 2018 midterms.98
To surmount this problem, the left employs a scorched earth strategy on gender issues. They make an example of any woman straying from the left’s identity politics—even an otherwise dependable leftist who inadvertently utters some harmless heresy—through instant, vehement shaming, magnified by the power and immediacy of social media. They insist women should show their gender solidarity by supporting female candidates for office, but there is a giant exception—conservative women are beyond the pale, just as conservative minorities and gays are. The Democratic Party is a fair-weather friend to women, minority, and gay voters. Democrats will champion these groups’ unique experiences and points of view—unless they’re conservatives, in which case they have nothing worthy to share, nothing useful to teach, and no inherent value worth defending.
Guilty by Reason of Insanity Page 17