Trans Women: The Patriarchy’s Ultimate Victory
Feminists love to rail against the ‘patriarchy,’ even though their arguments are inconveniently undermined by facts. While the gender-pay gap clearly does not exist, gender disparities in conviction rates, homelessness, suicide, and redundancy (to name but a few) certainly do. Even so, a good feminist can make herself a victim of toxic masculinity in any situation, as immortalised by the words of Hilary Clinton: “Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat.”
As International Women’s Day took place earlier this month, I was looking forward to a traditional celebration of actual women; how naïve of me. Increasingly it appears, IWD has become an audition for the world’s worst drag act. This year it was Jill Biden’s turn to present a ‘Women of Courage’ award to the Argentinian ‘trans woman’ Alba Rueda. Having spent most of my life under the impression that the patriarchy is a myth, I think I’m beginning to see the light.
A new patriarchy
There appear to be some on the Left who have reached the conclusion that if you can’t beat them, why not join them? This might explain feminist support for trans women—after all, what could possibly highlight patriarchal oppression more than a woman trapped within a man’s body? That still leaves rather obvious biological markers such as the penis, but the trans lobby has eschewed that particular Gordian knot with the genius of ‘self-identification, ’i.e., merely saying you are a woman, is proof that you are one—a right Scotland is keen to pass into law.
While a large amount of support for transgenderism is undoubtedly motivated by tolerance and compassion, it is clear that a certain section of the male population is simply taking liberties. Left unchecked, female sport is morphing into the men’s B League in all but name. Beauty pageants are dissolving into farces which only the ugly sisters are allowed to win. And even endorsements for feminine hygiene products are being snapped up by the boys.
Possibly worse still is the targeting of impressionable young minds in the name of inclusivity. Despite the fact that the majority of ‘transgender’ children grow out of such feelings, and indeed that many of those who undergo transition regret doing so, the encouragement from schools to experiment with gender is increasing. In Britain, children as young as four are being pushed to ‘change gender,’ while vulnerable children are being coerced into surgery without parental consent.
It’s worth pointing out that clinical estimates of gender dysphoria according to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) are around 0.004% of the population. Still, you wouldn’t know from the high schools which ‘celebrate’ their 76 pupils with ‘gender identity issues,’ nor the freshly-minted ‘women’ queuing up to exploit the opportunities afforded by their new gender.
It’s no easy task speaking out against the madness of self-identification, because the penalties for doing so are severe. Call a trans woman a man and you run the risk of being arrested in front of your children. Refuse to call a trans pupil their preferred gender, and you may lose your job. Even if you’re a feminist, you will inevitably be cancelled by other feminists should you wander off the reservation and question self-identification, as was the fate of Germaine Greer, Julie Bindel, and Megan Murphy.
A dangerous influence
Particularly disturbing from the trans lobby is the rise of exaggerated female affectation, exemplified by TikTok stars Dylan Mulvaney and Jeffrey Marsh. Mulvaney, who acts like a perennially-hysterical 5-year-old girl in her first Disney princess outfit, was recently granted an audience with Joe Biden. This led to an outcry from childcare experts, who warn that this social media influencing (Mulvaney has 8.4 million followers) is directly behind a spike in teenagers clamoring for gender-reassignment surgery.
Even more concerning than Mulvaney, is Marsh, who is directly targeting children through his videos. Marsh, whose alter ego appears to be the Bond villain Julie Andrews never played, has a Patreon account where he encourages young people to spend ‘connected time’ with him in a ‘private space.’ He also encourages children to ‘go no-contact’ with their parents.
These are dangerous people, pushing their ideology on confused children, and doing so in a manner to which most parents have neither awareness nor recourse. For the record, I have absolutely zero objections to people’s fantasies—but I tend to draw the line on state-sponsored indoctrination and mutilation of those too young to understand the consequences of such actions.
This week’s spectacle of Drew Barrymore kneeling before and fawning over Dylan Mulvaney in his ‘year of girlhood’ is a mockery of everything it means to be a woman. And yet, if you point this out, you are de facto both a transphobe and a misogynist.
The irony of feminists celebrating ‘trans women,’ the patriarchal god they helped create, is almost too much to bear. These men are the very worst depictions of what feminists historically opposed—men who shamelessly take advantage of women and impose their whims on the vulnerable. It’s time this self-identification nonsense was put to bed.
This piece first appeared in The European Conservative, and is reproduced by kind permission.