Explainer | Gender-Critical vs. Trans Activist Claims

[@alexandragrace8164]

Holly you’re a national treasure! I have read both your GC books, but I had to fight to get them available through my university library despite being a researcher there for ten years! The library told me they’d only get the books if I wanted them on a reading list for students. But I don’t have teaching duties, I’m only a researcher (social determinants of health). Such a joke! Lots of love and solidarity from the lesbians of Sydney.

[@craighenschel6421]

Holly, thanks for your important work on this.

[@coralsw4325]

Love your work Holly

[@davidbee9563]

There is confusion when making claims that language is important. Then using terms in ways the hearer thinks they mean one thing but obscure to mean something else. Like sex and gender. If sex is defined by gender then it loses its meaning. So sex at birth is irrelevant and definitions of whom you are attracted to tell you nothing. This would explain why trans activists would be offended at laws limiting "gender affirming" treatments to an age of responsibility. Also why research and science is ignored when the results question or disagree with your agenda.So truth and meaning are not based on actual truth or meaning but on what you want reality to be. And any questioning or disagreement is some sort of phobia or hate speech.

[@soulfoodie1]

Thank you for this

[@adiudicium]

However again, we don't get a definition of what constitutes "gender identity" and that it is highly reliant on everyone knowing what sex is as well as the gender norms regarding sex while denying biological sex and targeting women (not men, that's too hard) and not allowing women to exist as a distinct group.

[@hollylawford-smith]

@@adiudicium this video was just intended as an overview of the two group's claims, but we could do one on what gender identity is. what do you think would be more helpful: a) what they say it is (e.g. trans activist academics), or b) what is a steelman version of what it could be?

[@matthewatwood8641]

​@hollylawford-smith the only thing worth doing in regards to queer theory is to systematically debunk the ridiculous claims and statements it makes. It's nothing but agenda driven political propaganda, not based in any real scientific or medical research, & that needs to be clarified.

[@loumeep]

Thank you

[@craighenschel6421]

Holly, thanks for this important work.

[@andreabell5724]

Holly!! Thank you!! Loved your book!! Thank you!!

[@vekkstar]

Hi Holly, would love to talk to you some day. I'm sorry I missed your talk at USYD (how did it go?). I have some thoughts from decolonial feminisms from Abya Yala (Latin America), but I also wonder if you might engage with analytic philosophy produced by trans men and women? Your office looks too much like mine, btw. lol

[@hollylawford-smith]

@@vekkstar do you mean, if i might do a video about that? (happy to! someone else asked about gender identity so i thought that might be a good place to start). or do you mean, do i, in my research? (yes, but it sounds like you might know that already!)

[@vekkstar]

@@hollylawford-smith Yes. I actually am gender critical in a different (or further?) sense, via the work of Maria Lugones, for example (but not only). I feel the entire gender system is very bound up with colonialism. It is exasperating. I don't deny that trans*, among some, is an attempt to live otherwise (including for me). I find the current mainstream of trans activism (if I have to use that term) fraught. But then there is so much that is taking up oxygen politically (indeed, oftentimes with little connect to trans lives as lived... but silences abound). It's a long conversation, I won't burden you with it. Suffice to say I was interested in your talk and sad I missed it.

[@claudiaborralho8887]

Amazing presentation *

[@WilliamBrowning]

🏳️‍⚧️SOLIDARITY and LOVE🏳️‍⚧️

[@wardandrew23412]

This is very curious. I've listened to quite a few presentations by trans-ideologues, and without exception, they all drew a hard distinction between sex and gender in describing a "trans-woman" as a biologically male whose gender is female, and to a "trans-man" as a biologically female whose gender is male. I have heard some trans-ideologues claim that there are more than two sexes, but that is an entirely different assertion, and does not logically imply that one's sex and gender are the same.

[@cgpcgp3239]

Yes gender and sex are the same. If a person wants to present as opposite sex/gender it’s their choice. Problem is there needs to be some restrictions for safety and fairness of women. Even women who present as men have restrictions for their safety. They’re not sent to men’s prisons.

[@searchingstuff]

They start that way, then mix the two when its convenient. For example, "Trans women are women". This is a sneaky way of inserting sex into the statement without saying the word sex. If you take gender to its logical conclusion, its essentially a form of sexism, or expectation of how a sex should act or behave. Its a completely indefensible position, so they often sneak an indistinction in and claim its 'gender' when its not.

[@hollylawford-smith]

are these academics or activists you're listening to the presentations of? that's interesting. i wonder if they've moved away from the sex denialism over time, because no one was buying it. i still see a lot of evasive language around sex, but that could be more motivated by the close associations between e.g. 'male' and 'man' than by actual endorsement of sex pseudoscience. (i definitely do still see some trans activists out there claiming that cross-sex hormones change their sex. i think india willoughby made this claim recently).

[@wardandrew23412]

@@hollylawford-smith Several were academics, but not all. From the various discussions I've seen, trans ideologues define 'cis' people as someone whose sex matches their gender, while a trans-person is someone whose sex does _not_ match their gender. Trans-women in these discussions freely concede that they were born male (or to use their phrasing, "assigned male at birth") but go on to say that they have always "felt like a woman" (whatever that means). Clearly, their description of what it means to be a "trans-woman" as well as what it means to be "cis" is logically incompatible with the idea that sex and gender are the same. The philosopher Tomas Bogardus has done a detailed analysis of the various ways "gender" has been construed by the trans community, and concludes that none of them make sense: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYK4nGesnLSni5I

[@hollylawford-smith]

​@@wardandrew23412the philosopher tomas bogardus and i are friends :)

[@annekearns3484]

Please stop flashing the document on and off the screen. There's no point in putting it there if people can't read it.

[@buddyneher9359]

I think they expect you to pause the video if you want to study what's on the screen in detail. However, for that to work, they have to show a good clear shot of any text.

[@hollylawford-smith]

@annekearns3484 i actually thought i had it up for the right amount of time given that i always had it up while i read out the words on it! is it that you're reading it for yourself and more slowly than i am reading it out? i'm doing my best here 😂

[@annekearns3484]

@@hollylawford-smith by the time the document was back on the screen, I didn't have time to find the correct place before it disappeared again.

[@punkhammer5903]

You can pause the video to read the slides! Tap once, to bring up the control, tap the the 2 vertical lines to pause, then again to brighten the screen. Read...rinse and repeat.

[@annekearns3484]

​@@punkhammer5903 No I can't as the phone screen puts icons which cover the screen up.

[@thisolddown]

Holy is presenting this as an unbiased review. However it is completely wrong, and incredibly biased. What she presents as gender critical is very tame in comparison to what actual gender criticizes believe. Also the trans “activist” representation is very radical as can be identified by the use of the word “activist”. This is the gender critical view of themselves and what they claim trans people to believe. And it completely ignores science and medicine.

[@hollylawford-smith]

that's actually why i flagged at the start of the video that i am the author of both sets of claims. it would be great if the trans activists would set out the disagreement as they see it, but 'no debate' tends to get in the way of that. if you can persuade one of the trans activist commentators you trust to do a version of this video from their perspective, or to do a response video, that would be stellar. i'm happy to provide my slides.

[@paulba6697]

Rather than just telling us that holly is biased and misrepresenting both GC feminists and trans activists, why not just come out and correct the claims you think are wrong? Be specific.

[@ambientjohnny]

How are boys/men or girls/women "supposed” to think or feel, want to dress like or act? You must be able to provide specific standards for each sex for what you are contending to make any sense whatsoever. If there is no correct way of being a man or a woman, then how can there be a "mismatch" between what they are and how they feel? Why is it that you believe females do not deserve single-sex spaces or single-sex activities? Explain why such blatant intolerance of female rights and protections, the notion that female boundaries should not be accepted or respected, is a morally justifiable position.

[@carlh.h.2242]

You mean the “science and medicine” produced in support of a billion$+ industry? Is that the same “science and medicine” that one hundred years ago prescribed hysterectomy to cure depression?

[@tracygeddes5867]

@@paulba6697when an anti trans activist says be specific you know you are wasting your time.nothing you say will make a difference no matter how accurate, so move on and talk to those that are open minded.

[@haydenwalton2766]

good analysis holly. I will make the point that I find it interesting that feminists are able to rely on logic and reason to argue against trans ideology. but hardly any other time. I wonder why that is ?

[@hollylawford-smith]

@@haydenwalton2766 sounds to me like you might be treating 'feminism' as a monolith and blaming some for the sins of others. there are many different types and it's absolutely not the case that most or even many don't rely on logic and reason (and indeed, given that it's a sexist stereotype against women that they lack rationality, it's hardly a credible take on their liberation ideologies).

[@haydenwalton2766]

@hollylawford-smith why shouldn't I treat it as a monolith when 95% of its portrayal (and power) through the media, academia, the arts and politics (rhetoric and legislation) is expedient and does (IMO) lack logic and reason ?

[@haydenwalton2766]

@hollylawford-smith I replied, but it's been booted to 'newest'

[@hw6271]

Honestly man...the problem is you

[@hollylawford-smith]

​@@haydenwalton2766 what does that mean, "its portrayal... is expedient"?