On the blacklisting of eco-feminists
By Tara Prema / Gender Is War
It’s a plot filled with anonymous denunciations, secret meetings, betrayal, dissidents, blacklists and infiltrators. For those just tuning in, this shitshow is the latest infighting on the left, where ideological purity and individual identity are all the rage – literally. Welcome to a new era of #LeftFail, where identity politics trumps everything, including strategy.
When we subtract the drama, what’s happened is that a couple of social justice groups (mostly hyper-moral ultra-leftist white college kids) has launched a campaign to blacklist people who disagree with their answer to a philosophical question. It’s not a question about the nature of capitalism or justice or exploitation or some other relevant topic, though. The question that’s tying the left in knots is: “What is a woman?”
If you answer, “An adult female human,” you could be blacklisted.
The correct answer nowadays is, “Anyone who identifies as a woman.”
This begs the question: “What does it mean to ‘identify’ as a woman?’”
The correct answer is, “To feel like a woman; to feel as if one is a woman.”
If you ask what it means to “feel like a woman,” there is no coherent answer, just hisses of:
“Transphobe!”
So what is a transphobe?
Anyone who speaks about women’s biology, their physical sex, the power to give birth and nurse, for example.
Anyone who wants to abolish gender roles, meaning the stereotypes of how boys and girls are expected to behave, and how that affects us into adulthood.
Any person or group who defines “woman” as “adult human female.” That is, someone born female, with female biology.
The list includes midwives, traditional communities, radical feminists, and many others. It includes peace activist Cindy Sheehan and comedian Roseanne Barr. It includes Deep Green Resistance.
Radical feminists find that gender is a ridiculous set of oppressive stereotypes that have nothing to do with biology, rather than seeing gender as a spectrum or a binary or some kind of fluid. Gender stereotypes dictate that men are masculine and dominant, and women are feminine and submissive, and that is what you are. For this, academics and activists alike have denounced and blacklisted them.
There is a difference between a person’s sex and his or her gender. Radical feminists believe that sex is innate – it’s the biology we are born with, our DNA and secondary sex characteristics, like breasts and testes. Sex is in-born, and gender is constructed – that is, imposed on us by societal stereotypes (what we used to call “sex roles”).
On the other hand, genderists believe that gender is innate somehow – we are born with the stereotypes of being frilly or macho already in our heads. Sex, therefore, is constructed by means of surgery and hormones.
Genderists: If your internal sense of pink lace or ball games doesn’t match your genitalia, you need opposite-sex hormones and an operation! Or at least a whole new set of clothes, makeup, and a name change. And a million bucks. And a reality show. And a magic mirror to whisper flattering things.
Midwives are being told they can’t use the term “women” when referring to those of us who give birth and nurse children. Because that is transphobic. Midwives face blacklisting by their own professional association for refusing to call mothers “birthing parents.”
A traditional matrilineal community was harassed about having women’s circles until they started holding them in secret, away from the white dudes.
White dudebro masters student arriving at a traditional indigenous encampment: “Hey, you’re doing gender wrong. Let me mansplain to you about why this postmodern theory I just read about is superior to your traditional teachings passed on for hundreds of generations. Hey, where you going?”*
Anti-feminists have infiltrated radical feminist groups to spy out where their events are being held, so they can disrupt them by barging in or by phoning in death threats. In one case, a police informant joined a west coast radical environmental group and used the wedge issue of gender identity politics to start a faction fight that ended only when everyone quit.
And now we find ourselves watching as mass media celebrate transwomen as the epitome of womanhood. And we find we are ostracized by the gender cheerleaders at universities, conferences, and within the environmental movement.
Stop the Frack Attack is the most recent spasm of horizontal hostility on the environmental left. This anti-fracking coalition includes radical groups like Rising Tide, which has staked its moral purity on denouncing those who consider biological sex to be a material human condition. It does not include Deep Green Resistance, a group led by radical feminists, because – we are told – radical feminists are the evil “cis” oppressors. Note that Christian zealots and rightwing nuts with guns are not being targeted here. Feminists are the biggest threat and therefore deserve to be bashed, according to some trans advocates.
Along with the radicals, STFA includes the Idaho Conservation League, the United Christian Church, and the Denton Stakeholder Drilling Advisory Group. Did STFA’s central committee interrogate these good citizens on where they stand on the burning question of “What is a woman?” Are we to assume they all agree 100% that the categories of male and female no longer exist, except as semantics?
And if the Denton Stakeholders issued a public statement that Caitlyn Jenner has only changed clothes and makeup, not sex – would Stop the FA excommunicate them too?
Or is shunning a punishment reserved only for feminists?
And – final question – what the hell does this have to do with fracking?
One thing for sure: the oil and gas executives are laughing all the way to the bank. They know what some of us don’t – that infighting is like civil war: the only winners are the vulture capitalists.
* Different cultures around the world have different teachings about sex and gender. Many cultures have a designation outside of “male” and “female,” such as two-spirit and hijira. Many societies do not. Traditionally, some social groups are egalitarian, some are patriarchal, and some are matriarchal. They all have their own definitions of “who is a woman.” Not to speak for them, but those definitions don’t appear to be based on either radical feminism or postmodern theories about gender.
Let ‘s suppose that for my entire life I have admired doctors and the work that they do healing the sick and saving lives . I admire them so much that I decide that when I grow-up I too am going to become a doctor – no matter what – because being a doctor is what feels right to me.
My life progresses and I go to school where I fail chemistry, discover I hate to study , I am bored by science / biology and I throw-up and faint at the sight of blood. I fail the MCAT and I never attend one day at medical school.
Even though I have none of the necessary knowledge or training to be a doctor, deep in my heart I “feel like a doctor” and since I feel like a doctor – I decide I am a doctor. So, I slip-on a clean white lab coat, hang a stethoscope around my neck and insist that everyone now refer to me as Dr. Jane.
The only wrench in the works is that no amount of self-delusion or supply of clean white lab coats actually transforms me into a doctor.
Now apply this same reasoning to transgendered individuals and I think you will find the same truth applies.
My response to the gender bender argument is I don’t care where you claim to fall on that spectrum, but are you willing to care for others? Are you on the lookout to make things work for everyone? Will you take responsibility for a habitable environment? , if so that is the hallmark of the matriarch. Are you concerned with your social ranking? do you make certain you gain an advantage over others? Are you invested in having things go as you say? patriarchal capitalism promotes such selfish behavior.
That was like… Five years ago…
Admit it… If tactics were more important than ideology you would have shut the fuck up about it five years ago…
What does tracking have to do with gender ID?
I still can’t figure that out….
That’s what WE have been asking YOU.
I think DGR is Emmanuel Goldstein… I think you’re the cops..
DGR was a good idea and Lierre Keith made it pathetic and stupid…
Hi Jacob,
I’m having trouble understanding most of your comment. This article gives numerous examples of genderists shutting down discourse through deplatforming, blacklisting, and exclusion of any voices which criticize gender. This is not some isolated incident from 5 years ago. For example, DGR itself was banned from the recent Stop the Frack Attack conference for its belief that women should be allowed to organize, sleep, and bathe separately from men if they so choose.
Jane…
That’s a stupid argument…
Look… You know what no one is talking about?
Transgender kids getting punched in the face, harassed, bullied, picked on…
I always go back to the homeless shelter argument.
Where do transgender kids go when they don’t feel safe surrounded by the thugs and criminals at the male shelter?
You don’t see f2m transexuals going to the men’s shelter… No women are going to EVER choose the men’s shelter over the women’s shelter… Cis, Tran f2m, trans m2f…
Nobody…
Because it’s not safe there…
So if you see someone getting picked on and you don’t help them (even if it is in your special women’s only space) you should let them in…
If you don’t it means you’re a friggin jerk…
Your politics give you the right to be a jerk to people?
Maybe they ARE wrong!?!?!?!
But MAYBE MAYBE MAYBE you’re wrong TOO…
Maybe…
You don’t get to choose a group of people and single them out for bullying…
Its MEAN…
And if you notice someone getting picked on, you should help… Even if you disagree with them…
Or else you’re just as big a jerk… And worse, a coward… And worse still a coward who uses their politics to protect them from making an unpopular choice…
Wrong side of history…
Hi Jacob,
Please address others on this blog with respect. See the Deep Green Resistance moderation & commenting policy if you have any questions about what that means.
I agree with your assessment that females and males who identify as trans are at high risk from violence from men (in homeless shelters and pretty much everywhere else.) The vast vast majority of violence is perpetrated by men, who are raised to believe they’re higher on an acceptable hierarchy of violence than women or other men who don’t perform masculinity well.
Women are already struggling to fight patriarchy and protect themselves from the violence and inequalities it creates. You’re basically telling women they need to put their own efforts on hold, and instead must clean up the mess made by men and inflicted on other men. That’s really not fair. Women have no responsibility to take care of men, even of men trying to reject masculinity. And women have no obligation to accept men into their organizing or vulnerable spaces, again, even if those men are trying to reject masculinity.
I agree that it’s horrible that men and women who identify as trans are subjected to violence, abuse, and harassment. Just as it’s horrible that all women are subjected to violence, abuse, and harassment. But I think it falls on us men to fix the problem. Personally, I feel most just and strategic in supporting feminists in dismantling patriarchy and abolishing gender. Those are the frameworks supporting violence against not just men who identify as trans, but also against all women. Eliminating those social constructs is truly radical in the sense of addressing the root cause of the problems.
If your personal calling is to work directly to set up homeless shelters or other safe spaces for those who identify as trans, go for it! You won’t receive any opposition from DGR, and I doubt from any radical feminists. Just don’t try to tell women what they must do to take care of men.