“On what basis do women’s rights exist if the word ‘woman’ is meaningless?” ~Meghan Murphy
Fay and Fluffy
I was under the impression that the Scopes Monkey Trial had settled the difference between science and belief. There were those who stated unequivocally that God created the earth in six days, and all creatures upon it, including man and woman. Separate and distinct from the animal kingdom. Science said otherwise and science won the day: we are descended from the ape family. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a Chaplain. I love the Bible for the morals values and ethics it teaches through the stories, but it is not my go-to book for all things science.
We are returning to a world where feelings and belief are superseding science, and that is a dangerous world. It is a world with no absolute right or wrong. A dearth of facts. There was a time when we knew that there were two sexes. Male and female. Men have a penis. Women have a vagina. I believe that used to be taught in health class. We knew that there was a spectrum of male and female behaviour: feminine men and manly women. We also knew that some people liked to cross-dress. They were called transvestites. Now, it has always bean easier for a woman to dress like a man than a man like a woman, but the possibility was always available. Perhaps we are living through Transvestite 2.0.
Today, if you feel like a woman, you are. If you feel like a man, you are. Damn the old-world science. This is “woke” science, part of social justice ideology. It is a refusal to accept the idea that we can be different but equal, in value, not necessarily in abilities.
Not too long ago women athletes were thrown out of the Olympics for taking steroids as they unfairly enhanced their abilities. Now we have boys who say they are girls winning in women’s sports.
Doriane Lambelet Coleman wrote in Quillette:
“There is no question that developing as a biological male under the influence of testosterone substantially improves athletic performance, even if subsequent T levels are suppressed. Including someone in the female category who was biologically male until a couple of years before the contest gives her a real advantage, however suppressed her current T levels are.”
The Court For Sport (CAS) declared, “A woman in sport is anyone whose legal identity is female—whether they personally identify as such or not—and who has testosterone (T) levels in the female range.”
Can we not use that definition for all males/females? A little “fair” to pair with “equitable?”
If there is one thing that we as human beings must be able to say, without hesitation… the sex of an individual is determined by a pair of sex chromosomes. Females typically have two of the same kind of sex chromosome (XX), and are called the homogametic sex. Males typically have two different kinds of sex chromosomes (XY), and are called the heterogametic sex.
“There are no tests that can be done to know if someone is transgender – the only way to know is from the person telling you. Some chromosomes are called sex chromosomes which help to determine whether someone has the reproductive body parts of a boy or a girl. Usually, someone who has female body parts has two X chromosomes, and someone who has male body parts has an X and a Y chromosome. Sometimes, this is not the case.There are some people who have differences in their sex chromosomes. For example, some people may have XXY, and some people may have one X or three X’s. These are genetic conditions, which means sometimes having these chromosome differences can result in medical complications.Usually, someone who has female body parts has two X chromosomes, and someone who has male body parts has an X and a Y chromosome. About 1 in 200 people identifies as transgender in the United States. That is 1.4 million people in America! Typically, if someone has a Y chromosome, no matter how many X’s or Y’s, they have the body parts of a boy. If someone doesn’t have a Y chromosome, they have the body parts of a girl. About 1 in 1,600 people may have one of these sex chromosome differences.”
Having differences in sex chromosomes doesn’t mean that someone is transgender. Because remember, being transgender has more to do with how someone feels.
Which brings me to Meghan Murphy, who gave a speech called “Gender Identity: What Does It Mean For Society, The Law and Women?” at a public library in Toronto, Canada. It was hosted by a group called Radical Feminists Unite. Murphy is a Vancouver journalist who has taken a feminist approach to everything from prostitution and pornography to hipster trends, anti-rape advertising and trigger warnings. She stated “If you’re born male, you remain male for life.” She also said that the “trans-activist movement has made for the erasure of women.”
This was considered blasphemy by the politically correct left.
According to Denise Balkissoon, a journalist at the Globe and Mail, “Whatever the dictionary definition of “woman” might read, it’s always been an evolving, contentious term. Ms. Murphy has earned notoriety through her blog, Feminist Current, on which she regularly declares who is and is not an adult woman with the right to define their own life.” To Balkissoon, “True feminism seeks everyone’s safety” and “Womanhood isn’t defined by femininity, race or class.”
“Woman is an evolving contentious term? Well,maybe when it comes to her position in society, but biologically?
Balkissoon went on to write“such tensions may never be fully resolved, as “woman” has never been a static category – spare me discussions of biology, unless you’ve abandoned your infertile and menopausal loved ones.”
That any one would compare a woman – an absolute regarding sex chromosomes – who is infertile or menopausal with a made up “woman,” a man who claims to be a woman, takes us back to the Scopes Monkey trials.
It’s biology, not belief.
According to Balkissoon, Ms. Murphy would “rather make childish lists of who she thinks is and isn’t a woman. Her purported feminism is hollow, made up of fear and meanness rather than a true desire for freedom.”
The insanity of it all. Childish lists of who is and is not a woman? If there is one thing that we as human beings must be able to say without hesitation is that females have XX chromosomes and that a man has XY.
Outliers draw attention. We are allowing, if not promoting, outliers to take charge of our discourse. It’s like making life and death medical decisions based on some anecdotes.
This is a true story about a woman who became a man but kept his/her uterus and had sex and got pregnant. Why is a man getting pregnant? How manly does she feel that she/he keeps her/his uterus? And how can you be living your “truth” as a man if you have a menstrual cycle?
Freddy McConnell, a woman who felt like a man but kept its uterus and gave birth, wanted to be registered as “father” or “parent.”
But a High Court judge in Britain ruled the status of “mother” was afforded to a person who carries and gives birth to a baby. The last time I checked, women gave birth because they have the uterus, the garden into which the seed is planted by the penis from the man.
The judge said while Mr McConnell’s gender was recognised by law as male, his parental status of “mother” derives from the biological role of giving birth.
Mr. McConnell was a single parent, who was born a woman but now lived as a man following surgery. He was biologically able to get pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy, but had legally become a man by the time of the birth.
But he wanted to be a man. So why did he have a baby? Isn’t that a woman “feeling” thing?
One might ask how does a woman becoming a man get pregnant? Here is the answer.
While testosterone generally blocks ovulation, trans men can get pregnant while taking it, particularly if they are not taking it regularly. It’s just one example of the misinformation and discouragement transgender men say they face from the medical establishment when they decide to get pregnant — a problem advocates and experts blame on a lack of training and research around transgender health care, as well as doctors’ biases.
In Australia, where government agencies began tracking both sex and gender in official records in 2013, 54 transgender men gave birth in 2014, And a Dutch study published in the journal Human Reproduction in 2011 found that a majority of trans men reported wanting families. A recently published case study described a transgender man who went to an emergency room with severe abdominal pain — but doctors were slow to realize that he was pregnant and in danger. The man delivered a stillborn baby several hours later.
The doctors were slow to realize the HE was pregnant!
Again I ask:You thought you were a man. Dear God: Whatever happened to science? It is all about belief. I think we are living in the Twilight Zone.
Perhaps Meghan Murphy is right. At least we should give her the freedom to speak. She is concerned about the danger of “self-identification” as the standard for gender-based human rights protection.
“On what basis do women’s rights exist if the word ‘woman’ is meaningless?”
The absurdity of all of this was played out at the public library where Murphy was speaking.
Protesters, including Drag Queen story hour performers Fay and Fluffy announced they would henceforth boycott Toronto Public Library because it let someone rent a room and invite Meghan Murphy to fill it. “Kaleb Robertson, who is the “Fluffy” of the duo, stated on Instagram that they could not “continue a relationship with a space that will host someone who is actively fighting to take away my legal rights as a human.” They have also read at the AGO, ROM, and across classrooms in Ontario.
The duo stated that “Trans people existing and having rights to employment, housing, and safety is not a discussion.”
These are the people who want to read to your children in the library and to children in school. Young children. Why should we share this with pre-pubescent children? What is the purpose? These children barely know the science of sex and making babies but let’s confuse them with belief?
There was a time when drag queens performed for adults. Men dressing as and acting as women has a long history. It was pretend.
Dressing in drag was once just a means of fulfilling female parts in plays — and now it’s become a worldwide phenomenon.
Drag as an art form has exploded largely thanks to the life and career of RuPaul Andre Charles — arguably the most famous drag queen in the world today. The history of drag as a form of entertainment dates back to Shakespearean times and for more utilitarian purposes. Indeed, the history of drag seems to be one inextricably tied to the theatre, and before the theatre of Shakespeare’s time, the stage was used for religious purposes. In the 17th century when Shakespeare’s plays were first performed at the Globe Theatre in London, only men were allowed to take part in the productions, as they were in religious rites. So when plays included female parts, the male actors would dress as women to fill the void. (Do you think any of the performers looked like Fay or Fluffy)? Female impersonation and the history of drag is said to have entwined with gay culture around the 1930’s. By the 1990’s, the world was ready to make the drag queen more mainstream than ever before. RuPaul Charles changed the history of drag in the modern age. RuPaul, who soon after became the first drag queen to ever become a spokesperson for a major cosmetics company with MAC Cosmetics, got his own talk show on VH1, and a morning radio show on WKTU.
Perhaps in the name of feminism and woman, we should have strippers and sex workers come and speak. After all, what girl does not grow up wishing to be a sex worker so she can be sexually abused for money? And what girl does not want to be a stripper? And if she hasn’t yet thought about it at ten…?
I yearn for the days of “WOMAN HEAR ME ROAR.”
The parents of a 7-year-old have been locked in a bitter, public feud that sparked outrage among transgender advocates and Texas politicians alike. Anne Georgulas and Jeffrey Younger have been at odds about how to care for their child, who was assigned male at birth and whom Georgulas claims to be transgender. Younger disagrees.
We don’t let seven year old children stay home alone but it’s OK to let them decide what hormone treatment is for them? Or ask for it or agree with it? Do they know the purpose of hormones at seven? And what about waiting until puberty when the secondary hormones come through. More testosterone is released. And the release of these hormones might influence the structure and function of the developing human brain. Nature just might take its course, if we let her.
Letting children make these decisions, anyone making these decisions can only happen when we walk away from science. Sex is assigned at birth based on… wait for it… genitalia.
And predicting whether a prepubescent child will grow up to be transgender is difficult, said Jason Rafferty, a pediatrician and psychiatrist.
Most medical and psychological professionals agree that affirming children is the best approach for children with gender dysphoria, said Paul Mitrani, clinical director and child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Child Mind Institute in New York.
“Affirming is just saying, ‘This is who you are right now,’” Mitrani said. “You’re not trying to push them one way or another.”
Hormone suppressants, which prevent the gonads from creating sex hormones, stop puberty, give families more time to decide about medical courses of action and can delay the stress that a developing body can cause a gender dysphoric teen, said Mitrani.
People with gender dysphoria may allow themselves to express their true selves and may openly want to be affirmed in their gender identity. They may use clothes and hairstyles and adopt a new first name of their experienced gender. Similarly children with gender dysphoria may express the wish to be of the opposite gender and may assert they are (or will grow up to be) of the opposite gender. They prefer, or demand, clothing, hairstyles and to be called a name of the opposite gender. (Medical transition is only relevant at and after the onset of puberty.)
For children, cross-gender behaviors may start between ages 2 and 4, the same age at which most typically developing children begin showing gendered behaviors and interests. Gender atypical behavior is common among young children and may be part of normal development. Children who meet the criteria for gender dysphoria may or may not continue to experience it into adolescence and adulthood. Some research shows that children who had more intense symptoms and distress, who were more persistent, insistent and consistent in their cross-gender statements and behaviors, and who used more declarative statements (“I am a boy (or girl)” rather than “I want to be a boy (or girl)”) were more likely to become transgender adults.
Your daughter is about to go off to university. She will be in a dorm. Girls only. The university picks the roommates. She discovers her roommate is a boy – well, now he is a girl, because he feels that way, but not committed enough to have his penis removed. Your daughter is not comfortable with this roommate. Does she have the right to say no? Should she have the right to say no? What would a human rights tribunal say?
Perhaps the time has come to talk about science versus belief, and fair versus equitable.
Perhaps the time has come to return to science.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
