Gender critical politics
The UK general election and US presidential campaigns have further exposed the insidious nature of gender critical voices in the UK and US. Rather than advocate for holistic women’s rights, including full access to abortion, child benefits, and equal pay, gender critical voices have swung for trans healthcare, access to public facilities and doubling down on calling all trans women sexual predators in waiting. So called feminists, they see women purely through the lens of victimhood that no trans woman can ever experience, setting up a political misogyny rooted in their own fears and prejudices. Attacking trans women is the only tool they have to fight the overwhelming patriarchal menace they perceive because it means they can feel like they are punching up when in fact they are bullies punching down.
Riley Gaines attacks Lea Thomas ad nauseam because it the only thing she has in her life. Attacking trans girls fairly competing gives her a small sliver of relevance because the right-wing funders see her as a useful shill. Same with Maya Forstater in the UK, who played the useful fool in her court case, was given a chunk of change to found Sex Matters and is now stuck forever as an exclusionary feminist. J K Rowling has immolated her reputation in much the same way, choosing to demean and attack trans people in the desperate attempt at staying in the public consciousness, all the while cozying up to…
