Beware This Post Contain Spoil For Arcane ⚠️⚠️

Renowned Feminist Philosopher Judith Butler Tears Transphobic Feminism Apart

Judith Butler says that J.K.Rowling and the transphobic TERFs do not speak for feminism at large.

If you haven’t heard about Judith Butler before, here is a short summary: She is one of the most important gender theorists in modern times.  

When right wing extremists despair about postmodern gender theory, she is probably one of the thinkers they are referring to (not that they have ever read her). 

She has shown how social structures, language,  the stories we tell and the roles we play strengthens the oppression and marginalization of women. In other words: For her gender is definitely a cultural and social phenomenon, and because of that she is on a collision course with the so-called “gender critical feminists” (TERFs) who want to reduce gender to biological sex.

I strongly recommend that you read the recent New Statement interview with Butler, where she addresses the thinking and the tactics of TERFs in very clear terms. The interview is behind a paywall, but you should be able to access a couple of articles for free.

Still – in case you are locked out – here are some important excerpts.

She refuses to think of transphobic TERFs as mainstream feminists.

I want to first question whether trans-exclusionary feminists are really the same as mainstream feminists. If you are right to identify the one with the other, then a feminist position opposing transphobia is a marginal position. I think this may be wrong. My wager is that most feminists support trans rights and oppose all forms of transphobia. 

So I find it worrisome that suddenly the trans-exclusionary radical feminist position is understood as commonly accepted or even mainstream. 

I think it is actually a fringe movement that is seeking to speak in the name of the mainstream, and that our responsibility is to refuse to let that happen. 

She dismisses J.K. Rowling’s idea that allowing people to identify as they want will be a threat to women in women’s bathrooms.

The feminist who holds such a view presumes that the penis does define the person, and that anyone with a penis would identify as a woman for the purposes of entering such changing rooms and posing a threat to the women inside. It assumes that the penis is the threat, or that any person who has a penis who identifies as a woman is engaging in a base, deceitful, and harmful form of disguise. 

This is a rich fantasy, and one that comes from powerful fears, but it does not describe a social reality. Trans women are often discriminated against in men’s bathrooms, and their modes of self-identification are ways of describing a lived reality, one that cannot be captured or regulated by the fantasies brought to bear upon them. 

She dismisses the idea that the term “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” (TERF)  is a slur.

I wonder what name self-declared feminists who wish to exclude trans women from women’s spaces would be called? If they do favour exclusion, why not call them exclusionary? If they understand themselves as belonging to that strain of radical feminism that opposes gender reassignment, why not call them radical feminists? 

My only regret is that there was a movement of radical sexual freedom that once travelled under the name of radical feminism, but it has sadly morphed into a campaign to pathologise trans and gender non-conforming peoples. 

My sense is that we have to renew the feminist commitment to gender equality and gender freedom in order to affirm the complexity of gendered lives as they are currently being lived.

She does not accept the idea that the term gender can be defined once and for all, for example in reference to biology.

We depend on gender as a historical category, and that means we do not yet know all the ways it may come to signify, and we are open to new understandings of its social meanings. 

It would be a disaster for feminism to return either to a strictly biological understanding of gender or to reduce social conduct to a body part or to impose fearful fantasies, their own anxieties, on trans women… Their abiding and very real sense of gender ought to be recognised socially and publicly as a relatively simple matter of according another human dignity. 

She also says:

It is painful to see that Trump’s position that gender should be defined by biological sex, and that the evangelical and right-wing Catholic effort to purge “gender” from education and public policy accords with the trans-exclusionary radical feminists’ return to biological essentialism. 

It is a sad day when some feminists promote the anti-gender ideology position of the most reactionary forces in our society.

So there you have it: One of our leading feminist philosophers are comparing TERFs to the transphobic extremists of the right. And she is right to do so.

It is important to stress this: TERFs are not representative of feminism. They represent a toxic fringe movement that at this point in time does more to help right wing misogynists than women. 

Judith Butler on the culture wars, JK Rowling and living in “anti-intellectual times”

Pink News has also covered this interview.

Butler criticized TERFs back in 2014, as well, as reflected in this interview.

Judith Butler: the backlash against “gender ideology” must stop

Photo: Adorno Preis

this is the most invested i’ve ever been in a poll

@autismswagsummit propaganda time :)

(yes i know i used an not a but i was one the bus and someone was watching over my shoulder so i panicked)

months after the prison, the plan, the half-assed apologies everyone on the server had given each other in order to move on, dream adopts a cat.

he calls her patches, because she has patches over her face and body and okay, maybe he isn’t the most creative, but shut up, punz, it’s a nice name, and it suits her. patches seems to like it: when dream hangs a loose little name tag around her neck, she nuzzles against him, blinking sleepily up at him. drizzles of sunlight spill across her body from the open window. dream lets her lie on his chest that afternoon as he sleeps — he never sleeps during the day, no matter how tired he gets, but somehow, with patches, things are different. she’s small and soft and sleepy and it feels like a crime to put her somewhere else to rest.

it’s with patches that dream feels like he can trust himself again. since the prison, he hasn’t trusted himself with nice things — living or otherwise — and maybe it has something to do with the pets that came and went in the prison, he’s not sure, and he doesn’t want to think too deeply about it. but patches is so unafraid of him and so affectionate that dream can’t help it: he trusts himself, and only himself, with her, and okay, maybe ranboo and techno from time to time.

not punz, though. punz and patches maintain a very healthy rivalry, in which patches scratches punz every opportunity she gets and punz attempts to persuade dream to adopt a dog instead. but dream caught them both playing together when they thought he wasn’t looking, so, smugly, knows punz loves patches as much as he does, even if they pretend otherwise.

and maybe it’s through her teasing of punz, or maybe just through her staunch love for dream, that patches learns… just a few tricks, as the months pass.

she learns to paw at dream’s face when he’s having nightmares in so specific a way that he doesn’t lash out when he wakes up, and instead is greeted with a face full of fluffy cat. nightmares now dissolve in light of his baby, and where dream used to pace the floor for hours after nightmares, he now drifts off back to sleep, patches’ purring soothing him into better dreams.

she learns how to diffuse tension between her loved ones — whenever she senses dream being stubborn or punz being abrupt or one of the syndicate members being infuriatingly secretive, patches will find her way in between the conflict, staring up with big yellow eyes and meowing plaintively. arguments and brewing fights are forgotten in the wake of patches being demanding, and are resumed later when emotions have calmed and logic kicks in.

“i think she’s just learned to stop fights because she knows uncle techno will give her, like, a ton of fish for being good,” dream grumbles one night, eyeing patches sitting smugly with a full bowl of food, “you’ve pavlov’d her, techno.”

“whaaaat,” techno drawls, dropping an extra fish into patches’ bowl that’s almost larger than her whole body, “what’re you talkin’ about, i would never.”

“you spoil that cat,” philza calls as he enters the room, shaking snow off his coat and wings, “and you say you’re not soft, mate.”

ranboo chuckles while techno scoffs.

“soft? no, no, phil, you don’t understand. we’re raisin’ a warrior here. she’ll be the best one of us all, wait and see.”

…and dream isn’t sure whether or not techno really is training patches, but he starts noticing some suspicious activity that leaves him squinting at patches in a new light.

the way unfamiliar footprints in the snow approach the cabin, and heavier, hurried ones leave very abruptly, almost as if chased away by something. the way shadows seem to shrink off of walls whenever patches looks at them. the way sam and quackity seem very loathe to ever approach the house, and the way patches is always very threateningly chewing something red and tentacle-like whenever one of the eggpire appear for a visit.

bad actually brings it up to dream, one time. “i think your cat’s possessed,” he says nervously, eyeing the closed door like he expects patches to float through with glowing eyes, “i’m not even memeing around. i think she’s possessed or something, dream.”

“patches?” dream chuckles, warily. “she’s harmless. literally just last night she, um, got stuck in a two block hole in the ground and sat there meowing for ages for us to free her. she’s just a baby.”

“a baby demon.” bad shifts uneasily. “maybe she plays the innocent card in front of you! but i dunno, dream… quackity was telling me—”

“well, that’s quackity, of course patches isn’t gonna like him,” dream scoffs, “she probably picks up on his horrible, horrible vibes.”

“it’s not just that! he says some… creature chased him away from the cabin one night. okay, so— he admitted, he was having like, an awful day and he wanted to come and pick a fight with techno— which is stupid, and he was a jerk, but this was ages ago— and all of a sudden, a huge, cat-like creature with glowing red eyes and tendrils of black magic appeared in front of him, hissing and yowling— he thought he was gonna die.”

quackity is more stupid than dream had originally thought. still… dream thinks dubiously of his baby cat, who hasn’t learned not to hiss every time she goes out in the snow because she’s still surprised how cold it is and who acts like she’s dying every time she’s forced to bathe. “and he thinks that’s patches. my patches. what, was he drunk or something? or, like, i don’t know, out of his mind? patches is a baby. and her eyes don’t glo—”

he’s cut off by bad’s screech and stumble back. hands raising protectively, dream whirls around, ready to fight, but instantly relaxes when he sees who it is. “oh, patches!” he says, scooping her up. patches offers him pathetic eyes and a whimpering little meow. “oh, come on, now, i’m gonna get you lunch soon, i promise. you literally had breakfast an hour ago, how are you hungry?”

“you— you didn’t see that?!”

dream blinks, bemused. “what, patches?”

bad’s mouth is agape, and he points a trembling finger at patches. “you didn’t— her shadow grew on the wall and her eyes glowed, all her fur stood on end— dream,” he babbles, “you’ve literally adopted a demon. a demon cat. patches isn’t normal!”

“…that’s mean. look, she just— sometimes when she’s hungry or in a bad mood, she gets a little agitated, but she’s a sweetheart.” patches purrs affirmatively. “see? she’s not— a demon cat, bad. look, you’ll see. let me get her food, and then you’ll see she’s calmer.”

but it’s as dream leaves the room that the lights over bad flicker and go out completely, leaving the spooked man in the dark. when he turns around to leave, all he can see are patches glowing eyes, looking down on him evilly from dream’s arms as he exits the room. a gust of cold wind hits bad out of nowhere, and if he’d been outside, he would have seen the lightning strike right above his head.

instead, he just hears an imprint of words in his head, like someone — something — is speaking directly into his mind. it’s nowhere near as evil as the egg, but it’s ten times more powerful, and ten times more scary.

don’t tell my secret, badboyhalo.

bad gulps, and hurriedly follows dream into the kitchen, where patches is being given a generous helping of fish. as she wolfs it down, she blinks up at bad, and bad shivers. there’s ancient wisdom in those eyes, the very forces of good and evil reflected back at him.

but dream is smiling fondly at his kitten, and bad hasn’t seen him smiling in a long time. so, he ducks his head in understanding at the benevolent god cat eating fish in front of him, and patches — whisperer of worlds, echoer of eons, guardian of realms and bringer of dreams — purrs softly back.

“People are inherently terrible” no!!! Have you ever seen a child wait for their friend while they tie their shoelaces? Have you ever known someone who would bring hurt squirrels and rabbits and mice to the nearest vet just so it doesn’t suffer? Have you seen someone grieve? Have you ever read something that hit your heart like a freight train? Have you looked at the stars and felt an unexplainable joy? Have you ever baked bread? Have you shared a meal with a friend? Have you not seen it? All the love? All the good? I know it’s hard to see sometimes, I know there’s pain everywhere. But look, there’s a child helping another up after a hard fall. Look, there’s someone giving their umbrella to a stranger. Look, there’s someone admiring the spring flowers. Look, there’s good, there’s good, there’s good. Look!!!!

I've rarely seen a more validating sentence in my entire life.

tommy is a gremlin, he behaves like a sim, he’s a millionaire, he’s living in a horror movie set, he has plot armor, he has maxed out charisma stats and transcended the capacity for embarrassment, he gets zero bitches, he will talk to literally anyone, everyone he meets only has good things to say about him, he’s straight, he wears rainbow socks and drinks from a gay water bottle, a demonic doll shared bunk beds with him for two months, he loves making content, if he streams for over an hour an half he will die, he’s made a big impact on fellow ccs from how he makes content and on fans for just being himself, he loves to do legos and invites people over just to watch him do it, he got himself an internet brother except it’s not a joke anymore and they’re just real brothers, he does literally whatever he wants and it works out, he’s living his best life, we’re all just background characters in his main character arc

Love at first sight : classic, seen over and over, bland, boring

HATE at first sight : new, exciting, spiteful, refreshing, sassy, spicy

Reblog this to prove your blog was made before the February 2022 tumblr resurgence

the “pleasure to have in class” to overly active tumblr user pipeline