Why do think some women really can't stop supporting this? I know some of the reasons - being kind, seeing men who identify as women (I know the boxers didn't though in a way they did, just not in the 'trans' way) as like us, concern about bring criticised, it's not a big deal and so on, but what about the absolute insistence on it despite all the evidence?
It's totally perplexing, isn't it? I go through different theories and give them different weight. Today's one is that a lot of straight people can't imagine being gay and think being trans is another inexplicable thing to them like being gay, and like they came to support gay things without truly understanding it they will equally support trans stuff which they don't understand. I think once you give over the idea that you will never understand you just have to accept, you relinquish some of your critical thinking. So maybe the gay ally thing was from a position of empathy rather than being able to analyse something logically? I think that's illustrated in the way the same people are so into the "kids know themselves better than anyone, you don't have to understand you just have to support" stuff.
Older theories, it's a cult, the media is pushing propaganda, it's the normal devoid of rationality path of devotees to a fundamentalist religion in which dissent is not tolerated, i.e it gets more and more extreme. I predict that when it's clear that Imane is a male, as surely has to come out, then these people will just say well identity is all that matters.
But that doesn't explain women who would normally have seen themselves as part of a women's rights movement giving them away to men. For many feminists this isn't about having a trans identity (we have no difficulty with a trans man competing in the female sports category as one boxer did at the Olympics). It's men who use the identity of being a woman to insert themselves into the female category where it is absolutely relevant. Most of them know they will have an advantage and win scholarships, prize money, kudos etc. Women who identify as male will never achieve that in the male category. So by the power of deduction you would think some of these women would see the inherent unfairness in it. Also athletes with DSDs who are male. These women are like turkeys voting for Xmas. It appears that they think feelings are more important than facts. Sex matters. But gender identity/queer theory is trying to make it disappear. As we say if male sports were affected and impacted in this way they wouldn't accept it for one minute. Too many women, on the other hand, want to be liked too much.
Totally agree. And some of them are really bright, engaged, seemingly critical on other issues, and consider themselves pro-science and atheists. And it's because of this I can only come up with the idea of a kind of fundamentalist thought-stopping religion sweeping through the media, govt bureaucracies and the prominent left here. The media and social media campaign has been so successful that many influential people believe that biological sex is a colonial, white supremacy notion that was imposed on other cultures, that men can become women, that healthy children need drugs to be their true authentic selves and that JK Rowling is as bad as a Nazi etc. And if you question any of this you get ridiculed or villified. They have untethered themselves from reality.
So even though this wasn't a trans issue some pro trans 'feminists' see it as the same issue of evil hateful women policing what it is to be a woman while they are kind and liberated. It's like a religious riot where they get to declare their faith and burn the heretics. And as you see lots of dude bros will happily join in hating on women sticking up for women's rights and having boundaries.
Also the popular narrative in NZ at least is very much, true feminism centres transwomen. Well known feminists go to protests with signs saying I stand up for my sisters not just my cisters. All our legacy women's organisations now say men can be women. So feminists now believe feminism means standing up for inclusion of males in female things.
Unfortunately there are, it seems, quite a number of women, maybe those not involved in any sport, I don’t know, that are quite in favor of women’s sports being infiltrated by men, who say, for various reasons, they are women. If you are worried, as I am, about men gradually taking over women’s sports, you are called various rude names, as, it seems, these people can’t actually put forth a logical explanation for their point of view but just become rude and insulting. Great article and in the UK it’s fairly similar as the media is mostly not even trying to report this matter seriously.
This is excellent. So clear and comprehensive, and it has to be said too in this environment, courageous. Russell Brown in his Listener column also described Carini's concession of the match after just 46 seconds as 'bizarre'. The 'single-narrative' you speak of all NZ journalists following on this story is indeed suspicious of the sex-denialist lobbyists' direct interference. And definitely a 'whiff' of misogyny in all of it. More than a whiff indeed. It's a bloody pong!
A very in-depth analysis of media corruption and brainwashing in NZ. Appreciating your work! I found this piece of writing by Jo Brew about the meaning of 'good' very insightful and so true! The 'do gooders' and transmaids are in fierce competition. Anyone for DEI medals and flowers? They are affirming each other constantly against their own 'good'! https://jobrew.substack.com/p/why-do-transmaids-think-they-are
Thanks so much for this article. It was like a bath for my mind, to have this tangled mess laid out so clearly. The NZ media has been so appalling on this issue and it can provoke a disorienting loneliness when those around you don't see it or don't care about it. I really appreciate the enormous time it must take to do this kind of thorough analysis.
My frustrated brain must have been chewing over it all-because I woke up on Sunday morning and this little rhyming verse had downloaded while I slept:
Sigh. I note that part of the publicity for this Olympics included statements similar to this, "These were the first Games in history to achieve gender parity in terms of having an equal number of women and men compete." Well sure, if you are counting men as women that is, it does make this easier to achieve. And even for those men in womanface who lose (Laurel Hubbard, anyone?), their presence itself is a loss for women who have missed out on the opportunity of competing at this elite level.
In sports you can be inclusive (of men's feelings) or fair to women, but you can't do both. Identities don't play sports, bodies do.
And the interaction between the Algerian and his support team proves they know this, but are happy to pretend otherwise. That's the only way to account for the intimate behaviour (like being carried by a man) that was photographed repeatedly.
I get The Press, saw the Beachem tripe & a piece from Telegraph Group in a wknd Press in the middle of the Games that was fair...hats off to you for this scrutiny. I called out the Platform's Leah Panapa & Dean Lonergan on X after her interview with him on the matter, for not having done their homework..Leah told me I was rude, I was a bit, & that it was me who hadn't done the homework, that any info I had gleaned from X threads were from 'rabbit holes'...she said all this on X...lol. Both should know better.
Great comprehensive précis on NZ’s shameful media coverage of this controversy. I applaud you for being brave enough to wade into the murky reportage, where many of us are too afraid of the mind-damage we’ll do to ourselves from what we’ll read there. This blog-piece is a valuable record for posterity :-)
Why do think some women really can't stop supporting this? I know some of the reasons - being kind, seeing men who identify as women (I know the boxers didn't though in a way they did, just not in the 'trans' way) as like us, concern about bring criticised, it's not a big deal and so on, but what about the absolute insistence on it despite all the evidence?
It's totally perplexing, isn't it? I go through different theories and give them different weight. Today's one is that a lot of straight people can't imagine being gay and think being trans is another inexplicable thing to them like being gay, and like they came to support gay things without truly understanding it they will equally support trans stuff which they don't understand. I think once you give over the idea that you will never understand you just have to accept, you relinquish some of your critical thinking. So maybe the gay ally thing was from a position of empathy rather than being able to analyse something logically? I think that's illustrated in the way the same people are so into the "kids know themselves better than anyone, you don't have to understand you just have to support" stuff.
Older theories, it's a cult, the media is pushing propaganda, it's the normal devoid of rationality path of devotees to a fundamentalist religion in which dissent is not tolerated, i.e it gets more and more extreme. I predict that when it's clear that Imane is a male, as surely has to come out, then these people will just say well identity is all that matters.
But that doesn't explain women who would normally have seen themselves as part of a women's rights movement giving them away to men. For many feminists this isn't about having a trans identity (we have no difficulty with a trans man competing in the female sports category as one boxer did at the Olympics). It's men who use the identity of being a woman to insert themselves into the female category where it is absolutely relevant. Most of them know they will have an advantage and win scholarships, prize money, kudos etc. Women who identify as male will never achieve that in the male category. So by the power of deduction you would think some of these women would see the inherent unfairness in it. Also athletes with DSDs who are male. These women are like turkeys voting for Xmas. It appears that they think feelings are more important than facts. Sex matters. But gender identity/queer theory is trying to make it disappear. As we say if male sports were affected and impacted in this way they wouldn't accept it for one minute. Too many women, on the other hand, want to be liked too much.
Totally agree. And some of them are really bright, engaged, seemingly critical on other issues, and consider themselves pro-science and atheists. And it's because of this I can only come up with the idea of a kind of fundamentalist thought-stopping religion sweeping through the media, govt bureaucracies and the prominent left here. The media and social media campaign has been so successful that many influential people believe that biological sex is a colonial, white supremacy notion that was imposed on other cultures, that men can become women, that healthy children need drugs to be their true authentic selves and that JK Rowling is as bad as a Nazi etc. And if you question any of this you get ridiculed or villified. They have untethered themselves from reality.
So even though this wasn't a trans issue some pro trans 'feminists' see it as the same issue of evil hateful women policing what it is to be a woman while they are kind and liberated. It's like a religious riot where they get to declare their faith and burn the heretics. And as you see lots of dude bros will happily join in hating on women sticking up for women's rights and having boundaries.
Also the popular narrative in NZ at least is very much, true feminism centres transwomen. Well known feminists go to protests with signs saying I stand up for my sisters not just my cisters. All our legacy women's organisations now say men can be women. So feminists now believe feminism means standing up for inclusion of males in female things.
Unfortunately there are, it seems, quite a number of women, maybe those not involved in any sport, I don’t know, that are quite in favor of women’s sports being infiltrated by men, who say, for various reasons, they are women. If you are worried, as I am, about men gradually taking over women’s sports, you are called various rude names, as, it seems, these people can’t actually put forth a logical explanation for their point of view but just become rude and insulting. Great article and in the UK it’s fairly similar as the media is mostly not even trying to report this matter seriously.
Good article…if you shout loud enough, the populace will accept your narrative.
I missed Russell Brown's Listener piece where he said what everyone above is saying AND brought in the Russian plot thing. Go Russ. Terf Vibes did a great analysis of that piece over on her substack here: MALE PATTERN BLINDNESS: https://open.substack.com/pub/terfvibes/p/male-pattern-blindness?r=1eev2p&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
This is excellent. So clear and comprehensive, and it has to be said too in this environment, courageous. Russell Brown in his Listener column also described Carini's concession of the match after just 46 seconds as 'bizarre'. The 'single-narrative' you speak of all NZ journalists following on this story is indeed suspicious of the sex-denialist lobbyists' direct interference. And definitely a 'whiff' of misogyny in all of it. More than a whiff indeed. It's a bloody pong!
A very in-depth analysis of media corruption and brainwashing in NZ. Appreciating your work! I found this piece of writing by Jo Brew about the meaning of 'good' very insightful and so true! The 'do gooders' and transmaids are in fierce competition. Anyone for DEI medals and flowers? They are affirming each other constantly against their own 'good'! https://jobrew.substack.com/p/why-do-transmaids-think-they-are
Oh I'll have a read thanks Margo. And thanks for all the supportive comments.
Thanks so much for this article. It was like a bath for my mind, to have this tangled mess laid out so clearly. The NZ media has been so appalling on this issue and it can provoke a disorienting loneliness when those around you don't see it or don't care about it. I really appreciate the enormous time it must take to do this kind of thorough analysis.
My frustrated brain must have been chewing over it all-because I woke up on Sunday morning and this little rhyming verse had downloaded while I slept:
We all know Y
Power punches talent
Straight between the eyes
Truth gets hit by fantasy
Then must apologise
Media magicians conjure
"Nuance" and "Confusion"
Fairness, Safety
Girls with dreams-
Defeated by
"Inclusion".
Xx
Lovely feedback and thanks for your support. And the rhyme!
Brilliant and super clear piece as usual! So heartening, thank you.
Thank you Lorraine.
Sigh. I note that part of the publicity for this Olympics included statements similar to this, "These were the first Games in history to achieve gender parity in terms of having an equal number of women and men compete." Well sure, if you are counting men as women that is, it does make this easier to achieve. And even for those men in womanface who lose (Laurel Hubbard, anyone?), their presence itself is a loss for women who have missed out on the opportunity of competing at this elite level.
In sports you can be inclusive (of men's feelings) or fair to women, but you can't do both. Identities don't play sports, bodies do.
And the interaction between the Algerian and his support team proves they know this, but are happy to pretend otherwise. That's the only way to account for the intimate behaviour (like being carried by a man) that was photographed repeatedly.
Beautifully put.
I get The Press, saw the Beachem tripe & a piece from Telegraph Group in a wknd Press in the middle of the Games that was fair...hats off to you for this scrutiny. I called out the Platform's Leah Panapa & Dean Lonergan on X after her interview with him on the matter, for not having done their homework..Leah told me I was rude, I was a bit, & that it was me who hadn't done the homework, that any info I had gleaned from X threads were from 'rabbit holes'...she said all this on X...lol. Both should know better.
Both referred to the boxers as 'she'.
Deep sigh from me.
Great comprehensive précis on NZ’s shameful media coverage of this controversy. I applaud you for being brave enough to wade into the murky reportage, where many of us are too afraid of the mind-damage we’ll do to ourselves from what we’ll read there. This blog-piece is a valuable record for posterity :-)
Thanks so much Katrina.
Great article. Thank you for what you do - a sane voice in the midst of the crazy!
What a nice thing to say. You're very welcome.