Thank you for this book review Dee. All sounds well informed and highly topical. Another companion to get into and to be read alongside Kathleen Stock's "Material Girls, Why Reality Matters for Feminism"!
This article helped me to understand the issues. I had been labouring under the false assumption that “trans” meant people who have undergone medical procedures in order to alter their bodies, what we used to call a “sex change”. Two male people I worked with about forty years ago had become women in this sense.
I did not know that a mere self-declaration of gender identity has been deemed sufficient for males to be recognised as females.
I think that I am a more traditional feminist regarding this issue.
I understand the difficulties encountered by transvestites, when dealing with troglodyte males, but the danger of rapists wearing dresses is real.
I think that many drag artists present an exaggerated image of femininity which is insulting to many women that I know, and that this panders to the traditional predatory male attitudes perpetuated within patriarchal societies.
The biggest problems with gender relationships relate to traditional gender roles, and primarily the notion that it is “normal” for men to be predators.
Another problem is that gender, like race and religion, is an issue that is often used to distract people from more fundamental issues such as the uncontrolled exploitation of all of us and the world we live in by corporate interests and their political accomplices.
Many thanks for your comments. You raise a very good point about drag artists and exaggerated images of femininity which are pushed to the mainstream in promoting 'Drag Story Time' to schools and in TV programmes such as Ru Paul's Drag Race. I wonder whether this is the modern day sex/gender equivalent of the Black and White Minstrel Show?
Thank you for this book review Dee. All sounds well informed and highly topical. Another companion to get into and to be read alongside Kathleen Stock's "Material Girls, Why Reality Matters for Feminism"!
This article helped me to understand the issues. I had been labouring under the false assumption that “trans” meant people who have undergone medical procedures in order to alter their bodies, what we used to call a “sex change”. Two male people I worked with about forty years ago had become women in this sense.
I did not know that a mere self-declaration of gender identity has been deemed sufficient for males to be recognised as females.
I think that I am a more traditional feminist regarding this issue.
I understand the difficulties encountered by transvestites, when dealing with troglodyte males, but the danger of rapists wearing dresses is real.
I think that many drag artists present an exaggerated image of femininity which is insulting to many women that I know, and that this panders to the traditional predatory male attitudes perpetuated within patriarchal societies.
The biggest problems with gender relationships relate to traditional gender roles, and primarily the notion that it is “normal” for men to be predators.
Another problem is that gender, like race and religion, is an issue that is often used to distract people from more fundamental issues such as the uncontrolled exploitation of all of us and the world we live in by corporate interests and their political accomplices.
Many thanks for your comments. You raise a very good point about drag artists and exaggerated images of femininity which are pushed to the mainstream in promoting 'Drag Story Time' to schools and in TV programmes such as Ru Paul's Drag Race. I wonder whether this is the modern day sex/gender equivalent of the Black and White Minstrel Show?