This day in Herstory: Sophie Lihau-Kanza or Zala Lusibu N'Kanza, born February 8, 1940 (died April 2, 1999), was a Congolese politician and sociologist. She was the first woman of her country to receive a secondary education, the first to graduate from a university, and the first to hold a government office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, serving as Minister of Social Affairs from 31 October 1966 to 6 December 1970. In her later life she held positions within the United Nations. (more)
Sex work is valid work, says Louis Theroux
From The Times (UK)
By Jake Kanter
Feb 8, 2022
Louis Theroux has compared pornography to junk food and argued that sex work is a valid occupation in the modern world.
The film-maker returns to BBC2 on Sunday with Forbidden America, a three-part series that explores the adult entertainment industry as it grapples with its own MeToo movement.
Theroux, 51, told Radio Times that he has watched pornography for the sake of expediency. He admitted: “I’ve been a user of porn. I sort of see it as a bit like . . . maybe this sounds harsh, but it’s a bit like junk food, right?
“It’s not something you’re especially proud of using. But there are times in your life when you can’t get a decent meal, or you’re in a rush, or you’re just trying to get a need met.” …
Theroux added that his children were approaching an age where their internet searches may lead them to pornography. “I have said to them, ‘When you see porn, if this is something you’ve stumbled across, just so you know, that’s not the real world. That’s not how people have sex,’” he added.
He said sex work should be seen as an acceptable alternative to a traditional career. Forbidden America will investigate the OnlyFans phenomenon, which has given performers their own online following and financial independence.
“I genuinely see sex work as work, and valid work, and I know that’s controversial in some quarters,” he said. “These stories are hard to tell, because enlightened, thoughtful, intelligent people can disagree passionately about what it means to be paid to have sex.” … read full article
Trans activists ask us to redefine what most consider to be truth
The subject has become so toxic and all-consuming because of people's resistance to compelled speech.
From The New Statesman (UK Edition)
By Louise Perry, @Louise_m_perry
Feb 8, 2022
On 31 January the parenting platform Mumsnet hosted a Q&A with the MPs Stella Creasy and Caroline Nokes. At least half of the questions posed by Mumsnet users were concerned with one particular question, phrased in a variety of ways: “What is a woman?” … read full article (PAYWALL)
Bristol University launches gender pronoun guide with ‘catgender’ and ‘emojiself’ options
From The Independent via Yahoo News (USA)
By Charley Ross
Feb 8, 2022
A pronoun guide intended to educate Bristol University staff on gender inclusion has divided opinion due to references to ‘catgender’ and ‘emojiself’.
The university published this guide with links to sources stating that some people may identify as felines and others could use ‘emojiself pronouns’, which refers to the use of emojis to express a pronoun, which can be gender neutral.
According to the LGBTA Wiki the guide linked out to, "someone who is catgender may use nya/nyan pronouns". Nya/nyan means “meow” in Japanese. Catgender is also described as someone who "strongly identifies" with cats or other felines or “experiences delusions relating to being a cat or other feline".
Reactions to this guide have ranged from confused to outraged, with some referring to it as “beyond satire” and “embarrassing”.
Trans campaigner Debbie Hayton has sarcastically tweeted that she’ll be using “eye roll” and “angry” emojis for her ‘emojiself’ pronouns. She also told The Telegraph: "It brings the whole concept of being a transsexual and transitioning in society into disrepute, we didn’t ask for this," she said. "Pronouns are there to describe what we see and what we know."
The links and mentions of ‘catgender and ‘emojiself’ have since been removed from the guide. … read full article
Former Sussex University professor at centre of gender identity row to collect OBE
From ITV News (UK)
Feb 8, 2022
A professor of philosophy who was targeted by activists over her views on gender identity will collect an OBE at Windsor Castle later.
Professor Kathleen Stock faced death threats and accusations of transphobia and announced she would be leaving the University of Sussex in October last year after a “horrible time”.
Her decision came after an anonymous group, reportedly set up by students, launched a campaign to get her sacked amid accusations of transphobia.
Prof Stock will be recognised for services to higher education and is expected to pick up her gong from the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle. … read full article
GC News Editor’s comment on the next two excerpts
I don’t often comment on the articles we link to at GC News, but the following two warrant a brief note.
I’m presenting them in the order in which they were published this morning. The first is from Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT), on Substack. The second is a response to it from Jennifer Bilek, in her 11th Hour Blog.
They present opposing views, although both are strong advocates of GC positions. I do not side with either view. I find both arguments compelling and strongly encourage all GC News readers to read both articles fully. Both make important points and I suspect there will be a wide range of opinions in response. Please feel free to use the Comments section for today’s post to share your thoughts.
This disagreement, and others like it, will almost certainly continue to arise among those who share opposition to gender ideology. We are a diverse coalition and differ widely on many basic perspectives. At the same time, we share a common cause: fighting the many pernicious effects of the rampant and rapidly proliferating gender delusions. In my opinion, the most important aspect of the debate is that disagreements often occur among people who are equally committed to finding the best way forward.
Sometimes, reasonable discussion can find a shared understanding. But often the only resolution is to agree to disagree. In those cases, each of us is challenged to find our own pathway to respecting those who think differently. Failing that, we risk being reduced to the pitiable intellectual and moral failings of the transgender activists.
It's about winning.
From Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT)
by PITT
Feb 8, 2022
Last week the comments on our post, “It’s Strategy, People!!!” got out of control, with vitriol, personal attacks, misrepresentations and finger pointing—people on “our side” even stooped to sending trolls to our site. It was like nothing we’ve ever dealt with on our Substack—sad to witness, as well as extremely upsetting to many parents and horribly counterproductive to the cause.
We want to be clear: We can and will exercise our prerogative to delete comments. We WILL refuse PITT as a platform to those who slam parents.
So, for now, comments are off.
PITT parents are not weak. We are also not particularly friendly to anyone that would speak ill of our beloved kids or point fingers at us as we try to do our best, despite ridiculously adverse circumstances. It is bad enough having society saying we are wrong for not transing our kids, but having people supposedly on our side saying we are abusive BECAUSE our kids became trans identified and saying it must be our fault? We will not tolerate it. We tell our stories on PITT, not yours, and we advance OUR agenda.
Some of our readers seem to think that the parents of PITT have an obligation to be ideological purists or to support all interest groups in the gender wars. Some commenters seem to think that PITT stories, authors, and moderators are required to remain entirely neutral and open to all critiques and opinions. What in the world gave you these ideas? We have no such obligations. Clearly we have opinions and an agenda—to save our kids. There’s nothing sneaky going on here; just read our “about” page. PITT parents are not neutral bystanders having an intellectual debate. We are pushing back against gender ideology with an urgency that reflects the danger it poses to our children.
If it’s ideological purity, adherence to special interest group agendas, a space for you to express your viewpoints, or neutrality you are looking for, you won’t find it at PITT. Find a friendly soapbox, start your own blog, or try to find a group that will bend the knee to your pressure tactics and name-calling. No enemy or ally will distract us from protecting our kids.
There are no more extremists amongst the parent community than in the general population. We are ordinary people who were civilians before we were “radicalized” by gender ideology and the threat it poses—if radicalized is the right word for asking questions and applying critical thinking skills. Most of us had little to no knowledge about the gender aspect of the culture wars until it darkened our doors. Now we are insurgents. However slow we were to awaken, we now stand as willing human shields in front of what matters most to us—our children. If we fall, countless other parents will step into our places.
We work within the particular circumstances of our child and our family to achieve the best outcome for our kids. We are a far cry from the abusive parents that just kick their “trans” kids out of their house because they are “transphobic”. We are also a far cry from the parents that cheer as their kids take wrong sex hormones and pretend to be the opposite sex. We take a rational approach and sometimes that involves compromise.
Do we believe “trans” is real? No, we don’t. Do we believe that gender ideology is harmful and toxic? And that medicalization of identities is wrong? Yes, we do. Do we come right out and say that to our kids 100% of the time? No, we don’t, and some of us even play along with the gender game. … read full article
Has “ROGD Parent” Become an Identity?
From The 11th Hour Blog
By Jennifer Bilek
Feb 8, 2022
The stories of parents caught between the techno-medical complex and their kids sucked into the gender cult have contorted my heart into positions I didn’t know it could stretch, so much have I felt for them. But listening to Youtuber, Karen Davis’s critiques of the parent advocacy group, GenSpect recently, and the vitriol she is receiving from parents, I started to notice these organizations are now becoming a hindrance to real political action that might change the landscape for parents and for women whose rights to even name themselves are being rapidly stripped away.
This past week, a mother from another organization of parents, which is umbrellaed under the GenSpect parent group, wrote a piece entitled It's Strategy People!!, in support of GenSpect. The group is called Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) and is housed on the Substack blogging platform. The piece was a caged memo to feminist activists who have recently been pushing a harder front line that does not capitulate to gender ideology, and specifically putting Karen Davis, critiquing GenSpect and those aligning with her on notice: Parents would not tolerate dissent from their narrative and the organizations buffering them from the public.
ROGD, an acronym that stands for Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, coined by Lisa Littman, a physician, and scientist, describes an explosive social phenomenon of children presenting with body dysphoria related to their sex. In the past several years many organizations to help parents navigate their children’s ROGD have emerged in various countries.
4th Wave Now, was one of the first organizations for people questioning the medicalization of gender-atypical youth, which was begun by a parent, and attracted other parents of children claiming special sex identities and seeking serious medical interventions. On its heels, TransgenderTrend, a group of parents, professionals, and academics who are concerned about the number of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria formed. Current iterations of these organizations and the ones finding themselves under the scrutiny of Karen Davis, are Gender Dysphoria Alliance and GenSpect.
While these organizations have been helpful in getting information to parents, supporting them when there seemed no place else to turn, they have become, for many of us in the pro-reality movement, an anchor on the necessity of ending the lie that anyone transitions, or that anyone’s body should be treated as experimental fodder for a corporate agenda to colonize human sex.
As these organizations grow, through fundraising, the justification for their existence will need to be continually solidified with the idea that some children should be medicalized, that “transgender” is something real, which in turn solidifies the attack on women’s rights and on women who will not submit to this concept. These organizations, whether they realize it or not are becoming part of the gender industry, supporting the medicalization of children, in moderation, and to hell with whatever happens to women in the process.
In response to the PITT post, several feminist activists (myself included), a few parents, and a young person who’d almost been captured by the gender cult, jumped into the comments section of the piece to articulate our concerns. The concerns focused on the continued anonymity of parents, their partnering with organizations, like GenSpect, that solidify the concept of gender identity, and GenSpects message of better oversight for children with body dysphoria, versus ending the medicalization of children’s bodies entirely and unequivocally. There is no such thing as a little bit of eugenics and there is no such thing as “transgender people.” It is corporate fiction.
Those of us on the thread, supporting a feminist analysis called out GenSpect’s support of the overall concept of “trans” people, that there is such a thing as “transphobia” (a slur being weaponized to silence women resisting their own erasure), their affiliations with men in the sex research industries who support the destigmatization of pedophilia, their platforming of people who are self-harming and still claiming special sex identities as well as pornographers, interviews with adult men who have autogynephilla, and their lack of a clear message about what they are actually accomplishing politically against the gender industry. … read full article
Oklahoma bill seeks to ban gender reassignment treatment for those under 21
From KTUL News (USA)
By Ashley Ellis
Feb 8, 2022
TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — An Oklahoma lawmaker wants to prevent those under the age of 21 from undergoing gender reassignment procedures and treatment.
State Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, filed Senate Bill 676, which would make it illegal for someone under 21 to undergo gender reassignment medical treatment or for a health care professional to intentionally perform that treatment.
The bill defines "gender reassignment medical treatment" as any health care to facilitate the transitioning from a patient's assigned gender identity on the patient's birth certificate.
“These procedures and transitions are life-altering, and this decision shouldn’t be made by those unable to see the long-term effects of such treatments,” Hamilton said in a press release. “My concern is many of these children may be convinced by society at a young age that they are not the gender they were born as. It’s completely normal, for example, for girls to be ‘tomboys,’ but that doesn’t mean they should be a boy. Let’s leave these important decisions to adults.” … read full article
Correctional Service of Canada urged to draft new directive upholding right to gender identity
Feminist groups opposed draft directive on managing offenders with gender identity considerations
From Canadian Lawyer (Canada)
By Katrina Eñano
Feb 8, 2022
Two feminist groups have expressed concern over the Correctional Service Canada’s (CSC) draft directive on managing offenders with gender identity or expression considerations.
In their joint letter, the Morgane Oger Foundation and the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) urged CSC not to implement the draft directive or the “Management of Offenders with Gender Identity or Expression Considerations.”
Under the draft directive, offenders will initially be classified according to biological sex or the condition of being male or female. Then, they will be admitted to either a men’s or women’s correctional institution based on their biological sex, unless and until a thorough assessment takes place and there are no overriding health or safety concerns.
According to Morgane and LEAF, the draft directive is “rooted in transphobic views of sex and gender,” causing significant harm to transgender, two-spirit, non-binary and gender-diverse individuals in the correctional institutions.
“The directive’s foundational assumption is that persons are to be categorized and placed according to sex, rather than according to their gender identity,” they said. “This is based on an outmoded assumption, no longer accepted in human rights law, that one’s sex characteristics and histories constitute one’s real sex.” … read full article
That's interesting Louis used that analogy. I've used it too but to say that learning about healthy sex from porn is as good as learning about healthy eating from a fast food chain (that is to say it's not). I think he should have said "But there are times in your life when you can’t get a decent meal, or you’re in a rush, or you’re just trying to get a need met.....no matter who it hurts." It's a very consumerist mindset, which is the mindset of many porn users -- my need is paramount and the needs of who/whatever goes into getting my need met aren't important. It also goes well with that famous Hustler cover from the 1970's (60's?) that has a woman's legs coming out a meat grinder--women are just consumable objects.
Also, you don't HAVE to get a need (orgasm) met, but if you NEED porn to achieve orgasm???