Feminism

Bindel: Progress

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Hopefully the last post on this for a while. Christine Burns has just published a podcast interview with Julie Bindel in which Ms. Bindel apologizes unreservedly for some of the things she has said about transgender people in the past. Yay! Progress!!! You can hear the whole thing here.

Christine is marvelously diplomatic, and there are places in the interview where I would have been tempted to press Bindel much more closely on what she was saying. Then again, it was clear that time was short. Hopefully there will be more such discussion in future. But it did strike me that Bindel is still very hung up on the idea that you have to be one thing or another. In particular at the beginning of the interview she says that she thinks that being lesbian must be either the result of something innate, or the result of socialization, it can’t be anything in between (and she apparently favors the socialization explanation). Well, you know, humans are a lot more complex than that. And the whole point of diversity (an issue that Christine covers very well) is that people should be free to do what is right for them, not just what is right for Julie Bindel. So sure, make people free from oppression and violence, but don’t tell them that they can only be free from oppression and violence by doing what you tell them to do.

Oh, and Julie, should you happen to read this, an article in The Guardian on transgender rights would be a really neat way of saying sorry. I’m sure that Christine will have plenty of suggestions for things you could write about.

Update: I see that the comment thread on Christine’s post has already exploded. Sometimes you can manage to cause so much offense that apologizing isn’t enough, especially as those you have offended may not believe you. Tough job, being a crusading journalist.

Fundamentalist Is As Fundamentalist Does

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

I occasionally see people like PZ Myers saying how wonderful it must be to live in a country like the UK where belief is religion in relatively low and politicians don’t have to parade their Christian beliefs in order to have a hope of getting elected. Well, that might be the case, but fundamentalists don’t have to be obviously religious. Some of the characteristics of fundamentalists, which generally distinguishes them from more reasonable religious people, are that they have a firm conviction that their beliefs are true, despite all evidence to the contrary, and that they have the right to force those beliefs on everyone else. We have a fair few people like that.
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Weak and Emotional

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Modern research is turning up all sorts of gender-related differences in reactions to health care. For example, having been told by my doctor that I needed to be on cholesterol-reducing medication for the rest of my life (and then not being monitored at all because I’m now “cured”), I was somewhat surprised to discover that the evidence for the health benefits of this in women (as opposed to men) is still in dispute (see here, for example). But some of the differences are even more stark, and are a result how how doctors perceive their patients.

This study, for example, looked at what diagnosis a doctor would give to a patient who came in complaining of chest pains and other symptoms of heart disease. If the patients simply mentioned those symptoms then men and women were equally likely to be diagnosed with heart problems and referred to specialists. However, if the patients also complained of suffering from stress then the men were 2-3 times more likely to be diagnosed as ill whereas the women were much more likely to be told to stop being so neurotic and go away.

So ladies, remember this: if you have to go to a doctor (especially, I suspect, a male doctor), try to remain calm. Because if you get emotional the doctor is likely to assume that your symptoms are “psychogenic”.

Way To Go, Connecticut!

~ Cheryl

And now there are three: Massachusetts, California and Connecticut all recognize the right of couples to get married regardless of their gender. John Scalzi and Jed Hartman have commentary.

And while I’m at it, another reminder to California folks to vote No on Proposition 8. And if you happen to have a few spare bucks, please donate. The other side is drowning in money, and it makes a difference to the TV ads.

Aw, Sweet…

~ Cheryl

The kids at COLAGE are doing their own bit to help the fight on Proposition 8. They are having a postcard campaign:

2. Create your message. Keep it short and simple. Here is an example: Dear Uncle Ron. On November 4th when you go to vote please remember to think of me and my two moms. Prop 8 would take away our rights as a family. Vote No

Short, simple and to the point. More power to them.

A Study of “Strategic Colorblindness”

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

One of the issues that tends to excite our corner of the blogosphere is that of “colorblind” writing. White authors often assume that not mentioning race in their books means that they are being non-racist, whereas people of color tend to think less of them because they do so. Some work by psychologists at Tufts University and Harvard Business School have attempted to throw some light such issues.

The experiments involved a game that asked volunteers to work out which of a series of photos their partner was holding by asking as few yes/no questions as possible. As the photos were of faces, asking about the race of the subject was an obvious thing to do. However, white people tended to avoid asking that question, particularly if the person holding the photograph was not white. Roles were switched during the experiment, and if the non-white partner asked a race question of the white partner then the white partner would be much more likely to do so as well in a later round of the game having apparently been given permission to raise the subject.

The researchers also showed video of the games to people of color and asked them to rate the white participants as to whether they were racist or not. Those people who were reluctant to use race in their questions were generally perceived as more racist than those who did not.

The conclusions are nicely summed up by Evan Apfelbaum:

Our findings don’t suggest that individuals who avoid talking about race are racists. […] On the contrary, most are well-intentioned people who earnestly believe that colorblindness is the culturally sensitive way to interact. But, as we’ve shown, bending over backward to avoid even mentioning race sometimes creates more interpersonal problems than it solves.

I don’t suppose that this will stop people having furious arguments about this issue, but hopefully it will provide food for thought. I suspect that similar issues may apply in areas other than race as well.

Winterstrike

~ Cheryl

The new Liz Williams SF novel, Winterstrike, is set in the same world as Banner of Souls, though it is not a sequel. Liz’s future Mars is ruled by a matriarchy that, in a nod to The Gate to Women’s Country, has not only kicked the men out of the cities, but has genetically engineered them into the animal-like vulpen so that they can go live in the wilds where they belong. The filthy degenerates on Earth still allow human males to participate in civilization – a fact that causes much disapproving tutting amongst the matriarchs of Mars.

Actually, however, there isn’t much gender politics in the book. I did, for a while, think that Liz was developing something interesting, but perhaps she had second thoughts as she killed the character off almost immediately. For the most part the book is an action adventure in which the characters get thrown from one mess to another through a succession of plot devices, and the whole thing ends on a cliff-hanger in readiness for a sequel. It is an entertaining page turner with a lot of nice imagery. I did, however, find the two viewpoint characters virtually indistinguishable, which is a shame because there are some other nice character portraits in the book.

As far as I can see Winterstrike is not available from Amazon in the US, but if you can order from Amazon UK here is the link.

Trans Youth Conference Report

~ Cheryl

Last week I posted about two rival conferences being run in London on the subject of medical treatment for transgender youths, in particular the use of so-called “puberty blockers” which, depending on who you listen to, either buy time for adolescent kids to decide what they want to do with their lives before biological changes make that choice much more complicated, or turn innocent kids into freaks and perverts. Christine Burns attended the conference and has a collection of interviews with participants in a podcast available online. It is worth noting that even Kenneth Zucker appears to think that the UK’s medical practices are somewhat behind the times. There’s some comment from me below the fold.
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Zucker Protest in London

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Back in May I wrote a long post about how the American Psychiatric Association was in danger of entrenching the idea of gender variant and homosexual behavior as mental illnesses by spending too much time listening to people with daft and even dangerous ideas. One of those people was Dr. Kenneth Zucker, who claims to be able to “cure” gender variant children by bullying them into adopting “normal” (i.e. strongly stereotyped) gendered behavior. Zucker’s services are in heavy demand from parents who don’t want their children to grow up gay, as well as those who are afraid their children might be transgender.

Well, Dr. Zucker will be in London next week. He has been invited to speak at a conference on trans identified adolescents by the Royal Society of Medicine. British doctors who oppose Zucker’s views have apparently not been allowed to speak, nor have any trans-related support groups. The conference has so alarmed some British doctors that they have set up a rival event to challenge it (and they have invited Zucker to speak, which says a lot about who is interested in open debate and who is not).

The London Transfeminist Group is organizing a demonstration for the morning of October 1st (8:30am start) and there will be a planning meeting this Thursday night (Sept. 25th). All help and support will be gratefully appreciated.

Update: If you can’t get to London, there’s a petition aimed at the RMS here.

Unhappy Endings

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Today’s literary news includes the revelation (in The Guardian via the Globe & Mail) that LM Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, committed suicide. Montgomery died in 1942, but the cause of death was given out as heart failure because in those days suicide, and even suffering from depression, were regarded as shameful. Montgomery’s granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler, made the revelation as part of the publicity surrounding the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables. Butler wrote:

I have come to feel very strongly that the stigma surrounding mental illness will be forever upon us as a society until we sweep away the misconception that depression happens to other people, not us – and most certainly not to our heroes and icons.
[…]
We realize now that secrecy is not the way to deal with the reality of depression and other mental-health issues.

That’s an attitude that I wholeheartedly support. It would be nice to say that we are beyond that now, but with the news coming so soon after the loss of Tom Disch and David Foster Wallce I suspect that we still have a long way to go.

A Landmark Decision

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

While I have been in transit an interesting story has been unfolding in the field of transgender rights. It centers on an employment discrimination case. Colonel David Schroer applied to the Library of Congress for a job as an expert on counter-terrorism issues, a subject on which Schroer was very well qualified. The Library was initially enthusiastic, but on learning that Schroer was undergoing gender reassignment and would be coming to work as Diane they told her she could not have the job. With the help of the ACLU, Schroer sued for sex discrimination, and won. There’s a long and learned post about the case by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss, an expert in transgender law issues, here. If you’d like my potted (and probably slightly off on the finer points of law) layman’s version, read on.
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Social Disapproval Makes You Ill

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

In the “should have been blindingly obvious” department, a group of researchers at the University of Minneapolis have discovered that being gay has no obvious effect on your mental or physical health, but having negative feelings about yourself because you are gay makes you ill. To sum up:

In particular, the old advice to gay men to fight, deny, or minimize their homosexuality likely only increases depression, greater isolation, and poorer sexual health. In short, viewing homosexuality as a disorder is not only inaccurate, it may be harmful as well.

One might, of course, say the same thing about other gender-related issues, some of which are still classified as mental illnesses by the American Psychiatric Association.

Deevlopments in Feminist SF

~ Cheryl

I’m busy catching up on things that went online while Kevin and I were away. One such piece is this interview with Jeanne Gomoll in Strange Horizons. There is a lot of good stuff in it, but my eye was particularly caught by this comment:

As for the fiction itself, in the late ’70s and early ’80s feminist SF was dominated by apocalyptic visions. If a writer wanted to alter the world or society, the easiest way to do it was to wipe the world out and start over again. There were a lot of stories that started with a disaster that allowed the characters to create a new community or society from scratch. And now you see much more fiction that doesn’t require a clean slate in order to imagine new societies. Writers are more interested, I think, in how to get there from here, even in the author’s lifetime. Which I find really exciting.

I like that trend too. And hopefully David Brin will now complain less.

UK Gender Politics Update

~ Cheryl

I’ve just got an email alert about a new political campaign in the UK to give people the right not to identify as either “male” or “female”. I suspect that some people will immediately jump on the bandwagon and try to hijack it into forcing all transgender people to identify as neither “male” nor “female”, but the original focus appears laudable. If there’s anyone in the UK who think this applies to them and wants to get involved (even if it is only signing a petition) let me know and I’ll pass the information along.

Steel Beach

~ Cheryl ~ 6 Comments

I have finally got to the end of Steel Beach. I don’t have much to say about it beyond the fact that anyone who thinks that this book says anything worthwhile about the transgender experience probably doesn’t know many transgender people. I was particularly struck by Varley’s assertion that what is important in humans is not sexual preference but sexual orientation: that is, if you are sexually attracted to men as a woman then if you change sex to become a man you will immediately become sexually attracted to women, because what is important is your heterosexuality. Equally a lesbian who changed sex to become a man would immediately become sexually attracted to men in order to stay homosexual. There may indeed be people like that, but I don’t think I’d expound it as a rule.

As for the concept that the ideal human form would be to have a woman’s body but still have a penis, I don’t think I need comment further.