Enough lunacy: Gender is reality
Times — they are a’changing. Many universities now insist their professors refer to students by their “preferred gender pronouns.” Teenage boys have been told that if they’re uncomfortable changing clothes in front of girls, they should withdraw from school and be home-schooled. We’ve reached an unprecedented level of ridiculousness, where we are catering to a few individuals to the point of absurdity at the expense of the majority.
Worse, there’s a creeping expectation that we should deny biological reality to avoid hurting the feelings of people like Riley J. Dennis, a self-described “intersectional feminist, activist, queer, trans, nonbinary lesbian.”
Riley regularly releases a series of YouTube videos called “Feminism With Riley.” In one video, Riley made the argument that gender and sex are two different things, and that gender is a social construct. Clearly, there are people with gender dysphoria, whose gender identities don’t match their biological sex. This is a deviation from normal, however. It’s an unfortunate, oftentimes very distressing medical condition that requires synthetic or surgical treatments, neither of which can change biological reality. You have either XX or XY chromosomes, and except in rare cases (intersex people, for instance), those assigned chromosomes make you either male or female.
For Riley, it’s not enough to convince people that gender and sex are separate. Riley wants to convince everyone that biological sex also is a social construct. In one of the videos, Riley accurately states that biological sex is “a way of categorizing humans based on a combination of a few traits: chromosomes, genitals, gonads, hormones and secondary sex characteristics (facial hair, breast development).” But then Riley says that since secondary sex characteristics can be changed with hormones or surgery, and since genitals can be changed with surgery, and since gonads can be removed with surgery, and since hormones can be changed synthetically, four out of the five biological sex indicators are changeable, and therefore, apparently, irrelevant. Even though chromosomes can’t be changed, they also can’t be seen with the naked eye, and really, “what good does dividing people based on their chromosomes do? What purpose do they serve in differentiating people?” Riley insists, “Sex is not a biological fact, because it is determined by things that are largely changeable, and the only part of it that is unchangeable doesn’t have any realworld effect.”
This is lunacy. But it’s why we’re hearing more frequently from members of the trans community that it’s unacceptable to say that trans women are not real women.
Well, sorry, trans folks. Trans women are not, and will never will be, “real women.” They are free to live their lives how they choose, but they will never be real women. They will always be trans women, and there will always be a difference.
Riley says, “Biological sex has to undergo the same paradigm shift that gender did.” No, it does not. And for the sake of preserving any semblance of a normal, rational civilization, it must not. Riley is free to deny reality and biology, but Riley is not free to redefine gender and the science of biological sex.
Unfortunately, too many people are normalizing this way of thinking.
We refuse to use made-up pronouns to appease a tiny subset of the population. If you’re a trans women and would like to be referred to as “her” or “she”? We’re happy to oblige. But these concepts of gender queerness, non-binary-ness and fluidity? No. You don’t get to make up words and then cry discrimination when we don’t use them. The fact that anyone has to even worry about facing charges of discrimination for not using made-up words is asinine.
We take issue with Riley claiming to be a “feminist.” For all the whining feminists do about the evil “patriarchy,” it’s amazing that they’ve allowed biological men to invade their spaces. Caitlyn Jenner was named Glamour’s “Woman of the Year” in 2015, transgenders are allowed to rush sororities now, and transgenders have started to win (women’s) athletic competitions. Yet third-wave feminists don’t recognize the irony: that they’re allowing men to infiltrate their own movement.
And while Riley insists gender and sex should basically be obsolete, the entire goal of transitioning surgically or hormonally is to be recognized by strangers as one’s intended gender. What’s the point of that if, in fact, it’s wrong to “differentiate people”?
Want to be black or Asian or 6-foot-4 instead of 5-foot-3? Just identify as such.
We’ll be over here, identifying as rich supermodels who were admitted into Mensa.
Amy Jo Clark is known as Daisy, and Miriam Weaver as Mockarena. They are authors of “Right for a Reason,” and the blog Chicks on the Right (chicksonthe right.com).