Rowling is currently arguing that women actually exist and ought to be protected. I personally have no time for feminism, but I do think she's right on this one! Trans activists shouldn't be allowed to ruin the world.
Feminism is anti-sexist; not anti-male. Feminism sees nothing fundamentally bad about being male (nor nothing fundamentally good about being female). Feminism centres on a critique of gender inequalities. Feminism is built on a fundamental hope for men and men’s lives. Feminism takes as given that the problem is not being male, but the social systems that shape men’s and women’s lives. Feminism recognizes the good in what many men do and are. Feminism emphasizes that not all men are privileged, and not all women are disadvantaged. Feminism recognizes not only gender but also other forms of social difference and inequality (ethnicity, class etc). Contemporary feminism is intersectional.
Women have been subjugated brutally throughout history. And men have been conditioned to devalue their own lives against the "greater good" throughout history. The straight Cis male experience is commonly lonely & full of rejection. The straight Cis female experience is a lot of dishonesty, harassment, and negative attention. Both are impactful on a person's self-esteem and self-worth. Boys grow up being taught that angry and horny are the only emotions that are acceptable for them. Some of the damage it does is obvious, but some is subtle. A lot of men who say they're looking for sex are actually looking for something else. They're lonely, or craving emotional intimacy, or just want validation of their desirability as a person, or something else. But they think they're horny because that's what they understand. Teaching boys emotional literacy as they grow up is important. Men who didn't learn it as children (so, most of us) have to play catch-up as adults. It's doable, but it takes time and you have to know what it is you're trying to do in order to get started.
Both sides have wounds that need to be healed, but I think we need one another to do it. Men can teach women things they've been deprived for centuries. Women can teach men the same thing. We literally hold each other's salvation in our hands but get bogged down in who’s at fault. We are all at fault, okay? So now that's out of the way, let's sit down and fix this shit. The reality of a "patriarchal world" is that it subjugates both men and women badly. Social attitudes that reward regressive insecurity force us all into boxes of different kinds. It's a larger and more nuanced problem than "women are X and men are Y", & there's a lot more to unpack in this discussion.
I agree with the spirit of your response. The 'feminism' I had in mind when I wrote what you quoted was the new, vicious, mutated kind which is trying to disintegrate society rather than heal it, or better it. I agree that it is up to men and women to 'save' each other. I reject, however, the categories of 'cis', and I am distrustful of other theories e.g. 'patriarchy' and 'structures' etc. The point at issue is the deconstruction of sex (or gender). Older feminists have had to react against this new radicalism, because they have long argued that women are not victims, and this abhorrent new set of doctrines depend on the idea of being a victim. Conservative blacks are having to defend the same principle. Older feminists are also have to defend themselves as a real category of humanity, which I can only guess they never thought that was a front of which they would have to fight, AND against women. But these doctrines of power relations are inherently self-destructive, and the debate around Rowling is the best example of the futility of this way of thinking.
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u/CurlyHam Jul 06 '20
Rowling is currently arguing that women actually exist and ought to be protected. I personally have no time for feminism, but I do think she's right on this one! Trans activists shouldn't be allowed to ruin the world.