The Unfunny Woke Joke

 

The following is my response to an excellent post by Carrie-Anne Brown about authors and publishers in the YA genre capitulating to the Wokescolds.

https://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/2020/12/09/remember-when-ya-wasnt-a-woke-joke

Agree 1000%. I am so sick of the Wokerati invading every aspect of people's lives. They are so toxic and hostile. Sometimes I think that if I see pronouns in one more person's bio, I'm going to scream. My pronouns happen to be f**k/off.

The Wokies vehemently attacked J.K. Rowling, accusing her of transphobia, for speaking in defense of Maya Forstater, a female academic who was also accused of transphobia. Rowling also had the audacity to point out that women, aka the adult human female kind, are the people who have periods. "Menstruators" is horribly demeaning, and saying "menstruating people" is ridiculous, when there is only one kind of person who menstruates: the female kind. Many of Rowling's attackers made death and rape threats. 

Rowling has never said that she hates trans people. In fact, she has said that she would stand with them against anyone threatening their well-being or rights.

You probably already know all this. 

I have to keep separate Twitter accounts, one for my business and writing pursuits, and another where I can express my political views. 

Joe McCarthy would be so proud of the Woke, don't you think?

An Analysis of Gone With the Wind

Hattie McDaniel

10 June 1893 - 26 October 1952

I suggest reading Carrie-Anne Brown's thoughtful analysis of Gone With the Wind. 

A wonderful analysis indeed. I thought that Gone With the Wind was very well-written, and I thought that the movie version was very well-made. That being said, I can see the horrific levels of racism and sexism in both. 

Too many people these days refuse to take an objective view of anything, and anyone who has the least little favorable thing to say about a work that has been deemed problematic is automatically a horrible monster who approves of terrible things. It is very difficult to have a thoughtful discussion anymore.

Reactionary Left Groupthink Smells Like 1984

Doublethink

The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink. Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

— Part II, Chapter IX – The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, credited to the character Emmanuel Goldstein, is the fictional book that is a thematic and plot element in Part 2, Chapter 9 of the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), by George Orwell. 

When applied to the TRA madness, men are women, women have penises, biological sex is a social construct rather than physical reality, and if you believe otherwise, you will be branded a TERF and ostracized. Never mind that in a medical setting, denial of biological reality can be harmful and even deadly.

Further, women who do not want to have sex with people who have penises (lesbians) are transphobes and should be bullied and made to feel bad for their sexual preference according to the TRA screed, and the reactionary left does not seem at all bothered by the severe homophobia inherent in this assertion. 

Ten years ago, nobody claimed that trans women were literally biological women. Everyone knew that they were biologically male, but it was understood that their dysphoria regarding their sex was so severe that the only way they could overcome it was to have surgical procedures and hormone treatments to make their bodies resemble female bodies. Liberal-minded people felt that tolerance and inclusion was the best option with regard to transgender people. 

Ten years ago, no-one used idiotic and dehumanizing terms like "menstruators" in reference to women. It also astounds me that very few people have caught on to the fact that no such dehumanizing terms are applied to biological men. You never hear anyone insisting on terms like "sperm producers." The reactionary left never questions why erasure of women is okay, but no-one is insisting on similar erasure of men.

There is plenty of insistence that "trans women are women" and should, therefore, be allowed to co-opt feminism and any woman who is resistant to this notion is a TERF and deserves to be bullied.

I have never seen a "trans men are men" sign. In fact, trans men tend to only be mentioned when doing so somehow benefits certain pushy TRA women.

Not supporting the insane TRA groupthink agenda is not transphobia. It is a refusal to be drawn into a very frightening, McCarthyist level of forced conformity to harmful ideals. One can be both supportive of the very real struggles of trans people and opposed to the current TRA culture which does far more harm than good, particularly where vulnerable young people who may be questioning their sexuality are concerned.

~Sly Has Spoken~

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