The trans panic has reached an alarming stage: transphobes, most notably Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, have escalated their rhetoric and become more obvious about their stochastic terrorism, with Tucker Carlson broadcasting the names and faces of board members of Vanderbilt Hospital, which offers gender affirming care to children. Bill O’Reilly gave the same sort of “publicity” to a prominent abortion doctor years ago; the doctor was murdered by an anti-abortion fanatic.
But for a lot of those on the right today, the war on trans people is as much a source of amusement as it is a regular provider of righteous indignation. Consider former Fox News host Megyn Kelly’s treatment on her podcast of a trans teacher in Canada who showed up for school wearing enormous fake boobs.
The teacher has been a source of continual outrage on the transphobic right in recent days, making headlines in publications ranging from the New York Post to LifeSiteNews.
It’s basically this in action:
So Kelly brought the story to her Sirius XM podcast on Wednesday, and managed to sound quite outraged about the whole thing. “Take your fetish behind a closed door and do not shove it in my kids’ face,” she declared.
“There’s something wrong with this guy,” Kelly continued, deliberately misgendering the teacher.
He’s trying to turn somebody on. He’s probably turned on. Honestly, it probably turns him on to rub his weird little fake nipples or to have people see them. …
I don’t want him getting off near my kids and I don’t want him getting the nipples near my kids and I don’t want to have to think about anybody’s sexuality or boobs when my kid is in shop.
But Kelly’s performative outrage isn’t the whole story. If you actually watch or listen to this segment on her podcast, you see that she’s laughing — sometimes so hard she cries — during much of the segment, as she trades dumb jones and double entendres with her guests, who are also laughing hysterically the whole time.
You can watch the segment here; I’ve got it cued up to the appropriate point.
How can you be legitimately outraged by something if you also seem to think it’s the funniest thing in the world? Why would you consider this teacher’s actions to be equivalent to a sex crime — as one of her guests seemed to suggest at one point — if you can’t stop giggling?
“We have to laugh about it but then we have to talk about how how effed up this is,” she insists at one point, seemingly having to remind her guests that the whole topic is “deeply serious” to her. Is it? She and her guests manage to sound appropriately somber for a time, but soon they’re all laughing again.
The current trans panic is driven by hate. But it’s also driven by boredom, and an endless search for new things to at least pretend to be outraged over. In some ways, given that what’s at stake is the ability of trans people to exist in public, that’s as chilling as the outright hate.
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and if you’re among the people who are alienated by us shouting about being sick of being spoken of like freaks and deviants then maybe you ought to consider why.
@Pipster:
And what, precisely, qualifies you to be the official arbiter of what attempts at gender expression will be considered “legitimate”?
@Margaret Pless:
Just because people in, say, Bangladesh have bigger fish to fry than a feeling of gender dysphoria doesn’t make gender transition “not a human right”. That some things are priorities over others in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs doesn’t invalidate those others from qualifying also as needs.
That statement establishes you to be fairly far to the right of what, according to opinion polls, is the actual center.
Sure it is. Demanding that people “dress professionally” has very often been sexist, transphobic, and for that matter racist.
So let’s just throw them under the bus then?
<smh>
You say this as if we should have to choose between these issues, rather than being activist about both.
And if you think the Democratic Party is doing a poor job on climate because they’re being distracted by the sexy trans issues, you’re quite wrong; they’re doing a poor job on climate because Big Oil and Big Coal are paying them handsomely to do a poor job on climate. See also: Joe Manchin.
Such as what, having an excessive cup size in the opinion of that duly elected arbiter of acceptable cup sizes, Margaret Pless?
<smh again>
What dress would meet with your approval, then? A burqa? Because that’s the logical endpoint of your “women need to avoid being distracting stumbling blocks” line of thinking: the stifling misogyny of Saudi Arabia.
Behold the concern troll who pretends to being on the left, but cites the Daily Heil not to criticise it but as support, and is doing so in defense of Megyn Kelly of all people.
If your answer to 1 is “no”, then get back to us when you have some actual proof. If your answer to “2” is no, then this falls squarely under the heading of “it’s a feature, not a bug”.
Are there maximum-cup-size regulations on all teachers at that school? No? Then she already is being held to the same standards as anyone else, and you are actually demanding that she be held to different ones, i.e. this is about an innocent trans woman being discriminated against — by you.
@Margaret Pless:
https://youtu.be/5eSudL3r_JE?t=243
Proof?
That’s how such blanket denials start. First they marginalize the most flamboyant/ostentatious/actually criminal/etc. members of a minority; then they gradually ratchet up the standards they are required to conform to to be “one of the good ones” until eventually none measure up, and then they hold the ribbon-cutting ceremony for their shiny new internment camp. The trap of respectability politics. See also: boiling frog.
That’s rich, coming from the one who can’t tolerate a teacher having big boobs.
That’s rich, coming from a less-tolerant person and aimed at more-tolerant people.
There we go, the TRA dogwhistle comes out
Re: single issue politics. LOL no. I have been active in a variety of progressive/leftist political stuff, and same goes for most of my trans friends. You can find trans people canvassing for political candidates, bugging officials about rent control, distributing clothes and food to homeless people, protesting for disability rights, organizing financial aid and finding housing for each other, unionizing, and always, always involved in abortion rights activism because that’s part of the same fight.
Our politics are not single issue. You just think they, because you’ve only seen trans people in contexts where we’re under the spotlight.
@margret
One time when I was in middle school, I had a classmate who was a little person. Sometimes we were friends and sometimes we weren’t. He could be mean and he has a problem with lying. One day he did something that embrassed me. What it was I couldn’t even tell you now. What I do remember is some horrible things I said to him about him being a little person because I knew it would upset him. It was cruel and it was wrong. My school bus driver and my parents were able to handle it and to show me that. I still feel bad when I think about it. Now imagine that someone recorded that, put it on the internet and then I had bunch of people on my social media, my school, my clubs, and my home coming after me because they want me to be publicly whipped for doing something bad.
Imagine if fox news ran a story about it to laugh at me and send an army of probably death threats after me.
Imagine if a some hateful men might track me down and rape me and use that as a justification for it. Maybe they’ll murder me too. And then the cops don’t do anything about it because the world has labeled me as someone who deserved it. Even if the boy I said those things to forgave me and I never said something like that again.
Just because someone is wrong, doesn’t mean they need to be public enemy number one from the news. Appropriate action, yeah maybe this woman get fired. Fine. Does she need Megyn high horse over here sending the conservative lench mob after her? No. The principal can handle it just fine. That’s there job.
@Margaret: Who died and made you boss, Mrs. Grundy?
I’m sure the local (IN CANADA) administration and school board has dealt with this.
And nobody outside Canada really ought to have to defend their opinion on the topic of any trans people in Canada, because last I checked, it was a whole separate country that gets to make their own rules.
If any political belief approaches a religion, it’d be the worship of Tr*mp and most especially the Q cult.
@Brony: Give it a rest. The only people I see here who are bullying are Margaret and you. Don’t @me either. Back in the Usenet days, you’d have gone PLONK.
@Margaret:
A couple more things, though perhaps you think I’ve said too much already.
1.
I’ve been a trans activist since before “transfeminism” was even a word. If you think trans rights haven’t been advanced during my activism, you’re not just mistaken, you’re completely delusional. Trans rights have advanced by leaps and bounds over the past few decades not only without me catering to your preferences, but without me even knowing you existed.
Spoiler: If we did all this without you, maybe you’re not actually as vital a political ally as you fancy yourself to be.
2.
You seem to be very concerned that you as a moderate will be tarred by your association with trans people.
Well, first let me just say that I’ve benefited very little from my association with you so far, so I’m happy to continue being unassociated if that’s your preference.
But second, whether we decide to associate with each other or not, FOX News and other right wing media seem to be associating us, and that seems to be your main complaint.
But if you are, in fact, so very different from us and the criticism-by-association so unjustly injures you, then why are you complaining to us?
I mean, if we were legitimately associated and actually shared the same beliefs and goals, then you might want to have a discussion about tactics with your fellow travellers.
BUT if we were actually fellow travellers you wouldn’t be speaking to us the way you do — about how we are the “left of the left” and you are not, about how we should go our own way and see what we can accomplish that way, etc. If we were actually fellow travellers you would be talking about what we can do for each other. But we’re not fellow travellers. You see us as a legitimately different group, separate from you politically, and different from you politically.
Let’s assume for a moment that that is true. In that case, your complaint is with RW media for including you in a complaint about “the left of the left” when you do not belong to that group.
In other words, you don’t like being stereotyped and, on the basis of those stereotypes, unfairly prejudged.
Well okay then! What is the solution to that? Is the solution that you control the behaviour of every left of the left person to such an extent that you scrub out all the things that FOX News could ever spin negatively? You really think that they’ll run out?
OR
Is the solution to fight stereotyping itself? We are as much the victims of the RW outrage and stereotyping machine as you are. Why blame the victim? Why not fight the people who are actually engaging in stereotype and prejudice?
Think carefully about your behaviour here. If you really are upset about stereotyping and prejudice, how does demanding David or any commenter actually end those phenomena?
Maybe, just maybe, your entire position here needs a rethink — not just because we don’t like your position, but because your goal (the end of stereotypes and prejudice that harms you and your fellow political travellers) isn’t actually helped at all by anything you’re doing here.
I am bad ass. I helped a tiny bit with tons of larger issues like building up Planned Parenthood, ending Domestic violence and caring for its victims, defeating discriminatory referenda and bills, promoting general trans visibility, and cross linking between trans rights groups and other lefty causes such that it increased by trans support of non-trans-specific causes and cis support of trans specific causes, fostering a healthier activist community more generally, and I’ve helped quite a large amount with other, smaller causes like helping individuals recover from trauma, building a safe home network for trans persons in a couple of cities, developing new pedagogical approaches to teaching about certain specific subjects.
Me, I feel confident that I’ve gotten some good shit done.
What about you? Is this part of your plan? When you look back on your life will you say, “I’m really glad that I told marginalized people that they had to denounce each other to protect myself from being stereotyped by Megyn Kelly.”
Is that what you’ll be proud of?
@Crip Dyke: I’m guessing you also worked on projects to help disabled people (or is it people with a disability now? Eh, I just call myself a “crip” too, though not around Bloods or our local XIV boys).
As regards your last question: probably.
@GSS:
Guilty as charged.
Couple things here, dipshit. I didn’t call you and your fellow assholes either Nazis or Klansmen; I implied your irrational and indefensible hatred of trans people is equivalent to the irrational and indefensible hatred that Nazis and Klansmen display towards minorities. The fact that you don’t think what I just said is in any way different than calling you a Nazi or a Klansman is a function of your problems with reading comprehension.
Which segues nicely into my second point. You have no fucking idea why I support the politicians I vote for; please point to where I’ve mentioned the issues that motivate me. No? Right. You, however, have made it clear that you think there are a lot of people who won’t vote for Democrats if they support trans rights, which sounds pretty much like the fucking textbook definition of a single-issue voter.
Per Wikipedia:
You’re a fucking moron, and I’m not wasting any more time on your stupid.
@Margaret Pless
No, I’m not blaming you for not paying more attention to “The Important Issues.”
My point is that “the people on Left Street” don’t need to weigh in on this one teacher in Canada. That is bullying. And bullying in the media can lead to tragedy for vulnerable people.
Also, I’m not sure why you say that climate change and wildfire aren’t important to me. I live on planet Earth, where climate catastrophe is occurring right now. Here in California, I’ve lived through times when the smoke from wildfires made me so sick that I couldn’t work. Now who’s being silly.
@Margaret Pless
I agree with David C. Coates of the Industrial Workers of the World: “An injury to one is an injury to all.”
And the Proud Boys are protesting a Texas’ church’s Bingo night.
One sign says,
This is what Kelly is encouraging.
@ gss ex-noob
Hmm, interesting perspective. 😉
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/king-charles-proclaimed-canadas-head-state-89643578
@Kat:
Also, I’m not sure why you say that climate change and wildfire aren’t important to me. I live on planet Earth, where climate catastrophe is occurring right now. Here in California, I’ve lived through times when the smoke from wildfires made me so sick that I couldn’t work. Now who’s being silly.
Here in Ohio, I can attest that there’ve been times when the smoke from the Western wildfires has made it at least this far east (and affected the air quality to the point of health alerts); there’s no such thing as pissing in your end of the pool.
Is that how it’s to go for joining in bullying internet-wide bullying campaigns?
Just as the person pointing your bullying out not to talk to you anymore?
How very convenient.
@Alan: Chuck probably DGAF about one teacher in Canada though.
Canada is free to make its own decisions about the local school system, and certainly doesn’t need to be told what to do by rando American bimbos like Megyn* or this recent troll here.
@New Troll: My (whatever) will be intersectional, or it will be bullshit.
@Kat: Agreed. The sky should not be orange.
*(which looks like it ought to be the name of some gynecologic app. MeGyn)
No, it’s not. And I think you know that. Fuck you, asshole
@GSS ex-noob:
@Kat: Agreed. The sky should not be orange.
*(which looks like it ought to be the name of some gynecologic app. MeGyn)
And which could also be the title of a novel set in one of the many, many parts of Africa that do not warrant that same damn lone acacia tree on the same damn savannah under the same damn orange sunset/rise: https://archive.ph/gplzh
Well, this thread certainly became a shitshow.
@Dormousing_it
What the fucking fuck? Seriously
@Other regulars who should know better
See above
@New Trolls
You’re boring and repeating fascist talking points, and you know perfectly well what you are doing.
Long time reader, occasional commenter. I think this woman is dressing inappropriately for a teaching job. Her massive breasts are at best outlandish, at worst they could be a very obvious manifestation of a kink which then is obviously inappropriate for a workplace with lots of kids. I think I would feel similarly about a hypothetical cis woman teacher who got DDDDDDDD size breast implants with giant nipples. However Megyn Kelly is obviously being maliciously transphobic, and the transphobic hate generating machine we call social media is probably gearing up to ruin this woman’s life. The fact that one trans person is doing something weird and maybe gross does not mean that all trans people are weird and gross or do weird and gross things, and nor does it mean that trans people should lose their civil rights. Furthermore, the fact that this woman is doing something weird and possibly gross does not mean that running tv segments about how evil she is is justifiable.
I was most offended by the nips to be honest. It was a bit much, Not because she’s trans. I’d feel the same with deliberate nip showcasing ciswomen too. I’m an equal op puritan.
Yes, you should be allowed to be topless where men are allowed. Yes, breastfeed in public, but being overtly sexual in a school setting, I don’t think much of that. It seemed more performative than just an expression of her gender. But I’m old, so…