In Favor of Good Stories
It is all very well to expose the fallacies of “gender critical” (GC) feminism — to show that its “reasonable concerns” are fanciful cauchemars with little or no basis in actual experience, to challenge the veracity of its “well-known facts”, to show that its “sex-based rights” are merely another incarnation of patriarchal misogyny, to condemn the violent and harmful effects of its policy recommendations. But to do all these things, which have been done so well and so many times by writers more eloquent and more informed than myself, does not address the central problem of the “gender critical” issue.
It will be clear to anyone who has studied GC arguments from a perspective that is not cis-normative that these arguments are so many rationalizations of a visceral antipathy to the phenomenon of transgender existence. To address such rationalizations with reason or fact may serve various practical purposes in support of transgender acceptance in society on an equal basis with cisgender people, but does little or nothing to address the underlying visceral concerns of GC advocates.
Is there any point in trying to find a vector of communication with GC people? I think there is. Why? Because we are all human beings, occupying the same spaces in the same societies, and it is in our common interest not only to coexist, as individual human beings, in peace, but to do what we can to further the emergence of a society that we would all like to live in. We can’t control the emotions of GC advocates and their sympathizers; but we can do what we can do.
What would be the characteristics of such a communication vector? Not rationality, because it depends upon mutually accepted facts and assumptions. Not empirical validity, because there is no agreement among all parties as to what observations should be admitted as relevant and empirically valid. Not good faith, because it is assumed to be lacking. Nor yet the service of mutual interest, because even that is not generally recognized.
We are left with story-telling, in the context of our common humanity. So let’s tell our stories, in the most accessible ways we can devise. Not just transgender people, but our gender-critical antagonists as well. Let’s tell them in such a way that their honesty shines through the fog of contrary assumptions, willful misinterpretations, and visceral antipathy.
