Mick Hartley

Ooh look, Judith Butler is interviewed in the Guardian….by one Jules Joanne Gleeson, co-author of Transgender Marxism, a work which had till now passed me by:

The first collection of its kind, Transgender Marxism is a provocative and groundbreaking union of transgender studies and Marxist theory. Exploring trans lives and movements, the authors delve into the experience of surviving as transgender under capitalism. They explore the pressures, oppression and state persecution faced by trans people living in capitalist societies, their tenuous positions in the workplace and the home, and give a powerful response to right-wing scaremongering against ‘gender ideology’. Reflecting on the relations between gender and labour, these essays reveal the structure of antagonisms faced by gender non-conforming people within society. Looking at the history of transgender movements, Marxist interventions into developmental theory, psychoanalysis and workplace ethnography, the authors conclude that for trans liberation, capitalism must be abolished.

Well  of course. I just wonder how transgender people would have fared under the actual Marxist regimes that have come and gone, but perhaps that's not the point.

Anyway, back to the Judith Butler interview. After celebrating the re-thinking of the category of "women" to include transwomen – any man who decides to call himself a woman – and excoriating gender-critical feminists who would deny such liberating transformations, Butler is posed this question from Jules Joanna:

It seems that some within feminist movements are becoming sympathetic to these far-right campaigns. This year’s furore around Wi Spa in Los Angeles saw an online outrage by transphobes followed by bloody protests organised by the Proud Boys. Can we expect this alliance to continue?

It is very appalling and sometimes quite frightening to see how trans-exclusionary feminists have allied with rightwing attacks on gender. The anti-gender ideology movement is not opposing a specific account of gender, but seeking to eradicate “gender” as a concept or discourse, a field of study, an approach to social power. Sometimes they claim that “sex” alone has scientific standing, but other times they appeal to divine mandates for masculine domination and difference. They don’t seem to mind contradicting themselves.

The Terfs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and the so-called gender critical writers have also rejected the important work in feminist philosophy of science showing how culture and nature interact (such as Karen Barad, Donna Haraway, EM Hammonds or Anne Fausto-Sterling) in favor of a regressive and spurious form of biological essentialism. So they will not be part of the coalition that seeks to fight the anti-gender movement. The anti-gender ideology is one of the dominant strains of fascism in our times. So the Terfs will not be part of the contemporary struggle against fascism, one that requires a coalition guided by struggles against racism, nationalism, xenophobia and carceral violence, one that is mindful of the high rates of femicide throughout the world, which include high rates of attacks on trans and genderqueer people.

The anti-gender movement circulates a spectre of “gender” as a force of destruction, but they never actually read any works in gender studies. Quick and fearful conclusions take the place of considered judgments. Yes, some work on gender is difficult and not everyone can read it, so we have to do better in reaching a broader public. As important as it is, however, to make complex concepts available to a popular audience, it is equally important to encourage intellectual inquiry as part of public life. Unfortunately, we are living in anti-intellectual times, and neo-fascism is becoming more normalized.

All very patronising: "Yes, some work on gender is difficult and not everyone can read it…"

But perhaps it was unwise to pick on this particular case as an example of the supposed alliance between gender critical feminists and the far right. What happened? Well, a Wi Spa customer ‘Cubana Angel’ posted a viral video to social media from inside the LA spa, in which she told a front desk employee that a man had exposed his penis in a female-only steam room to women and girls – only to be told that there was nothing staff could do, in line with Californian law, because the man claimed to be transgender.

From that linked Guardian article, a strangely distorted story emerges:

On 24 June, a woman claimed on Instagram that a Korean spa in Los Angeles had allowed a “man” to expose himself to women and girls in the women’s section.

The unsubstantiated allegations about Wi Spa in LA’s Koreatown neighborhood quickly spread from social media to rightwing forums to far-right news sites to Fox News, and were distorted by anti-transgender groups across multiple countries.

The massive media attention resulted in two weekends of chaotic rallies in LA this month, in which anti-trans and trans-rights protesters fought in the streets, and women carrying “protect female spaces” signs paraded alongside members of the far-right Proud Boys. Trans counter-protesters and their supporters described being Maced, stabbed and chased by rightwing demonstrators, as well as injured by police.

The episode, experts said, offered a case study in how viral misinformation can result in violence, and provided clear evidence of the links between anti-trans and far-right movements, including QAnon conspiracy theorists, who believe that a cabal of elite pedophiles is manipulating the American government….

On 24 June, an Instagram user with the name @CubanaAngel posted footage of herself inside the lobby of Wi Spa loudly confronting numerous staff members about a “man” who was naked in front of women and girls.

In her video, an employee tried to explain that the spa cannot discriminate based on gender identity. A male customer walking by asked the woman filming if the customer she encountered was, in fact, a trans person. The woman filming, along with another woman complaining to staff, responded with transphobic language, denying that trans women exist, suggesting that the person was a “pervert”, and saying they would be defending women and girls “in Jesus’s name”.

It is unclear whether a trans woman was actually present.

Got it? The whole episode may well have been some kind of hoax or fake news, but, whatever, the transphobic nature of the event, and the reaction to it, is clear enough. At least from the Guardian's telling.

And now? Well, last week the LA police charged a known sex offender, Darren Agee Merager, with indecent exposure in relation to the case:

Darren is also currently facing six charges of indecent exposure over a women’s locker room incident at a swimming pool in 2018.

Following that arrest, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department issued an internal flyer that stated: “Merager claims to identify as female so he can access women’s locker rooms and showers.”

Here we have a serial sex offender, who the police less than three years ago said pretends to be a woman so he can access women’s and girls’ spaces in order to sexually abuse them, being allowed to enter a women’s spa – where he allegedly exposed himself to women and girls.

Which leaves the Guardian, and Judith Butler, looking somewhat ridiculous. A male sexual predator is being supported at the expense of women and girls – all in the name of gender ideology.

Update: the section from the interview which I've copied above, about the Wi Spa affair, has now been removed: "This article was edited on 7 September 2021 to reflect developments which occurred after the interview took place". Hmm. But way before the article was published.

How embarrassing.