Mick Hartley

Gender ideology requires a return to the old sex stereotypes of what men and women should look like. It's also, as Victoria Smith points out, a return to childish thinking, which most of us grow out of:

Young children, it is often claimed by progressive types, are far more open-minded than adults when it comes to questions of sex and gender. You don’t hear the average five-year-old whining about sex-based rights or complaining that cis is a slur. If someone says they are a woman, no one in reception class is going to ask about their gametes. As long as this person has long hair or some suitably feminine accessories, that will be evidence enough.

Alas, this is not because each child is born a mini-Judith Butler, wise in the ways of queering, at least until cisheteronormative patriarchy gets to them. It’s because even the most intelligent children can draw stupid conclusions due to their lack of experience of the world (Butler, who is 68, has no such excuse).

As developmental psychologist Kate Alcock points out, until the age of around seven “children think that when something changes its appearance, its underlying reality changes”. If someone has short hair, they must be a boy; if they put on a dress, they become a girl. Realising that sex is constant and cannot be changed has long been understood to be an important developmental stage. Children who have not yet reached it will of course be more receptive to the idea that someone such as Pips Bunce is a woman on some days, a man on others, depending on hair and clothing choices.

Most adults do not think this because most adults grow up. Even those who believe there is such a thing as being born in the wrong body do not generally think that this can be solved by one trip to Toni & Guy (they tend to opt for full-on medical scandals instead). Yet recently I’ve noticed that there are some people who have drifted into adulthood still unaware that having a haircut isn’t magic. It is incredibly strange.

If a young female celebrity has short hair, there’s a good chance she won’t be identifying as a woman. Countless articles recommend “non-binary haircuts to embrace your gender identity”, while Apple’s “non-binary” emojis are nothing more than random people with medium-length hair. In one TikTok video, an obviously female person with a nice pixie cut seeks to defy the imaginary “Karens trying to kick [her] out of the toilet” due to her apparent androgyny. Even if we are assured that “gender begins with one’s soul or one’s interior life before it manifests itself into a haircut”, this really feels like a long-winded way of saying “certain ways of presenting are not usually for girls”. We are witnessing a new conservatism, one that is only reinforced by those who consider themselves super-rebellious for tinkering at the edges….

It's weirdly regressive is what it is. Childish sexist stereotypes dressed up as progressive.

Changing your appearance doesn’t change your sex, and if people judge you for looking “less feminine”, it is because they notice your sex, not because they don’t. The sad thing is, feminism already had the solution to this. It is better to think like a feminist than a child.