I read about Mujeres y Compañía (a bookstore which removed the book), and one of the owners said:
> It is not news that a specialized bookstore withdraws from its fund what does not correspond with its specialization.
Does this not put them in an ideologically difficult position? Is it not deemed "transphobic" these days to take a position on whether or not someone is really a woman?
So, there's these people who claim to be multiple persons, sometimes with different genders..
I think the political correctness culture is now ripe for the next step: multiple people of different genders identifying as one single human person with one single gender.
I don't think any of the (real) authors are trans, so it's not ideologically difficult from that perspective. On the other hand, feminism is (nominally) a movement to establish equality of the sexes, and about fighting against gender stereotypes. Men convincingly writing from a female point of view, and publicly presented as women, would seem to me to do exactly that. Fight against writing style/subject stereotypes, and demonstrate how gender is not essential in the act of writing - subverting gender essentialism.
If feminist were true to their professed convictions, they should be applauding this book.
Definitely not an expert, but I like learning so anyone with a more nuanced/detailed take please correct/elaborate…
If this could be considered “feminist” or not, depends a lot on which “wave” of feminism is setting the conversational agenda. Feminist philosophy has at points in the past been more about “males are bad” than it is today.
> Does this not put them in an ideologically difficult position? Is it not deemed "transphobic" these days to take a position on whether or not someone is really a woman?
Not at all. None of the authors claim to be women, all claim to be men. I’m really not sure why you think there would be a problem.
It’s problematic in the same way that being a TERF is problematic. Are you supporting women by protecting women from the encroachment of their space by other women who are apparently not women? Or are you oppressing women by acting as the arbiter of who is really a woman?
In this case specifically, three men have identified as a woman in publishing a book, in exactly the same way that women historically have identified as men to circumvent sexism. As far as the modern ideological narrative goes, you are committing transphobic violence by denying the existence of Mola.
> As far as the modern ideological narrative goes, you are committing transphobic violence by denying the existence of Mola.
The simple fact is, you are wrong. The only people who claim that this is "transphobic violence" are people who reject the notion of transgender individuals. You're pretending right wing talking points are actually true. Nothing in this situation has anything to do with transgenderism.
What would it take for me to convince you that it is actually you who is wrong? Or are your ideological heels dug too far in? How many opinion pieces by trans people would it take to convince you? Who’s credentials matter? Would you accept anything published in that infamously right-wing journal called The Guardian? Not holding my breath.
The men have not "identified" as a woman, they've written under a nom de plume. Much like Nicholas Bourbaki, or more to the point, Robert Galbraith. At no point has Joanne Rowling taken transgender people seriously, she herself does not "identify" as a man, despite repeatedly writing under a male-sounding name. Never did the contributors of Bourbaki "identify" with that identity. They adopted it for a purpose. This line of inquiry is comparable to the "my gender identity is an apache attack helecopter" bullshit meme. At best, it's completely ignorant, but I doubt it's in good faith. Please avoid such flamebait.
The definition of "identity" in this context was good enough for the owner of the Madrilenian book store owner. That's, like, the entire point of this story. Your own definition of the word in this context is arguably as bullshit as the meme which offends you. Blasphemy toward your own new age received wisdom is not "ignorance".
> The definition of "identity" in this context was good enough for the owner of the Madrilenian book store owner.
It was, because that's all the information they had at the time—that the author of the book represented themselves via a picture of a woman. Most people who do that, are women. And then they got new information: in fact, the book was written by three men, and the woman does not exist. So they updated their priors. That's what people do when encountering someone (or someones) being misleading.
It's not a complicated situation at all—we don't need to bring transgenderism into this to understand it.
You tell me it's raining, and I'll grab an umbrella. I go outside, find out the skies are clear, and I'll put the umbrella away. Maybe it was raining previously, and it stopped. Maybe you lied. I don't entertain the possibility that it is raining for you but not for me.
Do you have a source for "lots"? I can only find the one - Mujeres & Compañía - who posted a short clip to their Twitter and TikTok accounts showing them packing up some (doesn't look like all!) of their copies into a box for sending back.
It's much easier to have a great selection of feminist books than a great selection of books...good luck competing with the internet in the 2nd category.
There was a documentary about specialist stores popping up in Berlin, and generalist stores dying.
I would confirm this as a resident of the aforementioned city.
The specialist (or even many generalist) bookstores usually follow a certain ideology and sell books heavily aligned with those views. Unfortunately, this slowly converts those stores to echo chambers as the objectiveness of the stores slowly fade away.
I used to live near an excellent technical book store which carried things like O'Reilly books. It went under as the Internet progressed. Many countries have such things like math book stores, or stores specializing in philosophy and similar humanities.
Specialized book stores have a long, reputable history, and the echo chamber style specialization is a pretty recent phenomenon.
I suspect that neither majority of men nor women are interested in feminist literature per se. Unless "feminist" mean "written by women" and not "in the spirit of feminist movement".
Probably similar to the NYT subscriptions surge during the Trump administration. People just buying to signal and "support the cause". Partisan views have it a lot easier to raise money from their followers than those trying to find a middleground.
Go to Boulder Colorado. It's so easy to spot sexism against men all over the place, including feminist bookstores that are there to make money off the rich bored people "culture wars".
This is beautiful.
When women did this, they were (imo rightly) supported and encouraged, and it became part of the history of discrimination against women and their fight for equality.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this one will be viewed, but I'm guessing it won't be put in as positive a light.
Oh I don't think women were supported and encouraged universally. I'm sure there were moralizing puritans as well as those who felt their positions of power threatened, who took great offense to women using male pseudonyms back then. I don't expect the outcome will be very different in this case.
With the rise of remote jobs, I wonder if it will become common to apply a race and gender filter to your Zoom camera feed in order to satisfy diversity quotas?
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[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 105 ms ] threadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Blixen
FYI: Seven Gothic Tales is great!
> It is not news that a specialized bookstore withdraws from its fund what does not correspond with its specialization.
Does this not put them in an ideologically difficult position? Is it not deemed "transphobic" these days to take a position on whether or not someone is really a woman?
If feminist were true to their professed convictions, they should be applauding this book.
If this could be considered “feminist” or not, depends a lot on which “wave” of feminism is setting the conversational agenda. Feminist philosophy has at points in the past been more about “males are bad” than it is today.
Not at all. None of the authors claim to be women, all claim to be men. I’m really not sure why you think there would be a problem.
In this case specifically, three men have identified as a woman in publishing a book, in exactly the same way that women historically have identified as men to circumvent sexism. As far as the modern ideological narrative goes, you are committing transphobic violence by denying the existence of Mola.
The simple fact is, you are wrong. The only people who claim that this is "transphobic violence" are people who reject the notion of transgender individuals. You're pretending right wing talking points are actually true. Nothing in this situation has anything to do with transgenderism.
That's a good question—let's find out! Keep 'em coming.
It was, because that's all the information they had at the time—that the author of the book represented themselves via a picture of a woman. Most people who do that, are women. And then they got new information: in fact, the book was written by three men, and the woman does not exist. So they updated their priors. That's what people do when encountering someone (or someones) being misleading.
It's not a complicated situation at all—we don't need to bring transgenderism into this to understand it.
You tell me it's raining, and I'll grab an umbrella. I go outside, find out the skies are clear, and I'll put the umbrella away. Maybe it was raining previously, and it stopped. Maybe you lied. I don't entertain the possibility that it is raining for you but not for me.
Interesting point, although it seems at odds with the ideology you are legitimising.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
There was a documentary about specialist stores popping up in Berlin, and generalist stores dying.
The specialist (or even many generalist) bookstores usually follow a certain ideology and sell books heavily aligned with those views. Unfortunately, this slowly converts those stores to echo chambers as the objectiveness of the stores slowly fade away.
I used to live near an excellent technical book store which carried things like O'Reilly books. It went under as the Internet progressed. Many countries have such things like math book stores, or stores specializing in philosophy and similar humanities.
Specialized book stores have a long, reputable history, and the echo chamber style specialization is a pretty recent phenomenon.
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
https://insoumise.wordpress.com/
https://goo.gl/maps/NAZN9ctDrKcgU98k9
That doesn't sound like feminist themes...
I'm looking forward to seeing how this one will be viewed, but I'm guessing it won't be put in as positive a light.