Not a fan of the trend of stripping exceptional women of their sex on the reasoning that—because they were exceptional—that means they must have been men all along.
It's outrageous nonsense, and I don't understand why it is tolerated! I still can't quite believe that the play, where Joan of arc was made into a 'trans' character was actually performed and apparently celebrated. Enough, already!!!
I love this, thank you Eliza. Besides being utter ahistorical nonsense, it is disgusting and beyond insulting to call these exceptional women writers "trans" or imply that they were "really men." These writers shone a beacon of light and hope for women of their time and for every generation of female readers after them. I was called “Beth” as a child, but I never liked it. Part of the reason is that it was a diminutive of my entire name, and so I felt diminished as I often felt diminished in the world as a female. But a large part of the reason I began going by my full given name as an adult is because of Little Women. In the story, Beth is the angelic, pure, and good sister. She is the model of femininity. And she friggin’ DIES. The sister I related to, that ALL of us who loved Little Women related to was Jo. The sister who writes, who defies gender norms, the sister with a fire in her belly. The sister who lives a full and complete life and who inspired me to do the same.
i always loved amy best. her prettiness and painting and europe and most of all her clothes. just loved these books. as did my mum and her sisters. and my daughters. the march sisters showed as so many sides of female expression. all beautiful. all little women. louisa may allcott wrote about us. because she was one of us. she didn't try to write tom sawyer. she didn't try to be a man.
What a wonderful and necessary post. Quire apart from the sexist insult of framing every successful, intelligent, unconventional and/or lesbian woman as a man, it's also bizarre that gender ideologists believe wanting or fantasising about being something means you magically become that thing. Even a woman who genuinely longs to be a man is still....uh, a woman. Just as a short person wanting to be 3 inches taller or a long-sighted person wanting 20/20 vision do not magically acquire these things. But I suppose gender ideology has told people the exact opposite: that declaration is incantation, magical and holy. But performing that incantation over a dead person is especially messed up. It seems part of a broader push not just to rewrite history but to effectively destroy it by determining that no facts, however obvious and verifiable, can stand against the gender borg.
As a historian turned International Relations scholar, I HATE this trend. It stupidity on stupidity and it pains me to see historians meekly acquiescing to the most fallacious anachronism instead of robustly defending a method that sees a fullness of the humanity of these people and the times they lived through.
The transing of Joan of Arc offends me most frankly. The whole reason she was burned at the stake for heresy was because she wore 'men's clothes and armour', without 'permission' from ecclesial authorities to do so. She absolutely did from her bishop, but that wasn't recognised by some legal sleight of hand. She didn't want to dress as a man, but she did so that she could pass through dangerous territory without being raped and to fight in battles because you don't want to face an English army full of Long bowmen without a decent breastplate and chain mail.
Only a complete idiot in the fullest sense of the greek would consider transing Joan of Arc 'progress'. She was a real human being who lived and died to serve God, not a whiny activist's existential crisis.
If you are interested, have a look at this (terrible) article as a means of learning more about a historical figure from round my neck of the woods. The local newspaper saw fit to apologise for comments it published during the late 19th century, which might have been noble had they acknowledged that a lesbian woman who adopted a male identity in order to function relatively freely in the goldfields had been treated abhorrently. Instead it became a story about Australia's first transgender celebrity. No mention made of her partner either.
Are these "non-binary, trans masks" going to stand over the graves of these authors and declare that the name on the stone is a "deadname?" I bet they'll adopt fictional but inspiring characters Nancy Drew and Pippi Longstocking next! Unfortunately for us, these "girls who think they're boys" are betraying our sex yet more deeply. They've been subjected to ritual conditioning and manipulation, and when they are faced with all the male violence in the women's bathroom, perhaps they'll wake up. Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
I completely agree with you. I think this is both sexist and insulting to women.
It's outrageous nonsense, and I don't understand why it is tolerated! I still can't quite believe that the play, where Joan of arc was made into a 'trans' character was actually performed and apparently celebrated. Enough, already!!!
Agreed! And it obscures power inequities which are really important to learn from.
I regret I have only one like to give.
I love this, thank you Eliza. Besides being utter ahistorical nonsense, it is disgusting and beyond insulting to call these exceptional women writers "trans" or imply that they were "really men." These writers shone a beacon of light and hope for women of their time and for every generation of female readers after them. I was called “Beth” as a child, but I never liked it. Part of the reason is that it was a diminutive of my entire name, and so I felt diminished as I often felt diminished in the world as a female. But a large part of the reason I began going by my full given name as an adult is because of Little Women. In the story, Beth is the angelic, pure, and good sister. She is the model of femininity. And she friggin’ DIES. The sister I related to, that ALL of us who loved Little Women related to was Jo. The sister who writes, who defies gender norms, the sister with a fire in her belly. The sister who lives a full and complete life and who inspired me to do the same.
i always loved amy best. her prettiness and painting and europe and most of all her clothes. just loved these books. as did my mum and her sisters. and my daughters. the march sisters showed as so many sides of female expression. all beautiful. all little women. louisa may allcott wrote about us. because she was one of us. she didn't try to write tom sawyer. she didn't try to be a man.
Oh yes, Amy was great. Really, Beth was awesome too, as was Meg. As you say, they are all beautiful little women!
What a wonderful and necessary post. Quire apart from the sexist insult of framing every successful, intelligent, unconventional and/or lesbian woman as a man, it's also bizarre that gender ideologists believe wanting or fantasising about being something means you magically become that thing. Even a woman who genuinely longs to be a man is still....uh, a woman. Just as a short person wanting to be 3 inches taller or a long-sighted person wanting 20/20 vision do not magically acquire these things. But I suppose gender ideology has told people the exact opposite: that declaration is incantation, magical and holy. But performing that incantation over a dead person is especially messed up. It seems part of a broader push not just to rewrite history but to effectively destroy it by determining that no facts, however obvious and verifiable, can stand against the gender borg.
Great last line: "From dry bones and pure conjecture, you create a person who never lived."
Poetic and astute.
Your final paragraph reminds me of a recent tendency among some politicians - to apologise for what their predecessors did (e.g. slavery, empire).
Very easy to apologise for what other people did in the past. Not so easy to apologise for their own failures.
You're spot on, as usual, Eliza!
As a historian turned International Relations scholar, I HATE this trend. It stupidity on stupidity and it pains me to see historians meekly acquiescing to the most fallacious anachronism instead of robustly defending a method that sees a fullness of the humanity of these people and the times they lived through.
The transing of Joan of Arc offends me most frankly. The whole reason she was burned at the stake for heresy was because she wore 'men's clothes and armour', without 'permission' from ecclesial authorities to do so. She absolutely did from her bishop, but that wasn't recognised by some legal sleight of hand. She didn't want to dress as a man, but she did so that she could pass through dangerous territory without being raped and to fight in battles because you don't want to face an English army full of Long bowmen without a decent breastplate and chain mail.
Only a complete idiot in the fullest sense of the greek would consider transing Joan of Arc 'progress'. She was a real human being who lived and died to serve God, not a whiny activist's existential crisis.
If you are interested, have a look at this (terrible) article as a means of learning more about a historical figure from round my neck of the woods. The local newspaper saw fit to apologise for comments it published during the late 19th century, which might have been noble had they acknowledged that a lesbian woman who adopted a male identity in order to function relatively freely in the goldfields had been treated abhorrently. Instead it became a story about Australia's first transgender celebrity. No mention made of her partner either.
https://qnews.com.au/newspaper-apologises-for-outing-bendigo-trans-man-143-years-ago/
Are these "non-binary, trans masks" going to stand over the graves of these authors and declare that the name on the stone is a "deadname?" I bet they'll adopt fictional but inspiring characters Nancy Drew and Pippi Longstocking next! Unfortunately for us, these "girls who think they're boys" are betraying our sex yet more deeply. They've been subjected to ritual conditioning and manipulation, and when they are faced with all the male violence in the women's bathroom, perhaps they'll wake up. Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com