A big part of this is claiming children have agency to make decisions about gender, medical treatment, and other grave life choices. Foucault was a pedophile – this is well established. It’s not hard to imagine that as children are given greater credit for knowledge and understanding about themselves and the world, the endgame here is erasing the age of consent, which Foucault advocated for in France. This is some sick business. I recommend the amazing work of Genevieve Gluck at her Reduxx online magazine to see just how many of this men who claim to be women are actually predators.
Last edited 4 months ago by Samantha Stevens
Jonathan Andrews
4 months ago
I have considerable sympathy for the writer’s position. Much of the behaviour of trans activists reflects the worst behaviour that is fairly associated with men; the aggression and violence, the ignoring of others’ rights and feelings.
The appropriation of the words of de Beavoir and Wittig strike me somewhat as chickens coming home to roost, particularly the later. The feminist movement has failed ever to recognise that, whatever time we live in, men and women mostly figure out how to live together in a mutually beneficial way. The idea of patriarchal oppression especially for centuries in the west is mostly a nonsense.
This doesn’t mean that there have not been gross injustices perpetrated by some men on some women. This doesn’t mean that it has not been a good thing for society that women do no longer have opportunities limited for stupid reasons. It doesn’t mean that their are not currently disgraceful behaviours inflicted on women by men. It means that academic, navel gazing feminism has largely brought this about whether it be Witting or Butler.
The appropriation of the words of de Beavoir and Wittig strike me somewhat as chickens coming home to roost, particularly the later
De Beauvoir and Sartre were both notoriously anti biology and de Beauvoir seeded anti biologism in the heart of Anglo Saxon feminism. Doubtless she had no idea where this would end up – but bad ideas have consequences, however ideologically useful they might seem in the short term.
Ray Kurzban, writing in Aporia https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/morality-and-other-weapons? claims that progressivism is about power and ‘morality’ is used as a weapon to exert power. And power is about justifying choosing sides.
I’m afraid that as long as people engage in choosing sides you are playing the Progressive game. How you step away from it – I don’t know.
Graham Stull
4 months ago
I have no sympathy at all with French feminists. Having suffered the loss of my son after years of unsuccessful court battles presided over by feminist judges who ignored every shred of evidence in order to find in favour of my ex-wife, I hope the entire French feminist movement sinks deeply into the morass of its own post-modernist making.
Women never had it worse than men – every meaningful statistic backs this up. And as much as gender dysphoric males are clearly mentally ill, at least they can claim back some of the cake miserable feminists have been enjoying for decades.
I’m inclined to agree with Graham. I think it’s far from clear that women in the past had it worse than men of the same social class. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a need for change though. Votes for women and votes for working class men (achieved at roughly the same time) were both progress.
The situation Graham points to is in urgent need of being addressed. Way more important that pink taxes, tampon taxes and the rest. It affects a very large number of men and children.
David Morley
4 months ago
The corruption of French feminism by the American version has been going on for some time. And it is younger feminists who are being corrupted. In general, French feminists have never displayed either the man hatred or the Puritanism of their American sisters. Remember the outrage when French feminists refused to get on board with the metoo hysteria. French feminists have been writing for some time about this – way before the whole trans thing blew up. But once you open the door to American feminist ideas, including trans ideology, the whole lot pours in.
David Morley
4 months ago
Then, the Americans threw it back at us. And that language and ideology is seeping into French culture and taking hold of young imaginations.
Yes – French philosophy has moved on since then and this is seen rather as an American cult than part of French culture.
Part of its appeal in the States was that it seemed cool, and a new position from which to attack the biologism and scientism of Anglo culture. What the adopters didn’t get, but which people like Chomsky realised, is that French culture is in many ways pre Darwin and unscientific rather than post Darwin and post scientific.
David Kingsworthy
4 months ago
“Isabelle Rome, the minister for gender equality, diversity and equal opportunities”
Incredible! not even the Americans have this kind of role in government, though the HHS can certainly lean in that direction.
Charles Stanhope
4 months ago
Whatever else at least American hygiene has crept into French female culture over the past seventy years, to the benefit of us all, it must be said.
Not sure what the downvotes are for. There are still areas of France where I have been brought close to retching by the smell of stale sweat. And that’s just in a queue!
From memory it was the unshaven armpits of young waitresses on a hot July afternoon close to St Ouen that really “took the biscuit”. Once smelt never forgotten.
On the topic of French stereotypes, I’m rather disappointed that their Rozzers resisted the temptation to put the boot in when confronted with threatening protesters. Looks like they’re following our lead on that.
Mind you the French are excellent at enforcing the law on FGM, unlike our feeble selves who will tolerate any level of barbarism in the name of ‘diversity’ or ‘inclusion’.
James Jenkin
4 months ago
Sign the manifesto! What can anyone sane possibly argue with
Tyler Durden
4 months ago
Great piece. The French still have a little over the Anglos in being able to summarise pointedly the philosophical-cultural threat poses by the new gender revolutionaries.
With their distinctly Maoist flavour, they strike me as ging much further than the
mai 68er generation of Derrida, Lyotard, Althusser and Deleuze (though Foucault’s proto-Queer theory has been a great resource for Professor Butler in transhuman California).
UnHerd Reader
4 months ago
This is everything and just as bad as all that the American Feminist/woke/Modern Progressive movement do.
France is nowhere near as bad as the anglosphere in this respect. The author has collated a bunch of extreme examples to make her point and relied on the readership not knowing any better.
Unlike American or Britain, the French press and literary world isn’t entirely subsumed by this fake debate. They are still very much concerned with real problems and real policy like pensions reform, attracting investment, (real and practical) immigration reform… I read a recent article in the Le Monde explaining exactly what “wokisme” is – anyone steeped in the media of the anglosphere will know all about it!
Why on earth is the lead photo a flattering picture of the author? What relevance does it have to anything…? We find out later on that the author’s proposed solution to this imagined environment is an online platform she has created. The same as all the other anti-woke grifters – inventing controversy to sell their articles, books, website, speaking tours etc. etc.
Upvote from me. There is a sense in France that woke is something alien, something American, to be looked at with suspicion as a foreign import. Very different to the U.K.
A big part of this is claiming children have agency to make decisions about gender, medical treatment, and other grave life choices. Foucault was a pedophile – this is well established. It’s not hard to imagine that as children are given greater credit for knowledge and understanding about themselves and the world, the endgame here is erasing the age of consent, which Foucault advocated for in France. This is some sick business. I recommend the amazing work of Genevieve Gluck at her Reduxx online magazine to see just how many of this men who claim to be women are actually predators.
I have considerable sympathy for the writer’s position. Much of the behaviour of trans activists reflects the worst behaviour that is fairly associated with men; the aggression and violence, the ignoring of others’ rights and feelings.
The appropriation of the words of de Beavoir and Wittig strike me somewhat as chickens coming home to roost, particularly the later. The feminist movement has failed ever to recognise that, whatever time we live in, men and women mostly figure out how to live together in a mutually beneficial way. The idea of patriarchal oppression especially for centuries in the west is mostly a nonsense.
This doesn’t mean that there have not been gross injustices perpetrated by some men on some women. This doesn’t mean that it has not been a good thing for society that women do no longer have opportunities limited for stupid reasons. It doesn’t mean that their are not currently disgraceful behaviours inflicted on women by men. It means that academic, navel gazing feminism has largely brought this about whether it be Witting or Butler.
De Beauvoir and Sartre were both notoriously anti biology and de Beauvoir seeded anti biologism in the heart of Anglo Saxon feminism. Doubtless she had no idea where this would end up – but bad ideas have consequences, however ideologically useful they might seem in the short term.
Your first paragraph is absolutely right on.
Ray Kurzban, writing in Aporia https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/morality-and-other-weapons? claims that progressivism is about power and ‘morality’ is used as a weapon to exert power. And power is about justifying choosing sides.
I’m afraid that as long as people engage in choosing sides you are playing the Progressive game. How you step away from it – I don’t know.
I have no sympathy at all with French feminists. Having suffered the loss of my son after years of unsuccessful court battles presided over by feminist judges who ignored every shred of evidence in order to find in favour of my ex-wife, I hope the entire French feminist movement sinks deeply into the morass of its own post-modernist making.
Women never had it worse than men – every meaningful statistic backs this up. And as much as gender dysphoric males are clearly mentally ill, at least they can claim back some of the cake miserable feminists have been enjoying for decades.
You have my sympathy – men have no more rights in France that they have in the U.K.
I understand your bitterness, but your pendulum has swung way too far. Women did have it worse than men and in Islamic cultures they still do.
I’m inclined to agree with Graham. I think it’s far from clear that women in the past had it worse than men of the same social class. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a need for change though. Votes for women and votes for working class men (achieved at roughly the same time) were both progress.
The situation Graham points to is in urgent need of being addressed. Way more important that pink taxes, tampon taxes and the rest. It affects a very large number of men and children.
The corruption of French feminism by the American version has been going on for some time. And it is younger feminists who are being corrupted. In general, French feminists have never displayed either the man hatred or the Puritanism of their American sisters. Remember the outrage when French feminists refused to get on board with the metoo hysteria. French feminists have been writing for some time about this – way before the whole trans thing blew up. But once you open the door to American feminist ideas, including trans ideology, the whole lot pours in.
Yes – French philosophy has moved on since then and this is seen rather as an American cult than part of French culture.
Part of its appeal in the States was that it seemed cool, and a new position from which to attack the biologism and scientism of Anglo culture. What the adopters didn’t get, but which people like Chomsky realised, is that French culture is in many ways pre Darwin and unscientific rather than post Darwin and post scientific.
“Isabelle Rome, the minister for gender equality, diversity and equal opportunities”
Incredible! not even the Americans have this kind of role in government, though the HHS can certainly lean in that direction.
Whatever else at least American hygiene has crept into French female culture over the past seventy years, to the benefit of us all, it must be said.
Not sure what the downvotes are for. There are still areas of France where I have been brought close to retching by the smell of stale sweat. And that’s just in a queue!
From memory it was the unshaven armpits of young waitresses on a hot July afternoon close to St Ouen that really “took the biscuit”. Once smelt never forgotten.
On the topic of French stereotypes, I’m rather disappointed that their Rozzers resisted the temptation to put the boot in when confronted with threatening protesters. Looks like they’re following our lead on that.
Ah yes the great days of the CRS!
Mind you the French are excellent at enforcing the law on FGM, unlike our feeble selves who will tolerate any level of barbarism in the name of ‘diversity’ or ‘inclusion’.
Sign the manifesto! What can anyone sane possibly argue with
Great piece. The French still have a little over the Anglos in being able to summarise pointedly the philosophical-cultural threat poses by the new gender revolutionaries.
With their distinctly Maoist flavour, they strike me as ging much further than the
mai 68er generation of Derrida, Lyotard, Althusser and Deleuze (though Foucault’s proto-Queer theory has been a great resource for Professor Butler in transhuman California).
This is everything and just as bad as all that the American Feminist/woke/Modern Progressive movement do.
France is nowhere near as bad as the anglosphere in this respect. The author has collated a bunch of extreme examples to make her point and relied on the readership not knowing any better.
Unlike American or Britain, the French press and literary world isn’t entirely subsumed by this fake debate. They are still very much concerned with real problems and real policy like pensions reform, attracting investment, (real and practical) immigration reform… I read a recent article in the Le Monde explaining exactly what “wokisme” is – anyone steeped in the media of the anglosphere will know all about it!
Why on earth is the lead photo a flattering picture of the author? What relevance does it have to anything…? We find out later on that the author’s proposed solution to this imagined environment is an online platform she has created. The same as all the other anti-woke grifters – inventing controversy to sell their articles, books, website, speaking tours etc. etc.
Upvote from me. There is a sense in France that woke is something alien, something American, to be looked at with suspicion as a foreign import. Very different to the U.K.