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September 19, 2024 - 10:55am
A new work of art has been unveiled to great fanfare in London. Hundreds of masks of human faces are suspended on a metal frame on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, where they will remain for the next 18 months. The installation, by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, has echoes of a macabre Aztec artefact, a 15th-century tower of skulls discovered in Mexico City. But that isn’t the most striking thing about it.
According to the Guardian’s review yesterday, Mil Veces in Instante (a thousand times in an instant) is “a memorial to all transgender victims of violence”. There are countries where high numbers of transgender people are killed, and Mexico is one of them. The UK most definitely is not, with some research suggesting that trans individuals are less likely to be murdered than the rest of the population. That’s not the impression created by the 726 faces posed eerily above the fourth plinth, all of them belonging to “trans and non-binary communities in Britain and Mexico”.
It’s pure propaganda, bolstering the zombie claim — it’s been debunked many times — that transgender people are disproportionately at risk of murder in this country. It’s a foundational tenet of gender ideology, which holds an international transgender day of remembrance each November, making emotional claims about the number of people murdered as a result of “transphobia”. Politicians accept such claims uncritically, especially in the US where the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, marked last year’s day of remembrance with a statement about people who have been “targeted and killed for living authentically and courageously”.
In an atmosphere where people live in perpetual fear of causing offence, the notion that transgender individuals are braver and more vulnerable than the rest of us is rarely questioned. It ignores the fact that in countries where high numbers of trans people are murdered, the victims are often involved in the incredibly dangerous commercial sex trade. A report in 2019 suggested that 90% of trans-identified males in Brazil depend on prostitution to survive, exposing them to the jaw-dropping levels of violence associated with selling sex.
In Mexico, 52 trans people were murdered in 2022-23, the most recent year for which figures are available. But 11 women are killed every day in a country where the failure to protect women is a national scandal. In May alone, 335 women and girls were murdered, suggesting that this year’s total could reach 4,000. Thousands of Mexican women and girls are missing, their fate unknown.
The UK has its own problem with violence against women, with police chiefs finally recognising it as a “national emergency” a couple of months ago. Two or three women are killed by a current or former partner each week. One in 12 women will experience male violence every year, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
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SubscribeMore woke, hectoring alienating nonsense foisted on us as ‘public art’. What relevance does this have to the population of the UK?
There is nothing authentic or courageous about a man pretending to be a woman. There is nothing authentic or courageous about propaganda dressing up as art.
“There is nothing … up as art.”
That has nothing to do with being transgender. It is only what you wish was true.
Tell us again how you are really an American doctor, one of those who like the ACPeds hate group with ~200 “doctor” members who are dedicated to abusing in law and policy, everyone who is LGBTQ — and tolerates such physicians who try to raise the dead through prayer?
Talia is a charter member of the
Keepers Of Odd Knowedge Society.
You are dedicated to hurting myself and all like me. Why is it odd that I bother to learn of my enemies?
Because you need to play the martyr.
No idiot. Since it literally is my health care and even right to legally exist which is at issue — it’s no matter of playing.
Your right to legally exist in the UK is not under threat.
As far as I know, Britain is actually a very safe and tolerant place for the lgbtq community, do you feel otherwise?
“Your right to legally exist in the UK is not under threat.”
Of course it is, that is what claiming gender affirming care is “gender ideology” and then enacting laws and policies to that effect is.
“As far as I know, Britain is actually a very safe and tolerant place for the lgbtq community, do you feel otherwise?”
I know other wise, you have recently tolerated your government to condemn transgender children to have their sex inflicted on them. You endorse grotesque child abuse by policy.
Nobody is removing your rights though are they.
You are asking for the introduction of MORE LAWS. You are saying that you are a persecuted minority. Are you aware that the MORE POWER YOU GIVE THE STATE BY INTRODUCTION OF MORE LAWS, YOU ARE GIVING IT MORE POWER TO PERSECUTE YOU?
EVERY ADDITIONAL LAW IS MORE STATE POWER.
‘Of course it is, that is what claiming gender affirming care is “gender ideology” and then enacting laws and policies to that effect is’
Again how is this infringing your right to live as an lgbtq adult in the UK? Children are a different matter, I’m sure you will agree that when changing the law regarding children much consideration should be given before doing so? And that perhaps it should be a democratic decision?
Accusing others of supporting child abuse is rather rude.
Even in the wilds of the American deep south your tight to exist is not at stake. Now try going to Gaza, or Tehran, or Riyadh……
BTW, until just now, your posts are so obtuse and unclear, I had no idea of your personal reality. It is,still not completely clear, and frankly it does not actually matter. We are discussing the ideas of an issue. Words are not violence.
Your enemies only wish you silence, dear lady.
But then you’d have to confront the absolute nothingness of your cause.
“Your enemies only wish you silence”
No liar, they seek to make my legal existence impossible — and have done so in many jurisdiction, and, to make the healthcare I need illegal — and have done so in many jurisdictions.
You are a lying child abuser, and no better or other. Inflicting that abuse is your cause.
Are you British or American?
The biology involved is the same, common to all humanity.
The laws and policies the likes of which transphobes approve of are not relevantly different either.
Britain is not America though is it. Our laws are different and so is our culture.
‘The biology involved is the same, common to all humanity’
Do you support the obliteration of all gender, identity, culture and race then?
Talia,
With all due respect, please get help. Real help, not enablement. I for-swear hassling you further as it may contribute to some tragic outcome.
Respectfully,
M. U. Reader
Who are your ‘enemies’ exactly?
You do realise that the foundations of British democracy rely on the Christian principle of seeing all other people as equal to yourself and not as an ‘enemy’?
You do also realise that these principles have contributed to the promotion of lgbtq rights in this country, and it is because of these principles that Britain is famously tolerant of other races, religions and ways of life?
You do realise that Glastonbury was invented here?
You do realise that the majority of British citizens would not describe you as an ‘enemy’ I don’t think. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Talia,
Please recall what happens when you assume so much.
That’s my line. I know what is real, and you do not care.
But you now have a piece of artwork in Trafalgar Square!
So violence against transgender people has now stopped.
It’s not like the artwork is pointless virtue-signalling….
It is signaling actual virtue, and so has a point.
More ideological capture driven by the tyranny of the less than 1%, who so desperately want to be noticed and affirmed that they cannot grasp how their actions have the opposite effect.
How many people have trans people murdered? How many trans people have been murdered by trans people?
That might help us know whom is the greater danger to whom?
Trans Crime UK collates media reports of crimes committed by transgender individuals in the UK. We emphasize ‘individuals’ here, because we don’t think all males who identify as transgender are criminals in the same way as we don’t consider all men are criminals, despite the disparity in criminal convictions between men and women. For example, 98% of offenders convicted of rape in the UK are male….
https://transcrimeuk.com/
“We don’t think …”
Sorry. The crime is the crime regardless of the supposed gender of whoever committed it.
I do hope you aren’t campaigning for a subjective justice system with two (or quite possibly more) tiers …
In the United States, trans rights activists memorialize trans people who have been murdered due to hate crimes that year. The number of victims over the years are between 35-45. Most of them were killed due to domestic violence. Some I can think of were killed because they were prostitutes, one was hit by a drunk driver, some during drug deals, one was killed in the Dayton mass shooting, one died heroically trying to stop a mass shooting, etc. The bar shooting in Colorado was a hate crime, but usually only two or three murders are investigated as potential hate crimes. The day of remembrance is dishonest.
“The number of victims over the years are between 35-45”
That they know of.
“The day of remembrance is dishonest.”
No, it is not — but then, you hate honesty. You are here to lie.
An appropriately pointed and powerful article.
“In Mexico, 52 trans people were murdered in 2022-23, the most recent year for which figures are available. But 11 women are killed every day in a country where the failure to protect women is a national scandal.”
This statement could be made, to one degree or another, in every country, and it has been the truth forever. Yet now, for a handful of male victims — as Smith notes, mostly trans-identified men doing sex work, an inherently dangerous occupation — we get days of remembrance and memorials. I guess because these few males performing “female” are authentic and courageous, whereas the infinitely more girls and women routinely killed in simply living their actual female lives are not, and thus still not worthy of the attention they should have received decades ago.
How many trans murders took place in the UK in the last 5 years ? And of them how many were in the sex trade ?
How many murders of non trans sex workers took place in the same 5 years ? And how many sex workers are there ?
Artwork? Artwork fartwork!
And not a single 4th plinth to women victims of male violence.
Not that I agree with the plinth being used for that but now they’ve laid down their gauntlet.
Well at least it will disintegrate!
Yes! Thank you!
Not very original – link should work:
It all starts so well … but then this “The UK has its own problem with violence against women, with police chiefs finally recognising it as a “national emergency” a couple of months ago.”
Come off it, Joan.
And just how many of these “national emergencies” can we afford ? And before the term is devalued to mean nothing.
She’s just got to turn this it into a competition between women and trans people and their relative status in the victim hierarchy. Impossible for her to treat this statue/whatever it is on its own merits. Her objection isn’t really that this thing is “pure propaganda” (her words). It’s that it’s not propaganda for her own pet cause.
I think that is a little harsh on Joan. When exposing how flawed, biased or unjust something is, it is perfectly reasonable to compare it to something else.
I agree the criticism is ‘a little harsh’, but Peter B is right to point out that the comparison is inappropriate. There was no competition for the fourth plinth to exhibit an anti-violence display of any kind. The subject is purely the choice of the artist.
Not sure about the “purely the choice of the artist” bit: this artwork is most likely the result of a commission, be it by the Mayor of London, Arts Council UK or/and various sponsors…
The criterea were to show London as, ‘inclusive, safe and accessible.’ How this was to be done wasn’t specified.
Exactly how does this plinth exhibition show that London is “inclusive, safe and accessible”? It merely shows London to be virtue signalling. It should not say “Britain and Mexico”. It would be more to the point to have this exhibition in the country where apparently trans-gender people do get murdered. And what’s the situation for trans-gender people in Islamic countries?
It does get a bit tedious. This authors articles always follow an identical pattern.