Yesterday I took my stickybeaking self downtown to City Hall Park where Standing for Women was holding an event. You can read more about it elsewhere, but the basic idea of these events is a public setup with loudspeakers and the opportunity for any woman who wants to say something about issues affecting women to take the mike.
Because many of the issues of concern for women right now are considered controversial by some activists, these events attract protesters. Yesterday was no different.
When I arrived it seemed that there had already been trouble and some violence. Various videos show protesters trying to break through the barriers to attack the speakers. Several protesters had been arrested for disorderly conduct, and special police units had arrived on the scene.
The event speakers were behind a semi-circle of police barriers with their backs to the railings of the park which was dotted with police, many with zip ties hanging from their belts. Between the speakers and the barriers was a cordon of police. There was heavy police presence everywhere plus the private security that the event organizers had wisely hired to keep them safe.
A Call to Arms
A protesters’ call to arms had been issued on Twitter:
“MONDAY 11/14, 12PM @ CITY HALL PARK – pull up and drown out the hate that prominent anti-trans militants are spewing in NYC. Bring signs, banners, flags, noisemakers, trombones, vuvuzelas, and all your friends! Be creative and be bold! TERFS + fascists get the boot! “
Imagine a Boot
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.’” George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. spoken by O’Brien, the tormentor and grand inquisitor in chief.
The irony of that image of the boot smashing down on the “enemy” seems lost to these protesters – or at least on the person who designed the poster – so deep are they in the emotional drama of their own victimhood.
Clearly, this was not going to be a meeting of the minds to exchange views and consider reasoned compromise.
Drawn Swords, Battle Lines, and No Debate
On one side, people – primarily women – wanted to share personal views about misogyny, homophobia, the preservation of women’s sex-based rights, education, and the safeguarding of children. I heard snatches of speeches about men in women’s prisons and sports and about what was being taught in schools. It would be interesting to hear or read the words and personal stories that never got heard.
On the other side, those who see such discussions as transphobic and as an existential threat. Their imperative was to shut down the noise of women sharing their opinions and experiences. And so they did. It would be interesting to hear a calm version of the why and what of their thinking.
Once you declare that those expressing concerns about the erosion of women’s rights are the transphobic, far-right, fascist enemy akin to the nazis, then acting on that nightmare seems justified. The lines are drawn. You have named your enemy and it is beneath contempt. The issue is a simple Good v. Evil. Free speech, listening, middle ground, compromise, empathy, and problem-solving are irrelevant. There is a clear enemy. They/ she want you dead. You must stamp them/her out. It is a matter of survival. A moral imperative. It is the face of fascism, and you are called to destroy it for your own survival and for the good of society.
The police presence outnumbered the event participants and the protesters. What the protesters lacked in numbers, they made up for in noise with drums, whistles, tambourines, cowbells, and noise makers of all kinds along with their voices. Some of them must have gone home quite deaf and hoarse.
I was only an observer but I was not a neutral observer. These women showed extraordinary courage in the face of extreme abuse. I’ve been in quite a few protests, demonstrations, and marches over many decades going all the way back to Grosvenor Square in London in 1968. Some were far more violent. Most were much bigger. Few come close in terms of the emotional intensity and seething rage exhibited by some of these protestors.
A still from footage taken by @BelissaCohen
Here they are again with the green-hatted exhibitionist dude on the left who seems to imagine his chest area is some kind of noise-making squeezebox accessory. Where are the public boundaries on indecent exposure, abusive language, making violent threats, and spitting at people?
In Related News
In addition to this spectacle, Monday, November 14th also saw the publication of a significant and well-researched piece of investigative journalism in the NYTimes:
They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost? Puberty blockers can ease transgender youths’ anguish and buy time to weigh options. But concerns are growing about long-term physical effects and other consequences.
Some hope that this indicates that the fever of “no debate” is breaking and that we can look forward to more serious reporting on this issue. It’s well worth reading.
Wow, this is powerful, Josie. It seems to me that many people enjoy having enemies, or at least having others to rail against for any reason these days. It’s sad to see, especially in this country. Thanks for sharing this. 🌞
This is a heart-breaking article. I could weep when I think of the hopefulness of the ’60’s.
Thank you for writing it.
Gwen.
Agreed. The degree to which we have gone backward is astonishing.
Under the guise of this new ideology, we have returned to the misogyny and homophobia of the past and are in danger of rolling back rights that were the result of decades of hard struggle. For a while there we seemed to make progress toward breaking down traditional sexist stereotypes and accepting non-conformity. No more. And the sheer level of emotional intensity and hatred toward those who disagree – who dare to assert the simple fact there are two sexes and no-one has ever changed sex (for example) – is astonishing. How did we get so stupid so fast?
Seems to me that this a mental health crisis in part. And that declaring oneself “trans’ is a form of self-medication for all kinds of distressing psychological conditions and social distress from autism and anxiety to depression social isolation and everything in between.
It certainly has nothing to do with gay rights and being LGB.
Thank you for this thoughtful, and thought-provoking report on these issues, and an event I would (otherwise) have missed.
Oh Josie, what is the world coming to? These things are getting worse. Like an earlier comment, I thought it might be my age; what happened to give and take, to compromise, and to generosity, especially with regard to women and girls! As the world population grows out of hand (the UN says we’ve just passed the 8 billion mark) the problems will only increase especially when it’s fuelled by the politics of egotists and fantasists!
The world is becoming ever more violent. Whatever happened to ‘live and let live’? As for pausing puberty….I can’t imagine the messed up kids that will emerge. Perhaps I am too old to understand but it seems to me there are only two genders and three sexual preferences. You are male or female and you are straight, gay or bi-sexual. What is all the fuss? As long as no-one tries to force me into something I don’t wish for, I couldn’t care less what they do. So much paranoia. Humanity is doomed.
“A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular,” Adlai Stevenson, US Democrat & lawyer, 1952.
I enjoyed your reporting, Josie. The content is so complex, and it really is so disturbing that it’s become so polarized, without, it seems, any attempt at dialogue. I too wish both sides had the opportunity to speak and listen, so I could learn from their perspectives. Too much?
Hi Michelle,
Dialogue and compromise and reason are desperately needed but for a long while “No debate” was one of the mantras. That of course is a discussion ender. We do seem to be moving beyond that a little and it was good to see the NYTimes doing some good investigative journalism. But there is so much more to do. Lisa Selin Davis has also been making a useful contribution to what is happening with kids and schools. https://lisaselindavis.substack.com/
http://www.lisaselindavis.com/lisa
The shutting down of diversity of thinking remains very chilling. People have learned that it is dangerous to disagree. I know in some schools people feel it would be a career-ending move to raise questions and disagree with orthodox thinking.
In the end, some areas are going to have to be resolved in the courts because the conflicts of rights are such that it will take the law to resolve. This is not a struggle for new or expanded civil rights but rather a struggle to preserve the existing rights and status of women and LGBs that were hard-won over decades.
The medicalization of social non-conformity is another important aspect of all this. And that is something educators need to do some hard thinking about when it comes to what they are conveying to children. There’s an ideology at work here that is scientifically unsound yet seems to have many people, organizations and institutions in its grip. It needs to be challenged.
Thanks for the comment. Would love to catch up sometime and talk more.
I have been seeing these images and videos on the internet in various places, and I can also say how shocked I am at the viciousness of these guys, both the trans and the Antifa, as well as the woman who has had her breasts cut off so she can present as a man. The guys with their HRT-induced man boobs are classic autogynephiles (men who get a sexual thrill from the thought of themselves as women), called AGPs for short. The trans movement is full of them, and women are supposedly expected to share spaces with them. It’s a travesty.