The Absurdity of “Tickle v. Giggle”
Australia sets a bad precedent on gender self-ID
This week, philosopher Petra Bueskens takes on Tickle v. Giggle, the Australian court ruling that “transgender women” are legally women. She argues that feminism isn’t to blame for the tyranny of identity-based gender claims.
The Absurdity of “Tickle v. Giggle”
To protect self-proclaimed gender identity as the determining attribute of female status not only means that “transgender women” now legally have the right to call themselves women. It also means that natal women have lost the right to call those same individuals “men.” As has become obvious in country after country, this prevents legitimate exclusions hitherto built into the law to protect women’s sex-based rights and single-sex spaces (sports, awards, toilets, change rooms, prisons, apps).
Gender identity trumps sex: so says the second highest court in our land. This outcome has significant implications for Australian society and will serve as a precedent across the West.
This Week in Sex-Realist Feminism: Sex Selection, Facing Fears, and Eating Disorders
This week: Leah Libresco on sex selection in IVF, Larissa Phillips on facing your fears, Erica Wagner on two new books dealing with women's troubled relationship with food. Plus: how not to solve the gender wars, Sabrina Carpenter and the gender divide, looksmaxxing, Fairer Disputations recommends a book—and more!
From the Archives:
In a symposium that engages in similar themes as today’s FD original, three featured authors face off on the relationship between feminism and gender ideology.
Did Feminism Create Transgender Ideology? A Symposium
Louise Perry, Holly Lawford-Smith, and Abigail Favale
Feminists of all stripes have frequently been blamed for the creation and propagation of transgender ideology. Is this blame misplaced? If not, how far should the blame go? In this symposium, three Featured Authors weigh in, offering three very different answers to this question.