Women's Voices

After almost a year of organizing, Jaclynn Joseph and Neo Yao have founded Taiwan’s first gender critical, female-centric organization — Taiwan Women’s Association (TWA/Chinese 臺灣女性協會) — which has been officially recognized by the government. Originally from Hawai'i and now based in Taiwan, Jaclynn Joseph is a university lecturer, Ph.D. candidate in the field of feminist philosophy, and the Taiwan country representative of the feminist organization Women’s Declaration International (WDI). A guest writer for Feminist Current, she was the first to shed light on the infiltration of gender identity ideology in Taiwan through her articles. Neo Yao was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. He has been a human rights and LGB activist for more than fifteen years, and a women’s rights activist for more than six years. He began focusing on Women’s sex-based rights in the past several years, and along with Jaclynn, formed the Taiwan Women’s Association in late 2022 as a founding member, where he currently serves as an executive council member. Some founding members of TWA, including Jaclynn, also work with an organization called No Self-ID Taiwan (NSIDT). NSIDT is the only website in Taiwan dedicated to pushing back against gender ideology and tracking changes in related legislation.

Caitlin Roper, Campaigns Manager for Collective Shout, talks about her new book, Sex Dolls, Robots, and Woman Hating: The Case for Resistance, published by Spinifex Press. In her book, Roper debunks common arguments put forward in favor of an industry which she describes as the “literal objectification” of women into sex objects. “Lifelike, replica women and girls  produced for men’s sexual use, sex dolls and robots represent the literal objectification of women. They are marketed as companions, the means for men to create their ‘ideal’ woman, and as the ‘perfect girlfriend’ that can be stored away after its use. Advocates claim the development of sex dolls and robots should be actively encouraged and will have many benefits — but for who? Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating exposes the inherent misogyny in the trade in sex dolls and robots modeled on the bodies of women and girls for men’s unlimited sexual use. From doll owners enacting violence and torture on their dolls, men choosing their dolls over their wives, dolls made in the likeness of specific women and the production of child sex abuse dolls, sex dolls  and robots pose a serious threat to the status of women and girls. ‘Sex dolls and robots in the female form function as an endorsement of men’s sexual rights, with women and girls positioned as sexual objects. The  production of these products further cements women’s second class status.’” You can register to attend Caitlin’s book launch event on August 23rd, or pre-order a copy of Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating.

Genevieve Gluck and Donovan Cleckley discuss the influence of pornography, plastic surgery, and the objectification of women on gender identity ideology. Donovan Cleckley holds a BA in English and Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Montevallo and an MA in English from Tulane University. His research focuses on the relationship between women’s rights and gay rights, literature and sexual politics, and the social and political implications of transgenderism as an ideology, an industry, and an institution. Learn more about his work on his website, or find him on Twitter.

Genevieve and Hannah discuss the erasure of women's spaces, both online and in the public sphere; the attack on lesbians; violent male convicts being transferred to New Jersey's Edna Mahan's Correctional Facility for Women; British Cycling's judgement regarding trans-identified athlete Emily Bridges; Florida Department of Health's guidance prohibiting the use of puberty-blocking drugs and gender identity surgeries for minors.

Genevieve Gluck, Jen Izaakson and Hannah Berrelli discuss Baroness Nicholson's allegations that a gender identity policy on NHS hospital wards has enabled men to rape women with impunity; University of Pennsylvania trans-identified swimmer Lia Thomas; the creator of the trans flag's fixation with women's underwear and age regression; J.K. Rowling's support for detransitioners.

Caroline Norma and Emma Dalton discuss Dale Spender’s book Man Made Language as part of a series titled “Radical Feminist Perspectives”. Dale Spender is an Australian feminist scholar, teacher, and writer. In 1983, Dale Spender was co-founder of and editorial advisor to Pandora Press, the first of the feminist imprints devoted solely to non-fiction, committed, according to the New York Times, to showing that "women were the mothers of the novel and that any other version of its origin is  but a myth of male creation". Spender's work is "a major contribution to the recovery of women writers and theorists and to the documentation of the continuity of feminist activism and thought". The book Man Made Language (1980) is based on Spender's PhD research. Her argument is that in patriarchal societies men control language and it works in their favor. "Language helps form the limits of our reality. It is our means of ordering, classifying and manipulating the world." This conversation took place as part of a webinar for Women’s Declaration International, a campaign that promotes awareness of women’s human rights and lobbies for their consideration in public policies.

Genevieve Gluck and Jen Izaakson of Lesbian Labour discuss the ineffectiveness of the police to adequately address sexual assault and violence against women while simultaneously pursuing charges against women for social media posts; the platforming of child sexual abusers by trans organization the Sylvia Rivera Law Project; the phenomenon of men pretending to be lesbians and the harm this does to the lesbian community.

The École Polytechnique massacre, also known as the Montreal massacre, was an anti-feminist mass shooting at an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal. On December 6, 1989, Marc Lépine entered a mechanical engineering class at the École Polytechnique and ordered the women and men to opposite sides of the classroom. He separated nine women, instructing the men to leave. He stated that he was "fighting feminism" and opened fire. He shot at all nine women in the room, killing six. The shooter then moved through corridors, the cafeteria, and another classroom, targeting women for just under 20 minutes. He killed a further eight women before turning the gun on himself.

Jennifer Lahl is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, which, according to the mission statement, exists to “educate and inform members of the general public, thought leaders, lawmakers, and others on ethical issues in healthcare, biomedical research, and biotechnological advancement.” Lahl has over 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and in senior-level nursing management. She has made several documentaries with a particular focus on exploring the exploitation of women by the assisted reproductive technologies (ART) industry, including Breeders: A Subclass of Women?, #Big Fertility, and Eggsploitation. Her most recent film titled Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Assign Gender? questions the ethics of medically transitioning children and reveals some of the harms, both emotional and physical, of childhood sex reassignment procedures and medications.

Beth Johnson is a representative for Speak Up For Women, a New Zealand-based women’s rights group working to educate the public about the ways sex self-identification harms women. On July 13, a billboard paid for by Speak Up For Women was removed following backlash on social media. The billboard, displayed in downtown Wellington, simply stated the dictionary definition of the word ‘woman’, a nod to the campaigning done by UK women’s rights activist Posie Parker. The billboard was intended to draw attention to sex self-identification clauses within the Births, Death, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill, which allows full self-identification and alteration of the sex marker on one’s birth certificate without a medical recommendation. In August, the Advertising Standards Authority completed an assessment of complaints about the billboard, and decided that “The majority of the complaints board said in the context of advocacy advertising the advertisement was socially responsible and did not reach the threshold to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence, did not cause fear or distress without justification and was not misleading.” Currently, the government is holding a public consultation on the bill containing sex self-identification clauses which is open to members of the public living overseas as well as New Zealanders. The deadline for submitting a response is Tuesday, September 14, and Speak Up For Women is asking for international support in opposing the legal erasure of women.

Helen Joyce is a journalist for The Economist who holds a PhD in mathematics from University College London, and who recently published a book titled Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, which debuted at number 7 on the Sunday Times’ hardback non-fiction list, and appeared in the Times’ list of the best books of 2021. Regular Times columnist David Aaronovitch wrote that “Joyce [examines] a new ideology about gender. This holds that biological sex is as much a 'social construct' as the idea of gender is. One benefit of Joyce's book is its intellectual clarity and its refusal to compromise.” Kathleen Stock, professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex, and author of Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism (2021), gave Trans a 5-star review at The Telegraph, calling it a “superlative critical analysis of trans activism” and observing that “Joyce shows an impressive capacity to handle complex statistics, legal statutes, and other bits of evidence without losing clarity or narrative drive.” Writing for the Standard, Stella O’Malley said, “Joyce’s book truly is a tour de force. With a fine eye for detail, she brings all the elements of gender ideology together with clarity and precision. For anybody who wishes to gain a deep understanding of the issues related to trans activism, this book is simply a must-read.”

Maya Forstater, who was let go from her position at think tank Center for Global Development (CGD) in March of 2019 for tweets asserting the reality of biological sex, and who had originally lost a court case challenging her employer’s decision, has on June 10th won an appeal filed with the employment tribunal. According to the introduction in the ruling, “The Claimant holds the belief that biological sex is real, important, immutable and not to be conflated with gender identity. She considers that statements such as ‘woman means adult human female’ or ‘trans women are male’ are statements of neutral fact and are not expressions of antipathy towards trans people or ‘transphobic’.” Those who set up a monthly donation to Sex Matters during the month of June will have their contribution matched and doubled by a “generous donor”.

Dr Kathleen Stock OBE is a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex who has written a number of articles for peer-reviewed academic publications primarily on aesthetics, sexual objectification, and the impact of modern gender theory on the rights of women and girls. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to higher education, after which many philosophers took to social media to object, circulating an “Open Letter Concerning Transphobia in Philosophy.” She has recently published a philosophical examination of the main tenets of gender ideology, called “Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism,” available now in both hardback and in electronic format.