The Man Who Would Be Queen

Originally posted 2016-05-17 12:53:54.

J Michael Bailey’s seminal book, The Man Who Would Be Queen (TMWWBQ) sparked huge controversy when it was published in 2003. The furore it caused, while small in focus, was spectacular in its incandescent rage at the author. This was categorically different from the conservative reaction to works of other controversial authors like D H Lawrence, or even Vladimir Nabokov’s deeply unsettling study of male attraction to pubescent girls. In those,  the hostility was principally against the work; not so here. It was J Michael Bailey in person who was vilified.

And to cap that, TMWWBQ is not a work of fiction, but of popular science. It is well written, in non-scientific language, is easy to read and deeply sympathetic to its subject. So what on Earth happened, to provoke such a furious backlash? It included entirely spurious attempts to end Bailey’s career, personal slurs and threats of violence against him. His attackers even accused him of sexually molesting his children.

The campaign against Bailey, coordinated by a small group of internet bullies, amounted to nothing more or less than a blatant attempt at censorship associated with a virulent personal attack on the author. It’s time, now, to revisit this book and see why it caused such a storm in a latte cup. Continue reading “The Man Who Would Be Queen”

Trans women: Jenner is not their only face

Originally posted 2015-10-26 13:01:28.

This article on the two types of trans woman is from 2015 but I’ve updated and refreshed it. The points it makes are still germane.

If you’ve been anywhere near a media outlet over the last few years you won’t ave been able to avoid noticing that trans women are getting a lot of attention. If you have seen images of Caitlyn, formerly Bruce, Jenner, and then Paris Lees, Janet Mock, Laverne Cox or Jai Dara Latto, who was  crowned Miss Transgender UK 2015, you might be forgiven for being a bit confused. You might be struggling to figure out what the connection is between an ageing sports jock who looks like a man in a dress, and a glamorous woman who looks like — a glamorous woman. If you’re at all liberal or PC, you might have just accepted that these are the same, but, you know, because time and stuff.

But you’d be dead wrong. There are two completely distinct types of transgender woman and there is no connection between them at all. The conflation that is going on is wrong and potentially lethal.

This is important because one type is the  subject of deadly and repeated violence, while the other colludes in it. Perhaps even worse, a vicious form of feminism rooted in the writing of the odious Janice Raymond, has for decades also been colluding in this persecution. Those who follow this are called Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist or TERFs.

Now I will show my cards here: my girlfriend is trans. But she’s not like Jenner. And because she is — being of the other type — a potential victim of violence, I have to stand to the wire. Political Correctness is all very well until people start dying because of it; and that is what is happening. So let me explain.

books by rod fleming

Continue reading “Trans women: Jenner is not their only face”

Homosexual is a personality type.

personality type

Originally posted 2022-10-26 14:51:20.

A few years living outside the particular circumstances of the Anglo-West forces a question: are ‘gays’ in the West homosexual at all?  Is ‘homosexual’ a way of having sex, or does it refer to a personality type?

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Ever since Kinsey entered the fray, there has been a concerted effort to avoid seeing ‘homosexual’ as a personality type and to use it instead to describe a way of having sex. But this is completely at odds not only with the global usage of the term, but also of the historical antecedents.

This is important because, as so often happens, an entire group of people has been ruthlessly erased to suit the political agenda of another one, this time because of their personality type. To understand that, we have to understand what the terms mean.

substack

‘Gay’ is usually taken to mean ‘ homosexual’ and has been used in this context since the 1920s, in the West. However, the term is vague and today really applies to a lifestyle rather than a specific sexuality. Several classes of people inhabit that lifestyle, which adds to the confusion, since many of them do not conform to the homosexual personality type

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Continue reading “Homosexual is a personality type.”

Stand up and be counted

Originally posted 2016-05-01 16:19:06.

I am in a relationship with a transsexual (TS) woman. This places me in a position of responsibility, because my girlfriend, like all her sisters, is in danger. Transsexual women are abused, insulted, and disrespected; but worse, they are beaten, falsely arrested, harassed by authorities that should protect them and frequently murdered.

This means that men like me must stand up and be counted.

Continue reading “Stand up and be counted”

Restroom rights again

restroom

Originally posted 2016-04-23 11:05:32.

The issue of ‘transgender’ access to female-specific spaces continues to boil up. So let’s look again at what is being said and why it is a problem.

While women-only toilets, restrooms and other spaces have come to be seen as a place of refuge, safe havens for women.

books by rod fleming

Continue reading “Restroom rights again”