The Censorship of Women for Stating Biological Truth and the Contradiction of Left Wing Independent Media
Introduction
A large number of women (and in some cases, men) have been censored, and in some cases legally harassed, for stating the fact that biological sex is immutable and men cannot become women. Left wing independent media, though they often decry online censorship, ignore this aspect of the phenomena despite its prominence. Left wing independent media fails to address the fundamental contradiction of maintaining that trans rights are anti-establishment, while its critics are banned by that very same establishment.
The Evidence
We can start with people who have been banned from Twitter for expressing opinions that disagree with gender identity ideology.
Meghan Murphy. Meghan Murphy is the editor of the publication Feminist Current. She was banned from twitter for calling ‘Jessica Yaniv’ – an infamous pervert who unsuccessfully sued female beauticians for refusing to wax his genitals – a ‘he’ pronoun.
Helen Staniland. Helen Staniland is a campaigner for women’s single sex spaces who was banned from Twitter for asking ‘The Staniland Question’. This is: “Do you believe that male-sexed people should have the right to undress and shower in a communal changing room with women and girls.” [Note: While I was in the process of writing this post, Staniland's account was reinstated.]
Kellie Jay Keen (Posie Parker). Kellie Jay Keen was banned by Twitter for criticising Susie Green, the current leader of the ‘trans-child’ charity Mermaids. Green took her child to Thailand when he was 16 to have genital surgery. Keen accurately referred to Green having her son castrated (the surgery involves castration).
Karen Davis. She runs the Youtube channel You’re Kidding Right. She has also been banned from twitter.
Graham Linehan. Linehan is a well-known comedy writer who was banned from twitter for tweeting that ‘men aren’t women’.
Fred Sargeant. A gay activist who was present at Stonewall in 1969. His wesbite states that:
In December 2019 he became active again over his concern that the historical record of the late 60s and early 70s had undergone a significant change that erased the prominent figures and their contributions as well as the primary role of same-sex activism during that period.
On in other words, the reframing of Stonewall to be primarily about 'black trans women'. He has been banned from Twitter.
Furthermore, whole subreddits have been banned from Reddit. In particular, the Gender Critical subreddit was banned on grounds of it being 'hateful'. This subreddit had 65,000 subscribers and 7 years of content.
Books have also been targeted. For example, Abigail Shrier, author of a book exploring Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria in teenage girls called Irreversible Damage, had her book pulled from Target and Amazon refused to allow her publisher to advertise the work. Ryan Anderson, another conservative writer, had his book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, completely removed from Amazon.
Consequences can go beyond censorship. There have been women that have lost jobs and work because of expressing gender critical views. In reality, this amounts to a form of censorship because it prevents viewpoints being expressed. The situation regarding this has improved in the UK with the ruling in the Maya Forstater case that people cannot be fired for gender critical opinions, but it is only through hard work that an absurd original ruling was overturned. Furthermore:
What’s chilling about the cases of Forstater, Keogh and gender-critical feminists who have lost their jobs or been No Platformed from universities is the warning they send to others tempted to stick their heads above the parapet. Say what you know to be true and you might ultimately be vindicated. But you will have to endure the gut-wrenching anguish of thinking your career is over and your livelihood wiped out. [...] Despite notable successes the message remains: if you want a quiet life, shut up.
This article, from the highly recommended website Women are Human, provides an excellent list of cases of women losing work and facing violent threats for disagreeing with gender identity ideology. Here are a few examples from the article, I would suggest that you click to read the rest:
Author Gillian Philip, who was part of a team of writers of hugely successful animal fantasy novels for children under the name Erin Hunter, was sacked following a Twitter pile-on when she Tweeted her support for JK Rowling. In the 24 hours after adding #IStandWithJKRowling to her Twitter handle, the Scots author received hundreds of abusive messages.
Stella Perrett: the cartoonist was fired by the Morning Star newspaper and Public and Commercial Services Union after one of her pieces was branded ‘transphobic’. It depicted a crocodile entering a pool of newts with the caption ‘Don’t worry your pretty little heads. I’m transitioning as a newt!’
Another woman, Lisa Keogh, was recently investigated by her university for stating that 'women have vaginas' and that men are physically stronger than women. Although the investigation did not lead to any punishment it did lead to two months of unnecessary uncertainty and stress for Keogh.
There are even cases of legal consequences for women who disagree with gender ideology. Marion Millar, a woman from Scotland, was recently arrested and charged with a 'hate crime' for tweeting out pictures of Suffragette ribbons. Kate Scottow was also harassed legally for calling Stephanie Hayden male. She did manage to get this overturned, but as pointed out above, process can also be a form of punishment.
The Contradiction of Left Wing Independent Media
Independent media can be defined as media that gets funding from non-corporate sources or no funding at all. In this article, I am referring to the online video content produced by a particular section of the left - from very soft alternatives such as Kyle Kulinski, to somewhat more critical alternatives such as Jimmy Dore, MCSC Network, Graham Elwood and The Grayzone. There are also some channels that are not independent as they are funded by other state broadcasters but fit in in terms of style and presentation here, such as Lee Camp and Abby Martin (when she worked for Telesur). There are also writers who would fit into this bracket, such as Caitlin Johnstone.
It is a milieu with which I am very familiar, having watched hours of content from Dore in particular. Of course, to what degree some of the people in this milieu are 'left wing' can be debated, but all of these market themselves as such, and also market themselves as pro free speech.
Such independent media outlets have a vested interest in defending free speech on the grounds that they are often on the receiving end of censorship, or soft censorship. For example, MCSC Network and Graham Elwood have been demonetised by Youtube. The reason for this is obvious: these channels often oppose certain narratives which the government wish to promote. For example, Elwood has done many videos on relationships between members of the elite and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Many people in this milieu also claim to be anti-censorship on principle.
However, I have never seen anyone in left wing independent media address the issue of women being censored for speaking out about transgender ideology, or not believing that obviously predatory males that declare themselves women are actually women. To be honest, I have seen more people on the left defend Alex Jones’s right to freedom of speech than I have them defending any woman on this issue. The only independent media that sometimes defend women on this issue are on the right.
Why are left wing independent media ignoring this issue despite the fact it fits in with their free speech stance?
The first point to note here is that this environment is heavily male dominated, and there is virtually no overlap with feminist circles. Women in this environment - such as Fiorella Isobel - are the exception. This means that there is virtually no female perspective to push back on the problems with letting men into women's spaces and the misogyny of men claiming a 'female identity' based on gender stereotypes.
Because these spaces have no overlap with actual feminist media, I doubt that the (primarily) men in this milieu could even outline a gender critical or radical feminist position on the question, let alone come up with an argument to rebut it.
Secondly, it is important to note that this environment is largely made up a group that we could refer to as 'disgruntled liberals', mainly American ones. The path for people in this group is something like this: they initially supported the Barack Obama electoral campaign, hoping that electing a liberal black man could bring change after the warmongering, homophobic George W. Bush presidency. However, they quickly became disillusioned by Obama continuing the wars and neoliberal economic policies. They turned to Bernie Sanders, but saw even his soft social democratic campaign be sabotaged by the estabishment so Hillary Clinton could be installed as Democratic nominee. Such people began to look at alternatives to the status quo for completely understandable reasons. But they lack the grounding in socialism and feminism to fully understand how women are oppressed as a group due to biological reality as this reality is obscured by liberalism.
There is also a traditional urge among modern American liberals to differentiate themselves from the American Christian right, due to their opposition to policies such as same sex marriage. While the religious aspect of the American culture wars has faded, it was one of the most important aspects of the George W. Bush presidency when these people were forming their political views. Implicitly they think that taking a pro-transgender stance does this, as they believe that trans rights are the new gay rights. (It's worth noting that there are examples of right-wing Christians that support transgender ideology, primarily to avoid having an effeminate gay son. Such as this parent promoted by the ACLU, and the case of Kai Shappley.)
They, of course, may also have concerns about cancellation, if they are aware of the problems with gender identity ideology. Individuals who receive money from platforms such as Patreon do have to ensure an income stream by playing to what their audience wants. The audience of such programs shares a similar background to the channels themselves and gender critical feminism is not on the audience's agenda either.
There is a further question we need to ask. Independent media know full well that the stuff that is censored is the stuff that the MSM don't want you listening to. Why, then, do independent media refuse to question what this censorship states about transgenderism?
Actual human rights movements are smeared by the establishment. Look at how – for example – the Free Palestine movement are endlessly smeared as being anti-Semitic, Free Assange supporters as being Russian assets and rape apologists, and people who question state narratives on Covid are crazy conspiracy theorists. This also applies to historical movements such as the Suffragettes or the Civil Rights movements - the state and media smeared them and in some cases used outright violence (the force feeding of women, the murder of Fred Hampton).
On the other hand, transgender identified people are celebrated in the media. Look at the case of Ellen Page, previously an open lesbian and now calling herself a 'transgender man'. This is celebrated as brave and progressive and her existence as a woman is erased from all media reports - now only male name and male pronouns are used for her. The extremely lesbophobic message sent by the celebration of Page's 'transition', that lesbians are really men and should have their breasts cut off, is nowhere criticised except by feminist media and a few right wing outlets.
Independent left wing media looks at this issue through the human rights lens. They fail to see the problem because they ignore the lens they apply to other issues - often very well, in the case of people like Robbie Jaeger - that is, Follow the Money.
Transgender ideology is a huge cash cow for Big Pharma. The more people that take puberty blockers, hormones, and have surgery the more money they make. They have a vested interest in making as many people identify as trans as possible and transgender surgery is considered to be a growing market. Not to mention that if children take puberty blockers followed by hormones, or if adults have their ovaries/testes removed, they can no longer produce their own hormones. This makes them lifelong patients of Big Pharma, and as far as the industry is concerned, a lifelong patient is the best kind of patient. The genital surgeries themselves are expensive, and often require multiple revisions because they are riddled with complications - which means even more money is made by unscrupulous surgeons. Women who speak out are threatening to throw a wrench in this gravy train, so they must be shut up.
Conclusion
The censorship of women is a notable facet of narrative control carried out by the establishment that is ignored by the left due to its own internal biases, even when they claim to be pro free speech.
See also: The Modern Left Has Lost Touch with Reality: Part 2: Transgender Ideology. This article focuses on the British left wing alternative outfits such as The Canary. The milieu focused on in this article is a bit different, as these American independent media outlets are a bit different, although they both ultimately fail in following the money.