Jill, the Times of London column you reference has a completely misleading headline (as many have pointed out on Twitter. Janice Turner, the author, does not argue that Trump is a feminist hero, she thinks he is a disaster for women's rights. She said he is posing as one on the basis of his ban on women in women's sports. She then references all the anti-feminist things he has done -- pussy-grabbing, anti-abortion, etc etc. and wonders why Dems allowed Trump to own the "commonsense" issue of keeping women's sports single sex. (She opposes transwomen in women's sports, like the large majority of Americans, including Democrats, and plenty of feminists too). She thinks Dems were basically bullied by trans extremists, like the ACLU.
You're usually so careful, but this time I wonder if you actually read the article.
I did read it! And she says: "So why did it take Trump to say this, and why did the Democrats gift their worst enemy such an easy win, allowing Trump — who in another executive order just banned all federal funding to abortion services — to be hailed as a feminist president?" She doesn't say Trump is a feminist in all ways, but she certainly does see this as a feminist move.
Yes, Janice Turner does believe trans women don’t belong in women’s sports. A LOT of British feminists agree with that, and many US ones as well. Her point is that because the Dems insisted that trans women should play on women’s teams, Trump could pose as a feminist by denying it. Having one arguably feminist position doesn’t make you a feminist. Many anti-feminists can point to ONE feminist position they hold. Pro-choice, equal work for equal pay, etc. This was such an easy win for Trump.
She still put out the headline that implied something else, by design, I’m not buying she put that up in good faith— he’s no protector regardless, Trump views women as vessels for reproduction, not equal human beings.
He’s not for biological women, period, he hates both trans women and at birth women in equal measure in truth- he just realizes the trans issue riles up his diehard 42% bigot base and keeps them in line, it’s Red meat for “the base” is all.
Nuance is the enemy of fascism. Forcing us to ignore genuine complications in, say, the incorporation of transwomen into women’s sports helps the fascists.* The complications can be resolved given time and greater information, which the fascists are determined to deny us. We need to remember that they want to force everyone into extremely narrow boxes and we want people to control their own lives. I wish I had a good catchphrase for our position.
*One way of protecting the right to compete for transwomen and ensuring that everyone is safe during competition could be weight classes for some sports. Another is more precise calculations of hormone levels. None of these are things legislators can do and all of them require good data from doctors and biologists, which the fascists are determined to prevent us from ever obtaining.
Can I just say- what is a woman IS a problem for the median voter, I don't care how much it makes many college educated women of the Left upset.
A woman is a woman, a man is a man, to the average working class person- womxn, Latinx, Italianx, this stuff is all sheer insanity to someone who does not have a 4 year or greater college degree (heck, even to Hispanic men and women Latinx is DEEPLY offensive to most not in academia). They like Latino for men, Latina for women-- that's a fact, like Caucasian Italians like Italiano for men, Italiana for women.
The "but it's gender neutral" excuse doesn't fly, don't appropriate other people's words please-- they like their normal vernacular, please stop these excesses-- it's a self own.
Re: the whole trans issue otoh, it's just pure Red meat for MAGA base voters- no one else cares, let trans men be trans men, trans women be trans women. That's not the issue for the Left right now, it's just for Reps like Nancy Mace (vile person, imo) to get social media clout and "trigger" the Left for clout on the Right-- let her drown in her own hatred/malice echo chamber, quickest way to make her irrelevant.
The bathroom thing is the quickest dog-whistle to segregation in the hopes of making Dems look crazy to median voters, but it's intended to scare biological women at birth of what you think- unfortunately, it's a 50/50 split in this country as to how they think of it, but you have to stick up for marginalized groups in your own base period or risk more bleeding out from them and it's the right thing morally to do. With the sports thing, just propose a trans league like the disabled olympics, easy to diffuse the Right there and take away a talking point for bigots there.
Since prepubescent boys don't actually have much physical advantages over girls, isn't blanket denial of puberty blockers pretty much blocking them from being athletes during their lifetime? (In grade school I was taller than any boys in my classes. I topped out at 5'2")
I understand the concerns about transwomen in at least some sports. But are there any figures on how often transfemales (women and girls) actually DO place in the top 3 or 4 of competitions? Isn't there a lot of ASSUMING they'd win without any real data. There are loads of wimpy MEN who couldn't so place. And transfemales take estrogen which tamps down some male characteristics
Some concerns are real. A 6'5" trans basketball player might have advantages, though not if she can't get past the H in Horse in shooting ability. Shouldn't teams looks at each case, set up some criteria for deciding whether strength or weight is a factor and then just testing the athlete against the past performance of women on the team? If she can't come close to the speed or accuracy of cis females on the team I can't see the disadvantages.
He let his true self slip out here, btw, "funny how" and it turned into the lewd slur he directed at the former VP you think it was, as well as the former SoS.
Trump is a feminist hero? This is a guy who bragged about groping women. He was found liable for sexual, and he almost single-handedly overturned Roe v Wade.
He's as much a feminist hero as are Republicans, as Democrats are endearing themselves to men over time-- let that speak for itself.
There is no mystery behind the gender gap as to why Republicans are doing terribly with women writ large, the women hating party is bad for them-- a party that uses women as tokens and wants them permanent handmaidens in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant, is in fact, a misogynistic party.
There is no mystery behind the gender gap as to why Democrats are doing terribly with men writ large conversely, men don't like being demonized for all ills in the world and get insecure when they feel like they've been made inferior without an even hand first.
Whichever party figures this out is going to be able to take out the other party first, long term, Reps are dumb for alienating women long term that said but Dems are increasingly agitating and annoying young voters and minorities in their own core base while gaining nothing with most white women hence here we are for the moment- to give you the brutal, caustic reality of the political scene today in 2025 in the USA.
Jill, the Times of London column you reference has a completely misleading headline (as many have pointed out on Twitter. Janice Turner, the author, does not argue that Trump is a feminist hero, she thinks he is a disaster for women's rights. She said he is posing as one on the basis of his ban on women in women's sports. She then references all the anti-feminist things he has done -- pussy-grabbing, anti-abortion, etc etc. and wonders why Dems allowed Trump to own the "commonsense" issue of keeping women's sports single sex. (She opposes transwomen in women's sports, like the large majority of Americans, including Democrats, and plenty of feminists too). She thinks Dems were basically bullied by trans extremists, like the ACLU.
You're usually so careful, but this time I wonder if you actually read the article.
I did read it! And she says: "So why did it take Trump to say this, and why did the Democrats gift their worst enemy such an easy win, allowing Trump — who in another executive order just banned all federal funding to abortion services — to be hailed as a feminist president?" She doesn't say Trump is a feminist in all ways, but she certainly does see this as a feminist move.
Yes, Janice Turner does believe trans women don’t belong in women’s sports. A LOT of British feminists agree with that, and many US ones as well. Her point is that because the Dems insisted that trans women should play on women’s teams, Trump could pose as a feminist by denying it. Having one arguably feminist position doesn’t make you a feminist. Many anti-feminists can point to ONE feminist position they hold. Pro-choice, equal work for equal pay, etc. This was such an easy win for Trump.
She still put out the headline that implied something else, by design, I’m not buying she put that up in good faith— he’s no protector regardless, Trump views women as vessels for reproduction, not equal human beings.
He’s not for biological women, period, he hates both trans women and at birth women in equal measure in truth- he just realizes the trans issue riles up his diehard 42% bigot base and keeps them in line, it’s Red meat for “the base” is all.
Headlines are not written by the writer. I often don’t even know what the headline of a piece by me is until it’s in print/on line.
This explains a lot, who is in charge of doing so?
Nuance is the enemy of fascism. Forcing us to ignore genuine complications in, say, the incorporation of transwomen into women’s sports helps the fascists.* The complications can be resolved given time and greater information, which the fascists are determined to deny us. We need to remember that they want to force everyone into extremely narrow boxes and we want people to control their own lives. I wish I had a good catchphrase for our position.
*One way of protecting the right to compete for transwomen and ensuring that everyone is safe during competition could be weight classes for some sports. Another is more precise calculations of hormone levels. None of these are things legislators can do and all of them require good data from doctors and biologists, which the fascists are determined to prevent us from ever obtaining.
Can I just say- what is a woman IS a problem for the median voter, I don't care how much it makes many college educated women of the Left upset.
A woman is a woman, a man is a man, to the average working class person- womxn, Latinx, Italianx, this stuff is all sheer insanity to someone who does not have a 4 year or greater college degree (heck, even to Hispanic men and women Latinx is DEEPLY offensive to most not in academia). They like Latino for men, Latina for women-- that's a fact, like Caucasian Italians like Italiano for men, Italiana for women.
The "but it's gender neutral" excuse doesn't fly, don't appropriate other people's words please-- they like their normal vernacular, please stop these excesses-- it's a self own.
Re: the whole trans issue otoh, it's just pure Red meat for MAGA base voters- no one else cares, let trans men be trans men, trans women be trans women. That's not the issue for the Left right now, it's just for Reps like Nancy Mace (vile person, imo) to get social media clout and "trigger" the Left for clout on the Right-- let her drown in her own hatred/malice echo chamber, quickest way to make her irrelevant.
The bathroom thing is the quickest dog-whistle to segregation in the hopes of making Dems look crazy to median voters, but it's intended to scare biological women at birth of what you think- unfortunately, it's a 50/50 split in this country as to how they think of it, but you have to stick up for marginalized groups in your own base period or risk more bleeding out from them and it's the right thing morally to do. With the sports thing, just propose a trans league like the disabled olympics, easy to diffuse the Right there and take away a talking point for bigots there.
Since prepubescent boys don't actually have much physical advantages over girls, isn't blanket denial of puberty blockers pretty much blocking them from being athletes during their lifetime? (In grade school I was taller than any boys in my classes. I topped out at 5'2")
I understand the concerns about transwomen in at least some sports. But are there any figures on how often transfemales (women and girls) actually DO place in the top 3 or 4 of competitions? Isn't there a lot of ASSUMING they'd win without any real data. There are loads of wimpy MEN who couldn't so place. And transfemales take estrogen which tamps down some male characteristics
Some concerns are real. A 6'5" trans basketball player might have advantages, though not if she can't get past the H in Horse in shooting ability. Shouldn't teams looks at each case, set up some criteria for deciding whether strength or weight is a factor and then just testing the athlete against the past performance of women on the team? If she can't come close to the speed or accuracy of cis females on the team I can't see the disadvantages.
One thing is for certain, Trump hates women-- all women-- with a passion.
If you think he cares even about most biological women, you're a useful mark for him.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/donald-trump-tantrum-kamala-harris-crude-sexual-remark-election-2024-rcna168793
He let his true self slip out here, btw, "funny how" and it turned into the lewd slur he directed at the former VP you think it was, as well as the former SoS.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trumps-misogynistic-attacks-kamala-harris-arent-even-worst-part-rcna169141
"Have their way with" from his surrogate Watters was another directly intended what you think it was...
Trump does not have any respect for 51% of the population, period.
Trump is a feminist hero? This is a guy who bragged about groping women. He was found liable for sexual, and he almost single-handedly overturned Roe v Wade.
What planet are these people living on?
This is Trump the "hero of feminism's" worldview on women, Jill, basically only Abbott, DeSantis, etc. have more hatred and contempt for all women.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-women-treat-em-like-shit/
He's as much a feminist hero as are Republicans, as Democrats are endearing themselves to men over time-- let that speak for itself.
There is no mystery behind the gender gap as to why Republicans are doing terribly with women writ large, the women hating party is bad for them-- a party that uses women as tokens and wants them permanent handmaidens in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant, is in fact, a misogynistic party.
There is no mystery behind the gender gap as to why Democrats are doing terribly with men writ large conversely, men don't like being demonized for all ills in the world and get insecure when they feel like they've been made inferior without an even hand first.
Whichever party figures this out is going to be able to take out the other party first, long term, Reps are dumb for alienating women long term that said but Dems are increasingly agitating and annoying young voters and minorities in their own core base while gaining nothing with most white women hence here we are for the moment- to give you the brutal, caustic reality of the political scene today in 2025 in the USA.