Not transphobic, linguaphilic

So these are the 2 tweets that have landed my career in hot water. 

 

 I’m #Linguaphilic, not #Transphobic!

Why would I be transphobic when I introduced the term #Neurodiversity to advocate for a movement for respect, recognition and inclusion of all neurominorities?  Which obviously include sexual minorities since sex is a property of both minds and bodies, which in any case are inseparable.  

What I was intending to say in the scant 240 char Twitter allotment, (and clearly failed to get across) was the importance of self-naming for minorities. It should be obvious that if only the dominant cultural mainstream has the power to name its minorities, it rarely happens in a "good" way. Such names marginalise or diminish the subordinate class.  The power to name confers the dominants with“power over” the subordinates (aka subalterns). It was the dominant culture that came up with the Psycho-Medical Model of Disability which lumped us all together under the label of“autistics” .This  was designed to to help us or cure us, (or so they thought)).  And at first, it was helpful to the extent that it reduced stereotypes. But in the end the label acted to enhance the status of the psycho-medical profession,  while disempowering those labelled with a litany of everything that was wrong with us. The psycho-medical model limits itself to weaknesses, and undermines strenths. 

In the same way, the dominant Western culture enforced the gender binary through the power of limiting the acceptable names for sexuality. In my impulsive tweet, I was literally trying to say "empower yourselves by naming yourselves"  

As times and mores change, old words no longer fit - and we have to create new words. Thus "Neurodiversity" constellated. I have said this before, that it is not a term that came out of some special genius I had, but out of a node in world history,which I occupied. This node stood slap-bang on the intersections of my geographical location, my family history, my ethnicity, (I won't use the word "race", because it was the idea that wiped out almost my whole Hungarian Jewish family), my genetic make- up, and my socio-economic class, and on a very positive point, Australian social democracy providing me with free tertiary education. And more

The Linguaphilic Argument 

What I mean by these words

Sex	biological; determined by X and Y chromosomes
Gender	socially constructed identity
Woman	historically reserved term for adult biological females, XX chromosomes
Man	historically reserved term for adult biological males, XY chromosomes
Intersex/ DSD	Awareness grew in the 19980s. Estimates by UN 1.7 % of world population. There are more than 30 configurations of X and Y chromosomes

The words Man and Woman are historically reserved. 

Can a man simply up and decide that he is a woman, and if not, why not? According to me, and I am confident, to the majority of the world's population, the answer is simply: "No, he can't"  

NB: I am talking about language not morality. 

If anything,  the fault lies with historical patriarchal Christian sexual repression and binarism. Initially, it was "marry or burn" or be damned by eternal hell-fire. Can't begin to image the torment this put people through. Or be a Catholic priest, but we now know how that worked out. 

We grew up having the choice of being either Male or Female, and as recently understood, in under 2% of humans,  DSD aka Intersex. 

Nowadays the binary persists because while there are only  2 sex chromosomes, X and Y, the guardians of the binary model seemed to be unaware of "permutations and combinations". It is now recognised that there are at least 30 viable variations of these combinations. .  

Those people whose experiences do not fit this binary,  but who are culturally acclimatised to adhere to the dominant linguistic paradim, then fight to legitimize themselves within a rigid nomenclature that fits their bodies but not their desires. This is never going to work. If the language to recognise a common new experience, often due to changes in traditional norms does not exist new words must be invented. An obvious example being "Neurodiversity". 

Sadly, the conservatives of the West.- with its invisible patriarchal sky god, divorced from land, nature, its seasons -  pride themselves on our supposed "enlightenment".  Yet they are anything but when it comes to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". 

But peoples who are closer to Earth are much more realistic and humane. Many of those cultures recognise many genders: 

World gender customs that recognise more than 2 genders
and honour them with names

Acault (Myanmar) Alyha and Hwame (Mojave) Ankole (Uganda) Aravani (Tamil Nadu) Ashtime (Maale Ethiopia) Bakla (Philippines) Bangala (DR Congo) Burrnesha (Albania)Calabai, Calalai and Bissu (Indonesia) Chuckchi (Siberia) Fa'afafine (Samoa) Fakaleiti (Tonga) Femminiello (Italy) Guevedoche (Dominican Republic) Hijra (South Asia) Jewish Talmud (6-8 Named Genders) Kathoey (Thailand) köçek (Ottoman Empire) Lhamana (Zuni) Mahu (Hawaii) Mamluk (Egypt) Mashoga (Kenya Tanzania) Metis (Nepal) Mino (Benin) Muxe or Muxhe (Zapotec of Oaxaca) Nadleehi and Dilbaa (Navajo) Ninauposkitzipxpe (Blackfoot) Quariwarmi (Inca Peru) Sekrata (Madagascar)Sistergirls and brotherboys (Aboriginal Australian) Skoptsy (Russia) Transsexuality in Iran Travesti (South America) Waria (Indonesia) Whakawahine (Maori New Zealand) Winkte (Lakota) Xanith (Oman)

See https://www.thirteen.org/program-content/independent-lens-a-map-of-gender-diverse-cultures/

The Tweets in Question

1. The first tweet: 

   Note that my take was linguistic not judgmental. 

However, soon after posting this first one on June 13, 2023, it occurred to me that the "-oid" suffix was actually derogatory, meaning "an imitation of" or "less than"... i.e less than human, or robotic.

So I self-corrected and removed the post shortly afterwards. 

And no, I did NOT know this was a term previously used by a small group of men who styled themselves as "Incels".  But the internet never forgets, and there are always people who love to seek "likes" by scandal-mongering.  

2.  The second tweet

This tweet was prompted by the case of a "White" woman who broadcast to the internet that she now  identified as "Black". For which she received a massive global drubbing she won't forget in a hurry. 

 

However, I own that my telling women not to be "suckered" was patronising and harsh. 

The point I wanted to make is actually based on something I learned from Australia's indigenous culture. They have an excellent method of defining "Who is an Aboriginal":

While such definitions are always changing as times change, the current official definition (here pared down), is that an Australian Aboriginal is a person who :

• is of Aboriginal descent;
• identifies as an Aboriginal; and
• is accepted as such by the community in which he or she lives or has lived  

What this means to me in relation to the trans issue is that it is location-specific. 

Location specificity

This says to me that if you are, say, Anglosaxon, and decide to identify as Aboriginal, you can't just show up in the community and butt in. You have to seek permission from the community, and only join in if you are invited. 

The same goes for men who identify as women. You can't just butt in to women's dedicated spaces without an invitation. 

And a further thought, and lest I be accused of sexism against men, I should say that I had a wonderful father who I loved, I am a heterosexual woman, I am attracted to men, and have had many relationships, I've married and divorced, and I am a mother. I have had trans friends, though not close friends as we move in different subcultures.  

My views in a nutshell

1.     Because I am Linguaphilic: The word “Woman” is historically reserved for adult biological female. I trust I don’t have to spell out the biology. I understand that language evolves, but in the case of women who have just struggled out of millenia of patriarchal dominance

2.      Initially, a  dominant culture has the power to name minorities. Often the names marginalise or diminish what is known as the subordinate or subaltern class.  This confers “Power Over” the subalterns. Thus we had the Psycho-Medical Model of Disability whose practitions labelled us  “autistics”, (in order to help us or cure us, as they thought) but the label acted as a disempowering litany of everything that was wrong with us.

3.       The Autistic Self-Advocacy movement arose in  the late 20^th century -  aka the “Postmodernist Era”, a time when identity politics changed society for People of Colour, Women, LGBTQIA etc -.

4.     Noticing that many other neurological minorities were following a similar path, I saw the need for an Umbrella Term as a banner for all. Thus in an Aha! Moment, I thought “Neurodiversity”. I can’t say I full understood why but I knew it was perfect for its times… Later I realised that it was because in our Era, the rise of Neuroscience was eclipsing Psychodynamics, and the rise of the Environmental movement taught us the value and importance of biodiversity.

Caveat

There is a tendency in all social movements to polarise. Important to note that some people erroneously think that Neurodiversity Is a diagnosis that means “Neurodisability”. It is not. It is a measurement of the degree of human variation in a location, which happens to be our planet. From my POV it just happened to to be a catchy name for a movement to reevaluate the pros and cons for society of neurological uniqueness with all our strengths and weaknesses.

And Neurodiversity is not a moral concept, To adapt George Orwell’s masterpiece, Animal Farm, (an aetiology of the rise and fall of all noble movements), our slogan is not “one leg good, two legs bad”, but we need to find a valued niche and role for everyone. For psychopaths and criminals for example, that niche is Protective Custody

The background

I wrote this about a month  after my return to Sydney from my speaking engagements in London. It was a marvellous experience and I was on a high about it. However it’s a gruelling journey to Australia from the UK, made worse by the fact that I lost my wallet and documents on the plane and could not rest, while looking for it everywhere. It finally turned up, thank goodness, but I was a wreck, when I arrived. On top of jetlag which affected me badly, remembering that I am aged in my 70s, also caught a virus on the plane, and did not recover for another another month, when I woke up one morning bursting with energy. That was the 13^th of June, the fateful day where full of pent up energy, I burst onto twitter. My intention was to vent my anger and outrage  about Putin’s invastion of Ukraine, but the first thing that Twitter fed me was the JK Rowling tweet above, and my emotions hijacked me.

It was stupid of me in my heightened state to rush into the twitter sewer, but it is supposed to be an autistic trait to be absolutely passionate about our Truth however we see it, whatever the consequences.

Throughout my life, I have always stuck my neck out for my beliefs in the face of conventional wisdoms. It’s my superpower! Hmm… could I be “autistic”??? … OTOH, Greta Thunberg has kind of ruined the concept of Superpowers, dubious though it always was. Shades of Icarus!. We must be careful

I’m sure I was considered eccentric when I kept spruiking about my insights into the Autistic Self-Advocacy movement and how it was shaping up to be  the last great social movement to come out of the postmodern era.  I was confident was because I saw that many other neurologically labelled minorities were finding common cause.  That is when I realised a new word was needed to name this emerging movement juggernaut – that’s when the word “Neurodiversity” popped into my head.

I should say that I believe I am a born linguist – inherited from my mother. Like so many autistic women,  I have always believed there are two kinds of people:

1.       Those who would never give up a comfortable life for the sake of speaking out for the truth

2.       Those who would never give up the truth for the sake of a comfortable life.

“What never?”, you may ask.

“Well …  hardly ever![1]” I reply

I should state at the outset that I am definitely on JKR’s side. I have not listened to her in detail,nor read her books, audio, video whatever, so I may or may not agree on every single point she makes. But I absolutely agree with her stance on Trans “Women” which I avidly follow on social media.

I did not explain myself well on Twitter, not surprisingly… 240 char… what can I say … it was a moment of sheer impulsivity.

So here is what I was alluding to.

By nature, I’m a linguaphile. I love precise language. I am very aware of the power of words, in particular the power of “self-naming”.  When a dominant culture names a minority, it is exercising “power over”. You cannot be powerful until you name yourself. Autistic people were named by the psycho-medical complex – the term conferred the status of deficient upon them, That’s’ why the term Neurodiversity was so powerful, it came from my and my family’s experience of outsiderhood and poverty, a   position of multiple disadvantages: class, ethnicity, “race”, gender, dislocation etc and disability of which “hidden disabilty” is the worst of both worlds.

 

Also though I am professionally identified as a sociologist, my favourite major was Anthopology.

 

 

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[1] Fans of Gilbert and Sullivan will recognised the song. I was just involved in a production of the same 😊.So apt