This isn’t anything we haven’t discussed before wrt the subject of this thread, but I found it fascinating and illuminating in other ways, regarding a related character, so I thought I’d note it here.
Philosophy Tube came up in a recent livestream by upperhandMARS, Rose of Dawn, and Sinead Watson. (Mars and Rose are politically conservative transsexuals who often criticize the prescriptions of contemporary trans activism. Watson is a detrans woman well known in GC circles.)
At 30:00, they discuss this string of tweets in the Tube's ongoing crusade against the NHS. (The other tweets are from
Ana Valens, who has his account on lock.) PT wants to abolish dysphoria as a clinical diagnosis because it makes perfect sense to eliminate the concept that justifies pouring public funds into personal body modifications, I guess.
They talk a bit about PT’s nearsightedness, his pretensions of authority after less than a year out as trans, and his ridiculous claim to be the most famous trans woman in the UK. On that last note they name a few trans women more famous than him. Among them is Paris Lees. Then Rose of Dawn spills:
I used to be friends with Paris years ago, but she's got a fucking massive ego, which to be honest I was always expecting anyway. Like even when I was friends with her, it was kind of clear that she was doing all of this for fame. It was very obvious, and basically as soon as she became "famous" in inverted commas, she just ignored me. And the last time I met her in person, she basically pretended to forget who I was. And I'm like, you know, we've had nights out together; we used to have phone call chats every week; I stayed over at your house, you know, like — you don't forget the name of someone when you kind of interact with them that much. And so that was — yeah, that was — that was like — I've seen it, like, it's just kind of like — yeah, I can't even be bothered with you.
I’m taking Rose’s characterization of Paris with a grain of salt — memories often grow more bitter than their root experiences after a friendship ends — but I have to believe the specifics, as they seem too colorful to make up. Paris Lees was once friendly with Rose of Dawn. Paris Lees let Rose of Dawn crash at her house. Paris Lees iced out a friend and pretended never to have known her when their divergent public politics became too much of a liability.
I don’t know why this is so interesting to me. I can’t even say I’m surprised. Trans Britain is a small world; it isn’t strange that two trans women with different politics crossed paths and were on good terms before hardliners commandeered the movement. And of course Paris ended up cutting ties with Rose, the climate of the trans community being what it’s become. If Paris had a dark cloud of truscummy associations hanging over her, she’d be iced out herself.
The thing that fascinates me here is the behavior of a moderate — Paris specifically — under pressure from a radicalizing group. Ten years ago, most trans people said they wanted only to transition, blend in, and get on with life. Five years ago, there was more of a push for Trans Pride, but outside of Tumblr most people still believed gender dysphoria to be a key and necessary feature of trans experience. Now that so many people without diagnosable dysphoria have identified into transness, they have the numbers to overwhelm the old guard and smear them as intolerant transphobes, which they happily do whenever someone dares to question the legitimacy of their power. So the old school transsexuals learn the new lines for fear of being cast out. They want what’s best for trans people, right? And this is what’s said to be best. Surely it can’t be wrong if so many trans people agree. Surely you don’t want to hurt people who say they’re just like you.
The problem is that the trans label obfuscates so much difference between the people who claim it, and it’s considered rude, exclusionary, etc. to pull apart those differences in a way that suggests some (rarer types of) trans people have suffered more than others (in the subcultural majority). I’m sure Paris has more in common experientially with Rose than ~Abigail, yet Rose is on the outs while Paris and Abs rub shoulders.
It’s interesting to watch how people who’ve been trans and sure of it forever respond to the faddish new wave types. Many of them, like Paris, just get in line. Some, like Kat Blaque, try to integrate the new dogma but often wrestle with the way it conflicts with their personal experiences. A few, like Mars, Rose, and most famously Buck Angel, reject the trenders entirely and grow more gender critical than they would have been if nothing had changed.
I’m sympathetic to the desire not to lose your community and be haunted by accusations of transphobia forever, but at this point, if you have a little weight to throw around, it’s good to use it against those who try to ruin people for saying things that are true. They’d have less power if quiet objectors stood their ground rather than letting themselves be pulled by the tide.