Hi Graham, I sometimes hear you asking questions to which I can reply, but I don't because "other stuff to do, blah blah blah" (really it's because I keep trying to get myself off this topic. Btw, I am the person who asked you on Spinster if you'd let me bypass the subscription rules, because I don't have a whole lot of money! I decided to pay for a month).
However, I've changed my mind about participation in "the gender fracas" (in the words of the great Karen Davis). Not only will I answer your questions when you ask them, but I've decided to make a podcast, which I will title "Cassandra's Box," after the two woman-hating Greek myths.
The myth of Cassandra is very much relevant to women criticizing patriarchy (aka feminism): cursed to tell the truth, but never be believed. "Pandora's box" is similar to the later origin story of Eve, another woman who let all the evil into the world, in another of patriarchy's magnificent reversals (in fact, maybe I should have a segment titled "Patriarchy's Magnificent Reversals"). It took me until age 30 to finally talk about the things that have happened to me, and now I can't seem to shut up, but it doesn't matter a whit, because people don't care what happens to women (I really ought to do a segment on the abject failure of modern movements to meaningfully address male sexual violence); and I can't seem to shut up precisely because what happened to me doesn't matter a whit, and it should. I was lied to when I was growing up. I was told the world was equal now, that it thinks girls are great, that women have equality, none of which are remotely true.
So, I am "Cassandra's box," cursed to speak the truth but never be listened to, but also, in a world in which "speech is violence," my inability to shut my mouth is like Pandora's inability to shut her box: I will rain this "violence" down upon everyone's head my entire life if it will lift the latter half of Cassandra's curse, and all the bad in the world will go away- i.e., I will shut my box- the moment we realize that description is not the same as creation, and that the ability to describe a bad act, to hold it up to the light, is a necessary condition of peace.
On a more pedestrian note, I also thought such an endeavor would be better than going back to my old method of denial, and would also keep me from feeling so helpless all the time as a result of the overarching patriarchal culture's relentless and ubiquitous social violation of women, which needless to say is a less-than-happy reminder of the real violence I have suffered and the real helplessness I have experienced.
So, no more not participating! I look forward to where this endeavor will take me. It's quite a funny coincidence too, as tonight I was telling my good friend I plan to make this channel using my Welsh name (Angharad), and he suggested I not show my face, as I need my career for the purpose of survival, and there's an actual visceral threat to women's lives and livelihoods if they do something as dangerous as talk about radical feminism openly. I decided my friend was right, and I'd make the podcast anonymously, so I was quite touched to see you'd made this new series! It's important we let people know there are a vast number of silenced gender dissidents and gender apostates who are too afraid to speak out. This is an amazing platform you're providing us here on your site.
To return to my original point, I noticed you asked a pertinent question (and honestly, I often listen to your podcasts and watch your YouTube videos with Arty and Helen and guest speakers just to find another brilliant hidden gem, another point I hadn't thought of; for the purposes of scientific documentation, someone needs to listen to all of your episodes and note and classify all of the claims, as it's a really good run-down of all the nuances of the gender discussion).
The pertinent question in question was "why do international human rights bodies believe women and girls need sex-segregated public toilets in the global South, and not in the West?"
The answer is very simple: these international human rights bodies merely reflect the commonly-held belief that sexism has been eliminated in the West. They believe (or profess to believe) that there is no need of sex-based protection here in the West. The reason that Indian women and girls need sex-segregated toilets- male sexual violence- has been eradicated in the West, apparently. We live in a post-sexist Utopia in which such concerns are really antiquated, didn't you know?
As a survivor of multiple rape and as insider to the absolute shitshow that was the #MeToo movement, in addition to oh, I don't know, the rest of my life, I can tell you that I don't entirely agree with this assessment! But hey, that's me, and YMMV. It's not like I have any sort of unfortunate insight into this problem or anything.
That was a long-winded and didactic response to your question, mainly because I've Had It so thoroughly it's become a proper noun, and also because you're an inspiration, Graham. And so is Dee Dee.
Dee Dee: you are awesome. You are one of the one-third of people who would refuse to answer questions incorrectly during the Asch Experiment. You are a shining example of how brilliant and compassionate those on our side really are.
Graham, I'd love it if I can link to my podcast once I begin to record it.
Please excuse any and all typos and excessive bombast,; it's late at night here!
I left my comments on your announcement post but here they are again - that was a wonderful interview! Dee Dee should be elected somewhere. Loved the podcast! ♥️
Will you ever do a phone in one? That could get interesting too. 😜
If anyone is wondering why, it's because this topic is driving me so goddamned crazy. I kept deciding to stop caring, and then getting angry again. I realized the deciding to not care is a form of denial, and I finally settled upon making a YouTube channel with a podcast.
I explain why I called it "Cassandra's Box" and the format in the beginning of the first episode.
I decided to do a format in which I talk about a bunch of issues as they relate to patriarchy and radical feminism. It's more of a radfem than a gender critical channel, but it will have quite a bit of gender critical content as well.
In the future I'm going to make much shorter videos. My first topic was "mental illness and the patriarchy," and that ended up (obviously) to be too broad of a topic. However, I did cover it fairly thoroughly for an intro to a lot of different subtopics, and I picked this topic to introduce myself and my knowledge of the subject, in order to demonstrate how I arrived at my understanding.
The really long segment first differentiates among mental illness, personality disorders and neurodevelopmental disorders, and then discusses how the mentally ill values of the wider society contribute to individual manifestations of mental illness in the genetically predisposed. It then discusses the theory of narcissistic masculinity, and feminine supply; explains global versus sexual narcissism; and a whole bunch of other fun stuff all of which adds up to why we have arrived at our current juncture.
I touched on a lot of things that would be worth doing small segments about, such as the psychopath as the aspirational archetype of masculinity- which remains true whether the psychopathic protagonist is hero or antihero, in many tales- and how this figure is embodied in the drive for empire and has reached its apotheosis of destructive dominance in the form of modern free market capitalism. (I'm aware there are likely many on here who would disagree with this; I'd counter by saying radical feminism and Marxist feminism mainly differ because of their focus, not because they disagree about the nature of empire and capitalism. If you're a radfem, you might be familiar with this analysis; if you're not, you might find it interesting anyway).
I plan to talk about all sorts of single, specific topics: grooming; why MRAs are misguided; rape myths; rape facts; the shocking dearth of resources for women recovering from domestic violence; gender; radical feminism; Marxist feminism; prostitution and the sex industry; fairytales; consent vs. well-being; and maybe actually some fun topics sometimes (maybe I could intersperse and make some content about female writers and artists, or share some of my work). I'll definitely talk about the gender issue on more than one occasion.
This first episode gets into the nitty gritty of patriarchy, mental illness and sexual pathology, and the second into issues around gender roles and gender identity.
Edited to add: I accidentally said Jennifer Pritzker was founder of the Arcus Foundation, when that was Jon Stryker (I realized the mistake later); Pritzker is just a generous donor.
Feel free to ask me to fact-check anything else. I generally get statistics and figures right or close to right from memory, and also facts and explanations; however, a huge amount of my research was done at a time when I didn't really know if I'd make it out alive, and didn't keep track of all the research I was reading. I'm sure if anyone is interested in knowing more about any of the specific details I mention, that I could track down the original source for you. Just let me know!
Hi Graham, I sometimes hear you asking questions to which I can reply, but I don't because "other stuff to do, blah blah blah" (really it's because I keep trying to get myself off this topic. Btw, I am the person who asked you on Spinster if you'd let me bypass the subscription rules, because I don't have a whole lot of money! I decided to pay for a month).
However, I've changed my mind about participation in "the gender fracas" (in the words of the great Karen Davis). Not only will I answer your questions when you ask them, but I've decided to make a podcast, which I will title "Cassandra's Box," after the two woman-hating Greek myths.
The myth of Cassandra is very much relevant to women criticizing patriarchy (aka feminism): cursed to tell the truth, but never be believed. "Pandora's box" is similar to the later origin story of Eve, another woman who let all the evil into the world, in another of patriarchy's magnificent reversals (in fact, maybe I should have a segment titled "Patriarchy's Magnificent Reversals"). It took me until age 30 to finally talk about the things that have happened to me, and now I can't seem to shut up, but it doesn't matter a whit, because people don't care what happens to women (I really ought to do a segment on the abject failure of modern movements to meaningfully address male sexual violence); and I can't seem to shut up precisely because what happened to me doesn't matter a whit, and it should. I was lied to when I was growing up. I was told the world was equal now, that it thinks girls are great, that women have equality, none of which are remotely true.
So, I am "Cassandra's box," cursed to speak the truth but never be listened to, but also, in a world in which "speech is violence," my inability to shut my mouth is like Pandora's inability to shut her box: I will rain this "violence" down upon everyone's head my entire life if it will lift the latter half of Cassandra's curse, and all the bad in the world will go away- i.e., I will shut my box- the moment we realize that description is not the same as creation, and that the ability to describe a bad act, to hold it up to the light, is a necessary condition of peace.
On a more pedestrian note, I also thought such an endeavor would be better than going back to my old method of denial, and would also keep me from feeling so helpless all the time as a result of the overarching patriarchal culture's relentless and ubiquitous social violation of women, which needless to say is a less-than-happy reminder of the real violence I have suffered and the real helplessness I have experienced.
So, no more not participating! I look forward to where this endeavor will take me. It's quite a funny coincidence too, as tonight I was telling my good friend I plan to make this channel using my Welsh name (Angharad), and he suggested I not show my face, as I need my career for the purpose of survival, and there's an actual visceral threat to women's lives and livelihoods if they do something as dangerous as talk about radical feminism openly. I decided my friend was right, and I'd make the podcast anonymously, so I was quite touched to see you'd made this new series! It's important we let people know there are a vast number of silenced gender dissidents and gender apostates who are too afraid to speak out. This is an amazing platform you're providing us here on your site.
To return to my original point, I noticed you asked a pertinent question (and honestly, I often listen to your podcasts and watch your YouTube videos with Arty and Helen and guest speakers just to find another brilliant hidden gem, another point I hadn't thought of; for the purposes of scientific documentation, someone needs to listen to all of your episodes and note and classify all of the claims, as it's a really good run-down of all the nuances of the gender discussion).
The pertinent question in question was "why do international human rights bodies believe women and girls need sex-segregated public toilets in the global South, and not in the West?"
The answer is very simple: these international human rights bodies merely reflect the commonly-held belief that sexism has been eliminated in the West. They believe (or profess to believe) that there is no need of sex-based protection here in the West. The reason that Indian women and girls need sex-segregated toilets- male sexual violence- has been eradicated in the West, apparently. We live in a post-sexist Utopia in which such concerns are really antiquated, didn't you know?
As a survivor of multiple rape and as insider to the absolute shitshow that was the #MeToo movement, in addition to oh, I don't know, the rest of my life, I can tell you that I don't entirely agree with this assessment! But hey, that's me, and YMMV. It's not like I have any sort of unfortunate insight into this problem or anything.
That was a long-winded and didactic response to your question, mainly because I've Had It so thoroughly it's become a proper noun, and also because you're an inspiration, Graham. And so is Dee Dee.
Dee Dee: you are awesome. You are one of the one-third of people who would refuse to answer questions incorrectly during the Asch Experiment. You are a shining example of how brilliant and compassionate those on our side really are.
Graham, I'd love it if I can link to my podcast once I begin to record it.
Please excuse any and all typos and excessive bombast,; it's late at night here!
She’s so on it!
I left my comments on your announcement post but here they are again - that was a wonderful interview! Dee Dee should be elected somewhere. Loved the podcast! ♥️
Will you ever do a phone in one? That could get interesting too. 😜
Dee Dee - you are brilliant!
Wonderful!
I don’t know if I’m already following Dee Dee on Twitter, can you reveal her handle?
Omg I love her
What a brilliant interview. DeeDee is such a breath of fresh air.
I made my podcast, Cassandra's Box!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaHEkoV1Y9tSSr06pDVAnGg
If anyone is wondering why, it's because this topic is driving me so goddamned crazy. I kept deciding to stop caring, and then getting angry again. I realized the deciding to not care is a form of denial, and I finally settled upon making a YouTube channel with a podcast.
I explain why I called it "Cassandra's Box" and the format in the beginning of the first episode.
I decided to do a format in which I talk about a bunch of issues as they relate to patriarchy and radical feminism. It's more of a radfem than a gender critical channel, but it will have quite a bit of gender critical content as well.
In the future I'm going to make much shorter videos. My first topic was "mental illness and the patriarchy," and that ended up (obviously) to be too broad of a topic. However, I did cover it fairly thoroughly for an intro to a lot of different subtopics, and I picked this topic to introduce myself and my knowledge of the subject, in order to demonstrate how I arrived at my understanding.
The really long segment first differentiates among mental illness, personality disorders and neurodevelopmental disorders, and then discusses how the mentally ill values of the wider society contribute to individual manifestations of mental illness in the genetically predisposed. It then discusses the theory of narcissistic masculinity, and feminine supply; explains global versus sexual narcissism; and a whole bunch of other fun stuff all of which adds up to why we have arrived at our current juncture.
I touched on a lot of things that would be worth doing small segments about, such as the psychopath as the aspirational archetype of masculinity- which remains true whether the psychopathic protagonist is hero or antihero, in many tales- and how this figure is embodied in the drive for empire and has reached its apotheosis of destructive dominance in the form of modern free market capitalism. (I'm aware there are likely many on here who would disagree with this; I'd counter by saying radical feminism and Marxist feminism mainly differ because of their focus, not because they disagree about the nature of empire and capitalism. If you're a radfem, you might be familiar with this analysis; if you're not, you might find it interesting anyway).
I plan to talk about all sorts of single, specific topics: grooming; why MRAs are misguided; rape myths; rape facts; the shocking dearth of resources for women recovering from domestic violence; gender; radical feminism; Marxist feminism; prostitution and the sex industry; fairytales; consent vs. well-being; and maybe actually some fun topics sometimes (maybe I could intersperse and make some content about female writers and artists, or share some of my work). I'll definitely talk about the gender issue on more than one occasion.
This first episode gets into the nitty gritty of patriarchy, mental illness and sexual pathology, and the second into issues around gender roles and gender identity.
Here are the links to the individual videos, too:
1)https://youtu.be/5ATg58lr6mw
2)https://youtu.be/1HXy7C9Kzvo
Edited to add: I accidentally said Jennifer Pritzker was founder of the Arcus Foundation, when that was Jon Stryker (I realized the mistake later); Pritzker is just a generous donor.
Feel free to ask me to fact-check anything else. I generally get statistics and figures right or close to right from memory, and also facts and explanations; however, a huge amount of my research was done at a time when I didn't really know if I'd make it out alive, and didn't keep track of all the research I was reading. I'm sure if anyone is interested in knowing more about any of the specific details I mention, that I could track down the original source for you. Just let me know!
Dee Dee us fabulous, so articulate and so well informed. It would be great to have her on again either anonymously or on TMWI.