Germaine Greer is now being criticized for saying that trans women are not women. Although demand by trans women that the world call them women makes many women uncomfortable, it’s the women rather than trans women who have to defend their position. Same-sex marriage also presents problems for women. In my opinion it may be even more threatening. It is becoming increasingly clear that transgender rights, same-sex marriage, and women’s rights, are connected.
Must Women Defend Their Territory?
Often women defend their territory by talking about the difficulties of being female as opposed to the privileges. Discrimination and humiliation seem to be the only proof we have of a unique right to call ourselves women.
This is not Greer’s fault but it’s pretty sad. Worse, it doesn’t stop the intrusion. Trans women answer that they’ve experienced all the same trials and therefore, they are women.
Women counter by saying that the ability to bear children makes them women. This doesn’t seem to impress trans women, but I think the women on to something. The child-bearing role of women is relevant to both categories, same-sex marriage and transgender rights. It’s also relevant to heterosexual relationships, but this is not acknowledged in a way that benefits women.
Terms and Definitions
There are many other sources of confusion here, not least of all the terms. But at least it’s easier to agree on terms and definitions. If there are differences, most people are willing to accept correction.
A transgender individual who has transitioned, whether or not surgery was involved, doesn’t want to be called a transwoman because this would indicate that he or she hasn’t transitioned. The term ‘trans woman’ is preferred to transwoman because trans is being used as an adjective describing a specific kind of woman. However there are some who prefer to just be called women.
I was surprised to learn that none of these terms refers to sexual orientation. Also transgender people are not necessarily interested in same-sex marriage.
How Does Same Sex Marriage Affect Women?
Even though same-sex marriage is different from the transgender issue, I run into a similar problem when trying to argue its effects on women. My first piece of evidence is pretty straight forward—same-sex marriage was legalized at a time when female reproductive rights were under attack. Subsequently, same-sex marriage has competed for attention with reproductive rights.
Reproductive Rights
And now we’re getting to the heart of the matter. There is no comparison between the issue of same-sex marriage and reproductive rights. That’s also true between gender rights and reproductive rights. Compared to reproductive rights, same-sex marriage and gender rights are vanity issues. Women know this, but childbirth is treated as trivial to the point where they don’t quite believe it themselves. Instead, the focus is discrimination and misogyny. That situation should be more remarkable than it is. What it’s really saying is that the place of women has been turned upside down. They should have more privileges, but they don’t even have the right to claim their own unique identity.
Bride Wealth
The importance of the role of childbirth was once recognized in the custom of bride wealth, but bride wealth has never been practiced in the United States. Therefore, it’s impossible to argue that it’s threatened by same-sex marriage. However, it would be if it still existed. That is meaningful.
Child Custody
The other problem that same-sex marriage ignores is child custody. The irony here is that it was only the payment of bride wealth that made men equal to women in custody matters. Now even custody is in question.
Childbirth as a Moral Obligation
We may not like to hear that the childbearing role is our only claim to superiority, probably because this idea is now used against us. Conservative men insist that women are privileged, usually with the purpose of increasing the birthrate. But this is an anachronistic claim–the value remains but we have no memory of the privilege. Patriarchal lip-service is not now and never has been an element of social organization.
Background Noise from Right-Wing Traditionalists
After I wrote about Hermes in India I tried for quite some time to discuss my concerns about Hermetic influence in the United States. People aren’t really concerned that Hermes can morph into, say, Jesus Christ, or that he has taken over our medical system. I worry that the LGBTQ issue remains under the radar in the same way.
Often, same-sex couples are unaware of the ideological meaning behind transgender manifestations. Ellen Degeneres for example is baffled by the fact that Caitlyn Jenner is Republican and not particularly supportive of same-sex marriage.
I don’t know Jenner’s affiliations, but the possibilities are endless. I found a movement while researching this article, the North American New Right, and this movement has taken an interest in Jenner. She’s been interviewed on the Counter Currents website. This article is no longer available, but here is a book by the same interviewer, James O’Meara.
To this way of thinking the only true homosexuality is the type practiced by those mythical bands of men who roamed the earth before the birth of human culture. A modern example would be the Nazi männerbund. This movement thinks same-sex marriage is irrelevant if not silly, and it mocks what it calls the ‘Fake Left’ for insisting that homosexuals are just like everyone else in their desire to be married and raise children. Homosexuality should be an escape from marriage, they say, rather than a reason for it.
Rene Guenon and Baron Juius Evola
The vogue of using a mythical past in pursuit of political aims was popular in Europe before and during the world wars. Rene Guenon represented this type of Traditionalism (denoted with a capital ’T’). Thanks to Guenon’s influence, so did Albert Gleizes. The North American New right acknowledges Guenon’s influence, and, surprisingly, it also acknowledges the Traditionalism of Baron Julius Evola. Evola was a Traditionalist of another sort. His ideas are more closely associated with Nazism than those of Guenon.
Gender Rights are enshrined in law
In the United States same-sex marriage is water under the bridge, and compared to the ideological aspects discussed above it may prove to be relatively harmless. But I doubt it. When was a smoke screen ever harmless?
It’s only when you consider the casual nature of marriage and the fact that the only real criteria for it is ‘true love’, that it becomes outrageous to deny same-sex partners the right to marry. If you ignore all of these factors, legalizing same-sex marriage seems progressive. True love has become a substitute for the economic necessities that acknowledge these realities. And these realities are inseparable from the role of women. Without the appropriate economic arrangements, married life, while it’s marginally better for women than single life, is a cynical proposition.
Elizabeth Stoker wrote a helpful article for the New Republic on Traditionalism from the Catholic point of view, Francis Agonistes, New Republic, March 1, 2015. (It’s no longer available on the same website but you may be able to find a copy.)