RE: How do smart feminists fall for the gender theory?

( stickyleaves )
A smart feminist academic friend still believes in gender theory, I think because:

-being a successful adademic is super important to her identity and so she doesn’t want to die on that hill if it risks her career. I think this is a subconscious choice- she doesn’t want to dig into TERF-y things lest it shake the foundations, deep down I think she has some doubts (she used to talk about these to me a decade ago, now she wont acknowledge the doubts)

-she’s got your typical levels of self-doubt/imposter syndrome so is willing to assume that all the other smart lefties who are really into trans stuff must be right

-she moves in hip, “queer” circles and at least one close friend of hers has gone from lesbian to supposedly NB or trans. It’s much more convenient to believe her good friend is earnestly living their best life and fighting the good fight than that they’re an idiot in this very important way.

None of this excuses any of it, but I think this is where her head is at. I wasn’t in the cool club enough to peak her yet, but I think she will get there.

( CupOfAbominations )
I suppose it's similar to how a lot of great scientists and academics back in the day had to choose their battles, tiptoing around the established dogma of the Catholic Church so as not to be arrested for heresy like Galileo.

Nowadays, the repercussions are mostly social, but for anyone trying to establish themselves in academia, it's a cutthroat world. When professors are fired for stating basic biology, it's hard to blame them, even if it is cowardly.

( brusquette )
The same kernel that has women talking about how female on male sexual abuse isn't taken seriously, how toxic masculinity is bad for men too, how gender roles hurt so.

The expectation for women to be mother shows up in feminism as much as anything else. There's no other isms wherein activisms constituents are demanded to appeal to all, and to consider the oppressor harmed by the system.

People sneer at "white feminism" to sneer at all feminism. It is not that feminists are above reproach for issues of race, class, or other intersectionality. But merely that we don't call anything "men's civil rights movements" or "mens BLM" or "rich disability activism."

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