A response to Judith Butler
It has been a while since I have done a bit-by-bit response piece, but this weekend Radio New Zealand journalist Kim Hill interviewed Professor Judith Butler on the conflict between trans activists and “TERFs” and I have a lot I would like to say about it. Needless to say, I was practically crippled by the frustration I felt listening to not only the mischaracterisation of gender critical women, but also of the issues themselves. Professor Butler speaks with much more clarity than that with which she writes, but even so the interview was a catastrophe of false equivalencies, obfuscation, and wilful misrepresentation.
I was sent the transcript of the interview which I understand was done by Caz Murray. Thank you Caz for enduring the interview multiple times in order to get it all down.
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Right, where to start? Even this short introduction contains falsehoods so significant that they set the interview off on entirely the wrong the foot. In the first instance, I question what is “threatening” about the term ‘gender ideology’? If they’re going to argue that ‘TERF’ is a mere descriptor — as they do a…