The London School of Economics (LSE), one of the highest-ranked universities in the world, recently published a report discussing the rise of ‘transphobic’ feminists. “How did it happen that a considerable part of feminist communities aligns with the conservative anti-gender movements in producing anti-transgender public discourse?” asked the authors, who lamented “the proliferation of transphobic hate speech.” The LSE authors are not alone in their criticisms of women who protest the transgender movement. Other major universities and mainstream media outlets have heaped scorn on the brave individuals who have stood up and pushed back against the devaluation of women.
This fact is not lost on Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls. Ms. Alsalem recently released a strongly-worded statement outlining the many reasons why she is deeply concerned about women’s rights. Commenting on differences and disputes that have arisen between women’s rights activists and transgender groups in a number of countries, including the U.S. and the UK, Alsalem called for respect from both sides. “I am deeply concerned at the escalation of intimidation and threats against women and girls for expressing their opinions and beliefs regarding their needs and rights based on their sex and/or sexual orientation,” she said.
Of particular concern to Ms. Alsalem are the many forms of reprisals against women, including censorship, loss of employment opportunities, loss of income, deplatforming, and threats of legal action. She blasted the manner in which blanket censorship has been used to silence those who dare question the transgender movement. She said that she was deeply “concerned about the decreasing space available for women and women’s organizations to organize and/or express their opinion peacefully in several countries in the Global North.”
Ms. Alsalem’s concerns are warranted. To anyone who pays attention, it is undeniable that women have frequently been the object of violence by transgender activists. At a recent event in Auckland, New Zealand, the women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen, otherwise known as Posie Parker, said she feared for her life after a mob of transgender activists attempted to attack her. Ms. Keen, who has spearheaded a number of ‘Let Women Speak’ events across the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, was recently suspended from YouTube for insisting that “Everyone has a duty to sever the links between the LGB and the T.” A YouTube spokesperson said that Ms. Keen had violated the platform’s hate speech policy.
At another one of Ms. Keen’s recent events, held in Hyde Park, London, a woman was violently assaulted by trans activists. Last month, in the U.S., record-breaking swimmer Riley Gaines, a vocal advocate for the rights of women, was attacked by trans activists in San Francisco.
All of this begs the question: what really motivates the perpetrators of such violence? It is evidently not ‘social justice’ or even ‘progressivism,’ as many of the women who have suffered from these attacks are themselves progressives and social justice activists!
According to a brand new study, recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Psychology, left-wing extremism is strongly correlated with psychopathic tendencies and narcissism. By contrast, left-wing activism is not strongly correlated with dispositional traits related to altruism or even justice, despite the centrality of these concepts to leftist ideology.
This analysis makes sense given what is known about psychopathy and narcissism. Individuals who score high on psychopathy and narcissism tend to exhibit high levels of aggressive behaviour. Moreover, they tend to be highly disagreeable and intolerant of views that contradict their own. Also, as I have shown before, left-wing extremists tend to use activism as a vehicle for intimidatory behaviour. They are not necessarily interested in promoting social justice and equality. Rather, they are interested in bullying and coercing others and finding an outlet for their narcissistic tendencies. Nor are they interested in debate or serious argument; they are interested in silencing dissent.
In her statement above, Reem Alsalem called on law enforcement officers to do a better job of “protect[ing] lawful gatherings of women” and “ensur[ing] women’s safety and rights to freedom of assembly and speech without intimidation or coercion.”
Alsalem finished her statement by discussing a nasty tactic frequently employed by trans activists and members of the mainstream media. This tactic involves equating women who question the motives of the trans movement with transphobia and even Nazism. As Alsalem noted, branding women (or anybody for that matter) as “Nazis,” “genocidaires,” or “extremists” is a form of intimidation, whose purpose is to shame women into silence and deter them from speaking and expressing their views in public.
These actions, she continued, are “deeply troubling,” as they are intended to instill fear in women and “[incite] violence and hatred against women based on their beliefs.” Such tactics, Alsalem rightly notes, constitute a severe attack upon the safety and dignity of women and girls who wish to participate in society in any meaningful way.
