The War on Wokeness is spelt incorrectly.
We need to speak about the current “War on Wokeness”.
There is some confusion about what exactly this War is about and exactly who the belligerents are.
Let’s start at the beginning. Not quite the absolute beginning, that would be a little too far back in time. We’ll look at the point where the cold war turned hot. Or at least to the start of this latest flare up.
We need to go back to when Caitlyn Jenner came out and transitioned.
Firstly, in the context of the War, what is “wokeness”. At the risk of oversimplification, it’s the opposite of “the patriarchy”.
The patriarchy is a very easy to understand concept. It’s simply the social hierarchy which we as a society inherited from our forebears. In which male authority over feminine submission is the accepted norm. It’s the idea that women are the weaker sex, that a man is the head of the family, that boys will be boys but girls are sluts. It is the acceptance in society that male privilege exists and should exist.
That is as complex a definition as is required.
If you understand that, are capable of critical thought and you find “The Patriarchy” a little unpalatable, I have bad news. You can not only understand the profound impacts of the patriarchy but you are “woke”.
But Queer Kari, I am not some pronoun using bra burning genderqueer feminist!! You shout at me.
Well firstly, pronouns are merely words we use in place of peoples names in an effort to make language less clunky. Everyone* who speaks a language uses pronouns. Go read a book on grammar.
*RadGal, a pedant, reliably informs me that Finnish people do not use personal pronouns when speaking Suomi. I don’t know, didn’t click the link because that’s not the point I was making. But Anyhoos, thanks RadGal, really helped me dodge that bullet.
Secondly, did you note in the above definition of “woke” I used the words “male authority” and “feminine submission”. At first glance it may appear that I am using an incorrect term, feminine, instead of “female”. That was not an oversight, that was deliberate.
In this context male authority literally means authority is limited to only those who are male. As in the ultimate expression of virile, gun toting, hygiene shunning, edc walletting, tactical military veteran males. Feminine refers to anyone who does not embody these characteristics, female or male.
In this context “Male” is an extremely narrow category with ever tightening constraints on what is “male” as you move up the hierarchy. From one rung to the next rung on the ladder of this hierarchy we see very subtle changes in limiting criteria. In this hierarchy a gay man is of lower authority than a straight man, who is a lower authority than a straight man with a manly car, who is lower authority than a straight man with a manly career, etc. ad nauseam until we get to a US Marine or Special Forces operative.
From this we can understand that the “War on Wokeness” is therefore merely the patriarchal forces in society seeking to assert their dominance over society and maintain the status quo. If you cast your mind back to my explanation of the hierarchy of “male”, suddenly gun culture and the obsession with the “warrior/manly man” aesthetic amongst the anti-woke crowd makes sense. This is why Jordan “Lobster Brains” Peterson, who is as soft as camembert in the sun, needs to tout how manly he is with the whole thesis of “there is always the possibility of violence”.
Of course every trans person worth their lefty salt is still stuck on Caitlyn Jenner. What is the significance of the coming out of Caitlyn Jenner? To understand that we need to understand what a trans person is.
Trans people, like abstract thought and opposable thumbs, are one of the things that separate us from the animal kingdom. You can view gender as purely an expression of biological realities. Then you need to accept that sex is an infinite spectrum and the only thing binary to an extent are gametes but those gametes are not produced by binary organisms. This view certainly makes us an interesting animal with extremely complex reproductive capacities.
Or you view gender as a separate entity from biological sex and that it is an expression of the complexities of sentience.
Personally I tend to lean toward a combination of these views. One where gender is a social construct, biological reality hybrid. There may be two gametes but sex/gender is a far more complicated spectrum that we don’t understand. To me gender expression is a product of the interplay between the biology, society and consciousness of the individual.
That is to say that transgender people upset that nice neat hierarchy that the patriarchy requires. If a man compensates for a certain lack by buying a sports car, what happens when a trans woman who drives a minivan comes along?
Unfortunately for the patriarchy, it gets worse. Trans people, like gay people, cut through the biological prison bars the entire hierarchy relies on.
Trans women don’t fall pregnant. We cannot be kept barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. What happens when the cis women realize they too have the right to exist in an environment where reproduction is an option not a function? Trans men can get pregnant. What happens when abortion becomes a male rights issue? or men can be kept bare foot and pregnant in the kitchen? Similarly, same sex couples tear down the idea that a woman needs a man. When women don’t need men, when reproduction ceases to be the function of a woman’s body, what power does the patriarchy hold over that woman? The prison bars are gone, the cell door is wide open and the guards have fled.
There is a new order in town and it’s called equality. When the LGBTQIA community started throwing bricks at the pigs and demanding equality. They advanced the case one more step toward equality. Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela may have fought in a more dignified manner than the Stone Wall rioters, but they were fighting the same war.
Patriarchy needs biology to enforce its rules.
False Biology.
Men are stronger, women are weaker.
Women are caring and nurturing.
Black people are less intelligent than white people.
Jews cause racial degradation.
White culture is civilized.
None of these things are biological realities, none of these things are factual. But every single one of them has been used at various times to enforce the hierarchy that we call the patriarchy. And just like the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the gay rights movement of the 1970s and now the trans rights movement of the current day, we are pushing back the territory the patriarchy can claim as its own.
And that my dudes is where Caitlyn Jenner comes out. Caity Poo is a high profile trans woman. She won an Olympic medal and then came out. It made a news splash and suddenly transgender was a word and concept we all learnt to struggle with.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not crediting the “transgender moment” to Cailyn, fuck no she is awful and was one minor player. I just used her name because of its shock value.
What I am saying is that the “Transgender Moment” thrust a lot of realities and questions into the forefront of society’s collective mind. Questions and Realities that do not support the current patriarchal order in society.
Terfs and Gender Critical people the world over whine in unison with the patriarchal forces within society that Trans women want to redefine the word “Woman”. I have some bad news for them. Trans women do redefine the word and concept of “Woman”. Trans women define “woman” as an identity and not a biological function. It may be an identity rooted in biology, but freed of its biological function. “Woman” no longer needs to be the weaker sex. Woman can now be whatever the fuck she wants, even if she has eggs or a penis or a vagina or sperm. She can be demure, she can have kids, she can be a test pilot, she can do and be anything except unequal.
The “War on Wokeness” is actually the “War on Women”. I am proud to say I am on the Woman’s team.
Oh you can make your own fucking sandwich.
