Lionel Shriver It’s not transphobic to question transgenderism
by Lionel Shriver, Spectator:
This column is not in my interest. But then, not for the first time. I cannot count the conversations conducted in recent years with reasonable, moderate people when expressing what should be reasonable, moderate views, during which my companions exhibit signs of drastic anxiety: fidgeting, darting pupils, twisting hands. The mumbling under the breath can border on unintelligible. If we’re in public, they will look wildly around to see who might be listening. Even in private, friends and colleagues emphasise that they’re speaking off the record. These must have been the kind of uneasy, secretive exchanges whispered between folks not wholly on board with National Socialism in 1930s Berlin.
But in 2018, what gets discussed in hushed tones? Transgenderism.
Something happened circa 2011 to 2012. It may not be a coincidence that this was also the point at which homosexuality became so broadly accepted in the West that the majority of people (even in the US) supported gay marriage. Thus advocating gay rights was no longer cutting edge. Homosexuality became a big yawn. We needed a new outré fascination.
At no point during my lifetime has any fixation consumed western culture with the rapidity of our obsession with transgenderism. I’ve never seen anything like it. Documentaries flooded television schedules. Films and series suddenly had trans characters; Transparent had a trans protagonist. Publishers are now awash in manuscripts about coming out as trans and transitioning. Schools, even kindergartens, have revamped their curriculums, social services their protocols. On university campuses, it’s now routine to include one’s ‘preferred pronoun’ in class introductions. None of this is new to you Speccie readers, who have withstood the same cultural avalanche. But if you’re savvy, you’ve either exclusively talked up how bloody marvellous this all is, or you’ve kept your mouth shut.
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