Once again, a festival capitulates to the demands of transphobes. By hosting not one but two notable TERFs. The festival in question is the Oxford Literary Festival.
By far, the worst of them is Helen Joyce. Her book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality can only be described as anti-trans propaganda. This book and its author should not be featured at a mainstream literary festival. So before you cry, “Oh, but what about free speech?” Let me explain why the book is both dangerous and misleading.
Joyce argues that gender should be understood strictly as biological sex and dismisses the concept of self-identified gender. This undermines the identities of transgender people and invalidates their lived experiences. She frames trans people like they are a disease. Referring to them as ‘autogynephiles’ and possible ‘child abusers’. People to be feared, loathed, and removed from society. She shows contempt for gay people too in a similar fashion. Helen Joyce says ”The worry is not, I repeat, that trans people are unusually likely to be child abusers. Gay people aren’t, either, and yet their movement was infiltrated by those who were.” Making out that trans and gay people’s movements are being infiltrated by child abusers is deeply disparaging. Yes, the Pedophile Information Exchange (PIE) wanted to tag itself onto the LGBTQIA+ community. They were however never accepted and actively opposed. Joyce overlooking this, I feel is a clear attempt to make the community appear too dangerous to be involved with.
The book over-fixates on trans women having access to female spaces. It goes to great lengths to make trans people the big bad. The following quote is just one of many examples that reflect this. Joyce writes. ‘Facilities that used to be sex-separated, like toilets and changing rooms, are changing. Homeless shelters and prisons now follow gender self-identification.’ This sentence is grossly transphobic and false for two reasons. Firstly it invalidates trans people. In other words how can ”women” be safe with self-identified women in their spaces? This implies that she does not see trans women as women but as men. Secondly, it implies that facilities are no longer sex-separated. This is not true. Most establishments still have male and female bathrooms. Public swimming pools still have male and female changing rooms. Nothing has changed. This is a callous attempt by Joyce to unjustly vilify trans people.
Biological essentialism is a core theme in Joyce’s writing. Biological essentialism is used to reinforce stereotypes and prejudices. The idea that gender relations are biologically fixed is outmoded. One stereotype claims that all women are physically weaker than men. Another stereotype suggests that women are more emotional and empathetic. These stereotypes are hurtful as they over-generalise people. In reality, people are wonderfully diverse. Some women are strong and athletic like the bodybuilder Iris Kyle. Many men are not physically strong but are incredibly emotive. Mark Bolen and David Bowie for example don’t fit the criteria of the stereotype, yet they were still men.
Helen Joyce loves to reduce women to their reproductive parts. She says “Defining women as the people whose bodies developed along the female reproductive pathway is limiting only if you regard female embodiment as limiting.” Of course, this is limiting. Women are much more than their reproductive organs. Organs are just bits of flesh, they are not people. People are complex creatures. Gender is fantastically intricate. Reducing all women to baby makers is frankly insulting. Her oversimplification of women-hood belongs to 1950s America. Young people in society have moved beyond this. They now see women as equal to men in every aspect of life. They understand that some people’s identity does not neatly align with being male or female. Having the flexibility of using a variety of pronouns to express one’s gender is truly liberating. People are exploring their identity to the fullest and I think it’s brilliant!
Joyce wants to shackle us all into two neat little boxes based solely on our genitals and reproductive organs. So rigid! So limiting!
Throughout the book, she is critical of gender-affirming medical treatments, especially for minors, viewing them as harmful and potentially irreversible. This once again makes out that being trans is wrong. It tells the reader that trans people should not be trusted to have agency over their bodies. All of this strips trans people of their bodily autonomy. These are not the words of kindness and compassion. These are the words of someone who just can’t accept that trans people exist. Trans people do exist. They have existed forever and will continue to do so.
The Oxford Literary Festival should not be platforming someone who can’t accept the existence of trans people. An individual who dedicates all her time to criticising and disparaging trans people. Disparaging them, simply for being themselves.
The festival needs to stop and think. Is this really what we want our festival to represent?
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