Bill Maher Joins the Coalition of Imperfect Allies
By Volunteer WRiter
Social media has been abuzz with the news that Bill Maher dedicated his enormously popular “New Rule” segment to highlighting some of the biggest absurdities in “gender identity” activism, with a particular focus on the Wild West-style of “affirmative medical care for trans kids.” As a well-known TV commentator, Maher built a reputation for calling out the beliefs and tactics of some evangelical religious right-wingers, while also criticizing the ridiculous antics of the American political left.
With this, radical feminists once again find ourselves gratefully cheering on the increased exposure of this problem, while quietly wincing at the fact that some of Maher’s analysis is inconsistent, and potentially in conflict, with our own. He lumps LGB sexual orientation in with the other letters, advancing the forced-teaming inherent in the “LGBTQIA+” concept. He promotes the idea that some people really are “transgender,” and are coming out in greater numbers only because they feel safe or because it’s trendy.
We see his failure to recognize that profiteers and sexual predators have played an outsized role in pushing “gender identity” on vulnerable children and adults for self-serving reasons, and we see how they’ve been enabled in this project by thousands of politicians and government officials seeking to ride the rainbow wave. It can be difficult to celebrate while worrying that this growing and broadening resistance to the trans movement might be taken in a direction that only extends that movement’s shelf-life, or undermines our ultimate goals.
As larger numbers of Americans decide to stand up and push back vocally against the “gender identity” megatrend, we will continue to experience tensions among people on our “side” of the issue. Early adopters of the radical feminist and “gender critical” perspectives will increasingly encounter newer-comers who blast onto the scene, seeking attention and credit while doling out blame. “Where are all the feminists??” they’ll cry, disingenuously, right after having ignored and spoken over the feminists who have been persistently resisting gender identity ideology for decades. Many of those speaking out with newfound boldness have preferred to wait under cover of shelter while radical feminists (along with no small number of Christian conservatives) sacrificed our personal safety, careers, free time, and peaceful existence to keep the fight going during dark and lonely times.
Many radical feminists have lamented that there would come a day when the timid and the aloof finally emerge from their quiet, only to blame us for having failed to solve the problem sooner. We foresaw that some would even blame us for causing the problem, with our pesky insistence that women must be treated as full and equal human beings under the law. Those days have arrived, and the barbs sting no less by virtue of their predictability.
Nonetheless, we must keep pushing. As a relatively tiny fraction of the American public, radical feminists simply don’t have the luxury to reject willing but imperfect political allies. Nor can we afford to be distracted by internecine conflicts over credit and blame.
It is important that feminists receive due credit for the work we’ve done to fight gender ideology.
Make no mistake, it is important that radical feminists receive due credit for their bedrock contributions to the pushback against gender identity. Unique among our fellow travelers, radical feminists have developed an analytical framework that traces the evolutionary interrelationships between traditional patriarchal sexism, modern gender ideology, and other related social movements (“transgenderism,” kink, and BDSM) as well as for-profit institutions that spring from a deep-seated disdain for women (including the cosmetic surgery and beauty industries, pornography, and prostitution).
We have been given a foundation built by Phyllis Chesler, Robin Morgan, Janice Raymond, and Sheila Jeffries. We have built upon that foundation with the outstanding research and writing by Lierre Keith, Genevieve Gluck, and numerous women who contribute their time and writing talents to WoLF’s news and blog site. There are many more who are far too numerous to name, and for that we apologize; we value the work of all radical feminists, including the many women we have not specifically identified.
However, this work would be even more difficult if we insisted on isolating ourselves with those who already agree. The fact is, the majority of society rejects gender identity ideology when they are given accurate information about what it is. This puts radical feminists on the same “side” as many with whom we have serious disagreements. Indeed, there have been disagreements among radical feminists and within our organizations, and some women have chosen to go their own way and start new initiatives. This is healthy, and has the potential to expand radical feminist institutional capacity. Respectful allyship makes our goal in defeating gender identity ideology eminently achievable, even if it is not always comfortable or convenient.
That is why we’ve continued to develop and hone our unique strategies—and it’s working. We are pursuing legal action on behalf of incarcerated women who are being victimized by one of the most extreme “gender identity” laws in the country. We are pursuing rulemaking petitions, legislative initiatives, and local civic participation.
Imperfect allies
As trans activism forces us to fight for basic reality, we cannot expect to avoid meeting and working with people with whom we share little else. We meet people who oppose abortion and other aspects of women’s reproductive sovereignty. We come into contact with people who accept and even support the sexual exploitation industry, as well as those who oppose it based primarily on a religious morality that conflicts with female liberation. We encounter people who embrace gender-stereotypes but just don’t want them to be separated from sex. We find ourselves adjacent to people who believe some people are “truly transgender,” but favor some kind of medical or administrative gatekeeping to determine who is worthy of the status. We encounter people who insist that it is unacceptably unkind to use correct sex-based pronouns.
In short, we are part of a mixed bag. Our commonalities give us an opportunity to continue persuading these allies more toward a feminist analysis, and we should pursue those opportunities when present. However, we must accept that quarreling with our allies is usually unhelpful or counterproductive. We may have to bite our tongues sometimes when our allies use genderist language. We may have to grit our teeth when someone with a book to sell or a subscription-blog to promote fails to credit our work on the same issue.
We must accept the fact that sometimes this work is thankless—and sometimes it is so costly it leaves us wishing that it were only merely thankless. Many of us have lost the love and support of family and friends. Some of us have been rounded-on and betrayed by women we thought of as trusted colleagues.
The women at WoLF see all of this, and we are so deeply thankful to the brave souls who stay and keep fighting nonetheless. We are forever indebted to the women (and a few men), including those who live on severely limited incomes, who nonetheless reach into their pockets every month to support our work.
None of the insults and slights are okay, but we can’t let any of it matter more than our fundamental reason for being here: to fight and win for women. We did not get into this work for glory, personal advancement, or financial rewards. We are here to fight for women and girls. We are here to fight for decency and truth, and liberty from backward beliefs. Our achievements are our rewards.