If you have heard of Janice Raymond you have probably heard of this quote. 👇

This quote appears in the Appendix and those who use it claim Raymond had only nefarious intentions. This was not entirely unexpected, to Raymond, who knew she would be accused of intolerance. In fact it is a much less angry book than I had anticipated; this may be because the #CottonCeiling had not emerged or the research about autogynephilia. The Cotton Ceiling was coined, in 2012, by a trans-activist and porn star Drew De Veaux and refers to Lesbians who won’t date men, who are heterosexual, and identify as women. It’s a repurposing of the glass ceiling but, in this case, the ceiling is the Lesbian’s knickers. Autogynephilia refers to men who fetish the idea of being a woman and often have a history of transvestic fetishism involving masturbating while wearing women’s apparel. Often the items are stolen from relatives or sometimes strangers. The term was coined by Ray Blanchard in 1985.

This is the final of a series, you can read the rest below:

TRANSSEXUAL EMPIRE: Janice Raymond

Suggestions for change 

Raymond makes a number of suggestions for change to reduce the seductive route of “transsexualism”. The proposals stop short of making it illegal.

The legislation proposed would address the issue of sex role stereotyping that harms women, in particular, but also men who don’t adhere to the expectations for the male sex.

Sadly, in 2022, the teaching in our schools has moved from teaching sex stereotypes to teaching the idea one can literally be born in the wrong body. I covered quite a few of these teaching materials in this series. 👇 (State sponsored propaganda)

Transgender Guidance: Education

There were more suggestions which would help women and girls as well as gender non-conforming boys and men. Girls would have something to aspire to be as adults, men who fetishise women as “weak” won’t have a stereotype to flee towards. At the same time softening the aggressive, male stereotype, will help the none fetishistic type of “trans” identified males who flee their sex because of a rejection of this stereotype. Both types of males need to be educated out of the false idea that women are a universal “mother” who owe them protection.

If Janice Raymond had been listened to how many of our young gay males (my son), Lesbians, autistic kids and kids in care could we have saved? She said this over 40 years ago! 👇Instead we gave the Gender Industrial Complex free rein.

Instead of telling those suffering from a disconnect from their sex Raymond suggests consciousness raising. Rather than “affirming” their belief they are the wrong sex, and activating the conveyor belt to hormones and surgery, they would be supported to do explore their subconscious motivations. They would become actors in their own narrative not passive fodder for the “Gender Industrial Complex” .

Rather than creating a lifelong medical patient we could empower an alternative path for men /women in flight from the socially prescribed “gender performance” for their sex.

Like feminist consciousness raising these are steps that the “transsexual” counselling could take. 👇

This would allow the exploration of issues affecting the subject and their impact on society, broadening out an individual tragedy to a societal trend. Raymond is also keen to recognise that it must be the “transsexuals” themselves who must lead these groups. In 2022 we know that many of these males do deserve the term “deviant” but for those males who are not autogynephile we would probably use the term “men who deviate from male sex stereotypes”. 👇

Exploring the idea that gender non conforming men are not “females trapped in male bodies” may just supply a new narrative that saves these men from a life of hormones and surgery.

Why is it not acceptable to say that the primary motivations should be to save these males ( and females) from a lifetime dependence on medical intervention? Is there any other condition where we argue that it is bigoted not to wish people with “gender dysphoria” to recover?

Below 👇 Raymond points to the wider harms of perpetuating sex stereotypes which is a side effect of the belief that a “lady brain” can be born in a man’s body. Men and women who are not inclined to the stereotypical behaviour, for their sex, could be a force for good in challenging sex stereotypes. Instead they are “tamed” by the Gender Industrial Complex so that the stereotypes remain intact.

To accomplish this we need to take the treatment away from those who are ideologically (or financially) invested in creating lifelong medical patients.

Furthermore we need to hear more from those who oppose the medical “solution” such as Charles Ihlenfeld who abandoned the field having become disillusioned.

This is another quote from Ihlenfeld:

Raymond also suggested we need to hear more from people who resolved their own gender dysphoria without resorting to medical treatment.

Sadly, in 2022, the voices we are hearing from are those who have had physical interventions and now regret it.
We also need to stop promoting “trans” as a lifestyle choice. This is what the media coverage was like in 1979, how much worse it is in the 21st Century? The media has effectively acted as the marketing branch of the Gender Industrial Complex for decades.

It is critical that we hear from homosexual men and Lesbians who reconciled to their sex and sexuality as well as women, of all sexual orientations, who know what it is like to find the burden of being a woman, in a misogynist culture, oppressive.

Those caught up in this belief system need to know that the problem’s manifesting as a belief in “trans” identification are normal reactions to the straitjacket of societally enforced sex stereotypes. It is natural, even inevitable, to rebel against these expectations. It can be resolved in your natal sex by bravely, and stunningly, rocking a gender non-conforming life!

Conclusion

In conclusion I find Raymond’s book astonishingly prescient, thorough and compassionate. If only I had encountered it earlier and her warnings had been heeded. I sense that she felt she would be dismissed as scaremongering but, if anything, her darkest predictions pale against the 2022 reality. I can’t wait to start her new book.

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This is the penultimate part of my series on this book. It was written in 1979 but is a must read for anyone wishing to understand the origins of this movement and the implications for women’s rights and gay rights, especially Lesbians.

You can find the rest of the series here:

TRANSSEXUAL EMPIRE: Janice Raymond

This is the final chapter of the book, before the Appendix.

Androgyny

The chapter opens with an interrogation of the historical origins of the myths surrounding androgyny. I will skip over this part but if you are interested in delving this is the chapter for you. Moving into more modern times, Raymond argues that the concept of “androgyny” pretends to be about this 👇

In reality the concept of androgyny leaves the dualism “masculine v feminine” intact and postulates the idea of two inadequate halves:

As Mary Daly called it:

The “transsexual” accepts this dualism and modifies his, or her, body to fit either the “masculine” or “feminine” archetype rather than attempting to transcend the limitations of a normative idea of what it means to be male or female. The male constructed “woman” accepts the truth of these stereotypes and adopts risky and invasive medical/surgical treatments to carve those stereotypes into, and out of, his flesh. This, it should be obvious, is antithetical to a true women’s rights project.

What should tolerance look like?

Raymond was aware that her attitude would be dismissed as intolerance and bigotry and she has some thoughts about “tolerance”. The concept of a “transsexual” shores up a sexist society and, moreover, it is not in the best interests of the individuals who place their bodies at the disposal of the Gender Industrial Complex. A treatment pathway governed by integrity would engage in consciousness raising to allow the “transsexual” subject to examine the sexist underpinnings of his belief system and attempt to reconcile with his biological sex.

Here is what she had to say on the pseudo-tolerance that is asked of women re the issue of “transsexuals” .

#BeKind = #BeCompliant

This is a false “tolerance” that does not serve the transsexual well and the way women are exhorted to #BeKind and uncritical of “gender clinics”, or their customers, looks more like an oppressive tactic than a genuine call for compassion. It’s really #BeCompliant.

This is socially prescribed “tolerance” compelling women to accept our impersonators when nobody told the black community they had to accept Rachel Dolezal. Given that this now includes the sterilisation of children as young as 10, in the U.K, I don’t think calling it “evil” is hyperbole.

Raymond also raises the spectre of “polysurgery” in which the “transsexual” pursues ever more surgery to “correct” his features which fail to conform to the ideal “feminine”. Thus breast implants, facial feminisation surgery, shaving of the adam’s apple and even re-situating the hair line. Not to mention electrolysis and speech therapy all aside from the removal of the testicles, inversion of the penis and a life times dependence on synthetic hormones. All the time knowing they are seeking the unattainable:

Or as per Jan Morris 👇

Raymond hits on an important reason why women have found themselves expressing sympathy with men who are uncomfortable with their bodies. There is barely a woman alive who doesn’t understand this 👇.

The difference is that feminists became critics of the sexism inherent in the inculcation of bodily hatred in the female sex: 👇. Raymond poses the question of why persons, afflicted with a conflict about their sexed body, don’t band together to address the underlying reasons rather than hand themselves over to the medico-industrial complex?

Raymond also asks if the revolutionary potential of the “transsexual” has not just been neutered by the gender industry their plight has also been used, to great effect, in the new backlash against feminism/women’s rights.

The scale of this backlash has become clear in the last decade as men take women’s places in sport and politics and the word “woman” is being erased; even when talking about issues that only affect the female sex.

Quite apart from the negative consequences for the “trans” patient there are wider ramifications that ripple out to wider society such that this “individualist” solution has had devastating consequences, mainly for women.

Women are waking up to the consequences of this ideology for our rights and even our ability to name ourselves and exclude men from any spaces where we are vulnerable or organising to defend /advance our rights.

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Chapter V

In this chapter Raymond looks at the ethics of, so-called “sex reassignment surgeries” and their impact on individuals and society. What has come to pass is far worse than anticipated even though Raymond felt her dystopian predictions would be disbelieved.

The medical model has emboldened the medical priests in service of the Gender Industrial Complex to extend their practices far further than anticipated in 1979. We had not yet begun to experiment with puberty blockers for children.

The medical model prioritises surgical responses to a psychological problem. In 2022 the extensive evaluation has been jettisoned in favour of immediate affirmation and prompt access to hormonal treatments, followed by surgeries. The “transsexual” subject is not encouraged to challenge their discomfort with normative “gender” roles but, instead, to modify their body the better to perform a role more in keeping with their inclination.

As Raymond points out there is nothing revolutionary in this approach it is, in fact socially conservative, especially in relation to internalised homophobia. We are encouraging young homosexuals to retreat into a faux-straight medicalised closet.

The Gender Clinics have a monopoly on the “synthetic sex identity” business and do their best to restrict critics of the affirmative model or the practice itself. It is not in their interests to question the belief in “born in the wrong body” because their business model depends on a belief in “trans” ideology.

Raymond also makes the excellent point that any revolutionary potential in those at odd with the sex stereotypes is contained, neutered, in effect, by sex-conversion practices. Instead of rejecting the sex stereotypes they are, instead, having an opposite sex stereotype carved into, and out of their flesh.

Those designated “transsexuals” could turn their discomfort into real social protest and ally with feminists, gay men and Lesbians to disrupt normative expectations for their sex. Instead the social determinants for their dilemma are hidden by a process of mystification by the Gender priests. It is just the new face of defeatism against the sex hierarchy

Hormonal /Surgical interventions thus act as a social tranquilliser.

Raymond reminds us that the man who invented lobotomies won the Nobel prize. His patients were taken from mental health units and it has been well documented that this demographic is riddled with competing mental health diagnoses.

Another way in which Raymond was prescient was her speculation about the social control dimension which is masked by notions of “informed consent”. The notion of consent means the transsexuals are not seen as coercively controlled /manipulated into this solution but as enthusiastic participants. This was in 1979 before we had “Gender Identity Ideology” propaganda indoctrinating our kids from their nursery days. The Gender Identity Ideologues groom our kids so that the destination of the gender clinic has been normalised for a generation.

Writing from a U.S perspective Raymond speculates about the consequences if the Gender Industry was state run. In the U.K we have watched that play out in the U.K. with the state sponsored spread of Gender Identity Ideology now taught as “fact” in many (most) U.K schools and Universities. Raymond also anticipates the large scale social engineering we have witnessed unfold over a decade, aided by the internet.

At this point Raymond, almost apologetically, raises the expected skeptical reaction to her dystopian vision. Her prediction was eerily accurate. She also hits on another feature of this topic. People don’t want to believe it even now when it has clearly panned out as Raymond predicted. Though, I would argue, on a much larger scale than even she, would have predicted.

Raymond also points to the experimental nature of these surgeries and known cancer risks from exogenous hormones. She also speculated aboutthe lack of discussion about the pain from these procedures. This is very common from the YouTube generation who minimise the negative medical consequences from their surgeries. ( In the U.K we may just be puncturing this denial as new waves of detransitioners share their post operative complications).

One of Raymond’s theories is that their is a masochistic aspect to these surgery subjects; almost as if the pain to be reborn as your authentic self is worth it, or a rite of passage which shows they really are a “woman” or “man”. Speaking personally I would not rule out some sadists in the Doctors / Surgeons working in this field. I have no doubt that some get a perverse kick out of “forced feminising” males or mutilating teenage girls. Yes, this is dark but there are dark minds at work in this field.

It is worth posting Raymond talking about John Postgate at this point. Postgate was a microbiologist at Sussex University. He proposed a male pill to limit the number of female children. (This did not get a mention in his Guardian Obituary. Ironically he had three daughters himself.). This is a dark proposal and it gets worse when he speculated about the social consequences.

Informed Consent.

In the modern context the notion of “informed consent” seems little more than a means of trying to dodge legal liability. There is also the vexed question of children as young ten “consenting” to puberty blockers. Again Raymond was ahead of the game questioning how the “transsexual” could really give meaningful “informed consent” to these experimental procedures. For Raymond the transsexual subject is not encouraged to explore the societal conditioning that created this mind/body split in the first place.

There follows a lengthy section on parallels with the Nazi experiments which included one 13 year old boy who is reported as having been turned “into a woman”. This is interspersed with Richard Green lamenting that there has not been enough willingness to use “transsexual” subjects to further research in this field. The relevance of this line of enquiry is summed up by this quote.

The other issue that should concern us all is what this says about our priorities. This 👇 still holds true 50 + years later.

Finally Raymond was ahead of the curve with this prediction: I will wager even she did not anticipate the rate of growth over this last decade.

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This is part of a series. You can find a link to Janice’s superb work and marvel that she predicted much of what is unfolding in 1979! Lesbians really are the canary in the coal mine on women’s rights and we owe our Lesbian sisters a great debt.

The last chapter included this quote, from 1973! In include it again here because it frames this chapter beautifully.

Raymond has an interesting footnote to this chapter explaining why she really did not want to write the chapter but felt she must. Even in 1979 there were some Lesbians keen to accept men who claimed to be both women and lesbians. Raymond was clearly keen not to amplify the divisions except for a damn good reason. This topic is the very best of reasons and we can now see how it played out all those decades later. Lesbians were removed from Pride Cymru for protesting the #CottonCeiling and Lesbians in Tasmania have lost the right to exclude males from Lesbian events. In 1979 things were just starting down this path.

The “transsexual” community would have been much smaller in 1979 but Raymond argues that their presence raises important issues for feminism.

The nature of the men claiming to be Lesbians was on display even 50 years ago as they inveigled their way into Lesbian/Women’s groups and rose to prominence.

Raymond notes that a trans identified male, Sandy Stone, took a role in a purported all women venture, Olivia Records. This became quite a contentious issue and Raymond noted that, had he been sincere, he would have recused himself rather than stoke divisions.

She mentions Renee Richard (“trans” identified tennis player) as causing similar issues and another name with which I was not familiar. 👇 Barsky seems to be somewhat in the tradition of Mridul Wadhwa, in Scotland, who infiltrated a rape crisis centre and became the Chief Executive.

Raymond’s point is that despite their small numbers these “lesbian identified” males bring with them a male energy and don’t have the baggage which comes with being a woman, and a Lesbian. Arguably this makes them more inclined to seek leadership roles and compete for dominance within the women’s organisations. Their numbers may be small but their impact is out of proportion to their numbers.

Raymond draws an analogy with the historic use of Eunuchs to control the leader’s harem.

Raymond cautions women to remember the role of eunuchs to police women’s spaces and notes that it was these men who were able to invade those spaces where other men were excluded. This gives them privilege over other men and the attraction of female only spaces is appealing to these men. All the more appealing is Lesbian spaces, which are women centred and therefore the ultimate validation for men who identify as women.

To Raymond the “transsexual lesbian” is a boundary violator who uses deception, where he passes to trick his way into female only, Lesbian, events but she was opposed by some Lesbians.👇

This conflict has played out in the U.K with prominent Lesbians (Ruth Hunt, Nancy Kelley and Linda Riley, to name a few) having taken a lead role in dismantling lesbian boundaries. It is perhaps the case that the aforementioned were simply motivated by money /career advancement but Raymond argues there are complex reasons for the way in which Lesbians have been seduced into accepting “male lesbians”.

Some may be naive and draw a false equivalence between the historic oppression of Lesbians and the new oppressed class of the “transsexual”. Some may not quite of shaken off an assumption of male superiority. Some were responding, as women, accepting a care giving role to this group.

Others are grateful to have been noticed in their struggle by any male and some, she argues, are acting from the remnants of being male-identified and subconsciously or otherwise prioritising men’s rights over their own. The effect of this incursion is to sap women’s energy, cause division and force women to fight battles on Patriarchal terms.

Raymond questions whether anyone has the right to “self-define” in a way that impacts on another group. We don’t look kindly on those who self-identify as black. for example. Whether it is biology or socialisation or a combination of the two the fact is men are different to women. “Transsexuals” may indeed have their own issues to resolve but the place to do so is not in women’s groups.

Furthermore, she continues, the “transsexual” is from the same stable as penthouse depictions of lesbians, a man made version of what a woman is.

As it is 1979 there is no coverage of autogynephilia which casts even more light on heterosexual men who identify as lesbians. Cotton Ceiling rhetoric had, presumably. reached the same heights as it has today. Even without these darker manifestations Raymond had a very clear understanding of the pitfalls of lowering boundaries for the benefit of *any* males.

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