I Started the Germaine Greer Counter-petition; Gimme Some Greer! UPDATED

I’m completely sick of transactivists trying to shut down and bully anyone, especially women, that don’t march lock-step with their views. When I saw that yet another woman, Germaine Greer, was being petitioned and no platformed by some students at Cardiff, I sprung into action by writing a counter-petition.  You may sign it here.

It makes me angry that I must write silly counter-petitions so women can speak on college campuses or to help make sure women don’t get fired from their jobs. Yes, I had to write a petition for another woman,  feminist writer Meghan Murphy, when a bunch of transactivists thought Rabble should fire her for her views. That petition was successful in that it garnered appx 3,000 signatures.

The fact that I have to do this to ensure the principles of free speech, really bothers me. Greer says she dislikes online feminism, well I hate what I have to spend my days doing because liberal feminists can’t handle an alternative opinion, especially when it comes to transpolitics.

I share the same ideas as Greer on this subject as do many other women. It’s just that most of us don’t speak out because you get immediately attacked, and in Greer’s case, had objects thrown at her. I find the behaviour of transactivists to be quite telling because it’s obvious to anyone who looks at what’s really going on here will come to the same educated conclusions as Greer does.

A human being cannot change sex. It’s impossible. Females are not males and vice versa. If you were born with XY chromosomes, you’re male. You will not have the capacity to become pregnant or menstruate. That’s a pretty big deal in women’s lives. Our biology matters. I can’t ‘identify’ out of an abortion if I become pregnant.

Greer is s second wave feminist. She wrote a feminist classic ‘The Female Eunuch’ and has a whole catalogue of talks you can find on Youtube from the 70’s and onward that show just how brilliant she is. She’s done a lot for women, a helluva lot.

Greer centers women and girls in her analysis. She doesn’t quite care about transgender issues. She stated recently on Newsnight that she hasn’t talked about those issues in decades. So why all the fuss?

Well, because it seems transactivists, and even those who call themselves 3rd wave feminists, simply can’t manage to refrain from going to Greer’s talk, which isn’t on trans issues by the way. It’s to be about women and girls. Instead they have to punish her, call her horrible names, threaten her and try silencing her. This is the behaviour of children, not adults who have to navigate the world where competing ideas are everywhere.

UPDATE:

Here’s a tweet by the person who started the silly petition to silence Greer.

No to #TERFs. No to #Transphobia. No to #GermaineGreer. https://t.co/Dqr40iQMaH

— Payton Quinn (@PaytonQuinn) October 24, 2015

It’s just a bunch of petty name calling. I’ve already seen physical threats coming from the translobby on Twitter as well.

Germaine Greer the backward rednecked Aussie should go and die a Painful death!Very transphobic! It will all come out in the end she’s trans

— claire calder (@xxclairehoneyxx) October 24, 2015

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Universities are supposed to be the place where ideas are challenged and debated, where people are taught not what to think but how to think and parse information, not shut down before a word is uttered.

Greer told the BBC she’s 72 and tired of this. Well, I’m tired of this too. I’m tired of having to write counter petitions so that women can speak their minds without being viciously attacked and vilified by transbullies.

UPDATE:

The New York Times is reporting that Cardiff has rejected the plan to silence Greer and intends to continue to extend the invitation to her. Whether she’ll speak there or not, is solely in her court. She did say on BBC Two Newsnight that trans bullies threw things at her in the past and she really doesn’t want to speak at Cardiff if this is the environment. She may have been being snarky or she may have been serious. We’ll just have to wait and see.

If you’re reading this Germaine, I’ve watched almost every recorded talk of yours on Youtube. I admire you and desperately want you to speak. I know standing up to transactivists is tiring and they’re so very manly with their aggression but as a woman, you are making it possible for other women to speak up about this issue for the first time.

Too often women are bullied by men wearing dresses who will never understand or know what it’s like to be female. They’ll never become pregnant and have to find an abortion provider. They’ll never have to worry about menstruation and the pain and mess that comes with it. They’ll never be women.

Women know this and they’re finally speaking out because you dared to, even under threat of male violence and the supposed feminists who enable them.

I thank you for that.