There exists, in the Netherlands, an ultra-strict sect of Calvinists who do not allow girls to wear trousers, on the Old Testament principle of the separation of the sexes. “Male and female He created them” is seen as meaning males and females must be seen to inhabit different spheres. This is a fundamentalism that most people would surely rebuff. Yet we are now seeing society tilt to quite the other extreme.
It now seems that almost anyone who affirms that men and women are naturally different is likely to be described as a “bigot” by gender-fluid campaigners. Even feminists who believe that women are entitled to have their own space are coming under fire from transgender activists: groups such as A Woman’s Place, which makes that point, are finding it harder to book locations for meetings for fear of being labelled “bigots” who deny “inclusion” to transgender people.
The current transgender policy of the Girl Guides compels groups to accept boys who “self-identify” as girls. As Helen Watts and Nicola Williams, supported by many others, wrote to the Sunday Times last weekend: “This poses safeguarding risks [for camping trips, etc] … A boy who identifies as a girl is still legally and physically male … male children who identify as girls can share sleeping and washing facilities with females. It is estimated that 65,000 cases of child sex abuse are committed by other children and young people each year … Segregating by sex, regardless of gender identity, is common sense.”
Common sense, however, has little to do with the ideology of gender politics, rooted in the delusional – yet now powerfully held – notion that everyone can “choose” their gender. Yes, there are individuals who feel they are born into the wrong body, and it is right and compassionate to extend tolerance and understanding for this condition. But the ideology has now been taken to such an extreme that women and girls are being disallowed from having spaces they can define as female only.
Changes outlined in the updated Gender Recognition Act will propose that any male person who claims to “self-identify” as female is entitled to have equal access to a female space. Female athletes feel particularly resentful that their sport may be open to competitors who have the physique, and the testosterone, of males.
The ideological source of much of this thinking is the academic Judith Butler, who wields enormous influence through the Gender Studies network. Professor Butler’s diktat is that male and female are merely “social constructs”, and have no link with biology. It would almost drive you to wondering whether those ultra-Calvinists have a point.
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Valerie Riches, one of the admirable founders of the Family Education Trust (originally called The Responsible Society), has died at the age of 92. Valerie started her professional life as a social worker and came to feel that family breakdown was a cause of much social dislocation. This led her to campaigning for the defence of family values.
She warned early on that dispensing the contraceptive Pill to under-age girls would lead to problems. In the very week that Valerie died, it emerged that girls as young as 12 are being prescribed the Pill without needing parental consent – even though we’ve been made aware of the sexual exploitation of under-age girls in places like Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford.
Valerie – who was raised an Anglican but became a Catholic – was depicted, in a Guardian profile, as a narrow-minded killjoy, but she was a good-tempered and merry woman of deep knowledge. She is survived by her son and daughter and their families: her funeral will take place in Oxford on May 9.
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We are coming up to the anniversary of May 1968 when Paris erupted in a student “revolution”. I remember it well – I reported on it at the time – travelling from London to Paris by bicycle.
It did strike me, even in my radical 20s, as incongruous that the police, charged with keeping order and “repressing” the students, were usually working-class country boys (often from Corsica), while the “revolting students” were often youngsters from well-to-do backgrounds.
But I did like the witty slogans they daubed on the walls: “I’m a Marxist – Groucho tendency.” “Power to the Imagination!” And, which might make more sense in French, “Underneath the pavement – the beach!”
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