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‘She’s Not a Woman’
I find it difficult to understand how anyone could seriously formulate the sentence that is the title of this post. “She’s not a woman.” It seems like madness, to me. If words have meaning, that sentence has to be false.
The offending party here is Megyn Kelly. Kelly is supposedly a conservative and appears to be an intelligent woman. Yet she has somehow adopted a view of the world, or a definition of terms, that led her to make that statement, “She’s not a woman.”
What, pray tell, does the word “she” mean? For almost my entire life and, as far as I can tell, for the past several hundred years in the English-speaking word, “she” has been the pronoun used to refer to a woman (or female animal). “She is not a woman” is an irrational, contradictory sentence, as logically incoherent as “this statement is false.”
This quote comes from Kelly’s interview of Matt Walsh, reporting on Walsh’s interview of an anonymous female college swimmer who is a teammate of William Thomas. William Thomas is a roughly 20-year-old man who calls himself “Lia” Thomas, claims to be a woman, and has been competing in women’s collegiate swimming. He has ambitions of competing in women’s swimming at the Olympics.
Here is the interview (about eight minutes long):
I actually find myself in agreement with a statement that Thomas made, in an interview clip in the middle of this video. He said:
You can’t go halfway and be like, I support trans-women and trans-people, but only to a certain point. Where if you support trans-women as women, and they’ve met all the NCAA requirements, then I don’t know if you can really say something like that. Trans-women are not a threat to women’s sports.
I think that he’s right about the first two sentences here. There is no halfway. Of course, his statement is absurd, as one would think that meeting any sensible requirements for women’s sports would involve, you know, actually being a woman.
Kelly’s response strikes me as something out of a Monty Python skit. I do think that she is serious, and it makes me think that she is deranged. I do believe that she is deranged, in a specific way — for some reason, Kelly has accepted a completely incoherent redefinition of terms. This redefinition leaves her without the vocabulary to express herself, leading to the formulation of logically incoherent sentences. Kelly’s response to the clip of William Thomas is:
OK. Then I won’t go halfway. Then I’ll stay on zero, and I won’t meet you halfway at all, cause I’m not going to ten. She, like, the nerve of that man, for her, how does she know? She’s not a woman. She doesn’t get to say, after 20 years living as a man that now she’s a woman, and anyone objecting isn’t really supportive of trans. Like, did you swim in the pool, like all of your teammates did, when they were going through puberty, and they started getting their periods, and it’s a terrifying event for a young girl to get into a damn pool because you don’t know what’s going to happen, you haven’t managed things yet? Did you swim with breasts growing off of you, and try to figure out how to move your arms and still win? You didn’t. You went overnight from male to female, and your accomplishments on the women’s leader board are not that of a woman. They’re not. But she says we’re not allowed to meet her halfway. just out of, to be polite, or to be kind, or to try to be loving and respectful. It’s zero or ten.
Hearing this, I think to myself, self, this is satire, right? John Cleese is surely about to chime in with a funny line, don’t you think? What in the world is wrong with Megyn Kelly? This harangue is just incoherent.
I think that it’s worse. Kelly is a big part of the problem, in my view, and so are all of you who go along with this linguistic dance of pretending that some men are women, and some women are men. I think that Kelly actually identifies the problem. Kelly wants to “meet her halfway” to be “polite” or “kind” or “loving and respectful.”
I dissent. It is not impolite, or unkind, or unloving, or disrespectful to tell a man that he is not a woman. Or to refuse to refer to a man as “she” or “her.” Or, for that matter, to refuse to refer to Matthew Thomas by the female name “Lia” that he wants to use in support of the lie that he is a woman.
I’ll tell you what is impolite, and unkind, and unloving, and disrespectful, in my view. Calling me any of these things for speaking the truth. William Thomas is a man masquerading as a woman and insisting that everyone call him “Lia.” I say no.
I do credit Matt Walsh for refusing to refer to this man, William Thomas, as “she” or “her.” I am critical of Walsh for referring to him as “Lia.”
Guess what we got when we were persuaded, or browbeaten, to engage in this nonsense. A large outbreak of dreadful confusion about sexual identity among teens, especially teenage girls. Nice job, people.
I think that this is an example of what you get when you accommodate a lie.
Published in General
Zone of Control < Zone of Influence < Zone of Concern < Most of the world.
Very well analyzed.
Loving people is not participating in lies. Love rejoices in the truth.
He doesn’t really look like a she. He gets to participate in a sport that disguises that as swimming tends to disguise the more female traits in actual women, but he looks even less feminine than they do.
This is very strange to me, but I believe you. I had not considered this possibility. I don’t think that it has ever occurred to me, and it did not occur to me that this might happen to someone else.
I would advise you to work on this, but I don’t know if it would help.
If I understand you correctly, your speech ended up being confused, but your mind was not confused. You knew all along that Thomas was a woman. You just found yourself calling him “she,” because he looked and sounded like a woman. Am I understanding correctly?
Has anyone else experienced this? It is a possible explanation for Kelly’s statement that would undermine my criticism, at least to some extent. I might still criticize her for being unable to control her speech, which would be a problem in her profession.
I think you meant “not a woman.” See? It can happen to anyone.
OK, that was a typo. Sorry.
A name is a name.
He will always be a he. Not a she.
truth is always truth.
My husband is notoriously terrible with pronouns. He’s just careless… but it will lead to our kids not always paying attention – bad habits and all.
But I’ve done this here. When Cat is wearing girly icons and calling himself TheGirlyShow, I can slip up accidentally even knowing he’s not a she.
In Kelly’s case, if I recall correctly, she explicitly said she called people by their preferred pronouns. For her, it’s intentional.
Which is unfortunate, cuz those avatars are really cute!
To each its own.
What, you think that girl in his avatars isn’t cute? Feh!
It’s always that drug-addled bint who ain’t going back to rehab no no no.
Actually I don’t recognize who it is, but if you know, please share. All I know is she’s cute.
Try having some humility. Are you so perfect as to tell others to work on something that isn’t actually a problem? I get that you think any “accommodation” or even simple politeness is unacceptable on this subject, but my goodness are you being condescending.
Most of us live in the real world and interact with people who live and work in the same towns and neighborhoods we do. If someone prefers to be called a certain name, I’m not going out of my way to be a jerk. Does that mean I agree on trans issues? No! It means I don’t want to make a scene at a restaurant or the checkout line. Megyn is doing the same thing. Does it highlight the absurdity of Thomas’ cheating? Yes. And that’s kinda the point of her interview with Walsh.
That’s a good point if either of them was actually talking with Mr Thomas at the time. But they weren’t.
But Jerry’s point in the post is that Thomas is living a lie and he won’t participate in it. He says “this is an example of what you get when you accommodate a lie.” He also criticizes Walsh for calling Thomas “Lia”.
I think it’s pretty obvious where Jerry is coming from, but it’s misplaced here. Both Megyn and Walsh are critical of Thomas. We’re on the same side, it’s just that Jerry wants everyone to be more combative.
We’re talking about the blonde psychologist with the highish voice, no adam’s apple, and the dress, right?
[Added: Actually I was thinking of a different trans-man (by my definitions, that’s a man who has transitioned to some other niche nomenclature. I was thinking of a guy who was “female” psychologist that Walsh interviewed. Anyway, in answer to your question — ]
I think that’s pretty much it.
Let me also say that there’s a guy at work, named Paula. He’s a guy, completely. But he has breasts and talks like a woman. EVERYONE calls him she. Sometimes I slip up, too. Because she has always been referred to as she. And he wears a dress, and has tweezed eyebrows and rouge and lipstick. Sometimes I call him him to his face. I feel bad, but what does he expect.
I don’t have to analyze every single time I use a pronoun. Then I’m held prisoner by how others think I should employ political speech. In the same way I often refer to babies as “it”. I’m sure a mother might crossly correct me one day, but … who knows.
Maybe, but calling Thomas “she” or “Lia” is only being “polite” if you’re talking to him personally. Which neither Kelly nor Walsh were doing on that show.
I’ve posted this clip twice before and never gotten a like, so I won’t post it again, but I think it’s hilarious. It’s also prescient. In 2013 or so, then 84-year-old Ray Jessel auditioned on America’s Got Talent, and performed an original song that told the lament of a friend of his who found the perfect woman.
I met a girl.
She’s just great.
This girl I just adore.
The problem is,
She has much more,
Than I had bargained for.
She’s got that style.
She’s got that smile.
She’s got the walk.
She’s got the talk.
She’s got that zing.
There’s just one thing.
She’s got a [redacted].
Who would have thought that that would become a cultural issue that would be fought over? Can she really have one? A decade ago, it was just a joke. Now, we are all uncomfortable about the subject, and if it were written today it would have gotten a much different reception.
Aw, heck. Here’s the URL if you want to look it up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHHRpQpa_48&t=305s
I don’t appreciate being accused of being impolite and a jerk for declining to go along with a lie.
I think that the Wokeists use this language as a weapon, and I think that it is a bad idea to go along. I think that when we concede the rhetorical ground, we lose.
I think that those who go along with it are much like the characters in the story agreeing that the emperor’s new clothes were magnificent. Maybe they thought that they were being polite. They were also browbeaten into living a lie.
It’s not that hard to refuse to do so.
Fly to a red state in the south. If you have friends local to the south, ask them to find you a good breeder who has healthy puppies for sale. Tell the breeder you want a female puppy. This is still safe and legal in the south. Rent a car and drive the puppy home (the drive will be miserable ). Do not fly the puppy home in cargo, but if the airline will sell the puppy a seat in the cabin with you, that is OK. Name the puppy something non-gender specific, like Pat, or Fido.
For some reason I feel the need to post this here…
Of Fida.
Nope. The tall behemoth with the thick neck and disproportionate legs that is twice the height as the 2nd place contestant.
I reallly like her. She’s hilarious.
I’m sorry you feel that way, but I stand by my comment. You are acting as though anyone who takes a different approach from you is at best unaware of their own failings, and at worst helping to further a lie that will destroy society.
I think that’s nonsense and that you are setting up a standard where even Matt Walsh isn’t strident enough. Good luck persuading anyone with that.
Here, let me walk with you closer to that cliff. I promise I won’t dissuade you from your current direction, because that would be impolite.
I’m not perfect. I’m a coward, to be quite honest. Don’t fool yourself about what is good and not good.
And setting up a standard to achieve is not condemnation of people who can’t reach it. Jesus is a pretty tough standard to match but we are all called to it, right? And Jesus wasn’t polite to the woman at the well. Politeness would have been ignoring her dalliances. Jesus was kind and pointed them out to her face while conversing with her instead of keeping his distance or talking about her behind her back while giving niceties to her face.