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Another Insult to Women
Just when you think the acknowledgment of “transgender anything” can’t be any more inane, we have the 2023 Women of Courage Award. If I were any of the other women grouped with this man calling himself a woman, I’d be embarrassed and might be tempted to remove myself from consideration. Then again, most of the women from the brief description of their accomplishments deserved to have their work recognized.
Men do not.
The controversy arose when a transgender woman was recognized for her accomplishments, which I believe paled in comparison to the other women who were recognized:
This year’s annual International Women of Courage Awards ceremony at the White House honored ‘11 extraordinary women from around the world who are working to build a brighter future for all,’ according to a State Department press release.
Argentinian Alba Rueda was introduced at the ceremony as a ‘transgender woman who was kicked out of classrooms, barred for sitting for exams, refused job opportunities, subjected to violence, and rejected by her family. But in the face of these challenges, she worked to end violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ plus community in Argentina.’
Her other credentials included the following:
Rueda currently serves as Argentina’s Special Envoy for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship. The State Department said Rueda had ‘actively campaigned to change the name of the National Women’s Conference to the ‘Plurinational Conference of Women and Lesbian, Cross-Dresser, Transgender, Bisexual, Intersex and Non-Binary Persons’ to include diverse, dissident, and racialized identities.’
It might be easy to dismiss this action as one more revolting virtue signal from the woke community. But a number of thoughts occurred to me.
- Why aren’t feminists protesting this type of attack on biological women?
- Isn’t it interesting that the number of women selected was eleven; it caused me to wonder if ordinarily 10 women would have been selected, but adding the transgender person made a woke statement; thus 11 women in total.
- Why don’t they just give transgenders their own awards?
- Isn’t it time that we honor men with an award of courage of their own? (It does take courage to live in this society that hates men.)
If you’re curious about the other women who were practically ignored, except for the press conference, you can learn about them here.
I agree with Christopher Bedford of Common Sense Society:
“We are not a serious country.”
Published in Culture
It was hard for me to imagine my respect for Anthony Blinken sinking any lower, but it has.
You just had to drag Nigel Tufnel into this . . ..
For those unhip like me . . . too funny . . .
It’s like giving Robert Downey Jr. an NAACP Image award for the character he played in Tropic Thunder.
From the State Department’s own website, describing its reason for awarding Mr. Alba Rueda a “2023 International Women of Courage Award:”
Of course Mr. Alba Rueda did! I would have expected nothing less.
You may read the biographies of the other awardees here. And then make up your own minds as to whether a person whose accomplishments seem to center on public relations and clever rhetorical needle-threading actually belongs in the group.
I beg to differ.
The apparent end state of the transgender movement is erasing women. Mother Nature isn’t going to stop producing women, but society may.
So a man from Argentina is honored for his body dysmorphia that he has successfully turned into a way to make a living.
(Sigh)
I didn’t know the movie but checked it–you’re spot on.
As my wife puts it, “Can they possibly hate us any more? This is real patriarchal oppression for you: Saying men make better women than women.”
. . . and get lots of international attention . . .
Do women not “get it”? Or do they just not want to get involved? As your wife says, we’re the targets, for pete’s sake!
We’re seeing a mirror image of James Thurber’s story “The Greatest Man in the World.” In that story a thoroughly unsavory character manages to eclipse Lindbergh by flying non-stop around the planet. The press, seeking to please its readers, undertakes to turn a very nasty fellow into a “plucky young man” and the adoring masses buy into this wholesale. Government officials see the impending doom of exposure and arrange for this character’s heroic demise (to which his mother says something like “good riddance”).
Now we have a narrative that (per polls) only a very small percentage of people accept as “true”*, and it’s the guv-ment that is relentless in its promotion.
*My sense is that the “true-ness” of this is much, much more about demonstrating commitment to “acceptance” such that a failure to do so is assumed to demonstrate a very ugly exclusionary agenda. At present, I don’t see any indicators that this type of event will grow stale with those of such a viewpoint.
I agree. I’d say they’re on a roll . . . no end in sight.
Get over it Susan. We men are better than you women at sports, at math and now even in being women.
As for that silence you hear from most Women’s groups, you need to recall most such groups are run by liberal women and most of them (liberals) are just too cowardly to get out of line on this issue – otherwise they’d no longer be part of the “good people” which for them is a fate worse than death. They saw what happened to J K Rowling and Martina Navratilova and they’ll avoid ending up in that position at all costs.
I love this about Ricochet–that people can kid me with a straight face! You were kidding,right . . . :-(
And you are right about the women. How often did we hear the echo of silence regarding women who suffered genital mutilation abroad?
And, now, here.
Well done . . .
You must understand the following dynamic: “It’s not about __________ [purported subject, transsexuals in this case]; it’s about you.”
If the feminist were to grudgingly agree with your long-held position, she would be placing herself below you in a moral/intellectual superiority hierarchy. Enter cognitive dissonance. She, instead, endorses the insanity and denounces you. Voila! She is now your superior.
I should have known it was my fault, CT. Sheesh.
I just assume now that any major women’s award will be given to a man mimicking a woman. I suspect that some liberal women are afraid to speak out, but that a large majority of them applaud this. It makes them feel brave and edgy. But it is becoming as tiresome as it is predictable.
I’m still waiting for all the men’s awards to go to women mimicking men, but as someone noted above, there aren’t too many of them.
I think this might be a big part of their not speaking out. For the record, you women, none of us are impressed. At all.
In Victor Victoria, Julie Andrews starred as a woman pretending to be a man who worked as a female impersonator: a woman “presenting” as a “man” pretending to be a “woman”. Ahead of its time?
And of course she won the Academy Award as best actress. Guess the Academy was behind the times. It should have been for Best Actor.
I nominate Phyllis Schlafly and J. K. Rowling for Woman of Courage awards.
This is maddening but not unexpected from this Administration. They seem to thrive on the unusual shall we say.
I really dislike the use of the word transgender. It is a lie. The Left tries to force us to lie.
Why some women cheer this stuff is beyond my understanding. I would think they would be outraged.
Then there are:
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TERF
As Biden did (Babylon Bee).
It’s sick. It shows you just how far we’ve fallen. We were once the shining city on the hill, now…
I’ve scrolled ahead to see that Zafar covers that with a link. A term has been coined to easily dismiss women with concerns, TERFs. Now, like with racist, a name can be thrown out to try and shut down debate.
There are two things I see at work. I suspect that self examination is a frightening prospect to leftist women and others who have embraced the various waves of feminism and sexual revolution. Beyond equal pay and opportunity, at which it succeeded, the “movement” then either had to grow by finding new affronts, or admit success and withdraw victoriously. Unfortunately, like many groups that outlive their usefulness, such as unions (replaced by OSHA), the civil rights movement for blacks (also wildly successful), and social workers, there grows a bureaucracy that has to sustain itself and its jobs, so it looks for ever smaller and increasingly ridiculous “injustices” to target. The second thing is the utter failure of the sexual revolution and abortion to bring women freedom and happiness. Self-examination shows the failures for women where they still bear (sometimes literally) the consequences of “free” “love” and men more easily get free and easy sex, then walk away from responsibility. The specious rape claims are a way of trying to take back some power, but it has just bred mistrust between the sexes. Now, where’s the fun in that?
Jordan Peterson (of course) has an interesting interview on The Case Against the Sexual Revolution that’s well worth watching/listening to. Also a brilliant one on trans ideology. Interestingly, both are with British women. They seem to be ahead of us in waking up from wokeness.
Yain’t foolin’ no one, Señor Rueda.