Two connected things I was wrong about when I was a hard liberal were human nature, and psychological sex differences. Like most modern leftists, I believed humans were a tabula rasa. Temperament, "identity," personality, proclivities---all of these were made only by "socialization." (Who was doing the socializing, and where the socializing started without biology, of course, was never mentioned).
I'm reading "As Nature Made Him" about the boy who was raised as a girl and there's a lot of good information about the dueling "experts" talking about sex re-assignment surgery and how it wouldn't affect the child because they're a blank slate. The book also mentions feminists being happy with Dr. Money's proclamation that we don't have a nature. It's ridiculous. Feminists just want to be able to say they can do anything a man can, likely because they're jealous. Without jealousy, I imagine women would focus on accepting their nature and working with it rather than against it.
Thanks, Mr Slocum, for the article and the podcast. Perhaps it’s not the patriarchy, nor even trans activists a lot of women have a problem with, it’s Mother Nature.
Jul 20, 2022·edited Jul 20, 2022Liked by Josh Slocum
I just finished reading a chunk of Charles Murray's book Human Diversity. If I understood and retained correctly, one of the conclusions to be drawn from current research is that the effect of genes gets stronger as you age. The environment has less of an effect, and you come more to resemble your genetic 'type'. As a youth, environment (especially "non-shared," i.e. chance events, peer group, all those happenstances of ordinary life) has more of an effect, but that wanes with time. (More on the topic of the post, one third of the book is on sex differences, but I haven't read that bit yet.)
That's interesting, and would explain some temperamental changes (shedding of youthful neuroses) that we see later in life among many, including those who were abused as children.
Including youthful ideologies. The way Murray presents it, teens and young adults can go against type, rebel against parents, and then grow out of it. Might explain the conservative turn many liberals develop into older age, too.
As the ex-wife of a man who ideates that he's a woman, who is "oppressed" by my insistence that I am the only mother our sons have--while working as the COO of a profitable tech database management company (the kind that now has a special "pronouns" page on its website, a completely gratuitous shill having nothing to do with the business) I can say that when you have the xy chromosomes, you will always possess and engage in male oriented behavior, best to find ways towards your best self, same as we xx chromosome havers must muddle through. (how about chromosome-haver for a "cervix-haver" retort?) Your body is the environment of your brain, while where you are is the environment of your body. He fantasized that I was "masculine" because I had strong opinions and liked to work out for a strong female body, so he even used his interpretation of ME to support his fantasy. Before I figured out the secret life he had, he mysteriously stopped helping me carry stuff our young children required. Should I have realized what that symbolized and sued for divorce sooner? I've thought a lot about this. While every human being might consciously require effort to be more assertive or less bossy or more reflective, creative, receptive or just, wise, we live in our sexed bodies. My grandparents farmed together and did a lot of the same physical work and together tried to interpret the seasons so they could support my father and uncle. They are my best example of male/female cooperation in life. In the best of circumstances, men and women recognize our responsibilities to the next generations and work to think hard, do right, become wise. I'll apologize now for not making the divorce a big splashy jury trial, I really wish I'd had the resources. Perhaps I could have at least been that voice in the wilderness thirty years ago, warning, warning.
Ute Heggen, author of In the Curated Woods, a memoir
As with all people like the husband you describe, there is present, a blinkered and wholley unrealistic view of women. Perhaps a study of history, something most people sorely lack, would have disabused him of his views. I would draw attention for example, to the life of Rowena Cade who built (and I do mean built not had built), the Minack Theatre at Port Curnow, Cornwall, England between about 1931 to her death in 1983.
I will look her up. My then husband was running away from his childhood memories, his physically abusive father, who became an extreme cheapskate later--the "not wanting to be a man," part of it. Our sons were 1 and 4 when I discovered he'd been secretly cross-dressing and going to a "therapist" (non-certified groomer) for the counseling sessions. He must have been doing this for at least a year, as three large sketchbooks were filled. Later, when he went through his mini-skirt and high leather boots phase (worn even while picking up our sons for the visitation) I realized he was overtly over-sexualizing himself in what he thought was a feminine manner. For gestures, it was obvious he had been observing and copying me. Friends noticed it too, and were creeped out. No man, no matter how un-masculine he imagines himself to be, can "know what it feels like to be a woman." His demeanor was particularly unhappy and projected disappointment after the surgery; but he kept beating the drum of how "oppressed" those like him are. Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods
I have several profiles of other women like me going up on my blog,
"The world makes more sense, people make more sense, when you accept what's obviously true."
HEAR HEAR. But modern leftism is premised on rewriting reality, where the theoretical trumps the observable. And many of us, sadly, fell for it before we snapped out of it.
The Moral Animal was a game-changer for me. A blast of reality and a useful lens for understanding our world.
I'm reading "As Nature Made Him" about the boy who was raised as a girl and there's a lot of good information about the dueling "experts" talking about sex re-assignment surgery and how it wouldn't affect the child because they're a blank slate. The book also mentions feminists being happy with Dr. Money's proclamation that we don't have a nature. It's ridiculous. Feminists just want to be able to say they can do anything a man can, likely because they're jealous. Without jealousy, I imagine women would focus on accepting their nature and working with it rather than against it.
Thanks, Mr Slocum, for the article and the podcast. Perhaps it’s not the patriarchy, nor even trans activists a lot of women have a problem with, it’s Mother Nature.
the people who deny sex based differences are the ones judging them
I just finished reading a chunk of Charles Murray's book Human Diversity. If I understood and retained correctly, one of the conclusions to be drawn from current research is that the effect of genes gets stronger as you age. The environment has less of an effect, and you come more to resemble your genetic 'type'. As a youth, environment (especially "non-shared," i.e. chance events, peer group, all those happenstances of ordinary life) has more of an effect, but that wanes with time. (More on the topic of the post, one third of the book is on sex differences, but I haven't read that bit yet.)
That's interesting, and would explain some temperamental changes (shedding of youthful neuroses) that we see later in life among many, including those who were abused as children.
Including youthful ideologies. The way Murray presents it, teens and young adults can go against type, rebel against parents, and then grow out of it. Might explain the conservative turn many liberals develop into older age, too.
As the ex-wife of a man who ideates that he's a woman, who is "oppressed" by my insistence that I am the only mother our sons have--while working as the COO of a profitable tech database management company (the kind that now has a special "pronouns" page on its website, a completely gratuitous shill having nothing to do with the business) I can say that when you have the xy chromosomes, you will always possess and engage in male oriented behavior, best to find ways towards your best self, same as we xx chromosome havers must muddle through. (how about chromosome-haver for a "cervix-haver" retort?) Your body is the environment of your brain, while where you are is the environment of your body. He fantasized that I was "masculine" because I had strong opinions and liked to work out for a strong female body, so he even used his interpretation of ME to support his fantasy. Before I figured out the secret life he had, he mysteriously stopped helping me carry stuff our young children required. Should I have realized what that symbolized and sued for divorce sooner? I've thought a lot about this. While every human being might consciously require effort to be more assertive or less bossy or more reflective, creative, receptive or just, wise, we live in our sexed bodies. My grandparents farmed together and did a lot of the same physical work and together tried to interpret the seasons so they could support my father and uncle. They are my best example of male/female cooperation in life. In the best of circumstances, men and women recognize our responsibilities to the next generations and work to think hard, do right, become wise. I'll apologize now for not making the divorce a big splashy jury trial, I really wish I'd had the resources. Perhaps I could have at least been that voice in the wilderness thirty years ago, warning, warning.
Ute Heggen, author of In the Curated Woods, a memoir
As with all people like the husband you describe, there is present, a blinkered and wholley unrealistic view of women. Perhaps a study of history, something most people sorely lack, would have disabused him of his views. I would draw attention for example, to the life of Rowena Cade who built (and I do mean built not had built), the Minack Theatre at Port Curnow, Cornwall, England between about 1931 to her death in 1983.
I will look her up. My then husband was running away from his childhood memories, his physically abusive father, who became an extreme cheapskate later--the "not wanting to be a man," part of it. Our sons were 1 and 4 when I discovered he'd been secretly cross-dressing and going to a "therapist" (non-certified groomer) for the counseling sessions. He must have been doing this for at least a year, as three large sketchbooks were filled. Later, when he went through his mini-skirt and high leather boots phase (worn even while picking up our sons for the visitation) I realized he was overtly over-sexualizing himself in what he thought was a feminine manner. For gestures, it was obvious he had been observing and copying me. Friends noticed it too, and were creeped out. No man, no matter how un-masculine he imagines himself to be, can "know what it feels like to be a woman." His demeanor was particularly unhappy and projected disappointment after the surgery; but he kept beating the drum of how "oppressed" those like him are. Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods
I have several profiles of other women like me going up on my blog,
uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com
"The world makes more sense, people make more sense, when you accept what's obviously true."
HEAR HEAR. But modern leftism is premised on rewriting reality, where the theoretical trumps the observable. And many of us, sadly, fell for it before we snapped out of it.