Victimhood Invoked, Victory Lap Indulged In
TIME spoke to Gender Queer author and illustrator Maia Kobabe about eir work, the efforts to restrict access to eir writing, and what ey make of the current cultural moment.
Captain, your signal’s breaking up. I’m getting a lot of static. Must be solar flares. That, or dangerously high levels of pretension caused by the proximity of Ms Kobabe, an activist and supposedly ungendered being, complete with boutique pronouns, and TIME’s Madeleine Carlisle. Given what follows, the words “restrict access” – and the subsequent claims of persecution – may seem a tad misleading. Ms Kobabe’s book, we learn, explores,
Questions around how to introduce nonbinary pronouns to people who might not be familiar them. And also how to be a role model as a nonbinary adult, especially in a setting like a classroom.
You see, our aspiring role model has produced a book combining hardcore self-involvement with dysmorphic cartoon pornography, with the results being made available to schoolchildren, including 11-year-olds. As one might imagine, there have been some, shall we say, reservations regarding whether a book of this kind should be circulated among children without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Readers may recall scenes in which parents attempted to read aloud passages from the book among fellow adults at school board meetings, typically resulting in reprimands, the shutting off of microphones, and threats of physical removal. Apparently, “vagina slime,” fellatio and “strap-on hotness” are inappropriate topics for adult discussion, even as an attempt to specify a problem, but totally fine for kids. Who apparently need to know about the joys of masturbating while driving.
Ms Kobabe tells us that parents’ concerns about the book being distributed among children are merely, “a very organised effort to erase trans and queer and nonbinary voices from the public sphere.” A wickedness indulged in only by those “looking for books to complain about.” This, we’re informed, is part of “a very dangerous and upsetting effort to make it harder for trans people and nonbinary and queer people to live.” And not, as seems more likely, a reluctance among parents to have their 11-year-olds exposed to somewhat outré pornographic material.
Evidently inspired by both the gushing of leftist librarians and the disapproval of countless parents, Ms Kobabe is close to finishing a second book on much the same theme, one aimed at “younger readers,” i.e., middle-schoolers.
Update, via the comments:
In the above and other interviews, Ms Kobabe frames the episode as one of bigoted and hateful conservative parents “targeting” books that “happen to feature LGBTQ characters,” and driven by “a very dangerous and upsetting effort to make it harder for trans people and nonbinary and queer people to live.” She implies that complaints were based on ignorance, on parents not having read the book, and of course on hatred. The parents, we’re told, were “cutting a lifeline for queer youth,” presumably out of some inexplicable malice.
Curiously, Ms Kobabe is not challenged on these claims, at all, despite the particulars of the parents’ grievances being readily available and repeated many times. That a number of those complaining about the book being unsuitable were themselves gay somehow escapes mention. Presumably, these details would not suit Ms Kobabe’s self-flattering persecution narrative.
Note too the conceit that, despite the rapid embrace by educators of transgender ideology, parents couldn’t possibly have anything to worry about. It seems to me that the eagerness of activists to breach the customary boundaries between adults and children – and to circumvent parents, who will be left to pick up the pieces of any unhappy consequences – is not only an extraordinarily arrogant overreach, but also an indicator that its proponents are quite unsavoury, possibly unwell.
And when middle-school librarians believe that 11-year-olds need to know how to whore themselves, to fund surgical mutilations and thereby approximate the opposite sex – as if raising a dysmorphic “sex worker” is what every parent dreams of – then some widening of the eyes seems in order.
Alas, there will be no Ephemera tomorrow, but feel free to throw together your own collection of oddments in the comments.
Ms Kobabe is close to finishing a second book on much the same theme, one aimed at “younger readers,” i.e., middle-schoolers.
Also not unrelated, a teacher scolds a student .
Ms Kobabe tells us that parents’ concerns about the book being distributed among children are merely, “a very organised effort to erase trans and queer and nonbinary voices from the public sphere.”
Notice that leftist fetish for the word “erase”? The jargon of the ideologically possessed. And like all who are possessed, they need either psychologists or exorcists.
Ms Kobabe tells us that parents’ concerns about the book being distributed among children are merely, “a very organised effort to erase trans and queer and nonbinary voices from the public sphere.”
Some voices should be “erased”, at least from schools and libraries and day-care centers.
TIME spoke to Gender Queer author and illustrator Maia Kobabe about eir work, the efforts to restrict access to eir writing, and what ey make of the current cultural moment.
For f*ck’s sake.
For f*ck’s sake.
Or, Woman with mental health issues turns out to be high maintenance.
And somewhat dishonest.
Maybe voices shouting about strap on hotness to 11 year olds should be erased. Although I suspect the vast majority of people who are trans…aren’t using their voices to say this, nor would they wish to.
Any disagreement with the Left is “erasure” because they must fully express their feelings and inner reality or else they are oppressed. The rest of us do not get to express our inner feelings or values because that is wrongthink.
When a group has an identity that is entirely made up of their sexual fetishes, and every group must be celebrated, this is where we end up. Normal people do not want to know about every fetish all the time. It is disruptive and disturbing. Even heterosexuals can have weird sexual things and the rest of us simply don’t want to know. Society to function requires a degree of anonymity.
harder for trans people and nonbinary and queer people to live.”
How, ‘xactly?
Oh, it’s “rhetoric”, I guess…
how to introduce nonbinary pronouns to people who might not be familiar them
Not familiar with this nonsense I just made up to make me sound special? HOW DARE YOU.
HOW DARE YOU.
They’re Spivak pronouns, apparently; but yes, your point stands. The practised narcissism – and the attempt to seem fascinating rather than, say, tiresome and predictable – is hard to miss.
harder for trans people and nonbinary and queer people to live.
No doubt. When your mental machinery is set against biological reality, things can’t be easy.
How, ‘xactly?
Ms Kobabe has a habit of framing opposition, almost any kind of demurral, as being an attempt to erase or oppress – with either herself as the supposed target or all gay, or dysmorphic, or “queer” people everywhere on the planet. It’s all a bit grandiose, and typical of her peer group, and of course enormously self-flattering. In the Washington Post, Ms Kobabe wrote a typically disingenuous piece, complete with equally disingenuous cartoons, in which readers were expected to believe that parents’ objections were driven by a hatred of gay people, or of effeminate boys, or girls who like climbing trees.
“The book has been out for two and a half years,” she wrote, affecting surprise. “Why now?” That parents had only now discovered what exactly their children were being encouraged to read, without their knowledge, and were understandably unimpressed, was of course part of the issue they were trying to raise. Needless to say, the overwhelming majority of those complaining, including in the videos to which Ms Kobabe referred, didn’t object to people being gay or whatever. The parents simply didn’t want their kids, including children aged 11, to be exposed to cartoons about blowjobs, fingering, and strap-ons.
But instead of entertaining this more prosaic explanation, readers were prompted, by the author, to sympathise with the author, and to weep over how difficult it is to sleep after reading tweets that don’t affirm one’s niche conceits.
[T]he overwhelming majority of those complaining, including in the videos to which Ms Kobabe referred, didn’t object to people being gay or whatever. The parents simply didn’t want their kids, including children aged 11, to be exposed to cartoons about blowjobs, fingering, and strap-ons.
I’m amazed it has to be said, but that. And in spades.
If you have to consciously remember someone’s pronouns, they’re not pronouns.
Erasure? Like this?
readers were prompted, by the author, to sympathise with the author,
That.
If your sexual proclivities demand that you must-must-must discuss blowjobs and anal sex with 11-year-olds, then perhaps erasure oughtn’t be off the table.
Be what you want to be or need to be. Privately, just as I conduct my cis-hetero life. If your entire being revolves around you being a female penis, you need redirection. Or just direction.
The book has been out for two and a half years,” she wrote, affecting surprise. “Why now?”
Let’s see, it was published on May 2019 and, I’m sure, it was NOT shelved into k-12 school libraries immediately. There would have been a lot of quiet persuasion and direct marketing to agreeable people in positions of power.
Then 2020 came, kids were locked out of schools for 12 months or more and had to do class via Zoom.
Oops… bad strategy on the part of educrats as parents now had a ringside seat to what was REALLY going on in classrooms across the nation.
And those same alarmed parents started worrying about what else was being trafficked to their kids on the downlow. So it is not surprising in the least that parents found kiddie-pr0n in the school library and started to :::::gasp:::: share those discoveries with other parents.
Oh.The.Horror! It’s All A Vast Rightwing Conspiracy!
Ms Kobabe tells us that parents’ concerns about the book being distributed among children are merely, “a very organised effort to erase trans and queer and nonbinary voices from the public sphere.”
She says that like it’s a bad thing.
It occurs to normal people that – at some point – these people don’t want to co-exist, or get along, or “make nice” and go about their otherwise productive lives.
They live to torment you, because they are tormented and they can’t stand being alone in that.
Again – and I don’t advise this, because it’s counterproductive and stupid – but if you take their “arguments” to their inevitable and logical conclusions, they lead to the normalization of ANY and ALL genuinely EVIL behavior.
Their argument for MAPS is that a certain (small) percentage of every population on Earth has been sexually attracted to minors, that attraction is therefore “normal”. Consequently, if it’s “normal” it must be celebrated, not discouraged. Extrapolating that out to other behaviors, the urge to violently murder another human is universal throughout time and – using the same definition they want to use for MAPS – therefore normal. It too must be celebrated. Prove me wrong.
Bottom line: These people cannot be reasoned with or persuaded. And it’s quickly becoming VERY clear that they cannot and must not be tolerated in a civilized society. It’s time to stiffen the spines and extinguish this brush fire before it consumes a generation.
‘Related’…
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1565397053123051521
They’re Spivak pronouns
Not to be confused with Michael “Meathead” Stivic.
They live to torment you, because they are tormented
I would guess the mental health issues that result in Ms Kobabe pretending she isn’t a woman are the same mental health issues that make her delight in both ludicrous overstatement and the overstepping of normal boundaries.
See also, just about anything else here tagged Pronouns Or Else and His Pretty Nails.
I look forward to her autobiography, Eir Today, Eirased Tomorrow: One Sexless Boor’s Journey.
Gentlemen, make sure you pick the right label for your orientation, it might just be a fetish for female naughty-bit owners.
Ms Kobabe tells us that parents’ concerns about the book being distributed among children are merely, “a very organised effort to erase trans and queer and nonbinary voices from the public sphere.”
I vote for a sustained, organized and vigorous effort to erase — no, let’s say expunge — every trace of this garbage.
Farnsworth: they are defining men as “bi” if also attracted to women (vulva owners) who identify as men. Sorry to burst their bubble but if they identify as men, most actual men lose interest in their vulva.
I also have to add: what the actual F
“how to introduce nonbinary pronouns to people who might not be familiar them.”
Such as speakers of the English language.
“eir work, the efforts to restrict access to eir writing, and what ey make of the current cultural moment.”
I keep getting a mental picture of the Fonz. Only this isn’t cool.
“They’re Spivak pronouns”
I’ve never been to Spivakia myself, but I’m told it’s lovely. Although you have to be careful not to buy any dodgy Rolexes off the locals.
The jargon of the ideologically possessed.
Ms Kobabe rather slyly frames the episode as one of bigoted and hateful conservative parents “targeting” books that “happen to feature LGBTQ characters,” and driven by “a very dangerous and upsetting effort to make it harder for trans people and nonbinary and queer people to live.” She implies that complaints were based on ignorance, on parents not having read the book, and of course on hatred. The parents, we’re told, were “cutting a lifeline for queer youth,” presumably out of some inexplicable malice.
Curiously, Ms Kobabe is not challenged on these claims, despite the particulars of the parents’ complaints being readily available and repeated many times. That a number of those complaining about the book being unsuitable were themselves gay somehow escapes mention. Presumably, these details would not suit Ms Kobabe’s self-flattering persecution narrative.
The jargon of the ideologically possessed.
Note too the conceit that, despite the rapid embrace by educators of transgender ideology, parents couldn’t possibly have anything to worry about. I’ve not often been called prudish, but it seems to me that the ongoing eagerness of activists to breach the customary boundaries between adults and children, and specifically, other people’s children – and to circumvent parents, who will be left to pick up the pieces of any unhappy consequences – is not only an extraordinarily arrogant overreach, but also an indicator that its proponents are quite unsavoury, and possibly unwell.
And when middle-school librarians believe that 11-year-olds need to know how to whore themselves, to fund their surgical mutilations and thereby approximate the opposite sex – as if raising a dysmorphic “sex worker” is what every parent dreams of – then some widening of the eyes seems in order.
One of these vids came up in Youtube shorts.
This guy is hilarious…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHA4VrVT7Fw&ab_channel=EVOLVE_G
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlGnVIogvvY&ab_channel=EVOLVE_G
Erasure? Like this?
No; this is trans erasure.
This guy is hilarious…..
Now removing my blogging thong and putting my YouTube shorts on…
proponents are quite unsavoury, and possibly unwell.
[Ponders how those people got there]
“Nobody wants to know how the sausage is made until they find out they are the principal ingredient.” – seen somewhere on the internet
Wait… are WE supposed to be wearing the thongs or just David?
Wait… are WE supposed to be wearing the thongs or just David?
There is no actual dress code here, but if you wear a thong David will favor you with slightly fewer lint-covered snacks.
Other things seem to have a higher priority: David stopped giving me coasters when I first failed to close some italics.
Some of her comics are here .
“a very dangerous and upsetting effort to make it harder for trans people and nonbinary and queer people to live.”
The left frames all disagreement and all refusal to submit as “dangerous” and “threatening”.
Speaking of victimhood…
♪♫…a pretty girl, is like a melody…♪♫
Have to update the scorecard, fat trans>trans>LGB>fat, I guess.
Some of her comics are here.
So, a woman who equates Donald Trump, and by extension half of the U.S. electorate, with fascism and the Nazis, and who has fantasies of getting breast cancer, a prospect she looks forward to.
Okay, then.
“a very organised effort to erase trans and queer and nonbinary voices from the public sphere.”
Schools are not the public sphere. If they were, I could rock up and explain to children why communist scum should be terminated with extreme prejudice.
While it’s still early days, there might be another hate”>https://spectatorworld.com/life/duke-volleyball-byu-hate-hoax-rachel-richardson”>hate crime hoax brewing.
Apologies, mangled the link.
there might be another hate crime hoax brewing”
No. *shocked face*
Anyway…
Wait… are WE supposed to be wearing the thongs
For me, not even a thong at twilight. Simply bare even if the lights are not low.
there might be another hate crime hoax brewing.
Remember the Duke Lacrosse fake rape hoax? The Congressional Black Caucaus fake hate hoax?
Is it Satan!?!?
It’s not the eruption of the mentally ill into the public sphere that rankles but the demand that their delusions be accepted as reality.
Meanwhile, yte supremacy in “higher” education.
…but the demand that their delusions be accepted as reality…
Meanwhile in the West Midlands…
I was expecting someone to post a link to this.
You can imagine my disappointment.