Julie Bindel, Yet Again.

By Sophia Siedlberg

October 29, 2009

I don't really know what to make of Julie Bindel. Her anger at transsexual folks is interesting because she can write some pretty horrible things about them, and yet when they respond in kind, she accuses them of witch hunting. The way I perceive that is actually quite simple. She, being born fully of one or the other sex with no issues with that, has the right to beat up on those who were not. At the same time they cannot answer her back because she has "cisgendered privilege" (To use the official terminology).

But given that this privilege is given to every "cisgendered" individual, and no one questions it, she can hardly be singled out for doing it. Lots of people do it. She is one among many. Making an example of her while avoiding the wider issues does not say much. Though having said that, she should also not complain when people react to her writings in kind. I tend to think that concepts like right and wrong are more important than the two sex system; if she dishes it out she should expect the same back.

But I do have one problem with her that I think is more important, and this is her continual insinuation that only genetically pure women and girls can be considered victims of sexual abuse. I say this because as an intersexed individual I was badly abused as a child and I resent the fact that people like Bindel go into denial mode about it. I was denied justice for over twenty years because of people like her. She really cannot set herself up as some "Radical standing for gender equality" if she peddles such denial.

It is this that makes me angry with her. She says in a world of gender equality gender reassignment surgery would no longer happen (referring to transsexual folks). I have my doubts about that but this is a matter of opinion. What will not stop is the surgery being inflicted on intersex children, because her ideal world does not allow for that. Because if it did, she would also have to admit that intersex children and worse for her, boys also get sexually abused.

Her idea of equality lies in the detail. If she denies that other groups of people are victims of sexual abuse at some point in their lives, she is saying that only those she is interested in are human enough to complain about it. That is not equality. Never was and never will be.

I can bet that having made this legitimate point about her arguments, she is going to call me a "witch hunting supporter of transsexual folks". Well, she can say what she wants. She cannot hide or alter the fact that she is backhandedly peddling another form of inequality. My objection is really down to the obvious double standard, and one which she cannot argue around.

She can claim that her denying boys justice is fine because they have some inherent "male privilege". Again, I don't agree with that because people are people and abuse hurts, regardless of their sex. But she cannot pin that on intersex people or transsexual people because they are often subjected to such intense and socially unquestioned abuse with no privileges whatsoever. She herself does look like the oppressor.

But with intersex people she really cannot get away with it because they were born physically different from her ideal. In a world such as Bindel's, when men are nice and neatly packaged as bastards, and women neatly packaged as victims, intersex people cannot exist. They do not fit in with the mutual abuse that goes on between the sexes. It is as simple as that. She fails to understand my cynicism about this. I look on her and her male opposites as people who just take it out on the likes of me when they get caught out abusing each other.

It is obvious really. She is the first to complain about surgery for transsexual folks (They consent to that surgery remember) but says nothing when similar surgery is inflicted on intersex children without consent. Why? Well, it is simple. When the surgery is done, she can brand them as either a victim or a bastard, and they can enjoy the dubious "benefits" of her new world gender order.

For me it is sort of like the Odessa File where someone is hunting down a Nazi war criminal, and all the way through the story the guy hunting this criminal down is seen as someone who is motivated by his outrage at the criminal's actions against different ethnic groups, but at the end the crime that he is angry about is the fact that the criminal killed his father, who was actually one of the guards.

My sense of disgust is only strengthened by her behavior towards transsexual folks, but my grievance is different. Mine is about the way she presents herself as some paragon of feminism and equality, yet in truth she is perhaps the most absolute supporter of a two sex system which reduces people to meat and then brands them as either a bastard or a victim so she can feel comfortable with the world.

As I was myself abused because I was intersexed as a child, I have a grievance with that and she will have to explain herself on that because this will cause far more damage to her reputation than any "witch hunt" ever will.  I am not prepared to live in a society, with a legal system dictated by the likes of Bindel where I am regarded as either disposable or substitute meat. Or where others such as transsexual folks are regarded in the same way.

What am I supposed to do? Accept her denial and lies or confront them? For me it is a matter of self defense whether she likes it or not, and she can brand me, misquote me and cry all she likes. I find her claiming she has "Gender points" offensive, because she never suffered what I did and she has no right to claim that she is a Genuine victim of gender oppression" and deny the rights of those who were.

I am not going to tolerate being told I am fit for little more than being abused because she was born into a sacred, normal body. The sooner she sees where she is going wrong with all this and wakes up to the fact that she is peddling injustice of a particularly vile sort, the better. All I ask is for her to explain herself. I don't want her to die of cancer or AIDS, nor do I disagree with her about the abuse suffered by women and girls. It is all wrong. I just wish she would stop pretending to be what she is not. She is not someone concerned about real justice. She is what she is, selective about who is worthy of legal protection and who is not.

She does not deserve to die of a nasty illness because of that, but she does need to grow up and stop peddling norm born self interest.

More articles by Sophia Siedlberg (OII-UK): Click here