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Trans

When Ideology Meets Reality

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Trans

By: Helen Joyce
Narrated by: Helen Joyce
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About this listen

The instant Sunday Times best seller

"An intelligent, thorough rejoinder to an idea that has swept across much of the liberal world seemingly overnight. Even those outraged by Joyce’s positions would benefit from understanding them.... Open conversation about such fraught issues is the only realistic path forward." (Jesse Singal, The New York Times)

"This rigorous and brave book nails the absurd idea that sex is just a 'social construct'." (David Aaronovitch, The Times)

Gender identity ideology is about more than Twitter storms and using the right pronouns. In just 10 years, laws, company policies, school and university curricula, sport, medical protocols, and the media have been reshaped to privilege self-declared gender identity over biological sex.

People are being shamed and silenced for attempting to understand the consequences of redefining "man" and "woman". While compassion for transgender lives is well-intentioned, it is stifling much-needed inquiry into the significance of our bodies.

If we recommit to our liberal values of freedom of belief, freedom of speech, and robust debate, we scan de-escalate this most vicious of culture wars.

©2021 Helen Joyce (P)2021 Oneworld Publications Gender Studies Law Social Sciences Thought-Provoking Inspiring Liberalism

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Critic reviews

"An intelligent, thorough rejoinder to an idea that has swept across much of the liberal world seemingly overnight. Even those outraged by Joyce’s positions would benefit from understanding them.... Open conversation about such fraught issues is the only realistic path forward." (Jesse Singal, The New York Times)

"This rigorous and brave book nails the absurd idea that sex is just a 'social construct'." (David Aaronovitch, The Times)
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Most relevant
Who could possibly object to a movement driven by compassion for our fellow human beings? Not me! Especially for those of us who have grown up supporting feminism and gay rights. 

Although anyone who has spent time on social media very quickly realises that discussions on Transgender Rights can get a bit ‘heated’, surely anyone who disagrees with the claim that ‘trans women are women’ are the usual social media bigots. The trouble is, the closer you look, the more you realise that this is not the case and that the claims of trans rights activists start to make less and less sense. 

Assertions like the trans rights movement is no different from the civil rights movements seem ridiculous when you understand what is being demanded. When you begin to consider the implications of self ID for women-only services and spaces, women’s sports, the safeguarding of vulnerable young people from irreversible medical interventions, and even the implications for gay rights, red flags start to appear. When you realise how the demands of the trans rights activists are rushed into law with no consideration for the rights of others, alarms start to go off.

This book examines these things in a considered respectful way. It looks at the ideological and cultural origins of the trans-rights movement, how social media has amplified the message for the TikTok generation and how any doubt or descent is instantly crushed or labelled as bigoted or transphobic. 

Great narration by the author too. Recommended.

Who could possibly object to trans rights?

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Thank you so much for this tightly argued reasonable book. I can't recommend it highly enough

An important and timely book

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Very interesting, careful documentarion, very good analytical skills, exceptionally interesting history of ideas. Too bad only a few people will read this rationally

Trans- ideology vs reality

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Thank you Helen Joyce, a brilliant and very clear book explaining the background to the movement towards gender self Id and how we’ve got to a point in history where defining women as adult human females risks you being called radicalised/ TERF & transphobic. The book touches upon a huge range of issues including the origins of gender ideology, politics - including US, sport, medicine, the women speaking out, who’s funding it etc. As another reviewer has said it leaves you wanting to know more, each chapter could obviously be a book in its own right. It should be required reading for MPs - I don’t feel the likes of Stella Creasy, Lisa Nandy & Caroline Noakes have got round to reading it yet though.

I binged listened to the audible version and will buy a hardcopy also to dip into. It is a fascinating and at times frightening read/listen. Before JK Rowling’s pro-women tweets I fell within the blissfully ignorant category but the backlash against her really sparked my interest to understand her position. This book, together with Kathleen Stock’s excellent Material girls and Nolan Investigates Stonewall podcast are really recommended.

Fascinating & thought provoking

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I cannot fault this book in any way. It needs a lot of attention and concentration but the facts she exposes are quite startling and rather frighteningly expose the extent to which politicians have bought into an incoherent set of ideas. Ideas that need pushing back against.

Top book

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