Putting a spell on you

“You’ve heard the term used in relation to high profile women such as JK Rowling, but what are trans exclusionary radical feminists, or TERFs, really all about? In this episode, Alice heads to Wellington to meet with the world’s first transgender MP, Georgina Beyer, and transgender advocate Caitlin Spice to hear about their experiences living in a society built upon rigid gender roles. Why are some people so afraid of trans people? And do TERFs deserve to be called feminists? From there, Alice attends the Feminism 2020 event hosted by “gender critical” group Speak Up For Women in Parliament’s Banquet Hall. Hoping to ask questions of their most prominent speakers, what ensues is a police report, a legal battle and not a hell of a lot of free speech."

 

This is the written introduction on Radio New Zealand (RNZ), to a Spin Off and Hex Productions’ video op-ed come stand-up comedy routine – featuring Alice Snedden in pursuit of a group of women whose critics vacillate between portraying them as an insignificant lunatic fringe, and the greatest threat to human rights on the planet.

 

The film is one of a series funded by NZ On Air, and it sets the tone of advocacy posing as journalism early on, with its references to TERFS, witches, bitches and stinking up feminism.

 

I'm a big picture sort of person so, before we begin this polemic, let me paint a back cloth.

 

Our island nation neighbours face the prospect of their ancestral homes disappearing under the sea because of climate change. The peoples of other small nations are facing mass starvation and bombardment at the hands of brutally repressive regimes that also oppress women with few external sanctions for so doing. Viral pandemics kill vastly more poor people than rich. Alongside mass species extinction, plastic and chemical pollution is causing untold damage to animals' habitats and to mammalian endocrine systems. We are facing a rapid rise of the authoritarian right, which has both the will and the wherewithal to tap into deep veins of popular racism and misogyny. 

 

The architect and builder of all this, corporate capitalism, is intent upon commodifying literally everything and, as illusory compensation, or as distraction, holds out to the egotistical, the promise of immortality in forms of trans humanism; to the alienated, the ability to transform their "flesh suit" to match their inner sense of self; and to megalomaniacal misogynists – the ultimate prize – the technologisation of reproduction itself because, who controls reproduction, quite literally controls the future of the species. The woman-haters’ answer to The Woman Question. 

 

You get the picture. Although in Aotearoa-New Zealand we are buffered to a degree, and for now, from the worst effects of these things, we have widespread poverty, racism, high levels of domestic and wider violence against women and children, high levels of incarceration, especially of Māori, and high suicide levels. 

 

In such a world, what has Spin Off and Alice Snedden focussed their public funding on thus far?

 

Episode one was on the rights of migrant women of colour to rent out their bodies to NZ men, and the second is directed at women who insist that being a human female is more than a feeling or a question of gender identity. 

 

The latter episode has polarised opinion on Twitter, being deemed either the best or the worst of RNZ's journalism.

 

It's neither. It's agitprop; a piece of theatre, a performance. It has its heroes – Yay – and its villains  – Boo  – but there is no nuance, no analysis, no depth. It is superficial, glib and ultimately pretty unhelpful. Snedden's written column is not much better and makes some startling claims. Maybe more on that later if I still have the will to live.

 

So all round, an excellent example of current affairs as agitprop. Well done RNZ, NZ on Air and Hex Productions. Take a bow. 

 

And now for a quick Q&A to clarify a few points:

 

1. What insights did the programme offer into the lives and experiences of the two transgender women who were interviewed?

 

Very little was said about their wider experiences – and if there had been it might have made a  better film. It was pretty much focussed on what they think about TERFs – nary a thing about the other myriad pressures and stressors on their tiny community, especially not about who trans people are most at risk from – ie violent men. Apart from segues into pursuing a politician, it was all about women – usefully corralled and branded as “bigots” to ameliorate any concerns woke folx might have about being thought to be misogynistic  or sexist – because the magical label of TERF grants a ‘get out of misogyny-jail free card.’

 

2.  Why did Speak up For Women (SUFW) decline to be interviewed by Ms Snedden, after having initially said their spokeswoman would be available for an interview? 

 

I don't know why, but in my opinion they should have agreed to the interview and done their own recording of it in order to be able to hold the producers and RNZ to account if their position was misrepresented by sneaky editing which, given the highly ideological slant of the resulting piece, there was a very high probability it would have been. It fair reeked of confirmation bias.

 

And, as the women who were involved in organising the event, are not politicians or media professionals, they were probably, and understandably, wary of a news organisation which – the friendly overtures to get the interview, aside – had been pretty hostile towards them.

 

3.  What was the legal battle? Were the courts involved?

 

A solicitor’s letter, and no. It was all to do with the rights to film inside the event, which SUFW refused to allow. Spin Off decided to ignore that and they were sent a solicitor’s letter threatening them with legal action if they sought to use the footage. Cue much on-camera hilarity from the presenter, whose backside is no doubt well covered by the production company’s liability insurance.

 

4.   In relation to the police report of an assault on the producer by an event organiser, were charges brought?

 

No. The woman who was acting as an usher was trying to stop the producer filming. It's pretty obvious that the production team staged a situation where Alice would ask a question, refuse to give up the mike and continue to grandstand (which I must say she does exceptionally well) hopefully provoking someone into trying to take the mike from her – cue a wrestling match captured by the producer. Great footage if you can get it.

 

The usher did touch the producer­ – who described it as "grabbing and yanking". The usher says she just lightly touched the woman’s arm, which technically could be viewed as common assault. 

 

Spin Off later reported the incident to the police, who logged it as such.  The production team didn't get any juicy footage of Alice and a TERF rolling about the floor wrestling for the mike, but they could at least claim there was a police report and use it, both as a hook in the intro, and for the ubiquitous, redacted image. 

 

Of course they failed to mention the damp squib of an outcome, which was that no charges were preferred by the police. Why let the facts get in the way of a good bit of agitprop? 

 

It was a piece of vexatious nonsense and a cynical waste of police time. Pretty shabby in truth.

 

5.  Did the programme makers have proof that the event was deliberately scheduled to coincide with the commencement of Transgender Awareness Week (TAW)?

 

In the programme, much was made of the insensitivity, amounting to a calculated harassment of the trans community, of staging the event on the first day of TAW – typically the week leading up to Nov 20^th which is the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDR) – a point made very emotionally by Caitlyn Spice. ⁽¹⁾

 

The organisers say they didn't know about TAW or the TDR, and the timing of the event was coincidental and chosen because of a common date when the four speakers, two from overseas, could all be available.  

 

To be fair, given the focus of the group, the organisers arguably should have known about TAW and the TDR, just as they should have anticipated the use of a university as a venue was likely to prove controversial. And, once it was known that the dates clashed, they could have issued a statement making it clear that it was not intended as a calculated insult. That wouldn’t have worked with the activists but it would have been good PR and taken some of the air out of Spin Off’s sales, sorry, sails.

 

6.   Was it acceptable for a production company, funded by NZ on Air, to label, as "bigots", all the attendees at an event – people whose backgrounds and motivations for attending were completely unknown to them?

 

No. It was crassly populist and yet more grandstanding.

 

7.  Was it legitimate to say repeatedly that the lead speaker, Canadian feminist and journalist, Meghan Murphy, and another speaker were banned from Twitter for "hate speech" – without making any sort of comment about the circumstances?

 

No. That was aimed at casting Murphy in particular, in as negative a light as possible. ⁽²⁾ She was permanently banned from Twitter for “hateful conduct” ie “misgendering” – especially in relation to another Canadian known globally for a penchant for suing women of colour who refuse to wax scrotums.   

 

Holly Lawford-Smith, a university lecturer, and one of the other speakers, was also banned by Twitter for breaching community rules on “hateful conduct”  by “misgendering” someone who had been harassing her. 

 

All of these bans of women – on a social media platform that is infested with some of the worst of humanity – are the result of mass campaigns of reporting and, any halfway competent journalist, would have at least wondered why it is that, someone of JK Rowling's considerable clout has not been, and will not be banned, despite even greater mass reporting by trans activists. 

 

8.    What about the focus on the group’s links to right-wing libertarian MP and free-speech advocate, David Seymour of the ACT Party?

 

For a film about trans people and SUFW it spent a lot of time focusing on David Seymour and the question of free speech and suggesting a political connection between SUFW and ACT.

 

The truth of it seems to be, having heard that the group had lost its venue when Massey University bowed to student pressure and cancelled the booking, Seymour offered to host the event at Parliament and it was able to be rescheduled for two days after the original date, which meant the speakers did not have to radically alter travel plans. 

 

In light of the fact that the event was funded by ticket sales, and money had been put up front by SUFW members, it is hardly surprising they were grateful to accept. 

 

Notes:

1)  I was relieved to see that Ms Spice recovered sufficiently from her sadness over what she perceived as SUFW's callousness, to spiritedly refer to TERFs as "fucking dicks" and accuse David Seymour of stabbing trans people in the back with a "fucking dagger."

 

2)   Georgina Beyer referred to Meghan Murphy as "venal" which interested me as I've never heard of MM being accused of being corrupt but, as Ms Beyer went on to describe herself as also being capable of being venal, I was left a bit confused as to what she meant. Perhaps it was an editing issue.