Can Someone Explain to Me How "Gender Critical Is a Cult"

QuestionCan Someone Explain to Me How "Gender Critical Is a Cult"

Posted March 5, 2024 by Latticed-Kestrel in GenderCritical

"Gender critical is a cult."

I see this all the time online, and I always try to understand the positions of various sides in a "debate", but every single time I see this one, it baffles me. I do not understand the logical (or illogical) steps it takes to get here.

Is anyone able to translate this for me or walk me through the thought process, so I can try to understand the sentiment?

Very basics of my 'reasoning' to get to gender critical:

Humans are organisms, mammals
we categorize various organisms in ways to understand them, and some base categorizations and areas of understanding are 'how they reproduce', thus, male and female (for many species), and 'how they behave', which (in humans) has massive overlap, but also has some distinct trends
Sex / biological categories / male and female, is relevant for the base reason of possibility of reproduction, and aside from that, trends in way bodies can work or interact (setting aside cultural elements and expectations)

What part of this = "cult" ?

Loading comments...

Posted March 5, 2024 by Latticed-Kestrel

Edited March 5, 2024

Score: 26

/o/GenderCritical

9208 subscribers

Created July 20, 2020

This is a women-centered, radical feminist oriented circle to discuss gender from a critical, feminist perspective.

The Sitewide Rules and Sitewide Guidelines are both enforced here. Please read them before posting!

This circle is especially for discussions about gender and transgender ideology/politics. Please use /o/WomensLiberation is for discussions about other feminist topics. /o/Activism is for calls to action, including petitions and fundraisers, and /o/FeministEvents is for posting events.

This circle is focused on articles, news articles, and original text-based discussion posts written by our posters.

Please do not make a linkpost to misogynistic or anti-GC content to start discussions about it.

Most videos do not belong in this circle and we do not allow direct linkposts to videos, they must be submitted as a textpost with a summary/description.

Linkposts to social media posts are only allowed if the link is to a gender critical feminist's posts, and the "GC Social Media" flair is only to be used when linking to gender critical feminists. If you want to start a discussion about a different kind of social media post, make a text post conversation starter instead of a linkpost, same as with videos.

Most images belong in other circles, as do examples of individual trans activists doing off-the-wall things, as do some news subjects and many personal posts that aren't political:

/o/FeministVideos - for feminist video posts
/o/Radfemmery - memes and jokes
/o/TransLogic - misogynistic and illogical things trans activists say and do
/o/TerfIsASlur - examples of TERF being used as a slur
/o/ItsAFetish - examples of fetishism in the trans community
/o/ThisNeverHappens - news articles about violent trans-identified males
/o/NameTheProblem - news articles about all male violence
/o/Women - for women's general discussion, including rants, raves, personal stories and advice posts

For discussion about Ovarit, check the meta circles:

/o/Ovarit - meta discussions about Ovarit that don't belong elsewhere
/o/Announcements - announcements from admins
/o/Suggestions - feature requests and other suggestions
/o/Circles - where new circles are born
/o/Bugs - report a bug in the site

Advertisements for Discord chat rooms or other private groups must be pre-approved by /o/GenderCritical moderators before you post. Please report any ads for private groups that do not have a comment from a mod confirming that it is approved. Never give anyone sensitive information that could be used to de-anonymize you without first vetting them yourself. Be careful!

Gender Critical Feminism

Feminism is the movement to liberate women from patriarchy. We stand up for the rights of women to control our own bodies as individuals and to control women-only spaces as a class.

Women are adult human females. We do not believe that men can become women by 'feeling' like women or 'identifying' as women. We condemn the erasure of females and female-only spaces, the silencing of critical thinking, the cancelling of feminists and critics, the denial of biological reality and of sex-based oppression. We oppose the 'cotton ceiling' and the pressure on lesbians to have sex with men. Women are oppressed to exploit their biological sex characteristics, and women have a right to a movement that is about their own liberation from that oppression. We resist the redefinition of both "women" and "feminism" to make them serve men.

"Women do not decide at some point in adulthood that they would like other people to understand them to be women, because being a woman is not an ‘identity.’ Women’s experience does not resemble that of men who adopt the ‘gender identity’ of being female or being women in any respect. The idea of ‘gender identity’ disappears biology and all the experiences that those with female biology have of being reared in a caste system based on sex." –Sheila Jeffreys, Gender Hurts

"The key thing to understand about trans rights activism is that, unlike gay rights activism, it is not just a movement seeking to ensure that trans people are not discriminated against. It is, rather, a movement committed to a fundamental reconceptualization of the very idea of what makes someone a man or a woman. In theory, this equally affects both men and women, but in practice, almost all the social pressure is coming from trans women towards the idea of ‘woman’ and the rights of women." –Jane Clare Jones

Moderators