REPORTS about a sixth-former who says she was forced out of her private school because she questioned a visiting speaker about her definition of ‘a woman’ should shock us. The fact that pressure for her to leave came mostly from her peers should trouble us. For many, however, this story was no surprise.
Parents with school-age children know how thoroughly queer theory has infiltrated our institutions. The idea that male and female are damaging social constructs, and you must choose your gender from an ever-increasing number, is now an article of faith for many teenagers.
From academia, through neo-Marxists writers such us Foucault and Butler, into the social sciences and eventually the PSHE lessons of our impressionable young, this cultural revolution seems unstoppable.
I have witnessed first-hand the fallout of this insidious ideology. Two young family members who attended a ‘girls only’ football camp were compelled to call a male player ‘Ruby’ and pretend that he was a girl. Their anger and frustration at being co-opted into a lie was palpable. My concerns for their safeguarding were dismissed as bigoted. It would seem that, in the final analysis, girls don’t really matter.
I have witnessed parents exercising heroic patience as their brainwashed offspring proclaim that they no longer identify as their biological sex, and that unless this newfound identity is affirmed, these kind, loving parents are not providing a ‘safe space’. Parents who would give their lives for their kids are now cast as the enemy.
Apparently, if you are a teenage boy, you can no longer fancy just girls. You have to be open to all genders, otherwise you are the sexual equivalent of a racist. The friend who described this situation in her son’s secondary school mentioned, almost incidentally, ‘it’s in the primary school too, now’.
So, to hear of a girl who dares raise her head above the parapet, only to be resoundingly beaten down, does not shock us. Battle-weary, we simply dust off the debris from yet another targeted attack on good sense and moral probity.
There are two aspects of the story, however, that should have called us to attention.
First, this happened in a private girls’ school. Traditionally, feminism has underpinned the culture of such schools. The Girls’ Day School Trust, for example, demonstrate this sentiment in their promotion of traditionally male-dominated subjects: ‘We are proud to be able to run groundbreaking initiatives that result in statistics to buck the trend and break the stereotypes when it comes to encouraging young women into STEM.’
I make no comment on the drive of these schools to ‘empower’ young women, except to say that it is entirely incompatible with the promotion of transgender rights. The struggle between feminists and the trans lobby is now well established.
Clearly, in the school attended by the girl in question, women’s rights have been superseded by trans rights. We can only assume that there were no aspiring sportswomen amongst that sixth-form pack; none who might wish to compete at a decent level, anyway. Or maybe they don’t mind the possibility of being thoroughly defeated by a trans woman; a prospect ever closer thanks to their feral silencing of the one sane voice in their school.
Of course, it’s not only promising female athletes who should have been concerned. Those girls who reportedly ‘shouted, screamed, swore and spat’ at the heretic were in fact crafting their own demise. By aligning themselves with the trans agenda, they unwittingly relinquished their unfettered access to female-only spaces.
I wonder if they’ll be so loyal to the cause when they see a trans woman coming in to the female changing room to try on a dress. Underwear-clad, will they not wish for half the courage of the girl they bullied out of their school? Will they not regret having silenced her objections?
The sad reality is that they probably won’t even make the connection. For all their expensive, private education (and this is the second noteworthy point), the girls in that reactionary group have failed to develop the essential, life-improving skill of critical thinking.
Despite nearing the end of their secondary education, they still have not understood the value of listening to the other side of the argument. Sadly, they remain tethered to the zeitgeist, perceiving themselves to be free whilst all the while blind to their captivity. If I were their parents, I’d be asking for my money back.
The girl who has been hounded out is reported to be ‘unusually free-thinking and questioning’. I was unexpectedly moved by that description. Isn’t this exactly what we want to cultivate in our young people?
The school should be rolling out the red carpet for this independent thinker, welcoming her back with open arms, and making her Head Girl. Not only did she have the courage to challenge trans orthodoxy, but she was the only one. Furthermore, she demonstrated an understanding of the complexity of the issue and what was at stake.
‘Coming out’, or declaring one’s sexuality, is apparently considered brave. Here, though, in the actions of this solitary girl, is real bravery. The response of her peers was evidence enough that speaking out required courage.
Where was her safe space? Well, the library, initially, to protect her from the mob. Ultimately, though the school failed to protect her and she had to leave. Incredibly, the Head of Sixth Form apologised to the other girls involved for not having provided a safe space for them. What a terrible inversion.
I’d like to know, finally, where the adults were in all of this? It is clear from the reports that the teachers knew that the girl had done nothing wrong. The Head of Sixth Form provided support to her at first but then, ‘after sustained pressure from the group . . . changed her position’.
Maybe she too had imbibed a touch of Marxist ideology, with the notion that pupils teach the teachers and not the other way round. Either way, her yielding to the bullies was cowardice.
If we were embattled before, this story serves to highlight the precariousness of our situation. We should be concerned that hitherto bastions of feminism and educational excellence have fallen to queer theory.
I am encouraged, however, that the story has been reported by a number of publications, with the school’s failure consistently highlighted. I believe that the tide is turning thanks to other truly brave women such as J K Rowling, Maya Forstater and Sharron Davies who consistently take a stand.
Sadly, there will be casualties along the way (lone schoolgirls being particularly vulnerable), but we adults must continue to fight, however battle-weary we may be.
