Resistance Against Transgenderism—Women’s Labor, Men’s Credit
How many ways can one even ask, ‘Where are the women?’
With Britain’s highest court ruling that the definition of “woman” in equality law cannot include men who claim to be women, some conservative men, like Sohrab Ahmari, have acknowledged women’s labor in this outcome.1 Unsurprisingly, however, Matt Walsh represents the male demographic who argues that, having “been in this movement for many years,” “conservatives led this charge.” In reality, Walsh came relatively late to this movement, compared to, say, Janice G. Raymond with her 1979 book The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male.2 This work was the first book-length critique of transsexualism—and decades of work by radical feminists, especially lesbians, have been ongoing. As women have pointed out, Walsh was born in 1986, and his What Is a Woman? One Man’s Journey to Answer the Question of a Generation came out in 2022.
Walsh has reiterated his claim that “feminism laid the groundwork for gender ideology,” an unsurprising scapegoating I have discussed here. It seems very convenient, now, to point at women like Judith Butler (1956-) with her 1990 Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, with her misinterpretation of Simone de Beauvoir’s “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman.” Of course, this narrative overlooks the male sexologists, like Harry Benjamin (1885-1986), known as “the father of transsexualism,” who relied on conservative sex-role stereotyping to invent “transsexualism” in the twentieth century. While Butler’s Gender Trouble entered the scene in 1990, Benjamin’s Transsexual Phenomenon came out in 1966—and Benjamin was neither a feminist nor did his work reference any feminists. Indeed, Benjamin’s work was based on the earlier work of Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) and Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), two of the fathers of modern sexology. A fellow sexologist named John Money (1921-2006) carried on Benjamin’s work in the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), in 1979, that rebranded as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) in 2007.3 Today’s medical and legal institutionalization of “sex change” has its origins in the efforts of male sexologists working to establish its credibility through medicine and law.
Given that transsexualism actually originated within sexology, primarily among men, the rapid-onset historical amnesia scapegoating feminism clearly serves the social, political, and economic interests of the men hiding its true origins. In vampiric fashion, a number of latecomers to critiquing modern transgenderism have used women’s labor, sustaining themselves on female support only to betray the very women who made them. Movement career parasites, these fictively constructed “self-made” creatures have shown up to capitalize on women’s labor and, when most convenient, throw women away—especially radical feminists. If “conservatives led this charge,” then why were conservatives, especially conservative men, not publishing book-length critiques of transsexualism as Raymond did with hers in 1979? The reality is that radical feminists—especially lesbian ones, like Raymond—were the first to deal with transsexualism, experiencing its emerging tyranny before it became a widely accepted “culture war” issue for conservatives like Walsh to monetize.
Below, I have provided selections from X:
Social conservatives have to reckon somehow with the fact that it wasn’t us who struck the decisive blows against gender ideology—but uncompromising, biology-first feminists.
- Sohrab Ahmari, X, April 16, 2025, 6:47 AM, https://x.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1912472976865341598
This is not true at all. I’ve been in this movement for many years and the vast majority of the people fighting alongside me have been conservatives. It may be a little different in the UK, but in the US there just is no question that conservatives led this charge.
- Matt Walsh, X, April 16, 2025, 9:13 AM, https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1912509539057860691
The death of gender ideology is perhaps the greatest and most decisive conservative cultural victory this century. I have no idea why Sohrab would want to counter signal it or give the credit to feminists, which is an asinine claim.
- Matt Walsh, X, April 16, 2025, 9:14 AM, https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1912509945011982831
More importantly, feminism laid the groundwork for gender ideology. Some of them helped fight back against it in the end, but their movement also created this problem to begin with.
- Matt Walsh, X, April 16, 2025, 9:19 AM, https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1912511176849629541
To be clear: I’m referring to the UK, where I believe the decisive blow was struck.
I’ve appreciated your efforts and, of course, I include myself in the ‘us’ in my tweet. But the blow here hasn’t been nearly as decisive. Yet. Onward!
- Sohrab Ahmari, X, April 16, 2025, 9:15 AM, https://x.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1912510115804033415
Fine, but you should specify that. More importantly: feminism laid the groundwork for gender ideology. Feminists in the UK may have helped to defeat it, but they also created it. Another important distinction.
- Matt Walsh, X, April 16, 2025, 9:17 AM, https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1912510717921493113
You have sourced our work at @ReduxxMag many times.
My work has been cited in a US Supreme Court case regarding WPATH and the transitioning of minors.
You are attempting to credit your own political agenda for work that, internationally, has been forged by women of various stripes.
Not beholden to conservative or liberal agendas, but working together, under great duress, against a harmful ideology that deeply impacts us.
- Genevieve Gluck, X, April 16, 2025, 11:19 AM, https://x.com/WomenReadWomen/status/1912541477617692809
It will be a cold day in hell before I thank men who’ve made a career out of the gender ideology debate for supposedly freeing us from its weight.
Men who came along with large budgets and agendas to serve, profiting from the labor and emotional turmoil of women, many of whom continue to experience ostracism, and financial costs in addition to their loss of friendships, simply for defending themselves and other women.
Men who were lionized while women were ignored; men who will, or do, show open contempt for women after this issue becomes unprofitable for them.
They will move on to the next issue, and women will still have to reckon not only with the fallout, but with the myriad of issues which uniquely impact females that don’t garner so much attention: sexual violence, porn, prostitution, surrogacy, for example.
- Genevieve Gluck, X, April 16, 2025, 12:09 PM, https://x.com/WomenReadWomen/status/1912554074190540973
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See Severin Carrell, “Legal Definition of Woman Is Based on Biological Sex, UK Supreme Court Rules,” The Guardian, April 16, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/16/critics-of-trans-rights-win-uk-supreme-court-case-over-definition-of-woman.
See Janice G. Raymond, The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male, 1979 (New York: Teachers College Press, 1994). See also Janice G. Raymond, Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge to Transgenderism (Mission Beach, Australia: Spinifex Press, 2021).
Feminists, especially radical feminists, have done the work on WPATH’s collaboration with castration fetishists on its Standards of Care, making the links between the institutionalization of “sex change” and adult men fetishizing child sexual abuse. In particular, Genevieve Gluck’s work at Reduxx has been significant—although others have taken most credit with little, if any, proper citation made to Gluck. Her work has shown that men’s sexual abuse of women and children has been at the heart of modern transgenderism, the sexual ideological foundation animating the industry. See Genevieve Gluck, “Trans Health Authority Cites CASTRATION FETISH Site in Guidelines,” Reduxx, December 6, 2021, https://reduxx.info/trans-health-authority-cites-castration-fetish-site-in-guidelines; Gluck, “Top Trans Medical Association Collaborated with Castration, Child Abuse Fetishists,” Reduxx, May 17, 2022, https://reduxx.info/top-trans-medical-association-collaborated-with-castration-child-abuse-fetishists; Gluck, “Top Academic Behind Fetish Site Hosting Child Sexual Abuse Fantasy, Push to Revise WPATH Guidelines,” Reduxx, May 21, 2022, https://reduxx.info/top-academic-behind-fetish-site-hosting-child-sexual-abuse-fantasy-push-to-revise-wpath-guidelines; Gluck, “Trans Authority Cites Pedophilic Forum, Reduces Age Restrictions for ‘Puberty Blockers’ and Genital Surgeries,” Reduxx, September 18, 2022, https://reduxx.info/trans-authority-cites-pedophilic-forum-reduces-age-restrictions-for-puberty-blockers-and-genital-surgeries; Gluck, “Academics Involved with Top Transgender Health Authority Publish Paper on ‘Choosing Castration,’” Reduxx, November 19, 2022, https://reduxx.info/academics-involved-with-top-transgender-health-authority-publish-paper-on-choosing-castration; Gluck, “EXCLUSIVE: Sadistic Pedophile Was Member of Forum Cited by Transgender Medical Authority,” Reduxx, July 11, 2023, https://reduxx.info/exclusive-sadistic-pedophile-was-member-of-forum-cited-by-transgender-medical-authority; Gluck, “EXCLUSIVE: Dutch Pro-Pedophile Academic Worked with Leading Transgender Medical Authority,” Reduxx, April 13, 2024, https://reduxx.info/exclusive-dutch-pro-pedophile-academic-worked-with-leading-transgender-medical-authority; Gluck, “EXCLUSIVE: Cal State ‘Gender’ Academic Inspired Pedophilic Fantasy on Castrating, Enslaving Young Boys,” Reduxx, July 8, 2024, https://reduxx.info/exclusive-california-gender-academic-inspired-pedophilic-fantasy-on-castrating-enslaving-young-boys.