Excellent stroll through Maslow's hierarchy of needs -- brilliant li'l piece of writing! I'd said something along these lines with regard to feminism for years -- "Can't we take the win?" We ladies here in the first world already HAD power and privelege. (I graduated in Chemical Engineering in 1994, in a class that was already 60% women -- and the chicks got all the good jobs!) Now, however, the power dynamic has shifted, and womens' rights (and women's sports, and gay rights, and same-sex spaces, etc.) are being undermined by so-called "trans-rights." So good, pointing out the leather jackets, tattoo sleeves, and nose rings... LOL, well done!
YES!! Thank you for breaking this down. I've been writing about how privilege is necessary to truly adopt the narrative that sex is fluid, since women and LGB people who live in far more violently homophobic and sexist countries cannot afford to play with this ideology, much less actually put it into practice.
The trans movement was spurred by white, middle to upper class academics, mostly men. And, the young folks who champion transgenderism are usually those who fetishize oppression, because being oppressed makes you cool, interesting, raw and tough...not to mention morally superior.
When someone is lacking the sense of purpose and identity that is born through healing and synthesizing challenges/lived experience, it makes them vulnerable to gender ideology and the package deal that is sold to them through it.
Me, me, me, and who cares about the suffering of others? Palestinians? Who are they? Are they trans? Homeless people are freezing in this old? But are they trans? Animals are abused every day…are they trans?
Terrific essay! It makes me think of Roísín Michaux’s excellent piece “You Meet More Perverts When You’re Poor.” Imagining that single-sex spaces and other protections for women and girls serve no useful purpose is a luxury belief held only by the very privileged.
Spot on the money. In our new normal post-reality world - "words" are rebranded as "violence" if someone simply prefers not to hear them. Expressing that one feels "unsafe" because one has "heard" such "words," or asserting that one has experienced a "micro-aggression" because one has "heard" such words - are the mark of a level of privilege few in human history can ever have laid claim to. We live in a world filled with real "violence" including mass murder - in which real "aggression" leaves many people actually "unsafe." I must admit that I find myself struggling to muster much empathy for those whose narcissistic self-absorption conveniently blots out or marginalizes these painful "realities" faced by literally billions of their fellow humans - in order to maintain a studious preoccupation with their own navels - and with their ever changing designer micro-identities tethered by their oh so important - "feelings" - to that navel.
Don't forget how a painting of George Washington displayed in a public space, or a hotel named after Sir Francis Drake, or a high school named after Abraham Lincoln, does real harm.
Wow. A dose of reality, and highly potent. I wish I could have shown this to the non-binary trans activist I dated for a few months, before she decided I was too normal for her tastes and dumped me.
Non-binary is such utter nonsense as to be hilarious! There are non-binary living organisms : bacteria are an example…slime molds also can be in that category. And God? Sure… if you consider trans to be sacred! It’s amazing the amount of dementia now obvious in some young people! Also the pure selfishness !
Noticing that we live the safest, richest lives in human history is currently equated with oppressor guilt, something to be avoided at all cost. Although he was speaking mostly about race, I consider this insight extremely valuable to the trans issue too: "Innocence is power. In a society like America, with our history, we have this combination of unparalleled greatness and almost unbelievable evil. The pressures of being an American involve grappling with innocence. We have wealth; now we want innocence—that’s where power lies at the moment. So much of our politics and culture really come out of this struggle with innocence. Wokeness is nothing more or less than this struggle for innocence—a way to be innocent, and therefore to have power. This leads to dark things. We have wealth, but we don’t have the legitimacy innocence gives us." https://www.city-journal.org/article/a-conversation-with-shelby-and-eli-steele
Maybe he would, if he didn't know it was mine. He once went on a completely unexpected tirade against me for reasons that remain unclear. It was part of the inspiration for this: https://shannonthrace.substack.com/p/im-not-your-victim
That's a shame. He can be hot-headed for sure... maybe he'd rise to an opportunity to calmly re-visit the misunderstanding; one would hope, in any case. I've seen him beg his own imperfections and I think he's trying to improve on his impulsivity.
I agree, by and large, with the position that those of us living in the developed world who are not in extreme poverty are extremely lucky in many ways, especially the legal freedoms we enjoy and the bottom tier of the hierarchy generally being met to the point where short-term worries about it are few to none (as opposed to, say, worrying that one will later become homeless). This goes much further for those of us who are financially secure and in stable living situations. I am in this group, and like most other people in it, it is true that I am often too preoccupied with my own problems to remember my incredible privilege and luck compared to the vast majority of the people in the world. However, I disagree that someone who is out protesting like that has necessarily even hit level 2 (although they probably have). Because products like hair dye and complicated clothing are so much cheaper in developed countries than necessities, and because having a small amount of disposable income does not automatically imply a stable living situation, for any given person in this group it is unlikely but possible that they are, say, in an abusive relationship, have a family who are genuinely cruel to them, are getting their accoutrements from friends or thrift stores but are themselves in dire financial straits (much less likely unless they are sabotaging themselves, given they're at a protest), etc.
Missing security needs in an immediate way is not that likely for someone in this crowd. The real point I would make is about tier 3- people who do this are not, necessarily, loved and treated well, even before adopting any identity. I know your husband was in a very stable and economically privileged situation, was well loved, etc., but young people who get into this culture are less likely to do it because of autogynephilia, as compared to, say, friendlessness, genuinely awful family relationships, abuse, homosexuality, and, I would argue, sometimes (though I doubt it in the case of the woman in this picture), a condition which gives them a sense of distress with their birth sex, which can be inborn. But ignoring the last point, given a lot of people do not believe this exists, these people are still, broadly speaking, unhappy and in bad situations that, while often exacerbated by their beliefs, often do not stem from them. The time when I was involved in such 'activism' was, in fact, one of the least stable times in my life, and would have been even without my ideology, although the ideology made things much worse. Even now, the things that remind me of these toxic ideas are fear, pain, and anger, often but not always coming from other parts of my life. I doubt this experience is unique.
I would also note that certain states are genuinely restricting free expression in very concerning ways that seem to have the potential to spread nationwide, in a way that I am quite worried about in the long term as someone highly concerned with said freedom.
This is a fair point, and it's why I mentioned that trans people can experience violence. But while it somewhat undermines Maslow's hierarchy of needs (there can be a patchwork), it does not undermine the claim that trans people aren't oppressed, as "oppression" (versus having general bad experiences) is an idea that's based on class membership.
If you leave the house female or Black, someone might treat you poorly based on their perceptions of those groups. But this is not the case with trans. No one knows you're trans unless you tell them, verbally or by means of your clothing/body modifications. If you've told them, you've spent some time at the top tier--AND deemed the risk of self-expression worthwhile. If what you're doing is optional, then you can opt in or out of your "class" at will, which challenges the notion that it's a class at all.
Maslow's hierarchy is still useful, if imperfect. If you're wandering the wilderness with a homemade bow and arrow trying to shoot a wild boar because you haven't eaten in a week, you're just not going to stop and smear cherries on your cheeks so you can look more feminine.
I think that focusing on being oppressed is generally counterproductive when not absolutely necessary. I am trans, and it is absolutely the case that because I come from a well-off family who I am on okay terms with and live in a developed and free country, I am not oppressed on a day to day basis. However, I was a highly dysfunctional person prior to starting hormone treatment, and afterwards, dramatically *improving* my relationship with my family, my career trajectory, my interactions with others, and my general state of mental stability, all of which were in a frankly terrible place prior. My experiences actually seem to be a partial reversal of the stories commonly told by people like yourself (I loved your book, by the way, read the whole thing in a day) in which trans identity and medical transition sabotage a person's previously good life in observable ways- partial because while transition itself has benefited me greatly, the identity aspect and online culture is absolutely psychologically harmful to me and the more I minimize those in my life, the more I benefit.
However, because hormone treatment has been so beneficial to me as a direct result of its effects on my mental stability, I worry a lot when I hear about bans on it- I had previously been a high school dropout on the verge of getting kicked out because of my terrible relationship with my parents, now I'm a college sophomore with a 3.97 and call them a few times a week. It seems likely, based on the speed at which I tend to become less stable if I forget to take a shot, that losing access to it would endanger my ability to maintain normal academic/career progress and positive relationships with others. That is, I believe, a short-term risk to tier 3, and a long-term risk to tier 2 (were I to be unable to hold down a job)- so, while self-actualization is *involved*, my fears come from lower levels than that. Sure, I feel bad about my appearance, and that's tier 5 with implications on career + 3 and 4, but in my experience being unstable mentally is a hell of a lot worse than being ugly.
Additionally, there are certain laws that create a serious challenge for those who are physically modified- which is visible and often irreversible, such that many people cannot choose not to tell others on a day to day basis, and if they are in my position (that is, if cross-sex hormone treatment is beneficial to them, and taking it has positive implications for the pyramid's lower levels), such laws are very concerning. I am lucky to be in the position of generally being able to choose whether to tell people, because I resemble a biological male closely enough when fully clothed, but in certain situations, particularly if I were to be arrested, I would not have this choice and would potentially be abused because of it. The most concerning law of this type, which I am thinking of, is the one in Florida which suggests prison terms of up to a year for using, if I understand the text correctly, any public bathroom and not leaving when asked, and the increasing number of laws against legal changes to sex designation, which creates many more situations where others are given a reason to be unkind. One can, of course, leave the bathroom, but the speed at which such laws are escalating, as well as 'drag bans' (though these are generally struck down as an infringement on free speech) and the shift of public sentiment, make me quite worried about what the situation will be in a few years from now (when those in blue states or the opportunity to move to one will presumably still be fine), let alone a few decades (when I worry federal law may have changed significantly).
All of this to say, I understand your point, and think that it has significant relevance, particularly to financially secure people in liberal areas, but I think the situation is somewhat more complicated than you are making it out to be, particularly because in my experience, cross-sex hormones are sufficiently beneficial to some individuals as to be relevant to lower levels of the pyramid, and people who have in the past made physical modifications to themselves are liable to be treated badly even if they no longer subscribe to the same ideology (for example, I suspect detrans women, who often have male-typical voices, are liable to experience uncomfortable situations which they cannot at that moment opt out of).
I really agree with this because I can relate to the nuance in terms of finances/unstable living situation/relationships and missing needs on the higher scale of the pyramid...but also having some needs met, even if it's in a less than ideal way. I can empathize with that and I also think it's important to see the source of this behavior instead of merely judging it. I don't think that gender dysphoria is inborn, but I do think discomforts with the body, trauma, or feeling outcasted for being naturally "different", esp. more masculine or feminine than other children around you, can lead to mental health issues if it's not properly addressed.
IF there is a God, He is either a physical male with a very large penis, or they are a sexless spirit with NO body. Gender, like race, is not real. Maslow leaves out the very top layer; the need for the priviliged entitled to be lamped in the face first thing every morning as a reminder the world doesn't owe them a living.
Nope, God in the Judeao-Xtian tradition is definitely male. See Stavrakoupolou; "God's Anatomy". The Bible is a Hellenistic book reimagining Bronze Age mythology to edit female deity out. You can't rewrite Churchill to have Hitler the winner.
Nah, I'm talking about the Ground of Being, the Creator of All Things, that doesn't necessarily have to be the Abrahamic Penis-Possessing God or a Disembodied Spirit Outside of This Physical Universe. Think of it like the Tao - if you can describe it (or gender it), it's not the true Tao. It's beyond human comprehension.
Amen! 🙌🏼
Excellent stroll through Maslow's hierarchy of needs -- brilliant li'l piece of writing! I'd said something along these lines with regard to feminism for years -- "Can't we take the win?" We ladies here in the first world already HAD power and privelege. (I graduated in Chemical Engineering in 1994, in a class that was already 60% women -- and the chicks got all the good jobs!) Now, however, the power dynamic has shifted, and womens' rights (and women's sports, and gay rights, and same-sex spaces, etc.) are being undermined by so-called "trans-rights." So good, pointing out the leather jackets, tattoo sleeves, and nose rings... LOL, well done!
The crisis of meaning in the modern world
YES!! Thank you for breaking this down. I've been writing about how privilege is necessary to truly adopt the narrative that sex is fluid, since women and LGB people who live in far more violently homophobic and sexist countries cannot afford to play with this ideology, much less actually put it into practice.
The trans movement was spurred by white, middle to upper class academics, mostly men. And, the young folks who champion transgenderism are usually those who fetishize oppression, because being oppressed makes you cool, interesting, raw and tough...not to mention morally superior.
When someone is lacking the sense of purpose and identity that is born through healing and synthesizing challenges/lived experience, it makes them vulnerable to gender ideology and the package deal that is sold to them through it.
Me, me, me, and who cares about the suffering of others? Palestinians? Who are they? Are they trans? Homeless people are freezing in this old? But are they trans? Animals are abused every day…are they trans?
Terrific essay! It makes me think of Roísín Michaux’s excellent piece “You Meet More Perverts When You’re Poor.” Imagining that single-sex spaces and other protections for women and girls serve no useful purpose is a luxury belief held only by the very privileged.
https://4w.pub/you-meet-more-perverts-when-poor/
Great article. Thanks for sharing it.
Spot on the money. In our new normal post-reality world - "words" are rebranded as "violence" if someone simply prefers not to hear them. Expressing that one feels "unsafe" because one has "heard" such "words," or asserting that one has experienced a "micro-aggression" because one has "heard" such words - are the mark of a level of privilege few in human history can ever have laid claim to. We live in a world filled with real "violence" including mass murder - in which real "aggression" leaves many people actually "unsafe." I must admit that I find myself struggling to muster much empathy for those whose narcissistic self-absorption conveniently blots out or marginalizes these painful "realities" faced by literally billions of their fellow humans - in order to maintain a studious preoccupation with their own navels - and with their ever changing designer micro-identities tethered by their oh so important - "feelings" - to that navel.
Don't forget how a painting of George Washington displayed in a public space, or a hotel named after Sir Francis Drake, or a high school named after Abraham Lincoln, does real harm.
Absolutely bang on. This has been on my thoughts for a long time.
Great piece!
Excellent point! Let's do it!
Fantastic piece - so very well written and spot on, thanks Shannon!
Wow. A dose of reality, and highly potent. I wish I could have shown this to the non-binary trans activist I dated for a few months, before she decided I was too normal for her tastes and dumped me.
Non-binary is such utter nonsense as to be hilarious! There are non-binary living organisms : bacteria are an example…slime molds also can be in that category. And God? Sure… if you consider trans to be sacred! It’s amazing the amount of dementia now obvious in some young people! Also the pure selfishness !
excellent piece of writing and bang on the money. bravo
Noticing that we live the safest, richest lives in human history is currently equated with oppressor guilt, something to be avoided at all cost. Although he was speaking mostly about race, I consider this insight extremely valuable to the trans issue too: "Innocence is power. In a society like America, with our history, we have this combination of unparalleled greatness and almost unbelievable evil. The pressures of being an American involve grappling with innocence. We have wealth; now we want innocence—that’s where power lies at the moment. So much of our politics and culture really come out of this struggle with innocence. Wokeness is nothing more or less than this struggle for innocence—a way to be innocent, and therefore to have power. This leads to dark things. We have wealth, but we don’t have the legitimacy innocence gives us." https://www.city-journal.org/article/a-conversation-with-shelby-and-eli-steele
So well said!
I'm assuming you're familiar with Joshua Slocum of Disaffected? He'd love this piece, I think.
Maybe he would, if he didn't know it was mine. He once went on a completely unexpected tirade against me for reasons that remain unclear. It was part of the inspiration for this: https://shannonthrace.substack.com/p/im-not-your-victim
That's a shame. He can be hot-headed for sure... maybe he'd rise to an opportunity to calmly re-visit the misunderstanding; one would hope, in any case. I've seen him beg his own imperfections and I think he's trying to improve on his impulsivity.
I agree, by and large, with the position that those of us living in the developed world who are not in extreme poverty are extremely lucky in many ways, especially the legal freedoms we enjoy and the bottom tier of the hierarchy generally being met to the point where short-term worries about it are few to none (as opposed to, say, worrying that one will later become homeless). This goes much further for those of us who are financially secure and in stable living situations. I am in this group, and like most other people in it, it is true that I am often too preoccupied with my own problems to remember my incredible privilege and luck compared to the vast majority of the people in the world. However, I disagree that someone who is out protesting like that has necessarily even hit level 2 (although they probably have). Because products like hair dye and complicated clothing are so much cheaper in developed countries than necessities, and because having a small amount of disposable income does not automatically imply a stable living situation, for any given person in this group it is unlikely but possible that they are, say, in an abusive relationship, have a family who are genuinely cruel to them, are getting their accoutrements from friends or thrift stores but are themselves in dire financial straits (much less likely unless they are sabotaging themselves, given they're at a protest), etc.
Missing security needs in an immediate way is not that likely for someone in this crowd. The real point I would make is about tier 3- people who do this are not, necessarily, loved and treated well, even before adopting any identity. I know your husband was in a very stable and economically privileged situation, was well loved, etc., but young people who get into this culture are less likely to do it because of autogynephilia, as compared to, say, friendlessness, genuinely awful family relationships, abuse, homosexuality, and, I would argue, sometimes (though I doubt it in the case of the woman in this picture), a condition which gives them a sense of distress with their birth sex, which can be inborn. But ignoring the last point, given a lot of people do not believe this exists, these people are still, broadly speaking, unhappy and in bad situations that, while often exacerbated by their beliefs, often do not stem from them. The time when I was involved in such 'activism' was, in fact, one of the least stable times in my life, and would have been even without my ideology, although the ideology made things much worse. Even now, the things that remind me of these toxic ideas are fear, pain, and anger, often but not always coming from other parts of my life. I doubt this experience is unique.
I would also note that certain states are genuinely restricting free expression in very concerning ways that seem to have the potential to spread nationwide, in a way that I am quite worried about in the long term as someone highly concerned with said freedom.
This is a fair point, and it's why I mentioned that trans people can experience violence. But while it somewhat undermines Maslow's hierarchy of needs (there can be a patchwork), it does not undermine the claim that trans people aren't oppressed, as "oppression" (versus having general bad experiences) is an idea that's based on class membership.
If you leave the house female or Black, someone might treat you poorly based on their perceptions of those groups. But this is not the case with trans. No one knows you're trans unless you tell them, verbally or by means of your clothing/body modifications. If you've told them, you've spent some time at the top tier--AND deemed the risk of self-expression worthwhile. If what you're doing is optional, then you can opt in or out of your "class" at will, which challenges the notion that it's a class at all.
Maslow's hierarchy is still useful, if imperfect. If you're wandering the wilderness with a homemade bow and arrow trying to shoot a wild boar because you haven't eaten in a week, you're just not going to stop and smear cherries on your cheeks so you can look more feminine.
I think that focusing on being oppressed is generally counterproductive when not absolutely necessary. I am trans, and it is absolutely the case that because I come from a well-off family who I am on okay terms with and live in a developed and free country, I am not oppressed on a day to day basis. However, I was a highly dysfunctional person prior to starting hormone treatment, and afterwards, dramatically *improving* my relationship with my family, my career trajectory, my interactions with others, and my general state of mental stability, all of which were in a frankly terrible place prior. My experiences actually seem to be a partial reversal of the stories commonly told by people like yourself (I loved your book, by the way, read the whole thing in a day) in which trans identity and medical transition sabotage a person's previously good life in observable ways- partial because while transition itself has benefited me greatly, the identity aspect and online culture is absolutely psychologically harmful to me and the more I minimize those in my life, the more I benefit.
However, because hormone treatment has been so beneficial to me as a direct result of its effects on my mental stability, I worry a lot when I hear about bans on it- I had previously been a high school dropout on the verge of getting kicked out because of my terrible relationship with my parents, now I'm a college sophomore with a 3.97 and call them a few times a week. It seems likely, based on the speed at which I tend to become less stable if I forget to take a shot, that losing access to it would endanger my ability to maintain normal academic/career progress and positive relationships with others. That is, I believe, a short-term risk to tier 3, and a long-term risk to tier 2 (were I to be unable to hold down a job)- so, while self-actualization is *involved*, my fears come from lower levels than that. Sure, I feel bad about my appearance, and that's tier 5 with implications on career + 3 and 4, but in my experience being unstable mentally is a hell of a lot worse than being ugly.
Additionally, there are certain laws that create a serious challenge for those who are physically modified- which is visible and often irreversible, such that many people cannot choose not to tell others on a day to day basis, and if they are in my position (that is, if cross-sex hormone treatment is beneficial to them, and taking it has positive implications for the pyramid's lower levels), such laws are very concerning. I am lucky to be in the position of generally being able to choose whether to tell people, because I resemble a biological male closely enough when fully clothed, but in certain situations, particularly if I were to be arrested, I would not have this choice and would potentially be abused because of it. The most concerning law of this type, which I am thinking of, is the one in Florida which suggests prison terms of up to a year for using, if I understand the text correctly, any public bathroom and not leaving when asked, and the increasing number of laws against legal changes to sex designation, which creates many more situations where others are given a reason to be unkind. One can, of course, leave the bathroom, but the speed at which such laws are escalating, as well as 'drag bans' (though these are generally struck down as an infringement on free speech) and the shift of public sentiment, make me quite worried about what the situation will be in a few years from now (when those in blue states or the opportunity to move to one will presumably still be fine), let alone a few decades (when I worry federal law may have changed significantly).
All of this to say, I understand your point, and think that it has significant relevance, particularly to financially secure people in liberal areas, but I think the situation is somewhat more complicated than you are making it out to be, particularly because in my experience, cross-sex hormones are sufficiently beneficial to some individuals as to be relevant to lower levels of the pyramid, and people who have in the past made physical modifications to themselves are liable to be treated badly even if they no longer subscribe to the same ideology (for example, I suspect detrans women, who often have male-typical voices, are liable to experience uncomfortable situations which they cannot at that moment opt out of).
I really agree with this because I can relate to the nuance in terms of finances/unstable living situation/relationships and missing needs on the higher scale of the pyramid...but also having some needs met, even if it's in a less than ideal way. I can empathize with that and I also think it's important to see the source of this behavior instead of merely judging it. I don't think that gender dysphoria is inborn, but I do think discomforts with the body, trauma, or feeling outcasted for being naturally "different", esp. more masculine or feminine than other children around you, can lead to mental health issues if it's not properly addressed.
IF there is a God, He is either a physical male with a very large penis, or they are a sexless spirit with NO body. Gender, like race, is not real. Maslow leaves out the very top layer; the need for the priviliged entitled to be lamped in the face first thing every morning as a reminder the world doesn't owe them a living.
Or a physical woman with a womb.
Nope, God in the Judeao-Xtian tradition is definitely male. See Stavrakoupolou; "God's Anatomy". The Bible is a Hellenistic book reimagining Bronze Age mythology to edit female deity out. You can't rewrite Churchill to have Hitler the winner.
I'm not talking about the Abrahamic concept of God (which is definitely male), I'm talking about God.
No, you are talking about your own personal "jesus". I'm talking about the God as thought of by the 330+ million Americans that aren't you.
Nah, I'm talking about the Ground of Being, the Creator of All Things, that doesn't necessarily have to be the Abrahamic Penis-Possessing God or a Disembodied Spirit Outside of This Physical Universe. Think of it like the Tao - if you can describe it (or gender it), it's not the true Tao. It's beyond human comprehension.
Amen