Good morning ,
It's very easy to make the assumption that whatever we are familiar with
is what ought continue to be. Take, for example, ANZAC day and its religious overtones. Setting aside for a moment the, frankly appalling, idea that religious functionaries should bless men and machines that go off to foreign climes and kill other people, Australia is now a country with many different religions and a fast-increasing proportion of the population for whom religion is just not part of their lives. So why do we - why should we - continue to tolerate the most sacred day of our
year being dominated by one and only one religion?
On the other hand, I must admit I have to reflect on whether I am failing to update my assumptions when I push back against the idea that men can become women. Am I part of the conservative backlash? That feels a very
uncomfortable place for me, as a lifelong progressive. And yet, and yet ... I do think it's different. As a feminist who fought to remove discrimination against women (finally codified in CEDAW (the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), I find the scrubbing out of the commonsense notion of "woman" as an adult human female to be deeply, deeply disturbing. To me, it's a feminist issue, not a conservative one.
For a lucid account of the current federal court case, memorably called "Tickle v Giggle", read Julie Szego's account of
what's at stake.
