Date Posted: May 12th, 2017
Video:
Copied and Pasted Transcript:
A key problem with this bill is that it proposes to amend something as important as the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code, in order to include something that isn't even definable.
0:11 According to Justice Canada, gender identity is defined as "a person's internal or individual experience of their gender."
0:19 But this definition misunderstands what gender is.
0:23 Gender is not about internal or individual experiences.
0:27 It's a social construction.
0:29 It exists as a means to reinforce stereotypes and oppressive ideas about men and women.
0:36 Gender does not mean male or female, it means masculine or feminine.
0:42 A century ago, "gender" determined that women should not be allowed to vote, or be counted as persons under the law in Canada.
0:49 "Gender" says that men are inherently violent, aggressive, independent, assertive, and rational.
0:56 Whereas women are inherently passive, delicate, nurturing, irrational, and emotional.
1:03 These things have been disproved, thanks in large part to the feminist movement,
1:07 yet today, in creating and supporting the idea that one can have an internal gender identity, we are regressing.
1:15 No one is born with a gender.
1:17 We are born male or female, and gender is then imposed on us through socialisation.
1:23 Women do not know that they are women because they are born interested in high-heels or the color pink.
1:28 They know they are women because they are female.
1:32 Treating gender as though it is either internal or a personal choice is dangerous, and completely misunderstands how and why women are oppressed under patriarchy as a class of people.
1:43 Patriarchy was invented in order to control women's reproductive capacity, and gender was created in order to naturalise and enforce that hierarchical system.
1:53 Women and girls around the world are killed, prostituted, raped, and abused every single day, not because they wear dresses,
2:00 have long hair, or behave passively, but because they are female.
2:05 And under patriarchy, females are said to be less than.
2:09 Things that exist for male use, to be owned, bought, sold, and looked at.
2:14 Women's rights exist on this basis.
2:17 Because we as a society understand that women are discriminated against and subjected to male violence regardless of their clothing,
2:25 body language, or behavior.
2:27 Which is now apparently being defined as "gender expression".
2:32 The idea that women could simply express themselves or identify differently in order to escape oppression under patriarchy is insulting.
2:39 And provabley untrue.
2:41 Yet this is what ideas like gender identity and gender expression communicate.
2:46 If we say that a man is a woman because of something as vague as a feeling,
2:50 or because he chooses to take on stereotypically feminine traits,
2:54 what impact does that have on women's rights and protections?
2:58 Should he be allowed to apply for positions and grants specifically reserved for women?
3:03 Based on the knowledge that women are underrepresented or marginalized in male dominated fields?
3:08 And based on the fact that women are paid less than men.
3:11 And often will be fired or not hired in the first place because they get pregnant or because it is assumed that they may become pregnant one day.
3:21 The way that men feel on the inside does not change the fact that they hold power and privilege in this society, and the way women feel on the inside
3:29 doesn't change their experience of sexism.
3:31 I don't "feel" as though I should be called misogynist names, objectified, abused, or sexually harassed.
3:38 But these things have happened to me anyway.
3:41 I did not choose to be treated like a woman under patriarchy, and I have never felt comfortable with femininity.
3:47 Does this make me a man?
3:50 Dissolving the categories of man and woman to allow for "fluidity" may sound progressive,
3:55 but is no more progressive under the current circumstances, than saying that race doesn't exist.
4:01 And that white people don't hold privilege in this world if they don't "feel white".
4:05 Or if they take on racist stereotypes attached to people of color.
4:10 If a white person did this, we would rightly call this cooptation and denounce the behavior.
4:15 Why do we accept that if a man takes on sexist stereotypes traditionally associated with women, he can magically change sex and shed his status as male in this world?
4:26 The rights of women and girls are being pushed aside to acomodate a trend.
4:31 Bill C-16 may sound persuasive in its efforts to be openminded and inclusive, but it rests on very shaky ground.
4:38 I implore you to further consider the consecuences and implications of these ideas,
4:43 this language, and this legislation before jumping on this band wagon.
4:47 Speaker: Thank you.
Comments