Inspecting genitals is still being touted as the only way to tell females and males apart.

The battle between commonsense and nonsense continues; and, in news not entirely unrelated to genitals, NZ's Ministry of Health remains lame on puberty blockers.

What a week! Both here in New Zealand, and in America.

Many will have seen videos of the haka performed in New Zealand’s Parliament around the middle of this month, and the subsequent hikoi which culminated in front of it a few days later. Both made international news, with mixed reports and opinions about them - but that wasn’t all that went on this week. After months of delay, our Ministry of Heath finally released their evidence brief and position statement on puberty blockers, albeit with a lot less fanfare.

Basically, a lot of words said that little would change with how they’re handled here. However, a consultation process has been opened up to determine if more regulation is needed, and some of the narrative in that seems clearer about the controversy surrounding puberty blockers. The Ministry of Health does request, though, that “In particular, the Ministry seeks input from organisations that represent people who may be affected by safety measures or that may be involved in how safety measures are used in practice.” So, it’s expected this will inspire transactivists and TQ+ lobby groups to swamp the consultation process with dire warnings about the terrible things that will happen to kids who can’t be freely prescribed puberty blockers.

Writer and journo, Yvonne van Dongen, whose articles I’ve shared here before, is putting together a more in-depth piece about the Ministry of Health’s news around puberty blockers, and I’ll share that here shortly. It will give a better analysis and understanding of the matter. In the meantime, Genspect NZ has written this.

Now to America, and if anyone hasn’t been following US Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s full-on attacks on social media against allowing men who say they’re women to use female bathrooms, go to her X account @RepNancyMace, and check her out. I’m seriously fangirling her at the moment.

Nancy introduced a resolution to ban male lawmakers and staff who say they’re women from using women's bathrooms at the Capitol and House office buildings. And she won. In NZ, to borrow Māori language, we’d call her a wahine toa (strong/brave/warrior woman). I daresay, transactivists will have an apoplexy at that honour being bestowed upon her, which is how I know it’s perfect.

As an ex-soldier, Nancy knows how to come out with guns blazing¹, and over this issue she takes no prisoners - metaphorically-speaking, of course. Those who tell her off for it get shot down - metaphorically-speaking again, because there are always twats who will (pretend to?) take it literally. Seeing as there appears to be a sh*tload of people who have lost the ability to think contextually or allegorically, one has to be careful.

Added to the rat-a-tat-tat of Nancy’s shooting down of gender ideology around bathrooms in the US, in South America the vice-president of Argentina, Vicky Villarruel, spared no feelings towards those invested in gender ideology, either. In a tweet on X, she said: “This is clear and simple, anyone who is in favor of gender ideology is a degenerate, and anyone in favor of sexualizing children is a potential pedophile. Our government will fight them until we have no blood left in our bodies”.

Like all politicians, we might not like everything these women and their parties stand for, but THIS MODERN-DAY FORCED SUBMISSION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS TO SOME MEN’S DESIRES TO USE FEMALE FACILITIES IS AN ABOMINATION, AND NO WOMAN OR GIRL FROM ANY WALK OF LIFE SHOULD BE FORCED TO SUBMIT TO THAT. If right-wing women are standing up for women and girls on this, then I’m standing with them.

And I offer no apology for the lack of a trigger-warning about the onslaught of caps above, because no one reading this will be amongst those who feel ‘harmed’ by shouty caps.

What we’re really harmed by is traitorous women who think that women should be forced into this submission. They feel sorry for the men who say they’re women, and bad-mouth the women who don’t. But, there are men who also tell women how bad we are for not submitting to gender ideology, too. Neither seem to have got it yet that we have zero fecks left to give about what we’re called. We totally own being ‘bad’ about this, although I admit it’s particularly egregious for women to throw other women under the bus. In the end, whoever’s doing it, prioritising these men over women is beyond contemptible, and it will be remembered.

Just a quick final note about another US Congresswoman by the name of Alexendria Ocasio-Cortez, commonly referred to as AOC, and who is a member of the Democratic Party. Admittedly, I don’t know much about her, but she seems to be well-known, nevertheless. AOC might be a good representative on some issues, but she’s also one of those women who thinks that men who say they’re women should be allowed to use female facilities. She waded in on Nancy Mace’s bill, and publicly suggested that the only way single-sex bathrooms could be managed was by inspecting genitals. Yep, seemingly intelligent people are still trotting that one out. How on earth did we once use to manage single-sex facilities without inspecting genitals? I’d also be curious about how many people’s genitals AOC has had to check recently before she knew whether they were female or male.

She, and all who use it, really should stop making themselves look stupid by quoting from the ‘trans’ playbook, and throw it away.

¹Moment reporter receives brutal truth about Nancy Mace's opposition to trans using female restrooms in Congress | Daily Mail Online

• Header pic by Artem Podrez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/persons-hand-with-silver-ring-5716037/