Phoenix and Sasha teach Gender appreciation at a Nudist Camp
Lake-sun Nudist resort if you know Nudist resorts is like a dozen just like it. It lies on the edge of an isolated lake in the sun, a small sandy beach, a dozen or more majestic pines on a slope that comes up from the little lake. A hundred yards out in the lake is a large floating raft for sunbathing and swimming in the chilly waters.
The lake is about a mile long and the camp is overseen by Hans and his wife Marie. There is no doubt about who runs the camp and one of the aspects of his nudist resort was the intellectual stimulation of his guests and to that end he would on any given Tuesday in July host a sort of Salon around the firepit where he would invite thought provoking speakers to discuss issues of concern.
Today the guests were Phoenix and Sasha and they were visiting to talk about Gender identity at the Lake sun Nudist Camp. As usual on Tuesday at 1:00 in the afternoon under the shade of the “big tent” Hans rang the bell and a rag tag band of Nudist ambled over to hear the talk. Some had beer in hand, some brought thier kids, some pulled up a chair and fell asleep.
Phoenix a stout balding self proclaimed 35 year old transsexual with more hair on his chest than his head started to give his presentation. First by stating that he identified as a women. He Stated “People are the gender they prefer.” Now to the group of gathered nudists, this sounded far fetched, the women obviously had a penis. Not a large penis but a penis none the less and it would take some faith to believe, perhaps even a miracle to believe Phoenix believed he, or she, or sheit was a women.
But he went on to clarify “Trans gender is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression, or behaviour does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.”
Now Nudists are an open minded lot, and one of the free thinkers in the group named Bill asked a question. He said “Phoenix, I notice your gender expression as what the Doctor noticed at your birth. You have a penis.”
To which Phoenix promptly responded ” My sex is not defined by my penis, nor my gender which was assigned at birth, you can not see my gender identity and the gender identity is the real basis of a person’s sex.
Not much gets past Bill, and he was a little confused and he countered with “It was assigned because your penis was noticed. Here at lakesun its as plain as the nose on your face.” Many snickered. He went on “So your “gender identity” is the true medical determinant of sex, its your inner sense of belonging to a particular gender that matters not what is right there literally in front of you”.
Sasha who had been quite up to this point said “exactly Bill, you got it!” Everyone nodded in agreement or looked at each other in confusion it was sort of split 50/50. To drive home his point Sasha went on and added ” Gender identity is expansive — man, woman, both, neither — and to be clear gender identity is innate and thereafter immutable.”
To which Bill said “Kind of like the pope”
To which his wfe said “No bill thats infallible”
People snickered at Bill and his wifes squabbling but Tom was a bit agitated.
Tom was the next to speak. Tom described himself as a movie buff in the buff, he said, I remember this movie “Duck soup”, it was the Marx Brothers the dialogue went like this
Teasdale: Your Excellency, I thought you left.
The following exchange occurred between the actress Margaret Dumont playing Mrs. Gloria Teasdale and Chico Marx of the The Marx Brothers in the 1933 movie “Duck Soup”
Chicolini: Oh no. I no leave.
Teasdale: But I saw you with my own eyes.
Chicolini: Well, who ya gonna believe me or your own eyes?
After his animated recital and a polite round of applause, he got serious and he was again, a bit agitated. “I think this whole gender confusion discussion is a little like duck soup, its so silly as to be absurd. Its a distraction, personally I have more important things to deal with and considering the state of the planet I think we all do. This is all narcisstic nonsense.” To which he left the group and went swimming.
Susan was an engineer and she said to Sasha “Clearly your a women, you have a vagina and 2 functional breasts and a very feminine figure” To which Sasha immediately retorted “And yet I identify as a male and female, outside female, inside I am a male. Your seeing me though the lens of a societal construct. Susan looked quisical and said “If gender is a social construct, how can gender identity not be a social construct? I can see your a women, its your biology, how is that a social construct?”
Sasha glared and said “Gender is immutable your sex is a social construct and Susan you are obviously a Trans phobic who had a bit of work to do.” Susan decided to go for a swim.
Jeremy was a young man of about 20 and he was studying history at Carleton university, he spoke next. He said “Sasha thank you for coming here today, your obviously quite courageous. My question is How can one’s identity be unchangeable with respect to an ever-changing social construct? And if gender identity is innate, how can it be “fluid”?
Phoenix said “I got this Sasha; gender Jeremy is on a spectrum you see, where people can identify as, and be, both, or neither, or somewhere in between?
Jeremy responded, “I have been a nudist since I was 17 and have never really seen any in betweens, I mean some men have bigger penises and some women have bigger breasts but I think everyone knows whats what, so how would you know a persons internal sense of gender? Anyway what the hell is this internal sense of gender, if you can’t test for it, see it, its just in your head” He went on “Can you explain why a person’s “real” sex is determined by an inner “gender identity,” but age and height and race and species are not determined by an inner sense of identity.
Sasha smiled and said “Your very clever Jeremy, and you dont know that all those things are not from an inner sense of identity, what you cannot accept is that as an individual I am free to define my truth. You cannot impose your white privilege on me and your refusal to accept my dual spirit is just another example of your neocolonialism.”
Jeremy asked “Sasha are you not white as well?” To which Sasha just glared.
Phoenix jumped in “Lets just relax a bit, for some of us this is an emotional issue, many of us in the trans community feel distress over our bodily sex and we know we aren’t really the sex we were assigned…
David and Mary had been discussing things in a corner and at that point broke in and said “Dave and I have been talking and maybe the issue is you just need help in coming to identify with and accept your body as it is, its easy to do in a nudist camp, we all accept who we are, cloths create such a barrier that you can fool yourself into feelings of gender confusion that are sort of clouding the reality of who you obviously are.” She went on ” Dave, my husband either is or is not a man, regardless of what anyone including Dave happens to believe. I do not see how you Phoenix as a trans gender activists can present an argument for why trans gender beliefs determine reality. Dave nodded to his wifes summary.
Joseph spoke up next, but everyone just called him reverend because he was a retired Unitarian minister, The Reverend explained “It appears to me that on one hand, Phoenix you claim that the real self is something other than the physical body, in a new form of Gnostic dualism, yet at the same time you embrace a materialist philosophy in which only the material world exists. By saying that gender is purely a social construct you assert that a person can be “trapped” in the wrong gender.”
Sasha firmly repeated “Of course, an “identity” is, by definition, just an inner sense of self. But gender identity is more than how one feels. It is who you are, a person’s self-professed “gender identity” is that person’s “sex.”….”
Bill concluded:” That is confusing, if Gender identity is your sex and your genitalia is not your sex, than the reality of your physical body has no bearing at all on the meaning of “sex” or anything else.
Phoenix added “There are no meaningful differences between man and woman, ( a chuckle rose from the small group that was left )
Bill became terse and interrupted “Oh please “gender identity” is real, while the human body is not. Truth is not whatever a person says it is, yes there is a real person to be discovered inside a person but its not your identity its your character, are you honest, trustworthy, do you see the world as it really is or your making stuff up. I am sad your confused but your belief as to whats in your head contradicts what’s between your legs.
Phoenix went on “apart from having a male body, I do not feel like a male, you can ask what does it “feel like” to be a man with a women’s soul to be two spirited, If it was your truth you would know, how can I explain water to a fish or my gender truth to a cis gendered person.
To which Bill smiled and went swimming joining Barb and the others on the raft.
Next Alex put up her hand, “yes” replied Phoenix. She asked “Apart from having a male body, what do you think it “feels like” to be a woman? What is it that you experience? I am really curious because I do not really understand the feeling and I am a women. To which Phoenix said “Its a challenge for a trans gender person to explain to a cis gendered person the feelings that you have being in the wrong body. You might ask how someone could know if he or she “feels like” the opposite sex, or neither, or both. I struggle with that question all the time.” Alex smiled, thinking to herself what her mother used to say when an argument was in play…..
“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
Mark Twain as recounted by Alex, this was a favourite quote of her mothers
So she smiled without saying anything, thanked Phoenix for the answer and went swimming out to the raft to join Barb and Bill and the others who at this point were all laughing and having a good time on the raft.
Sasha summarized by saying “My feelings are my reality. How can my feeling not have real meaning in regards to determining my reality.”
To which Mary responded ” Our feelings don’t determine reality; a claim to identify as a war veteran is called unearned valour. You can not just claim to be what you clearly are not.” She went on “If those who identify as trans gender are the sex with which they identify, why doesn’t that apply to other attributes or categories of being? What about people who identify as animals, or able-bodied people who identify as disabled? Do all of these self-professed identities determine reality? If not, why not?
The reverend spoke up and said “Everyone deserves compassion and understanding, and everyone deserves respect, when a person is delusional however they need treatment” He went on “Gender identity sounds a lot like religious identity, which is determined by beliefs. And maybe that is where we should leave this so long as those beliefs don’t determine reality. Someone who identifies as a Christian believes that Jesus is the Christ. Someone who identifies as a Muslim believes that Muhammad is the final prophet. But Jesus either is or is not the Christ, and Muhammad either is or is not the final prophet, regardless of what anyone happens to believe.
He concluded “I wish you two the best, I think I will go for a swim”.
With that Sasha concluded “My reality supports my claims, science reveals gender identity to be innate and unchanging. Our gender identity immutable, its not self-created and changeable. Thank you for your time. With that the crowd applauded politely and everyone went for a swim.
The reverend thought to himself, correct, but not the way you think, he smiled and went about his day.
Bill and Mary decided to get out the guitars and later that night around the camp-fire sang a few songs that they identified to the group as being songs they wrote, Yesterday, Early Morning Rain and Bird on a wire. No one knew Bill was such a great song writer and no one wanted to shatter his music identity even though everyone knew Bill and Mary were pulling thier legs.
The reverend of course felt obliged to pontificate and explained that “At the core of Bills music ideology is the radical claim that feelings determine reality. From this idea come extreme demands for everyone to play along with subjective reality claims. Bill’s music ideology ignores contrary evidence and competing interests, and he disparages The Beatles, Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen.
Bill muffles sceptical voices and shut down any disagreement with loud farts and belches. He claims to identify the disturbing eruptions as trumpets and trombones. Its quite a scene.
~END~
Credit: All of the dialogue format was written by Weird Sly Kip, the actual dialogue content and thought provoking ideas came from a mashup of the following articles;
The Philosophical Contradictions of the Transgender Worldview
Transgender Ideology Is Riddled With Contradictions. Here Are the Big Ones.
A Guide To Gender Identity Terms
Final Word to Weird Sly Kip
For 79,999 / 80,000 people they are born either female or male. 1/80,000 are intersex. For the 79,999 you are either a he/she, boy/girl, man/women. Somewhere along the line due to upbringing, conditioning, trauma, fear, curiosity, or just being a rebellious shit disturber because your trapped in a behavioural sink a number of boys and girls never grow into women and men. For the most part this learned behaviour makes up gender identity and determines gender roles. In other words you can if your a boy teach yourself to be a girl, or play the piano, but you dont become a girl or the piano. Play along if you want, it makes no differnce other than being a distraction to the important issues of overpopulation and tax law. Hmm maybe that is why the corporate media creates this tempest in a teapot. Makes a strong business case.
One summer afternoon in mid may 2023 watching for an approaching thunderstorm from my office window.
Updated Late Sept 2024, Duck Soup and Mark Twain Quote added. A few spelling mistakes fixed. Everything goes better with Groucho, Harpo and Twain.