The Scouring of the Shire

Cui Bono?

For those not familiar with Latin it doesn’t mean “who has a boner?” - a curiously relevant question we might all want to be considering in these gender-fluid filled times.

It means : to whom is it a benefit?

It’s a question I’ve been trying to figure out with regards to the promotion of gender reformation of mankind (POGROM).

On the face of it the POGROM agenda seems positive - be yourself, you can be liberated from the chains of rigid societal norms holding you back, express your individuality, and live your best life.

If Uncle Peter wants to parade around wearing a bra and a flouncy dress with his meat and two veg stuffed into a lacy thong, why would anyone be against that, sweetie?

I agree - I’m not against it at all. You do you, Uncle Pete, and, as my Dad used to say, “if it suits the wearer, then bugger the starer”.

In days gone by if you saw a guy wearing tights you might need to do a double-take. When I was cast as Cocky Locky for my primary school play I was most definitely not happy about having to wear tights - bright yellow, presumably to look like chicken legs. But times change and perhaps we do need to loosen up a little in some things.

The burning question of our age, though, is “is it a man or a woman?”

Alas this is not a picture of me, but it is a good example of why some choices of costume for theme park workers might not be the best idea in a family-friendly setting. At least that’s what we used to think. These days, who knows? But is this a picture of a man or a woman, according to the POGROM peeps? Or, something weirdly ‘in-between’? Or is it something so gloriously unique, so special, that it cannot even be described within our current framework of infinite ‘genders’?

Kids, these days, seem to be exposed to male Jenny Taylor on a routine basis at pride marches, drag shows, and, let’s face it, most of them probably have access to the internet and so most likely have seen more members than repetitions of togetherness in a Kamala Harris speech.

But who really ‘benefits’ from the POGROM?

The almost anti-climactic penultimate chapter of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings deals with the aftermath of the war of the ring for the hobbits. The Shire, a once bucolic and happy place and society, had been transformed in a very short time into a totalitarian command and control nightmare by the ex-wizard Saruman. Some hobbits, like the Sackville-Bagginses and Ted Sandyman, benefitted from the rapid societal changes imposed, but most did not.

The Scouring of the Shire represents a ‘liberation’ from the old, stuffy, ways of thinking - the eradication of the repressive and restrictive norm that had previously existed. The cishobbitonormative way of doing things had been overthrown.

Having previously lived for a good number of years in a somewhat bucolic English village near the sea I can attest to the good and bad points of such an existence. It was wonderful to sit round the village green and watch the cricket team getting trounced again on a lazy sunny afternoon whilst setting into several pints of cold lager. I don’t much like cricket if I’m honest, but the community atmosphere was priceless.

On the other hand, if you wanted to invite a whole bunch of refugees from The Hunger Games round to your house for an orgy, the whole village would know about it within a few milliseconds.

Societal change might be a good thing. We all want to see things improve. But that statement assumes we know what an ‘improvement’ consists of. Chesterton’s gate should, as always, provide a salient check on our thinking

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it. (G.K.Chesterton)

The lesson here is that we need to properly understand the value of something before we attempt to destroy it - or in modern parlance to ‘deconstruct’ it.

For those flailing about in a desperate search for some crumb of individuality, some smidgeon of true self-esteem, some morsel of specialness, it might seem that the rainbow panorama opened up by the POGROM might be a vital lifeline. But is it really? Are we taking down the gate and fences only to let the wolves in?

It seems to me that seeking validation in others, whilst nice to receive it, is ultimately an endless and futile quest. It is as ephemeral as the likes on yesterday’s Facebook post. If your sense of self-worth depends too much on others, you are not in a good place emotionally or spiritually.

If you invest too much of yourself in your ‘identity’, rather than in your community, your friends and your family, I think you’re setting yourself up for a fall - particularly if you need constant external confirmation of that ‘identity’ - like in the form of pronouns, for example.

There was an interesting case doing the rounds recently highlighting a Gaelic football team in the women’s junior leagues. The word ‘junior’ here refers to the level of ability rather than age. Here’s a picture of two women on the pitch.

The woman on the right, sadly, suffers from typical female pattern baldness. The exemplar of womanhood on the right is, of course, trans and ‘identifies’ as a woman. I don’t know much about Gaelic football. It is, I think, an essentially non-contact sport. I’m pretty certain however that, until recently, there was only one ball allowed on the pitch in a women’s match.

Taking this to its logical conclusion, it would be entirely possible within the POGROM view of the world, to have two women’s teams entirely composed of self-identifying female AMAB’s (assigned male at birth) playing against one another. In which case most of us would say we’re watching two men’s teams compete. But we’re just bigoted, don’t you know?

This picture highlights the underlying absurdity of the POGROM agenda. The queering of our society, and of our kids, is based on a fantasy, a make-believe world that bears no relationship to biological reality. It sounds all luvvy-duvvy and oh so tolerant on the surface - open the gates and let my people free - but what is being ‘freed’ here?

The young woman on the left in the picture above, if she were a lesbian, would be called all manner of hateful things by some if she “refused” to fancy the woman on the right simply because Ms Baldy isn’t, biologically, a woman.

And what an interesting choice of word that is. Refused? Yes, that’s right. After decades campaigning for gay and lesbian rights on the basis that people have no fundamental choice over their sexuality we are now in a situation where attraction can be turned on and off at whim apparently. How dare you, bigoted dyke, not find Ms Baldy attractive? She’s a woman, for christ’s sake.

It might not be the case in reality - I haven’t been able to read all of the internet - but it certainly seems that lesbians are coming in for more stick in this regard (and yes that was a deliberate double entendre) than gays. I haven’t seen anything like the ire directed at gay men for not wanting to date trans men that I’ve seen directed towards lesbian women for not wanting to date trans women. It seems to be a case of toxic self-identifying femininity rearing its ugly head (otherwise known as misogyny or toxic masculinity).

Cui Bono? Certainly not lesbians. The self-identifying people are allowed to be ‘themselves’ in the POGROM. Lesbians? Not so much.

Underlying at least some of the POGROM agenda is a good deal of genuine misogyny and homophobia. For some, for example, I think it isn’t fundamentally about the emergence of a beautiful butterfly from the ugly chrysalis of societal restriction, but about transing away the gay.

Mildred, it’s a disaster. I think little Tarquin might be gay.
Don’t worry, Nigel, she’s really a girl.
Oh, thank God.

Cui Bono? The only people who seem to be ‘benefitting’ from the POGROM, the Scouring of the Shire, are a very small section of society - and I would question whether, ultimately, it’s really benefitting them either.

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