Thursday, May 10, 2012

Dishonorable idiocy

I know cognitive dissonance is all the rage, particularly with those
who refuse to think, but this post from a few days ago
<http://genderreality.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/stop-both-engines/> ,
really struck me as "a twit looking for anything to whine about". Now,
I don't read the Miserable Blatherskites over at Gender Reality very
often, but I do find it useful to keep tabs on the idiots I've tangled
with. And believe you me, with this post Carmen really does prove
she's an idiot.

Here's the post, in a nutshell.

    Autumn Sandeen served in the US Navy as a man! She shouldn't wear
a female petty officer's uniform because of that. Despite the fact
that she's not a man.

Okay? Got that?

Take your time. The post might or might not be going anywhere, but
Carmen's ability with logic is. It packed its bags and took the first
flight out.

Let's deconstruct it, shall we? :-)

Ms Sandeen has served in the US Navy. While there she attained the
rather impressive rank of Petty Officer. Lots of stripes on the
sleeves and all that recognition of ability and so forth. While I have
no idea if Ms Sandeen identifies as a transsexual woman, a transgender
woman or a woman, I do know she's a woman. As a retired member of the
United States Armed Forces, she's entitled to wear her uniform and the
appropriate bumph (I have no idea what it's actually called) at the
appropriate venues. Chaining yourself to The White House fence might
be considered one of those venues. If she's a woman, why would she
wear a man's uniform when she's engaged in such a protest?

By Carmen's logic, a soldier would have to be required to only ever
wear the uniform they left the service in. Or its direct replacement;
if, say, the pants got a bit shiny from all those veterans' dinners.
If the pants got a bit tight from them, well, tough luck. Don't eat
the rubber chicken and lose weight, so you can fit into the only
uniform Carmen allows you to wear.

It's either that or you can't change your sex if you've ever served in
the military. I can think of a few people who might be upset, or
annoyed, about such a policy.

And then we have the "It isn't any of Carmen's business if Ms Sandeen
wears her uniform or not!" She served, she gets to wear her uniform.
She also gets to replace it when required. On the other side of this
argument is the idea that a woman can't wear women's clothing if "she
was once a man". Or served as a man. Isn't a transsexual lass always a
lass, or is that a privilege reserved only for "some" transsexual or
transgendered women? Or something like that. It'll give you a headache
just trying to reconcile the silliness in Carmen's whining.

(That's as far as I'll go. I really don't want to delve into the more
subtle idiocies (and the rather odd meander to Canadian military
policy) of Carmen's post. It would be as tedious as her logic, and
about as useful.)

I mean, it's not like Carmen has gotten herself arrested by chaining
herself to The White House fence. Protesting homophobic and
transphobic policies. Personally, I found Carmen's post to be not just
silly, rambling, incoherent and illogical. I thought it quite
offensive, indeed. And, like Carmen, I'm not even American!

Carolyn Ann

PS Various edits were made to either reinforce or add a point. :-)

at 12:42 AM

http://carolyn-ann.blogspot.com/2012/05/dishonorable-idiocy.html