Talk:Gail Dines
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Revert war[edit]
This article was created by User:Robert Wells. This was good because creation of this article was a long time coming. Unfortunately, his initial language included very serious claims, namely allegations of transphobia, that were unsupported with decent sources. As well, the one "source" they included, although it happened to accurately verify that Gail Dines is a Marxist, was not a credible source, but a blog post advancing an opinion of the article's subject. I should note 1) the blog post never alleges transphobia, and 2) IMHO, demonstrates that the author does not even understand Dines's work. I went to the article creator's talk page and told them to provide evidence of Ms. Dines's alleged transphobia. After 9 or 10 days, there was no change on the article and no response from the article's creator, so I took the initiative, and brought the article on mission. Rand0 (talk) 20:30, 11 July 2014 (UTC)
- She's definitely a SWERF, but I'm having a hard time finding direct evidence of her being a TERF. The circumstantial evidence strongly suggests she would be one, as she often associates with known TERFs and runs in their circles. A cursory Google search turned up a TERF blog defending her along with Sheila Jeffreys and someone else I hadn't heard of and can't recall. The blogger attacked transgender activists who were protesting one of their conferences as well as sex work activists, whom the blogger libelously claimed were "pro-trafficking" (which is a can of worms all on its own). Dines has certainly made no effort to distance herself from TERF ideology, and I would be very surprised if she weren't transphobic. I think the only reason we haven't seen clear-cut transphobic material out of her is that anti-porn activism has been the main focus of her work rather than trans issues. Her attack on the Third Wave is virtually identical to those mounted by TERFs, including one TERF who dropped by here not too long ago who denounced "trans theory" and "choice-based" feminism. The idea that individual action alone will cause systemic change may be naïve, but Dines' vision of women achieving collective liberation as a class all at once strikes me as a utopian fantasy rooted in ideology rather than reality. Most third-wave material I've seen emphasizes both individual and collective action as well as respect for personal choice. The main takeaway I saw in Dines' "critique" was an attempt to rationalize an authoritarian and anti-choice approach to feminism by using an worn-out argument that basically boils down to "Liberation is going to happen like this and not that, because I said so." Anyway, I digress. I'll keep looking for evidence of transphobia, but there is already plenty of material refuting the body of her work we do know about. The One They Call Mars (talk) 06:18, 11 August 2014 (UTC)