A feminist journalist is speaking out after being banned from Twitter for saying men aren’t women. She is also claiming that men who publicly dare to say the same aren’t suffering the same repercussions from the social media site.
Journalist Meghan Murphy hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, and is the founder and editor of the independent website Feminist Current. Critiquing transgender ideology from a feminist perspective is nothing new for Murphy--she reportedly has a long history of detailing the threats she believes the movement poses to women’s rights. But the backlash to her views seems to be on the rise.
This may be due in part to a recent change in Twitter’s user policies. Under the new platform rules, the phenomenons of "dead-naming" — referring to trans-identified persons by their name prior to transition — and "misgendering," are both considered "hateful conduct" and will therefore not be tolerated by the social media giant.
The Christian Post reports that up until a few days ago, Murphy was blue-check qualified with a following of roughly 20,000. But then, she was banned.
In a phone interview with the Post, Murphy expressed her frustration at the double-standard she sees when it comes to speaking out against transgender ideology, as a woman.
“The reason I am banned and there are men who are saying the exact same thing that I am saying,” Murphy explained, “like Ben Shapiro who is still happily tweeting away, is that I've been targeted specifically because I am the most prominent feminist voice in Canada talking about this issue...And the media will not cover my perspective.”
“I believe this is partly because the media prefers to frame this as a right versus left issue,” Murphy continued.
“They would like it to appear to the public that everyone who is progressive or on the left is in support of transgender ideology and gender identity legislation and that it's only conservative Christians who are opposed to it and leave out the other analysis,” said Murphy.
The popular feminist went on to distinguish between the public at large, which she believes is largely uncomfortable with many things having to do with the transgender movement, and transactivists in particular.
“People know this is not ok, for the most part,” Murphy stated. “But the transactivists have been so successful at bullying, threatening, and no-platforming people, as they've done it to me and many other women.”
On Wednesday Murphy hit back against her detractors, publishing an essay at Quillette in which she documented a number of allegedly concerning and sexist actions of transactivists. It is Murphy’s belief that those actions were intentionally designed to malign, abuse, and intimidate women.
"It’s about a cultish movement that is flexing its muscle on campuses, in civic organizations, at public events, and in the back offices of social-media companies,” wrote Murphy, “to strike down anyone who dares point out that the gender emperor wears no clothes. It is about our ability to debate important issues and speak the truth in the public realm."
"It’s time for all of us — not just women and feminists, who are now taking the worst of it — to put their collective foot down and demand a return to sanity."
A Change.org petition has been started to have Murphy’s account reactivated.