this has made me so furious and i refuse to link to it, @LAReviewofBooks should be fucking ASHAMED of themselves to have published it, but i'm gonna make a thread about it bc you need to know just how despicable these two christophers are 
ok so quick background: a while back, christopher reed, a distinguished professor of women's and gender studies at penn state and self-described "easy-going and open-minded person," posted a transphobic "statement of principles" to his faculty bio page english.la.psu.edu/global-images/…
basically, reed is defending his right to misgender students on the basis of a draggy, campy, "queer" resistance to traditional gender roles and medical authority. it's just boring terfism 101, with a special hatred of body modification ("why can't you just be a man in a dress?")
in october, grace lavery, a professor at berkeley and a trans woman, wrote an essay for the LARB criticizing reed and drawing a larger connection to free speech debates around the alt right. if anything she was far nicer than reed deserved blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/grad-sc…
this week, @LAReviewofBooks foolishly ran a vicious "open letter" by reed and his partner attacking grace, they cite whispers of support for reed, lament the rise of "grievance studies" (remember that?), defend their right to misgender, and again parade their disgust for surgery
they do everything short of calling grace a man. they address her directly, so as to avoid using she/her pronouns ("we turn with relief to an epistolary format, happy that it allows you to be 'you'"), and they literally cite judith butler to claim that no one is "in fact a woman"
they defend all this as the "free exchange of ideas," when obvs what's going on is that christopher and christopher (imo you surrender all moral and intellectual authority when you date someone with your own name) are vile transphobes who find trans ppl viscerally disgusting
there *is* an intelligent conversation about the orthodoxy on trans issues that's consolidated online, on campus, etc. i include myself here, it's prolly why you follow me! but chris reed wouldn't know an intelligent conversation if it lipsynced "toxic" to him at gay brunch
so once more: hot molten shame on the @LAReviewofBooks for publishing what only an unconscionable degree of editorial bankruptcy could have absolved you of complicity in an obvious transphobic ad feminam attack with all the intellectual probity of a toothbrush whittled to a point
tldr: gay men are not your friends!!!!
