Thread by @AndersonBooz

1/ A thread related to a current news case involving a transgender person, waxing salons, and Twitter mobs howling about perversion.

Only because @MaximeBernier brought it up.

#cdnpoli

2/ First, let me say I am well aware people will try to misrepresent what I write here. While I find the behaviours of the plaintiff distasteful and ill-considered, I also find the behaviours of the Twitter mob distasteful and ill-considered. For exactly the same reasons.

3/ I will NOT be addressing the allegations of racism made by some. I don't condone racism, and if racism is a factor in the case brought before the Tribunal, I hope it will receive the weight of consideration it deserves. I will limit my comments to human rights as they relate

4/ to the behaviours desribed as "perverted" and "predatory" and the reaction of politicians and public.

Full disclosure: I am not transgender. I spend zero time worrying about the genitalia of other people. In my opinion, an obsession with a stranger's privates is

5/ inappropriate.

Several people sent screen captures of tweets that they provided as "proof" of perversion. They were largely about puberty and menstruation. I see them as obsessive, yes. Here's why.

On the whole, we still make clear distinctions in how we raise children

6/ based on the gender their bodies most strongly present. This has been particularly true when the children near puberty. We haven't tended to tell "boys" and "girls" the same things about maturation and sexuality. I hope this is changing.

What this means for trans people is

7/ that unless they are acknowledged early, they are separated from the gender they identify with and they are given the information for the gender they are assumed to be.

So they miss culturally critical information during a period of identity formation that most of us have

8/ the luxury of taking for granted. It means a trans person may be excluded - not only by biology, but also by culture.

Imagine, for example, a cis-female who grows up in an all-male environment. Yes, her body's changes will happen - but she will have no idea if her experience

9/ is like the experiences of other women unless she talks to them, reads about them, learns what it means to come of age as a woman in a gendered culture.

Other women might find it weird and uncomfortable if a cis woman asks questions about their coming of age, but would it be

10/ seen as "perversion"?

Now imagine it's a woman who, for whatever reason, didn't have a standard physical development.

Isolated, different, feeling like every other woman knows a code - a code she hasn't learned. And the time when she would have learned it is past.

She

11/ feels like she can't find acceptance unless she learns the code.

So she acts inappropriately - but might not even realize she's being inappropriate. She asks about first periods, tampons, sex. People find it weird. They think it's perversion. They don't see it as someone

12/ desperately trying to figure out what they missed, hmwhat they need to know to fit in.

That desire to fit in - the same desire that causes Twitter folks to join mob bandwagons - leads people to do strange things. A Brazilian wax job is unnecessary and painful, but for some

13/ people it's an expression of how they feel in terms of sensuality and sexuality. Doesn't float my boat, but that's fine: I don't want one, I won't have one.

I have sympathy for anyone whose job involves ripping pubic hair out by the follicles.

Personally, I'm thinking some

14/ grooming tasks should be self-performed.

But going to a barber for a face shave, to a salon for a pubic waxing - these are cultural ways we affirm our identities. And hooray for the people who provide those experiences in competent and enjoyable ways!

15/ I don't fully understand why some people find it so important that they be able to get these services; they're not part of my culture or identity. If they were, I would hope I would receive the same service as anyone else.

I get it: waxing someone's privates isn't the same

16/ as making them a latte or cleaning their furnace. And if I were doing the work, I would like to be able to refuse service to people who make me uncomfortable. But I know that's not good enough grounds.

I have worked jobs where customers have made me extremely uncomfortable.

17/ One of those jobs was in a correctional facility, where I was serving rapists and murderers.

But my job wasn't part of their punishment. My assessment of their character is irrelevant to the job I am hired to do. The inmates had a right to my services without discrimination.

18/ Some jobs are distasteful. Some customers are distasteful.

One of the situations provided as "proof" that someone is a pervert was arranging a topless inclusive swim for children - with no parents allowed.

I wouldn't support such an event. But I also wouldn't jump to the

19/ conclusion that it is evidence of perversion, any more than topless beaches for adults etc.

So why would I not support it?

Because I am suspicious by nature. Because my reading of one of the organizer's tweets is that she's trying to turn back the clock and experience a

20/ coming of age event vicariously, one that she couldn't have when she was young.

I find it inappropriate and sad and uncomfortable, but not a perversion. And some parents might be fine with it - which is not my business.

Now, it's fair to say "Doesn't this show a lack of

21/ judgment on her part?"

I would say yes.

But the man who leads a national party and who is stirring up the mob, @MaximeBernier, is someone who has had his own high profile lapses in judgment. Is he one to throw stones?

I am critical of Bernier for those lapses, but I don't

22/ use them as a justification for denying him service or restricting his right to take matters of discrimination before a Human Rights Tribunal.

I know I will get a lot of responses to things in this thread. My hope is that they will not be kneejerk responses.

I won't be

23/ engaging with trolls, won't accept abuse, and won't appreciate people who put words in my mouth and then ate offended.

My only goal is to say I read the situations differently, I have confidence in our systems to determine what is or is not a threat to public safety, and

24/ the internet mob seeing things through their own fascination with genutalia are as perverse as anything they posted as proof of the perversion of someone else.

So don't expect much discussion.

/End of post.