Greetings Everyone,
This is an narrated excerpt from the Introduction of my latest book, “She Holds The Line: Black Women Speak on Gender Ideology,” a groundbreaking anthology of personal essays and poetry exploring the adverse impact of the transgender movement on the lives of black women. You can find a full book synopsis here.
She Holds The Line is now available for purchase. If you enjoy the anthology, please leave a review, share the book with your networks, and recommend it to your library.
Next week, I look forward to sharing our amazing video discussion with two of our co-authors about the topics presented in this book. Stay tuned!
Thanks so much for your support! 🌺
She Holds The Line: An Introduction
This anthology has been a long time coming. Ever since I started researching and writing about gender ideology in 2022, I have always envisioned black women’s voices uniting as a collective force. This book is a manifestation of that vision.
From day one, I have been intentional about creating greater visibility for black women so that we can know we’re not alone, and carving out a space for us within this social and political discourse so that the rest of the world can learn from our wisdom and our lives.
Black Women’s Studies has been a passion of mine from a young age. In 2013, I published my first feature-length documentary film, Reflections Unheard: Black Women in Civil Rights. Reflections Unheard focuses on black women’s contributions and political marginalization between the Black Power and Feminist movements of the 1960s and 70s.
In many ways, this book carries the same spirit as Reflections Unheard. I am bringing forth illuminating stories and powerful, highly impactful voices that don’t get as much shine as others, due to marginalization and silencing.
But before I get into the nitty-gritty about the ethos behind this black women-focused anthology, let’s ground in a few basic terms for those who may be new to the concepts of “gender ideology,” which we will be discussing in this book.
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Gender ideology is a philosophy in which gender identity supersedes biological sex. In practice, this happens by privileging transgender identities in law, medicine, social life, and many other facets of society.
For example, if a man believes that womanhood is based on looking or behaving a certain way, he may also believe that he is a woman because he aspires to have those qualities. If he lives in a society that enforces gender ideology, the law then allows him the right to demand that others treat him in alignment with his self-perception.
Notice that I am using the words concept, philosophy, and transgender-ism. It’s important to note that “Trans” is, by definition, rooted in self-perception and chosen identity that is often influenced by a learned set of beliefs about gender stereotypes.
Unlike race or biological sex, transgenderism is not rooted in anything material. It is also not a medical status, sexual orientation, aesthetic, personality trait, or innate quality.
Trans is just an identity.
Of course, different people may have their own convictions about how they define transgenderism—and that is exactly my point. When you read the dictionary and legal definitions of Transgender, it is defined by one’s personal identity. And when you compare that to a variety of trans perspectives, including people who have “detransitioned”…you find that trans identities are based on fluid concepts that anyone can mould to their liking, and opt into or out of as they see fit.
In modern times, the Western world has codified gender ideology into law and society. So, for example, if a male chooses to adopt a female gender identity, the law will treat him as a woman.
Because males have obvious physical strength over women, and because men are women’s primary predators, transgender laws have placed women in an even more vulnerable position, as it is now legal for males to infiltrate female-only spaces which were originally designed for our privacy, protection, and holistic wellbeing.
This is not just a hypothetical problem; it is a very real issue that impacts women at all levels of society. The everyday woman who relies on female spaces for professional opportunity, gatherings, healing, or even just to use the public restroom, is impacted.
But the most vulnerable women amongst us are impacted even more severely. Women who are under the stewardship of the state by way of incarceration, domestic violence survivorship, and homelessness are now forcibly housed with abusive males who identify as women. And because it’s legal, their cries for help are often ignored.
More women are being raped, bullied, and impregnated in captivity as a direct result of transgender self-ID laws. As black women comprise 30% of the prison population and over 40% of the homeless population, despite us being just 13% of the U.S. female population, we are disproportionately represented in these vulnerable groups.
Women’s safety is only one slice of the problematic pie. There are many physical and psychological harms being done to children, LGB people, and trauma survivors who genuinely aspire to be perceived as something they can never become through false identities and experimental cosmetic surgeries. Additionally, those who rely on controlling other people’s language and natural sensibilities to validate their own self-esteem will inevitably find themselves frustrated and deeply unwell.
This is one of the biggest factors that pushed me to begin speaking out: Policing and Control.
The amount of policing towards women to stay unquestioningly silent became increasingly impossible to ignore.
But here, we don’t get in line; we hold the line.
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Gender Ideology came into my purview early on, through my personal relationships and my involvement in various “LGBT” communities. Initially, I embraced Transgenderism because I misunderstood it to be a natural part of the gay and lesbian spectrum. It was only after transgenderism entered mainstream consciousness and corporate affairs, when I found myself being pressured under the weight of a rapidly changing language and culture that erased, shamed, and neglected women under the guise of progression.
But when I finally began to research the topic to further clarify my thoughts on the issue, I noticed that all the speakers were white. The most visible speakers were, of course, conservative men and women. However, the talking points which most resonated with me were those of liberal women’s rights advocates and detransitioners who questioned the progressive status quo—the “gender-criticals”…yet they too, were overwhelmingly white.
Ironically, the whiteness of gender critical discourse tends to backfire on itself. Gender-criticals are ignorantly pegged as “racist white supremacists” by leftists—the main group that they’re trying to educate...and I do feel that optics play a large role in that.
Aside from whiteness, Gender-critical people are further stereotyped as conservative, homophobic, religious zealots, or just plain ignorant and hateful due to lack of contact with the transgender community.
This anthology pushes back against all of those stereotypes; not necessarily through our writing, but because of who we are.
I think that in any movement, it’s incredibly important that everyone who is impacted has a voice and proportionate visibility, because it creates balance and depth of understanding around the root issue.
Of course, I always knew that the most visible voices weren’t representative of the full picture. I felt like the whitewashing of gender-critical discourse was a byproduct of white people simply defaulting to whiteness—even when other groups are equally or more heavily impacted by the issues at hand.
This is a common issue in many different spheres. It’s not so much that black voices are intentionally excluded, but moreso that we’re not thought of. Or if we are, we are only thought of marginally; not in any way that suggests our perspectives are integral. This, of course, leads to a situation where our perspectives are not actively sought out. The result is that most established platforms end up being very homogeneous.
Meanwhile, I deeply care to hear from black women. For me, our perspectives are not marginal or “niche”—they are a must. I was always scouring the Earth to find us, and here we are.
On a personal level, I felt very alone in my consciousness for a long time. I knew that these issues impacted us in unique ways that were not heard of, and that in general—a record of our dissent needed to be created. This book fills that gap.
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What I love most is the incredible diversity of this book. Yes, we are all black women—but we come from different backgrounds and lived experiences. We have women in age ranges from Gen-Z to Boomers; lesbian, bisexual, and straight women; women who have previously identified as transgender (or loved someone who has); mothers and childfree women; currently and formerly incarcerated; and of course, we hail from various careers and passions in life.
There is also incredible religious and spiritual diversity amongst our authors. Some women are Christian, some are Jewish (or exploring Judaism), some were born and raised Muslim (although they are no longer practicing). And some, like me, are Spiritual, and may practice indigenous African or Pagan traditions, but are otherwise non-religious.
I think this is important to note, because our spiritual diversity represents the black community. Most black people are spiritual in some way, but that does not necessarily make us religious zealots. Many of us have also had the privilege to heal our religious trauma. Not only does this make us sensitive to the religious nature of gender ideology, but we are also highly empathetic towards people who have shared similar backgrounds, no matter how they may identify.
The result is that this anthology is quaintly sized, but incredibly rich and powerful. Each piece carries its own unique wisdom and magic. Together, we all pack a punch!
If you’d like to support this anthology or learn about the authors, you can find more information at the end of the book.
I invite you to read this book with an open heart and mind, keep it on your bookshelf as a companion to this cultural discourse, and allow it to widen your perspective.
Thank you.
