“For me, there’s no heavenly respite; creation is a spectral and feminine continuum, and our souls are an inalienable part of nature.”
Anohni Hegarty
There are those who argue that the sex/gender divide is just a socio-political
construct. Certainly this is not true for those individuals with gender dysphoria where
there is a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. It is also the case
that class society has nurtured an ideology of femininity and masculinity which fits the
profit motive rather than peoples’ lived experience. But all of this this does not
invalidate the fact that the vast majority of humans (unhelpfully labelled ‘cis’) do not
experience a mis-match between their biological sex and their gender. This does not
mean that all is well for women who are, by virtue of both sex and gender, historically
and currently oppressed in patriarchal class societies.However, this is not the core issue. The largely unaddressed, underlying question
in relation to gender self-identity is an ideological one. Marx and Engels wrote in ‘The
German Ideology’ that the ruling ideas in any society are those of the ruling class. Self identity, as an ideological construct has become just this – its theory and practice have
permeated deeply into civil society including in the labour movement, the repercussions
of which are steadily emerging…In other words, the categories of male and female are downgraded as is the use of
singular personal pronouns. Thus, the ideological construct of gender has usurped the
material reality of biological sex and has become a ruling ideology, as evidenced by the
above-mentioned State support. Therefore, it has stealthily penetrated all aspects of civil
society, including the labour movement.Mary Davis: ‘Women and Class’ (with added italics)
Should this be a cause of concern? It is alarming for two reasons. Firstly, identity
politics is the antithesis of class politics and thus its theory and practice should be of great
anxiety for the labour movement. Secondly, the gender identity issue is of particular
concern for women because it conflates biological sex and gender, and thus errantly fails
to understand women’s oppression. Trans people (and many other groups) experience
intolerance and discrimination but this is not the same as oppression. Discrimination itself
is not a function of class society even though it is an almost inevitable by-product of the
inherent inequalities within all forms of class society. Women, however, are oppressed,
and the basis of such oppression is class exploitation. This is why it is impossible to
understand women’s oppression without understanding the varying forms of exploitation
in class society – capitalism in particular.
Jesus, things have gotten really political on this countdown recently, haven’t they? Remember Samia? That was a fun time.
First of all, read ‘Women and Class’, it’s a fucking belting book, and basically the core text when it comes to the British Communist Party’s take on the differences between sexes.
Secondly: women are systematically oppressed against. This oppression is routed in their insistence on popping out baby workers, so they’re unfortunately tied to capitalism’s infinite production. Trans women (and trans men) are discriminated against. This is gross, this is awful, this is used in the same was racism is to divide the workers and convince them that they should be fighting amongst themselves rather than simply organising and otherthrowing the people who are really exploiting them. You’ve seen the movie ‘Antz‘, right? It’s basically that. And the liberal, identity politics response would be to disapprove of that movie just because it stars historical pervert Woody Allen. Oh shit, or do I mean ‘A Bug’s Life‘? Which one was Woody Allen in, and was that the one about class conscious uprisings? I think Kevin Spacey was in one of them as well, it’s a liberal fucking minefield.
Thirdly, I kind of don’t care about trans people? That sounds bad: I of course care about trans people, as I care about all humans, as I care about all of the working class*. And I of course support everyone’s right to transition and to identify as a (trans) woman, man, whatever. To recognise what’s wrong about you and fixing it is an important moment of self-discovery, and bully for you. Can you imagine the bravery it must take to come out as trans in 2023?? Unbelievable personal achievement. I just don’t care in the sense I don’t care if you subscribe to ‘Paramount Plus’. I’m sure it’s made your life better, I’m sure we can have all sorts of interesting discussions and your world view will be fascinating. But at the end of the day, politically I don’t really care and your Union membership is a far more important thing to me than what gender you identify as. I’m a Communist, I’m a materialist, I’m about overthrowing the capitalist system of working and the science behind why the alternative would be better. So, on a far larger scale, I don’t really care?? The Communist Party (and Alex Franchise-Palmer) supports the right of trans people to live free from discrimination and prejudice! There’s usually just, like, a bigger issue…?
(*there’s no such thing as the middle class, only slightly more well off members of the working class who have been convinced that they are dissimilar to and better than the working class. If you need to sell your labour in order to survive, your working class. If you’re a landlord though, you don’t actually work at all, you’re a leech and are going to be one of the first people we hang. Don’t forget to click subscribe!)
Like if you’re a Peaky Blinders fan. Don’t really care. Never seen it. Sure it’s good, but you being a fan of it is kind of meaningless on the wider stage of things. But if massive political arms of the state started to build their whole fucking policy on discrimination and attacking fans of Peaky Blinders?? Well, that would be ridiculous, and I’d have to support the Peaky Blinders fans. Even though, in that analogy, I’m sure Peaky Blinders fans would be able to take care of themselves: 6.9 million people in the UK streamed the first episode of season 6 last year, while only 262,000 British people identified as a different gender to their birth one in the last census. Trans rights are human rights? Abso-fucking-lutely! Trans women are women? Eeeeeeeeeeeeh, yes and no. They are trans women. They’re not oppressed against, they are discriminated against. I don’t mind what pronouns you use, because if I did I’d be a weirdo – especially if I was talking about being side lined by insignificant liberal shite. Remember Michael Aday? No, you don’t, because 50 years ago he told us all to call him fucking Meat Loaf and we all just went along with it: some things don’t fucking matter. I’ve been calling every artist ‘they’ on this year’s list because I can’t be fucking arsed with it. But there are actual oppressions performed by capitalism on actual women that we’re at risk of losing sight of if we muddy the waters with self-identification. If I complained about Noname segregating black people, you think I’m going to be OK with trans people segregating themselves into an even smaller island!? Get fucked! We’re all in this together. No war but class war.
And nonbinary?? I… I… I don’t have fucking time for that shit right now…
Anyway, Anohni released their first album since 2016 this year. Maybe their best album since 2005?? I dunno, that’s a pretty fucking big statement, and I’m a bit out of bit flushed out of big statements on this post, to be honest. ‘My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross’ (capitalising every word? Pretty gangsta) is an astonishing album that contains songs that could have come straight out of the Great American Songbook, next to other more abrasive exercises that could have only come from Anohni. While their last album, 2016’s ‘Hopelessness’, was all synthesised mayhem and multi-layered chaos (in a good way), here it is all stripped back to disarmingly straightforward levels, featuring one take vocals that bely an urgent emotional take. Anohni remains perhaps the world’s premier voice of trans women, and more importantly one of its greatest musical deliverers of pure humanity.
2018 No.39, 2016 No.10 (ANOHNI) 2009 N0.17, 2010 consideration (Antony and the Johnsons)
Necessary Evil 
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