Last week, bestselling author of The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell said that “trans athletes have no place in the female category.” Speaking on the podcast The Real Science of Sport, Gladwell admitted that he’d once said the opposite—not because he believed it, but because he’d been “cowed.” That is, he’d chosen public approbation over truth. Now, he was “ashamed of my performance.”
Some who’ve been far braver than Gladwell and Newsom, and did face the subsequent wrath, didn’t react kindly to what they saw as these too-little-too-late mea culpas.
British writer Victoria Smith said, about Gladwell, that “it will never be enough.” Feminist Meghan Murphy noted Gladwell chose “not to speak truthfully on this matter in order to protect your career, while the rest of us risked it all—with much less power, privilege, and financial security—to speak out.” And JK Rowling lambasted Gladwell with: “Changing sides years late, and only after you’ve realised the non-elite opposition is winning, isn’t a mark of integrity but of arse-covering.” Gladwell wasn’t a hero, but a weathervane.
The reaction from many luminaries in the gender-critical movement has been to air grievances. It’s understandable. After all, feminists like Janice Raymond have been warning of the dangers of men identifying as women since the 1970s.
We don’t have to give him or Newsom of any latecomers to the party a medal. But why not first thank them for speaking the truth, and then educate them on what they still get wrong?
Those now admitting what others have been screaming into the wind for decades may not recognize that those who’ve pushed back against establishment media, against liberal institutions, against the unspoken restrictions of their own communities weren’t just walking on eggshells, but stomping through a minefield of vitriol. Gladwell and Newsom’s clear path is in fact because of all their trailblazing.
Source: Does Gladwell Represent the New Transgender Tipping Point?