Slavoj Zizek — Transgenderism, Wokism & Cancel Culture

now comes trigger warning you will probably not agree with what I will say towards the end of October of this year gonville and caou college in Cambridge Cambridge not here massetts England was hosting a talk by Helen Joyce known for her view that men and women are being redefined by trans activists with laws and policy is the reshaped to privilege self-identified gender identity over biological sexs Joyce unambiguously supports trans rights what she rejects is gender identity ideology the idea that people should count as men or women according to how they feel and what they declare instead of their biology now students at this college have launched protests with the college LGBT plus Representatives demanding that Joy's appearance be cancelled because they are Anan unanimously disgusted by the platforming of such views tutors were even opening a safe space welfare room for students during the talk blaming understandable hurt and anger for many student staff and fellows caused by this invitation the college's Master joined them saying that while freedom of speech is a fundamental principle on some issues which affect our which affect our community we cannot stay neutral now first my theoretical position here I disagree with both polls in this conflict because I think the opposition between biology and what I feel and declaring what I feel is not exhaustive where and here is my criticism of some of this free choice of gender ideology uh where is Freud here where is the Freudian subjects of subject of the conscious which is neither biological nor a matter of feeling we become sexual subjects when our biological features get mediated by complex symbolic structures structures which work at a different level than our feelings no matter how sincere feelings may deceive but nonetheless I think that debating the role of biology or social symbolic structures in the formation of our sexuality is a legitimate topic how fragile the opponents of Joy's appearance must be if they experience such a debate as something so threatening that they even need a safe space to protect them is it not that their refusal of debate betrays a fear that such a debate F May render palpable the weakness of their position plus are they aware that the logic of my identity is what I feel if I feel a man a woman a trans and I declare what I feel can also be used in a directly racist and sexist way a full blooded heterosexist would also need a safe space to avoid LGBT plus persons by whom he is anonymously disgusted I'm not agree with him I just claim again that this idea of my identity is what I feel immediately experience and declare it the it proceeds as if there was no frud no divided subject no psychoanalysis and so on and so on Dwayne my Canadian friend characterizes voke as racism in the time of the many without the one this may appear problematic but I think it hits the mark in an almost exact opposite to the traditional racism which fights against a foreign Intruder posing a threat to the unity of the one say immigrants and Jews to our nation vote react to those who are suspected not to truly abandon old forms of the one Patriots proponents of patriarchal values and so on with all its declared opposition to the new forms of barbarism the V left fully participates in it promoting and practicing a flat discourse without irony although it Advocates pluralism and promotes difference it its subjective position of enunciation the place for which it speaks is extremely authoritarian allowing no debate and imposing exclusions which are often based on arbitrary premises in all this mess we should always bear in mind that the woke stance and cancel culture are de facto limited to the narrow world of Academia end up to appoint some intellectual professions like journalists while Society at large moves in the opposite direction cancel culture with its implicit paranoia is a desperate but also inefficient attempt to compensate for the actual troubles and tragedies of the LGBT plus individuals the violence and exclusion to which they are permanently submitted I'm well aware of this but I think that precisely cancel culture is a retreat into a cultural Fortress a pelo safe space whose discursive fanaticism leaves intact and even strengthens the resistance of the majority to it so you got my point I'm not attacking and C cancel culture as being too fanatical and so on I claim precisely that behind this mask of fanaticism stringency it's a compromise it doesn't really change social reality

Channel: I WOULD PREFER NOT TO

Views: 17,241

Keywords: Slavoj Zizek, Zizek, Transgender, Transgenderism, Woke, Wokism, Cancel culture

Id: Bqf2nfhd32w

Length: 7min 15sec (435 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2024