Shumirun Nessa, a British Muslim Tiktok comedian and mother of young children, was receive death threats and online harassment after criticizing American TikToker Jeffrey Marshwhich identifies itself as non-binary.
Marsh, who has 680,000 followers on the platform, speaks to children in several videos. In others, they talk to the children’s parents. In one particular video — in which Marsh doesn’t specifically mention the kids — they say, “Your parents screwed up. It’s good to say it. »
In that video, Marsh also says, “That’s why I made a Patreon so we can talk about it, so we can connect in a way that has more intimacy, so we can talk about a more open way. .” Patreon is a platform where people can pay a monthly fee to watch content.
Nessa, in her video, responded to Marsh, demanding that they “stop telling kids to go on your Patreon and chat with you privately without their parents knowing.” Nessa made it clear that she was concerned about the particular style and content of Marsh’s videos and pointed to a tactic often used by groomers to “isolate” children from their guardians in order to make them dependent on predatory individuals.
In at least half a dozen other videos — where they don’t specify who they’re specifically directed at — Marsh encourages people to have “no contact” with their families. In one, they say those who do it will “like it”. In anotherthey say, “If you don’t have a loving family, I’ll be your family.”
yet another particularly disturbing video sees Marsh opposing the protection of women and girls. Just to be clear; Marsh is about women who seek to protect women from biological men who identify as transwomen.
“‘We must protect women and children’ has been used against marginalized people for most of human history,” they say. “These comments upset me because it’s anti-trans, of course, but it also strikes me that it’s anti your own daughters.” Marsh then tells the women that they should tell those who are worried about their safety that they “don’t need protection.”
In her video, Nessa didn’t reference Marsh’s trans identity and used the “they/them” pronouns that the TikTok influencer prefers. While pointing out that Marsh’s videos were disturbing, she didn’t accuse them of being a groomer in the conventional sense.
Yet she was bullied by trans rights activists into taking down the video. Nessa then shared a second video in which she tearfully revealed the threats and doxing she had received from these activists.
“I just got an email saying…they know where I live and what scares me the most is they have my daughters details in the email,” Nessa said, looking very distressed, saying her car was also damaged. Some of those who attacked her online also found old photos of Nessa without a hijab and shared them on TikTok, Nessa said in tears.
Feminists, human rights activists, Muslims and caring people from other communities immediately rallied to offer support for Nessa online, and soon #IStandWithShumirunNessa was trending.
However, the response we’ve faced – for supporting Nessa – has also been amazing.
Women concerned about women’s vulnerability to male violence are accused of transphobia. For what? Because we raised the question of how dangerous it is to isolate potentially confused and vulnerable children from their parents, and possibly encourage them to begin a process of transition that can be harmful. And that this behavior could be suggestive of some form of grooming – even if it’s not always sexual in nature.
I understand all too well what it’s like to be targeted in this way. In 2004 I wrote a article criticizing transgender activists who tried to shut down a rape crisis center that wouldn’t include transwomen with male bodies as counsellors, and since then I’ve been harassed by so-called progressives who call me ‘transphobic’ .
As a result, some university students have publicly expression every time I have to give a lecture on some aspect of feminism or male violence against women. Never mind that I have spent decades supporting female victims of male violence – and continue to do so.
Even 19 years later, bullying keep on going, despite the fact that in most cases I don’t address trans issues at all. Under the pretext of “protecting trans rights”, I am regularly attacked whenever I speak about the evils of prostitution, one of my concernsand says I “clearly hate trans sex workers” as if it’s all about trans women.
This issue has come to dominate the cultural landscape over the past decade, in part because well-meaning liberals have was convinced that left-wing feminists like me who speak out against extreme transgender ideology are fanatics and “transphobes,” as opposed to women’s rights advocates.
Nessa seems to have been intimidated by the crowd. Indeed, bullying and harassment have become common characteristics of this vicious line. It’s not uncommon in recent years to see crowds of young men in black balaclavas shouting misogynistic slurs at women speaking out against extreme transgender ideology and in support of women-only spaces.
In a follow-up video, Nessa pleaded: “Everyone please stop threatening each other. I don’t want to talk about this topic anymore, and I hope you’ll respect that. It is a chilling indictment of the fear instilled in those who dare to speak out and the effectiveness of trans rights activists’ tactics of silencing.
This is not a debate that takes place on an equal footing, with a number of feminists having lost jobs, colleges, reputations and their right to freedom of speech. I have yet to hear from a transgender rights activist for the same treatment.
Nevertheless, there is a clear need for nuance in this debate. It’s a classic example of how two wrongs definitely wouldn’t make a right.
It is not acceptable for trans rights activists to dox a woman with young children, or any other woman, because she has pointed out protection issues. It is also wrong to label all trans-identifying people as “healers” and “pedophiles”. Bullying and threatening behavior is never the answer.
There are genuine concerns about the vulnerable children when it comes to certain aspects of transgender ideology, and it is perfectly reasonable for these concerns to be raised publicly. Transgender ideology is a hotly contested issue, especially when mantras such as “trans women are women” become fuss around with little public dissent.
While I passionately support everyone’s right to live outside the gender stereotypes imposed on them, to affirm that there is no difference between women raised as daughters under patriarchy and men who choose to live as women is extremely problematic. Sexism has consequences, ranging from domestic violence and sexual assault to unequal pay and discrimination in the workplace.
While the rights of transgender people must be respected, the answer is not to shut down or silence the real concerns of parents, whether about trans people or the growing number of children showing up at gender clinics. to ask for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
Let me be very clear: trans people are not the problem.
The issue is a brand of extreme activism that claims to represent trans rights. In reality, it is a men’s rights movement that grew out of the backlash against feminism, especially against feminists who focus on eradicating male violence against women and girls. . Feminists calling for doing nothing more than preserving our hard-won gender-based rights, such as domestic violence women’s shelters, locker rooms and hospital wards, are being censured as bigots and fired.
Nessa didn’t take issue with trans ideology or Marsh’s identification as non-binary. Instead, she was raising a red flag about adult inappropriateness possibly causing children to cut themselves off from their parents. Successful attempts by trans rights activists to silence Nessa by accusing her of “transphobia” serve as a warning to others. But those of us concerned about the danger to children must resist pleas to surrender.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
