Reads: “I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter,” by Isabel Fall

“I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter” was published in Clarkesworld Magazine on January 9, 2020.

This is a very interesting science-fiction story that does what science-fiction does best: it takes a real-world controversy (gender) and attempts to help people understand the author’s beliefs by placing them in a new (and less ideologically charged) context. If intended as a defense of trans-affirming gender theories, I think this story fails. But if intended as an explanation of them, I think “Attack Helicopter” succeeds wonderfully.

I’ve been working hard for the past few months to try to understand the trans activism movement, not just superficially, but at the roots, the biological and ontological beliefs that underpin the entire ideology. I’ve read dozens of articles and non-fiction testimonies in that time. I intend to read quite a few more before writing about it. But this story helped me to understand certain aspects of trans identity more clearly than a hundred articles. Chalk up another win for science-fiction in the “promoting mutual understanding” column.

(This story is also, in its own right, a good short story about interesting characters, which is crucial. Robert Heinlein got away with writing preachy, boring tracts late in his career only because the first half of his career had been spent being Robert Heinlein.)

In an added twist, this particular short story was written by a trans author. Isabel Fall was responding to a common trope used by internet gender realists: “If you can sexually identify as a man even without a penis, then I can sexually identify as an attack helicopter even without a rotor.” Isabel Fall decided to subvert that trope with this story, and succeeded. Clarkesworld, one of the three most prestigious sci-fi magazines in the world, found it worthwhile and published it.

But, in yet another example of the toxic thought- and identity-policing that has consumed the entire American literary community, some trans activists on Twitter didn’t get the joke (and most didn’t even read the story). They became upset and attacked Clarkesworld until Clarkesworld took the story down (allegedly at the request of the author, as it always allegedly is). So you have to read the story on archive.is instead.

One of the very best episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is called “Far Beyond the Stars.” It’s about a black man in the 1950s who writes (under a pseudonym) for a short-story magazine very much like Clarkesworld. One day, he starts writing a story about a space station in the far future–a station where the captain is a heroic, widely respected black man. His fellow authors love the story. But his editors pulp it, because the audience mobs would destroy them for publishing it. The author gives a stirring speech in defense of storytelling. (Watch the episode. It’s exceptionally good television.)

I don’t know how the Left-wing “progressive” movement turned into the actual villains from “Far Beyond the Stars,” but here we are.

UPDATE 2021 JULY 6:

Last week, Vox ran an interview with Isabel Fallthe first interview Fall has ever givenwhich provides some updates. Like all Vox writers, the interviewer treats the people who did this to Fall with kid gloves (“I believe they believe they did the right thing”), tries very hard to talk around the C-word (“cancellation”), and even finds a way to shove some blame on to “right-wing reactionaries” in the Sad Puppies movement (who are, naturally, allowed zero disclaimers about why they thought they were doing the right thing), despite being totally uninvolved in this cancellation. You’ve gotta admire the sheer gall of it! But even Emily VanDerWerff finally refuses to exonerate the wrongdoers, for which VanDerWerff deserves some credit.

Enough about VanDerWerff. The interview is worth linking because it is good to hear Fall’s voice at last. I am gutted to learn that Isabel Fall had more stories to tell, and has decided not to tell them. I hope that someday, somehow, that will change, in this life or the next, because this is somebody who not only got into Clarkesworld, but deserved to be there.

I say that as someone who has submitted fiction to Clarkesworld. My submission was rejected by a form letter within 48 hoursand I agree it was not Clarkesworld-quality. (I almost, almost got my story in at Andromeda Spaceways, which was more my level, and I’m still depressed about missing the final cut.) Not a lot of people are capable of Clarkesworld-quality short fiction, and it’s a tragic waste to drive one of them out of the field.

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A Bye-Ku for John Delaney

A Bye-Ku for John Delaney

A 2020 guest series by Anne Maloney, inspired by James Taranto.

Rich white guy, but the
Wrong sort of one percenter.
Really, though: John Who?

Editor’s Note: This bye-ku was late due to an error by the editor. Anne Maloney authored a bye-ku for Rep. Delaney just six hours after he suspended his campaign and just three hours after Mrs. Maloney learned of Rep. Delaney’s existence.

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Occasional Reminder: Planned Parenthood Sells Baby Parts

[You can see this footage in context here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCiD9_ICt44 (skip to about 5:03:00) ]

It’s worth remembering that Planned Parenthood kills babies and then sells the body parts.

Planned Parenthood insists that it doesn’t technically gain any profits from these sales, which inspires two responses:

(1) Who cares whether they technically profit or not? Selling baby parts is a particularly ghoulish epilogue to a barbaric practice, and “we sold their innocent, mutilated flesh to research scientists” doesn’t make it any better.

(2) As it happens, Planned Parenthood is demonstrably lying. They absolutely do profit off the sale of baby parts. They scream at the top of their lungs that they don’t (they have to; selling baby parts is illegal). Some outlets dutifully reprint their lies as though it were the last word in the discussion. Nevertheless, Planned Parenthood is demonstrably lying.

Here are the videos proving it: http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/cmp/investigative-footage/

You can watch the short “highlight reel” clips or the full multihour unedited videos. The highlight reels are punchier, but the multihour videos are more damning, as the weight of evidence just builds up and up and up.

Planned Parenthood defended itself by claiming the videos were “deceptively edited.” This, too, was a lie. Here is the independent forensic audit by Coalfire Systems (a company with no interest in the matter, commissioned by Alliance Defending Freedom) which proves it: http://www.adfmedia.org/files/CoalfireCMPvideosReport.pdf

Perhaps you prefer wading through documentary evidence? Try the document vault here: http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/human-capital/document-vault/

If that doesn’t do it for you, read the report of the United States Congress Select Committee that investigated these allegations: Final Report of the Select Investigative Panel

They produced 15 criminal referrals. Unfortunately, the evidence needed to convict was mostly locked up in states with non-cooperative Attorneys General. We must hope that today’s ongoing investigations eventually yield indictments.

Planned Parenthood sells baby parts, at market prices, and uses the profits to pad its bottom line. As in the Gosnell murders, where pro-choice state regulators turned a blind eye to rampant abuses of mothers and aborted children alike, Planned Parenthood is able to use the political power of the abortion industry to evade legal scrutiny. As the biggest abortion provider in the country, with a body count of 345,672 in 2018, nobody is better positioned to do so.

Planned Parenthood receives approximately $500 million/year through taxpayer-funded Medicaid. All Democrats currently running for President wish to increase this funding and expand it to include Title X as well.

Happy 47th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. May it finally be the last.

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A Bye-Ku for Julian Castro

A 2020 guest series by Anne Maloney, inspired by James Taranto.

A Bye-Ku for Julian Castro

Dems get whiter as
“post-Hispanic” guy leaves: not
The next Obama.

Julian Castro looking just a little bit silly.
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