Sofie Hagen, a Danish comedian who advocates for fat acceptance and women, now identifies as Non-Binary or "trans" as she says.

submitted by Jekawi from self.GenderCritical

She's written that she doesn't consider herself a woman but a person and that she feels like throwing up every time she's identified as female.

I... I can't. She was a comedian I discovered through listening to the Guilty Feminist. Although I found her stances, at times, to be a bit strong, I admired her for advocating for acceptance of fat bodies and for seemingly unabashedly loving her own.

I honestly am conflicted in how I feel because it's none of my business, but I do feel that it's a... Betrayal? But I can't necessarily identify why. Maybe it's because it seems to me that with her focus on her body and dislike for most of her life of her weight, in this day and age it's easier to transfer that dislike onto gender. But then also all her accounts of experiences being female.. It's like her being non binary now is more a rejection of her femininity than an actual thing.

Also, on a side note, are non binary people also considered trans?

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[–]Shinjin_Nana 41 insightful - 3 fun41 insightful - 2 fun42 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

"she feels like throwing up every time she's identified as female."

Now there's a mental illness. She needs a psychologist. Not trans stuff.

[–]Realwoman 19 insightful - 2 fun19 insightful - 1 fun20 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Yep, in addition to her needing to take her physical health seriously, too.

[–]immersang 18 insightful - 2 fun18 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

It's also extremely offensive. Try replacing "female" with anything around race / ethnicity, proclaim you feel like throwing up when people think you are ethnicity x and see how well that goes down.

[–]materialrealityplz 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's what I think everytime I read about trans stuff. Some of them sure, might need the extreme surgery, idk. But most of them just need help to work through their problems. So many women hate their bodies. Telling women that being some 'non-binary' or trans shit will help them is not the way.

[–]Jekawi[S] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Definitely mental illness sounding

[–]Killer_Danish 37 insightful - 4 fun37 insightful - 3 fun38 insightful - 4 fun -  (5 children)

NB/trans is the new "not like other girls"

[–]sisterinsomnia 21 insightful - 3 fun21 insightful - 2 fun22 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

Exactly. I think of it as trying to write a private contract with patriarchy if you are female: "Psst, misogyny, look over there where the binary women are. I am nonbinary!"

[–]worried19 13 insightful - 6 fun13 insightful - 5 fun14 insightful - 6 fun -  (3 children)

I had a conversation with someone on Reddit who insisted that any misogyny directed at them was "misdirected misogyny" because they were not female and not a woman.

[–]PassionateIntensity 23 insightful - 1 fun23 insightful - 0 fun24 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think she just hates herself. It's sad, not brave. I predict IDing this way will just make her mental health worse.

[–]Jekawi[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Because she can't go back. If in a couple of years/months she realised this was a mistake... She'd be crucified

[–]materialrealityplz 22 insightful - 2 fun22 insightful - 1 fun23 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

In the broadest sense non-binary fall under the trans umbrella, yeah. We are all basically trans, lol. Cause who isn't non-binary in some way? :P

For me, 'non-binary' is cowardly because it's throwing away the fight against stupid stereotypes on women (and men) and instead reinforces them. They think they are too unique to be a women. Now we are called 'uterus-havers' in part to be inclusive to these people who pretend they don't have female bodies and are different from us other women - cause you know, we are just walking stereotypes of femininity.

[–]Jekawi[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

100%

[–]Realwoman 19 insightful - 2 fun19 insightful - 1 fun20 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

It's not that surprising that someone that denies science will start following the TRA movement.

[–]Feather 25 insightful - 2 fun25 insightful - 1 fun26 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Yes, this is not surprising.

I've noticed that people with the more extreme ideologies in the fat acceptance movement (ideologies that include things like, "Being obese can be healthy,") have had less to say now that Covid has made it unambiguously clear that obesity is a pre-existing condition. I doubt anybody ever actually believed that rhetoric in the first place, but it sounds more absurd than ever now.

Since, "Fat can be healthy," now goes over like a lead balloon, people who focused on that message have to choose something else to make them seem oppressed.

[–]Realwoman 19 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 0 fun20 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yep, both fat acceptance and the trans cult rest on denial of science.

[–]Jekawi[S] 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

From my understanding of the fat acceptance part, it wasn't about promoting it as healthy, but about embracing your body as yours and rejecting societies harsh harsh criticisms about things that don't concern them. Yeah she's overweight, but why do I judge her badly for it? Doesn't affect me. That sort of thing.

[–]Realwoman 14 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 0 fun15 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Yeah, that used to be my understanding, too, but just like the TRA movement, they're deep in science denial now and claim that weight has nothing to do with health and that morbid obesity is healthy. Also, they claim that calories don't matter and that calorie restriction doesn't work, somehow they all eat 800 calories a day and they still gain weight. Some fat activists have been caught blatantly lying about how athletic they are and about running marathons. They all claim to be healthy but they're either lying or they're still young and the effects of obesity just haven't shown up yet but they certainly will within a few years.

Fat acceptance is not a movement to end bullying. It's a dangerous movement that tells lies and urges overweight and obese people to do nothing to reduce their weight, thus crippling them with serious health problems. Type 2 diabetes amputations are on the rise and guess what is the main risk factor for type 2 diabetes - obesity. I know someone that had their limb chopped off at a relatively young age and trust me, that's a terrible thing to go through and live with. And that's just one of the numerous problems obesity causes. Fat activists are promoting lifelong suffering.

Not to mention the way they often talk about fat women and their bodies. They have a problem with thin women's bodies being viewed as desirable and then they go ahead and do their best to have fat women objectified, too! They don't want to end the objectification of women, they want to include more women in objectification.

[–]immersang 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

somehow they all eat 800 calories a day and they still gain weight

That was a co-worker of mine from a few years back. Kept loudly proclaiming how all she eats is salad and she's still gaining weight when everyone could see she was obviously lying - at least to us and possibly also to herself. (And not just in the "well, this obviously CAN'T be true" kind of way, but in the actual "everyone can see her eating chocolate and cookies every day" kind of way.)

I still wonder if she thought that claiming it as often as possible and as loudly as possible would somehow make it true.

[–]Realwoman 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, there is an obvious mental health issue there, sadly. Binge eating disorder is the most prevalent eating disorder and it carries very serious risks. The fat acceptance movement is actively harming people like that.

[–]Spikygrasspod 17 insightful - 1 fun17 insightful - 0 fun18 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Maybe it feels like a betrayal because her internalised misogyny is now externalised--it's spilling out onto us, too. She feels like throwing up when she's correctly identified as female? Why? Because it's so disgusting to have a female body that you need to retch? I sympathise, to an extent. I also struggle with internalised misogyny. Those values were imprinted on me at a subconscious level, so I can't get rid of them. But I sure as fuck am not going to hurt other women by explicitly endorsing those values.

[–]Jekawi[S] 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh that hits the spot. Yeah. Seeing someone who is undeniably female saying that being identified so makes her want to throw up... It's like "but what's wrong with being female? :(" it seems so... Unfeminist.

[–]sisterinsomnia 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So sad, really. She feels like throwing up every time she is identified as female, perhaps partly because of the misogyny and sexism in the society. But by admitting this, she may be adding to the misogyny and sexism in the society.

[–]Anna_Nym 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I know this helps people because I have acquaintances who have made the woman to non-binary identification switch.

But I don't understand how it helps. I'm not familiar with this comedian, so maybe she plans some form of medical transition. In the cases of the people I know, they did not transition in any way. So all they did was replace their biologically accurate label with a made-up label. At some level, they must know that everyone they interact with will still correctly identify them as women. What has actually changed?

It also does feel like externalising the misogyny as Spikeygrasspod says. Instead of broadening possibilities for women (correctly!), it's narrowing them.

[–]Ossidiana 8 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Well she started with "fat acceptance". The slippery slope from "how dare you have body type preferences?" to "how dare you only want to fuck one biological gender?" wasn't that difficult.

[–]Shesstealthy 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I've always considered myself a person and a feeeemale but that doesn't make me trans or nb ffs this is getting ridiculous.