Rod Dreher said not too long ago at his blog at The American Conservative web site that transgenderism was likely to steamroll its opposition just as same-sex marriage did because its narrative is so appealing: oppressed minority seeking liberty and equality, and so on (the same goes for BLM/Antifa Wokeism). Senator Mike Fesi gives us a perfect illustration of this. He pulled his perfectly sensible bill requiring children to get approval of both parents before ‘gender therapy’ could begin because of testimony like this from a transgender LSU student:
“We are told we are somehow unworthy, we are told we are sick and not worth investing into to, we are often denied housing and employment, we also do not need to be denied care.”
The raw emotionalism of the argument is what makes it so effective. However, sentimentalism, despite all the spectacle that accompanies it, is shallow. It can be overcome if challenged in the right way.
One of the most compelling arguments against the moral revolutions offered to us by transgenderism, etc., is beauty. It is not simply its harmony and proportion, its unity amidst variety, that makes it so attractive. There is a mystical side as well: True beauty is inseparable from truth and goodness (i.e., perfection, virtue).
Thus, the truth that there are two sexes, male and female, can be portrayed by holding up examples of the beauty of classical sculptures of men and women from ancient Greece.
The truth that the natural, Christian family (mother, father, etc.) is the best way to raise children can be illustrated by offering pictures and narratives of those very families.
It should also be stressed that beauty begets beauty. Whether it is the more Platonic, geometric beauty of the Western cathedrals, or the more ascetic, mystical beauty of the Eastern churches, disordered souls do not create beauty; they destroy it. This is plainly seen in the riots, arson, looting, and so forth of BLM/Antifa over the past year after George Floyd’s death. But once again, there is a counter to this specific issue as well, for the beauty of the monasticism that flourished in Africa in the 4th-5th centuries thanks to Saints like Anthony the Great, Pachomius, and Macarius, show that it is self-denial that is key to greatness, not ego-driven selfishness for rights or possessions. Of Africa under their influence, Rufinus writes,
. . .
The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2021/04/garlington-countering-ugly-wokeism-with-beauty/ .
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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