It was fascinating as well as grim to see trans rights advocates Benjamin Cohen & Adrian Harrop (neither as far as I know is trans) pivot to pro-surrogacy arguments *within hours* of GRA news. Their misogynist envy of female bodies & reproductive capacities couldn't be clearer

Observing this made me realise that I think the campaign against single-sex spaces is - as well as an authentic push for inclusion for vulnerable trans women - an unconscious attack/raid on the female/maternal body. I imagine feminist psychoanalysts might agree?

Commercial surrogacy, which Harrop wants, has just been legalised in New York (Gloria Steinem tried to stop it). Is already legal in California. Since these are among most progressive places in US & given huge scope of US influence (Hollywood, social media, big philanthropy)..

... I think this points to a scary reality for feminists like me: we are going to have to work extremely hard to counter the commodification/marketisation, individualism, anti-humanism & techno-utopianism which have overtaken US sexual politics for reasons I don't understand.

Tho it was illuminating to be reminded by Mrs America that that the Equal Rights Amendment failed. I think European feminists have perhaps been dazzled by American wealth, power, glamour into denying the extent of American sexism.

I mean, did we think US feminists had been more successful than they actually have, because they were so famous? Eg suddenly RBG's achievements look extraordinarily fragile.. I take no pleasure in this btw, I did a year of school in US as a teenager

& love loads of American people & places, books, music. I also haven't really worked this out, am thinking aloud. So please reply, correct me if you think I'm wrong especially if you're a feminist in US or anywhere else..