By Stephen Dietrich, Managing Editor
A lot has been made of identity politics by my fellow conservatives.
Some criticisms are fair, while some fall into a familiar trap — hyperbole.
Conservatives like myself can be just as guilty as the left of living in an opinion echo chamber, and it can lead to overblown rants about liberalism.
I say all of this for one reason — to show how very serious I am when I say:
The article, “Biphobia and the Pulse Massacre” is literally the worst thing I’ve ever read.
In it, the author, Elle Dowd, talks about her emotional reaction to the Orlando massacre as a bisexual woman.
The piece — chock full of made up gender identity buzzwords* that make little sense — has gone viral on social media. So I feel compelled to respond.
I don’t blame Dowd for having an emotional reaction to the terror attack in Florida. Nearly 100 Americans were senselessly gunned down — 49 of whom were killed — by an Islamic terrorist on a homophobic rampage this weekend.
It was a horrifying event.
But the author isn’t disturbed by radical Islamic terror, or by the slaughter of innocent people. She is not upset about gun rights or the victims or politics or the well being of her family.
She’s upset because she’s being excluded from pity.
No, really. It’s jaw dropping.
The article is a thousand word extravaganza of mental gymnastics, where Dowd laments that no one recognizes her as a victim of the Orlando massacre.
It is identity politics at it’s very worst, and proves there is some compelling need among the left to feel emotional martyrdom.
Dowd is upset, because Islamic terror against homosexuals doesn’t get her enough attention.
Why? She’s married to a man and they have a daughter together.
Dowd is bisexual, she says, but no one seems to care. And that makes her sad.
One, two, skip-a-few steps, and a 1,000 words later Dowd arrives at the conclusion that Islamic extremists killing strangers should give her special status.
Confused? I’ll explain.
Dowd complains that, because she is married to a man and a mother, no one assumes she’s gay — Dowd insists she is both 100% gay and 100% straight (???).
She’s surrounded by supportive loving people, Dowd says, and she doesn’t get spit on or yelled at for being bisexual. Dowd calls it “passing privilege” and it’s a struggle.
In this author’s world, the fact that she’s not discriminated against makes her very discriminated against.
“But the horrible thing about ‘passing privilege’ is the closeting, the erasure. And never have I felt that so keenly as I feel it today while I mourn Orlando,” Dowd writes.
It all comes down to the fact that people ignore her sexual identity (she calls it “bi erasing”).
“It means I feel alone a lot. Kissing my partner produces no hateful response from society (a privilege). So… where is my resistance? I must be doing this wrong,” Dowd says.
In other words, she feels isolated and guilty and wrong, because when an Islamic terrorist killed people, he didn’t specifically know he was supposed to hate her for her sexual identity.
She asks another bisexual friend for advice, who affirms for her that this identity is most important.
“Bi erasure shouldn’t be another effect of this violence,” Dowd’s friend texts her.
Dowd repeats that line twice, to really drive it home to the reader . The 49 dead Americans — riddled with bullet holes, who died screaming and begging for their life at the hands of a merciless Islamic terrorist — caused her to be a victim.
It’s a glimpse into the walking insanity of modern liberalism.
Dowd is a strong writer. She seems to be a loving mother and has a handsome husband and friends who care about her. That’s something to be proud of — but to her, it’s a story of victimization, and that way, the Orlando massacre is about her struggles.
The article is a personification of everything that is wrong with politically correct identity politics. This insane cult that worships at the alter of victimhood needs to stop.
Like I said, it really was the worst article I’ve ever read.
— Stephen Dietrich is the Managing Editor of The Horn News.
*[For example, her husband is “cishet” (A straight heterosexual man), she is “high femme gender presentation” (a woman that looks like a woman), and the “patriarchal male gaze of heteronormative culture” (men checking out women) is apparently just awful.]
The only conclusion I can draw from her dilemma is that she’s a “D E M O C R A T” plain and simple – enough said.
I agree and looking for legislation to validate her behavior
I think she just wants attention and is willing to demean herself to get it!
What she needs is a shrink.
LOL!!! Great response….
She sounds nearly as loony as Li’l Lyin’ Donnie Trump.
You are an idiot!!
Plain and simple and that has nothing to with you being a democrat, or does it?
Oh my God! Her poor HUSBAND!! What a holy load of crap that is for HIM!! She’s LONELY??- just imagine what that poor guy must be going through, knowing that his wife feels lonely with just him in the marriage- she should be put in prison for such horrid adulterous CRAP she has inflicted upon her husband and daughter. In fact there should be laws put in place making it illegal for gay people to marry the opposite sex unless there is full disclosure about it prior to getting married, and if they “come out” afterward, there should be at least 10 years in jail for the offender keeping such volatile info from their spouse!! What a freaky nightmare!
Man, there is no marriage in a relationship labeled as: it’s only about “ME”. That is just so insane I can’t even stand it- where’s the local looney bin- they would keep her company 24/7… 😉
So it’s surprising that this writers ego is offended?
Look at out current President the Democratic and Republican candidates, 3 egos who speak past each other and the people who are living their lives every single day. This woman is not surprising but a personification of our leadershipless and myopic view of the less than so intellectual class.
Bill F
I believe you might be wrong. After all it’s the republicans that are caught in the closet
Another screwed up member of the Politically Correct Army of the Constantly Offended. What hell to wake up very morning and wonder “What will offend me today”.
Another screwed up member of the Politically Correct Army of the Constantly Offended. What hell to wake up very morning and wonder “What will offend me today”.
Shouldn’t DOWD be out on a ledge somewhere with people down below screaming, JUMP, JUMP, JUMP?
don’t think this commentary is as bad as those threatening to shoot up the next nra convention
How did this incident have anything to do with her she wasn’t even there how stupid is she what a dumb broad people like her are just dumb her story should be stricken from the record stricken from f****** the internet tell him to go home and take care of her children
It sounds like this woman has mental problems. Hopefully the government has her on the list of people that should not be allowed to buy a gun.
I’ve seen several attention seekers over the past few days who have tried to elicit sympathy for themselves by mentioning the nightclub massacre. Keep in mind these pity seekers have no connection with the event. We should try to come up with a name for this mental disorder.
I’m pro life. How many babies are slaughtered each day in America? Where is the grief for those truly innocent humans? Where is the anger of society as a whole that not only are the babies being slaughtered but abortion providers are growing wealthy off the practice and off the “parting out” of their victims’ bodies? Yes, what happened in Orlando was a tragedy, but there are greater casualty counts each day in America than what happened in a gay bar on an early Sunday morning.
Thank you!
This may sound cruel but until the government allows a tax deduction for the unborn they will do nothing about abortion that has meaning.
I’m a retired psychiatrist that specialized in psycho-sexual disorders in Southern California. There is “reams of subjective data” showing that bi-sexuality is a choice, so there should be no “victimhood issues” unless there are other, unassociated psychological contexts on an individual basis. From my experience, I’ve never talked or counselled a patient who was bisexual AND male (which is an interesting observation all in itself, I might add) – my experience is exclusively with married women, many with children and all with husbands. Most of the personal issues raised during counselling have arisen due to married women who attempt to have both a male-female plus a female-female relationship. There is no issue until about the 2nd year of the dual relationship. Operating this type of “dual sexual-emotional relationship” is emotionally and physically taxing especially when husbands are excluded. Try to picture a woman attempting to be a mother, usually holding down a job, interact with her husband, AND try to satisfy a co-dependent female companion, as well. As you would expect there is sexual and emotional deprivation on the part of most of the husbands (“sexual threesomes” tend to be like the old saying “two is company, three is a crowd”), desires to “move in” on the husband-wife relationship by the female partner of the wife (the sole reason for the relationship from the partners point of view is love, affection, and a desire for a partner, as well…..so the husband is ultimately seen a “competition” which causes friction in the female-female relationship), and children issues when they become of age to see this not-so-equal, 3 way relationship, which has a tendency to exclude the children, due to the complexities of a bisexual lifestyle.
Forgive my phraseology, but you cannot have it both ways, indefinitely. So most women who come to me to “talk” have serious guilt and self-induced identity issues. They want to experiment as lesbians but they also want the emotional and financial security of “home and family” and “feel normal again”. Its essentially the same a “straight man” who is having an affair on his unknowing wife – unless you are extremely calloused, you will have trouble assimilating to your lifestyle. Of course I never see the “calloused type” since they have no issues with guilt or victimization of self.
What is more serious with this woman is her obvious calling out for help, but doing so with “blame-shifting”. You take on the mantle of “victimhood” in an attempt to self-satisfy stressful mental issues in your own life that you don’t want to deal with (or cannot deal with) – hence the “blame-shifting”. This type of activity is what those with alcohol addiction adhere to until they enter into “rehab” – the necessary 1st step is “owning the problem”. Obviously this woman refuses to own the problem and is attempting to “share” her problem with everyone else thru victimization and hiding behind social warrior demagoguery. Feel free to comment as this is merely my accumulation of experience of 45 years of counselling myriads of patients with such problems.
And a caveat to the comment above about “…..Hopefully the government has her on the list of people that should not be allowed to buy a gun.”
At this time, there is no legal way to enter her on any type of list. It is illegal, and I could lose my license and spend time in jail for forwarding ANY psychiatric or even medical information to ANY government agency on ANYONE unless I was subjected to a court order to expose my medical records – its in HIPPA and “doctor-patient” confidentiality. Even then, I could be targeted in a civil suit by the patient or patient’s family. That’s why I no longer practice (and many of my associates are doing the same) – I am forbidden from notifying any agency concerning any potential adverse behavior on the part of my patients. I cannot even notify the government concerning a patient with a serious psychiatric disorder goes off “the radar” and no longer comes in for treatment or knowingly stops his/her meds. I lost considerable sleep over this and still do at times………..
Excellent comment. I hope you have reconsidered a gone back in to practice. Medicine needs more “old timers “.
I want to play Devil’s advocate and ask you to replace this woman with Obama and these killings. I read that Obama is gay. He might be a bi since he is married. He is Muslim. Mateem was also gay or bi and a Muslim. The Muslim religion is against gays and believes in killing them. Mateen went on a personal rage to free himself of sin by killing gays and being killed for killing them thus making him a Martyr. His comments to his God when he did this was for his salvation. If Obama is in the same guilt ridden position as Mateem and this woman, is it possible that is why Obama is going to extremes to do all he can to make Americans uncomfortable beca
I read that Obama likes older white males to perform oral sex on him. I read a list of some of his partners. If he is trying to cleanse himself by making us suffer with all of his executive orders and putting fear into us and possibly putting his life in danger thus ending up as a martyr, is this a possibility?
Amen. She is an attention seeker. A narcissist. Aborted innocent children are vastly more important than perverts. All lives are important, but there should be an order of importance.
I wouldn’t label her “narcissistic” but definitely self-centered and unwilling to own her own behavior – a bisexual behavior that she decided to experiment with and now cannot extract herself from. She fails to understand she must choose either the husband + family (and all that lifestyle entails) or leave the (usually) more stable family matrix and move in solely with the girlfriend. Lesbian relationships are difficult but doable, BUT don’t let ANY from the gay community misslead you,……lesbian relationships are “tough” especially on the “wife”. (just follow Ellen Degeneres and her “marital” issues over the years.)
This woman CANNOT have it both ways (which is very rare unless both the male and female partner are in 100% agreement with the relationship – factor in children and I’ve never seen such a cohesive, four-was environment survive in my 45 years of practice).
FINAL THOUGHT – what you see now with our liberal protagonists is epidemic, cross-the-board, failure to accept responsibility for ones own choices and unhealthy behavior activities. The result of taking NO responsibility, is, logically, blame-shift (“taking on the mantle of victimhood”) and the development of “neologisms”. By inventing of new words/terms to explain away your behavior, you adhere to “transference” or moving the responsibility from yourself to others or “society in general” . That way its not your fault, you don’t have to deal with any of the ramifications of your actions or behaviors, and you get to compartmentalize your problems under “its someone else’s fault”. I see this as the center point believe system of “Black Lives Matter”. The behavior will come down on our heads as more and more of our population gives in to blame-shifting. This thought system fits in well with the “bigger government model” of the left – it fits, supports, and become a “self-evident truth” (indirectly) for the establishment of the “nanny state” since it is obvious the victims need a savior and an advocate – the Federal Government.
Very well put Justin. I agree 110 %
You are 100% correct, well said.
Tell her to GET a life…. Stop trying to INVENT one that is a façade hopping back and forth. Feel lucky that she was NOT included that terrible hateful day. People today spend so much time insisting on being individuals (Islands) that spell their names differently and beyond pronunciation, or dress differently or, speak and act differently. It is true that we are all very unique, each one …BUT… when we come to finally realize that we really want to be part of something bigger than ourselves we have to admit that ….. being “ONE” with the whole is what we all seem to ultimately reach for. “We are one” is a much better slogan than “I am One”. Tell her to get on board and stop being so lonely…. Tell her to CHILL. She’ll be OK….
Maybe now some radical nut will satisfy her need and make her a real victim the next time.
Her husband must be really happy to see posts like this. Either he should be ashamed that he cannot satisfy her cravings or that she brings another with the same desires to bed with them. Either way it gets really strange. Now her other crisis of “who am I and why am I being ignored’? She should be happy about the fact she can lead what appears to be a normal life instead of being zeroed in on and talked about. If she has a kid, imagine how they kid will feel once it can start to think on its own. What is wrong with mommy? The Democrat way of thinking kind of reminds me of the Chicken Little story of the sky is falling, the sky is falling. This party has taken anything it can find and has used it to further its cause to drive this nation into a socialist nation controlled by the democratic elect much like our foes in Europe and Asia. Control the masses as they know what is best for them while slowly eroding away their rights and ability to fight back against an oppressive government that has gone out of control and now doesn’t even resemble the government we had just 50 years ago. It is a wonder that we have allowed such losers to try and lead our nation and how they have been able to manipulate the citizens to enrich themselves with more power and wealth. Our political leaders and SCOTUS have undermined the very Constitution that was set up specifically and simply put so that our leaders could NOT subvert or corrupt in leadership roles but currently we have not put it to task to remove the cancer that is leading to the destruction of our government. People like this woman who want attention should have been referred to mental health facilities as no normal person would think this way. The days of the individual, of no losers and no winners, of fractionalizing the population in the USA into groups based on sexual orientation, race, ethnic background, economic levels, and social economic levels is only dividing us up for easy picking by the very people we put in office. This has to stop. We can no longer tolerate extremes of PC this way or that way if we are to survive. We need to be a nation made up of individuals who have come together, man, woman, or what ever, with a common goal of being the greatest nation in the world and the guiding light of freedom for others to follow.
Well said! Hope it doesn’t fall on deaf ears as usual.
Well said!
Dave, you have a succinct grip on the issue. It would seem most of our Democratic leaders are believers (directly or indirectly) in the writings of Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals. If you can divide a population, into its components, you can “conquer” that population – like how do you break 20 stick tied together. Simple, …..untie them and break them one at a time. Our leaders have given each demographic/political/racial group in this country there own “victimhood”. As a result, they fine-tune their “political manoevering” to get votes (their only concern related to each any every group we have in this country) specifically for that people-group. If you impress “victimhood” on each group, tailor-made for each group, that group (one by one) become introspective, bitter, resentful, protective, and closed…..and of course the political party (most often seen to be the Democratic Party) then becomes the sole “savior” for that people group. During the October 1917 Communist Revolution, that is EXACTLY what was done according to Trotsky and Lenin. Our country’s citizens, I feel, have been divided and conquered, already. We now have to move back to “the greatest good for the greatest number” and “Not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” – John F. Kennedy. Otherwise, we will no longer be the USA but a mirror image of Greece, Italy, or Portugal (and to some extent, France). Our leader will “sell” us to the highest bidder, steal our rights/privileges, and turn us into a sterilized, victimized, minimized group of people without soul, purpose, or vitality. It will have been “beaten” out of us without even touching us.
Yes and my vitimhood is moe holy than yours. Ergo I win!
-BHO
Obama is like Dowd. Dowd is like Mateem. We have to make sure that nobody takes away our American rights and privileges.
had to read this post twice but still cannot understand it. But then again I am not a liberal………
She is one sick puppy who is in dire need of being incarcerated for mental health evaluation. She is obviously a threat to herself as well as society with her current mental/identity status.
Far too many ‘entitlement groups’ see themselves in this very same light. Poor, poor, pitiful me.
As long as they continue to be catered to as they are, nothing will change in this country. Think of how many ‘hyphenated’ groups there are in America, the social ‘niches’ that are exceptions to society at large.
Its time for the over privleged to put on the big person shorts and join the real world.
She’s a nut
She or He could wake up tomorrow and decide she is a man, or a Black person or a mexican. This is the stupidity on the Communist progressive Democrat crime party
Why do these people insist on making targets out of themselves by bragging about their lifestyle? To the homosexual hater a gay parade presents the same target as a gun-free zone does to a mental case who just wants to kill. If it was me, I think I’d stay home and not talk about it.
The people in the gay parades dress like clowns to appeal to children. Adults just laugh at their pathetic antics. They are trolling for children.
This women is completely out of her mind. No feelings for the murdered only for herself.
100 % gay 100 % straight that’s 200 % ?????????
This is one sick pathetic piece of flesh who actually exists around sane people. UNBELIEVABLE!! Where in the hell do they come from? If anything she needs to walk toward the LIGHT instead of DARKNESS or she will be damaged for the remainder of her life.
O.M.G…getting mileage from someone else’s tragedy…if that isn’t the most narcissistic bunch of crap I have heard in a while!!! Thanks for addressing her stupid rant. God help us.
In my honest opinion she sounds like someone suffering from Munchausen syndrome* because she is not getting enough attention for being bisexual. Frankly my dear Ms. Dowd, I doubt very much if anyone truly cares whether or not you are gay, bi-sexual or straight as an arrow because sex is a subject meant strictly between two people and not a topic of conversation for the general public, or at least that is how it used to be. Now people with the LGBT agenda wants to put it out there for the whole world to see like a little self-centered child screaming “Look at Me”. As for me, I don’t really want to know what goes on behind anyone else’s bedroom door because it is no concern of mine. I believe in “live and let live”, you answer for your own choices on judgment day because God is the only one that is allowed to do so.
” Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27
*Munchausen syndrome, named for Baron von Munchausen, an 18th century German officer who was known for embellishing the stories of his life and experiences, is the most severe type of factitious disorder.
I told my wife as soon as I heard this was a gender club that someone would make this into a gender problem. I feel for these
people and am angry that the have been used to by-pass the real reason. This was done to draw attention away from the real
reason which is terrorism against our country. This monster did this to lesson his true reason. What the world should be doing
now is necessary to destroy this Islamic terrorism. Making it a gun-control problem will not solve a thing. We have to destroy
them.
there is much more that we don’t know than what we do know. But it is obvious that the shooter had a problem with gay men.
As for the number of people killed and injured – more die every day of hospital acquired infections than the total of gun deaths of all kinds, drug overdoses and auto accidents – why don’t we hear about those.
Well, well, well, let’s see now.
Hmmm…
Well, I consider myself to be a more-or-less “normal” person, trying always to do my best in a life — and in a world — that always has its ups & downs, its clarity and confusions, its easy paths and difficult ones, its joyfulness and its sorrows, and all the rest of what life usually entails.
So, using Ms. Dowd’s “logic”, SHOULDN’T I, TOO, “FEEL OFFENDED” that “NOBODY” — and ESPECIALLY NO SAVAGE SCREWED-UP FANATIC WHO STIRS HIS/HER/ITS VILE FORM OF LUNACY INTO A ROILING STEW OF PSEUDO-R3L!G!/OUS PSYCHOSEXUALLY-TWISTED SADOMASOCHISTIC SELF-LOATHING AND MURDEROUS HATRED — has yet seen fit to express his/her/its “displeasure” over MY mildly normal, generally well-meaning, way of living MY life?
Heavens to Murgatroyd! Where of where have I gone WRONG? 😉
For that matter, now that I’ve used the above descriptors, maybe I should “thank my stars” that I’ve just been lucky — SO FAR?
Or maybe I should have filtered by above observations through the crazily convoluted lenses (of which there are too many to keep track of!) of “political correctness”?
But then again, Dear Reader(s), if you feel that YOU are normal and that YOU are okay, then certainly you can’t say that those descriptors apply to YOU?
Think about it. …
But, whatever the case, what of those of us — hopefully good citizens all — who are hard-working and are doing our best to be decent, compassionate, non-screwed-up, human beings, as we also try our best — despite whatever the hardships may be — to share that decency and those positive aspirations with others? Should WE, TOO, now seek to castigate ourselves FOR THAT TOO?
Ah, but with this comment, I’m probably “whistling into the wind” — because maybe the OVERRIDING POINT is NOT what Ms. Dowd opined about, but INSTEAD is about THE CONSEQUENCES THAT ARE GENERATED BY HATRED — versus THE CONSEQUENCES THAT CAN BE GENERATED BY TRYING TO LIVE A LIFE OF WISDOM AND COMPASSION FOR OUR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS.
Or maybe that’s a whole other story, one that modern-day events have already gone a long way toward shoving into the shadows of Oblivion.
Now, if i recall correctly, “Munchausen by proxy”(probably misspelled) is when you get off on the attention you receive from making someone else(usually, your child) sick, right? So Munchausen by itself must mean attention-seeking because you make yourSELF sick, right?
So while this woman doesn’t seem to be making herself PHYSICALLY ill at this time, she’s DEFINITELY seeking attention/sympathy for her imaginary psychological problems (or maybe they AREN’T so imaginary any longer).
So if you had to give this woman a diagnosis, perhaps it might be something along the lines of “Munchausen by imagination” or “Imaginary Munchausen” or something.
“Nutbar with sprinkles” just covers so MANY people that it hardly seems useful in this context…betcha that unless this woman gets a grip, she’ll sabotage her current relationship on purpose – ’cause that’ll get her more negative attention, which she seems to crave.
Elle Dowd seems a compulsively self-absorbed person, more a sociopath than a normally empathetic person. She seems compulsively all about me, me,me. Sick puppy. She would engender pity were she not so typical of today’s young people. USA society has become arrogant and supremely entitled. The reckoning will be ugly.
Number one, her husband should take his child and get out of the house ASAP! This woman??? is obviously a clear & present danger to children and other living things!
Number two, I can’t wait until the revolution really gets going and these people??? actually have to fend for themselves. That’s going to be better entertainment than anything ever shown on the 250+ channels on the satellite! Very amusing indeed!
Is she related to the Clintons?