Mass acceptance of Elliot Page's gender transition is dangerous whimsy

Ellen Page, the actor best known for Juno and Inception, announced December 1 on social media that she is now transgender, and she will be known as Elliot Page. There are a few problems with this for her and for the rest of us, observing the new gender whirlwind known as the transgender contagion that's catching Hollywood, the media, and because of this, the rest of us, by storm.

Page came out in 2014 as lesbian and married her partner, Emma Portner. A few years later, she's now ditching that—hopefully her lesbian wife is okay with this—and is now relishing the role of transgender. Whether she'll transition to male in any form, socially or medically, remains to be seen.

Portner said of Page's change: "I am so proud of @elliotpage. Trans, queer and non-binary people are a gift to this world. I also ask for patience & privacy but that you join me in the fervent support of trans life every single day. Elliot’s existence is a gift in and of itself. Shine on sweet E. Love you so much."

The mainstream media jumped on board Page's news and immediately began referring to Page, who has been female for 33 years, and won acting awards in women's categories, as a male, using her preferred pronouns which are now "he" and "they." Publications like Variety, Newsweek, CNN and the Hollywood Reporter are all instantly referring to Ellen Page the lesbian actor, a "she," as Elliot Page, the now transgender actor, a "he" or "they."

This is incredibly disingenuous and leaves the rest of us outside Hollywood with two choices: We must pretend this is a joke, and embrace the hilarity of it. Or, we must believe that this is serious and then we must take it seriously and beg for Hollywood—and everyone else Hollywood influences along these lines—to stop it right now in the name of health, sanity, logic, and common sense.

Page's announcement and the progressive media publishing the new name, gender, and preferred pronouns immediately actually does come at a societal cost, however immaterial. For one, this erases lesbians, one of whom is married to the person formerly known as Ellen Page. If lesbians are merely confused about their gender and are actually transgender, aren't they non binary? At the very least, they're not lesbian anymore. What of this group of women, for whom the LGBT community swears to embrace and protect? Where is the recognition and honor for their humanity?

Second, this trend really does continue to erase women, straight and gay alike. For an entire industry like Hollywood, whose top ten goals in life are to eradicate the patriarchy, or specifically white males, this is some kind of dystopian, Orwellian, full circle Inception-level idiocy.

Soon we will live in a world where men are taught to act like sissy women and women are taught to be like men with surgically-replaced genitalia. It won't be nearly as utopian as you imagine. Androgyny is hardly sexy, appealing, or modern: It's been around for millennia and society never does well once it begins to embrace it (see: Rome).

The asks of trans ideologues are increasing in confusion. It's almost as though the purveyors of this discourse are actively trying to make us abandon our own ideas as to what men and women are, as to what biological sex is, and they're using the language of acceptance and compassion to do it.

Hollywood and media tell us that every new gender identity that a person comes up with to define their relationship to their own bodies is meant to be swallowed whole, and without questioning the obvious contradictions. Such as: If there is no gender binary, then why is there a hard line between transitioning from on to the other? If a person is a non-binary lesbian, how can she be both? How can Page change genders if there actually is no gender binary?

This kind of behavior and linguistic confusion comes across as farcical, but it's deadly serious and speaks to a greater trend: the erasure of lesbians in society. Page is proactively reducing women, gay or straight, to the existence of their choosing based on their feelings. This means that there is nothing about women that is particularly important, or needing of specific kind of reproductive medical care, or in need of safe spaces. This is neither a safe, nor practical place to be for them or the rest of us, particularly women and children.

Where does the self-identity movement stop? Can a person identify as a different age? Are all sexual proclivities meant to be celebrated? And if not, why not? By erasing the concept of male and female as innate characteristics and replacing it with emotionally driven identities that are based in sex-stereotypes, we are undermining human nature and removing some of what our moral understanding is based on.

If actors, actresses, theys and thems want to proclaim their gender whimsy to the world, they are at liberty to do so. But the public at large is also at liberty to ignore it, to not celebrate it, and should not feel beholden to change the structure of language based on a celebrity's desire.

Hollywood and the media should stop allowing succumbing to celebrities fantasies and broadcasting it across media as though it is the correct and moral thing to do: it isn't. Attempting to wholesale change the way that an entire society understands the scientific concept of biological sex simply to appease a few celebrities is insane. In taking up linguistic arms for Page, media and Hollywood engage in a fantasy, albeit one that appears to be in vogue right now. But it is the gaslighting of an entire collective.

A healthy society should not more believe a person can change his or her gender  than they can wake up one day and swim in the ocean like a dolphin or walk on a Hollywood set and claim to be an award winning actor. People will not or should not be gas lit into believing that others can change their entire identity, name, gender, or social status on a mere whim—it's fantastical, unsound, and harmful to society.