People and societies evolve – sometimes – and a lot of the times, things formerly unheard of get normalized through vigorous public campaigns that heavily utilize the media.
It seems – or otherwise our civilization would not progress – most of the time this happens for the good, sometimes for the bad (just think of fascism in the 20th century).
And, let’s be fair, sometimes – for seemingly unfathomable reasons.
Promotion of personal liberties, including sexual, and then gender-related ones, has been a major “policy” priority in what are perceived as Western democracies over the past decade or so – at least in the way major traditional media are presenting the subject.
These are some of the big picture questions raised by the case of an Australian journalist, Julie Szego, who claims that she has been let go at The Age for her take on the transgender-related reporting.
Other notable Australian news sources are saying that The Age has basically “sacked one of its star columnists” because she made her audiences aware that the newspaper would not print her article related to youth gender transition.
It’s controversy all the way down, at this point – the issues of democracy, free speech, free press, personal freedom – and whether or not humans not yet eligible to vote, drive, or get married – should be given the right to make literally life-changing and utterly dramatic decisions, such as changing their gender.
In a piece published on the aptly named “UnHerd” platform, Szego details her professional plight at The Age, and explains that the article the publication refused to published had to do with “the growing debate around ‘affirming’ care for children and teens in gender distress, and the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.”
Szego was recently dismissed following a series of events that escalated tensions between her and the newspaper’s editor, Patrick Elligett. Szego’s dismissal was primarily due to her views on gender-identity politics, she says, and a feature article she wrote on youth gender transition, which The Age refused to publish.
Throughout her career, she often enjoyed a harmonious relationship with the newspaper. However, about two years ago, tensions began to rise over her stand on gender-identity politics and how it should be covered.
The breaking point came when Szego decided to publish a feature on youth gender transition, a piece initially commissioned by a former editor but later rejected by Elligett. She expressed her intentions to publish the article on her Substack and disclosed that it was refused by The Age. This led to an outpouring of support from readers and gender skeptics on Twitter, who criticized The Age under the hashtag “gutless.”
Elligett cited Szego’s public criticism of The Age’s editorial process as the reason for her dismissal. She had mentioned in her launch statement that she would be writing about gender-identity politics “without the copy being rendered unreadable by a committee of woke journalists redacting words they deem incendiary, such as ‘male,’”
“No debate” is how Szego describes the attitude toward the subject in Australia’s “liberal media.”
