If you’ve been looking for a sign that we may be nearing an end to the national fever dream that began sometime in the past decade — and that soon we’ll once again live in a country where you can talk about basic facts of life, without losing your job, or getting dog-piled on social media — then what happened last week wasn’t just encouraging, it was proof that we’re well on our way to that destination. That may be hard to believe, but it’s true, and there’s no denying it now.
Last week, for the first time in a very long time, it wasn’t the people who understand human biology, and the differences between men and women, who lost their jobs. It wasn’t the people who value freedom of speech who were publicly humiliated. It wasn’t the civilized and respectful people who had to lock down their accounts in shame. Instead, for once, all those things happened to the censors and the activists who have, for so long, foisted their own mental problems on everyone else. The thugs who can’t win an argument without threats and coercion were the ones backed into a corner for a change.
The premiere of “What is a Woman?” on Twitter proved to be a disastrous moment for these very petty and aggressively stupid authoritarians. As we’ve told you, after The Daily Wire signed a deal with Twitter to stream the film for free to kick off pride month, a faction of dedicated censors within Twitter — many of them holdovers from the pre-Musk era — decided to revolt. They went back on the agreement. They told us the film was hate speech, for the very simple reason that it contained speech they hated. Whatever it took, these activists inside Twitter decided at the last possible moment that you couldn’t be allowed to see any of it. You know the story by now.
Now I say “activists,” but these people are more like zealots. The ideology is what matters to them. Nothing else. That’s why several of these rogue Twitter employees decided to throw away their jobs in order to shut down “What is a Woman?” That’s how dedicated they are to the cult of gender ideology. Even after Elon Musk publicly told Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing that the film would run without any censorship, these activists went ahead and throttled it the moment it went live on Twitter, on the night of June 1st. No one could “like” or “retweet” it. It had a label saying it contained “hateful conduct.” It looked, for a while, as if somehow this pro-censorship faction within Twitter had staged a coup. They had defied Twitter’s owner, and incredibly, at first, it seemed they had gotten what they wanted. But then Elon Musk stepped in, heads rolled, various firings and resignations were reported, and the film was freed from the censorship shackles.
But once the rest of America — the sane ones — had the opportunity to see the film, without any intervention from a small number of gender studies majors in Silicon Valley, it became obvious why the censors were so desperate to shut us down. They were right, in a certain way — not right to do what they did, but right to be afraid of the film, and the effect it would have on their agenda. Because what happened next was truly historic. It turns out a lot of people wanted to watch. In fact, more people wanted to watch “What is a Woman?” than any other documentary in the last several years. When we tweeted out the film, it got more than 170 million views. For perspective, more people watched “What is a Woman?” than saw Anderson Cooper all week on CNN, or watched the Oscars, or Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union — combined.
The film trended worldwide all weekend, with hundreds of thousands of people talking about it at all hours. For the second Pride Month in a row, “What is a Woman?” was the number-one documentary on Rotten Tomatoes. Just to restate: This is a documentary that came out a year ago, and it instantly went to number-one. Whatever you think of the film, based on the data, there’s no question it’s one of the most-watched documentaries of the past decade. It’s also one of the most impactful, because it’s led directly to laws that have been passed all over the country, outlawing child mutilation and other crimes against humanity. In fact, it’s clear that we can now say “What Is A Woman?” is one of the most widely viewed and influential documentaries — not just of the past several years, or of the decade — but of all time. I’m biased in that assessment of course, but all of the available metrics back it up.
What an unmitigated disaster for the forces of censorship and evil. The news organizations and Big Tech oligarchs who, for years, could have censored this film were instead forced to watch all of this unfold, helplessly. Millions of Americans could see the extent to which they’re being lied to. The “experts” in medicine and academia that the media throw in our faces, who tell us that gender ideology is settled science, actually have no idea what they’re talking about. They’re clowns and liars and frauds. Small children could make better arguments. They’ve all been exposed as liars, and not about some trivial topic. They’ve been covering for an ideology that condones the forcible castration and mutilation of children. There’s no hiding that now.
But of course, they’re going to try anyway. Despite its popularity, right now the film still hasn’t been reviewed by a single corporate media outlet. Instead they spent the week lying about it. Here’s how CNN covered what happened this weekend:
CNN news anchor calls #WhatIsAWoman an "anti-trans documentary" that could be "potentially harmful content."pic.twitter.com/HstjwboxYV
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) June 2, 2023
Notice a couple of things about that clip. The first is that, like Voldemort, you can’t actually say the name of the movie. So instead of “What is a Woman?,” it’s “an anti-trans documentary” that shall not be named, under any circumstances. Merely saying the words “What is a Woman?” is violence.
What’s amusing about calling the film an “anti-trans documentary” is that, again, the whole documentary is about giving trans activists the floor. We let them speak. We didn’t interrupt them, or edit anything out of context. So if “What is a Woman?” is an anti-trans documentary, as CNN says, all that means is that gender ideology is so incoherent and so corrupt that anyone who spends any time listening to “pro-trans” activists will inevitably come away with “anti-trans” sentiments. CNN doesn’t realize they’re saying that of course, because none of them have watched the film, or know what they’re talking about. But that’s the big takeaway from that segment. Spend ten minutes with a doctor who performs “gender affirming” surgeries, or a college professor who lectures on gender, and you’ll come away “anti-trans.” Maybe that’s not a bad assessment from CNN, actually.
The other thing to notice about that clip is the implication that the film contains “potentially harmful content.” Nowhere in that segment did CNN explain what’s “potentially harmful” about letting trans activists box themselves into a corner and run away screaming when asked a simple question. Maybe what CNN means is that the content of the film is harmful — to gender ideology, which it certainly is. If that’s the case, then again, we thank CNN for the endorsement.
To be clear, I’m not just picking on CNN here. That would be a waste of time, because as Elon Musk pointed out in response to that segment, no one watches them anyway. So you should know that the rest of the media did the same thing. They attacked the film, without even mentioning the title, or what it’s about. NBC “News” for example ran this headline: “Musk’s response to an anti-trans video sparks 24 hours of chaos at Twitter. A conservative pressure movement built against Twitter’s CEO resulted in high-level departures from the company.”
You couldn’t write a less factually accurate summary of what happened over the past week if you tried. They can’t even bring themselves to call it a film. Instead one of the most widely viewed documentaries ever is just “a video” — an “anti-trans video” at that. What’s remarkable about this is that millions of people are seeing the fake narrative machine spin up in real-time. What happened on Twitter with “What is a Woman?” was not a secret. Everyone could see it happen, and yet the media is lying about it, as if this is Russia-gate all over again. They’re acting like they have some insider knowledge and they can fool people. But they can’t. Again, they are panicking, and more importantly, it’s obvious. This is how these people lose power.
The closest the NBC News article comes to engaging with the content of the film is to say it “misgenders” trans people. Quoting from NBC: “Misgendering trans people had been restricted on the platform since 2018, but under Musk the company quietly repealed that rule. Misgendering trans people using pronouns other than what someone prefers is a common way to bully trans people.”
What NBC doesn’t mention is that the alleged “misgendering” they’re talking about, again, is a father saying that his 14-year-old girl is his daughter. They are saying that this father was “bullying” his own 14-year-old daughter because he objected when doctors injected her with cross-sex hormones that sterilized her. And then when the Canadian government arrested this father, and fined him $30,000, and when the Canadian media destroyed his life — according to NBC, HE wasn’t being “bullied.” Instead, his daughter was being “bullied.” That’s what they’re saying. They can’t write that explicitly because it’s just so awful. So they lie about it.
The one redeeming quality of the NBC article is it contains this line, which belongs in some kind of museum: “Musk’s views on trans rights put him out of sync with many other Silicon Valley billionaires.” This is how shameless corporate media propaganda is now. They come right out and condemn you if you disagree with “many other Silicon Valley billionaires,” as if that’s obviously a bad thing to do. I’m old enough to remember when the Left used to pretend to be critics of the evil billionaire class. Now they use that group as a moral measuring stick for the rest of us. It used to be “Billionaires are evil.” Now it’s “Agree with all the billionaires or you’re evil.”
Everywhere you looked this weekend, there was an article like this — clearly written by someone who hasn’t seen the film, but was told to write about it. Take Business Insider for example. Unlike NBC or CNN, Business Insider actually did use the name of our film, so at least there’s that. But they obviously haven’t seen it, either. They wrote that the film “urges intolerance of trans people.” But of course they don’t provide a single quote in which anyone in the documentary “urges intolerance of trans people.” That’s because it didn’t happen. And now everyone knows that because everyone could see it for themselves.
The New Republic ran a similarly embarrassing piece — except, to try and differentiate themselves a bit, they opted to attack Elon Musk personally. They reported that he was “disowned by his trans daughter.” The article went on to lament that Musk had decided to “punch down against transgender people.”
Is anyone convinced by this anymore? It’s hard to believe, at this point. The activists who are “urging intolerance” are on the other side. They’re doing it right out in the open. They aren’t dog-whistling or whatever. They’re coming out and saying it.
For the latest example, as journalist Chris Brunet reported on his Substack this weekend, a Brown University PhD student calling himself “Sarah Celeste Griffith” has for many months been publicly urging people to come to my home and kill me. Why? Presumably because Sarah Celeste Griffith is a man who claims to be a woman, and he is so desperate to maintain this delusion that he wants anyone who tells the truth to be killed. I have been saying this for a long time because it’s true: Extremist trans activists like Griffith would happily murder you and your whole family for the sake of feeling more affirmed, or at a minimum they’ll happily encourage someone else to go do it.
Brown University is aware that this person has been threatening me, but they haven’t done anything about it. And, by the way, if you’d like to reach out to the president of the University to ask why they are allowing this behavior, you can contact president Christina Paxson at 401-863-2234 or [email protected]. Ask her why they’re protecting Sarah Celeste Griffith and ignoring these terroristic threats. Though, we already know the reason. They’re doing it for the same reason Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ignore every instance of trans terrorism, including the murder of children. They’re ignoring us for the same reason there are Pride flags all over Rockefeller Center Right now. The reason they think they can ignore us is that criticizing the cult of gender ideology is NOT, in fact, “punching down.” It’s standing up to the most powerful forces in our country, which insist that you lie about the most fundamental facts of life. They want you to believe men can get pregnant, and if you disagree, they try to crush you. They think they have all the power.
But they don’t have all of it. Not anymore. So they have to resort to propaganda that’s getting increasingly desperate. Here’s another example. The Huffington Post cut right to the chase in their article about the “What Is A Woman?” Twitter story. “Elon Musk is a Transphobe,” they declare in their headline. Their evidence? “Gender-affirming health care … takes place in a professional environment.” Therefore, according to the Huffington Post, don’t you dare ask questions about hospitals that castrate children. It’s happening in a nice and professional environment. And if you do ask questions about it, you’re afraid of “trans people.”
The reality is that these media outlets, for once, are the ones who are afraid. They’re flailing around trying to attack a film they clearly haven’t seen, and certainly don’t want you to see. And they’re doing that because they know they’re losing ground. The revolt against trans ideology is gaining steam more and more each day. Texas just became the largest state to criminalize child mutilation (or “gender affirming care” as the media puts it). Eighteen other states have signed similar legislation, many of them in just the past year.
Meanwhile corporations are running scared from Pride month. There are a bunch that didn’t even switch their Twitter logos over to the little rainbow colors this year, like they have in years past. As Newsweek just reported, “The North Face, Lego and Miller Lite carried supportive messages on June 1, 2022, but did not do so this year. … Other brands — such as Target, Bud Light, and Adidas — have yet to post, despite doing so later in June last year.” The account for “Xbox” briefly had a Pride logo, before getting rid of it a few days into Pride month. The Navy did the same thing. They made their background image on Twitter and Instagram a fighter jet streaking across the sky with Pride colors in its wake. They got dogpiled, because the job of the military is to defend us from foreign enemies, not to promote fetishes and the sexual mutilation of children. And people are comfortable saying that out loud now. So very quickly the Navy changed their background image back. These might seem like small victories, but they are manifestations of a larger and more significant trend. The media knows this, the Left knows this, which is why they’re panicking.
A lot of people thought the Left had won the cultural argument when it comes to trans and LGBT stuff. But the victory was an illusion. Like a mirage in the desert, when you get a closer look you see it for the fraud that it is. They “win” by preventing people from looking at these issues honestly or thinking about them clearly, or talking about them at all. Once people start to see this all for what it is, and feel empowered to talk about it, things start to change rapidly. And now they are.