“No man chooses evil because it is evil. Rather he mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks”. Often misattributed to Mary Shelly , but from her mom, Mary Wollstonecraft. (curiously enough this is the second time this morning I’ve used that quote)
This is excellent, I am cross-posting it. In the meantime, here is a Twitter space I did on the Frankenstein story a couple of years ago. When Donovan Cleckley and I went looking for sources, we noticed that wherever trans/queer writers try to spin the Frankenstein story as a positive for their ideology, they use the cinematic monster instead of the literary one. The same is true of Pinnochio or any other story we looked into: the Disney version is the one framed as "affirmation" narrative. https://www.thedistancemag.com/p/show-me-how-to-live-a-gender-critical
Love this insight. Totally agree—people often reference the Hollywood version of Frankenstein, not the original story, which is way more complex and tragic. The real Frankenstein isn’t about acceptance—it’s about abandonment, hubris, and what happens when we try to control life without taking responsibility for what we create.
Same goes for Pinocchio. The Disney version turns it into a feel-good identity tale, but the original is about temptation, lies, and earning your humanity through struggle. It’s wild how often these deep cautionary stories get flipped into affirmation narratives.
Appreciate you sharing the link—looking forward to checking it out. Thanks for spreading the word and cross-posting.
I think this is the best of your essays I've read, Jason. When gender activists scream that 'the science is settled', they don't seem to understand that they are participating in a ritual practice which has nothing to do with evidence.
Jung has something to offer this discussion because he plumbed the depths of mysticism, and understood the dangers of uncritical acceptance of dogmatic belief. He specifically warned us against the lecherous and perverse form of Gnosticism.
Thank you, Daniel. I really appreciate you drawing out the ritualistic nature of what’s being disguised as “science.” That’s exactly it—it functions as dogma, not discovery. And your mention of Jung is spot on. He saw how unexamined belief—especially in the guise of progress—can seduce the psyche into spiritual inflation and moral blindness.
This “perverse Gnosticism” you reference is critical to name: the denial of the body, the worship of abstract identity, the rejection of earthly limitation. It’s a flight from the soul’s messiness into sterile control. And ironically, it creates the very monsters it seeks to avoid.
It was a book on Jung in the school library that drew me to study psychology for five years, although I had too many doubts by the end of that time to apply for a job at the Tavistock Centre. If I had been a better and more agreeable student, I might have ended up working in a gender clinic like GIDS.
My favourite Jung quote on this subject is from 1921: “Gnosticism was also divided into two schools: one school striving after a spirituality that exceeded all bounds, the other losing itself in an ethical anarchism, an absolute libertinism that shrank from no lechery however atrocious and perverse.”
Thank you for articulating the connection to myth, culture, and to god. The control and denial of nature and wilderness, which is what has us propelled us into the sixth mass extinction, is finding a new incarnation in body denial and control, which is harming and sterilising healthy young bodies. This cultural moment has me shocked at this denial, right at the time when healing relations with the natural world is precisely what is needed. We need far more reflections like yours. Thanks for putting it out there.
I just ran across this guy. Has anyone else heard of him? Darren Rosenblum purchased a baby by surrogacy about 15 years ago and during gestation he and his husband called "it" Cletus the Fetus." Then he found out "it" was a girl. What happened?
Darren Rosenblum is a non-binary man who likes to wears dresses and lipstick and has an X on his passport. He works to "unsex" CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) & mothering. Fulltext.pdf https://share.google/XTWWfnoSxH3BxHjAE
Professor Darren Rosenblum's areas of interest include: Corp. Governance quotas for women, prisoner's rights. See: Darren Rosenblum appointed Associate Deans | Channels - McGill University https://share.google/aputkNc07lJBqs3v2
Your welcome Kathleen. I wish we could find out more about him. I'd like to know what happened to the baby girl. Rosenblum's attitude seems like something out of a dystopian horror movie. Unsex CEDAW?! Get rid of the female component and replace them with cross-dressing men. And "unsex" mothering? Replace mother's with men manufacturing synthetic human eggs for purchase like Matt Krisiloff?
Thanks for your comment. Just to clarify—this piece isn’t scientific research. It’s a psychological, mythopoetic, and cultural essay that examines patterns, archetypes, and collective behavior through a depth psychology lens. It’s not claiming to be empirical research, nor is it attempting to be. It’s a critique of the ideological architecture we now see embedded in medicine, psychology, and education—through the lens of archetype, myth, and psyche.
If someone is looking for randomized controlled trials, this isn’t that. But if they’re open to seeing how myth lives through culture—and how unexamined belief systems shape institutions—this piece is an invitation to that.
“No man chooses evil because it is evil. Rather he mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks”. Often misattributed to Mary Shelly , but from her mom, Mary Wollstonecraft. (curiously enough this is the second time this morning I’ve used that quote)
Ah! Thank you for the clarification. Appreciate you commenting that.
Understandable why it’s thought to be Shelly. I’d assumed that.
This is excellent, I am cross-posting it. In the meantime, here is a Twitter space I did on the Frankenstein story a couple of years ago. When Donovan Cleckley and I went looking for sources, we noticed that wherever trans/queer writers try to spin the Frankenstein story as a positive for their ideology, they use the cinematic monster instead of the literary one. The same is true of Pinnochio or any other story we looked into: the Disney version is the one framed as "affirmation" narrative. https://www.thedistancemag.com/p/show-me-how-to-live-a-gender-critical
Love this insight. Totally agree—people often reference the Hollywood version of Frankenstein, not the original story, which is way more complex and tragic. The real Frankenstein isn’t about acceptance—it’s about abandonment, hubris, and what happens when we try to control life without taking responsibility for what we create.
Same goes for Pinocchio. The Disney version turns it into a feel-good identity tale, but the original is about temptation, lies, and earning your humanity through struggle. It’s wild how often these deep cautionary stories get flipped into affirmation narratives.
Appreciate you sharing the link—looking forward to checking it out. Thanks for spreading the word and cross-posting.
I think this is the best of your essays I've read, Jason. When gender activists scream that 'the science is settled', they don't seem to understand that they are participating in a ritual practice which has nothing to do with evidence.
Jung has something to offer this discussion because he plumbed the depths of mysticism, and understood the dangers of uncritical acceptance of dogmatic belief. He specifically warned us against the lecherous and perverse form of Gnosticism.
Thank you, Daniel. I really appreciate you drawing out the ritualistic nature of what’s being disguised as “science.” That’s exactly it—it functions as dogma, not discovery. And your mention of Jung is spot on. He saw how unexamined belief—especially in the guise of progress—can seduce the psyche into spiritual inflation and moral blindness.
This “perverse Gnosticism” you reference is critical to name: the denial of the body, the worship of abstract identity, the rejection of earthly limitation. It’s a flight from the soul’s messiness into sterile control. And ironically, it creates the very monsters it seeks to avoid.
Thank you for meeting this work at that depth.
It was a book on Jung in the school library that drew me to study psychology for five years, although I had too many doubts by the end of that time to apply for a job at the Tavistock Centre. If I had been a better and more agreeable student, I might have ended up working in a gender clinic like GIDS.
My favourite Jung quote on this subject is from 1921: “Gnosticism was also divided into two schools: one school striving after a spirituality that exceeded all bounds, the other losing itself in an ethical anarchism, an absolute libertinism that shrank from no lechery however atrocious and perverse.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/genspect/p/jung-the-red-book-and-the-gnostic
Thank you for articulating the connection to myth, culture, and to god. The control and denial of nature and wilderness, which is what has us propelled us into the sixth mass extinction, is finding a new incarnation in body denial and control, which is harming and sterilising healthy young bodies. This cultural moment has me shocked at this denial, right at the time when healing relations with the natural world is precisely what is needed. We need far more reflections like yours. Thanks for putting it out there.
Nailed it.
So true.
I just ran across this guy. Has anyone else heard of him? Darren Rosenblum purchased a baby by surrogacy about 15 years ago and during gestation he and his husband called "it" Cletus the Fetus." Then he found out "it" was a girl. What happened?
Darren Rosenblum is a non-binary man who likes to wears dresses and lipstick and has an X on his passport. He works to "unsex" CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) & mothering. Fulltext.pdf https://share.google/XTWWfnoSxH3BxHjAE
Professor Darren Rosenblum's areas of interest include: Corp. Governance quotas for women, prisoner's rights. See: Darren Rosenblum appointed Associate Deans | Channels - McGill University https://share.google/aputkNc07lJBqs3v2
Your welcome Kathleen. I wish we could find out more about him. I'd like to know what happened to the baby girl. Rosenblum's attitude seems like something out of a dystopian horror movie. Unsex CEDAW?! Get rid of the female component and replace them with cross-dressing men. And "unsex" mothering? Replace mother's with men manufacturing synthetic human eggs for purchase like Matt Krisiloff?
My lord, this is hyperbolic. If you are conducting research, you damn well better submit it to an ethical review committee before starting.
Thanks for your comment. Just to clarify—this piece isn’t scientific research. It’s a psychological, mythopoetic, and cultural essay that examines patterns, archetypes, and collective behavior through a depth psychology lens. It’s not claiming to be empirical research, nor is it attempting to be. It’s a critique of the ideological architecture we now see embedded in medicine, psychology, and education—through the lens of archetype, myth, and psyche.
If someone is looking for randomized controlled trials, this isn’t that. But if they’re open to seeing how myth lives through culture—and how unexamined belief systems shape institutions—this piece is an invitation to that.
Well stated.
Fair enough, Jason.