By Toni Vonk
Attempts to muzzle Nanaimo theatre artist and producer Bryony Dixon for her nonconformist concerns have backfired. She’s playing to a way bigger audience now.
The setting
Bryony Dixon is a theatre artist from the UK who immigrated to Nanaimo, British Columbia in 2015 armed with a drama degree from Queen Mary University, and a master’s in film aesthetics from Oxford.
In 2020, she stepped into the role of artistic managing producer of Pacific Coast Stage Company — the presenting company of the Nanaimo Fringe Festival.
Forced to resign from her company in 2023 for wrong think, Dixon has emerged intact, invigorated, and even better positioned to speak freely—onstage and off—following the public trouncing she received at the hands of progressive arts administrators.
Her offence?
Posting common concerns and critiques of transhumanism and gender ideology on her personal Facebook page, including news stories such as this Guardian article, reporting on the remand of a male rapist in a women's prison in the UK.
Dixon’s posts were consistent with a person who appreciates the biological distinction between male and female, who has a natural interest in the maintenance of women’s sex-based rights, and in protecting children from harmful medical procedures and psycho-sociological manipulation.
Bryony Dixon: Director, producer, creator, writer, actor, apiarist, mother of two sons.
In a free-thinking country, Dixon’s posts would be unremarkable. Even commendable. But in Canada now, if any person of a certain profile, for example, an academic, a healthcare professional, an educator, or an arts and culture leader, dares challenge the new gender orthodoxy, they are condemned outright as a thought criminal and subject to a public hanging.
And herein lies the rub for the artistically minded: if one is not permitted to think, speak, post or perform freely, then one is restrained from creating freely. Creative restraint, by extension, presents a significant challenge for the artistic producer of a theatre festival where free artistic expression is its raison d’être.
About the Fringe
Devout thespians know the historic Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which dates back to the 1940s, as the one where theatre troupes who were not part of the official program of the formal International Edinburgh Festival staged their shows on the fringes of the official festival grounds. As an “open access arts festival,” it remains the “world’s greatest platform for creative freedom.”
Shows presented at festivals under the Fringe franchise, now in the hundreds worldwide, are not selected through a juried or curated process, or in accordance with any artistic or thematic criteria.
Companies and artists win slots on a Fringe Festival program on a first-come, first-serve basis, or through lottery. Anyone who can pull together a show and submit an application by the deadline has an equal shot at getting to present their work. But the fundamental artistic principle of any Fringe—one that traditionally appealed to artists and audiences alike—is unrestricted free expression.
That is, no censorship.
This used to be considered a good thing in Canada’s alternative theatre scene. An expected thing. An artistic necessity.
Not anymore.
The realisation that Dixon, artistic producer of the Nanaimo Fringe Festival, was actually exercising her personal right to free expression with her own social media account was too extreme for certain social justice actors in Victoria’s tiny theatre realm. In April 2023, during a crucial period of festival planning, they publicly initiated Dixon’s cancellation.
Labelling her (and some of her board of directors), as “feminism-appropriating radical transphobes” (FARTs), the ensuing smear campaign included calls for her removal as head of the Nanaimo Fringe, with one show pulling out of the festival entirely, “in solidarity with the trans community.”
Island trans-rights activism
Persons fortunate enough to live on Vancouver Island are generally perceived as the most laid-back and contentedly isolated Canadians living in one of the world’s most beautiful places. Yet the Island’s trans-rights activists (TRAs) have been working very hard over the past few years to convince their communities, the media, and political leaders that women don’t need sex-based rights and children don’t deserve protection by their parents.
So aggressively have the Island TRAs been performing their messages of inclusion and acceptance, that one of them actually broke the fourth wall last fall by landing a full-on face punch on a 52-year-old woman participating in an anti-SOGI protest in Nanaimo.
In the past year, Island TRAs have successfully shut down a large parental rights protest in Victoria, and convinced a community centre in Duncan to cancel an event where women planned to speak together about their safety and rights.
Screen shot from a livestream of a parental rights rally at BC Legislature in Victoria, BC, September 20, 2023 — shut down due to violence from counter protestors and safety concerns for attendees and speakers. Source: Brian Edgar, https://www.facebook.com/brianedgar.yes/videos/656751986583724/?mibextid=WiMSqg
A friend in Freedombear
Soon following her public denouncement, Dixon was interviewed by Serena Winterburn “Freedombear”—a Cree woman whose mission is “to bring the Matriarch’s voice back to the community in a way where we not only remember, but reinstall, the important values that each of our societies have quietly eroded.”
“Tonight, Bryony Dixon, Artistic Managing Producer of Pacific Coast Stage Co. and presenter of the international Nanaimo Fringe Festival discusses her commitment to the preservation of free artistic expression and the challenges faced by producers navigating cancel culture in today's polarized society.” — Podcast show notes, Serena Winterburn “Freedombear”
Introducing Dixon as her friend, Freedombear delves into the accusations levelled at Dixon and unpacks and counters the attack on her character.
Freedombear counsels her audience to hold the complainant in grace while dispelling the legitimacy of the material he had posted in support of Dixon’s cancellation.
They ponder how a woman who stands up for women’s rights can be “feminism-appropriating.”
“To have a man tell you that as a woman you are appropriating feminism… Unfortunately, this is revealing some of the misogyny that does exist in these kinds of circles.” – Bryony Dixon
Regarding cancel culture and the restrictive funding stipulations being placed on the arts sector by our government, Freedombear says the arts are under attack. She speaks about how historically, boundaries were pushed through theatre and art that challenged government narratives.
“I feel that this is an attack on free artistic expression, and anything that's an attack on free artistic expression is an attack on free speech. It is an attack on all our fundamental freedoms and rights… If we can't have free expression in arts, where can we have it?” – Serena Winterburn “Freedombear”
In a tell-all article about her cancellation in Quillette, Dixon writes about the 2022 update of the “ideals” statement of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF), of which the Nanaimo Fringe Festival is a member:
"At the time of its formation in 1990, CAFF required that Fringe Festivals select artists on a non-juried basis (such as a lottery); that Fringe Festivals provide ease of accessibility for all audiences and artists; and that Fringe Festival producers assert no control over the content that artists bring to their performances. At the time, this was (rightly) believed to be a liberal, progressive formula, since it was assumed that attempts at censorship would come from conservatives. Until just a few years ago, no one imagined that progressives themselves would become the primary threat to free artistic speech."
Dixon points out to Freedombear that now, while Fringe producers may not interfere with the “artistic content” of any singular performance, they can simply reject (cancel) an entire production if it is deemed to contravene their Safer Spaces programs.
Through the addition of the “ideal” that festivals “promote and model inclusivity, diversity and multiculturalism,” and that they endeavour to incorporate these values “into all aspects of our organisations,” the CAFF effectively excludes the type of inclusivity and diversity that upholds sex-based protections and child safeguarding. Instead, CAFF identifies these ideals and the people who promote them as hateful and unworthy for their stages.
Dixon outlines the ways in which she upheld and abided by the CAFF’s ideals for the Nanaimo Fringe, including engaging queer and gender diverse artists.
Uninclined to see the entire festival collapse, which would result in many artists losing their opportunity to perform, Dixon stepped down as artistic managing director in July 2023. Instead, she continued to serve the festival in an advisory capacity to support its roll-out. Her help was needed if the festival was to go on as scheduled.
But this was not good enough for the anti-Dixon detractors.
Her mere presence at the festival was deemed triggering for artists and audiences with certain sensitivities. It was suggested Dixon be banned from attending the festival outright.
“At one point, the manager of Nanaimo’s Port Theatre even sent a letter demanding that my access to his facility ‘be restricted to public spaces,’ and that, even then, I must ‘always be accompanied’ by a chaperone. What exactly did they think was going to happen if I were permitted to attend a live performance without being tailed by an ideological enforcer?” – Bryony Dixon, in Betraying Their Maverick Roots, Fringe Festivals Have Become Ideological Gatekeepers
Port Theatre, Nanaimo, BC – When attending shows at the 2023 Nanaimo Fringe Festival, Dixon was, by order of the management of the Port Theatre, “always chaperoned by a board member of my theatre company, or by a member of Fringe Festival staff.”
In September 2023, the festival delivered, stages struck, the Nanaimo Fringe’s membership in CAFF was suspended—a decision taken by CAFF’s administration in spite of the fact that 2023 had been “the biggest Nanaimo Fringe to date, with the addition of a stand-up comedy category for the first time, which was my initiative,” reports Dixon.
CAFF faulted Pacific Coast Stage Company for failing to produce a safety plan that would ensure safe spaces for artists that were free of “transphobic views” and where artists could freely express their gender.
CAFF announced it would undertake a review of the festival and declared, “harm has been caused in our community and we will continue to strive for safer spaces across our North American members.”
Dixon resigned soon afterwards. She tells Freedombear:
“I stepped aside on a permanent basis. Like most small, not-for-profit organisations, the Nanaimo Fringe Festival doesn’t have the resources to weather a sustained cancellation campaign. And, understandably, few of my colleagues wanted to be targeted by a wave of guilt-by-association smears.” – Bryony Dixon
CANCELLED:
Dixon sports a tank top that reads, "Defund the Thought Police." Photo provided by Bryony Dixon.
Act Two
Dixon’s retirement from the Pacific Coast Stage Company proved to be only a temporary “exit stage left.”
She was subsequently invited to participate in Vancouver Island Speaks panel discussions with Meghan Murphy where she shared the story of her cancellation and presented current knowledge and information about how the gender industry harms children.
Then her Quillette article was read by Mia Hughes, author of the WPATH Files Report.
Hughes’ earthshaking report for the think tank, Environmental Progress, had exposed the “widespread medical malpractice on children and vulnerable adults at the global transgender healthcare authority.” Since the release of the report in March, Hughes (also British born, living in Canada) has appeared on numerous news casts and podcasts and in major international conferences as a speaker and panellist.
Mia Hughes, author of the WPATH Files Report, on American Thought Leaders
As a result of Hughes reading Dixon’s story in Quillette, Dixon has been brought into Michael Shellenberger’s newest organisation, Civilization Works, as Director of Development and Events.
In her new role in this high-profile gig—one with international reach—it’s certain that Dixon’s creative foundations will be well exercised and expanded over that which she was permitted with the Nanaimo Fringe Festival.
“I want to encourage people to be courageous. Be brave leaders. Have integrity. We need to build parallel structures.” – Bryony Dixon
Dixon is now even better positioned to generate and nurture the kind of free thinking needed to build the “parallel structures” she speaks of—such as those in arts and culture. Structures that are essential for combatting totalitarian mind-control (mass psychosis) that are not restricted to the fringe of society, but that can crash the gates and storm the stages held hostage by intolerant, exclusive ideologies.
Bryony Dixon will take part in another Vancouver Island Speaks event with Meghan Murphy and Mia Hughes on September 14, 2024.
What about the art?
It’s unlikely that Dixon will lose her alternative, grassroots theatre tendencies. Her life’s direction is indelibly informed by the skills and perspectives gained through her high-level education in theatre and film, and her talents and experiences as a creator, director, producer, and mother.
With Freedombear, Dixon talks about how pandemic lockdowns and online immersion negatively impacted our ability to communicate and how theatre can help reverse course:
“We know it in our souls … that there's something wrong with the way we interact with one another and how we interface with this online world… Really, coming back to in-person interactions and connections … It's healing, and the theatre has the capacity to do that… to engage with one another and ask questions and share and create and all those wonderful things. It really is priceless, and we need to protect it and get involved.” – Bryony Dixon
One Quillette reader commented on Dixon’s cancellation story:
“[T]heatre and arts in general do have a profound effect on society but they do so in a way that no-one really understands at the time. They have emergent properties that subtly affect us over decades.” – Jonathan Andrews
In December 2023, Dixon was invited by a friend to perform her solo performance piece, “wo͝omən,” at the Free Play Café in Nanaimo. It’s a timely, mesmerising presentation, set to haunting music by FKA twigs, about female erasure and “performing” femininity.
In it, a woman repeatedly “takes off her face,” while stitching a cloth that will ultimately hide (erase) her altogether.
“It’s actually an update of a piece I developed when I was taking my undergraduate degree in drama. It’s apparent that the theme of female erasure, for me, in terms of divine inspiration, is resonating.” – Bryony Dixon
Cancelled theatre producer Bryony Dixon performs her solo piece, “wo͝omən,” at the Free Play Café in Nanaimo, BC, December 2, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NX4pydkU7s
Who else has been pulled off the marquee?
Dixon is not the first Canadian theatre artist to be cancelled for failing to stick to the script.
Sky Gilbert
In 2018, Sky Gilbert (playwright, novelist, poet, filmmaker, director, actor, drag queen, comedian, professor) was the subject of a public, on-stage cancellation event.
At least 100 people gathered at Buddies in Bad Times to conduct a long table, “ an experimental public forum developed by lesbian performance artist Lois Weaver to discuss intergenerational issues and allyship within the queer community.” — Buddies hosts tense and emotional forum after cancelled play reading, Now Toronto, November 20, 2018.
Gilbert is the renowned founder of Canada’s preeminent gay and lesbian theatre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. He served as its artistic director for nearly two decades, retiring in 1997 to continue his creative and academic journey. He has a PhD from the University of Toronto and served as the Research Chair in Creative Writing and Theatre at the University of Guelph. His accomplishments and contributions to Canada’s arts and culture scene are extensive and significant, earning him numerous prestigious awards, including three Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
Gilbert was cancelled for publishing a poem on his blog site entitled I’m Afraid of ‘Woke People which he had written in response to a book by a transgender-identified author, Vivek Shraya, entitled, “I’m Afraid of Men.”
Excerpt from "I'm Afraid of Woke People" by Sky Gilbert:
“In the poem, Gilbert writes that so-called woke people are making gay men feel ashamed of themselves through “the rigorous scrutiny of social justice.” — Buddies in Bad Times cancels reading over “highly problematic” poem, Now Toronto, November 17, 2018.
Gilbert’s public hanging was live streamed from the stage of the Buddies theatre in the form of a “long table”—replete with elements reminiscent of a CCP struggle session.
Aside: Incidentally and ironically, this experimental technique of "performance as a means of public engagement" (or public execution, depending on your perspective) was pioneered by theatre artist and activist, Lois Weaver. Lois Weaver was Bryony Dixon’s professor at Queen Mary’s University of London when Dixon initially created her performance piece, wo͝omən.
In his Quillette story about his cancellation, Watching My Own Excommunication—on a Facebook Video, Gilbert describes some of what he witnessed online:
“The most common theme was that people felt unsafe, and it was vaguely asserted (or, in most cases, simply assumed) that my criticism of a book was connected to this feeling of despair and vulnerability. At what, in retrospect, seemed like the climax of the event, one especially dramatic person wailed, through tears: “Right now…sitting in this room, I do not feel safe. I…do…not…feel…safe. Home was not safe. Ceremony was not safe…I’m screwed. Where is a safe space?” – Sky Gilbert
CANCELLED:
I will fight for freedom of speech because I think ‘art’ is very different from ‘politics.’ Both must be nurtured, but nurtured separately. Poetry must not bear the weight of society’s approval or disapproval. — Sky Gilbert Says Goodbye to Buddies, November 25, 2018
Gilbert was recently a guest on the LGB Alliance Canada Podcast where the distinction between the rights of the lesbian/gay/bi-sexual (LGB) community and the demands of the transgender/queer/plus (TQ+) sector is well contextualised. At the top of the discussion, Gilbert speaks about his uncertainty in coming to dialogue with this group that some members of his artistic community consider suspect.
Host Arty Morty emphasises the mission of LGB Alliance Canada is to “protect the rights of same-sex attracted people by engaging in respectful dialogue and sharing science-and fact-based information.” The conversation proceeds constructively, humorously and intellectually, with the type of drama, depth and surprise that one would expect from Dr. Sky Gilbert.
“Sky takes us fearlessly into such topics as puberty blockers, homophobia within the trans community, drag, the Canadian-concocted label "two-spirit", autogynephilia, parents who'd rather have a trans kid than a gay one, gender stereotypes/socialization/the nature vs. nurture question, the rising spectre of totalitarian censorship, and Canada's draconian proposed Online Harms Act.” — Podcast show notes by LGB Alliance
That LGB Alliance and Sky Gilbert successfully engaged in a respectful and intriguing exchange of ideas about gender ideology and the current culture war is another encouraging sign that minds are opening—even among the most already-opened minds there are.
Libby Emmons
Another cancelled theatre artist of note is New York City playwright Libby Emmons.
Emmons was also cancelled in 2018 by her feminist theatre community for writing and publishing an article about transhumanism in Quillette.
Title and image from Libby Emmons’ article in Quillette —The Transhumanism Revolution: Oppression Disguised as Liberation.
It was an article that would ultimately cause her to lose her theatre career.
Emmons spoke in 2022 with the Independent Women’s Forum, On What Got Her Canceled in the Theater World and the Complicated Relationship Between Morality and Art. She responds to the question about why the feminists with whom she had worked over many years would turn against her:
“It was interesting because the women I was working with were upset by not necessarily the piece, but the reaction to it. I’ve gone over this through the years and wanted to be a lot more compassionate to them.
“I don’t think they were upset by the piece. I think they were upset by the reaction.
“I think they were upset by my unwavering steadfastness and defending the piece. I refused to apologise for it.”
But the biggest issue, I believe, and what was the end of my arts career, was that because I had written this piece and because it was publicly in the community that we were involved in—publicly denounced—as in all the bad, phobic words—we would not have had an audience going forward. And I think that was the issue.” – Libby Emmons
CANCELLED:
“There’s more of a road to redemption if you have committed adultery than there is if you have betrayed the leftist ideology that you were supposedly subscribed to.” – Libby Emmons
In a plot twist that would delight any dramatist suffering writer’s block, in 2021, Emmons became Editor-in-Chief of the Post Millennial. The Post Millennial self-describes as “one of Canada's fastest growing news organisations and one of the largest conservative news outlets in the world.”
Now the reach of Emmons’ investigations and reports on the troubles with gender far exceeds what it would have had she not been cancelled from NYC’s independent theatre scene. Thus she models another tactic for the fight against mass psychosis—spread the truth as far and as wide as possible:
“For the truth is more powerful than the fiction and falsities peddled by the would-be totalitarian rulers, and so their success is in part contingent on their ability to censor the free flow of information.” – Academy of Ideas
This is how we fight it.
Ladies and gentlemen: Places, please.
Have you, or do you know of any artists or creators who have been silenced or cancelled for their ideas about maintaining women’s sex-based rights or child safeguarding?
Gender Dissent would like to hear from you.
Please write to us at GenderDissent@protonmail.com
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