All entries by this author
Mar 9th, 2021 12:16 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Graham did this:
He also posted the text.
Almost four years ago I saw that feminists were being bullied, harassed and silenced for standing up for their rights and their children’s rights. I decided to use my platform on Twitter to bring attention to what seemed to be an all-out assault on women, on their words, their dignity and their safety. Also, I saw that vulnerable children were being fast-tracked onto a medical pathway that carried severe long-term implications. My position is very simple. I believe everyone should be allowed to talk about these issues. In fact, I believe it is a moral imperative that we do
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21 comments
Mar 9th, 2021 11:11 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Sounds like “Jessica” Yaniv without the “trans” aspect.
An Ottawa charity focused on the well-being of Black, Indigenous and LGBTQ youth is in disarray after staff quit and speakers pulled out of a recent conference because they believe the group’s leader has multiple aliases and a history of taking her enemies to court.
That description is oddly vague. What does it mean for a charity to be “focused on the well-being” of anyone? I wonder if there’s any connection between the vagueness of the description and the alleged multiplicity of its leader’s aliases.
Maxine Adwella is known as the head of the National Collaboration for Youth Mental Health (NCYMH), which, according to its website, has spent nearly 20 years
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Mar 9th, 2021 9:41 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Judge rules for reality.
Part of the census guidance for England and Wales accompanying the question on a person’s sex should be withdrawn, a High Court judge has warned.
Campaign group Fair Play for Women argued the guidance unlawfully allowed “self-identification” as another sex.
The guidance says people could use the sex listed on their passport – which can be changed without a legal process.
Well of course the sex itself can’t be changed – the word you put on your passport can be changed. Changing a word on your passport isn’t magic; it can’t change your sex or age or species or planet of residence.
Taking place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on 21 March, the census
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7 comments
Mar 8th, 2021 5:52 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Good old ACLU. On International Women’s Day, here they are to bully us for saying that we are women and men are not. On International Women’s Day, they think it’s the best possible day to tell us to shut up about men trying to usurp the word “woman” and the ontological status “woman.” On International Women’s Day they shout at us for continuing to think that women are women and that fantasies and let’s pretend games don’t change that.
On International Women’s Day here’s your reminder; you … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
11 comments
Mar 8th, 2021 11:31 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Happy International Genders Day.
President Biden marked International Women’s Day on Monday by signing two executive orders geared toward promoting gender equity, both in the United States and around the world.
In a statement, Biden said: “In our nation, as in all nations, women have fought for justice, shattered barriers, built and sustained economies, carried communities through times of crisis, and served with dignity and resolve. Too often, they have done so while being denied the freedom, full participation, and equal opportunity all women are due.”
With you so far.
The first executive order establishes a Gender Policy Council within the White House, reformulating an office from the Obama administration that was later disbanded by the Trump administration, and
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6 comments
Mar 8th, 2021 10:46 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Julie Bindel tells us:
At the Green party spring conference this weekend, a motion which sought to introduce a party policy on women’s sex-based rights was defeated. A whopping 289 delegates (out of 521) voted to not include biological females in the party’s list of oppressed groups.
All the motion aimed to do was simply add a paragraph to the Green party’s ‘Our Rights and Responsibilities Policy’. The motion reads:
‘This is to include the protected characteristic of sex as currently our Record of Policy statements supports the other eight characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, race, maternity, religion/belief, marriage/civil partnership) but not that of sex discrimination – aimed primarily at women…’
The motion was opposed because, in
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2 comments
Mar 7th, 2021 5:02 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Andrew Sullivan has form.
It’s not “pointless” to call male athletes who are displacing female athletes in female competitions “male,” because that’s what they are and because it gives them an advantage over females that everyone used to know was in fact an advantage. It’s not some random thing to call them, it’s the whole issue, and it’s certainly not pointless, it is exactly the point.
And it’s not “offensive” unless you buy into the whole silly … Read the rest
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16 comments
Mar 7th, 2021 12:29 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Andrew Sullivan catches it and then drops it.
Lots of people are telling him that it can’t be the right thing to do if it isn’t fair, which I agree with but think misses his point. He’s not so dim as to be unaware of the paradox in his claim. There can be necessities that are nevertheless unfair to someone.
But having said that, I still find it annoying that he says it may be the right thing to do, because…come on. A guy’s desire to compete against … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
11 comments
Mar 7th, 2021 11:57 am |
By Ophelia Benson
It was Sex Week at Ohio State University last month! We missed it!
It was under the umbrella of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Department.
What is that about? Why are women and sexuality lumped together? Do men have nothing to do with sexuality? It’s hard not to conclude that the lumping together is because women are the consumer good, rather than because men have nothing to do with sexuality. It’s like this, see: when people (i.e. men) think about women they think about sex, so the two go together as an academic department. What non-people (i.e. women) think about when they think about men is of no interest or importance. Disciplines are organized according to what men think about, … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
18 comments
Mar 7th, 2021 10:27 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Cage fight.
There’s an ambiguity in there, which Dawkins corrects with the first two words of his second sentence. “Science” refers to the human discipline and also to the realities it uncovers. Gorski assumes Dawkins is talking about the first, but that requires him to ignore the “Science’s truths” bit. Perhaps because…
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25 comments
Mar 6th, 2021 5:21 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Wut?
Well I certainly hope they decided to stop calling it OBGYN, given what the GYN stands for. Filthy business, filthy. (I actually once knew someone who considered “gynecologist” a dirty word. This panic-loathing around all things female comes from somewhere.)
So…
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11 comments
Mar 6th, 2021 4:51 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Bully plans to go all the way from Florida to Alaska, without Air Force One at his disposal, in order to bully a woman he doesn’t like.
Trump is making official his plans to target Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, vowing to travel to Alaska to campaign against her ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Campaign against her meaning what? Running for the senate? Or just throwing his weight around.
In a statement to POLITICO on Saturday, Trump said: “I will not be endorsing, under any circumstances, the failed candidate from the great State of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski. She represents her state badly and her country even worse. I do not know where other people will be next year, but
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12 comments
Mar 6th, 2021 12:27 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Trump says images of him belong to HIM. Get your dirty mitts off them.
Donald Trump has told the Republican National Committee and other party bodies to stop using his name and likeness in fundraising efforts, it was reported on Saturday.
“President Trump remains committed to the Republican party and electing America First conservatives,” Politico quoted an unnamed adviser to the former president as saying about the legal cease-and-desist notice, “but that doesn’t give anyone – friend or foe – permission to use his likeness without explicit approval.”
Wrong! Anybody can use images of him without his permission unless he has copyright.
Spiteful little fucker isn’t he.… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
10 comments
Mar 6th, 2021 12:18 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Relief bill passed.
Joe Biden hailed “one more giant step forward on delivering on that promise that help is on the way”, after Democrats took a critical step towards a first major legislative victory since assuming control of Congress and the White House, with a party-line vote in the Senate to approve a $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill.
One senator was able to see to it that unemployed people would be kept poorer.
The marathon “vote-a-rama” session that preceded the final Senate vote featured the longest recorded vote in Senate history, just shy of 12 hours, on Friday, as Democrats scrambled to strike a deal with Manchin, a moderate who mounted a last-minute push to scale back unemployment benefits.
Bowing
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6 comments
Mar 6th, 2021 11:19 am |
By Ophelia Benson
That very first sentence is pretty astounding. What does it even mean to say “I am contacting you within my role as head of trans inclusion at Stonewall”? What does some “role” at some political organization have to do with sending peremptory bossy complaints about what one woman says on Twitter to her employer?
Has there ever been any organization that could do that on behalf of women?
Perhaps it’s just a racket, … Read the rest
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