Laurie Penny doesn’t like a woman shouting

If it doesn’t convince anyone the first 500 times, try again.

The dishonesty battles with the stupidity for first prize.

As always, it’s impossible to tell whether it’s anxious adherence to the rules or genuine delusional belief – in fact it’s impossible to tell just as it’s impossible to tell if any given naked man in a women’s changing room genuinely believes he’s a woman or is just taking advantage of the bizarro-world new rules.

Also she’s wrong about the homophobia. It wasn’t about thinking lesbians and gays would be raping people, it was about thinking same-sex love and attraction are weird and ooky. That’s all. It was just irrational squick, picked up from the culture because it had always been that way.

And she doesn’t matter because…………….?

But it’s not “cracking down.” It’s not punishment, it’s not deprivation, it’s not torture, it’s not imprisonment. It’s just barring male people from spaces where women are vulnerable. That’s all; that’s it.

Men’s desire to be “validated” as women should not be seen as more important and pressing than women’s need to be safe from predatory behavior by men. Men who really do think of themselves as women should be able to understand that in a heartbeat. If they don’t, and they refuse even to try, then in what sense are they women? For what reason should we sympathize with their desire to be accepted as women? Why should we prioritize men who put their own desires ahead of our needs? Why are men encouraged to put their wants first while women are ordered to put our needs last? What could be more patriarchal and unjust than that?

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