With hey ho, the wind and the rain:

In dozens of early letters, the artist Georgia O’Keeffe raved about walking in extreme wind. “I love it,” she wrote, again and again. A few other walkers have enthused about mud, snow, rain, darkness and cold. And yet, as the days draw in and the temperature falls, most of us hang up our walking boots.

I’m with O’Keefe. Wind is very energizing. It’s not ideal to walk in really hard pouring rain, but other than that, cold and wet are great for walking.

In the last few years researchers have begun untangling some of the little-known benefits of walking in wintry conditions. It turns out that the conditions most deterring us

Women’s March is not for women. Take a hike, bitches!

We can't in good conscience allow transphobes to use our platform to give air to their appalling messages. That's why we're taking a step we wouldn't usually: blocking as many "TERFs," "Gender Criticals," & other transphobes as we can.

— Women's March (@womensmarch) October 27, 2022

In other words they’re blocking as many feminists as they can.

We can also tell GCs from firsthand experience: It's possible to be a cis woman who cares about the rights of trans people. Trans rights are human rights and women's rights.

If you also want to block transphobes, we're grateful for the @TransphobeB

— Women's March (@womensmarch) October 27, 2022

It’s the Men’s … Read the rest

Alan Johnson at Jewish News:

Should gender critical views be considered ‘shameful’ and ‘hateful’? That was the question that sprang to mind while reading an article on the Jewish News website headlined: ‘Appalled and disgusted’: Rabbi accused of transphobia over Eddie Izzard tweet’.

I am not on Twitter and I do not comment here on the rabbi, other than note he wrote the hardly-hateful comment: ‘We have to treat transgender people with the utmost kindness and respect, and accommodate them legally, but they must not be allowed to displace women’s rights.’

Yes to the “they must not be allowed to displace women’s rights” part, but I take issue with the “utmost kindness and respect” part. No we don’t have … Read the rest

I saw people talking about this guy and it reminded me of the days when I was on the same blog network as he was. Fun times.

The crass ignorance of this question, never mind the pathetic bigotry in most replies, just underlines to me that the transphobia flooding our media & politics is underpinned by a flat-out refusal to acknowledge or attempt to understand the reality of the transgender experience. https://t.co/QHpSt0iVAM

— Ally Fogg (@AllyFogg) October 28, 2022

The crass ignorance is it. So educated people all know perfectly well what “living as a woman” means? They fully grasp the distinction between being a woman and living as a woman, and understand it, and think it makes perfect sense? … Read the rest

CNN is doing live updates on the Pelosi attack:

The person who attacked Paul Pelosi was searching for the speaker of the House, according to a source briefed on the attack.

The source told CNN the intruder confronted the speaker’s husband in their San Francisco home shouting: “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?”

Police have arrested a man suspected of carrying out the attack and his potential motive is under investigation, according to the speaker’s office.

Mitch McConnell claims to be horrified. Yeah I’m sure he’s all broken up.… Read the rest

Eddie Izzard instructs Rosie Duffield to “join the 21st century”:

Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield railed against the idea of ‘gender self-identification’, speaking out at a conference of the LGB Alliance – a campaign group that claims to advance lesbian, gay and bisexual rights.

Nice impartial journalism there – calling saying something “railing” and saying the LGB Alliance merely claims to advance LGB rights.

Duffield was asked about the possibility of making “misgendering” a crime. She responded:

 “Is that a serious thing? Is that coming to Parliament any time soon? I hope not because you might as well arrest me now. I’m not calling Eddie Izzard a woman.”

In response, Izzard said: “Some people aren’t up to speed, some

Trumpy lies and rhetoric make things happen. In other news –

An intruder broke into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home early Friday morning and “violently assaulted” her husband, Paul Pelosi, according to a statement from Drew Hammill, the speaker’s spokesperson.

“The assailant is in custody and the motivation for the attack is under investigation,” the statement read.

“Mr. Pelosi was taken to the hospital, where he is receiving excellent medical care and is expected to make a full recovery.”

The motive is under investigation but I’m going to go right ahead and speculate that it’s likely to be trumpy maga-y proud boysy stop the stealy rage. The Feds are on the case.… Read the rest

Mysterious person does mysterious persony things, police seek help finding mysterious person.

Were the two teenagers girls by any chance? Or did mysterious person select teenage boys as “their” victim?

This is the police. This is the police seeking a man sexually abusing girls in a public toilet, and those police are carefully not being specific about what they’re looking for, because it’s more important to honor and protect the idenniny of the creepy dangerous man in the wig and skirt than it is to protect any teenage girls he might decide to terrorize.… Read the rest

It is an amazing speech, but not in the sense Kirsty Blackman seems to mean.

Trans rights are human rights, and as a woman I do not feel that they are in conflict with my own. I spoke today to defend the rights of others in the LGBTQI Community to simply be who they are. pic.twitter.com/n0z0QP4FpJ

— Emma Roddick MSP (@Emma_Roddick) October 27, 2022

But it’s not about the right “to simply be who they are.” That’s the whole point. They’re claiming a right to be recognized, treated as, embraced as, who they are not. There are two lies in this formula, not just one. The first lie is that it’s about who they are when in fact … Read the rest

The Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary wants to provide period products for…well that’s where it gets tricky.

One of our NURS 289 clinical groups is partnering with The Moss Bag Project to provide period products for the houseless and vulnerable in Calgary! Mulitple donation boxes are in various locations on campus: Professional Faculties Building at the PPE station, Wellness Centre, UofC Bookstore, and TFDL. Donations are accepted from now until November 15th

Useful, helpful. But…

Bleeding bodies.… Read the rest

The trans wars seep into everything.

Only, as onlookers have pointed out, Badenoch didn’t spread misinformation about Mr. Cohen.

Her comments weren't inaccurate. Pink News is a poisonous rag that trades in lies and has made at least two financial settlements after defaming prominent lesbians, including @joannaccherry, whom @KemiBadenoch referred to yesterday. You owe both an apologyhttps://t.co/EBrj1AfCYE

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) October 27, 2022

I won’t hold my breath while waiting for that apology.… Read the rest

Reverse victim and offender. Can do! says “Katy” Montgomerie.

No. That’s a reversal. No you’re the man pretending to be a woman; no you are; no you; etc. Reality blows the whistle hard: only women are women; men are not women; women only are women.… Read the rest

Six people on the panel, one of whom was a woman and one of whom was…Eddie Izzard.

Shortly before the Brexit referendum, I was invited to appear on Question Time. Knowing how much of a cage-fight such occasions can be, I asked the producer if there would be another woman on the panel. I didn’t want to be the only one. “Yes, of course, don’t worry,” came the reply. 

In retrospect, I was being a bit feeble; I was a big girl and I could hold my own. It was just that, in the past, I had always much preferred shows when there was another member of my sex taking part. A dash of oestrogen dilutes the gamey testosterone

The Guardian is so upset it can hardly breathe.

Tory MP under fire for transphobic comments about Eddie Izzard

Define “transphobic.”

Don’t be silly; of course they’re not going to define it.

A Conservative MP has been criticised for making transphobic comments that questioned whether female representation in parliament would “increase or decrease” if Eddie Izzard was elected as an MP.

How is that “transphobic”? It is a real issue that pretending men can be women will skew statistics and representation and the like. It’s not phobic to say so. It’s a tad misogynist to pretend it is.

Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, told Talk TV he “would not follow him into the toilets” if she came

Oh gee, how nice of him.

Eddie Izzard rules out appearing on all-women Labour MP shortlists

Izzard, 60, who became famous as a cross-dressing comedian and now identifies as a gender-fluid trans woman, has made the longlist of the open contest to become Labour’s candidate for the safe seat of Sheffield Central in the next general election.

In a short telephone interview with the Guardian on Thursday, Izzard said she had suffered a “torrent of transphobic abuse” since announcing her candidacy, including being photographed by a gender-critical feminist using the women’s toilet.

Oh poor darling. How dare those bitches talk back to him just because he’s trying to shove them aside.

Though Izzard announced two years ago that she preferred

But…

But sir. But sir, why does a system that puts compassion at its heart=taking rights away from women and giving them to men who call themselves women? Why are trans women, aka men who call themselves women, deserving of compassion at the expense of women? Why are women not deserving of compassion?

Not that we want “compassion” of course. We just want our fucking rights. We just want men like you to stop cheerfully giving our rights away and ignoring us when we object and calling that “compassion.”… Read the rest

The bullying escalates some more.

Those fists. Those fists used to stand for we won’t back down, for courage, for solidarity, for speaking truth to power. They stood for workers or women or people of color or lesbians and gays uniting to resist oppression. Here they just stand for we will punch you bitches.… Read the rest

Just to make sure everyone has all the facts –

For the avoidance of doubt, I sued both Prick News AND Ben Cohen for defamation, tore them both a new one, and would absolutely have seen them at trial had they not felt, ahem, compelled to settle. Documents outlining the case coming soon.

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) October 26, 2022

Good

to

know.… Read the rest

Helen Joyce’s talk at Gonville and Caius went ahead yesterday evening; the Telegraph has details:

Naï Zakharia, an attendee of the talk, said: “There were hundreds of protesters. They screamed and hit the door. It was hard to hear the speakers. In the middle of the talk a group of protesters got in to right behind the door of the auditorium.”

All because of a woman who doesn’t believe in magic gender.

On Tuesday night, organisers were expecting 75 masked protesters to assemble at the church.

Students rallied each other via other emails, seen by The Telegraph, to “bring pots and pans to make some noise” along with “banners, flags and signs”. Protest organisers added: “Facemasks are recommended for

Why can’t India Willoughby be accurate?

Why can’t JK Rowling be blunt? She views trans women as men, doesn’t believe we should be given the dignity and humanity of using the right facilities, and uses individual cases from around the world – sometimes decades apart – as proof to fear us. There’s a word for that.

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) October 26, 2022

Rowling doesn’t “view” trans women as men, she just knows that’s what they are, because it is what they are. Women are just called women; the modifier “trans” means “not literally.” The word “trans” points to fiction, pretending, fantasy, playacting, imagining.

Of course Rowling believes trans women should use “the right facilities.” It’s Willoughby who thinks trans … Read the rest