Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie points out that the abuse of JK Rowling is classic sexism. One way we can tell is that men don’t get targeted the way she is.

“I think that she’s been treated abominably. And, I think a lot of that treatment is because she’s a woman,” she said. “I think that a man who aired his views, reasonable views, would not be treated in that way.”

Is Graham Linehan perhaps a counter-example? He’s certainly been a target, but JKR gets a lot of specifically sexual/sexist abuse. I don’t think that happens to men the same way.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Adichie told journalist Emma Barnett she thought it was “very dangerous” that people were “refusing

Originally a comment by tigger_the_wing on What the future implications might be.

It sounds bloody awful, to be honest. It’s the ‘no co-morbidities part which has hitherto kept people alive long enough to survive the waiting list, get appropriate treatment, and go on to have a healthy life.

If you are suicidally miserable because you are in severe, intractable, possibly increasing pain from a condition which will imminently kill you, and want to die because facing further pain is pointless, then euthanasia is obviously a lot less cruel than making you wait for natural death.

However, if you are suicidally miserable solely due to a treatable mental illness or disorder, then it is the failure to treat which is … Read the rest

Not that SciAm article again. How many biologists have to point out how many times that it’s woo-woo crap?

Chart by Amanda Montañez @unamandita, from this Scientific American piece. https://t.co/3x6DScDOIL

— Sean Carroll (@seanmcarroll) November 14, 2022

What exactly do you think this chart shows?

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) November 14, 2022

I'd be happy to talk with you about this either publicly or privately if you'd like. I know you're interested in educating the public about science, so it concerns me to see prominent figures like you unknowingly promote fashionable pseudoscience like the "sex spectrum."

— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) November 14, 2022

… Read the rest

Is it medically assisted death or is it disposal of people with mental illness and no resources? The Globe and Mail:

Canada will have one of the most liberal euthanasia laws in the world, joining only a few other countries that allow assisted dying for mental illness.

It will be the most controversial expansion of MAID since a Supreme Court ruling led the federal government to legalize euthanasia in 2016. At that time, MAID was only for patients with a foreseeable death, but Parliament – with Bill C-7 – removed that requirement in 2021.

The original version of the bill did not allow assisted death for patients with mental disorders as a sole condition because, the government said at

Another snip from the Times article:

The first trans patient treated with blockers, from age 13 to 18, moved on to testosterone, the male sex hormone. Halting female puberty had offered emotional relief and helped him look more masculine. As the Dutch clinicians prescribed blockers, followed by hormones, to a half-dozen other patients in those early years, the medical team found that their mental health and well-being improved.

“They were usually coming in very miserable, feeling like an outsider in school, depressed or anxious,” recalled Dr. Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, a retired psychologist at the clinic. “And then you start to do this treatment, and a few years later, you see them blossoming.”

Wait. Wait just a minute. Think about this. … Read the rest

The New York Times rows back just a little:

As the number of adolescents who identify as transgender grows, drugs known as puberty blockers have become the first line of intervention for the youngest ones seeking medical treatment.

Which is a very worrying observation all by itself. The number of adolescents who identify as transgender is growing…so the medical system is stepping in to block their puberties. The medical system is treating something that’s obviously a trend, a fashion, an idea-based cool kids thing to do, as a reason to interfere with a crucial stage of development. It’s batshit crazy.

But as an increasing number of adolescents identify as transgender — in the United States, an estimated 300,000 ages

Ah yes the old “My beliefs are not an ideology!!!” gambit.

there is no transgender ideology – it is an invention of the contemporary gender critical movement. They need to say we have an ideology in order to attack us – otherwise they would have continued ‘pitying’ you & me. But pity did not keep you or me in our teaching jobs https://t.co/2t6YY52u3Q

— Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, DLaws, FAcSS, (@stephenwhittle) November 13, 2022

Really. There is no transgender ideology. Then what does “transgender” mean? What does “cis” mean? What does “transphobia” mean? What does “terf” mean? What are “trans rights”? What do we talk about when we talk about trans people and trans rights and transphobia?

The ideology … Read the rest

No you can’t say men are not women. If you try there will be blood.

Due to credible threats of extreme violence, the Sovereign Women Speak event with Kara Dansky in Olympia has been cancelled by the organizers. This is disappointing. #LetWomenSpeak pic.twitter.com/Mk22lGlk0n

— Candace Mercer ⚔ Are You OK With This? (@candiomercer) November 13, 2022

Sorry, sovereign women don’t speak after all, because the “activists” won’t let them.

No confirmation if there will still be free transgender burritos! #FoodNotBombs pic.twitter.com/PkWxQrVGSm

— Candace Mercer ⚔ Are You OK With This? (@candiomercer) November 13, 2022

“Trans-Exterminationists.” As if feminist women who point out that men are not women are thereby exterminating men who claim to be women. Exterminating them, like with … Read the rest

Paris 25 August 1944 Kherson 11 November 2022

Jubilation in Kherson where Ukrainians have poured into the newly liberated streets after almost nine months of Russian occupation. pic.twitter.com/WoVIPQZBVp

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) November 12, 2022

Thank you, Google Translate. pic.twitter.com/NmGDuShHJo

— Neil Nadelman (@docsane) November 13, 2022

… Read the rest

Intersectional beyond the call of duty.

I'm a professor & I'm trans, so I'm setting homework for y'all (not all of you) for this #TransAwarenessWeek

1. When you say 'men or women' as though it's everyone, know you're excluding. Not all of us are in that binary.
2. When you write 'men & women', mean both trans & cis.

— Prof Sandy O'Sullivan (Wiradjuri, trans they/them) (@sandyosullivan) November 13, 2022

It’s “ironic” of course, which is to say it’s annoying on purpose rather than by accident, but it’s genuinely annoying all the same. In fact by rights annoying on purpose should be more annoying rather than less.

That “y’all” for one thing is extremely grating. The ironist is at Macquarie … Read the rest

Speaking of A oppressing B and B oppressing C – the UK Green Party says women must pretend men are women when told.

Green Party Women must remain trans-inclusive

Must. Orders are to be obeyed. Hop to it.

The intrinsically linked nature of social and climate justice isn’t news to anyone who has been involved with the Green Party for more than a few minutes. From tackling the disproportionate impact of deadly air pollution on people of colour, to opposing the running of privatised public transport for profit, the solutions to the climate crisis are so often those which promote societal equality and which tackle historic and contemporary injustice. Liberation politics is at the heart of all of this:

Liberation.

H/t KB Player… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug at Miscellany 9.

We have all seen countless lists outlining the various features of pseudoscience such as Bob Park’s “The Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science”. Some of us have even written such lists ourselves. I thought it might be interesting to attempt something similar for Bogus Social Justice Movements (henceforth referred to as BSJMs). Examples of BSJMs include MRAs, incels, the dominant strand of trans rights activism, NAMBLA, the pro porn/pro “sex work” lobby etc*. Attempts to portray legitimate criticisms of Islamism as “Islamophobia” or portray legitimate criticisms of the Israeli occupation of Palestine as “antisemitism” can be understood in the same terms**. As with pseudoscience, there is no non-arbitrary place to … Read the rest

After liberating his village.

A soldier in the Ukrainian Army sees his grandmother for the first time in 8 months after liberating his village.

(I’m not crying, you are) pic.twitter.com/ebOyPwEQxY

— CJ (@CasualArtyFan) November 12, 2022

… Read the rest

Another man stomps all over women to public acclaim.

I wondered how Doctor Teetus Deletus is doing these days so I went looking. The Daily Mail (sorry) reports:

A Florida-based plastic surgeon who dubs herself ‘Dr Teetus Deletus’ — a glib reference to breast removal surgery — has been reported to America’s consumer watchdog for using her huge TikTok following to ‘unfairly and deceptively’ sway teens into having sex-change operations.

In other words she promotes such operations, she markets them, she advertises them. She acts like a Hollywood cosmetic surgeon, as opposed to a responsible health-oriented medical doctor. Her clients, however, have immature brains, so they’re less defended against her marketing than full adults are.

A complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) obtained by DailyMail.com, says Dr Sidhbh

How exactly are we defining “discrimination” here?

Hospital managers have been warned they could be guilty of discrimination if they put transwomen in single rooms to avoid upsetting patients in female-only wards.

That’s bad stupid wording, that insinuates women are neurotic whiny bitches for not wanting men in women-only wards. Hospital managers have been warned they could be guilty of discrimination if they put men who claim to be trans in single rooms to avoid forcing them on women at the expense of the women’s safety, privacy, and comfort.

Also “have been warned” is pointlessly obscure. Why not say who did the “warning” in the lede?

Guidance for Scotland’s biggest health board also says that any woman who complains about

No red wave this time.

Democrats have kept control of the Senate after the crucial race in Nevada was announced in their favor, cementing a midterms election performance for the party that widely beat expectations.

Democratic US senator Catherine Cortez Masto has now beaten Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney general who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press.

That’s a whole separate piece of good news. Trump’s endorsement turns out to be not worth all that much any more, which is another stake in the heart of his plans to continue to dominate everything all the time.

For the Republicans, it was another blow after they steeply underperformed in many races.

Eliza Mondegreen at The Freethinker on the new politics of marginalized idenninies and the trans movement:

What began as an informal social and economic pressure campaign has crossed over into a formal effort by coercive state agencies to restrict freedom of expression, assembly, and conscience. In Norway, a feminist organiser named Christina Ellingsen could face up to three years in prison for tweeting that males who identify as women cannot be lesbians or mothers, because this statement violates Norway’s newly expanded hate crime laws. In Canada, a human rights tribunal entertained the complaints of a trans-identified male against religious-minority women who refused to provide intimate hair-removal services. Professors like Selina Todd and Kathleen Stock have needed security to accompany them

Sigh.