Using your words

An interesting item from the Allison Bailey tribunal.

It’s that “most people would think ‘with force'” bit that pisses me off the most. No we wouldn’t: coercion is not a synonym for force. I wouldn’t use “coercion” for cops wrestling a perp to the ground, or for rape, or for other forms of physical violence. I use that word when it’s not a matter of physical force but of the other kinds of pushing – official kinds, verbal kinds, social media kinds, in-group kinds, messages on shirts kinds, organizational kinds, emotional kinds. Shaming people is coercive, ostracizing people is coercive, calling people terfs and radfems and transphobes is coercive. Complaining about “the cotton ceiling” is coercive.

As if lawyers don’t know this. Come on.

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