We were all told no
Maya annotates Emma Barnett’s hostile interview of Hadley Freeman on Woman’s Hour:
"I was specifically told by upper mgmt that I wasn’t allowed to write about gender stuff in about 2018, 2019 & others weren’t either.. multiple reporters asked if they could interview Maya Forstater @BluskyeAllison @JessDeWahls @jk_rowling @Martina … and we were all told no"
— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) December 7, 2022
Maya Forstater and Kathleen Stock were interviewed in the Observer (Hadley says the Guardian on the interview) @Emmabarnett "And we should say, just again, if you’re not familiar with the media world, the Observer is edited by a different editor." pic.twitter.com/5NMk8roOsC
— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) December 7, 2022
There was a policy change at the Guardian in 2018.
Hadley wrote two columns on gender & went on a trip "I came back and that’s when I was told that I wasn’t to write about gender & actually women shouldn’t write about gender& suddenly, things became very, very tricky for me" pic.twitter.com/2X6EYFGsyt
— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) December 7, 2022
"And there did suddenly become this atmosphere of real fear in the paper.. The paper had run an editorial defending the GRA & why it shouldn’t be made easier for people to change gender, and I was defending the editorial …various colleagues were being quite personally abusive" pic.twitter.com/u40fzhKJ1Q
— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) December 7, 2022
"When I stood up for @suzanne_moore in the morning conference after this column came out, I had various staff members coming up to me, whispering, or sending me emails saying “You know I back you, I just can’t speak up”. “It’s just too difficult in the office” pic.twitter.com/CXCyKQ0Zbw
— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) December 7, 2022
I think the dance goes goes like this:
“There’s no conflict between trans rights and women’s rights. Trans people are the most marginalized people ever.”
“How dare you write/say/think that?!”
“There’s no such thing as ‘cancel culture'”.
“They’re not being cancelled, it’s just consequences.”
“They’re writing in a right wing newspaper!”
“They haven’t been cancelled if they can still be heard saying anything, anywhere (and we’re trying to stop that, too).”
“Fascist bigot TERF got what she deserved.”
“There’s no conflict between trans rights and women’s rights. Trans people are the most marginalized people ever. Nice little job you have here. Shame if anything happened to it.”
Have I missed any steps?
“And actually women shouldn’t write about gender”
…leave that to real people, who will be more careful to not piss off men, as they know as well as the rest of us that men* will harass and abuse and ultimately turn violent towards those who disagree with them. Mustn’t upset them. Women can’t not offend men when the presence of women as anything other than servants offends them, so best simply keep the women away.
*yeah yeah yeah not all men. Sigh.