Sex matters

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Well THAT’S a massive relief.

Gender critical beliefs are protected under the equality act.

The previous judgement was overturned.

We have to tackle institutional capture.

Comments

6 responses to “Sex matters”

  1. Michael Haubrich Avatar
    Michael Haubrich

    It’s a great relief, and I hope that someone will show it to Keir Starmer.

  2. Colin Day Avatar
    Colin Day

    Yay!

  3. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    I think half of Twitter is showing it to Keir Starmer.

  4. Sackbut Avatar
    Sackbut

    Via Spinster, this letter from Maya’s solicitor is phenomenally brilliant.

    https://archive.is/n2Iad#selection-561.138-561.144

  5. Papito Avatar
    Papito

    Thanks so much for posting this link, Sackbut. This is the best thing I’ve read today. What an excellent unpacking of all that this judgment should mean. Let us hope it comes to pass.

    The era of mere sloganeering has ended.

  6. Banichi Avatar
    Banichi

    I’m going to risk imposing on Ophelia’s goodwill by extending this tangent and quoting a few paragraphs from that letter that I particularly liked:

    These catastrophisations arise from the reflex of defining people with whom we disagree as fundamentally immoral for not sharing our views. Sonia Sodha in the Observer wrote of the “naivety … of childishly dividing the world into goodies and baddies”. We are good because our values are good. Our opponents are bad because they do not have our values. Our opponents are thus immoral. Once we strip our opponents of any morality, we deny them of the right to be respected, and we can then impose any immoral act on them with immunity from any moral assessment of our actions. We excuse ourselves for awful things that we do.

    The concept of “identity politics” is commonly derided. Whether it is good, bad or indifferent as a concept is missing the point: more and more individuals identify with particular political causes, whether it is on one side or the other of discussions around veganism, Brexit, Scottish Independence, Black Lives Matter, Israel/Palestine or any number of other issues, including sex and gender. We are not defined by class, religion and political party affiliation as once we were: these political causes have to some extent filled the gap. “Identity politics” is an appropriate term to describe this, as loaded as that term may be.

    The way we “do” identity politics is by seeking out and discussing these causes. Social media enables us to find people with whom we disagree. Where we engage in that with the naivety identified by Sonia Sodha, the ensuing discussion is defined by vitriol, demonisation and personal attack. We excuse ourselves for the awful things we do in those discussions. “Discussion” is not even the correct term: discussions have resolutions, and resolution is not the desired outcome for these engagements. The point is simply to engage in vitriol, and in so doing reaffirm our moral rectitude. This means that our politics – and therefore our society – is toxified.

    (Hoping I’ve managed to get the tags right blind)

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