Author: Ophelia Benson

  • Episodes and absences

    Who you callin a drunk?

    FBI director Kash Patel has sued The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over a story that alleged Patel has “alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”

    The defamation suit, filed Monday morning in US District Court in the District of Columbia, seeks $250 million in damages.

    The Atlantic says nuh-uh.

    We can be pretty confident that the Atlantic didn’t just wave the story through without making sure it was safe.

    The defamation suit says statements in Fitzpatrick’s article “falsely assert” that Patel “is a habitual drunk, unable to perform the duties of his office, is a threat to public safety, is vulnerable to foreign coercion, has violated DOJ ethics rules, is unreachable in emergencies, has required the deployment of ‘breaching equipment’ to extract him from locked rooms, allows alcohol to influence his public statements about criminal investigations, and behaves erratically in a manner that compromises national security.”

    And now lots more people know that: far more people than those who read the Atlantic piece.

    Fitzpatrick wrote that she interviewed “more than two dozen people” about Patel’s conduct, “including current and former FBI officials, staff at law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, hospitality-industry workers, members of Congress, political operatives, lobbyists, and former advisers.”

    The sources were known to Fitzpatrick but were granted anonymity “to discuss sensitive information and private conversations.” She wrote that they “described Patel’s tenure as a management failure and his personal behavior as a national-security vulnerability.”

    Other than that he’s a gem.

  • Jolyon pitching a fit again

    Jolyon Maugham is calling on the troops to…tell the government that men can be women.

    Force the government to rip up the EHRC’s transphobic guidance

    It’s been a year since the Supreme Court’s decision that accelerated the rollback of trans rights in the UK. It’s been a difficult year, but it’s also been a year of coming together and fighting back.

    Remind us what this evil ruling was?

    That women are women, and men are not women.

    And it’s working. Our people power just forced the government to admit the EHRC’s transphobic draft guidance got it wrong, and they’ve had to send it back to the drawing board.

    Got it wrong? So men are women?

    But the fight is far from over. The government plan to bring an updated version back to parliament in May. So we need to act – fast.

    We have less than a month to put pressure on this government and make sure each and every MP is holding Bridget Phillipson to account. We need to make sure this new draft is workable, inclusive and fair. 

    That is, inclusive of men in the category “women” and fair to men at the expense of women.

  • Just like he do

    Jesus wants what Trump wants! It’s been scientifically shown!

  • A fixated loon

    Jolyon says he and Jo used to be friends.

    Do we believe him?

    Jo doesn’t, and she seems like a pretty solid source.

  • Wait WHO is the pathetic troll?

    This guy is an actual working journalist. Hard to believe.

    The full image:

  • Part 2

    Because a piece is missing. What Foxkiller said to invoke JKR’s brisk statement that she’s never met him and they’re not friends.

  • Fox returns

    Oh good, a bit of comic relief – Jolyon Maugham boasting of his former friendship with JK Rowling, confident that she would never dare tell the world they were never friends.

    Oops.

  • And yet, one year on

    Sex Matters:

    On 16th April 2025, the UK Supreme Court delivered its landmark judgment: the terms “man” and “woman” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex, and they always have. 

    And yet, one year on, that clarity has not translated into action. Public bodies, regulators, employers and charities that were expected to review and update their policies continue to delay, avoid or outright resist change. Others are removing services for women and girls altogether. 

    One year later, a new booklet from Sex Matters, asks a simple but urgent question:
    If the law is settled, why are so many institutions still failing to follow it?

    Some wild guesses: Because they want to. Because they can get away with it. Because trans ideology is inseparable from trans bullying and trans never shut upping.

    Through case studies and testimony, One year later shows how this failure is harming women and girls in:

    • workplaces, where employees are not being provided with adequate facilities and face disciplinary action for raising concerns
    • healthcare, where the NHS is continuing to operate based on gender self-ID
    • local services, including leisure centres, refuges, and social care, which are not respecting the law
    • sport, where a two-tier system in some sports protects elite athletes but leaves most women competing against trans–identifying men
    • charities that are still wedded to the idea that “inclusion” means ignoring women’s rights 
    • criminal justice and safeguarding systems, where accurate data and risk assessment depend on clarity about sex.

    So…everything, pretty much.

  • From absurd assertions

    From an American Atheists mailing:

    On Monday, Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission held its final hearing. Chairman and Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick promptly summarized their findings: “There is no such thing as ‘separation of church and state’ in the Constitution. For too long, the anti-God Left has used this phrase to suppress people of religion in our country.” 

    That result was never in doubt. Patrick’s been saying it since at least 2013. So, it’s hardly surprising that a cherry-picked group, led by a guy who believes God wrote the Constitution, held a series of meetings at a Bible museum, excluded alternative viewpoints, and arrived exactly where they started.

    Last year, American Atheists warned the Commission its deliberate exclusion of minority and nonreligious perspectives would “fatally undermine” any semblance of objectivity. We were right.  

    The final hearing was filled with attacks on nonreligious Americans, with commissioners calling church-state separation “the biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding” and warning against the rise of religious Nones because “the secular movement attacks all of us” and “secularists” are to blame for undermining the “fact” that “at the heart of American liberty and religious liberty is faith in the God of the Bible.” 

    That’s how the project advances from absurd assertions to institutional authority. 

    Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took it even further, arguing in a speech this week that the founding principle of the United States is that “all rights come from God, not government.” Because “Progressivism” does not agree, he said its proponents (whom he compared to Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao) represent an existential threat that is “incompatible with a constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights” and “cannot coexist.” 

    All very well but how does he know which God? Who is this “God” and how does Clarence Thomas or anyone else know it’s the right one and not an imposter? If all rights come from God, how do they get to us?

    They get to us via people who say they come from God. But how do we know they’re telling the truth? How do we know they know? How do they know they know? How does anyone know any of this?

    The answer of course is they don’t. No one does. There is no unbroken chain of communication back to the writing of The Bible such that we can check the credentials of the people who wrote it, or, if you like, copied it from God’s dictation.

    All there is is a long line of human assertion. Somebody somewhere said it, therefore it’s true. Not very convincing, is it.

    It’s circular reasoning, is what it is.

    It’s in the Bible therefore it’s true.

    But how do you know?

    Because it’s in the Bible.

    So?

    It’s in the Bible therefore it’s true.

  • All the facts; none of the manipulative metaphors

    Newspaper gossip about snotty daughter of snotty father:

    JK Rowling has hit back at the daughter of ex-Labour spin doctor Alistair Campbell after she branded a group of women’s rights campaigners “ugly”. 

    JKR didn’t hit back. She replied or responded or disputed, which is not the same as punching. I do wish UK journalism would stop using this metaphor, because it’s highly tendentious, aka damaging. Journalism should be accurate above all, and it’s not accurate to label verbal disagreements as physical violence.

    A clip from the podcast shows Campbell and a guest calling the For Women Scotland members “freaks” and repeatedly branding them “ugly” while also criticising their hair and clothes. She said they were “not aspirational in any way” and [she] “didn’t want to be in a room with them”.

    And along with not using metaphors of physical violence in reporting verbal disagreement, journalism should provide the relevant facts. Saying “a guest” when you mean a man who pretends to be a woman is a stark failure (or refusal) to provide all the relevant facts. That guy who took such pleasure in calling women UGLEEEE is not just some guest, he’s a man cosplaying a woman. That’s an important part of this repulsive story.

    Campbell’s views were also echoed by her father, who was one of the architects of New Labour. On his and Rory Stewart’s The Rest is Politics podcast, he complained that the Supreme Court ruling did not give “clarity” and also moaned about the images of “lots of women popping champagne corks, pictures of JK Rowling smoking a celebratory cigar”.

    Uppity. There’s no other word for it. Women have become so uppity it’s all men can do to get their insults into the media.

    He also suggested the toxic nature of the debate was one sided, ignoring the abuse dished out by trans activists. For Women Scotland have challenged Campbell and Stewart to invite them on their podcast, but said on Saturday they were “still waiting” for them to “take up the offer and tell us we are are ‘toxic’ for the crime of being happy.”

    I hope we can make it hot for them. Take up the offer, dudes. You’re so clever, you’re bound to emerge smelling like roses.

  • Why corner?

    Words.

    Trump appeared confounded by a common phrase during a public appearance in Nevada on Thursday.

    …

    Delivering a speech on the benefits of his policy, which allows employees who receive tips to deduct up to $25,000 in tips when filing their taxes, the 79-year-old came across a term he claimed to have never heard before.

    “The great big beautiful bill also slashed taxes on millions of Americans, small businesses, including restaurants, dry cleaners, corner stores,” the president said, before pausing to add an aside.

    “What is a corner store?” He asked the room. “I’ve never heard that term. I know what a corner store is, but I’ve never heard it described… A corner store. Who the hell wrote that, please?” He added, looking around as the audience laughed.

    Ok but this one time I don’t think he was just lost in the fog. “Corner store” is a peculiar label because as far as I can tell it doesn’t actually mean corner store but rather convenience store aka small general store that sells the kind of thing you don’t want to go to a supermarket for. It’s an idiom. I think what he meant was not “what is it” but “why is it called that”. As someone who frequently wonders why things are called that, I think we can give him a pass on this one. Mind you, it is very eccentric and perhaps diagnostic to break into one’s own speech about something else to muse on the meaning of a common idiom.

    So why are they called corner stores?

    When I was a child we lived a few miles outside of town, with fields all around, growing alfalfa or pasturing cows. About three fields away there was a small everything store, which I would walk to through the fields on Saturday mornings to spend my allowance on the penny candy in a glass and wood case at the front of the store. It feels like about 1850 at this distance. Anyway…it was literally a corner store, but we called it the general store. Or Musselman’s, the name of the owner, known to the grownups as Spud.

    So, are all 7/11s on corners, or are some in the middle of the block?

  • Glass houses

    But trans ideology has nothing to do with hatred of women, oh no no no no, not at all, and especially not internalized hatred of women, you know, the kind where you’re a woman yourself but you take great pleasure in calling other women ugly.

    The guy on the left is a guy. The woman on the right is Grace Campbell, daughter of Alastair Campbell, once spokesman for Tony Blair and New Labour. If you want to watch him babbling incoherently about why women should let men take away all our rights, here he is again:

    Like father like daughter. Rapid incoherent repetitive babbling as opposed to reasoned argument, in an effort to incite contempt and hatred for women defending women’s rights. He can talk fast but he can’t say anything worth listening to, and his daughter is the same.

  • It’s treason now, eh?

    Of all the things not to care about, this is the most not to care about of all.

    Feel betrayed all you want, bro; feminism isn’t for you, nor is it about you, so shut up and toddle off. We all know you wouldn’t say this about an anti-racism movement; you wouldn’t expect it to coddle white people at the expense of its own cause, let alone order it to do so.

  • Convincing

    Yes indeed being a woman is all about…er…cripplingly high heels and pneumatic tits and head-tilt with toothy grin.

    Women do indeed spend most of their time sitting awkwardly on splintery porch floors grinning for a camera and asking tits-based questions. What else is there to do?

  • A new credo

    Fake news? Let’s hope so.

  • Chimp’s tea party

    Two men fuming about women who defend women’s rights. Dear me, how dare we.

    “You cannot change your sex, is what people are saying about this.” Yes that’s right; you cannot change your sex. You cannot change your species, either. You can change your appearance in many ways, but you cannot change your sex. So unfair, but true nonetheless.

  • Left behind

    A branch of misogyny I hadn’t been aware of:

    …women on Reddit, Instagram and TikTok began sharing stories of being left behind by their partners while hiking, biking and climbing in nature, calling it “Alpine divorce.”

    Often, the women described risky or uncomfortable circumstances where their partners had more knowledge of the terrain or more experience with the sport. In some cases, the couple met again, but in others, the women remained alone or relied on strangers to descend the mountain safely.

    Nice! Get your girlfriend into a dangerous situation and then leave.

    The flurry of social media posts during the last few weeks appeared to have been triggered by a criminal case in Austria focused on a mountaineering expedition that ended in death. In February, Thomas Plamberger, 37, was found guilty of gross negligent manslaughter for leaving his girlfriend, Kerstin Gurtner, 33, to die of hypothermia on Austria’s highest mountain, the Grossglockner.

    Gross indeed.

    Max Eberle, 32, a freelance journalist and hiking instructor in Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, said that growing up in the Austrian Alps, Alpine divorce was a “rural legend” — something he’d heard discussed but never actually witnessed.

    The current use of the term, Mr. Eberle said, described what he preferred to call “toxic Alpinism.”

    “It’s very common that you see a couple in the mountains, and it’s always like the guy pushing his wife or his girlfriend to go further when she is totally exhausted and wants to go back,” Mr. Eberle said.

    It’s close cousin to the men in women’s sports problem. Dude, you’re bigger and stronger. Men are bigger and stronger. That doesn’t translate to “Yay we get to beat them up!” It translates to take your physical advantages into account and act accordingly.

  • Regardless of

    Man resigns from his “role” as endometriosis advisor.

    Yeah bro it was always in the best interests of the charity not to hire a man for that job. You should have turned it down.

    But sadly he’s not actually gone, he’s just moved sideways.

    STATEMENT 2:

    Further to my recent resignation as CEO of TransLucent and changes in my life generally, an opportunity recently arose to work more closely with Women’s Action Network Portsmouth (WANP) – an intersectional and inclusive feminist organisation championing a broad range of causes.

    We actively champion meaningful inclusion for every woman, regardless of age, class, disability, neurodiversity, race, religion, sexuality, or gender identity.

    Notice anything missing? Sex. He omitted sex. He replaced sex with genner idenniny.

    Our solidarity is grounded in shared struggles and a collective commitment to dismantling patriarchy. We stand firmly against divisive culture wars and attacks on minorities, rejecting polarisation, hate, and exclusion in favour of unity, inclusion, justice, equity, and compassion for all members of our diverse communities.

    What shared struggles? Women don’t share struggles with you. You’re not sharing struggles with women, you’re talking over women. You’re intruding. You’re grabbing the spotlight for yourself. You’re interrupting. You’re doing what men like you do.

  • No YOU tone it down

    Stalling stalling stalling

    Bridget Phillipson told Britain’s equality regulator that it must “tone down” its guidance over single-sex spaces and make it more inclusive before she presents it to parliament, The Times understands.

    For the billionth time: you can’t make single-sex spaces “more inclusive” without making them not single-sex spaces. It can’t be done, because it’s a contradiction. It’s squaring the circle. IT CAN’T BE DONE.

    Not everything can be inclusive. Not everything should be inclusive. Being inclusive is not always the top priority. You don’t want kindergartens to be inclusive of child molesters, for instance. You don’t want fire departments to be inclusive of pyromaniacs. You don’t want hospitals to be inclusive of infectious diseases. You don’t want grocery stores to be inclusive of mold. You don’t want your living room to be inclusive of everyone who walks by. The exceptions are endless. We don’t have to include men who say they are women in everything for women – we don’t have to include them in anything for women.

    The women and equalities minister has not yet published new guidance, which protects single-sex spaces, a year after a Supreme Court ruling defined gender as relating to biological sex in reference to the Equality Act.

    She has been in talks with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), under its new chair Mary-Ann Stephenson, and while the guidance itself will not change, the regulator has been asked to include more examples of how organisations can be inclusive within the law.

    Inclusive of what? Men? Why is there any need for examples of how men can be included in things for women?

    A source with knowledge of the process said much of the discussion had been over the “tone” of the document, with a feeling it had been approached with the aim of excluding transgender people rather than finding inclusive ways of operating while also upholding the law.

    Could that be because “transgender people” are the issue? As for finding inclusive ways, see above.

  • To the surprise of no one

    Telegraph headline:

    More than 70 per cent of transgender prisoners are in for sex offences or violent crimes

    What to do, what to do. I know! Force women to submit to men who claim to be women, and it will all be smoothed out.

    More than 70 per cent of transgender prisoners in British jails are serving sentences for sex offences and violent crimes, government figures have revealed.

    At least 181 of the 244 transgender inmates, more than 74 per cent, are in jail for crimes including rape, forcing under-age children into having sex, grievous bodily harm and robbery.

    Yes but it’s the women who made them do it.

    The high levels of violent crimes among male prisoners who identify as women demonstrates why they should not be detained in female prisons, women’s rights campaigners argue.

    Campaigners and former prison chiefs, however, were insistent that the high level of violent crimes among trans prisoners did not imply that they were inherently violent, adding that the vast majority lived crime-free lives.

    The vast majority of what? Trans prisoners? How does that make sense?

    The figures released by the Ministry of Justice also reveal that a further 25 transgender males, women who identify as men, located in female prisons have been convicted of violent crimes and sexual offences. Just a year ago there were fewer than five, according to the Ministry of Justice.

    The figures were released after a former female remand prisoner told The Telegraph how one trans woman inside a female high-security prison continuously bullied other prisoners.

    Well, you know, non-stop bullying is kind of a feature of trans “activism”. It may even be most of the point of being trans, at least for the male ones. “Oh hey, I get to browbeat women who don’t let me push them aside, count me in.”