Oh gee, how nice of him.

Eddie Izzard rules out appearing on all-women Labour MP shortlists

Izzard, 60, who became famous as a cross-dressing comedian and now identifies as a gender-fluid trans woman, has made the longlist of the open contest to become Labour’s candidate for the safe seat of Sheffield Central in the next general election.

In a short telephone interview with the Guardian on Thursday, Izzard said she had suffered a “torrent of transphobic abuse” since announcing her candidacy, including being photographed by a gender-critical feminist using the women’s toilet.

Oh poor darling. How dare those bitches talk back to him just because he’s trying to shove them aside.

Though Izzard announced two years ago that she preferred

… Read the rest

But…

https://twitter.com/LabourRichard/status/1585541819747680256

But sir. But sir, why does a system that puts compassion at its heart=taking rights away from women and giving them to men who call themselves women? Why are trans women, aka men who call themselves women, deserving of compassion at the expense of women? Why are women not deserving of compassion?

Not that we want “compassion” of course. We just want our fucking rights. We just want men like you to stop cheerfully giving our rights away and ignoring us when we object and calling that “compassion.”… Read the rest

The bullying escalates some more.

https://twitter.com/LabourStudents/status/1585581346952462339

Those fists. Those fists used to stand for we won’t back down, for courage, for solidarity, for speaking truth to power. They stood for workers or women or people of color or lesbians and gays uniting to resist oppression. Here they just stand for we will punch you bitches.… Read the rest

Just to make sure everyone has all the facts –

For the avoidance of doubt, I sued both Prick News AND Ben Cohen for defamation, tore them both a new one, and would absolutely have seen them at trial had they not felt, ahem, compelled to settle. Documents outlining the case coming soon.

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) October 26, 2022

Good

to

know.… Read the rest

Helen Joyce’s talk at Gonville and Caius went ahead yesterday evening; the Telegraph has details:

Naï Zakharia, an attendee of the talk, said: “There were hundreds of protesters. They screamed and hit the door. It was hard to hear the speakers. In the middle of the talk a group of protesters got in to right behind the door of the auditorium.”

All because of a woman who doesn’t believe in magic gender.

On Tuesday night, organisers were expecting 75 masked protesters to assemble at the church.

Students rallied each other via other emails, seen by The Telegraph, to “bring pots and pans to make some noise” along with “banners, flags and signs”. Protest organisers added: “Facemasks are recommended for

… Read the rest

Why can’t India Willoughby be accurate?

Why can’t JK Rowling be blunt? She views trans women as men, doesn’t believe we should be given the dignity and humanity of using the right facilities, and uses individual cases from around the world – sometimes decades apart – as proof to fear us. There’s a word for that.

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) October 26, 2022

Rowling doesn’t “view” trans women as men, she just knows that’s what they are, because it is what they are. Women are just called women; the modifier “trans” means “not literally.” The word “trans” points to fiction, pretending, fantasy, playacting, imagining.

Of course Rowling believes trans women should use “the right facilities.” It’s Willoughby who thinks trans … Read the rest

Pink News rushes to compile a self-serving story on how Benjamin Cohen is without flaw and critics of Pink News are demonic:

Kemi Badenoch used her first appearance as equalities minister to attack PinkNews CEO Benjamin Cohen, while claiming she would work with “compassion”.

The new women and equalities minister made her comments when asked about a series of tweets posted by Cohen in response to her appointment in Rishi Sunak’s government.

What series of tweets?

https://twitter.com/benjamincohen/status/1584959197523116032

This was the stunt that Badenoch pulled at her leadership bid launch- changing single occupancy gender neutral toilets into gendered ones. I guess planes will have gendered ones under her plans? https://t.co/JGrNomfJNO

— Benjamin Cohen (@benjamincohen) October 25, 2022

A reminder of the

… Read the rest

Benjamin Cohen, CEO of Pink News, can dish it out but he can’t take it.

A statement following Kemi Badenoch’s use of Parliamentary privilege to spread misinformation about both myself and @PinkNews. I’ll await an apology and a correction to the Parliamentary record. pic.twitter.com/iKGk8voEyl

— Benjamin Cohen (@benjamincohen) October 26, 2022

What he leaves out when he says “No we were not either sued, that’s a lie!!!” is that they weren’t sued because they backed down. True but incomplete, in short, so incomplete as to be misleading, which should not be the goal in journalism. Pink News purports to be journalism. It doesn’t call itself Pink Chatter or Pink Think, it calls itself Pink News, so it should … Read the rest

Even Young Labour hates women.

On behalf of @YoungLabourUK, the national committee unanimously stands against transphobia, in and outside our Party.

We echo LGBT+ Labour's call to the leadership to withdraw the Labour whip from Rosie Duffield MP. pic.twitter.com/8x9wNDNZ20

— Nabeela (@nabeelamowlana) October 25, 2022

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Eava on A world with.

I feel like this rhetoric runs in parallel to that of some disability rights activists, deaf activists who oppose cochlear implants as destroying deaf culture, autism advocates who oppose therapies to help reduce or eliminate autistic behaviors, that instead we need to embrace “neurodiversity” just like gender diversity/gender expansiveness, etc. There is research being done on treatments for children with Down Syndrome that can improve their cognitive abilities, it would not be a “cure” but it would help them live fuller, independent lives, but this leads to similar claims of, if not genocide, eliminationism. Which is so ironic because if there were treatments for Down Syndrome that could help those … Read the rest

Here’s the whole letter sent to all Cambridge sociology students by the big boss of sociology:

In the first sentence Desai takes for granted that “distress was caused to” the students by the fact that Helen Joyce was giving a talk at Cambridge – as if she were a proponent of genocide or something equally horrifying.

In the next sentence she takes it for granted that Helen Joyce’s lecture is “potentially harmful” – as if she were a proponent of genocide or something equally horrifying. It’s pretty evil, this kind of thing. If someone were giving talks at universities advocating slavery for lesser races, or literal non-metaphorical LITERAL genocide, or the right of men to murder their female relatives, I … Read the rest

Inclusion crime klaxon:

The University of Cambridge is badly failing its students. Gender Critical Feminists are ostracised, terrified of voicing our opinion. We deserve better. Below is an email just sent out to all Sociology students re: Helen Joyce’s upcoming interview at Caius. pic.twitter.com/ylKQqEWWYx

— Cambridge Radical Feminist Network (@camradfems) October 25, 2022

Dear Students:

PANIC!!!!!!

PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC

love,

Head of Sociology at Ancient University… Read the rest

Cambridge is what now?

It aimed to encourage students to speak more “inclusively” and not fall foul of those who may be offended by sex- specific pronouns. But the University of Cambridge’s decision to say Auf Wiedersehen to teaching gendered German has prompted warnings from linguists that students risk making a fool of themselves when talking with native speakers.

[There’s also singular and plural. …students risk making fools of themselves, not a fool of themselves. Subject-object agreement.]

The students have been urged to

use “inclusive language” and “to use gender- and non-binary-inclusive language when we address or refer to students and colleagues, both in writing and in speech in English and in German”.

Language can’t be “inclusive” in that way … Read the rest

This is an odd question.

https://twitter.com/KatyMontgomerie/status/1584847683822399489

Meaning, do I want a world without people who are so unhappy in their own bodies that they wreck them in an attempt to be the other kind of body? Of course.

On the other hand if he means do I want a world where everyone conforms to gender rules, of course not. He’s apparently not bright enough to frame the question carefully.

And then he goes on to pretend he asked something different altogether.

https://twitter.com/KatyMontgomerie/status/1584925824758824960

Ah ah ah no you don’t, that’s not what you asked. You didn’t include the bit about being forced back into the closet.

He’s such a sleaze.

Here’s another question: do I want a word without gender ideology … Read the rest

The Times reports on the NHS’s shift on gender magic:

Most children identifying as transgender are simply going through a “transient phase”, new NHS guidance states. Doctors caring for youngsters distressed about their gender have been told that it is not a “neutral act” to help them transition socially by using their preferred new names or pronouns.

The draft guidelines say doctors should “carefully explore” all underlying health problems, including mental ill health, amid concerns that the NHS is rushing children on to irreversible puberty-blocker medication. The new “watchful approach” adopted by the NHS is a significant change of course from the “affirmative” approach advocated by campaign groups, including Mermaids.

This is in the wake of the damning Cass … Read the rest

There are situations in which you can’t claim to be “bullied” even though the other party has more power or social clout than you do. Like, for instance, when you’re the bully. A spindly kid can’t hit a bigger kid with a rock and then scream “bully” when the bigger kid demands an apology.

A Twitter warrior can’t tell a venomous lie about JK Rowling and then scream “bully” when Rowling says it’s a lie.

As @TinyWriterLaura still has me blocked, I can only respond to her here. I've never asked the Society of Authors to issue any statement concerning me, whether by tweet, email or letter. You've just repeated the accusation that I 'asked' the SoA to issue a

… Read the rest

Well done Ralph Fiennes.

Ralph Fiennes has mounted a vocal defence of Harry Potter author JK Rowling, saying that the “abuse directed at her is disgusting”.

In an interview with the New York Times, Fiennes discussed his role as Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films and reportedly “bristled” at the controversy surrounding the writer. Fiennes said: “JK Rowling has written these great books about empowerment, about young children finding themselves as human beings. It’s about how you become a better, stronger, more morally centred human being. The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, it’s appalling.”

He added: “I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women. But it’s

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on Feminism requires saying “This is not for you.”

I think the problem there, Bjarte, is that Capitalism and Socialism are both “dominator” structures. According to Riane Eisler, the ideal to strive for is the “partnership” model. So the struggle is framed as Left v Right, when it really should be framed as trust v demand, or order v mutual respect. I realize that what Eisler is referring to is an ideal form of society, and I’m not sure that we are capable of reaching for it as we are presently driven towards power.

When we talk about politics, we tend to fight each other based on the notion that either “right” is good … Read the rest

Speaking of Dylan Mulvaney…a woman takes exception to his insulting parody of women:

Despite not actually being a woman and even only “identifying” as such for less than a year, Mulvaney has somehow become the woman du jour.

Mulvaney is a TikTok influencer with over 8 million followers and a viral series he calls, “Days of Girlhood”. His portrayal of his “transition” in the series is littered with cartoonish portrayals of womanhood — take Day One, where Mulvaney insists he cried several times for no apparent reason because, obviously, women are constantly PMSing and thus incapable of controlling their emotions. Later in his journey, Mulvaney describes planning the perfect slumber party, despite most women I know leaving

… Read the rest

Now this crap:

A number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced and enacted on the state level in recent months, with many aimed at attacking transgender rights by outlawing gender affirming health care and prohibiting trans kids from playing in youth sports that align with their identity.

One: the bills are not in any way anti-LGB.

Two: they’re also not anti-TQ except in the sense that they don’t promote the novel, dangerous, stupid doctrine that people can be literally trapped in “the wrong body.” Bills that outlaw surgery and/or drugs that alter children’s bodies for the sake of a delusion are not anti the children being protected. Bills that forbid males to compete in female sport are not anti-T, … Read the rest