Originally a comment by What a Maroon on Hollowed out?

This hits close to home, for reasons I mentioned in the other thread. I hope that people don’t take this as a reason to dismiss the branch of (non-Chomskyan) linguistics that Vyv espouses, which goes under the (unfortunate) name of “cognitive linguistics”.

But anyway, yes, “gender” is a sociolinguistic construct. And I think he would agree with me when I say that the concepts expressed by language are not a direct reflection of an objective reality, but rather a result of our embodied interaction with the world, as filtered through our senses and our brain and also influenced by the culture we’re raised in.

But that doesn’t mean that those … Read the rest

And just one more thing about this Evans fella, because I hadn’t seen it, and because he’s being a ridiculous dogmatic twerp in that he’s blocking anyone who disputes his claims even though they are actual scholars in the field and he is not.

His polite, informed, in no way misogynist or anti-feminist sharing of his exciting article:

How Biology and Culture Shape Gender Identity

My latest article in @PsychToday explains how feminism led to TERFism and Gender Critical ideology, which has hollowed out the feminist movementhttps://t.co/QI7bNrFsEg#gender #identity #language #transrights #feminist

— Vyvyan Evans PhD (@VyvEvans) July 10, 2024

Ouch:

This is nonsense. You haven’t made the slightest effort to understand your opponent’s arguments.

We agree that gender

Ah I hadn’t realized when I shared Carole Hooven’s response to Vyvyan Evans’s Explanation of Woman that he (Evans) had responded to it by blocking her. Not by offering a reasoned response, or even by offering an unreasoned response, but just by officially ignoring her. How adult.

The PT article should be linked to in the original tweet that should be at the bottom of mine. But he just blocked me so I think I'll just retweet mine with a new link to his article. pic.twitter.com/JtvJJtTjtn

— Carole Hooven (@hoovlet) July 12, 2024

And he didn’t stop there.

Guy has PhD right there on his profile, yet he instantly blocks fellow academics who dispute his claims. That’s a good … Read the rest

Carole Hooven disputes Vyv Evans straight on the “biological essentialism” question:

Picking one point to explore in this article in @PsychToday that claims, among other things, that "TERF has been 'rebranded' as gender critical (GC) feminism, a 'linguistic pivot' from ‘anti-trans’ to ‘pro-woman’".

Take the idea of "biological essentialism" and Evan's claims… https://t.co/VJSwnlc4YC

— Carole Hooven (@hoovlet) July 11, 2024

Picking one point to explore in this article in @PsychToday that claims, among other things, that “TERF has been ‘rebranded’ as gender critical (GC) feminism, a ‘linguistic pivot’ from ‘anti-trans’ to ‘pro-woman’”. Take the idea of “biological essentialism” and Evan’s claims about “GC ideology.”

@VyvEvans: “GC ideology invokes biological essentialism: the idea that sex is binary and immutable, determined

Dude laboriously does us an explain in Psychology Today that gender norms are cultural. Gosh, who knew?

Never mind that we don’t need some guy telling us that, because it’s there only as a runway for a flight into the usual Women Must Do What They’re Told.

More recently, the advent of so-called trans-exclusionary radical feminism (TERF) came to be a significant feminist ideology. In recent years, TERF has been “rebranded” as gender critical (GC) feminism, a “linguistic pivot from ‘anti-trans’ to ‘pro-woman’ … an attempted claim to legitimacy with an aim of accruing mainstream support,” according to a peer-reviewed research article by Claire Thurlow.

No, chump, “terf” hasn’t been rebranded. Terf has always been a snide pejorative for … Read the rest

Oh great.

Joe Biden introduces Zelenskyy to the stage as “President Putin”… pic.twitter.com/aEFdDEZjBP

— Andrew Doyle (@andrewdoyle_com) July 11, 2024

Furthermore he pronounces it pootin. Poot is slang for fart.… Read the rest

Ok listen up, what’s with all this endless whining and fussing about some writer, the people who really need our support and sympathy and worship and support are the ones who chat about books on social meeja.

Tilly Fitzgerald, a former Waterstones employee and a prominent figure on social media for book enthusiasts, has publicly expressed her gratitude following substantial backing from the literary community in an open letter. Fitzgerald’s dismissal from the bookstore chain has sparked significant controversy and debate around freedom of expression and the responsibilities of employees on social media.

Prominent; substantial; significant. We know we’re in the presence of Important Stuff when we get that many Inflative Adjectives in one short paragraph.

Kidding. Actually we … Read the rest

Sometimes the bitterness is overwhelming.

The Guardian puts the boot in:

More than 500 authors and book industry professionals have signed an open letter calling on Waterstones to reverse a decision to dismiss an employee who said she would tear up and throw away books written by a gender-critical author.

Yes that’s right, side with the bratty entitled snot who tried to sabotage a novelist, don’t even consider siding with the novelist who did nothing to deserve the sabotage.

Figures including Chocolat author Joanne Harris, writer and podcaster Dorian Lynskey, and author and culture journalist Jason Okundaye have backed Tilly Fitzgerald, who posts book-related content and reviews under the username TillyLovesBooks on social media. Fitzgerald was sacked after responding

Well now that’s something I realized I needed to know more about.

Goldsmiths has decided to terminate my employment as part of a devastating restructure. With no specialist staff, this means the closure of the MA Queer History, the world's only MA degree of its kind. This is an afront to my students, colleagues, and community. It is vandalism.

— Justin Bengry (@JustinBengry) July 11, 2024

The world’s only, eh? Ok then. Goldsmiths QH MA:

Why study MA Queer History at Goldsmiths

This is the world’s first postgraduate programme in Queer History. It engages with histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other (LGBTQ+) people, identities and communities. It is innovative, creative, free-thinking, stimulating, diverse and challenging –

The BBC is incoherent with shock and rage and confusion.

Braverman sparks outrage after LGBTQ+ flag comments

What mean? What mean, BBC? Sparks outrage after comments or because of comments or at comments? And what does “sparks outrage” mean anyway? Does it perhaps just mean a BBC reporter finds the comments outrageous? And what are flag comments anyway? And do you actually mean “LGBTQ+” or do you just mean one or two of those initials?

Rishi Sunak is facing calls to expel Suella Braverman from the Conservative Party following remarks she made about an LGBTQ+ flag.

Is he? Or is that just BBCese for “I think Sunak should expel her for remarks I don’t like”?

Ms Braverman, MP for Fareham

Yikes. Lachrymose Tilly the former Waterstones employee is still publicly trying to ruin the life of Christina Dalcher.

Have you seen this Insta story from yesterday? She claims you're "really going to town" and tells people "Please don't buy her books!" pic.twitter.com/cSHOKtLGGf

— Emma Flynn (@twot134x) July 10, 2024

“This woman is really going to town,” she says, meaning Christina Dalcher is really trying to put people’s jobs at risk, when in reality Dalcher is doing precisely the opposite of that: she’s telling people not to stir anything up, including not to pile on Tilly Fitzgerald herself. It’s an infinite spiral of ironies.

And then sobbing Tilly finishes with “please don’t buy her books.”

What a piece of work.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on They win we lose.

A short list of reasons why I think this is silly:

1) It’s usually much harder to sue the government for things it has failed to do than things it has done. This is especially true when you’re trying to sue because the government didn’t do stuff to that guy/corporation over there.

2) Related to point (1), there are likely some major standing problems. An industry that is aggrieved by a regulation it contends is too restrictive has an obvious injury it can point to — we’re losing money because of this regulation. Environmental groups have to rely on more indirect theories — our members are people, and … Read the rest

More demands for submission and compliance:

A WORCESTER councillor has called for an end to the “political rhetoric” that leads to trans hate crime.

Robyn Norfolk was speaking at a meeting of Worcester City Council at the Guildhall on Tuesday, July 9. Cllr Norfolk had introduced an annual report to the council as its member champion for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). She said it had been a pleasure to work with council officers.

I suspect Robyn Norfolk is a man. The photo at the top of the article certainly looks like a man.

Cllr Richard Udall said hate crime is a growing concern for many people and that “perpetrators are causing significant harm to individuals”. He said: “Some

The sobbing Tilly saga continues to sprout new limbs.

A writer for the Independent, Emma Guinness, wrote the predictable snotty story about the big meany writer and the poor tragic Waterstones worker who raged about the big meany writer in public and got fired. Guinness is claiming – also in public – to have invited Dalcher to comment on the hit piece about her. The problem there is that she seems to have sent her invitation(s) to random people instead of to Dalcher.

Hi Christina, we contacted you three times over email before tweeting, including on your preferred media contact. We have now sent another email and multiple messages.

— Emma Guinness (@guinness_emma) July 10, 2024

My editor is happy

A piece of good news:

On the 10th of July 2024, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) discontinued all charges imposed on Selma Taha, Divina Riggon and Danae Thomas – the #KingsCross3. The CPS attributed this to lack of evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction. Speaking outside Highbury Magistrates’ Court this morning, the defence Barrister Rajiv Menon KC asserted that it’s an outrage for such a case to have been pursued for prosecution in today’s day and age.

I like that “lack of evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction” explanation – which being interpreted means they didn’t do it.

In September 2023, Selma, Divina and Danae were verbally and physically assaulted in a racist incident on London public

Ominous:

Four days after the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo, overturning the 40-year-old precedent known as the Chevron deference, the justices announced they would be sending nine cases back to lower courts in light of their ruling.

This batch of cases may be the first indication of the legal upheaval that could play out across the United States judiciary now that one of the most widely cited Supreme Court opinions has been reversed.

…

By reversing its 1984 ruling in the case of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — which let judges defer to federal agencies’ interpretation of statutes when language was unclear — the court slashed the authority of

The Great Lanyard War grinds on.

A Government crackdown on so-called “woke” lanyards in the civil service has been dropped by Labour after the general election, i understands…Esther McVey, who was the Cabinet Office minister known as “minister for common sense” in the last Government, gave a speech in May arguing that officials should not seek to express their views or identity in the workplace…The change was widely seen as a response to a trend of civil servants wearing lanyards in rainbow colours to express support for LGBT causes.

Leaving aside questions about banning a particular form of lanyard, what I wonder is why it’s always LGBT causes. Why is it never women? Or workers? Or the poor?

But … Read the rest

From March:

Florida’s Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would ban cities and counties from adopting requirements for mandatory water breaks and other workplace protections against extreme heat.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 28-11, along party lines, to pass Senate Bill 1492, which would prohibit local governments from determining workplace heat standards that go beyond those required by federal law. In effect, the bill would strip cities and counties of the ability to require water breaks for workers and time to rest in the shade throughout the day.

That’s evil. Genuinely, literally evil. Heat kills. Humans are not built to tolerate extreme heat, and they die when they get too hot. They don’t “get used to it” … Read the rest

The Indy reports:

Waterstones has come under fire for sacking a bookseller who claimed she would “tear up and bin” an author’s novel over their gender-critical views.

Their gender-critical views?? Her views. She’s a woman and doesn’t pretend otherwise.

Book influencer and Waterstones employee Tilly Fitzgerald, who uses the TikTok page Tilly Loves Books to share her reviews of novels, was fired after breaching the retailer’s social media policy during an interaction with author Christina Dalcher.

“Book influencer.” Yuck.

Ms Dalcher was subject to Ms Fitzgerald’s criticism after the author appeared to endorse a new publishing network for those “concerned about the impact of gender ideology” and the safeguarding of women’s rights. This prompted Ms Fitzgerald to write on