The Guardian last month on Orwell and women:

George Orwell’s first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, made his work possible at the cost of her own by taking on the household drudgery and typing up his writing instead of completing her master’s in psychology. But Wifedom, a remarkable new book by Anna Funder, shows there was much more to a woman who appears only fleetingly in her husband’s work and is poorly served by his biographers. Shortly before meeting Orwell she wrote a dystopian poem titled End of the Century, 1984; she suggested that he write an animal fable instead of an essay denouncing Stalinism; and she noted her husband’s “extraordinary political simplicity”. In Homage to Catalonia, Orwell mentions a

Aw, sad – Vivian Wulf had to close that petition to tell Peter Tatchell to shut up, because The Wrong People found it. I’m embarrassed and ashamed and queasy that I am one of those Wrong People – I found it, I shared it, I made fun of it. Oh dear, I seem to be making fun of it again, even now. What is wrong with me?

SEP 20, 2023 — Contrary to their bleating on social media GCs clearely love having Tatchell on air if it means trans people don’t ge a voice. He is the perfect strawman for them. They can attack trans people by attacking him and simultaneously his presence helps keep trans voices out of the

Deepities flying.

Yes, while I was a student at Rutgers.

No, it does not “deny biology.” It acknowledges when biological “facts” are choices rather than actually as the material realities they are said to describe.

No one in this space “denies biology.” They just reject the normativity of it.

— Look at This Cool Ben Shapiro Being Stabbed Tattoo (@ShapiroTattoo) September 19, 2023

Ah the normativity of it. It’s so normative (and white and cis and Republican) to say that ospreys are not mammals or that whales are not plankton. Don’t be like Norman Normative; reach for the stars; call your dick a girl-dick and live on Cloud Freedom forever.

Challenging the objectivity of descriptions of reality, yes. Absolutely.

Not

On the one hand, women standing up for women’s and lesbians’ rights. On the other hand, men (and some women?) screaming at them “You’re fucking fascists!!”

#TeamTERF: We support lesbians. #Trantifa: YOU’RE A FUCKING FASCIST! #TeamTERF: We’re also against rape culture. #Trantifa: FUCK YOU! pic.twitter.com/7WuvdE5ghc

— Kara Dansky (@KDansky) September 19, 2023

… Read the rest

Crisply said.

Nonsense, Andrea. People who identify as trans have the exact same rights everyone else has. The problem is that at least some who identify as trans seek a privilege–to require others to accept trans beliefs and to give up their rights to accommodate those beliefs. That is… https://t.co/9W8GIavuQn

— Prof. Gary Francione (@garylfrancione) September 19, 2023

The whole thing without the irritating break at the end:

“Nonsense, Andrea. People who identify as trans have the exact same rights everyone else has. The problem is that at least some who identify as trans seek a privilege–to require others to accept trans beliefs and to give up their rights to accommodate those beliefs. That is something NO other group gets. … Read the rest

Another stanza of the epic Men Are Better at Everything:

Missouri High School Crowns Male Student as “Homecoming Queen”

It’s tempting to say “Let them have that one” because wtf is a “homecoming queen” anyway? There is no homecoming king, nor are there beauty pageants for men in general, so why does this creaky antiquated “all women can do is stand around and look pretty” brand of competition keep hanging around?

But, it does keep hanging around, so it is just one more insulting theft for men to insert themselves into such contests.

A high school in Kansas City, Missouri, is facing mockery after crowning a trans-identified male student as “Homecoming Queen” this past weekend. After the news hit social

That’s funny.

Truer than he (Brand) perhaps intended – Orwell was indeed a shit to women.… Read the rest

Drop whatever you’re doing and listen up: there’s a Statement:

ETFO strongly condemns anti-2SLGBTQ+ protests

Today, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) issued the following statement responding to 1 Million March 4 Children protests that are scheduled to take place across Canada this week:

“Any actions or events that seek to undermine the rights and dignity of the 2SLGBTQ+ community must be denounced. As such, ETFO strongly condemns this week’s planned protests, and calls on the government and school boards to do the same.”

What about actions and events that do in fact undermine the rights and dignity of women, of lesbians and gay men, of children and adolescents and adults, of people who can recognize bullshit when they … Read the rest

A petition!

The trans community calls for Peter Tatchell to shut up and let us speak for ourselves

Says Vivian Wulf.

Peter Tatchell is everywhere speaking for us.

On several occasions he has offered opinions contrary to what the majority of trans people believe.

He scolds trans activists for things he considers “bad optics”.

He has a history of questionable statements that could lead one to believe he supports pedophilia making his “optics” less than ideal.

He has used the threats and harassment trans people receive as an excuse for why he is always the person called onto TV shows rather than an actual trans person saying that trans people won’t do it so he has to. This is a

Well…

I don't ask for much.

I just want transgender people to be accepted in every single way that other people are.

To be able to live their lives equally to anyone else.

To grow old, have families, make mistakes, laugh, cry, and love.

To have the same opportunities as everyone…

— Dr Helen Webberley she/her (@HelenWebberley) September 19, 2023

Ok let’s try to figure this out.

“I just want transgender people to be accepted in every single way that other people are.”

What does that mean though? What does “be accepted” mean? Nobody is “accepted” in every possible sense, so what are we even talking about?

Where and when we have to “accept” trans people actually is an issue, … Read the rest

Apparently one thing Trump has been doing with all those stolen classified documents is cutting them into “note cards” on which he tells his employees their tasks for the day.

One of former President Donald Trump’s long-time assistants told federal investigators that Trump repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on documents from the White House that were marked classified, according to sources familiar with her statements.

As described to ABC News, the aide, Molly Michael, told investigators that — more than once — she received requests or taskings from Trump that were written on the back of notecards, and she later recognized those notecards as sensitive White House materials — with visible classification markings — used to brief Trump while

Debbie Schipp of the Daily Telegraph (Australia) on Russell Brand’s blatant contempt for women and how long it went unrebuked:

I don’t know if Russell Brand is guilty of the specific rape and sexual assault and harassment claims being levelled against him. I do know I’m surprised that it’s taken this long for him to be called out as an allegedly predatory and controlling creep.

I do know that when I walked out of a one-on-one interview (actually, there was one of me, and then him and the tittering entourage he played to in the room) with Brand more than a decade ago, I’d just met a very unprofessional and decidedly ordinary human being.

I’d been witness to — and

Who you callin’ mentally fogged?

Donald Trump has long attacked Joe Biden, his likely opponent at the polls next year, as “Sleepy Joe”, portraying the 80-year-old president as too old and too mentally fogged to occupy the Oval Office.

Trump, on the other hand, is just plain stupid.

Trump is 77 but polls show significantly fewer voters think he is too old to return to power. 

But is he too stupid? Too vicious, too reckless, too self-dealing, too corrupt, too law-breaking, too sexist, too racist, too xenophobic, too rude, too trashy, too sadistic, too ignorant? Hell yes.

Biden says he is fit to serve. So does Trump, telling NBC in an interview broadcast on Sunday “there should be a competency”

Gaby Hinsliff on why it matters when a sleb dude is revealed as not entirely a feminist:

The most haunting moment for me of last weekend’s joint investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, the Sunday Times and the Times wasn’t the admittedly horrific allegations of rape and sexual assault (which Brand denies, insisting that even at his wildest all the sex was consensual). It was the way Dispatches spliced footage of Brand onstage – joking about his enthusiasm for rough sex, for blowjobs that left women choking and gasping and with mascara running down their faces – together with footage of a woman named only as Alice, describing how she allegedly experienced just that with Brand when she was only

It’s never at all about narcissism though, never never never.

Found a disabled toilet … not the most fun I've had. pic.twitter.com/UQFzxPvNVt

— Heather Herbert (@HeatherHerbert_) September 17, 2023

… Read the rest

So it turns out all these indictments of Trump are Trump’s political strategy.

Donald Trump is intent on leaning into his criminal cases to boost his 2024 campaign through the election next year, according to multiple people close to the former president, after he tested that strategy through multiple indictments and decided it gave him major political advantages.

That’s great. The more of a criminal he is the more votes he gets. What a shining city on a hill we are.

The summer also gave Trump the confirmation that blurring the lines between the legal effort and political effort was perhaps his best overall strategy, in the gamble that he could use the criminal cases to benefit his

Nope, still not getting it.

Boebert takes another stab at “apologizing” and fails again for the same reason – the classic mistake of framing the behavior one is “apologizing” for as lovably passionate or eccentric or too intense or whatever the self-flattery organ comes up with.

See, this is the thing: if you do something wrong, you can’t apologize by telling us you did it because you’re so awesome. That doesn’t work. We can all see that you’re trying to convince us that you’re a fabulous person instead of apologizing.

In an interview on Sunday with the conservative One America News Network, the far-right Colorado congresswoman attributed the behavior – recorded on security camera footage – to what she described

The adults are getting involved. Sure took them a long time.

The equalities regulator has said the Government must urgently publish its delayed trans guidance for schools to provide teachers with “much needed clarity”.

Marcial Boo, the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s chief executive, revealed that the watchdog had been privately urging the Department for Education (DfE) to “expedite” their new guidance, amid wrangling in Government over how to respond to children seeking to change their gender identity in schools.

Wrangling in government over it – as if they were “activists” on Twitter.

Writing to campaigners, Mr Boo also admitted that the EHRC’s own official guidance, in place for almost a decade, had been wrong to tell teachers that

Hmmm. If I were a passer-by I’m not sure I would find that a very persuasive slogan.

TRA#1: "What slogan can we use to convince the world that we are real women, who just want to live peaceful lives and have no violent intentions towards females?"
TRA#2: pic.twitter.com/8Dkau3eNLy

— Sam Morgan (@CrunchAlias) September 17, 2023

I get the thinking, maybe…It’s about being defiant, unafraid, in our face, unashamed, bold, brassy, blunt, real. It’s a sort of imitation of feminism, in a way – feminism that said all along we’re not ladies and we’re not girls, we’re women, with all that that implies. It’s not a dainty business, being a woman – you try pushing an infant human being … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sastra on A policy vacuum filled with loonies.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that, due to a confluence of factors, modern society has become entangled in a cultural version of the Savior Complex. The psychologically exaggerated need to save other people has lead to the inadvertent creation of those who need saving: in this case, the Trans Child. Here the combined influence of Therapy Culture and nostalgia for civil rights battles seduces people into loving the pure and innocent Authentic Self suppressed by the Orthodox and bullied by Oppressors. These kids are vulnerable, weak, needy, hurt. They’re just like gay kids used to be in the bad old days. But they can save them! … Read the rest