Is it progressive to tell people to kill themselves?

I would have thought no.

AND ANOTHER THING.

Because I missed it the first time around.

GC women though don’t in the main work from a feminist opposition to- or even understanding of-patriarchy. Most don’t have a grounding in feminist theory or a background in feminist politics. They are an uninformed mismatch of gender conservatives who make it up as they go along

— Sally Hines (@sally_hines) September 8, 2023

“Most don’t have a grounding in feminist theory” – so she’s saying if you’re not an academic with a grounding in feminist theory, you’re…suspect, shall we say. Not quite good enough. Inferior. Not up to Sally Hines’s standards.

So she’s saying feminism is for academics. Like her. She’s saying it’s an academic subject, with an … Read the rest

Sally Does SCIENCE!!

But Peter, ‘biological sex’ does change. That’s what hormones do. Also we don’t really know another’s ‘biology’ – or even our own. We don’t know someone’s chromosomal or hormonal makeup. We just make random guesses in line with a reductive framework of understanding

— Sally Hines (@sally_hines) September 8, 2023

… Read the rest

Sally Hines is still hating on feminists while claiming to be a feminist.

She starts by reminiscing about her involvement in feminism in her teens and twenties.

A man who wanted to be a feminist ally could usefully run the crèche, wash the pots, write the Xmas cards . But quietly and without expecting praise. Useful possibly. Needed never. Given the megaphone, impossible.

— Sally Hines (@sally_hines) September 8, 2023

But now, she goes on to say, all they have to do is say “I’m a woman” and they’re given the microphone to call feminist women misogynist names…hahaha just kidding. Of course she goes on to say the opposite of that.

And they attract and welcome some of the very

Oh not Kew ffs. Kew is one of the best things on the planet (albeit far too expensive now).

Next month, @kewgardens are running a series of ‘Queer Nature’ events.

They will include looking at “the connections between plants and LGBTQ+ communities” and “breaking the binary of plant classification”.

They will even feature drag artists. I can only imagine the costumes. pic.twitter.com/E8Wz4kYQ7j

— James Esses (@JamesEsses) September 6, 2023

https://twitter.com/kewgardens/status/1700063362883727458

Oh do stop. Write an opera about queer idenninies if you like but leave Kew out of it. Kew is a botanical garden, not a museum of queer idenninies.

Hi Jane, the intention behind using the term has always been to create an inclusive and welcoming space for the LGBTQ+

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Nothing added to nothing is nothing.

He’s fooled himself into thinking a few superficial trappings can fool a survival mechanism (telling a conspecific’s sex) that’s hundreds of millions of years old. We are wired to clock someone’s sex from scores and scores of yards away, even in dim light where all we can make out is a sillhouette and a gait. No doubt many of the other people he thinks he’s fooling are just being nice and humouring him, or hoping to avoid an angry, aggressive “IT’S MA’AM!” response. Even if his makeup was, according to his hair stylist, “on point and flawless,” it might only mean he’d applied it … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on But are you?

It’s so creepy because it’s so paranoid. Signalling that there’s a kind of diffuse, spectral force of terror out there. The world is just so, so full of evil people! But I’m not one of them! I’m safe!

The real force of terror is the idea itself — the paranoia that at any moment you could be marked as One of Them instead of One of Us, the Good People. So you must be vigilant and demonstrate your commitment to Us, against Them.

It’s the Crucible. The poster might as well say:

I am not a witch.

If you are

in any way

afraid

of being harmed by a witch

or … Read the rest

Ron DeSantis is doing his best to nullify the Voting Rights Act.

In mid-August, lawyers representing Florida Republicans made a startling admission. The state’s new congressional map, drawn by governor Ron DeSantis, made it harder for Black voters in north Florida to elect the candidate of their choosing. On Sunday, a judge in Florida ruled the map was unlawful.

From 2016 until last year, Florida’s fifth congressional district had stretched more than 150 miles across the northern part of the state, from Jacksonville to just west of Tallahassee. It was a portion of the state once home to the Ku Klux Klan and lynchings. In 2022, it was represented by Al Lawson, a Black Democrat, and

Talk about too much power in the hands of one unelected gazillionaire…

Elon Musk says he refused to give Kyiv access to his Starlink communications network over Crimea to avoid complicity in a “major act of war”. Kyiv had sent an emergency request to activate Starlink to Sevastopol, home to a major Russian navy port, he said. His comments came after a book alleged he had switched off Starlink to thwart a drone attack on Russian ships.

A senior Ukrainian official says this enabled Russian attacks and accused him of “committing evil”. Russian naval vessels had since taken part in deadly attacks on civilians, he said. “By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military (!)

Pink News of course is thrilled at the attention from Northumbria Police.

Police are treating transphobic graffiti sprayed in various locations in Northumberland as a hate crime. 

…

An image shared on X, previously known as Twitter, show the words: “U can’t change sex”, written on the bridge, with the reply “Just watch me, mate” penned underneath. A second picture shows graffiti which refers to “woke” as “fascists in disguise”. 

Is it “phobic” to say you can’t change sex?

Is it phobic to say that as a general statement rather than a personal one to a particular wannabe sex-changer?

Graffiti as such is a form of vandalism, but is it a worse form because it expresses the truth that humans … Read the rest

Northumbria Police are freaking out over…graffiti.

#APPEAL We are appealing for information after transphobic graffiti was left at various locations on Tyneside.

In recent weeks, officers have received numerous reports of the graffiti being painted on a section of the High Level Bridge.

(1/4) pic.twitter.com/UQMFpvuL9Z

— Northumbria Police (@northumbriapol) September 5, 2023

I have to wonder if Northumbria Police ever say a word on social media about misogynist graffiti. I don’t know, and I don’t have anywhere near the patience to scroll through their tweets in an attempt to find out, but my guess is that they haven’t. This isn’t a wild guess, but one based on this pattern. What pattern? This one. The one of freaking out about gender-protestantism … Read the rest

It’s bizarre and alarming to see a whole generation of people (well, a big chunk of that generation) insisting on the magical idea that We Can Be Whatever We Choose To Be. No we can’t. Of course we can’t. We can’t be anything other than humans, for instance – we can’t be rocks or planets or buildings or flowers or lizards – there’s an infinite number of things we can’t be. (We can’t be a lizard, or two lizards, or…) It’s worrying to see so many people so bewitched by a stupid ideology that they think we can be whatever we decide to be – that they think it and say it aloud, in public.

Trans people existing and sharing

That poster is still doing the rounds.

Well…ok but…how shall I put this…anyone can say that. It’s just saying. There’s no particular reason anyone should believe it. We can all draw up statements that start with “I am”; they won’t all necessarily be true.

Maybe the credulity here has bled over from trans ideology, where a certain kind of self-declaration from a certain kind of person is treated as both sacred and mandatory-to-believe. “People are who they say they are,” we’re told constantly – unless of course the people in question are those horrible feminist women who ask questions like “Why should I believe you?”

What if feminists started wearing that “I am a safe person” badge? Would the … Read the rest

Hilarious. (Sorry, just another rando on Twitter, but the thinking is so absurd I can’t resist.)

You’re a man and regardless of how you dress you’ll always be 1. Sorry not sorry Sir! pic.twitter.com/y2JfVKvaqi

— мiсhеllе тhоmsоn (@mscots41) September 7, 2023

How do you see a [man] with a headband, a short “pixie” haircut, makeup, lipstick, purse, skirt, and feminine voice, and think this is a man with a headband, a short “pixie” haircut, makeup, lipstick, purse, skirt, and feminine voice? The usual way, bro.

It’s so funny that he thinks adding up all the silly markers will somehow clinch the deal. It’s hilarious that he thinks quantity makes a difference when the quality is not so very convincing. No, … Read the rest

Oh did he indeed.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee ominously predicted that if Donald Trump is prevented from winning or running in the 2024 election, it will be the last election “decided by ballots rather than bullets.”

And by “ominously predicted” they mean “threatened.”

Mr Huckabee seemed to be reiterating a common accusation from Republicans, Mr Trump first among them, who have claimed that President Biden is essentially waging a political war against the former president as the Justice Department — and state courts — have indicted him over various charges. There is no evidence to support the claims of election interference or political retribution.

And – listen up Mr Huckabee – there is abundant evidence that Trump did … Read the rest

UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem responds to a response [pdf]:

On 18th of May 2023, the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) published
a statement on its website entitled “There is no place for anti-trans agendas in the UN”, which
as of today, was signed by 844 organizations and individuals. I was informed by the two
executive directors of AWID, Inna Michaeli and Faye Macheke Co-Executive Directors a week
later (the 24th of May 2023) that the letter had been published. A day later, I acknowledged
receipt and informed AWID that I would be responding to the letter at an appropriate time
and space. I am choosing to do so today.

In the

But…

A man who dressed as a woman to sexually assault another man has been found guilty by a jury.

Wayne Rogers, 47, wore a wig and fake breasts when he targeted a 20-year-old who had been out drinking in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, in September.

But how do they know he’s not trans? Or non-binary? How do they know the wig and breasts were not sincere womaning by a sincere trans woman living her best life?

“He is a sexual predator that picks on drunk men and deceives them by being dressed as a woman,” prosecutor Mark Trafford KC said.

How can they know he’s not a trans woman? Maybe he’s too bashful to say he’s a trans woman, … Read the rest

The tweet Peter Tatchell keeps repeating, I guess on the theory that someone is bound to believe it if he says it often enough.

Trans women are trans women

They are not the same as biological women but they are equally valid

Two different kinds of women

One based on biological sex. One based on gender identity

Both victims of harassment & sexual violence

Unite to defend ALL women, including trans pic.twitter.com/qw8FQrR5gU

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) September 5, 2023

Certainly, and by the same token, trans petertatchells are trans petertatchells.

They are not the same as biological petertatchells but they are equally valid.

Two different kinds of petertatchells.

One based on biological petertatchellness. One based on gender identity.

Unite to … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on Balance.

So, when we’re talking about extremes here, what do we mean? Is one extreme just handing out the hormones to everyone with a valid credit card, while the other is listening to people of good sense who say there is no such thing as being trans?

Or, how do they measure whether someone is truly trans and could benefit from hormones? Is there a gendersoul checker machine, a “t-meter” that works like the Scientology “e-meter,” measuring trangrams in pre-clears? Do they followup to check to see if one becomes clear after a certain number of months of treatment or do we just look to see if they pass? I think someone … Read the rest

Trump loses again!

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Donald Trump is civilly liable for defamatory statements he made about writer E. Jean Carroll in 2019 when she went public with claims he had raped her decades earlier.

Judge Lewis Kaplan, as part of that ruling, said the upcoming trial for Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump will only deal with the question of how much the former president should pay her in monetary damages for defaming her.

Loser loser loser. Trump is a loser. Can scowl at the camera all he wants; still a loser.

Normally, a jury would determine at trial whether a defendant is liable for civil damages claimed by a plaintiff. But Kaplan found that Carroll was