Victoria Smith starts by thanking the men who tell women what we’re allowed to be afraid of for wading in to correct our perceptions of reality when they must be so busy.

To be fair, it is not our fault. We are not authoritative; we are not you. We are taught from an early age to doubt ourselves, to see our own versions of reality as suspect, requiring external confirmation from the experts, the men. When you are not considered a reliable witness to your own experiences, things become very confusing. This, I guess, is where you step in.

And, of course, this very stepping in is part of the process of teaching female people from an early age that … Read the rest

Yet another man telling feminist women how to feminism.

I have a protected characteristic. That PC affords me justifiable legal protections. Stonewall have systematically misrepresented my PC, and have been clear they would like justifiable legal protections removed.

What did you think would happen?

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) August 26, 2021

It's misogyny more broadly that is the threat to women. Gender ideologies (incel, trans, taliban) are manifestations of that. A woman is murdered due to her sex every 3 days in the UK. Misogyny doesn't harm *you* Robin, but it harms us.

— Billy Bragg in a Billion (@CroneInAMillion) August 26, 2021

This is unworthy of you, Robin. Vulnerable women need single-sex spaces in refuges, hospitals & prisons. Feminists

… Read the rest

Jawad Iqbal asks an important question.

Why is the BBC, which takes pride in lecturing everyone else on its commitment to impartiality, determined to keep working with Stonewall, the LGBT charity that’s pushing an agenda on trans issues that is anything but impartial? Other public sector bodies, including the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Cabinet Office, have withdrawn from Stonewall’s diversity programme. But not the BBC, which thinks it knows better.

I have another question to go along with that one. Is there any feminist charity that has that kind of hold on the BBC and the police and other public bodies? In other words is there any feminist equivalent of Stonewall? Is there any anti-racist equivalent? … Read the rest

I find I haven’t said enough about that response from Police Scotland.

Who and what Murray Blackburn Mackenzie are in case you’ve forgotten (which I had, embarrassingly):

Established in late 2018, MurrayBlackburnMackenzie is an independent policy analysis collective, made up of Dr Kath Murray, Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Lisa Mackenzie. Between us, we have extensive experience in policy-making, research and communications.

How the police responded to their question about why they ask people about their gender identity but not their sex:

So they know that the gender [identity] of a person is a key factor which shapes people’s experiences of local policing…but they apparently don’t know that the sex of a person is a key factor which shapes people’s experiences … Read the rest

Our new blog looks at the Police Scotland 'Your Police' survey, and makes the case for recording demographic data on sex, in addition to self-defined gender identity. https://t.co/7Yn9R0x62O

— MurrayBlackburnMackenzie (@mbmpolicy) August 25, 2021

Or, better, instead of “gender identity.” Who cares what people’s fanciful “gender identity” is? Besides marketers of Gender Accessories, who are many and greedy.

In response to a query about the lack of a sex question, Police Scotland stated that “we do not need to know someone’s biological sex characteristics. What is important, is how they identify their gender”. pic.twitter.com/vd7b2RaWBd

— MurrayBlackburnMackenzie (@mbmpolicy) August 26, 2021

Oh my god the police in Scotland think they don’t need to know that a suspect is a man or … Read the rest

Just for thoroughness, the Wall Street Journal take on Judge Parker’s ruling:

“This case was never about fraud—it was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,” U.S. District Judge Linda Parker in Detroit said in a 110-page ruling on Wednesday.

…

“Despite the haze of confusion, commotion, and chaos counsel intentionally attempted to create by filing this lawsuit, one thing is perfectly clear: Plaintiffs’ attorneys have scorned their oath, flouted the rules, and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary along the way,” Judge Parker wrote.

…

Judge Parker said that the attorneys must pay the costs incurred by state officials and the city of Detroit related to the lawsuit.

… Read the rest

Saying it before doesn’t make it true.

https://twitter.com/nberlat/status/1430378143546753025

No it doesn’t work the same way with trans issues. At all. Especially if by “date” he means “fuck,” which I think it’s safe to assume. People are allowed to have a preference for one sex or the other. If they’re not allowed to have that, then sex becomes indistinguishable from rape. Straight people are allowed to prefer the opposite sex and gay people are allowed to prefer the same sex. That means no one is required to have Affirmation Sex with a trans person whose sex is not the preferred one. No one. Not even women!… Read the rest

The move to delete women continues.

Federal health chiefs [in Australia] have rewritten a Covid-19 vaccination pregnancy guide that bizarrely erases all mention of ‘women’ and replaces it with ‘pregnant people’.

The guide was originally published in February as ‘COVID-19 vaccination – Shared decision making guide for women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or planning pregnancy’.

But it was republished last week under its new subtly-tweaked title: ‘COVID-19 vaccination decision guide for people who are pregnant, breastfeeding or planning pregnancy’.

Which is not only insulting to women, but also significantly less useful as an actual COVID-19 vaccination decision guide. You want such things to be as clear and easy to follow as possible, and deleting the word “women” doesn’t do … Read the rest

Kathleen Stock and Peter Tatchell were going to discuss, but now they’re not.

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1430772351080280067

Tatchell tweeted a statement that simply reiterates the fanatical dogmatism and hostility to women of the trans movement.

pic.twitter.com/Y8iegxDQfK

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) August 26, 2021

But what are “trans rights”? What does Tatchell take them to be? Putting it that way makes it sound as if skeptics of the dogma want to take human rights away from trans people, which is complete nonsense. The whole problem is that “trans rights” are such non-existent rights as erasing the word “women” from the language, as men forcing themselves into women’s spaces, as men taking jobs and prizes that were meant for women, as men competing against women … Read the rest

And another one.

https://twitter.com/amy_adhd/status/1408162377531637766

We can say what men are in 5 words but women are a whole different story, so different that they can be women while also being men, i.e. the sex that produces spermatozoa.

Updating to add: it’s still there.

The other one.… Read the rest

Spot the difference.

According to healthline, men with HPV are men but women with HPV are vulva owners, same source same date. pic.twitter.com/KRhlgys460

— Michelle Alise (@Michellebudd) June 22, 2021

H/t maddog… Read the rest

Bam.

A federal judge in Michigan on Wednesday night ordered sanctions to be levied against nine pro-Trump lawyers, including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood, ruling that a lawsuit laden with conspiracy theories that they filed last year challenging the validity of the presidential election was “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”

In her decision, Judge Linda V. Parker of the Federal District Court in Detroit ordered the lawyers to be referred to the local legal authorities in their home states for possible suspension or disbarment.

Declaring that the lawsuit should never have been filed, Judge Parker wrote in her 110-page order that it was “one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights

… Read the rest

And then there are those times when they just blurt it right out.

https://twitter.com/mcashmanCBE/status/1430588380480421894

Shrill sirens – you couldn’t make it up. It’s cool because it labels us as both demonic witch-women who lure men in boats to their deaths and noisy horns that scream in your ear when something bad happens.

https://twitter.com/FrancisWheen/status/1430633504568659977 https://twitter.com/FrancisWheen/status/1430634623550242816

See also: Karens.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sastra on The same woo-woo bin.

If a particular grandiose claim is supported by science, the likelihood is that it would meet at least some of these criteria:

1.) It would have come out of science.

2.) It would answer more than one question.

3.) It would be testable and falsifiable.

4.) It would have been hotly debated for years.

5.) It would be consistent across disciplines.

6.) It would generate new hypotheses and research.

7.) It would use terms and explanations which are clear.

If the “scientific claim” can be brought to its knees by “define ‘woman,’” it’s not really a scientific claim.

The scientific consensus they talk about here involves DSDs: there are … Read the rest

Which party holds the wack belief and which party holds the other kind?

Ahh, I see.

So it's your word against the 99% scientific consensus on the existence and validity of trans people.

Your denial of trans existence is akin to the existence of a flat earth, or Earth being the center of the universe.

— MrTARDIS (@TrilbeeReviews) August 25, 2021

Other way around, I think you’ll find.… Read the rest

Our what?

Maryam Monsef just referred to the Taliban as “our brothers” pic.twitter.com/KEL5UYa3HO

— Bryan Passifiume (@BryanPassifiume) August 25, 2021

Who is she? Canada’s Minister for Women and Gender Equality.

She's the Minister for Women and Gender Equality https://t.co/tmI4jWgluQ

— Lorrie Goldstein (@sunlorrie) August 25, 2021

So, yeah…our brothers?

I think not.

Updating to add: see Sastra’s comment and Seanna’s for a better understanding.… Read the rest

Why now and not last year?

So why is Florida is experiencing its worst surge now, 18 months into the pandemic, when the vaccines are widely available?

In some ways, what’s happening in Florida is a microcosm of the current surge across America: a middling vaccination rate has collided with a more contagious version of the virus. And it’s doing so in a state where political leaders continue to insist people should act as though the pandemic is over — even as more people are dying every day than at any point in the past year.

It’s the “when in doubt, take the reckless approach” problem.

DeSantis, who has clear presidential aspirations in 2024, has positioned himself and his state’s

… Read the rest

Guardian columnist Zoe Williams also dislikes John Cleese, it seems.

[I]t’s hard to find out when John Cleese was last funny. Some people think he had some moderately amusing lines in A Fish Called Wanda (1988). There was a period in the 2010s when he had an idiosyncratic vendetta and went around town saying “Michael Palin’s travel show” and then yawning, which a small niche found rather tickling.

Does that actually matter? He did some brilliant Being Funny before the 2010s, which thanks to technology we can still benefit from. Isn’t that good enough?

It would be fair to say it’s not a recent body of comic work that has recommended Cleese for a Channel 4 show about “cancel

… Read the rest

Does “with force” mean “with force”?

Noted, but this group threatened the SPCC @_Lisa_Townsend with violence. Can you confirm that you will be investigating Pride in Surrey? pic.twitter.com/kpXKenCeOx

— SaintCirce (@SaintCirce) August 25, 2021

What views? The usual.

Surrey’s Police and Crime Commissioner has been accused of being transphobic but defended by refuge organisers for women after she criticised LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall.

The campaign group’s vision is that people born male who identify as women should be able to attend women’s prisons and crisis centres, whether or not they have begun to transition.

Attend? One doesn’t “attend” prisons, as if they were meetings of the book group, one is locked up in them, aka imprisoned. That’s part of the … Read the rest

Simon Callow is fed up with the tyranny.

Simon Callow, the actor and veteran gay rights campaigner, has condemned the “strange turn to the tyrannical” taken by Stonewall on self-identification for transgender people.

Callow, who was involved in the anti-government protests that led to the foundation of Stonewall in 1989, said an “extraordinarily unproductive militancy” now surrounded its position. This uncompromising mood risked infringing women’s rights and could put pressure on young gay people to transition, he said, and it was a sign of the times that he felt nervous about the reaction he would stir up, simply for expressing his views.

The uncompromising mood [or rather stance, approach, method] emphatically already does infringe on women’s rights, including … Read the rest