The installation was asking for it.

An appeal for information has been launched after a sculpture in a Sheffield park created to highlight violence against women was destroyed by arsonists.

A little too on the nose, perhaps. “You oppose violence against women? Here, have some symbolic violence against women!”

The six-foot tall hexagonal installation in Ponderosa Park, in Netherthorpe, was razed during the night of August 21.

It was created by students from and funded by Sheffield’s universities to protest violence against women and was only installed three weeks before the fire at an unveiling in late July.

The wooden sculpture was handmade and included poems by members of the Our Bodies Our Streets feminist organisation in Sheffield. It

Still at it. They should transfer their social media person to a different job – one that has nothing to do with women’s civil liberties.

Late last night SCOTUS denied our emergency request to block Texas’ cruel and dangerous abortion ban, SB8, which has stopped most abortion in the state.
 
This law has had a devastating impact in just 24 hours, particularly for communities of color and those without resources.

— ACLU (@ACLU) September 2, 2021

Particularly for WOMEN of color and WOMEN without resources. The matter of who is affected by this is not random.

The average Texan WOMAN and HER abortion provider.

Women women women women women women women women women women women women women women women … Read the rest

Even NOW the ACLU won’t say our name. It’s as if they’d deleted the word “Jews” from their vocabulary in 1933.

The law bans abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy — before many people even know they’re pregnant.

The result is that many Texans will be forced to carry pregnancies against their will.

— ACLU (@ACLU) September 1, 2021

People, people, Texans.

This is a full-scale assault on patients, our health care providers, and our support systems.

This abortion ban is blatantly unconstitutional. We won’t stop fighting until it’s blocked.

— ACLU (@ACLU) September 1, 2021

People, anyone, patients.

Not a woman to be seen.… Read the rest

Even Kamala Harris ffs. If even she can’t say it…

Texas law SB8 blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v. Wade nearly five decades ago. It will disproportionately affect communities of color and individuals with low incomes from getting access to the health care they need.

We must protect that right.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 1, 2021

WOMEN of color, WOMEN with low incomes. Not generic communities, not generic individuals, but specifically and exclusively WOMEN.

Updating with

Texas law SB8 will significantly impair people’s access to the health care they need—particularly for communities of color and individuals with low incomes.

We are deeply committed to the constitutional right established in Roe v. Wade and will protect and

But they have to exclude, no matter what.

Will new Olympics rules exclude or include transgender athletes?

Most athletes are not included in the Olympics. That’s why the Olympics are such a big deal: they’re a contest among the very best.

Backlash against transgender and non-binary competitors in Tokyo has highlighted the problems preventing inclusion in sports at all levels

But “inclusion” isn’t a goal of the Olympics. They’re not supposed to exclude for reasons irrelevant to the competition, but they are both allowed and supposed to exclude most hopefuls, because that’s the whole point – excluding competitors over and over until there are only three left, who win bronze silver and gold.

When Grace McKenzie decided to undergo gender

Yet another of these patronizing “reminders” of utter bullshit, and in this case harmful bullshit.

Your periodic reminder that not all women need access to abortion care, and that some trans men and non-binary people do.

Saying “people who need abortion access” or “patients seeking care” or etc. is more accurate and inclusive.

— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@TheRaDR) September 1, 2021

Here’s your periodic reminder that it is ONLY women who need abortion.

(Abortion, not “abortion care.” Is she squeamish about abortion? So squeamish that she feels she has to try to veil it?)

It is only women who need abortion. That includes women who claim to be trans men, and women who claim to be the meaningless “non-binary.” Be … Read the rest

Lawmakers trying to make corporations defy the legal process.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have warned telecommunications companies against sharing information with the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

McCarthy and Greene on Tuesday both suggested that the companies would face repercussions for complying with the committee’s request for data once Republicans are in control of the government. The committee asked 35 telecommunications and social media companies to supply it with the records on Monday.

They didn’t “suggest” it, they said it.

“This is leading us into waters that we’ve never been in in America,” Greene said during an appearance on Fox News‘ Tucker

The foul Texas anti-abortion law has gone into effect, courtesy of the Supreme Court’s refusal to do an emergency review. Reporting on the subject is badly undermined by the near-total avoidance of That Word.

A near-total abortion ban in Texas empowers any private citizen to sue an abortion provider who violates the law, opening the floodgates to harassing and frivolous lawsuits from anti-abortion vigilantes that could eventually shutter most clinics in the state.

“Abortion access will be thrown into absolute chaos,” says Amanda Williams, executive director of the abortion support group the Lilith Fund, a plaintiff in the suit that challenged the law. “Unfortunately, many people who need access the most will slip through the cracks, as we have

Rob Jessel tests Scotland’s shiny new Hate Crime and Public Order Act:

As Lucy Hunter Blackburn explained in her superb analysis of the Bill, feminists were alarmed by its failure to address speech about sex and gender, arguing that it would increase the chilling effect on debate. The Scottish Government breezily responded that people would not be criminalised for making basic statements about the nature of sex and gender identity, in ordinary language. 

But they were joking. Jessel went to Glasgow Sheriff Court to support Marion yesterday along with a bunch of other people. What to wear?

As a minor but grizzled combatant in the gender wars, I have acquired a number of t-shirts stating biological facts, including

On the one hand a feminist woman gets arrested and persecuted for gender critical tweets, on the other hand Fox News and Republican members of Congress openly incites violent insurrection with impunity. It’s like a kind of displacement behavior – the alpha male bites a junior so the junior bites not the alpha male but someone even more junior. Fox and members of Congress are powerful; feminist women who tweet not so much, so lets go after the feminist women who tweet.

In a Monday night monologue targeting the White House and military leaders over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Carlson demanded resignations. He also said: “When leaders refuse to hold themselves accountable over time, people revolt. That happens.

Can you say “reversal”?

Jolyon Maugham yet again asserting his belief that evil witches control the world.

"Always ask who has the power?" says the rich educated straight white male lawyer who is fully aware of his privilege and never uses it to "tell those without it they are wrong." pic.twitter.com/a3OxTcISXj

— FeministRoar (@FeministRoar) August 31, 2021

Always always ask who has the power, says Jolyon Maugham, by way of underlining that it’s women.… Read the rest

This was carefully timed.

To understand the careful timing we have to go back to June, and a post by Women Are Human dated June 10:

Airdrie, Scotland. A 50-year-old mother-of-two has been charged with a hate crime after an extremist transgender advocate reported her to police for retweeting a photograph of green, white and violet women’s suffrage ribbons.

Police Scotland confirmed that Marion Millar, an accountant, business owner and gender-critical feminist campaigner, was arrested. Ms Millar, who has since been released on bail, is accused of posting six tweets in 2019 that run afoul of the Communications Act 2003.

The women’s suffrage ribbon, which was tied to a chain-link fence in front of a tree outside the

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug at Miscellany Room.

I have recently taken an almost obsessive interest in the study of cults. I have thus far been reading Cults Inside Out by Rick Ross, Losing Reality by Robert Lifton, and Cults in our Midst by Margaret Singer [1]. Rather than write a separate summary or review of each book, I will try to make a synthesis of what I take to be some of the main points. “Cult apologists” often dismiss the cult label as a pejorative to stigmatize new or unconventional religions. All the authors are therefore careful to stress that cults are defined by their behavior rather than their beliefs, and while many cults are religious in … Read the rest

The Beeb:

Marion Millar faces homophobic and transphobic charges

Do journalists/headline writers get no training these days? They don’t mean the charges were “homophobic and transphobic” but that’s what they said.

A feminist activist has appeared in court accused of sending homophobic and transphobic tweets.

Marion Millar, 50, allegedly behaved in a threatening or abusive manner between October and June within the Glasgow area and in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire.

Prosecutors state she repeatedly posted content on social media that was of a “homophobic and transphobic nature”.

Bollocks.

Joanna Cherry told the court why she wanted “to continue without a plea”:

“The first is practical. Miss Millar only saw the complaint, with charges from the Crown, 10 minutes prior (to

Perhaps I can help. Yes, this prosecution does go against Marion’s human rights. We can see that from all the way over here. … Read the rest

What kind of tweets don’t get prosecuted in Scotland?

You know.

Meanwhile a trans person in Scotland can put out tweets actually urging violence with impunity, because Police Scotland is in bed with Stonewall. Tweets like this pic.twitter.com/s4BfRTlhBo

— Anya Palmer (@anyabike) August 31, 2021

And this pic.twitter.com/5LyZB6yTJW

— Anya Palmer (@anyabike) August 31, 2021

What do you think?

— Anya Palmer (@anyabike) August 31, 2021

Police Scotland knew about all those tweets that show exactly how this person supports violence against women they disagree with, advocates it, thinks it justified. They were sent to Police Scotland. And still this thug didn't face prosecution.

— Anya Palmer (@anyabike) August 31, 2021

But Marion does.… Read the rest

Why didn’t they consider that before arresting her and charging her? Why didn’t they think “Oh wait, all she did was say what she thinks in a tweet or two, and she didn’t say anything like ‘all ___s should be exterminated,’ so what are we doing? We can’t arrest her for that – we’d have to arrest everyone in the fucking world.”

I can’t make any sense of it at all. It enrages me as it enrages so many, but I also just can’t even make sense of it. What prosecutor would think this is worth prosecuting? And why?… Read the rest

Adjourned until October, it seems.

Marion comes out looking emotional. Her case has been adjourned until October as there are matters of human rights to be considered. She’s not allowed to make a statement at this time #marionmillar pic.twitter.com/l8QDPa5XSd

— Kerstin Rodgers (@MsMarmitelover) August 31, 2021

Oh there are matters of human rights to be considered all right. They should have been considered in the first place.… Read the rest

What on earth is this nonsense doing in Scientific American?

Nonbinary Scientists Want Funding Agencies to Change How they Collect Gender Data

The title might as well be Tooth Fairy Scientists Want Funding Agencies to Change How they Collect Fairy Data.

Every year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) send a series of surveys to students and researchers around the country. The surveys are used to monitor changing demographics and track levels of financial support for scientific research, and filling them out is required for anyone who receives NSF funding. There are limited gender options in these surveys: male, female and, on some surveys, “do not wish to disclose.”

That’s … Read the rest

Marion’s trial is under way.

I’m shocked that this sham trial is going ahead when women are faced with actual hate crimes on this platform every day & no one can get the police to do a damn thing about rape & death threats, doxxing, harassment or stalking.#IStandWithMarionMillar #WomenWontWheesht

— Dr. Jessica Taylor (@DrJessTaylor) August 31, 2021

The CPS is on its arse, can’t even prosecute rapists properly. We provide them with reams of threats and abusive messages and it’s all ‘we can’t prove who is behind the account’ and ‘you can’t prove they actually tweeted that though’ – but prosecuting women seems a doddle

— Dr. Jessica Taylor (@DrJessTaylor) August 31, 2021

Seriously. One percent of reported rapes … Read the rest