Sarkie.

We are sure the evidence for this large-scale restructuring and the underlying rationale will soon be forthcoming. Such a major operation was no doubt recorded in minutes of the relevant meeting that must be easy to retrieve. https://t.co/zo3BzBPIet

— Bev Jackson (@BevJacksonAuth) August 19, 2021

The thing about this is that the “all of our boards are being restructured” retort is completely worthless, because what does restructuring have to do with getting rid of a well known highly informed UNPAID expert on violence against women? Restructure to your hearts’ content, fine, but don’t throw out your genius unpaid experts! Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel, instead!

Which, of course, hints that “restructuring” isn’t really the reason … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sastra on The toxic meaning attached to “woman.”

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Sloppy Analogy is one of the major players in turning otherwise reasonable people unreasonable. I’ve long noticed this when it comes to religion and believing in God. A direct examination of the god concept requires too much light on a blurry idea based primarily on emotion. Enter then the popular apologetic of Sloppy Analogies.

“Remember how your mother would put something out for you to find and do something she wanted? God works like that. Think of your mother. God is like that. Think of your mother in another room so you can’t see her. Now you’re starting to understand. God’s … Read the rest

Joan Smith on erasing women:

The Labour MP Rosie Duffield has been relentlessly bullied for liking a tweet that queried the language of an American cancer charity which referred to women as “cervix-havers”, but she is absolutely right. Cancer prevention is about identifying a possibly fatal disease, not affirming someone’s gender identity. If a charity wants to add that women who identify as men should also get checks, that’s absolutely fine. But replacing “woman” with a clumsy neologism risks failing to reach natal females who aren’t familiar with their bodies and don’t know they have a cervix. Nor have I seen equivalent demands to erase the word “men” from medical advice. “Men, we are with you,” begins a message

… Read the rest

People really should stop saying this. They’d be better off just drooling.

“It is wrong for the governor to force caring, experienced, and dedicated educators to get a vaccination, or have their jobs, livelihoods, and dreams ripped away from them,” said Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, in a statement. “It was my choice to get vaccinated. That’s the way it should be — a personal health-care choice.”

Of course that’s not the way it should be, and of course it’s not simply a personal health-care choice. It’s not simply a personal vehicular choice to drive 90 miles an hour down a residential street, it’s not a personal business choice to sell contaminated food, it’s not a personal marketing choice to … Read the rest

It certainly does.

This letter in The National hits many nails squarely on the head: pic.twitter.com/d7y4BAFdHz

— The Crossgate Centre #SupportsAlexSalmond (@CrossgateCentre) August 19, 2021

… Read the rest

Amnesty Ireland is getting a pasting.

Hear women. See women. Let women lead.

Women's rights are human rights. pic.twitter.com/I0DfG7G5By

— Amnesty Ireland (@AmnestyIreland) August 18, 2021

Women’s rights are human rights? Is that so?

“Do not ignore women. Do not silence women”.

Why then did Amnesty Ireland co-sign a letter calling on media and politicians to stop providing “legitimate representation” for people with “bigoted beliefs” – by which they meant feminists who believe sex is a binary?

Hypocrites.

— Bea Jaspert (@hogotheforsaken) August 19, 2021

Hypocrites. Not “menstruating people” then? You’ve been very unclear about what a woman is – until the Taliban rode into town. But THEY know what a woman is and how to oppress her.

— James

… Read the rest

Ayaan Hirsi Ali bonfires the vanities:

We’ve become so focused on microaggressions in America that we have lost sight of the macroaggressions happening to women around the world.

In my latest book, Prey, I argue that the modern-day feminist movement in the West does not take seriously the concerns of women in working-class communities, many of whom have immigrant backgrounds, and who face a steady rise of sexual harassment and assault on the streets of their own neighbourhoods.

In today’s perverse American culture, however, more attention is devoted to the use of preferred gender pronouns than to the plight of women whose most basic rights — to education, personal autonomy, the right to be present in a public

… Read the rest

This took my breath away.

https://twitter.com/Lachlan_Edi/status/1428474930400841733 https://twitter.com/Lachlan_Edi/status/1428474934179901448 https://twitter.com/Lachlan_Edi/status/1428475149301473291

I know the feeling well. Women talking about women’s issues are constantly interrupted and told to talk about trans issues instead, and now this. I’m feckin fuming too, basically all the time.… Read the rest

Scotland’s LGBT community is frightened by the current anti-trans obsession screams the headline on a story by Josh Mennie.

I NEVER picked a “side” – I was born this way. Common decency would argue that a group of people put into the continuous, never-ending, daily cycle of defending their existence should not be simply classed as a “side”. For many of us, this “side” was never a choice. However, undermining LGBT+ rights and inclusion – the other side in the so-called debate – is a choice.

Born what way? Born “identifying as” the other sex? Nobody is born “identifying as” anything. Are there gender dysphoric infants? If so how does anyone know? How do the infants know? Infants don’t … Read the rest

Welp. That’s clear enough.

My statement on the Capitol bomb threat: pic.twitter.com/yCuTNTbJyP

— Mo Brooks (@RepMoBrooks) August 19, 2021

Although this terrorist’s motivation is not yet publicly known, and generally speaking, I understand citizenry anger directed at dictatorial Socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom and the very fabric of American society.

There is no socialism, let alone dictatorial socialism. There’s no such thing as “Socialism’s march.” Centrist Democrats are not socialists, nor are they dictators.

It’s true that the US’s future is at risk, but that’s because of climate change and authoritarian conservatives like Mo Brooks, not because of phantom “socialism” red in tooth and claw.… Read the rest

Surprise surprise the Taliban appear unlikely to protect women’s rights. You don’t say.

Taliban guarantees that women and girls will be able to study and work under their rule have been thrown into doubt after one of their leaders said that the decision would be left to a council of Islamic scholars.

“Thrown into doubt” – who believed them in the first place? Don’t be silly. They included the proviso “as long as/to the extent that they are compatible with sharia.” Sharia is not a human rights respecting system of laws. Sharia perceives women as inferior and as constantly on the verge of spreading their legs for any man who approaches.

“Our scholars will decide whether girls are allowed

… Read the rest

Troublesome women object.

https://twitter.com/suzanne_moore/status/1428281478459318277

That an independent chair of the Mayor’s Violence Against Women & Girls Board of Joan Smith’s calibre was brought in by a Tory mayoral administration and dumped under a Labour one is further evidence that Labour really do not prioritise women’s issues including men’s VAWG. https://t.co/34xLO5uHNG

— Dr Karen Ingala Smith (@K_IngalaSmith) August 19, 2021

Joan Smith sacked for speaking the truthhttps://t.co/NMpJ4MNDGo

— LesbianLabour (@LesbianLabour) August 19, 2021

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1428252538906845193

This is outrageous. @polblonde is THE expert on violence against women – literally wrote the book on it. Dispensing with her services is a huge signal that women’s rights are dispensable when those women assert the reality of sex https://t.co/4sBH8FOrVJ

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) August 19,

… Read the rest

The deputy mayor in charge of the pesky women responds with oh no we didn’t.

This is simply not true. The structure of all our boards at City Hall is being changed. It has nothing to do with any views Joan has expressed. https://t.co/3fbHG9tkIO

— Sophie Linden (@SophieKLinden) August 19, 2021

But it is true – she was sacked after expressing those concerns. After; notice it doesn’t say because. Maybe the Times’s cautiousness wasn’t so excessive after all.

https://twitter.com/LabWomenDec/status/1428321412239044611

Women don’t matter.… Read the rest

The Times on the sacking of Joan Smith:

A violence against women campaigner has claimed that she was sacked by Sadiq Khan’s administration after expressing concerns about transgender women being allowed into refuges for victims of rape and domestic abuse.

Joan Smith said she was removed by City Hall after raising the issue on behalf of charities funded by the mayor that were said to be concerned about the prospect of vulnerable women and girls having to share the spaces.

Smith also believes that she fell out of favour after calling for improvements in how the Metropolitan Police identified sexual predators in its ranks, and repeatedly highlighting “endemic misogyny” after the case of Sarah Everard, who was raped and

… Read the rest

My rage thermometer just broke.

I've been sacked as Co-chair of the Mayor of London's Violence Against Women and Girls Board. By email. After eight years.
Story in today's Times. pic.twitter.com/NfAjc4TsqM

— Joan Smith (@polblonde) August 19, 2021

She only wrote the book on the subject, literally THE book on the subject.

But please, tell us again how the trans craze in no way impinges on women’s rights.… Read the rest

Imran Khan is delighted at the Taliban win.

A day after the Taliban seized power in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani fled the war-torn country, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said Afghans have “broken the chains of slavery in the country”.

Unless, of course, you think women are people, and included under the label “Afghans.” For women and girls the chains of slavery have very much been re-forged.

“When you adopt someone’s culture you believe it to be superior and you end up becoming a slave to it. It is more difficult to free your mind from mental slavery. Afghans have broken the shackles of slavery,” Imran Khan said.

Maybe. But “someone’s culture” is a complicated thing. … Read the rest

If there was a "stirring up hatred" offence against women, we'd probably have cause against Heather, Hannah and @TheScotsman tonight. Think about that.

We don't believe in that, but today has been terrifying.

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) August 18, 2021

I had to go digging to find out what happened.

Hannah is Hannah Brown, who wrote a venomous piece in The Scotsman misrepresenting what For Women Scotland said.

For Women Scotland – which claims to campaign ‘for sex-based rights’ in Scotland – posted on Twitter on August 15: “Horrific regimes and movements like the Taliban also know what same-sex attraction is. They don’t check whether it’s “same gender” attraction like Stonewall and BBC. They hang, behead or shoot men

… Read the rest

When it counts.

I agree. What I'm confused about is why you think it's "harder for women to leave (more dangerous to travel alone, caring responsibilities, less able to find work quickly and send money home)"..?

Is it because women are adult human females, or because they "identify" as women?

— Jack (@j4ppleby) August 16, 2021

Well? Which is it?… Read the rest

Stop the presses:

British supermodel Lily Cole has revealed that she identifies as “queer” adding that she sees other labels of sexuality as too “rigid”.

Or to put it less excitingly, a model says she calls herself “queer.” Nobody cares, and life goes on.

In a new interview with the Sunday Times Style to discuss her debut book, Who Cares Wins, the mother of one, 33, said the choice of the word queer allows her to be open while protecting her private life.

Yes indeed, and it allows her to be bold while remaining cautious, it allows her to be frank while remaining bashful, it allows her to be trendy while doing nothing at all.

“If I were

… Read the rest

No, he can’t just pop back in, “reinstated.” That’s not how any of this works.

During an event in Dallas on Sunday that was also attended by prominent peddlers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, [Sidney] Powell suggested Trump could be reinstated as president even now, saying that “it should be that he can simply be reinstated, that a new Inauguration Day is set.”

Yes definitely “it should be that” a wannabe dictator can just magically be “reinstated” despite the whole losing the election thing and the inciting a violent insurrection thing.

According to CNN legal analyst Steve Vladeck, “Powell is just making stuff up. There’s no regulation, rule, statute or constitutional provision that comes within a million light-years of

… Read the rest