Deborah Cameron has an interesting post about “a longstanding feminist bone of contention: the use of the terms ‘Miss’ and ‘Sir’ to address teachers in UK schools.”

You can see where the contention comes in: “Sir” ain’t comparable to “Miss.”

In other contexts the female address term analogous to ‘Sir’ is not ‘Miss’ but ‘Madam’ or ‘Ma’am’: though ‘madam’ has undergone some semantic derogation (it has acquired the specialised meaning ‘woman in charge of a brothel’), as an address term it retains a higher degree of formality and gravitas than ‘Miss’. That’s presumably why the related form ‘Ma’am’ has become the standard address term for senior female officers in the armed forces and the police. ‘Miss’ does not suggest deference

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Bad.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider a major rollback of abortion rights, saying it will decide whether states can ban abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb.

The court’s order sets up a showdown over abortion, probably in the fall, with a more conservative court seemingly ready to dramatically alter nearly 50 years of rulings on abortion rights.

The court first announced a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and reaffirmed it 19 years later.

The case involves a Mississippi law that would prohibit abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. The state’s ban had been blocked by lower courts as inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent that protects

… Read the rest

Brenda Brooks at Feminist Current on the Oprah interview with Ellen “Elliott” Page:

I watched the Oprah interview with interest, hoping that Page might be encouraged to discuss the nature of the compelling urge that led to such a seminal modification in herself. I wondered: what were the specifics that define a woman or a man so clearly that altering one’s body to eliminate one set of discrepancies, and confirm others, made sense? A clear definition between the two would be required, wouldn’t it, in order to choose to go forward in life as one sex, rather than the other? Was transition a mostly psychological event, or primarily physical? I wondered what changes would occur in future relationships. Would

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Trust Ash Sarkar for that. Woman’s Hour talks to a couple of women and Sarkar intervenes to tell it to talk to different people instead. Self-hating woman rebukes Woman’s Hour for not being as self-hating as she is.

Any chance of hearing from transgender and non-binary people on this issue, @BBCWomansHour? https://t.co/BGPJLq5TjB

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) May 17, 2021

Right, because we never hear from “trans and nonbinary” people, apart from all the fucking time. It’s mandatory to interrupt women who are talking about how something affects women to say shut up about women when are you going to talk about “trans and nonbinary” people instead? Women don’t matter, women are old news, women are Mommy and we … Read the rest

Some warped legal reasoning here from a University of Alabama law guy:

Laws that prohibit physicians from providing treatments such as puberty blockers and cross-hormone therapy to minors are bad public policy. Their advocates claim that these are efforts to protect kids, who they argue may later change their mind, from medical treatments they characterize as irreversible. But these arguments don’t hold up to scrutiny: The laws—such as the one Arkansas just passed and those that more than a dozen other states, including Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas, are actively considering—will certainly harm transgender children, denying them medical care that they need and causing them psychological pain. That should be reason enough to oppose these laws.

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Trans identifying Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir is shocked shocked that anyone thinks people have a right to say that men are not women.

Last week a court in the UK heard an appeal from a tax researcher called Maya Forstater who lost an employment tribunal in 2019 – she was sacked after tweeting that transgender women can’t change their biological sex.

…

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) saw reason to intervene. In my view it is bizarre that they found it important to speak up for someone who clearly holds hostile views towards a vulnerable minority. 

It’s not “hostile” to say that men are not women. It’s also not a mere “view” that men are not women. It’s … Read the rest

Alan Sokal points out (not for the first time) a certain insouciance about the difference between facts and fantasies.

For millennia—since at least ancient Greece—philosophers have debated what constitutes knowledge and how one can legitimately acquire it. But when philosophers returned from their seminars back into the real world, even the most ardent anti-realists generally adopted the common-sense view that there do exist objective facts—situations in the external world that are independent of our beliefs—and that, sometimes at least, we can obtain reasonably reliable knowledge of those objective facts, through evidence and reasoning.

But, starting about 40 years ago, a small coterie of social-constructivist sociologists of science began to break this consensus, with radical claims like:

-The validity of theoretical

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Antisemitic and antifemale, too.

A police investigation has been launched after a video was circulated on social media showing antisemitic chants being shouted from a convoy of cars in north London.

Finchley Road, to be exact.

https://twitter.com/GarfieldJudith/status/1393950639512858636

Politicians condemned the footage, which was posted on Twitter and showed the cars travelling through the St John’s Wood area of north London on Sunday afternoon. The cars were covered in Palestinian flags with a speaker blasting out antisemitic slurs and threats against Jews.

Threats against Jews and “their daughters” – which is a telltale way of putting it.

The Metropolitan police said of the incident in Finchley Road:. “We are aware of a video appearing to show antisemitic language being

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Fair Play for Women on the fad for putting a few men in women’s prisons:

In July 2019 a specialist unit was opened on the Downview women’s prison estate to house high-risk transgender prisoners. We obtained the Equality Impact assessment through a Freedom of Information Request. The document is now available to view here: Equality Analysis Document E Wing Version 16.0 for publication.

…

‘E-wing’ was the solution to a problem of where to accommodate high-risk male prisoners who have acquired a GRC and so need to be treated as “female for all purposes”. Some of these prisoners are dangerous sex offenders who under normal circumstance would be considered too high-risk to mix with women. But the MOJ

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Parody? Must be? But apparently not.

Don't ask about my Genitals by #Bangor's @OwenJHurcum is challenging, informative & groundbreaking. A must read for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge & understanding of the #trans & non-binary community.
Pre-order from Paned o Gê @panedogehttps://t.co/ArxzIh0Sk2 pic.twitter.com/zbXsDUuVeb

— BlackBeeBooks (@BlackBeeBooks) May 9, 2021

As if anybody wants to ask this fool about anything.

(The underlying message, on the other hand, is the usual absurdity. “Don’t interpret my genitals as determining my sex. I have Magic Gender so I’m Special, and you have to genuflect.”)… Read the rest

Trump is chewing the wallpaper.

Trump Mon: “Greatest Election Fraud in the history of our Country”

McCarthy Wed: “I don't think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election”

Trump Thurs: “Corrupt, third world election”

Trump Fri: “Rigged and stolen”

Trump Sat: “CRIME OF THE CENTURY!”

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 15, 2021

The thing about the Republican Party is that @GOPLeader can say things like "I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election" and then three days later Trump will send out a release calling it the crime of the century pic.twitter.com/mgAieJHQ8Q

— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) May 15, 2021

It’s telling that Trump is whining about the “crime of the century” now that he

… Read the rest

mole at the counter is hilarious.

https://twitter.com/moleatthedoor/status/1393658807016898571

OUT OF DATE BUFFET CAR SAUSAGE ROLL FILMS hahahahahahaha

https://twitter.com/moleatthedoor/status/1393667847855951876… Read the rest

The AP isn’t altogether happy about the bombing that demolished an office block almost on their heads.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets on Saturday. All AP employees and freelancers evacuated the building safely.

Al Jazeera was another tenant.

Israel gave the media organizations one hour to evacuate, but reportedly refused to allow journalists to take their equipment.

Targeting journalists is a war crime.

— AJ+ (@ajplus) May 15, 2021

It is utterly unacceptable for Israel to bomb and destroy the offices of media outlets and endanger the lives of journalists. Israeli authorities know where media outlets are housed. https://t.co/BnIhS8DA3b

— Committee to Protect

… Read the rest

Don’t you know there’s a war on?!

No, wait, not a war, a closing of pubs. Same thing though! All must do their duty.

Pubs and bars will be allowed to serve customers indoors from Monday (17th May) after a long third lockdown which has seen many pubs struggle to survive.

According to the latest estimates some 2,500 pubs have already shut during lockdown, with many others facing an uphill battle to recoup losses as the economy opens up.

Campaigners have produced a ‘Your Local Pub Needs You’ poster urging revellers to get their hands in their pockets to save the UK’s 40,000 boozers.

In other words, pour more alcohol down your throats, it’s a public good!

They are

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Student being investigated for stating basic facts.

A law student who said that women have vaginas and are not as physically strong as men is being investigated by her university.

Investigated why? For doing what? What is there to investigate?

Disciplinary action is being taken against Lisa Keogh, 29, over “offensive” and “discriminatory” comments that she made during lectures at Abertay University, Dundee.

The mature student was reported by younger classmates after she said women were born with female genitals and that “the difference in physical strength of men versus women is a fact”. The complaints have prompted a formal investigation into her conduct.

Why? Why have the complaints prompted a formal investigation? Where the fuck are the grownups?… Read the rest

Cleanup on aisle 7:

The Biden administration on Friday revoked a Trump-era restriction on migrants who enter the country without health coverage and rolled back six executive orders intended to stoke anger over street protests and attacks on Confederate monuments in 2020.

The actions, while hardly unexpected, represented a broad repudiation of former President Donald J. Trump, and his practice of using executive orders to advance his political agenda.

To advance his political and spiteful agenda. He’s got to be the most spiteful human being on the planet.

The restriction on migrants was blocked by a judge soon after Trump issued it.

The others rolled back on Friday were a grab-bag of Trump pronouncements and initiatives that now seem

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See the reporter get it wrong in the very first paragraph (and thus also the headline).

Neuroscience Professor Removed From APA Discussion After Saying There Are Only Two Genders

Wrong. He said two sexes.

A neuroscience professor was ousted from the American Psychological Association’s (APA) email discussion group by vote after suggesting that there are only two genders as well as past concerns over his posts, the College Fix reported Friday.

Wrong. He said two sexes.

Psychology and neuroscience professor John Staddon at Duke University was removed from the APA’s Society for Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology (SBNCP) Division 6 listserv and was notified via email by the group’s presidential trio who said use of the forum was

… Read the rest

One tiny ray of light:

Women must have the right to question transgender identity without being abused, stigmatised or risking losing their job, the new head of Britain’s equalities watchdog has warned.

In her first interview since taking office, the incoming chairwoman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission said it was “entirely reasonable” for people to challenge the biological status of women who were born as men.

Baroness Falkner of Margravine added it was a “freedom of belief” the commission was determined to protect.

“Someone can believe that people who self identify as a different sex are not the different sex that they self identify,” she said. “A lot of people would find this an entirely reasonable belief.”

… Read the rest

The Times (the London one) reports:

Academics at Edinburgh University claim they are teaching in a climate of fear with some lecturers allegedly “hunted down” because of their failure to comply with the “unchallengeable orthodoxy” of gender identity theory.

Contributors from Edinburgh to a new internet forum have complained of bullying and repeated personal attacks on social media if they are open about their opinions while others fear students are being indoctrinated “with fixed mindsets on gender identity”.

No surprise there.

Scores of academics, many claiming to be from the Russell Group of leading universities, shared their anonymised experiences on GC Academia. One part-time lecturer at Edinburgh said a sense of intellectual freedom had been supplanted by a

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Ah there it is, the whole point – force other people to pay attention to precious One, and force them to do extra things and make extra efforts, all for precious One.

London North Eastern Railway (LNER) has said its conductors will be warned to not use the greeting “ladies and gentlemen” following a complaint from a non-binary passenger.

LNER said train managers should not use the phrase to avoid offending passengers who might identify as neither male nor female.

Passengers might identify as a potato, too, but that doesn’t mean they are one. Nobody is neither male nor female. They can ask their friends to call them non-binary if they like, but the world at … Read the rest