All entries by this author
Jun 11th, 2020 3:44 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Classic.
Come to my rally during a pandemic to gratify my ego and help my effort to get another four years to destroy this country and maybe the world, and also sign this waiver saying that if the pandemic gets you at my rally it will bye YOUR FAULT and not mine.
Who could resist an offer like that?… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Jun 11th, 2020 11:48 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Milley says that walk with Trump was wrong.
The top US military officer says he was wrong to have joined President Donald Trump during his controversial walk to a damaged church near the White House.
The 1 June event created “a perception of the military involved in domestic politics”, Gen Mark Milley said.
It sure as hell did, and that’s what fake-warrior Trump intended. Captain Bone Spurs wanted to walk his sorry cheeseburger ass up to that church with some SOJERS so that everyone would think he’s a warrior too instead of the blathering whining two scoops of ice cream couch potato he is.
The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff was speaking in a video for a
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
6 comments
Jun 11th, 2020 10:48 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Helen Saxby on Rowling and truth:
Speaking the truth about sex is becoming more and more difficult because of accusations of transphobia, and yet much of the reaction to Rowling’s tweet was just angry that she had highlighted this fact. We’re not allowed to say sex is real, but we’re doubly not allowed to say that we’re not allowed to say it. Many people suggested that Rowling was deliberately misrepresenting the truth. ‘Nobody is saying sex isn’t real!’ was a common refrain, presumably because being caught out saying sex isn’t real would make you look stupid. Trans allies want to deny sex exists but to do it in a sort of secret way without the fact being brought out
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
16 comments
Jun 11th, 2020 10:11 am |
By Ophelia Benson
This should be a thing.
A group of women MPs and charities are urging the government to treat misogyny as a hate crime within the government’s new domestic abuse laws.
Their amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill would require all police forces to record and track crimes motivated by misogyny.
Those two sentences say two different things. Tracking misogynist motivation for crimes is not the same as making misogyny itself a crime. That’s quite an important distinction, don’t you think? Sloppy wording not helpful.
A statement from Citizens UK and the coalition of campaigners – including Refuge and Women’s Aid – says this approach will “not create any new crimes but would provide critical data on the link between
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
4 comments
Jun 11th, 2020 9:38 am |
By Ophelia Benson
We will never surrender!
CNN has more information:
Hundreds of protesters marched into Seattle’s City Hall late Tuesday, calling for Durkan to step down after police continued to use chemical irritants to disperse crowds — despite the mayor’s 30-day ban on tear gas that she announced Friday.
Led by city council member Kshama Sawant, the protesters peacefully marched from Capitol Hill to City Hall, where Sawant allowed the protesters inside the building, CNN’s affiliate KOMO reported.
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
11 comments
Jun 11th, 2020 9:03 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Now Trump is threatening to invade Seattle.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1270914092295950337
I look forward to the arrival of thousands of heavily armed troops from the Bureau of Prisons and ICE and the army and the marines to take over Seattle and put us all under martial law.
I’m looking out the window. I’m not seeing the takeover.… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
9 comments
Jun 10th, 2020 4:24 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Another actor who has fame and fortune entirely because of Joanne Rowling but chooses to turn her back on her in public anyway.
And, again, the claim is a crock of shit. The formula “trans people are who they say they are” is true (but obvious) if she means trans people are trans people if they say they are, but … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
18 comments
Jun 10th, 2020 3:59 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Trump is all worked up about the sacrilegious idea that we can rename military bases that were named after Confederate military “heroes.”
The Great American Heritage of slavery and official, deliberate, detailed racial persecution and oppression – I … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
21 comments
Jun 10th, 2020 11:57 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Another Do it to Julia.
Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne has joined Harry Potter lead actor Daniel Radcliffe in criticising JK Rowling’s recent comments about trans people.
In a statement to Variety magazine, Redmayne said: “Respect for transgender people remains a cultural imperative, and over the years I have been trying to constantly educate myself.”
Why is it a cultural imperative? And what does he mean by “respect” anyway? And why is he implying that JK Rowling is disrespecting trans people?
Redmayne, who in 2015 starred in The Danish Girl, a biopic of Lili Elbe, one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery, added: “As someone who has worked with both JK Rowling and members
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
12 comments
Jun 10th, 2020 11:34 am |
By Ophelia Benson
White privilege something something JK Rowling something tethered to something.
Yet, as the inequity of capitalism and its inextricable link to white privilege are brought into focus, JK Rowling instead devoted her enormous Twitter platform to discussing the use of gender-neutral terms last Saturday night.
She what? She chose her own subject to talk about at a particular moment? How shocking! Of course so did most people on Twitter, but, you know – any stick to beat a woman with.
The timing of her social media tirade is telling. In the context of a collective reckoning with how our economic, political and social systems have dehumanised black lives for centuries, it seemed the fantasy-writer turned billionaire had decided an equally
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
5 comments
Jun 10th, 2020 11:04 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Rowling writes about her reasons, starting by explaining why she is interested in trans issues.
I mention all this only to explain that I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya. I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then. I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally killing trans people with my hate, to be called cunt and bitch and, of course, for my books to be burned, although one particularly abusive man told me he’d composted them.
What I didn’t expect in the aftermath of my cancellation was the avalanche of emails and letters that came showering down upon me, the overwhelming majority of
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
21 comments
Jun 10th, 2020 9:21 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The Washington Post:
Chinese authorities have been trying for three years to reverse the devastating imbalances of their one-child policy and coax couples to have more children.
Trying and failing. The birthrate remains low and – plot twist! – there are far more men than women.
Eh, what? Why’s that? A low birthrate doesn’t equal more men being…oh wait yes it does. If you can only have one it HAS to be a male, amirite? Nobody nobody NOBODY wants an only child who is a [retch gag puke] female. (Why not? Well, come on, I ask you – they’re so disgusting – they do all that gross pregnancy stuff and then milk-producing stuff. Ew. Men are clean and tidy.)… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
22 comments
Jun 9th, 2020 10:16 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Daniel Radcliffe’s Do it to Julia don’t do it to me:
I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now. While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment.
Translation: Yes, I know, nobody would give a rat’s ass what I think about anything if it weren’t for Jo Rowling but I’m going to … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
17 comments