Abigail Shrier has a couple of thoughts on the subject.

Ok, Karen with eyeroll and facepalm is very science.

The feud widens.

The certain prominent skeptic is Michael Shermer.

Harriet Hall’s review is in the Skeptic reading room.

To be honest I can kind of see why they might have wanted some tweaking even if they agreed with the content. Hall doesn’t always make it clear whether she’s summarizing the book or offering her own generalizations. I don’t usually read SBM (not for any particular reason, I just don’t) so I don’t know if they have a house style, but it they do and it’s somewhat formal, I could understand their wanting a more Officially Sciencey note. I like the review myself, but I can see some non-invidious non-stupid non-orthodoxy-enforcing reasons why they might want changes.

But, the reality is, we know Gorski doesn’t like the content (I don’t know about others at SBM), so it’s hard to give him the benefit of the doubt on the whole “Well I gave it my best shot but I’m just going to go ahead and retract it now soz” thing.

Meanwhile, Shermer is wrong if he thinks the trans dogma is any kind of far-left progressive ideology. It’s extremely conservative and regressive, unfortunately.

David Gorski’s statement on why he retracted Harriet Hall’s review of Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage:

After careful review, the editors of SBM decided to retract this book review. Because we allow trusted authors to publish without prior review for the sake of efficiency and timeliness, occasionally corrections need to be made post-publication. In this case we felt there were too many issues with the treatment of the relevant science, and leaving the article up would not be appropriate given the standards of SBM.

Already there are false accusations that this move was motivated by pressure from readers. This is not the case. SBM had and never will cave to outside pressure. We have endured a great extent of such pressure, including the threat of lawsuits and actual litigation.

It didn’t occur to me it was pressure from readers, because I already knew Gorski is all-in for the trans ideology.

Further, any attempts at portraying this retraction as censorship are also false. This has nothing to do with silencing opinions or perspectives, but rather is entirely a matter of quality control. SBM is first and foremost about high quality scientific evidence and reasoning to inform medical issues, and we felt the article in question was below the minimal acceptable standard for SBM.

He can say that; we don’t have to believe it.

Suzanne Moore on the RA shop v Jess DeWahls:

Her work is desirable and sold in the shop of a prestigious museum. Yet her thoughts which she sometimes blogs about, these terrible thoughts mean that now this work must be banned from the museum’s gift shop because it “conflicts” with the values of “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion” that the institution stands for.

You know, I would have thought that the values the institution stands for are values that relate to art. It’s not a social work institution or a political institution, it’s an artistic institution. There are basic, background values that we generally assume public institutions adhere to, like not barring The Wrong Kind of People, but they’re basic and background, not up front and in your face.

And then, of course, whether they’re in your face or in a small closet two floors below ground level, it’s a funny kind of equality and diversity and inclusion that banishes a woman artist because she thinks men are men.

I am , of course talking about the completely ludicrous decision by the shop of the Royal Academy to no longer stock the work of Jess De Wahls because she “cannot accept people’s unsubstantiated assertions that they are in fact the opposite sex to when they were born.” She thinks that being female is not simply a feeling.

…

Maya Forstater won her case last week but clearly the Royal Academy does not understand the Equality Act. Nor do they mind hanging paintings on the wall by a man who bought girls from their mothers and gave them syphilis  –  Paul Gauguin – or selling his prints in their gift shop. Diverse? Inclusive? Equal?  Eric Gill who sexually abused his daughters was an associate of the Royal Academy. Indeed the place is full of art made by those with views that certainly do not embody the mantra of values that every institution now intones .

It would be nice if we could get someone from the Royal Academy shop to explain the thinking here. Why Gaugin & Gill fine but DeWahls banished?

What the Royal Academy has achieved here is not even the appearance of goodness but the appearance of stupidity. Does any of this – the banning of textiles – help a single trans person? 

Stupidity but also unabashed bullying of a woman, all too similar to the bullying of Rowling and Forstater and Murphy and Millar and Suzanne herself.

It’s really extraordinary. That tweet has been sitting there since January 4 (with replies turned off, gee I wonder why). Why does Twitter permanently ban women who reject trans dogma while leaving a machete threat alone?

On the one hand and on the other hand –

Today:

Six months ago:

People who will pick up machetes to chop up Adichie & Rowling – and the LGBT Foundation is whining about non-existent “transphobia.”

Hmm.

If people are “at risk of depression and suicide” because of pronouns then their problems go way deeper than pronouns.

Also what does this have to do with genetic testing?

Even…wait for it…Science-based Medicine.

Two days ago:

Yesterday:

SBM:

Book Review: Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, by Abigail Shrier

According to Harriet Hall, Abigail Shrier’s book describes a disturbing trend: an increasing number of adolescent girls who suddenly self-identify as transgender and demand puberty blockers and gender surgeries. We have no data on how many of them will suffer irreversible damage and regret their decision, and it appears that at least some of them have been unduly influenced by peer pressure, the internet, and by therapists who follow the affirmative care model. (Editor’s note: This post is currently under review by the founding and managing editors of SBM due to concerns expressed over its scientific accuracy and completeness. Until that review is complete, it has been removed from the blog.)

Concerns over its scientific accuracy and completeness? Really? Not over its failure to say the mandatory things? Not its failure to stick closely to the approved ideology?

Science-based. Ha.

Oh look, the Royal Academy wants us to draw something we would think but not say.

People are hastening to oblige.

The Telegraph reports:

The Royal Academy of Arts has pulled an artist’s work from its gift shop following claims she expressed “transphobic” views.

And it has issued a crawling apology.

Jess de Wahls was found to be in “conflict” with the values of the institution over opinions expressed in a 2019 blog [post] criticising “gender identity ideology” and the LGBT charity Stonewall.

Really. So the Royal Academy of Arts requires total agreement with everything an artist is known to have said or written or embroidered before they sell that artist’s work in its gift shop? Really? It must take weeks to go through it all for just one artist, so how do they keep up?

No, of course the Royal Academy of Arts doesn’t require any such thing, or go through any such ludicrous vetting process. It’s not a normal expectation.

On Thursday, the RA issued an online statement saying that it had received complaints for selling works “by an artist expressing transphobic views”.

It added that her work “will not be stocked in future”, and thanked those who had complained about it.

Their faces should be scorching hot with shame and embarrassment.

Ms de Wahls told The Telegraph that her work had been pulled from the gift shop after a “concerted effort” from online activists over her alleged transphobia.

But when was a law passed that transphilia is required before artists can sell their work in shops? When was a law passed making it the business of brainless twerps on Twitter what artists think about men who say they are women? Why do adults in charge at major institutions jump to do the bidding of these spiteful envious ratbags? Why is it almost always women who are subject to this hole in the wall persecution?

The artist wrote a blog in 2019 which said that a woman is “an adult human female” and “not an identity or feeling”, adding: “I can not accept people’s unsubstantiated assertions that they are in fact the opposite sex to when they were born.”

Neither can I, nor can I see why we should be expected to, let alone subject to punishment if we decline.

She argued that the “ideology” of gender politics placed people into reductive boxes, enforced censorship akin to that found in her birthplace of East Germany, and had a detrimental impact on the rights of women and girls.

Yes, yes, and yes. (The punishments were harsher in East Germany, to put it mildly, but the creepy spying and ratting out are all too similar.)

Maya Forstater, who won an appeal after losing her job following tweets stating trans women were “not women”, has raised concerns over the action taken against Ms de Wahls.

She told The Telegraph: “Organisations have got used to overreacting to complaints of transphobia. They need to take a deep breath, look at the Equality Act and consider that everybody has rights.”

And stop jumping every time one of these hideous goons says “jump.”

The campaign groups Sex Matters has written to the director of the RA in a letter stating: “The Royal Academy is carrying out an egregious and blatant belief discrimination against textile artist Jess de Wahls.”

And bragging about it besides.

Ms de Wahls, originally from Germany, has established herself as a textile artist making embroidered portraits, often dealing with feminism.

Her work was sold in the RA gift shop, where prints of prominent and controversial artists have previously been made available for sale.

The Telegraph cites Gauguin and Eric Gill as examples: Gaugin had sex with underage girls and Gill sexually abused his daughters.

Here’s how it’s done.

“gina” is an embroidery artist too, but a more obscure one. I’m sure that has nothing to do with this bullying attempt to destroy someone else’s work.

The stupid is out of control.

Look look look we’re apologizing please don’t hurt us please please please

THE APOLOGETIC APOLOGIZING APOLOGY

Written by Kerry Stapleton – Chair of Labour Nexus.

Earlier this evening, Labour Nexus messed up, and we announced that a transphobic Labour councillor would be speaking at our rally. We are sorry. The rally organisation team only vetted Laurie three weeks before we announced that he would be speaking before he had outed himself as a transphobe and did not check his timeline again before linking to his profile.

Laurie? Who is this Laurie? Don’t write a public statement as if it’s the middle of a conversation. Is Laurie Laurie Something or Something Laurie? Write like an adult.

And “outed himself as a transphobe” is just another smelly little orthodoxy.

When we were planning for our rally on 19 June, members of the executive committee asked various Labour elected representatives if they would be interested in speaking at the rally. On 24 May, the rally organisation team asked Councillor Laurie Burton and Laurie agreed to speak. At the time, the team checked through Laurie’s recent twitter timeline and saw no concerning material.

What does “the team” consider “concerning material”? And stop calling him by his first name – you’re obviously not a friend, and anyway this is a statement, so it should be formal, not you writing in your diary.

On 10 June, Laurie posted a tweet describing the procedural decision in favour of high-profile transphobe Maya Forstater at an employment tribunal as a “victory for women’s rights” and a “victory for free speech”, invoking two dangerous transphobic tropes.

Maya is not “a transphobe.”

And if you consider “women’s rights” a dangerous transphobic trope then you’re a misogynist sexist bully.

We are incredibly ashamed that, having made a public statement in the past that Labour has a transphobia problem, we failed to be cautious and check again before endorsing a councillor we were not familiar with. Our naivety has led to us contributing to that problem, we had a responsibility to know better, and we are sincerely sorry.

As Labour Nexus has said in the past, trans rights are not up for debate. Trans rights are human rights. If that statement is contentious for you, listen to trans voices and educate yourself, or leave.

Laurie Burton has been reported to the Labour Party, and we sincerely hope that the leadership will defy our low expectations and punish him.

Punish him!? For what?!

There’s no home anywhere for women now.

Another target selected.

Just like that. One inquisitor tells the Royal Academy that an artist is (or has been) “expressing transphobic views” and bam, the Royal Academy goes belly-up and says please don’t hurt us – and throws the artist to the wolves and stops selling her work. Just like that.

And what are these “transphobic views”? What is their content? Just that women are women, and no one else is. That’s all. It’s simple, it’s basic, we all used to know it perfectly well. We used to know it and now we’re subject to abrupt firing and banishing and boycotting for continuing to know it – all so that men can continue to pretend to be women and get lavish praise for doing so. The lies are rewarded and the truth is punished.

Also it’s not “their work won’t be stocked in future.” Miserable cowards. It’s her work. Hers. It’s a woman you’re doing this public harm to.

Southampton Antifascists warns of an impending outrage:

Portsmouth Guildhall will be hosting an event for the Transphobic group Filia on the 16th – 17th October.

Filia have openly called for conversion therapy for those in the Trans community and openly act as gate keepers of womanhood.

Can you imagine?? Women are actually having the brass neck to act as gate keepers of womanhood. Who the hell do they think they are?

Filia are a hate group masquerading as a feminist charity and should not be able to hold events unchallenged.

In fact they shouldn’t be able to hold events at all, or go outside without supervision, or have jobs, or vote, or go to school.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote an essay.

In a lengthy essay published on her website on Tuesday, Adichie accused a former student of publicly attacking her after a 2017 interview in which Adichie said, among other things, “I don’t think it’s a good thing to talk about women’s issues being exactly the same as the issues of trans women.” Adichie held up the personal feud as a cautionary tale about how social media has been used by “certain young people” as an ideological battering ram rather than a place to communicate and seek understanding.

Let’s read some of what she said:

After the workshop, I welcomed her into my life. I very rarely do this, because my past experiences with young Nigerians left me wary of people who are calculating and insincere and want to use me only as an opportunity. But she was a Bright Young Nigerian Feminist and I thought that was worth making an exception.

She spent time in my Lagos home. We had long conversations. I was support-giver, counsellor, comforter.

Then I gave an interview in March 2017 in which I said that a trans woman is a trans woman, (the larger point of which was to say that we should be able to acknowledge difference while being fully inclusive, that in fact the whole premise of inclusiveness is difference.)

And you know what happened next: the former student trashed Adichie on social media.

Of course she could very well have had concerns with the interview. That is fair enough. But I had a personal relationship with her. She could have emailed or called or texted me. Instead she went on social media to put on a public performance.

It’s so much more fun that way.

Back to the Times:

The conflict escalated last year, after Adichie defended an essay by the Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling about sex and gender — a piece that her critics seized on as transphobic — as “perfectly reasonable.” Emezi posted a lengthy Twitter thread, saying that when their* former teacher “said those things and then doubled down and then mocked those of us who called her out (she called the response ‘trans-noise’), I was gutted.”

Adichie’s essay appears to be the first time she has publicly addressed the feud, tying the personal attacks to what she describes as a larger social and cultural problem of moral self-righteousness and reflexive attacks on those with differing views, and the corrosive effect those stances can have on unfettered debate and discussion. “We have a generation of young people on social media so terrified of having the wrong opinions that they have robbed themselves of the opportunity to think and to learn and to grow,” she wrote.

But at least they’re infinitely intersectional.

*Emezi uses customized pronouns

Ah yes both sides. Thank god there is someone to wade in at this late date to bemoan the “cruelty” on “both sides.”

She’s a columnist for the Evening Standard and a board member of the Fawcett Society.

Right on cue what? Disagreement? Is that so intolerable? Is it “cruelty”?

So let’s read her “thoughts on the need for more moderate voices.”

I’m on the board of the Fawcett Society which campaigns for women’s equality. Last week, a ruling was made which found in favour of a woman, Maya Forster, who had been dismissed from her job for expressing her views on the trans debate and established that gender critical views are a protected belief. She and others then attacked me and the Fawcett Society for not saying anything about the judgement. Millicent Fawcett, who the charity is named after, coined the motto “courage calls to courage everywhere”.

Oh, I see where we are. Hazarika is so special that she sees criticism of her actions as “attacking” her, and so confident in thinking that way that she doesn’t realize how petulant and vain it looks for a putative feminist to write a newspaper column bashing feminist women for expecting support from a feminist organization.

“Where is your courage?” furious gender critical women raged at me.

Yes, “where is your courage” is the most furious ragey four word question I’ve ever seen. My eyeballs are stinging.

It’s a fair question and I’ll answer it today in an entirely personal capacity. Hands up. Guilty as charged. Squeak squeak. I’m absolutely terrified about this debate. Even as I type, my anxiety levels are through the roof. I’m braced for the inevitable, merciless online abuse. I even booked in an emergency session with my therapist to work out a coping strategy for my mental health. Does this sound right to you? No. Because it’s not. This debate has become utterly toxic.

We know. We also know that it’s not “both sides” – and that feminists understand that.

But it’s time to stop this cowardice and to speak up. I’m sorry to disappoint but I’m not picking a side. The stakes are incredibly high on both sides, and I get that. But what I cannot and will not accept is the level of mindless cruelty and polarisation which is ripping apart progressive politics and making enemies of people who should stand shoulder to shoulder.

Actually she did pick a side, she picked it by starting the piece with a complaint about Maya Forstater and then by saying the two sides are equivalent.

You know all those endless collections of memes and tweets and images threatening graphic violence against “terfs”? And the curious absence of any such collections of memes and tweets and images doing the same to trans people? That are absent because they don’t exist? It’s too bad Hazarika hasn’t noticed the discrepancy.

As with so much right now, extremist, unforgiving, rigid voices on both sides dominate the online war in a fight to the death of who can scream and shame the loudest.

That’s just not true. It’s lazy and it’s a public stab in the back.

Sorry to get all supply teacher, but everyone needs to stop and reflect on their behaviour. If you get off on misgendering trans women, calling them men in dresses or making other pathetic, vile comments, you are part of the problem. If you enjoy slagging off older women who express a view about single sex spaces as ugly old cows who no one would want to f*** anyway, then guess what, you are part of the problem. There has got to be a way through this because newsflash — the only group benefiting from this vile punch up are the forces of social conservatism who are no true friend of either side.

Notice which one she put first. Notice also the difference between “pathetic, vile” and “you are part of the problem.” In short she is, ironically, a little abusive toward feminist women herself, apparently without even noticing it.

It’s funny that she positions herself as trying to tamp down the anger, because this craven and dishonest piece makes me more pissed off than I was before I read it.

Updating to add because I missed a couple of paragraphs hidden under an advert:

There’s a lot of talk of courage. Organising a Twitter pile-on is not brave by the way.

Neither is using a newspaper column to paint yet another target on Maya and then whining when Maya politely replies.

What about kindness and empathy? Most people are accepting of anyone providing they’re not a total arsehole. I’m part of a wonderful Facebook group of older women celebrating confidence in our “hot girl years”, AKA the menopause. Trans women are not only welcome, they are cherished — we have all learned from their stories and world class ability to accessorise.

Oh for fuck’s sake. That is at once so cutesy and patronizing and so insulting and belittling I don’t know where to begin. Yes that’s where women and men who identify as women can meet and embrace: on the ability to accessorize. Silly women, all we care about is fashion and hot girlism. Bully for her, she wants men who say they are women in her women’s groups, but not all of us do, and that doesn’t make us evil or bullies or deserving of a good scolding in a major newspaper…by a board member of the Fawcett Society of all people.

No you’re the ones who are weak on Russia.

President Joe Biden sat down in Geneva this morning with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as part of an important summit that’s expected to last several hours. As the meeting got underway, the Republican National Committee issued a press statement, letting reporters know the party’s takeaway from the international gathering.

“Giving Putin a meeting is just the latest win that Joe Biden has handed Russia,” the RNC said.

It is? So what was it when Trump gave Putin a meeting? And when he left his own table and went to hang with Putin with no US officials present that one time? And when he met with Putin in Helsinki alone except for translators, and ordered the US translator to destroy the record? Weren’t those wins for Russia?

One of the first hints of this line of attack came a month ago, when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) insisted, “Objectively speaking, the Biden administration is shaping up to be the most pro-Russia administration of the modern era.”

Huh. “Objectively” in what sense? Does that word now mean “opposite of truthly”?

And it’s not just Cruz.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for example, wrote a piece for Fox News’ website, arguing that Biden was going into today’s summit “with a self-dealt weak hand.” Sean Hannity added this week that the Russian leader “will see firsthand how weak Joe is,” adding that “Putin loves a weak America and a weak American president.”

And he loved Trump a whole lot more than he loves Biden.

Biden and Putin have been having their chat.

Biden gave Putin a list of Don’t You Dares.

A reporter asked Joe Biden if he outlined for Vladimir Putin how his administration would respond if there were a Russian cyberattack on critical US infrastructure.

“I pointed out to him that we have significant cyber capability, and he knows it,” Biden said. “I pointed out, if they violate basic norms, we will respond.”

Biden noted he gave the Russian president a list of 16 critical infrastructure entities that should be off limits for attacks, whether cyber or otherwise.

So he’s saying everything else is fair game. Okaaaaaaay…

Putin went the “you’re just as bad” route.

Joe Biden was asked to respond to Vladimir Putin comparing his jailing of political opponents, like Alexei Navalny, to the charges filed against those who carried out the January 6 insurrection.

“I think that’s a ridiculous comparison,” Biden told reporters in Geneva.

The US president emphasized there was a great difference between storming the Capitol with weapons and threatening law enforcement officers versus marching for the right to hold free and fair elections.

During his own press conference earlier today, Putin used that unfair comparison to deflect a question about why so many of his critics are either imprisoned or dead.

Not because he expected anyone to believe it, but as theater. Mind you, it would have been considerably more dramatic to say “Because I’m a dictator, that’s why.”

Come on now. Don’t be silly.

Silly. Just plain silly. “Trans” means “not” in this context, which “tall” and similar descriptive adjectives of course don’t. A trans man is a woman who identifies as a man, so the word “trans” in this context is not comparable to “tall.” Obviously. It’s just silly to attempt such a feeble ploy. I know it’s an old favorite, but it’s still silly.

He says, a man telling women what to think.

You couldn’t make it up.

It’s interesting when legislators make laws to ban things without knowing what the things are.

There’s been a lot of talk about critical race theory lately, and I’ve felt at a loss. I’ve heard so many conflicting things about critical race theory, I’ve gotten more and more confused.

So I did what middle-aged white men are prone to do — I asked another middle-aged white man. But not just any. I called an Alabama lawmaker, state Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, who wants to make it illegal to teach critical race theory in Alabama.

Pringle recently pre-filed a bill for the next legislative session (eight months away…) and he’s been bragging about it on talk radio. Please tell us what critical race theory is, sir.

“It’s pretty simple,” Pringle said. “All it says is you can’t teach critical race theory in K-12 or higher education in the state of Alabama.”

That is a short bill, if not a simple one. But it didn’t answer my question: What is this critical race theory educators would be forbidden to teach? Pringle has seen enough legislation to understand the law requires specificity. Many bills begin by laying out their legal definitions. How would his bill define critical race theory?

“It basically teaches that certain children are inherently bad people because of the color of their skin, period,” Pringle said.

Ohhhh, is that what it is. That’s terrible! Show us the teachings! Which theorists?

“Yeah, uh, well — I can assure you — I’ll have to read a lot more,” he said.

Wait what? You will have to read more? I think you were supposed to do that before introducing the bill.

I began to get the feeling that Pringle didn’t know as much about critical race theory as I had hoped. Were there other examples he could give me where critical race theory was being put into practice?

Other besides the zero he’s given so far.

“These people, when they were doing the training programs — and the government — if you didn’t buy into what they taught you a hundred percent, they sent you away to a reeducation camp,” Pringle said.

And, is that true, or do you have to do more reading?

The reporter asked, Pringle fumbled around for a bit but didn’t come up with anything except another assertion.

“The white male executives are sent to a three-day re-education camp, where they were told that their white male culture wasn’t their —” he trailed off again.

Show us. Show us on the doll. Show us on the doll where the critical race theory touched you.

I was worried that we’d lost our connection. These sorts of conversations sometimes end abruptly, but Pringle was still on the line and after a little more hemming and hawing he retreated to a common safe-space of politicians who’ve crawled too far out on a limb: He just wanted to start a conversation, he said.

And the way to do that is to ban something you know literally nothing about.