Another consignment of geriatric shoe manufacturers:

1. As a former @Guardian writer, I have been heartbroken and appalled at the transphobic pattern at the paper, most recently seen in a column by @suzanne_moore. What is going on over there, @KathViner? It is heartbreaking, cruel & lethally irresponsible. https://t.co/1IjqXVUmW4

— Dr. Steven W. Thrasher (@thrasherxy) March 9, 2020

Same old same old. Moore didn’t say anything “transphobic.” That’s all there is to this brand of “activism,” isn’t it – defining all dissent and argument as “phobic” and then pitching a “shut it down!!” fit on the basis of that wild definition. Everything except abject agreement and compliance is “transphobic” so…get aboard or get punished.

Along with how domineering and … Read the rest

Yet another – sorry, I hope to change the subject after this one.

I refuse to be defined by my biology. That's what more than a century of feminism has been fighting for.

I will be defined by my values, my ambitions, the company I keep, the work I do, the mistakes I make, the entertainment I enjoy and the people who love me.

— Lorna Slater (@lornagreens) March 5, 2020

Yes but that’s a different sense of “defined.” A very different sense. Feminism has not been fighting for over a century for women to stop being women or stop being called women; it has been fighting for women to stop being limited and confined by their sex.

But wait, … Read the rest

Dawn Butler tells us children are born without a sex. Yes really: she said that.

Dawn Butler, a Labour shadow minister: “a child is born without a sex”. This is flat earthery. Where are the male rationalists and scientists exposing this insanity? Why is it (mainly) left to feminists to get a kicking for saying 2+2 isn’t 5? So weary of cowardly left men. https://t.co/bevWquY91h

— Janice Turner (@VictoriaPeckham) February 17, 2020

It’s at 1:08 that she says it.… Read the rest

Earlier today –

.@alisonphipps Each time a news article about gender-critical academics comes out, you tweet that Sussex Uni trans students & staff are made unsafe by us (recent selection below). Instead, why not engage with me in public debate at Sussex or elsewhere? 1/ pic.twitter.com/d5lZ7kcTdf

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) January 14, 2020

Fellow academic Alison Phipps responds:

https://twitter.com/alisonphipps/status/1217117223795527680 https://twitter.com/alisonphipps/status/1217117344473985024

I am particularly struck by “These issues are not abstract thought experiments but things that affect real people.” This is a working academic talking, remember – a working academic claiming there is a gulf between things that affect real people and discussion of such things among academics. If that’s what she thinks why is she even an academic?

Sex, … Read the rest

Andy Lewis on what the trans “movement” has done to skepticism:

So, Rebecca Watson of @skepchicks has produced a video calling JK Rowling a ‘bigoted fuckface’. She comes to this conclusion because the Harry Potter author defended Maya Forstater after Maya lost an employment tribunal over her beliefs that sex is binary and immutable. 

Don’t go thinking that’s hyperbole. I haven’t watched the video because I value my sanity, but I skimmed the transcript, and “bigoted fuckface” is right there at the beginning.

JK Rowling, who you may know as the author of the theory that wizards don’t need indoor plumbing because they can just shit on the floor and then magic it away, has finally, officially come

… Read the rest

Katelyn Burns explains the Maya Forstater ruling for readers of The New Republic:

But a closer look at the case reveals that it doesn’t have much to do with a belief that “there are only two sexes in human beings … male and female,” as Forstater claims (and growing bodies of science dispute). In practice, Forstater was seeking legal cover to disregard the already established rights of trans people in the U.K.

What rights? What rights of trans people was Maya “seeking legal cover to disregard”?

Hers was a familiar argument—one that for too long has dominated mainstream coverage of trans rights.

What rights are those though?

A passage from employment judge James Tayler’s ruling explained it perfectly: “The claimant

… Read the rest

Dress however you please.
Call yourself whatever you like.
Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you.
Live your best life in peace and security.
But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019

… Read the rest

Last month the Australian Press Council issued “guidelines for reporting on people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”

The Australian Press Council today released an Advisory Guideline for editors and journalists – Reporting on persons with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.

The Advisory Guideline is the culmination of 12 months’ research and community consultation by the Press Council with editors, journalists, peak community and health organisations, mental health specialists, people with lived experience, police and academics. The process included roundtables in Sydney and Melbourne, as well a number of individual consultations with stakeholders.

Golly, they consulted people with lived experience. So that would be…everybody? They consulted with everybody? Impressively thorough.

Freedom of speech

… Read the rest

Meghan Murphy on the NDP Women’s Committee’s suicide and the usurpers’ efforts to shut up the women who object:

The BC NDP Women’s Rights Committee deleted their initial post celebrating their decision to make the group inclusive of men, claiming the push back from women was “hateful” and that the comments were coming from “right wing trolls,” when in fact they were from feminist, left wing women who were not hateful at all, but simply angry. The lack of accountability and integrity is astounding. At what point will the BC NDP take women seriously?! The party is losing votes and losing women. One would think they would care…

Facebook, by the way, appears to be hiding Meghan’s post. I couldn’t … Read the rest

WeAreFairCop on the hearing day 2 – the whole thing is fascinating (and heroic work; well done to WAFC); I’ll just dive in at point x to give a sample. It’s shorthandy because done at speed. Counsel for P=for the Police.

Counsel for P – it caused a strong reaction – Judge – to ONE person. We have looked at the evidence. Reference to other people being upset. People don’t have the right to go through life not being upset. 

—

Counsel for P – I accept that but police have duty to engage with community and duties under EA Judge – I am afraid you will have to give me a specific reference to where it says police role

… Read the rest

The University and College Union – UCU – in the UK has issued a position on trans inclusion [pdf].

It doesn’t start well.

UCU has a long history (from predecessor unions) of enabling members to self-identify whether that is being black, disabled, LGBT+ or women.

Oh really? I don’t believe that. UCU members can just “self-identify” as black or disabled even if they’re obviously…not? They can “self-identify” as lesbian or gay even if their sex lives and love lives are in fact entirely straight?

I don’t believe a word of that. And it’s the first sentence, so there you go.

UCU women’s conference passed an advisory motion in 2017.

Women’s conference reaffirms:

That our women’s structures within the union belong

… Read the rest

Adding another from Jolyon Maugham, a more trivial one but it itches my mind.

Your argument contends that trans men and women are somehow pretending to be men and women. And don’t also deserve protection. I don’t accept those contentions.

It’s that “somehow” that’s so annoying. Come on. The “somehow” is that trans people claim to be the opposite sex. That’s what “trans” means in this context. (There are other contexts. Transcontinental, transnational, translate, transfer.) Trans people explain themselves as “identifying as” the other sex. It has become socially mandatory to treat those claims and explanations as true and self-evident and rude-to-dispute, but that doesn’t translate to “we no longer even understand what is meant by ‘trans’ or … Read the rest

So, having said that, let’s consider the words as opposed to the emojis.

@Astropartigirl: Trans women are women. Period. As a cis woman, I promise I will not leave you out, ever. Keep being fabulous

@charlie_sci: I’ve followed you for a while – I love how many fellow scientists are on social media, and I admire your work. Politely, can I ask what is a woman?

@Astropartigirl: A woman is a gender identity. If someone identifies as a woman, she is a woman.

That’s the dogma, and she parrots it obediently, but it’s bizarre. If that’s what a woman is then only trans women are women. So what should we formerly known as “women” people call ourselves?

We formerly known … Read the rest

Fair Play for Women on Twitter points out that it’s not just Australian cricket.

We’ve all been stunned at the audacity of Australian Cricket opening up the women’s game to males …. but the English Cricket Board @ECB_cricket has been doing exactly the same.

https://pulse-static-files.s3.amazonaws.com/ecb/document/2019/04/26/3bb659af-9a7d-4ffa-810d-7fae32959ee6/Non-First-Class-ECB-Regulations-Transgender-2019.pdf

Bam, just like that.

7.1 female only – a cricket competition, league or match governed by the ECB which are available for a woman or a trans woman to compete in;

So not “female only” AT ALL but female plus whatever male feels like claiming to be a trans woman for the purposes of playing cricket against women.

11.3 a trans woman may compete in any open competition, league or match or any female only 

… Read the rest