A Week in the War on Women: Monday 20th July - Sunday 27th July
By JL
Monday 20th July - Another Charity in Thrall to Gender Woo
Following last week’s declaration by ActionAid UK, that there is no such thing as a female body, another UK charity seems to have been at the mushrooms.
In a tweet now deleted, Age UK told its 130,000 followers, “We believe everyone has a right to be recognised as the gender they identify with”.
No, they don’t. SEX is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and gender identity does not supersede it.
A number of Twitter users asked Age UK their own versions of this question - are elderly and vulnerable people permitted a say in the sex of those providing their intimate care?
And answer came there none.
But it’s not just charities who are leaping on the bandwagon. Last month supermarket giant, Tesco, announced that it will be donating £80,000 to controversial charity, Mermaids.
When it comes to persuading gender non-conforming children that their bodies need ‘fixing’ and setting them on a path to synthetic hormones, irreversible surgery, sterility, loss of sexual function and life-long medical dependency… every little helps.
(Thanks to @Jebrux for the above parody.)
Tuesday 21st July - Gender Ideology & the Implications for Psychiatry
BJPSYCH BULLETIN: Sex, Gender & Gender Identity: A Re-evaluation of the Evidence.
This article examines the relationship between psychiatry and gender identity. It explains that the broadening and conflation of terms and the politicisation of the issues involved have influenced medical approaches to gender dysphoria. It also expresses concern over the lack of data and long-term research.
Furthermore, it challenges the affirmation-only approach to treating dysphoric children, refuting the fallacy that not affirming 'gender identity' is somehow comparable with conversion therapy for homosexuality. It makes these points:
Many children referred to gender clinics demonstrate comorbidities or, particularly common in female patients, a same-sex attraction.
Autism spectrum disorders are consistently over-represented.
Almost 100% of children who are prescribed puberty blockers will go on to take cross-sex hormones.
The majority of children with a formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria will, if left alone, reconcile with their biological sex during adolescence.
“Psychiatry sits on this knife-edge: running the risk of being accused of transphobia or, alternatively, remaining silent throughout this uncontrolled experiment. Respectful debate, careful research and measurement of outcomes are always required.”
The BJPsych also published a report about the treatment of dysphoric children by psychoanalyst and former Tavistock govenor, Dr Marcus Evans. In it he describes the huge rise in referrals to child gender clinics, questions the policy of affirmation and explains why changes are needed to the current approach. In particular he stresses that exploring one’s gender is a normal part of any adolescence.
He discusses his concerns in greater detail here.
Wednesday 22nd July - Sex, Gender & Online Grooming
Twitter user, Sarah Stuart, shared her experience of an online gender workshop she attended.
This workshop was supposedly discussing gender identity and expression in relation to JK Rowling’s recent statements and it was aimed at children aged 6-12. However, it was just a blatant attempt to indoctrinate children into gender identity ideology using the much-loved author as a hook.
Participants received a Zoom meeting link, without password, and an email warning that adults must ‘remain silent observers’. Sarah Stuart reports that most of the children onscreen were without supervision and only one had an adult present.
The workshop trainer was a trans identified female and trans rights activist called Joshua Jernigan. Based in North Carolina, Jernigan founded the Gender Education Network, an organization with “A goal to educate everyone about gender diversity”.
Jernigan told the watching children that JK Rowling’s recent statements were “harmful” and “wrong” and the ensuing workshop was full of ideological rhetoric; sex is a spectrum, “same-gender attraction” supplants homosexuality, being a woman is not defined by biology, “deadnaming” and “misgendering” are verboten etc. Jernigan also discussed hormones, surgery and social transitioning and told children that they can change their pronouns as often as they like; ‘Try it on and see if it fits’.
In other words, grooming.
Thursday 23rd July - JK Rowling & The Libel Lawyers of Truth
THE SCOTSMAN: JK Rowling has received an apology from website, The Day, after it made the kind of derogatory comments and smears to which those of us in this debate have grown so accustomed.
The Day is an online daily newspaper for children aged between 5-18. It is used in around 1500 UK schools and recommended by the Department for Education.
In June it published an article which referenced JK Rowling's recent comments, claiming that she was “Attacking trans people”. It described her as "deeply unpleasant", compared her to the anti-Semitic composer, Richard Wagner, and listed reasons for boycotting the Harry Potter books.
However, the author’s legal team intervened and The Day realised that there are consequences to making such spurious allegations. It has issued an apology and will also be making a donation to a charity of JK Rowling’s choice.
Barrister, Jo Maugham, believes that JK Rowling should just keep quiet when she’s likened to a Nazi sympathiser and her readership is instructed to boycott her work. Surely a QC should better understand the difference between free speech and libel?
Friday 24th July - Labour Losing Women (An Ongoing Saga)
THE DAILY MAIL: A Labour MP has decried free speech in a newspaper column about “trans rights”.
Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham East, wrote an Independent column called “The only way to avoid hysteria about trans rights is to ground the debate in real life experiences”. In it, she uses the usual hyperbole and bogus statistics to try and veto any discussion of the issues involved. (Perhaps she’s not familiar with Article 10 of the Human Rights Act.)
Twitter user Roary has done a brilliant job of picking apart Whittome’s specious reasoning.
Whittome ends her anti-woman hit piece by quoting drag performer, Divina De Campo. Apparently, a man who parodies womanhood for a living is allowed an opinion but actual women are not.
Saturday 25th July - The Existence of Women is Transphobic
Thanks to Twitter users Alan Henness and Ophelia Bensen for drawing attention to this example of female erasure.
WITS Ireland is an organisation that was set up to promote women in science and technology throughout Ireland. Last week it recommended Caroline Criado-Perez’s book, Invisible Women, for its regular book club event.
Invisible Women is a painstakingly researched book which examines how the sex data gap disadvantages women in a world designed around men. It was the 2019 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year, and won the 2019 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Books Prize.
But WITS Ireland has decided that any book that references female reality is somehow problematic, even when much of Perez’s research could save women’s lives. Not only did WITS (inappropriate anachronym of the year) bow to pressure from gender ideologues by withdrawing its recommendation of the book but they also issued a grovelling apology. Its statement describes the book as “deeply problematic” because it “tackles gender in a binary concept” and “neglects the experience of trans and non-binary individuals”.
A book about the issues faced specifically by females in a male-dominated society is dismissed by a women’s science organisation because it recognises the physical differences between the biological sexes?
If anyone really needs to read this book, it is the women of WITS Ireland.
Sunday 26th July - Legal Eagles Captured by Butterflies
FAIR COP: There is a new gender ideology lobby group on the block and it is targeting the legal profession.
Established in 2015, Global Butterflies, advertises itself as “a trans and non-binary inclusion training company” which will “help organisations adopt a zero-tolerance approach to trans-phobic behaviour and attitudes”. Its clients include the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
An attendee of a recent Global Butterflies training session reported on its contents to Fair Cop. “Beyond the Binary” was presented by two trans-identified males who are in a relationship but, of course, “identify” as lesbians. The session involved the usual catastrophic language about “unprecedented hostility and danger to trans lives”, some business about pronouns, a spiel supporting self-ID legislation, a total misrepresentation of feminist concerns and the standard anti-science rhetoric about sex being a spectrum.
And members of the legal profession swallowed it whole.
Incidentally, Global Butterflies was set up by a trans-identified male called Rachel Reese who appears to have blocked every vaguely gender-critical account on Twitter, even if they’ve never interacted.
And that includes your humble author…
See you next week!
The stuff this weekend about Caroline Criado-Perez has made me really despair for humanity, at least until I read many of the wonderful comments which were overwhelmingly horrified at the censorship (or at least censure-ship) of a hugely important book. As a society we've only just begun to scratch the surface of the sex based inequalities arising from the "default male", and CCP has done a remarkable amount for any individual - let alone one so young - to draw attention to these issues.
I went to see CCP talk at a Women of the World event last year and her story is truly inspiring: she wasn't even a feminist when she started her research, which only lends credibility to her work as it really was through interrogation of the data, and not through any personal biases that she drew the conclusions she did.
That anyone could have the nerve to try and frame this as "problematic" is just so messed up I don't even have words for it. Anyway, rant over. I think she's amazing and what a relief that so many stuck up for her and for sanity this weekend.