May 4, 2023·edited May 4, 2023Liked by mole at the counter
Oh Moley! I'm chuckling but I suspect they would do all this if they could be so blatant. Of course they often are but that is just being stunning and brave of course. As ever, thoroughly excellent and on the nose. I needed this as I am sick of having trans BS shoved at me in people's signature blocks in the form of pronouns, ally badges, flag symbols and links to online blogs (of all things), telling me why this stuff is "important" (including one about toilets -when did that become appropriate to put at the end of every email?). Psychological safety at work? Only for the elite new caste.
We all know - at least, I hope! - this is satire and parody. But the sad thing is that many good people are taken in - now, I do feel a certain level of guilt about this - but should I blame myself or reality? I think it is clear that we put the onus for 'blame' on the actuality that lots of groups, orgs and individuals have shoved down our throats these last few years. All of the photos of the individuals are in the pubic sphere, and are all real and un-retouched. I just moved them into a different 'location'.
That's exactly what made the photos so appalling, and so convincing (at 1st take) -- because one didn't need to imagine any of these men were posing. Or not beyond what these poseurs routinely do anyway, "just being themselves".
But apparently clueless about how horrendous they appear to us. Should we pity them more? But the command to "be kind" makes coerced pity more difficult.
May 4, 2023·edited May 4, 2023Liked by mole at the counter
I do and I think most people here do! As you say though, you just repurpose what the media is feeding us already and shift things to expose the ridiculousness of it all in the text.... though we live in a world where people are celebrating a hairy man being on the cover of Bride and an influencer prancing online like a right divvy for Nike (because that's what sports women look like)! I think they may be after your job, closing the gap between reality and satire with BS like this. Except of course we all know men cannot be women so the question remains now, what is reality in the biggest gaslighting of our times?! I always love your work though - I hope you don't think I was being critical?
Yes! As he bounced along in his dainty, graceful 'Steps of the Horse*' the poorly-manufactured tiles were sadly unable to take the weight of his slight frame.
(*That is what the magazine title means - a real ballet move)
The bouncing bricky who has taken up female ballet always reminds me of Dawn French dancing with Darcy Bussell on The Vicar of Dibley. I can’t unsee it.
First look -- appalled: OMG they've really won: are women cancelling subscriptions en masse and who are the men sitting on the Boards of these mags?
Second look -- slower -- brilliant piss-take, laugh-out-loud standard. Thank you! Time we got some fun out of it. The noble art of satire is a potent political weapon. And some of these creeps are beyond satire anyway: you couldn't make it up. (Reason for first appalled reaction. But that tooth-sparkle should have been the giveaway...)
And wouldn't it be great to print some dummy mags with these covers, and scatter them around our local newsagents' magazine shelves... Then loiter with a cameraphone to record expressions on faces of customers
I imagine a boost in over-the-counter sales to closet AGPs. Thanks for the link to Genevieve Gluck's exposure of inconvenient truths.
Worth re-reading this commentary on that magazine cover:
"Women's rights campaigner and film-maker Vaishnavi Sundar blasted Vaid-Menon’s activism as “dangerous” while calling attention to the plight of women and girls in India.
In 2020, screenings of a documentary Sundar had produced titled “But What Was She Wearing?” were cancelled in response to previous tweets she had made opposing men in women’s spaces. Her film sought to address the sexual harassment and sexual violence that women in the nation experience, juxtaposing the contrast between what laws on paper purport and the on-the-ground reality.
“India is an extremely caste-riddled society. Indian women across all castes experience profound violence at the hands of men. A large majority still live under acute poverty, devoid of basic sanitation, education, safety, or legal recourse,” Sundar told Reduxx.
“India has one of the highest rates of honor killing and dowry deaths, where newlywed brides are tortured, burnt, sometimes even murdered on the basis of sex. For a man with caste and class privilege living so far removed from the everyday realities of Indian women, Alok Vaid-Menon sure has audacity to call himself a ‘bride,'” she said.
“To import gender identity ideology as some form of progressive ticket to freedom is not just obscene, it is dangerous. In a country that still kills the female newborns and blames young girls for being raped, gender identity is the last thing we want shoved down on us while we haven’t even saved ourselves from the existing misogyny,” Sundar added.
“The only group of people profiting from this ideology are the corporations, medical and pharmaceutical industries. Men like Alok Vaid-Menon are promoters of said industries under the veneer of being progressive and inclusive."
May 7, 2023·edited May 7, 2023Liked by mole at the counter
Hello dear Mole,
Not your fault in the least that the prevailing insanity predisposed so many of us to take your graphic illusions as real! even if only at first impression. Which just shows how mad things really are.
I remember being primed by several trans appropriations of International Women's Day as celebrated eg by the ?Institute for Contemporary Arts and Leicester Public Library (as if it weren't Trans Visibility Day every day now) that makes a complete takeover of the LGB by the T entirely plausible.
I was even taken in by Edinburgh as the best place for male lesbians...
But it's still your edgy accomplishment to have got us that far. It was only after realisation dawned and I read stuff more slowly that I discovered eg "Harper's Bizarre".
Reminds me of Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking: Fast and Slow". The fast intuitive take can sometimes get things very wrong...
And of course the whole gender cult revolves around delusion and denial of reality -- and forcing others to deny reality too, with refusal as a punishable offence -- so using satire to see how far you can push things is a perfect way to take it down.
I really thought that Diva mag was real, I was so shocked, I read the articles to the right and really believed the one saying Edinburgh Uni best place for a trans lesbian. I cannot believe these men, they have no shame, bulging bellies and the other, what the hell do they see in the mirror.
Once upon a time, a mole was sent out in the kingdom to search high and low for the most beautiful examples of lesbian womanhood. Like the Ugly Sisters in another fairy tale, the Hideous Brothers pushed the real female lesbians out of the way, and clamoured for the hand of the Lesbian Princess. Fortunately, Moley saw through their arrogant delusions and took them to a Hall of Mirrors where reality met them and slapped them in the chops. All to no avail. They were past saving from themselves. The last Moley heard, they were living in an abandoned castle in Transylvania with a gentleman who was feeding off their narcissism and fetishes, sating himself by night and sleeping it off by day. within a short time of their arrival, he was heard by passing, muttering villagers with pitchforks, to state that he usually went in for beautiful maidens but these Hideous Brothers had pushed themselves on to him, invaded his castle space and claimed that they were the real deal. He tried to protest, but they cancelled him and refused to let him into his own cellar to sleep. He now sleeps in a large hole in the sofa with a sick bucket by his side, while these 'lesbians' sit on his back, perched like a row of gargoyles from his castle roof.
God, these men are something else. That one with the knickers is losing a ball - a female, lesbian ball, of course.
Brillant as usual, Moley!
Thank you, dear boy! Somewhat of a joint effort though to be fair!
Lovely stuff, Moley!
Thank you!
Oh Moley! I'm chuckling but I suspect they would do all this if they could be so blatant. Of course they often are but that is just being stunning and brave of course. As ever, thoroughly excellent and on the nose. I needed this as I am sick of having trans BS shoved at me in people's signature blocks in the form of pronouns, ally badges, flag symbols and links to online blogs (of all things), telling me why this stuff is "important" (including one about toilets -when did that become appropriate to put at the end of every email?). Psychological safety at work? Only for the elite new caste.
We all know - at least, I hope! - this is satire and parody. But the sad thing is that many good people are taken in - now, I do feel a certain level of guilt about this - but should I blame myself or reality? I think it is clear that we put the onus for 'blame' on the actuality that lots of groups, orgs and individuals have shoved down our throats these last few years. All of the photos of the individuals are in the pubic sphere, and are all real and un-retouched. I just moved them into a different 'location'.
So, yeah... blame 'reality'! (Such as it is...)
That's exactly what made the photos so appalling, and so convincing (at 1st take) -- because one didn't need to imagine any of these men were posing. Or not beyond what these poseurs routinely do anyway, "just being themselves".
But apparently clueless about how horrendous they appear to us. Should we pity them more? But the command to "be kind" makes coerced pity more difficult.
I do and I think most people here do! As you say though, you just repurpose what the media is feeding us already and shift things to expose the ridiculousness of it all in the text.... though we live in a world where people are celebrating a hairy man being on the cover of Bride and an influencer prancing online like a right divvy for Nike (because that's what sports women look like)! I think they may be after your job, closing the gap between reality and satire with BS like this. Except of course we all know men cannot be women so the question remains now, what is reality in the biggest gaslighting of our times?! I always love your work though - I hope you don't think I was being critical?
Agreed, of course! And no, I didn't think you were at all at any time! No problem!
Thanks for the interesting discussion!
Very clever.
Did you mean to say “pubic sphere”? 😂
Ha! No!
Things have gotten so crazy I can't even tell if this is a spoof!
I assure you, each is a satire or a parody!
(I think...)
That's a relief! For one terrible moment I thought they might be real...So horribly believable!
My first reaction too
Hilarious ! Very clever
With gender woo being off the scale, I initially thought that was real🤮
OMG! I wish I had not seen that.
Superbe! Moley for the Turner prize.
Did you do the smashed tiles...hehe!
Yes! As he bounced along in his dainty, graceful 'Steps of the Horse*' the poorly-manufactured tiles were sadly unable to take the weight of his slight frame.
(*That is what the magazine title means - a real ballet move)
I only know of Pas de Chat?
With the emphasis on the Chat!
Chapeau!
The bouncing bricky who has taken up female ballet always reminds me of Dawn French dancing with Darcy Bussell on The Vicar of Dibley. I can’t unsee it.
It reminded me of Fantasia. But the hippos were more graceful.
Yes! And they were - infinitely so!
YES!!! I’d forgotten that 😂
First look -- appalled: OMG they've really won: are women cancelling subscriptions en masse and who are the men sitting on the Boards of these mags?
Second look -- slower -- brilliant piss-take, laugh-out-loud standard. Thank you! Time we got some fun out of it. The noble art of satire is a potent political weapon. And some of these creeps are beyond satire anyway: you couldn't make it up. (Reason for first appalled reaction. But that tooth-sparkle should have been the giveaway...)
And wouldn't it be great to print some dummy mags with these covers, and scatter them around our local newsagents' magazine shelves... Then loiter with a cameraphone to record expressions on faces of customers
Alok the Hairy, it beggars belief, but we live in crazy times. You believe, therefore You are!
I imagine a boost in over-the-counter sales to closet AGPs. Thanks for the link to Genevieve Gluck's exposure of inconvenient truths.
Worth re-reading this commentary on that magazine cover:
"Women's rights campaigner and film-maker Vaishnavi Sundar blasted Vaid-Menon’s activism as “dangerous” while calling attention to the plight of women and girls in India.
In 2020, screenings of a documentary Sundar had produced titled “But What Was She Wearing?” were cancelled in response to previous tweets she had made opposing men in women’s spaces. Her film sought to address the sexual harassment and sexual violence that women in the nation experience, juxtaposing the contrast between what laws on paper purport and the on-the-ground reality.
“India is an extremely caste-riddled society. Indian women across all castes experience profound violence at the hands of men. A large majority still live under acute poverty, devoid of basic sanitation, education, safety, or legal recourse,” Sundar told Reduxx.
“India has one of the highest rates of honor killing and dowry deaths, where newlywed brides are tortured, burnt, sometimes even murdered on the basis of sex. For a man with caste and class privilege living so far removed from the everyday realities of Indian women, Alok Vaid-Menon sure has audacity to call himself a ‘bride,'” she said.
“To import gender identity ideology as some form of progressive ticket to freedom is not just obscene, it is dangerous. In a country that still kills the female newborns and blames young girls for being raped, gender identity is the last thing we want shoved down on us while we haven’t even saved ourselves from the existing misogyny,” Sundar added.
“The only group of people profiting from this ideology are the corporations, medical and pharmaceutical industries. Men like Alok Vaid-Menon are promoters of said industries under the veneer of being progressive and inclusive."
MsGabriel - '2nd look' - Thank you. Yes, I added the 'sparkle' for exactly the reason that people *may* think it real!
Now, is the fact that some people think it could be real - my fault - or the fault of 'reality'? It is interesting!
Hello dear Mole,
Not your fault in the least that the prevailing insanity predisposed so many of us to take your graphic illusions as real! even if only at first impression. Which just shows how mad things really are.
I remember being primed by several trans appropriations of International Women's Day as celebrated eg by the ?Institute for Contemporary Arts and Leicester Public Library (as if it weren't Trans Visibility Day every day now) that makes a complete takeover of the LGB by the T entirely plausible.
I was even taken in by Edinburgh as the best place for male lesbians...
But it's still your edgy accomplishment to have got us that far. It was only after realisation dawned and I read stuff more slowly that I discovered eg "Harper's Bizarre".
Reminds me of Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking: Fast and Slow". The fast intuitive take can sometimes get things very wrong...
And of course the whole gender cult revolves around delusion and denial of reality -- and forcing others to deny reality too, with refusal as a punishable offence -- so using satire to see how far you can push things is a perfect way to take it down.
You are most kind, thank you.
I really thought that Diva mag was real, I was so shocked, I read the articles to the right and really believed the one saying Edinburgh Uni best place for a trans lesbian. I cannot believe these men, they have no shame, bulging bellies and the other, what the hell do they see in the mirror.
You’ve heard of beer goggles?
They wear transgoggles 😍
Yes, where they are all stunning and brave and anyone that doesn't agree is a transphobic nazi.
I admit they’re brave 😂🤣😂
Stunning? Nah!
Only if they change reality and the dictionary definitions.... oh wait, they're already trying to do this!
BlackieKat, their reality and ours, are very different, that’s why they squeal and whine so much.
We are so unfair not bowing down to their nonsense. 😂
Yes, and we should NEVER do so!
You never disappoint dear Moley,.
😂🤣 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thank you! Rather more of a 'joint effort' with our gracious host, than a solo performance!
Once upon a time, a mole was sent out in the kingdom to search high and low for the most beautiful examples of lesbian womanhood. Like the Ugly Sisters in another fairy tale, the Hideous Brothers pushed the real female lesbians out of the way, and clamoured for the hand of the Lesbian Princess. Fortunately, Moley saw through their arrogant delusions and took them to a Hall of Mirrors where reality met them and slapped them in the chops. All to no avail. They were past saving from themselves. The last Moley heard, they were living in an abandoned castle in Transylvania with a gentleman who was feeding off their narcissism and fetishes, sating himself by night and sleeping it off by day. within a short time of their arrival, he was heard by passing, muttering villagers with pitchforks, to state that he usually went in for beautiful maidens but these Hideous Brothers had pushed themselves on to him, invaded his castle space and claimed that they were the real deal. He tried to protest, but they cancelled him and refused to let him into his own cellar to sleep. He now sleeps in a large hole in the sofa with a sick bucket by his side, while these 'lesbians' sit on his back, perched like a row of gargoyles from his castle roof.
God, these men are something else. That one with the knickers is losing a ball - a female, lesbian ball, of course.
What a tale! Thank you.
And still a better love story than 'Twilight'!
Twilight was better than 50 shades , and I’m pushing it !
Petal, that’s one hell of an understatement 😂🤣😂
I went to see the first 50 shades and my first thought was ‘ o she’s got hairy legs ‘
It was pish ,as was twilight ,
I read the books and thought …. this was utter crap. The films were cringe, pure cringe.
I read the books and thought meh ,went to see the first film and thought boak
I’m assuming they’re only satire for the sake of my blood pressure. Please tell me they’re only satire.
I assure you, each is a parody or a satirical take, yes.
Thank goodness. But you had me half fooled - mainly because of the creative sector’s current direction of travel. Well done.
Thanks. And yes, I do agree... They are taking a very dodgy direction at times.
I'm a little bit in love with the genius that is Mole at the Counter. Bravo!
Steady now!