On 'Being Sound'
To maintain her position on the North London Dinner Party Circuit, Ash Sarkar has to literally pretend she isn’t aware of several things.
She has to pretend she can’t see what is happening to women in prison. She pretends she isn’t aware of what gender identity will mean to devout Muslims. She pretends not to know that women are being beaten by men in sports. She pretends she isn’t aware that straight men harassing lesbians is a problem in ‘Queer’ spaces, working instead with others to deny and dismiss the testimonies of victims of abuse.
She’s not alone, of course. They all do it, Owen Jones, Billy Bragg, Stewart Lee, Jon Ronson. They simply never defend their position on these issues, or even mention them, beyond sending up what has become a signal flare for intellectual mediocrities and opportunists, the cry of ‘witch’. I mean, ‘transphobe’.
“Being sound”.
In this case, '“being sound” means maintaining the line. Not letting the side down. Keeping your mouth shut. Looking the other way.
Sound as a bell in a Boston church, and making the same kind of noise.
So easy to spit out the word “transphobe”. A mindless, no- thought-required, knee-jerk response. An easy, and up until recently, serious indictment. The over-used word is losing its power. A phobia implies irrational fear. There’s nothing irrational about the fear of trans ideology, and its mind and body altering repercussions.
As a single man, on the planet, I refute Ash Sarkar's allegation that she heard me saying anything, ever, on the grounds that she didn't.