My experience of the gender debate has been one where, for three years, I have been pointing at a fair old gaggle of atrocities committed against women and children, and everyone keeps talking about my finger. It’s always about how I’m ugly, how my knee shakes, how my stance on these matters has left me isolated/unemployable etc. Believe it or not, none of this is news to me. And none of it answers our points about the importance of sex-segregated spaces to women and girls. None of it touches on the advisability of telling children, sometimes young enough that they still think Santa tumbles down the chimney every year, that it is feasible, even PREFERABLE to be “born in the wrong body”.
"If your idea of slumming it is attending the Craft Baftas, do you really think you’re in a position to advise on the relaxing of safeguarding principles at a woman’s shelter?" That describes the situation so brilliantly. It is shocking how people (and especially other women) can be so blind to & ignorant of the plight of others. The likes of Nichola Coughlan and Emma Watson et al believe they have the right to speak for and over the women at the bottom of the ladder, blithely waving away their safety, privacy, dignity...? You ain't no feminist, sis.
I wanted to share something positive. Over the past 6 months or so, people, women in particular, have started thanking me for my involvement in gender politics. As I’m medically retired, and already insane, I’m in a prime position to be involved . Not as useful as Glinner but in a little way. These people are generally involved in jobs that would be at risk if they were to speak out. But more and more they are taking note, are appalled and anxious for their kids, and incredulous at the gender lies.
Great piece. I too think the world is waking up. I had lunch today with a friend who, right up until today, dismissed my fears as outlier weirdness. Today she thanked me
If it wasn’t for you I would still be one of those middle-class, liberal men blissfully ignoring the erosion of women’s rights. You directed me towards so many amazing people (mostly women) who opened my eyes to the absurdity of gender ideology. Thank you.
Have you read the Anne Applebaum piece about how perfectly normal people abandon their principles and fall in with the wrong group? The risk of being accused of something looms very large in totalitarian societies. But in the case of US Republicans the downside isn't that bad.
Makes me think that the risk of being accused of being transphobic has a terrible effect on people who are otherwise delightful, turning them peculiar. Which is why people like you and JKR are so vital in showing that it's okay really - you can survive https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/
It is extraordinary, this phenomenon. Growing up, we were taught about McCarthyism and the red scare as a cautionary tale, and I think few of us could truly imagine it having any relevance beyond historical curiosity. Then came the satanic panic of the 80s, and a whole new way of 'doing' politics gradually evolved. So here we are, in the grip of an Orwellian ideology. JCJ has another incredulous dissection of the rape logic of it all on her blog today, and you kinda know only the choir will hear it.
I do think it's time we talked about ganging up. Not in a macho way. But association and physical organisation is where this gets interesting. Maybe.
Thankyou Graham I am in process of writing to my MP and organising locally. We really are in the grip of a doublethink and when I saw w
Action aid erasing the language of women I felt sick - it is shocking the Tolerance for such abuse of a woman who writes as you say with such compassion and wit and delight is targeted with vile abuse - a gay friend of mine just went for me on twitter as I said I supported her - accusing me of killing trans people - not sure how I can engage in debate. You have stuck in there and I admire you so much as well as of course loving your writing xx
Another brilliant article and you’ve hit the nail right on the head by saying that liberal woke bro men and lib-fem women are happily giving away the safety of women and girls as if they have the right to do so. Cos after all, women can always alert ‘someone’ if they don’t feel safe in a gender neutral toilet or changing room. Funny how though that transwomen can’t do the very same thing if they feel under threat in a men’s toilet, the safety of transwomen in male spaces being one of the mainstays of their argument and THE most important thing in the world, EVER. They never answer you when you put that to them. Instead, the hand is raised and you get the usual ‘I’m not talking to you. You’re a transphobic moron in bed with the alt-right and fundamentalist Christians”.
"If your idea of slumming it is attending the Craft Baftas, do you really think you’re in a position to advise on the relaxing of safeguarding principles at a woman’s shelter?" That describes the situation so brilliantly. It is shocking how people (and especially other women) can be so blind to & ignorant of the plight of others. The likes of Nichola Coughlan and Emma Watson et al believe they have the right to speak for and over the women at the bottom of the ladder, blithely waving away their safety, privacy, dignity...? You ain't no feminist, sis.
(Also, you are not ugly.)
I wanted to share something positive. Over the past 6 months or so, people, women in particular, have started thanking me for my involvement in gender politics. As I’m medically retired, and already insane, I’m in a prime position to be involved . Not as useful as Glinner but in a little way. These people are generally involved in jobs that would be at risk if they were to speak out. But more and more they are taking note, are appalled and anxious for their kids, and incredulous at the gender lies.
Great piece. I too think the world is waking up. I had lunch today with a friend who, right up until today, dismissed my fears as outlier weirdness. Today she thanked me
If it wasn’t for you I would still be one of those middle-class, liberal men blissfully ignoring the erosion of women’s rights. You directed me towards so many amazing people (mostly women) who opened my eyes to the absurdity of gender ideology. Thank you.
Have you read the Anne Applebaum piece about how perfectly normal people abandon their principles and fall in with the wrong group? The risk of being accused of something looms very large in totalitarian societies. But in the case of US Republicans the downside isn't that bad.
Makes me think that the risk of being accused of being transphobic has a terrible effect on people who are otherwise delightful, turning them peculiar. Which is why people like you and JKR are so vital in showing that it's okay really - you can survive https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/
It is extraordinary, this phenomenon. Growing up, we were taught about McCarthyism and the red scare as a cautionary tale, and I think few of us could truly imagine it having any relevance beyond historical curiosity. Then came the satanic panic of the 80s, and a whole new way of 'doing' politics gradually evolved. So here we are, in the grip of an Orwellian ideology. JCJ has another incredulous dissection of the rape logic of it all on her blog today, and you kinda know only the choir will hear it.
I do think it's time we talked about ganging up. Not in a macho way. But association and physical organisation is where this gets interesting. Maybe.
Thankyou Graham I am in process of writing to my MP and organising locally. We really are in the grip of a doublethink and when I saw w
Action aid erasing the language of women I felt sick - it is shocking the Tolerance for such abuse of a woman who writes as you say with such compassion and wit and delight is targeted with vile abuse - a gay friend of mine just went for me on twitter as I said I supported her - accusing me of killing trans people - not sure how I can engage in debate. You have stuck in there and I admire you so much as well as of course loving your writing xx
Another brilliant article and you’ve hit the nail right on the head by saying that liberal woke bro men and lib-fem women are happily giving away the safety of women and girls as if they have the right to do so. Cos after all, women can always alert ‘someone’ if they don’t feel safe in a gender neutral toilet or changing room. Funny how though that transwomen can’t do the very same thing if they feel under threat in a men’s toilet, the safety of transwomen in male spaces being one of the mainstays of their argument and THE most important thing in the world, EVER. They never answer you when you put that to them. Instead, the hand is raised and you get the usual ‘I’m not talking to you. You’re a transphobic moron in bed with the alt-right and fundamentalist Christians”.
It really rips ma knitting 🧶 😡