"If you're middle-class chances are you've at least one trans-identified relative" 😆
Glinner, you have nailed it. This is a top-down middle-class phenomenon. The reason it's finally getting some long overdue pushback is because it's seeped into working-class discourse.
"Not all women — or men — who think like Millar have the financial means, personal fortitude or institutional support to withstand the prosecution process. There are only so many crowdfunders. Graham Linehan can only thump out so many blogs and articles. There's only one Joanna Cherry and she can't be in every courtroom."
but was happy enough to chuck women under the bus with the usual misogynistic slur.
Margaret, if you want your book to survive, you're going to need to support the retention of the word woman. How about not shooting down those of us trying to do just that?
Agreed, much of female-to-male transition does seem to be about women unable to face the horror and indignity of being a woman in this political and social landscape, and so 'transing' to males in the hope of finding more authority and respect there. But they are doomed to fail, then becoming neither fish nor fowl. It's awful and my heart goes out to them. I am angry at Atwood, because she has been so cruel to JKR and, as you say, all the victims of this insanity. But I also have to consider that she's an elderly woman and perhaps not as well able to see the whole picture as we might hope from someone who wrote The Handmaid's Tale.
By the way, for those who haven't seen the breaking story about the government consultation on 'conversion therapy' (that the Times has claimed could 'outlaw' Mermaids), I've done a quick link to it on my free Substack, and to the page where you can submit your comments to the government proposal.
It closes 10th December and we all know THOUSANDS of TRAs will definitely respond. So let's get there and make our voices heard too.
This has been a roller coaster week. Marion Millar news great. Possible new legislation on conversion therapy looks promising. Kathleen Stock resignation sad and disheartening and Margaret Atwood just desperately disappointing. You need good blood pressure control to survive this era.
When I was a teenager smoking was cool; you did it to fit in, impress your peers etc. When you realise how dumb it is you stop, hopefully before doing irreversible damage - but no adult ever told me smoking was a good idea.
Teenagers today have this garbage thrown at them by the supercharged peer pressure of social media, and it's endorsed by adults - even by adults who are medical professionals. There's a surgeon on instagram inviting girls to "go topless this summer."
In a few short years there will be a number of young women with no breasts; just big, ugly scars across their chests, and they'll be justifiably furious at all those adults - like Margaret Atwood - who indulged and encouraged a teenage phase, in order to demonstrate their own "tolerance" and "inclusivity."
As a midwife and menopausal woman I endorse the discussion of the importance of hormone balance for vaginal, vulval and pelvic health. I would quibble with the phrase "vaginal atrophy" being muddled with other symptoms of the menopause/testosterone use. Vaginal, uterine and vulval "atrophy" all relate to different organs so to use the sweeping "vaginal atrophy" to cover everything is not quite right. Also I don't really like that word as it makes it sound as if it shrivels up and dies. It is possibly more accurate to say these organs will shrink - this is healthy and appropriate in a menopausal woman though it can - not necessarily but it can - involve the bladder which can increase urinary sensitivity and infections, and obviously shrinking and loss of lubrication in many menopausal women (not all) means their sex life is affected. The itching and dermatitis bit I found confusing. I think she is talking about lichens sclerosis which is more common after menopause but by no means everyone gets that. The overall point about not recklessly plunging a young woman into these potential health issues is very important. However, I do think we need to be careful to be accurate and also not to imply everyone has the same effects, as otherwise we will fall into all sorts of traps. Oh, and for menopausal women we are lucky that with some persistence and imagination there are appropriate treatments and sexual strategies that can mean a happy and healthy sex life if we wish to pursue it!
Think you may be correct - seems plausible that shes been transed by a family member. Plus its Tranada and would appear that biological facts are now as prehistoric as woolly mammoths.
I think you are being Kind to Aunt Margaret - I think she's totally fucking selfish and thinls she'll be in with the kids and keep selling her books but selling out women. She reminds me of the knobheads on the 'Cake' episode of Brass Eye.
It’s grim reading. I wish the scales would fall from people’s eyes. This ideology brutal and unforgiving -in their befuddled brains you’re either 100% in or you want them all dead or maimed or ostracised. There are no shades of grey in their quest. To me that is horrifying, dictatorial, authoritarian and unsustainable. I only hope this blows up and we can unpick and support damaged and distraught individuals. I am in a perpetual state of fury these days.
TT Exulansic channel good on discussing medical side effects. One example she gave was testosterone lowering the voice because of the effect on the vocal chord tissue - the heart valves are made of similar tissue so what happens to them? Common sense tells you adding unnecessary chemicals to a healthy body, mutilating yourself, putting skin where it was never meant to be is going to disrupt everything. In the USA if health insurance wriggles out of paying for all this as I'm sure they would like to these people are going to face medical bills for ever more. It's frightening enough when we've got the NHS. Having lifelong health problems in the USA is terrifying. Some people are deliberately going for jobs with good health cover. Get a job in Starbucks then claim hundreds of thousands off their medical insurance - I can't see that lasting long.
Also I think so many progressives cast the die way back when they assumed trans issues were an outgrowth of the LGB human rights movement. Without doubt there are genuine gender dysphorics whom I have absolute sympathy for. But misogynists, autogynophiles. pedophiles and sexual predator opportunists seem to have co-opted that group too and lead the whole movement into a very sinister dungeon.
It must feel horrendously humiliating to reconsider and back away.
On one side are the barking mad, slavering trans posse and on the other smirky “I told you so” holier than thou mob (us)
I think you might be being a bit too kind toward Atwood, yes she is eighty and likely surrounded by trans allies in the publishing industry, but she is still writing and being published, so hardly a senile, uninformed woman. Although I understand a familial connection will be difficult for her.
Thank you for this clear exposition of the dangers of cross-sex hormones and the peculiar volte-face executed by Margaret Atwood. Perhaps her publicist is running her Twitter account and she actually has no say over it?
Margaret Atwood was never a feminist. Her Handmaid's Tale is absolutely not a feminist book either. Just read how she regards young women the victims of horrible older women who do the job of nazi concentration camps managers, including making the girls ready for rape by the 'Boss'. I call that woman-hating, just as Snowhite's stepmother is the picture of evil (and of course the dead real mother a saint). That the Boss is a monster is not the centre of the story, it is the traitor/older woman who is the real monster!
"If you're middle-class chances are you've at least one trans-identified relative" 😆
Glinner, you have nailed it. This is a top-down middle-class phenomenon. The reason it's finally getting some long overdue pushback is because it's seeped into working-class discourse.
And we don't play that 😎
"Not all women — or men — who think like Millar have the financial means, personal fortitude or institutional support to withstand the prosecution process. There are only so many crowdfunders. Graham Linehan can only thump out so many blogs and articles. There's only one Joanna Cherry and she can't be in every courtroom."
Spectator
She complained (rightly) about her book being "cancelled"
https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/local-news/books-deemed-harmful-to-staff-and-students-are-being-removed-from-regions-public-school-libraries-4551859
but was happy enough to chuck women under the bus with the usual misogynistic slur.
Margaret, if you want your book to survive, you're going to need to support the retention of the word woman. How about not shooting down those of us trying to do just that?
Agreed, much of female-to-male transition does seem to be about women unable to face the horror and indignity of being a woman in this political and social landscape, and so 'transing' to males in the hope of finding more authority and respect there. But they are doomed to fail, then becoming neither fish nor fowl. It's awful and my heart goes out to them. I am angry at Atwood, because she has been so cruel to JKR and, as you say, all the victims of this insanity. But I also have to consider that she's an elderly woman and perhaps not as well able to see the whole picture as we might hope from someone who wrote The Handmaid's Tale.
By the way, for those who haven't seen the breaking story about the government consultation on 'conversion therapy' (that the Times has claimed could 'outlaw' Mermaids), I've done a quick link to it on my free Substack, and to the page where you can submit your comments to the government proposal.
It closes 10th December and we all know THOUSANDS of TRAs will definitely respond. So let's get there and make our voices heard too.
This has been a roller coaster week. Marion Millar news great. Possible new legislation on conversion therapy looks promising. Kathleen Stock resignation sad and disheartening and Margaret Atwood just desperately disappointing. You need good blood pressure control to survive this era.
When I was a teenager smoking was cool; you did it to fit in, impress your peers etc. When you realise how dumb it is you stop, hopefully before doing irreversible damage - but no adult ever told me smoking was a good idea.
Teenagers today have this garbage thrown at them by the supercharged peer pressure of social media, and it's endorsed by adults - even by adults who are medical professionals. There's a surgeon on instagram inviting girls to "go topless this summer."
In a few short years there will be a number of young women with no breasts; just big, ugly scars across their chests, and they'll be justifiably furious at all those adults - like Margaret Atwood - who indulged and encouraged a teenage phase, in order to demonstrate their own "tolerance" and "inclusivity."
As a midwife and menopausal woman I endorse the discussion of the importance of hormone balance for vaginal, vulval and pelvic health. I would quibble with the phrase "vaginal atrophy" being muddled with other symptoms of the menopause/testosterone use. Vaginal, uterine and vulval "atrophy" all relate to different organs so to use the sweeping "vaginal atrophy" to cover everything is not quite right. Also I don't really like that word as it makes it sound as if it shrivels up and dies. It is possibly more accurate to say these organs will shrink - this is healthy and appropriate in a menopausal woman though it can - not necessarily but it can - involve the bladder which can increase urinary sensitivity and infections, and obviously shrinking and loss of lubrication in many menopausal women (not all) means their sex life is affected. The itching and dermatitis bit I found confusing. I think she is talking about lichens sclerosis which is more common after menopause but by no means everyone gets that. The overall point about not recklessly plunging a young woman into these potential health issues is very important. However, I do think we need to be careful to be accurate and also not to imply everyone has the same effects, as otherwise we will fall into all sorts of traps. Oh, and for menopausal women we are lucky that with some persistence and imagination there are appropriate treatments and sexual strategies that can mean a happy and healthy sex life if we wish to pursue it!
Think you may be correct - seems plausible that shes been transed by a family member. Plus its Tranada and would appear that biological facts are now as prehistoric as woolly mammoths.
My tweet to Margaret: You are the Hanmaiden of all Handmaids. Under the trans eye.
I think you are being Kind to Aunt Margaret - I think she's totally fucking selfish and thinls she'll be in with the kids and keep selling her books but selling out women. She reminds me of the knobheads on the 'Cake' episode of Brass Eye.
It’s grim reading. I wish the scales would fall from people’s eyes. This ideology brutal and unforgiving -in their befuddled brains you’re either 100% in or you want them all dead or maimed or ostracised. There are no shades of grey in their quest. To me that is horrifying, dictatorial, authoritarian and unsustainable. I only hope this blows up and we can unpick and support damaged and distraught individuals. I am in a perpetual state of fury these days.
TT Exulansic channel good on discussing medical side effects. One example she gave was testosterone lowering the voice because of the effect on the vocal chord tissue - the heart valves are made of similar tissue so what happens to them? Common sense tells you adding unnecessary chemicals to a healthy body, mutilating yourself, putting skin where it was never meant to be is going to disrupt everything. In the USA if health insurance wriggles out of paying for all this as I'm sure they would like to these people are going to face medical bills for ever more. It's frightening enough when we've got the NHS. Having lifelong health problems in the USA is terrifying. Some people are deliberately going for jobs with good health cover. Get a job in Starbucks then claim hundreds of thousands off their medical insurance - I can't see that lasting long.
Also I think so many progressives cast the die way back when they assumed trans issues were an outgrowth of the LGB human rights movement. Without doubt there are genuine gender dysphorics whom I have absolute sympathy for. But misogynists, autogynophiles. pedophiles and sexual predator opportunists seem to have co-opted that group too and lead the whole movement into a very sinister dungeon.
It must feel horrendously humiliating to reconsider and back away.
On one side are the barking mad, slavering trans posse and on the other smirky “I told you so” holier than thou mob (us)
I think you might be being a bit too kind toward Atwood, yes she is eighty and likely surrounded by trans allies in the publishing industry, but she is still writing and being published, so hardly a senile, uninformed woman. Although I understand a familial connection will be difficult for her.
Thank you for this clear exposition of the dangers of cross-sex hormones and the peculiar volte-face executed by Margaret Atwood. Perhaps her publicist is running her Twitter account and she actually has no say over it?
Margaret Atwood was never a feminist. Her Handmaid's Tale is absolutely not a feminist book either. Just read how she regards young women the victims of horrible older women who do the job of nazi concentration camps managers, including making the girls ready for rape by the 'Boss'. I call that woman-hating, just as Snowhite's stepmother is the picture of evil (and of course the dead real mother a saint). That the Boss is a monster is not the centre of the story, it is the traitor/older woman who is the real monster!