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Before you find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy

Ok let’s see if I can stomach this. Dreadful pompous smug fencing coach in August 2023 telling women and girls why they should take a back seat and like it.

So perhaps, before you dive in, it’s best to call out my beliefs up front before you waste your time reading this and find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy.

He means women there. It’s only women who “throw up their hands in a tizzy.” It’s so womany – stupid, weak, emotional, futile. Already we know where we are.

  • Trasngender women are women and gender is not sex.
  • Transgender fencers deserve the right to compete with the gender they identify with, and those of adult age should comply
… Read the rest

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Before you find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy
By Ophelia Benson, April 4, 2025

Ok let’s see if I can stomach this. Dreadful pompous smug fencing coach in August 2023 telling women and girls why they should take a back seat and like it.

So perhaps, before you dive in, it’s best to call out my beliefs up front before you waste your time reading this and find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy.

He means women there. It’s only women who “throw up their hands in a tizzy.” It’s so womany – stupid, weak, emotional, futile. Already we know where we are.

  • Trasngender women are women and gender is not sex.
  • Transgender fencers deserve the right to compete with the gender they identify with, and those of adult age should comply
… Read the rest

Archives
Bad Moves
Articles
Flashback
In Focus
Latest News
Letters
Notes and Comment Blog

Before you find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy 

Ok let’s see if I can stomach this. Dreadful pompous smug fencing coach in August 2023 telling women and girls why they should take a back seat and like it.

So perhaps, before you dive in, it’s best to call out my beliefs up front before you waste your time reading this and find yourself throwing up your hands in a tizzy.

He means women there. It’s only women who “throw up their hands in a tizzy.” It’s so womany – stupid, weak, emotional, futile. Already we know where we are.

  • Trasngender women are women and gender is not sex.
  • Transgender fencers deserve the right to compete with the gender they identify with, and those of adult age should comply
… Read the rest
His staunch position 

The rot is deep.

A director on the USA Fencing board once published an opus in support of trans athletes — less than two years before the athletic organization disqualified a female fencer from a tournament because she refused to compete against a trans opponent.

Damien Lehfeldt, the board’s elected at-large director, outlined his staunch position in a long-winded Aug. 30, 2023, blog post, in which he defended the right of trans fencers to compete against women, despite conceding they may have “a physical advantage.” 

Can confirm. I started reading it but had to stop – it’s too enraging. I might go back to it later to gather some excerpts. It is indeed long-winded, and of course self-admiring, … Read the rest

How can she possibly tell? 

From the tribunal:

Not to mention at work as a doctor or nurse or similar.

Well that is quite the admission, bro. He … Read the rest

Pronouns in Haworth 

Et tu Brontë Parsonage Museum?

Meet the Senior Leadership Team:

Our Senior Leadership Team steers the Brontë Parsonage Museum towards achieving our goals, and ensures we continue to work with our core values at heart.

Contact list of staff members

  • Rebecca Yorke Pronouns She/her Role Director
  • Mhairi Tomlinson Pronouns She/her Role Head of Finance
  • Gail Price Pronouns She/her Role HR and Operations Manager
  • Ann Dinsdale Pronouns She/her Role Principal Curator

Let’s see…does the Shakespeare Trust do that?

Nope. Not a pronoun in sight.

Dickens Museum?

Nope. The staff seems to be all or mostly women – the real kind.… Read the rest

Proud of it 

Reduxx back in 2023 on men taking over women’s fencing.

In November of 2022, USA Fencing adopted a Transgender and Nonbinary Athlete Policy which stated that division placement would be determined based on self-declared “gender identity” or “gender expression” rather than on biological sex.

Now let’s pause for a second to think about who benefits from such a policy and who does not.

Could it be that men benefit at the expense of women? And thus necessarily women are cheated for the pleasure of men?

Yes, it could. It couldn’t be any other way. Everybody knows this.

“USA Fencing will not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth, or any other form of

… Read the rest
She brought a booklet of papers She brought a booklet of papers 

When babies fall out.

Donald Trump fired six national security council staffers after a fraught meeting in the Oval Office where the far-right activist Laura Loomer presented opposition research against a number of staffers that she said showed they were disloyal to the US president, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The firings encompassed four staffers who were fired overnight, after the meeting, and two who were removed over the weekend. It created the extraordinary situation where Loomer appeared to have more influence than the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, over the NSC and undercut Waltz in having aides axed under him.

And when the Guardian says “Loomer” it means a completely random person off the street … Read the rest

A wider purge 

This all seems very reasonable and carefully thought through.

The Trump administration has fired the head of both the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, the BBC’s US partner CBS has reported. The removal of General Timothy Haugh comes amid what appears to be a wider purge of top security officials at the agency and at the White House.

Democrats have said they are “deeply disturbed” by the move and say it jeopardises national security.

It is not clear why Gen Haugh was removed, but it comes after a meeting between President Donald Trump and far-right activist Laura Loomer on Wednesday.

Between Trump and who the hell is Laura Loomer?

She’s an…internet personality. Ah. That’s definitely who should be … Read the rest

No it isn’t no it doesn’t 

USA Fencing tells lie after lie after lie.

It’s not the least bit “committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful community for everyone” in their sport. It’s committed to the exact opposite – it’s committed to fostering a community that forcibly excludes women who decline to compete against men in women’s competitions. That policy is not inclusive of women and it’s not respectful to women. It excludes women from their own competitions, it insults them, it punishes them, it bullies them.

They don’t believe in the principle of creating safe communities, either. Forcing women to fence with men is not safe. They don’t believe in creating communities where all athletes have a place, … Read the rest

Not a whistle 

Oh, gee, thanks; good to know.

Stickers saying “I Love JK Rowling” are not a “dog whistle” for transphobia, a university professor has told an employment tribunal.

Academics Deirdre O’Neill and Michael Wayne are suing the University and College Union (UCU) after its Edinburgh branch said their film Adult Human Female was an attack on transgender identity.

How are we defining “attack”? “Identity”? “Transgender”?

People who talk about and believe in and aggressively defend “transgender identity” believe that sex is swappable and that “transgender identity” is vastly more important than mere bodies. It’s all a bit church-like, really – never mind the vile body, it’s the soul that matters.

The film challenged trans rights claims and provoked protests when

… Read the rest
Any other minority group 

From the Telegraph’s coverage of the tribunal:

Naomi Cunningham, for the academics, said: “The conduct of the union in encouraging protest against these screenings and calling for [the] venue to be withdrawn was a completely consistent part of a wider course of conduct.” She said that Dr Wanggren, Grant Buttars, UCU Edinburgh branch president, and the union had sought to create “a hostile environment for anyone who held a gender critical view”.

Ms Cunningham added: “You were trying to create an environment, both at Edinburgh University and in the union as a whole, in which it was simply impossible to discuss gender critical ideas or arguments at all because you regarded those ideas as inherently transphobic.” She went on

… Read the rest
The clash 

Another front in the Shut Up About Women wars.

Two academics behind a gender-critical film have taken legal action against their union, accusing it of discrimination and harassment after it campaigned on social media to stop the documentary being screened.

Deirdre O’Neill, a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Hertfordshire, and Michael Wayne, a professor of media and film studies at Brunel University, describe Adult Human Female as the first UK documentary to look at the “clash between women’s rights and gender ideology/trans rights”.

When a screening was arranged at the University of Edinburgh in 2022, documents before the tribunal said the local branch of the University and College Union (UCU) wrote to the university calling

… Read the rest
Even the Telegraph repeats the lie 

Round up the usual manipulations.

Fencer disqualified for refusing to compete against transgender opponent

No. Female fencer disqualified for refusing to compete against male opponent. The problem is not that he’s transgender, the problem is that he’s male.

USA Fencing has backed a transgender athlete after a female opponent refused to compete in their match and instead took a knee in protest.

No. Again. USA Fencing has backed a male athlete after a female opponent refused to compete in their match. Issue not transgender; issue male.

Sullivan transferred to Wagner College’s women’s team, having previously competed in the men’s division. On Wednesday, USA Fencing came out in support of Sullivan after footage of the protest went viral.

The

… Read the rest
She SOLD the TESLA??? 

Musk’s hobby:

Ashley St. Clair, who says she is the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, has accused the billionaire of withdrawing child support payments to punish her for “disobedience.” It comes after St. Clair said she sold her Tesla car on Saturday to make up for Musk’s alleged 60 percent cut to payments, according to the The Daily Mail.

…

Responding to St. Clair’s claims on Monday, Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I don’t know if the child is mine or not, but am not against finding out. No court order is needed.

“Despite not knowing for sure, I have given Ashley $2.5M and am sending her $500k/year.”

Not a huge amount of child … Read the rest

Would look good on a WANTED poster 

The Dems are suing.

The Democratic Party on Monday asked a U.S. court to block Republican President Donald Trump‘s executive order overhauling the election system, arguing the changes risked denying eligible U.S. citizens the right to vote.

In a lawsuit against the Trump administration filed in Washington, D.C. federal court, the Democratic National Committee said Trump exceeded his authority in the March 25 order by requiring voters to prove they are U.S. citizens, preventing states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day, and threatening to take federal funding away from states that do not comply.

“The Executive Order seeks to impose radical changes on how Americans register to vote, cast a ballot, and participate in our democracy—all

… Read the rest
Just ignore those stupid Karens 

It seems that a Netflix drama about male violence against girls and women can get attention but actual real world male violence against girls and women not so much.

When real women talk about it it’s just boring and shrill. When Netflix does a male-focused drama about it Keir Starmer sits up and takes notice.… Read the rest

Musk endured a wave of gloating 

Wisconsin steps up.

Democrats were tasting unfamiliar triumphalism on Wednesday after the election for a vacant Wisconsin supreme court seat turned into an emphatic repudiation of Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s richest supporter and key ally.

Musk endured a wave of gloating on Twitter/X, his own social media platform, after Brad Schimel, a Trump-endorsed judge that he spent $25m supporting, lost by 10 percentage points to Susan Crawford, whose victory sustained a 4-3 liberal majority on the court.

On a day that Trump has earmarked as “liberation day” to mark his long-awaited roll out of trade tariffs, Democrats seized on the result as a referendum on Musk – who has spearheaded the president’s slashing of federal government workers

… Read the rest
Could be 

Lots of hedging here so don’t get too hopeful yet…

Trump has indicated to top advisers that Elon Musk could be taking a step back from his current role in the administration, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Musk is employed by the government as a “special government employee” — meaning his appointment is not to exceed 130 days. His term would be up around the end of May, but it was widely rumored that the White House could take steps to keep him on or extend his employment status in some way.

As ABC News has previously reported, Musk’s decision-making has divided Trump’s top aides and at times has sparked rifts among those closest to the president.

… Read the rest
Add to the pile 

Headline:

Sandy Stone is the first transgender woman inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame

Should of course be “Sandy Stone is the first man inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.”

They just can’t get enough of insulting us, can they. Without rubbing women’s noses in male contempt what would “trans women” even mean?

Bupkis. Insulting women is the entire point; there’s nothing left over.

The Advocate really relishes the work.

Stone, credited with starting the academic field of transgender studies, is also a recording engineer, an artist, and the first known trans woman in the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Around the end of this year, her story will be told in a documentary film.

… Read the rest
Guest post: What we talk about when we talk about social constructs 

Originally a comment by Mosnae on No no not the chair, the person.

Gender is a [social] construct. But so is sex. So is money. We work with [social] constructs all of the time.

The point appears to be that it’s not bad for gender identity to be a social construct because the authors can come up with examples of social constructs that aren’t bad. Leaving aside the highly dubious claim about sex, there are a few issues with this. For starters, why not throw in some undesirable social constructs, too? Why not point out that God is a social construct, as well as racism and homophobia and honor killings and forced marriages and slurs?

Then there’s also the … Read the rest

Cute shirt tho 

Oh look, it’s Alok Vaid-Menon again. It’s been a long time.

https://twitter.com/DreyfusJames/status/1907153753947730014 What’s he say?

To paraphrase somewhat liberally, he says the reason people think trans ideology is bullshit is because we’re so miserable and unfree. “It’s easier to romanticize the unfreedom,” he says emphatically, “decorate and accessorize it” –

Wait wait wait. He’s the guy recording himself in a colorful abstract-patterned shirt and dangly earrings and bright pink hair and heavy eye makeup and lipstick. Who is decorating and accessorizing here?

Another deepity: “People are made to destroy their own creativity, their own simultaneity – “

Our what now? Simultaneity? No we’re not. Look at me: typing and breathing with all the simultaneity in the world.… Read the rest