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Guest post: Not even the threadbare legal fiction

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on The persistent framing.

As much as I sympathize with Hutchinson, I wish everybody on the gc “side” would stop bringing up whether or not TIM have had surgeries, taken hormones etc. as if it made a difference. Even if he had, it still wouldn’t make him a woman, nor make it any more acceptable for him to enter women’s changing rooms.

I agree, but sometimes I think it’s important to spell out for the naive and clueless (like me from a few years ago) that things are worse than they seem. How many are aware of the fact that most TiMs have not undergone surgical “transition”? I wasn’t. Under self-ID … Read the rest

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Guest post: Not even the threadbare legal fiction
By Ophelia Benson, November 20, 2024

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on The persistent framing.

As much as I sympathize with Hutchinson, I wish everybody on the gc “side” would stop bringing up whether or not TIM have had surgeries, taken hormones etc. as if it made a difference. Even if he had, it still wouldn’t make him a woman, nor make it any more acceptable for him to enter women’s changing rooms.

I agree, but sometimes I think it’s important to spell out for the naive and clueless (like me from a few years ago) that things are worse than they seem. How many are aware of the fact that most TiMs have not undergone surgical “transition”? I wasn’t. Under self-ID … Read the rest

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

Guest post: Not even the threadbare legal fiction 

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on The persistent framing.

As much as I sympathize with Hutchinson, I wish everybody on the gc “side” would stop bringing up whether or not TIM have had surgeries, taken hormones etc. as if it made a difference. Even if he had, it still wouldn’t make him a woman, nor make it any more acceptable for him to enter women’s changing rooms.

I agree, but sometimes I think it’s important to spell out for the naive and clueless (like me from a few years ago) that things are worse than they seem. How many are aware of the fact that most TiMs have not undergone surgical “transition”? I wasn’t. Under self-ID … Read the rest

Can a skirt change sex? 

Woman’s Hour hostile interview of woman who doesn’t agree that men are women if they say they are Part 2.

McGovern: There’s kind of two parts to that in a way Bethany. If the person dressed more traditionally as a female for example would that make a difference?

Me, interjecting. What a stupid question! Sure, it would make the same difference it made to Little Red Riding Hood. Oh hello sir I see you have a skirt on, by all means come in and watch us changing into our work uniforms, your skirt renders you miraculously harmless and trustworthy.

Hutchinson: Ah, not necessarily, no.

McGovern: If this person had surgically transitioned, would that be something you would … Read the rest

No YOU full stop 

No they’re not.

Zooey Zephyr is a trans woman, aka a man. Full stop, if it makes you feel any better. Trans women are of course not women, because that’s what the “trans” in “trans woman” means. Trans women are of course not every bit as “biologically female” as cis women, because, again, that’s what the “trans” part means.

How did a man who … Read the rest

Not sick 

There’s a surprise.

Ahoo Daryaei released without charge

An Iranian woman will not face charges after she stripped to her underwear in an apparent anti-hijab protest at a university in Tehran, Iranian authorities say.

Earlier in November, video went viral on social media capturing the moment the woman, named by BBC Persian as Ahoo Daryaei, undressed on a university campus before being forcibly detained.

A spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary said the woman had been treated in hospital and returned to her family.

…

Iranian authorities at the time said Ms Daryaei was “sick” and had been taken to a psychiatric ward. It is not the first time Iranian authorities have branded a woman protesting compulsory hijab laws with

… Read the rest
Uniquely destabilizing 

Criminal’s lawyers demand his conviction be thrown out because it would be “destabilizing” to let it stand.

Donald Trump’s attorneys are demanding the judge who presided over his New York hush money trial and conviction immediately throw out the case, saying it would be “uniquely destabilizing to the country” otherwise.

Hey, you know what’s really destabilizing? Electing a convicted criminal president.

“Immediate dismissal of this case is mandated by the federal Constitution, the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, and the interests of justice, in order to facilitate the orderly transition of Executive power following President Trump’s overwhelming victory in the 2024 Presidential election,” attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove argued in a letter to Judge Juan Merchan that was made

… Read the rest
All of them men 

Some reactions to that “why won’t you let men into your changing room” interview on the women-hating BBC Woman’s Hour:

https://twitter.com/soulfoodie/status/1859194352762769691

There are lots … Read the rest

The persistent framing 

Ugh I’m probably going to have to transcribe every word of this disgusting conversation on Woman’s Hour – because the very first thing Nuala McGovern the woman host of WOMAN’S HOUR does is confuse the issue by referring to the man in the women’s changing room as “a trans woman” instead of a man or a male. Ok Nuala McGovern so why talk about women on Woman’s Hour at all? Why not just make it all about trans women instead? Why not replace you with a trans woman? Eh?

… Read the rest
Careful with the baggage 

The Guardian insults women yet again.

For many trans and non-binary people, top surgery – the process of removing breast tissue to get a flatter or masculinized chest – is not an elective procedure. It’s essential to them feeling at home in their bodies.

Wrong. Sorry. “Feeling at home in their bodies” is indeed elective. Removing breasts to feel at home in one’s body is like removing a leg to feel at home in one’s body. Both are elective because they are not physically necessary. Emotionally necessary is elective territory. If you had to triage patients waiting to have their breasts removed you wouldn’t (one hopes) put the “at home in my body” ones ahead of the breast cancer … Read the rest

Men are not a “vulnerable community” 

He’s a guy.

He’s a guy.… Read the rest

Pro-choice 

Noah Berlatsky on the murderous ignorance and arrogance of Worst Kennedy:

It really should go without saying by now, but despite what RFK Jr. claims, vaccines are in fact one of the most transformative medical advances in human history.

The smallpox vaccine eradicated a 3,000 year old disease that killed 300 million people just in the two decades between 1900 and 1920. Before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, 400 to 500 Americans died of the disease every year, and some 48,000 a year were hospitalized. In the early 1900s, polio paralyzed hundreds of thousands of people a year; a devastating 1952 outbreak in the US killed 3,000.

And then of course there’s covid. Researchers believe that

… Read the rest
Hello Columbus 

It’s a very small group of people in one city, but……..well, it’s that kind of very small group.

Ohio officials have denounced a small contingent of neo-Nazis who paraded Saturday afternoon through a Columbus neighborhood – waving flags featuring swastikas and shouting a racist slur – in the latest public demonstration by White nationalists in recent years across the United States.

Around a dozen people in black pants, shirts and head coverings – their faces obscured by red masks – marched along the street near downtown Columbus as three carried black flags emblazoned with red swastikas, footage provided to CNN affiliate WBNS shows.

At least one person yelled, “N***er,” again and again, according to the video that’s garnered online

… Read the rest
Then film yourself complaining 

Oh dear oh dear confused muddled baffled person is at a loss to figure out which sweet Italian grandparent to emulate in which toilet! Be concerned!! Be very concerned!!!

I wonder though why cmbp is so upset about that rather than the fact that xir has several pieces of metal poking out of xir face. Kid! Watch out! You have bits of shrapnel in your face! That’s gotta sting!

I don’t know. Why do people put this kind of thing out in public where just anyone can see it? “Hello, watch me performing Whiny Sniveling Self-obsessed Fool.” Do they think it makes them look good?

https://twitter.com/DreyfusJames/status/1858585319777399196… Read the rest
You’d be happy if 

This is very telling.

It’s so telling that this fool thinks we’re like them. This fool thinks the hostile entitled enraged aggression of so many trans-identified men is normal behavior, and righteous in a good cause. This fool doesn’t get that the foundational sense of entitlement baked into trans ideology encourages people to act accordingly. This fool doesn’t get that the result is a lot of deeply unpleasant self-obsessed demanding belligerent people. This fool doesn’t get that rejection of … Read the rest

An equality policy 

Oh but it’s so complex, you outsiders can’t possibly understand it because of the very complex complexity of it. The BBC reports how complex it is:

A protest over the Football Association’s transgender inclusion policy took place outside Wembley before England men’s match against the Republic of Ireland.

It was sparked by the banning of a teenage girl over remarks she made to a transgender opponent in a grassroots match.

So what is the background to what the FA calls “a complex case”?

Earlier this month, a 17-year-old female footballer was banned for discrimination after she was found to have repeatedly asked a transgender opponent during a match “are you a man?”.

But what does “a transgender opponent” mean? … Read the rest

Without legal permission 

We need some clarity on the details.

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday confirmed he would declare a national emergency to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations of migrants living in the U.S. without legal permission.

Interesting ambiguity there. Which without legal permission? Migrants living in the US or Trump carrying out mass deportations?

Already, he’s tapped several immigration hard-liners to serve in key Cabinet positions. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was picked to be homeland security secretary, pending Senate confirmation. Former Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan was named “border czar.”

Homan previously discussed his vision for mass deportations, saying they would first concentrate on expelling criminals and national security threats. He didn’t

… Read the rest
Hackles in up position 

With little consolation anywhere we have to take some from internecine quarrels.

Elon Musk weighed in over the weekend on the increasingly tense battle for Treasury secretary in the second Trump administration—and that has reportedly raised the hackles of some Trump advisers, who worry his influence might have grown too large.

Oh surely not. Musk is a very cautious humble self-effacing guy.

The Washington Post reported that Musk’s endorsement via social media of Howard Lutnick, who is co-leading the Trump transition team, could add confusion to the process. One adviser suggested to the Post that Musk was acting as a “co-president” and could be overstepping his advisory role with Trump.

Not possible. He’s a genius. There’s no such … Read the rest

Don’t spread misinformation she wrote 

Yet another iteration of Margaret Atwood v the wicked gender critical women.

The evidence for it is as always promptly forthcoming.

Audience: She did not delete them. https://twitter.com/AjaTheEmpress/status/1858208854456127737

The good old slug sex :) defense.

… Read the rest
In two hours flat 

Sometimes speed is not the goal. Sometimes it’s downright dangerous. That’s why speed limits exist.

Trump is zooming.

President-elect Trump has set a modern record for staffing his government, with 12 Cabinet-level appointments in the 12 days since the election.

That’s five times faster than President Biden made the same number of picks for his administration — and four times faster than Trump’s pick for his first administration, according to calculations for Axios by David Marchick, dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University and an expert on presidential transitions.

And it’s confirmation that he’s a reckless brainless wrecking ball.

Trump either “has the best and most efficient transition ever,” Marchick said, or “is blowing up

… Read the rest
Few people, after all 

Alex Massie writes a think piece about whatisawoman without much apparent thinking.

Few people, after all, hold a GRC. Nevertheless the theory also matters, not least because expanding the definition of woman, and indeed, that of man, creates a cascade of further questions. The distinction between people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and hence qualify for a GRC and those we might dub “lifestyle” trans people is both important and, I would add, a means of protecting GRC-holders themselves.

What is legal, after all, is not the same as what is decent. The social reality of trans people and their rights to dignity and respect, including being addressed and, typically, treated as they would wish to be,

… Read the rest
The National Inheritance or Classless Liberalism  




Author: Ryan Richter




If progressivism fails, it seems to me it would be a good idea to have an idealogically independent replacement of some sort ready as a backup. Writing in 2024, I think of the present era in politics as the “old man in a hurry” age, in which everyone is fearful that their agenda is about to collapse, and so everyone has abandoned wisdom and decided they must get one cheap “win” – the details don’t matter – before everything goes south. I disagree with this. The ideas presented here are to be calmly contemplated for the future rather than urgently acted on in the present, and the form is strictly liberal ends by strictly liberal means. Here … Read the rest