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in the in the in the earth

From The Terf Island Playbook by Helen Joyce:

This new belief system means abandoning the healthy individualism of classical liberalism, which involves respect for differences of opinion and emphasis on “freedom rights”. Within it, notions of a shared human nature and the common good are no longer regarded as normative or aspirational but instead as coercive. It prioritises freedom to do as thou wilt. It’s freedom for the strong, not the weak; freedom to impose, not freedom from being imposed upon. It’s all about the swinging fist, with no concern for where the nose begins.

And that’s why it’s women who suffer when you say that “man” and “woman” are opt-in categories. It’s just fact – unwelcome fact, but fact

… Read the rest

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in the in the in the earth
By Ophelia Benson, March 12, 2026

From The Terf Island Playbook by Helen Joyce:

This new belief system means abandoning the healthy individualism of classical liberalism, which involves respect for differences of opinion and emphasis on “freedom rights”. Within it, notions of a shared human nature and the common good are no longer regarded as normative or aspirational but instead as coercive. It prioritises freedom to do as thou wilt. It’s freedom for the strong, not the weak; freedom to impose, not freedom from being imposed upon. It’s all about the swinging fist, with no concern for where the nose begins.

And that’s why it’s women who suffer when you say that “man” and “woman” are opt-in categories. It’s just fact – unwelcome fact, but fact

… Read the rest

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

in the in the in the earth 

From The Terf Island Playbook by Helen Joyce:

This new belief system means abandoning the healthy individualism of classical liberalism, which involves respect for differences of opinion and emphasis on “freedom rights”. Within it, notions of a shared human nature and the common good are no longer regarded as normative or aspirational but instead as coercive. It prioritises freedom to do as thou wilt. It’s freedom for the strong, not the weak; freedom to impose, not freedom from being imposed upon. It’s all about the swinging fist, with no concern for where the nose begins.

And that’s why it’s women who suffer when you say that “man” and “woman” are opt-in categories. It’s just fact – unwelcome fact, but fact

… Read the rest
Celebrity pundits 

I’ve always found Malcolm Gladwell glib and annoying, but it turns out he’s all that and worse.

Gladwell does actually say that, with energetic conviction. “If you’re someone who thinks that trans women should not participate in the female category, you have to go out of your way to be an advocate for all other aspects of the trans agenda.”

It’s quite startling to … Read the rest

Do you believe in magic? Do you believe in magic? 

Zack Polanski hasn’t always been a rising-star woman-hating political hopeful. Not all that long ago he was a hypnotherapist, who…

I’ll let the Beeb tell you.

Zack Polanski’s claim to have immediately apologised for saying that hypnosis could increase a woman’s breast size has been thrown into doubt by a newly unearthed interview.

Before entering politics the Green Party leader worked as a hypnotherapist and offered a session in 2013 to enlarge a newspaper reporter’s bust. Polanski has since said he was misrepresented and never believed it was possible, claiming he spoke to the BBC the day after the article to apologise.

BBC News cannot find evidence of such an interview, but six days later he spoke to Radio

… Read the rest
The glorious cause 

It’s been some time, so let’s refresh our memories of that clip of Euan Weddell calling JKR “you heinous creepy old BITCH.” It’s just 17 seconds in so no need for masochistically watching the whole thing.… Read the rest

Something something DEI something 

Look. at. this. guy.

One of Musk’s ignorant punks who set fire to great swathes of the government last year so that Trump would have plenty of extra $$$ to drop bombs on Tehran. He can’t say what “DEI” is but by god he can snuff out an organization labeled as it. It’s a very good idea to give huge destructive power to guys like this.

It’s in the EO. I don’t know what the EO said, but it’s in there. I acted on the EO. That’s … Read the rest

Wimmin n enbies 

Battle 497 in the campaign to make women shut up already.

A leading trade union is being sued by two of its members over claims they were threatened with disciplinary action for criticising its “unlawful” gender policy.

The Community trade union, which counts several UK cabinet politicians as members, is facing a judicial review brought by two women, Norma Austin Hart and Alison Ann-Dowling, who are seeking to have its gender equality strategy quashed.

They claim the policy, adopted by Community’s national executive council in February last year, is unlawful as it treats women and those who claim to identify as non-binary as a single category, contrary to a Supreme Court ruling that determined sex is defined by biology.

… Read the rest
Joke on repeat 

Hur hur. And Trump is the future parking cop of Toronto.

… Read the rest

This erasure 

Katha Pollitt said a thing.

Women, do you describe yourself as a birthing parent? A chestfeeder? A person with a vagina or uterus? A menstruator? This erasure of woman language has gone pretty far in the worlds of medicine, science, research, and academic feminism. It’s weird and insulting and dehumanizing, reducing women to body parts and functions. Why are feminists promoting this? PS Is the male partner of the birthing parent called the inseminator? No.

There are plenty of sane comments but also plenty of the other kind. The stupid continues, year upon year…… Read the rest

Easy for him 

I still can’t get used to seeing grown-ass adult political people happily throwing away women’s rights on behalf of men who like to dress up as Priddee Laydeez. Like this piece of crap.

I watched 14 seconds of it. Way more than enough.… Read the rest

Teehee 

Aw isn’t that cute – man nominated for women’s prize.

Remember him? I didn’t. He’s the one who played a piano with his penis for the entertainment of tv watchers.

One more award for a woman goes to a man.… Read the rest

Fully fully fully inclusive 

The campaign to take away everything that belongs to women is flourishing.

A Cheshire Women’s Institute branch has announced it will close at the end of March after members voted overwhelmingly to suspend the group in protest at the national organisation’s exclusion of trans women.

Members of Social Lites WI gathered for a “Special Meeting” on 4 March attended by representatives of the Cheshire Federation of WIs, to formally officiate a vote on the group’s future. More than 75% of members who attended in person or voted by email backed suspension, paving the way for the branch’s closure after 13 years of fully inclusive operation.

How are we defining “fully inclusive”? You’d think inclusive of women would be all … Read the rest

Top luxury real estate brokers 

Two three many epsteins.

Three brothers, including two of the nation’s most successful luxury real estate brokers, were convicted of sex trafficking Monday after a five-week trial over accusations that they drugged and raped scores of women they had dazzled with their wealth and opulent lifestyle.

The verdict came after 11 women testified in Manhattan federal court they were sexually assaulted by one or more of the brothers: twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 38, and Tal Alexander, 39. All three shook their heads as the jury foreperson said “guilty” 19 straight times, a powerful reckoning that could put them behind bars for the rest of their lives.

Are we sure they identify as male?

Victims testified that they met

… Read the rest
A giant in the field 

UC Riverside has exciting news.

In a new book, sociologist Brandon Andrew Robinson calls for abolishing sexual identities. 

Robinson, an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies at UC Riverside, knows it’s a provocative thesis. But they argue that discarding these labels is a critical step toward giving people the freedom to relate to one another on a deeper, more respectful, more meaningful, and more pleasurable level. Sexual identity, Robinson asserts, functions as a kind of prison, confining human desire and reinforcing a false notion of gender based on fixed, biological categories.

Someone should tell him that we already have the freedom to relate to one another on levels that have little or nothing to do with sex.

There’s … Read the rest

Subtle Subtle 

Quick question.

What. The fuck. Is this?

Where am I seeing it? On a NY Times article.… Read the rest

Guest post: Or move BEYOND gender identity 

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Internal cannot be external.

When the term “gender identity” was first used, it described an individual’s knowledge of their sex as male or female.

Hmm that doesn’t seem entirely accurate to me. My understanding of the history of the term “gender identity” is that it comes from a few social-sciences branches of academia, primarily psychology (and especially its subdomain of sexology) and anthropology. And that it described a concept that was closely related to sex, but that was mostly understood to be separate from sex, though the boundaries were often hazy.

Psychologically, “gender identity” is not much different from any other cultural facet of identity: religious identity or national identity or ethnic identity, … Read the rest

“The great majority of pregnant people are women” “The great majority of pregnant people are women” 

I copied and posted this yesterday but now I can’t find it – perhaps she deleted it. Anyway. Solnit of all people.

Golly, what’s the matter with us, getting all riled up about people pretending that some men are women. We must be those tiresome bitches who always spoil the fun.… Read the rest

Internal cannot be external 

Karleen Gribble at Quillette:

When the term “gender identity” was first used, it described an individual’s knowledge of their sex as male or female. However, the meaning soon changed so that gender identity delineated an internal sense of oneself as living in the social role of a man or a woman.

That’s what it now means?

No wonder we’re in such a mess. That’s incoherent. How can you have an internal sense of yourself as living in a social role? They’re antithetical. Social is external by definition; that’s the whole point of it. Growing up is learning to separate your personal wants and whims and tantrums from the world external to you which frankly doesn’t give a shit about … Read the rest

One in a billion 

What, they tripped and fell on the wrong clip? The dog ate their homework? They had the right clip all ready to go so someone must have stolen it while they were brushing their teeth?

Fox News apologizes for showing old video of a hatless Donald Trump at a dignified transfer ceremony

We’re sorry, we were just really coked up that day.

Fox News apologized for airing old video of a hatless President Donald Trump during coverage Sunday of his attendance at the dignified transfer ceremony for U.S. soldiers killed in the Middle East war, insisting it was an honest mistake.

And yet it was an honest mistake that made Trump look less like a greedy monster selling merch at … Read the rest

Prettierna goldy baseball cap Prettierna goldy baseball cap 

Pliny is wicked.

… Read the rest
The great majority of people getting pregnant The great majority of people getting pregnant 

Rebecca Solnit ffs.

Aren’t we just silly to get all riled up about the new encyclopedia of insults to women based on trans ideology? We should smile sweetly and nod in agreement and then go bake some pies.… Read the rest