Tut loudly and move away
Nick Robinson of the BBC tweeted a few days ago:
Should the law treat me as a woman if I chose to identify as one? Yes @lucianaberger
of the @LibDems told me on @BBCr4today despite criticism by some women that their rights are being ignored.
Jolyon Maugham QC commented about this wrongthink about self ID. (More on this post.)
If Nick says he’s a woman that doesn’t mean he is. The Lib Dem’s would believe and treat him as a woman. That is ludicrous.
If Nick says it he’d be lying. Which is why his tweet is so reductive, and loaded.
Oh. He would? How does Maugham QC know that? How do we know it? How does anyone know it? How can Maugham QC so confidently say that of Nick Robinson but not of other men who say they are women?
Another insubordinate woman asked him:
I don’t understand, Jo. As it stands in my gym, if a man who looks like a man is undressing in the women’s changing room which creeps me out because, yanno, he’s a man… well, if I go and alert a member of staff i’ll be the one in the wrong if he’s gone in thinking he’s a woman.
that’s my actual gym, run by @GlasgowCC, i’ve not made that up. does that sound fair to you? for me to lose my peace of mind and for men to be able to come in and observe me and my kids so long as they say they’re women?
Jo’s reply is startling.
That would be really poor behaviour, of x, to be so insensitive to your (understandable) feelings. If I was you in that situation, I expect I’d tut loudly and move away. Most people get the message.
Oh, good. Hooray. That’s that whole problem solved then. All we have to do when a man is taking his clothes off in a closed space with us is say tut loudly and move away. Move away where, in this closed space? Erm…whatever space there is to move away into. And if he follows? Erm…go back to the original space. And if he assaults? Erm…say tut even more loudly? Most people get the message, Maugham QC says so.
A whole long conversation ensues, in which Maugham totally fails to get the point. It’s honestly quite horrifying, to see how blankly uncomprehending he is and how women’s repeated explanations simply wash off him. Like here:
why, he wouldn’t be doing anything wrong, just getting undressed like all the other women? what would be the poor behaviour?
JMQC:
I don’t think that’s a very good faith response.
I don’t know which response you’re talking about, sorry. but hand on heart i’m talking in good faith. wrt where a tw should change, i’d argue for a third space. wrt an increased risk i’d say it’s not really cool for you to make that decision for me. i’m pro safeguarding.
JMQC:
We get along in society by being sensitive to the reactions of those around us. That’s how all sorts of interactions work. And I’m not pretending an authority to make decisions for you. I’m just explaining why I hold the views I do.
But we don’t. Women and girls don’t “get along in society” that way because many men and boys are not sensitive to our reactions – just as JMQC is not in this very interaction.
He has no clue, and he has no clue that he has no clue. It’s so depressing.
The comedy writes itself.
And some get what they want from society by being over-sensitive to the real or imagined reactions of those around them and playing the hyperbolic victim card, and if that doesn’t work, by stamping their feet, shouting, rabble-rousing, and generally being insufferable pricks until the opposition is either worn down or intimidated into compliance.
My prediction. If a TIM entered a woman’s dressing room and began to change, or observe the women changing, and a woman were to tut loudly and move away, the reaction of the TIM would not be sensitivity to the feelings of the woman. It would be shouty declamation of said woman who is tutting as a transphobic bigot, and demands that said woman should be ostracized by all her friends and society as a whole, abused on Twitter, and hounded out of any job she might happen to hold.
Imagine being so privileged that you can get to the age of being-a-QC and believe that all disagreements can be resolved by tutting loudly.
That’s male privilege in a nutshell. And their perception of women, too. Tutting loudly sounds like the typical prudish spinster caricature of women. In short, the women who would do this are sex-starved old bats who object to other people having a life. Whenever I hear someone refer to “tutting”, that’s the image that comes to mind, and I suspect that is somewhat intentional on the part of Maugham, because that is probably how he imagines GC feminists.
Tutting is famous for how effective it is against people insensitive to others’ discomfort…
If tutting fails, one can always escalate matters to an exasperated sigh. Maybe even – gasp – a hard stare!