For their initiative and empathy
Sonia Sodha says something you’d think would be too obvious to have to say:
The police need to be politically impartial – they must not police people differently because of their political opinions. Yet there are numerous examples of police forces actively taking political sides in the sex and gender debate. Paul Giannasi, the national policing adviser for hate crime, has praised Lancashire police for expressing disappointment at lawful expressions of gender critical belief, congratulating them for their “initiative and empathy” in doing so.
Empathy for whom? For men who say they are women. Definitely not for women.
The police officer who unlawfully warned off [Harry] Miller told him, Miller said, that a foetus could have a female brain but grow male body parts, later confirming he learned this unscientific belief on a training course. Greater Manchester police social media accounts have used and defended the derogatory and misogynistic term “terf”, associated with rape and death threats against women expressing gender-critical beliefs.
Somehow women have become the brutal heartless aristocratic men of the world, trampling lesser beings beneath their ruling class feet.
Never mind that the female brain is a meaningless term, at least as most people use it.
It still astonishes me that “female brain” is suddenly a thing again. We spent how many years fighting the notion that somehow “female brains” exist and are different? Pushing back against smug old men who said that “women didn’t possess the brain” to understand math & engineering, etc.? And now we have an entire generation of people including the powers that be, again not only eagerly supporting the idea, but actually thinking that they are somehow enlightened.
Why wouldn’t it be popular, though? It benefits men, and now it can be deployed without losing lefty cred – win win!
James Garnett #2
I distinctly remember a time – less than 10 years ago – when any talk of “boy-brains” and “girl-brains” would get you dismissed as an “evo-psych kook” by these very same people. And, much like “TERF” these days, being called an “evo-psych kook” – whether right or wrong – meant that anything you had to say on any topic for the rest of your life could be dismissed in advance without any further examination. In fact, the following twitter exchange works equally well whether you replace [label] with “evo-psych kook” or “TERF”:
Person A: “check out this awesome post by [name] on [topic]: URL”
Person B: “You know [name] is a(n) [label], right?”
Person A: “OMG! Thanks for alerting me! I didn’t know that. I will delete my post right away. I’m so sorry for the harm etc… etc…”
James – Ed Brayton’s younger brother parroted that MRI study claim over gendered brains to me in proving that he was rightfully disappointed in me. It’s hard to accept how many friends chose to believe that over remaining friends with me because I was skeptical of it.