He’ll think what Tony thinks
The Telegraph reports on the Times report on Starmer’s hostility to women. (Meta enough yet?)
Writing in an article for The Times, Ms Rowling also attacked Sir Keir for failing to defend Rosie Duffield, the gender-critical Labour MP who was investigated by her own party and has received death threats for her gender-critical views.
“Rosie has received literally no support from Starmer over the threats and abuse, some of which has originated from within the Labour Party itself, and has had a severe, measurable impact on her life,” said Ms Rowling.
And, just in case anyone is coming in late, it’s not just a matter of passive no support, as it were; it’s a matter of evading the question when asked, of changing the subject when asked, of saying “Look” and then something irrelevant when asked.
On Thursday night’s BBC Question Time, the Labour leader was asked whether he agreed with Rosie Duffield, Labour candidate, on the issue of sex and gender. Ms Duffield has long argued that spaces for biological women need to be protected, and that trans women should not be viewed as the same as biological women.
He replied that he now believed the same as Sir Tony Blair, that men had penises and women vaginas. Ms Duffield, the Labour candidate for Canterbury who was previously investigated by the party over her gender-critical views, tweeted sarcastically: “From now on, I shall be submitting my every comment and thought (particularly those mainstream views which most people agree with) to the former Labour prime minister so that it may officially be de-toxified.”
Well he’s a guy so…
On Question Time, Sir Keir said: “On the biology, I agree with what Tony Blair said in relation to men having penises and women having vaginas.” However, in a seeming criticism of activists who do not believe in trans ideology, he added: “I was worried by the way in which the debate was being conducted: it got very toxic… and we lost sight of people in that.”
Yes why are we so vehement about this? Why don’t we just kick back and relax while men take everything we’ve fought for? While we’re at it why don’t we make a really nice dinner?
“…it got very toxic… and we lost sight of people in that”. Lost sight of which people, Sir Keir? We literally have spent years talking about “rights” without considering the impact on over half the population (because “trans rights” undoes legal protections for every woman and girl, but also LGB people, the elderly, disabled, culturally and linguistically diverse, the religious, and probably more besides that I’ve failed to list). And yet here you are, complaining that we’ve “lost sight” of literally the only people we’ve been talking about. Is now a good time to point out that even gender neutral terms like “people” skew male in their use?
The fact that Starmer continues to believe that “the biology” is an irksome, narrow, nerdish, technicality that can be ignored in favour of more expansive, elastic, and “kind” ways to define women, shows that he’s still stuck firmly on that fence upon which he’s impaled himself. It’s big of him to concede the correctness of biology, but he’s still stubbornly clinging to the idea that it does not capture the entirety of what it means to be a woman. This slippery “biology” qualification of his makes it clear that he remains ready to argue that some combination of wardrobe, cosmetics, and deportment can magically turn men into women. Women with penises.
Wait. There was a debate? I must have missed that, because one side’s battle cry was “NO DEBATE!” Any attempt to discuss the impact of trans demands on women’s rights was shut down as “hatefull” and “transphobic” when it was neither. That’s pretty “toxic.” You “lost sight” of women and their rights. You and your party did this, so at least some of that “toxicity” is on you. Your cowardly refusal to support Duffield against continuing threats and villification at the hands of trans activists is a continuation of that very toxicity that you’re now decrying. Your bullshit “both-siderism” allows you to brush off the violence and intimidation of the side to which you’re so eager to hand over women’s rights. When did women carry placards calling for the beheading of trans activists? When did they ever forcefully storm and break up meetings of trans activists? When have women assaulted trans activists? Somehow Duffield stating a simple truth of biological, material reality was toxic, “something that shouldn’t be said” because “It is not right.” Why was this unmentionable? How was it “wrong”. How was Duffield “wrong?” Well Mr. Starmer? She was right. You were wrong, but you’re not decent enough to admit either of these truths. Now that you “agree” with Tony Blair, do you think that people are less likely to notice that you’re eating crow if you quietly try to take it intervenously, rather than having to publicly choke down big fork-fulls from the big, shiny plate of it that Ms. Duffield has served to you? I don’t know why you should object; after all you picked it from the menu, and she’s using your own recipe.