All entries by this author
Sep 5th, 2023 11:36 am |
By Ophelia Benson
I probably shouldn’t laugh, but…
More chaos has unfolded at the Burning Man festival as revellers clashed during the exodus from the Nevada desert.
Attendees finally began leaving the city at Black Rock City on Monday afternoon after severe flooding and muddy conditions left thousands stranded over the weekend.
During the mass exodus, Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said that attendees “lashed out” at each other as they faced an eight-hour wait to leave. “As usually happens in what Burners refer to as the ‘default world’ people allow their emotions to override their reasonableness and they are lashing out at each other as they leave the playa and attempt to make it to their next destination,” he told the
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
1 Comment »
Sep 5th, 2023 10:18 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by Papito on Well ask yourself.
“As with any identity…”
It’s like this Wight is speaking backwards and inside out. He’s reifying a peculiar and uncommon interpretation of “identity.” Most of the other features he wants to conflate with gender identity lack this characteristic of having to be expressed and therefore signaled. Nobody has to express and signal their nationality unless they happen to be passing through immigration and customs at the airport, and we have passports for that. Likewise, nobody has to express and signal their actual sex – it’s still there whether they want to swing it around or not.
Wight’s concept that the trans-identifying male expresses himself through female gender stereotypes because that’s … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
5 comments
Sep 5th, 2023 10:10 am |
By Ophelia Benson
No abaya in the state schools.
The French education minister has said that nearly 300 pupils arrived at school on Monday wearing the abaya, the long Muslim robe which was banned in schools last week.
Not just pupils; female pupils. It’s so BBC to omit that from the lede.
Most of the girls agreed to change into other clothes.
According to official figures, 298 girls – mainly aged 15 or more – turned up at school in the banned garment. Under instructions laid down by the ministry, there followed in each case a period of dialogue with school staff.
67 girls refused and were sent home. Next step is dialogue with the families; if that fails the girls will … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
6 comments
Sep 5th, 2023 8:35 am |
By Ophelia Benson
I’m finding this “identity” discussion Colin Wight is curating quite frustrating, because I can’t figure out what he means by “identity” and he keeps elaborating on it without saying what he means by it. I gather we’re all supposed to know, but I’m kind of allergic to things we’re all supposed to know (and act on, and respect, and so on) that can’t be defined.
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
25 comments
Sep 4th, 2023 5:48 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
I don’t get this. I don’t think “identity” is real, and I don’t really get why other people do.
I don’t think I can describe myself as gender critical anymore (if I ever did). Gender identity is real. It’s as real as national identity, class identity, ethnic identity; any group identity you can think of. People identify with all sorts of things; their careers, their families, their
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
25 comments
Sep 4th, 2023 5:05 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
What fresh hell is this?
Sure, chum, the fact that you say You Are A Safe Person means you absolutely are one and definitely not just saying you are one for nefarious purposes. This is a very excellent idea.
Also, notice that as usual women have no need of safety. Women are the people everyone else needs protection from.… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
5 comments
Sep 4th, 2023 11:46 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on No worries.
…“by the end of the century, nearly every country on earth will have a shrinking population, and economic systems dependent on reliable growth will collapse”…
Well maybe they should have tought of that, hmmm? Aren’t there other economic systems not reliable on “reliable growth?” “Supply and demand” isn’t nearly as robust a law as “You can’t eat if there is no supply. Or drink. Or breathe.” You’d think we’d have a bit more sense than a mat of bacteria in a Petri dish that thinks it’s got a limitless supply of growth medium at their disposal. Or not.
Our current economic regime represents a tiny fraction of the … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
4 comments
Sep 4th, 2023 9:44 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The Guardian tells us:
A high-end hotel in the liberal Texan enclave of Austin is playing host to a conference whose theme is boosting global birth rates, but which will in fact feature racist and eugenicist internet personalities and far-right media figures.
Boosting global birth rates – brilliant. That’s like throwing bottles of gasoline onto a house fire.
The Natal conference – whose website warns that “by the end of the century, nearly every country on earth will have a shrinking population, and economic systems dependent on reliable growth will collapse” – is scheduled to be held on 1 December at the Line Hotel.
Somebody should tell them about the other systems that are going to collapse, long before … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
8 comments
Sep 3rd, 2023 11:20 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Ooh I know this one, I can help.
Let me explain. Those are two different people, saying different things. So, to offer an analogy, you might like the novels of Natalie Haynes but not the novels of Lionel Shriver, or vice versa, because those are two different people writing different books. Do you see how that works? It’s quite a common occurrence, so it’s a good idea to get used to it.… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
9 comments
Sep 3rd, 2023 6:50 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Men must be protected, but women are fair game.
I doubt I’ll ever understand why the blatant absurdity doesn’t make them stop and think again. Why keep the men’s toilet for men but say “come on in!” on the women’s? And while we’re at it, why label the women’s the women’s, and then add a smaller sign underneath that says “Both”?
Also, the iconography is … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
7 comments
Sep 2nd, 2023 10:47 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Hmmmmmmmmmmno.
No gender idenniny isn’t “real” any more than the “soul” is real. Feelings about what sex one is can be real. Intense unhappiness about what sex one is can be real. Unhappiness of that kind can be both real and as it were manufactured – it can be a product of social manipulation or contagion, while still being an intense feeling. But … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
12 comments