Great god almighty.

Not using preferred pronouns is a deep pain equal to a knife twisted into your back by a close friend. Maybe worse. pic.twitter.com/zPiJLF0t7B

— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) October 14, 2023

… Read the rest

The Beeb has more on Trump’s interventions:

During remarks to a crowd of supporters, Mr Trump said Israel had to “straighten it out because they’re fighting, potentially a very big force”.

He called Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant a “jerk” and repeatedly called Hezbollah, the militant Islamist group in Lebanon, “very smart”.

Mr Trump also said that Israel had initially agreed to work with the US on a 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, but that they backed out at the last minute.

“I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down,” he said. “That was a very terrible thing.”

That “Bibi” crap is so grating. He wants to remind us that he knows Netanyahu … Read the rest

The Washington Post editorial board on Trump’s contribution to the response:

In a reckless category of their own, however, were the comments of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump. To be sure, he labeled the Hamas attack a “disgrace” shortly after it occurred — then pivoted to blaming it on Mr. Biden’s policies. That was about par for the partisan course, alas. Yet the former president went in a bizarre new direction Wednesday by heaping scorn on Israel itself for failing to anticipate the attack and lecturing the Jewish state to “step up their game.”

He labeled the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group “very smart,” comparing it to an authoritarian he rates highly for ruling “1.4 billion people

… Read the rest

An “activist” (and stripper) called Tom Harlow is making quite a name for himself.

I went to ask him if he thought it was a great idea to be yelling at women who work for Women’s Aid, lesbians, and women involved in struggle around the world. He told me ‘I’m not going to listen to you.’ And there we have it. I hope his mum has a word. pic.twitter.com/JVp6LDLuHg

— Outspoken Women (@women_outspoken) October 13, 2023

He’s so oppressed by those women.

He might want to be a little cautious though.

Wonder whether @Harlowboylesque could let us know the identity of the fascists he spotted among the women at whom he was bellowing 'fuck you'? Asking for a friend. Well,

… Read the rest

It’s SCIENCE.

https://twitter.com/IslaTopham/status/1713440038325743824… Read the rest

So a surprise guest turned up at the Filia conference.

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1713539479036711412

Message of support played from @Martina to the #FiLiA2023 Women and to @jk_rowling … the room goes wild with joy.

Sisterhood and Solidarity! pic.twitter.com/1ldGRIBTzs

— FiLiA (@FiLiA_charity) October 15, 2023

https://twitter.com/MaraMatria/status/1713501610956005865 https://twitter.com/Wild_Womyn/status/1713497740980728246

All the cool kids.… Read the rest

And speaking of hatred and incitement to violence – heavily filtered man in a dress brandishes his fists in our general direction.

"I've been nominated for Woman of the Year – and I'm thrilled"

@IndiaWilloughby writes exclusively for the Herald about the "small green shoot" of hope for trans people

Read the piece in full here: https://t.co/mo3FcXx5xr pic.twitter.com/Boya4DMFTE

— The Herald (@heraldscotland) October 15, 2023

Watcha gonna do, Indy, punch the nearest woman? What’s your point?

He takes us through his morning, which starts with checking Twitter for what people are saying about him.

I dry my hair, do my make-up. Head off to the cafe where I’m writing my book.

And, after ordering my usual pot of Darjeeling,

… Read the rest

The BBC four days ago:

Antisemitic incidents in the UK have more than quadrupled since Hamas’s attack on Israel, says a charity which helps Jewish people in the UK. The Community Security Trust (CST) recorded 89 “anti-Jewish hate” incidents from 7 to 10 October. That marked a more than four-fold rise on the 21 antisemitic incidents recorded in the same period last year.

Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said he was “very concerned” at reports of an increase in antisemitism.

…

Mr Tugendhat said he took the rise in antisemitism in the UK “extremely seriously” and urged a crackdown on the spread of hate. He compared the ideology of Hamas to that of the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s.

… Read the rest

Goodness gracious me, a woman refused to have a conversation with a random guy who walked up to her in the street and requested a chat.

Trans entitlement. A creepy dude who almost certainly gets turned on by dressing up as a woman, walks up to a female and expects her to explain her T shirt. Imagine women walked up to AGP fetishists and demanded they justified what they’re wearing. Never hear the end of it. pic.twitter.com/Mv3g0aNJp2

— Malcolm Clark (@TwisterFilm) October 15, 2023

Nobody has to consent to invitations to talk from total strangers encountered randomly out in the world. Nobody. An appeal for help is one thing, but a request to chat is very much another. A man … Read the rest

Originally a comment by YNnB (yes again) on A blanket fort for big babies.

Happily, this is a task at which anthropology should excel: spotting where the preoccupations of one cultural order—in this case, that of a late-modern, mostly Anglophone, very-online ecumene—are fervently insisted upon by members of that order as constitutive of reality itself.

Wait. Is she saying that the freshly-minted concept of “transness” is a narrow, Western, hegemonic, colonial imposition on the rest of the world’s varied cultures?! Say it’s not so!

This is just so outrageously meta, with anthropologists failing to recognize the global projection and reification of their own particular, parochial concerns and ideas. They can see the arbitrary, constructed, local nature of everyone … Read the rest

Two men win top spots in women’s race:

Transgender athletes – biological men – have been infiltrating women’s cycling for quite some time and now the absurdity has hit a new level with a pair of trans cyclists winning gold and silver in the women’s division of Chicago’s CycloCross Cup.

Tessa Johnson took the top place on the podium during the women’s SingleSpeed with Evelyn Williamson finishing second. Allison Zmuda, a biological female earned bronze in the competition, and somehow stood on the podium with a smile on her face after losing to two biological men who competed against her with a biological advantage.

Two men cheated and the woman who came in third pretended to be happy.

https://twitter.com/i_heart__bikes/status/1711201304092246455… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on True inclusion requires more and more and more.

Getting to true inclusion for LGBTQIA2S+ employees requires much more than an inclusive and respectful workplace policy…

Oh? “Much more?” For most people, you’d think that would be sufficient.

True inclusion for LGBTQIA2S+ employees means creating a psychologically safe workplace environment…

Please define “a psychologically safe workplace environment. ” Isn’t this a good thing for everyone to have? Why do I get the feeling that “psychological safety” isn’t going to be as “inclusive” as it should be, and that some employees’ “needs” are going to be prioritized over others. We saw this with Maya Forstater and Alison Bailey. All this “true inclusion” … Read the rest

A woman is somebody who is born a woman or somebody who has a certificate.

Julia Long is at the @fawcettsociety asking the tough questions. @HarrietHarman thinks men are women if they have a certificate! pic.twitter.com/8BPWgpktSz

— Venice Allan (@roseveniceallan) October 14, 2023

So, a rabbit is somebody who is born a rabbit or somebody who has a certificate. A shark is somebody who is born a shark or or somebody who has a certificate. A polar bear is somebody who is born a polar bear or or somebody who has a certificate.

How does this work, exactly? How does a certificate change the facts of the DNA of a living organism? Can anyone explain it?… Read the rest

Have a hair-raisingly brilliant piece of writing by anthropologist Kathleen Lowrey:

How Anthropology Canceled Sex

We’ve met her before via Anthropologists made of crystal and Let’s you not talk last month, about the panel abruptly canceled at the last minute for the usual stupid reasons.

I was motivated to propose the panel by my concern that anthropological publications increasingly deploy “gender” in a manner that implies gender systems are neutral manifestations of human diversity. Second, more and more anthropological literature seeks to reverse-engineer “sex” as if it takes the form of a “spectrum,” while presuming that “biological sex” is possessed of no independent analytic utility.

These developments have generated a conceptual tangle in desperate need of unraveling. Happily, this is

… Read the rest

This is hard to read. I had to take it in stages.

Hamas attack on Israel kibbutz Be’eri captured by mothers’ WhatsApp group

Shortly after sunrise on the morning of Saturday 7 October, a message pings on 200 phones of the Be’eri mothers’ WhatsApp group.

Minutes later another message lands: “We have a terrorist on the stairs. Call someone.”

WARNING: Some readers may find details in this article distressing.

Hamas gunmen had just begun a day-long rampage through this kibbutz in southern Israel, and over the next 20 hours the women channelled their horror, disbelief and reassurances through the chat – as militants roamed the neighbourhood shooting residents dead and setting fire to homes.

Hiding in their safe rooms these

… Read the rest

Bonne nuit.

pic.twitter.com/ih43rzJHw8

— Rachel Rooney (@RooneyRachel) October 13, 2023

… Read the rest

Students pushing the envelope just a tad.

Hanin Barghouti, the women’s officer at Sussex University’s student union, gave a speech in Brighton endorsing the attacks by Hamas, calling them “a victory”.

Ellie Gomersall, the president of the National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland, apologised after reposting messages justifying Hamas’s actions in Israel. She wrote: “I shared content last night that I deeply regret sharing. In doing so I promoted hate and division. I shouldn’t have. I have deleted it.”

Carefully missing the point as usual. The issue isn’t hate and division so much as it is mass murder. Translating that to abstract hate n division is just self-soothing, not to say self-flattery.… Read the rest

So this is what Dr Jonny Dennis got up to when feminist women dared to attend a conference he disapproves of.

https://twitter.com/genericeddie/status/1712751152117199280

Note the ratbag in orange next to him who is pulling or pushing at the women as they struggle to get past Jonny and his thrusting crotch to get through the opening in the fence. Jonny, remember, whined on Twitter afterwards the the women “kicked” and “stood on” the poor sad feeble tragic protesters.

I usually don’t agree with calls for universities to fire the more excitable trans “activists” but I think this toad should be out on his ass.… Read the rest

Via J.A. at Miscellany Room, a little missive from his HR department:

Written by PRIDE: LGBTQIA2S+ employee resource group

Getting to true inclusion for LGBTQIA2S+ employees requires much more than an inclusive and respectful workplace policy or rainbow branding each year for Pride month.

True inclusion for LGBTQIA2S+ employees means creating a psychologically safe workplace environment and expanding allyship practices across all departments.

The PRIDE employee resource group has been actively advocating and working toward inclusion for LGBTQIA2S+ employees in both big and small changes this year, such as promoting inclusive benefits and policies for LGBTQIA2S+ employees and intentionally recruiting for LGBTQIA2S+ representation. PRIDE has also been working with HR on smaller steps like including personal pronouns in … Read the rest

Off to a good start.

https://twitter.com/scepticalPhil/status/1712770278344827040 https://twitter.com/scepticalPhil/status/1712735266065068354… Read the rest