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

And yet, does Peter ever post matching tweets telling us men and trans men are two different kinds of men? Does he ever say “Unite to defend ALL men, including trans”?

Trans women are trans women

They are not the same as biological women but they are equally valid

Two different kinds of women

One based on biological sex. One based on gender identity

Both victims of harassment & sexual violence

Unite to defend ALL women, including trans pic.twitter.com/qw8FQrR5gU

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) September 5, 2023

… Read the rest

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.

Well ask yourself what a class identity is, or a National identity? It’s the same thing with gender. It can only mean you identify with/as the word proceeding it. So it would mean they identify with gender not sex. And gender is; the norms, values, expectations, roles, practices,…

— Colin Wight (@colwight) September 3, 2023

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…

— Colin Wight (@colwight) September 3, 2023

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

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

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

Huh. So they want to exile us now.

This man has become a hate preacher pic.twitter.com/HCzDuQfW6T

— Girls To The Front (@obsolete__units) September 4, 2023

He wants to “exile” us as “sick”; he wants to boycott us and banish us.

But don’t worry, this is a very healthy and progressive ideology and movement.… Read the rest

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

Billy Bragg is unapologetic and determined: he knows which views are unpopular and To Be Avoided. Whether they’re any good or not is entirely beside the point.

It’s not cowardice, Suzanne. It’s that they realise that there simply aren’t enough columns at the Telegraph, Mail and Spectator to go around. They don’t want to end up like Julie Burchill, drifting ever rightward on a sea of her own spite

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) September 2, 2023

You're asking why music writers don't share your views and I'm offering my opinion. They don't want to have to share a byline with Nick Timothy, Richard Littlejohn or Douglas Murray. It's as simple as that.

— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) September 2, 2023

Come … Read the rest

Batshit crazy godbotherer or droll parodist? You be the judge.

That is not that way headship works. She trusts me and God, and I trust God.

— Gary M. Parcel (@parcel_gary) September 3, 2023

No, she brings me the list of what she needs to use for dinner, in the morning, and I will identify them for her at some point during the day. When it’s convenient, of course

— Gary M. Parcel (@parcel_gary) September 3, 2023

Has to be parody, doesn’t it?

Besides, who the hell wants canned peaches for anything? In fact who keeps a big stock of canned foods, so many that you need a code if the labels are gone? Canned foods are mostly bad … Read the rest

Ooh I know this one, I can help.

The same people who are always very angry with Billy Bragg are simultaneously *outraged* that some other people are upset with Roisin Murphy

— Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera (@PantiBliss) September 2, 2023

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

LOVE the macramé bracelet.

Click on the image to see the classic Keds, too.

Aw look at the plucky lads overcoming the handicap of being male.

Aw, sad.

60,000 people trapped in sticky sludge-like mud, unable to move or even walk from place to place, with limited food and water and bathrooms, maybe not able to leave until Tuesday? And it’s raining again tomorrow? What could go wrong? pic.twitter.com/mmLLNb0s6e

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) September 2, 2023

This sounds like something they would say if there was an Ebola outbreak at Burning Man. pic.twitter.com/BnjXeMWtv4

— Luke (@luke_brocks) September 3, 2023

Vox has details:

[Last] Sunday was not a fun day for the thousands of people on their way to Burning Man. In the days leading up to the bacchanal, traffic is typically a nightmare on the two-lane highway that leads to the barren former lake bed

Men must be protected, but women are fair game.

Today's slow clap is for The Cube cafe in Croydon @JohnWhitgiftFdn – they've added a handy unisex sticker to the ladies loos, but the mens is still for, well, the menz. @FairfieldHalls tell us, pray, why men's privacy and dignity matters, but not women's? dying to hear it… pic.twitter.com/5GDdo3oqJm

— Con-She (@sheela_na) September 3, 2023

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

Alabama Republicans are still battling Reconstruction.

Just a few months ago, the US supreme court issued one of its most surprising rulings in recent memory.

In a 5-4 decision in Allen v Milligan, the court said Alabama’s congressional map violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act because it diluted the influence of Black voters, who make up about a quarter of the state’s population, but comprise a majority in just one of Alabama’s congressional districts. The justices upheld a lower court’s decision ordering Alabama to redraw its map “to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it”.

It was widely seen as a major win for the Voting Rights Act,

Hmmmmmmmmmmno.

Gender identity is real

We all have a gender identity. Mine is male

Womens' gender identity is female

Trans women have a gender identity that is not the same as their biological sex

Their trans identity is different but equally as valid as the female identity of other women pic.twitter.com/wzuuf0sB1x

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) September 2, 2023

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

Hm. Interesting.

An unsafe environment, Comerford says. So unsafe that there is no choice: it is imperative that such an environment be prevented by canceling the entire gig in every case.

This is a big part of the pathology of this kind of “politics.” It’s pathological to be so extremely fragile that merely being in the presence of people who don’t share your delusions is “unsafe.”

But they’re not actually that fragile, are they. Hardly anyone is. It’s the ideology that’s fragile, and it’s the ideology that’s pathological.

It’s stupid and bad to keep telling people, over and over and in all-caps, that they are as fragile as a spider web, so fragile that they will drop dead or commit … Read the rest

Sigh.

The Telegraph:

Cricket is facing mounting criticism for failing to follow other sports in tightening women’s sport protections after it emerged a transgender player will make her international debut.

Danielle McGahey, an Australian-born player, is set to become the first transgender cricketer to play an official Twenty20 international, representing Canada.

That is, the first man to play on a women’s team.

Sharron Davies, the Olympic medallist swimmer who has been at the forefront of campaigns to protect the integrity of women’s sport, says the situation is “outrageously irresponsible”.

“We’ve been pushing the England and Wales Cricket Board for years to protect females from male biological advantage,” she told Telegraph Sport of campaigns in England to toughen rules. “There

Why would any college, let alone a women’s college, give money to Dylan Mulvaney to talk about women’s rights and women’s empowerment? When there are plenty of women who would do a much better job of it and have the added value of being women?

Dylan Mulvaney is a stunt, an act, a joke, a living cartoon. Why would any educational institution go near him? What is the purpose?

Dylan Mulvaney gave a speech at Emerson College last night to 100’s of young students discussing women’s rights and women’s empowerment.

He charges $40,000 per speaking engagement.

Do you think @EmersonCollege should be wasting money on brainwashing teens? pic.twitter.com/VvnUQX6kOh

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) September 1, 2023

He won an award. He … Read the rest