It’s right there on the sign – votes for WOMEN.
https://twitter.com/FrancesW05/status/1593252510428299264… Read the restAll entries by this author
The physicality
Nov 17th, 2022 7:08 am | By Ophelia BensonA prisoner who identifies as a woman – despite having the physicality of a tall man – battered a fellow inmate in the male wing of a Scottish jail after being made the subject of “comments” by other lags, a court heard on Wednesday.
Having the physicality of a tall man=being a man. He has the physicality of a tall man because he is one.
Katie Dolatowski, 22, a convicted paedophile who sexually assaulted a 10 year old girl in a Fife supermarket, was serving a sentence in Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution for physical assault.
Let’s pause to notice this. He’s a tall man who assaulted a ten year old girl. He’s not … Read the rest
For the communinny
Nov 17th, 2022 6:16 am | By Ophelia BensonSan Francisco Mayor London Breed announced the launch of a new guaranteed income program for the city’s transgender community on Wednesday.
Why? Why them in particular? Why not people who need it rather than a particular “community”?
The Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT) Program will provide low-income transgender residents with $1,200 each month, up to 18 months to help address financial insecurity within the community.
Why?
… Read the restThe city also said that the new pilot program is the first guaranteed income initiative to focus solely on transgender people and will provide 55 eligible participants with temporary income. Additionally, the city said it will provide the same individuals with “wrap-around” direct services, such as gender-affirming medical and
Take it all, it’s not mine anyway
Nov 16th, 2022 5:36 pm | By Ophelia BensonMan explains how indifferent he is to women and their petty selfish desire to compete in sports against other women:
… Read the restAustralia’s most successful male Olympian Ian Thorpe has
hit back at[criticized] a decision by international swimming’s governing body Fina to ban transgender women athletes from elite female competitions.The swimming great, who won five gold medals at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games, said the sport’s leaders had made the wrong decision.
“This is a very complicated issue, I can’t deny that, and I am personally opposed to the position Fina has taken on this,” he said. “I am for fairness in sport, but I’m also for equality in sport. And in this instance, they’ve actually got
Life on the streets
Nov 16th, 2022 5:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonI went for an explore this afternoon, and on the way home I experienced the following:
- On the return leg of the trip I transferred to a different bus downtown, and as it arrived and I made for it there was a woman lying on the sidewalk seizing. People were approaching her so I didn’t stop, and anyway there’s always a heavy police presence in the area because it’s an open air drug den. A block away is the McDonalds where there was a mass shooting a few years ago.
- I sat on the first front-facing seat and a woman sat in front of me in the side-facing seat. She had a paper bag from which she took some fired
The event will go ahead as planned
Nov 16th, 2022 11:37 am | By Ophelia BensonThey’re not taking it lying down.
We are astonished that @Eventbrite has cancelled our book launch for @K_IngalaSmith's Defending Women's Spaces due to take place on 24 Nov with @bindelj, unbelievably citing violation of their policy on Hateful, Dangerous, or Violent Content! #DefendingWomensSpaces pic.twitter.com/vASyDNXJ7j
— Woman’s Place UK (@Womans_Place_UK) November 16, 2022
All donations (including fees) have been refunded to donors by Eventbrite. Anyone who wishes to donate to @Womans_Place_UK can do so directly here -> https://t.co/v3X9UO70zE #DefendingWomensSpaces
— Woman’s Place UK (@Womans_Place_UK) November 16, 2022
You can also pre-order a copy for yourself here #DefendingWomensSpaces https://t.co/3ITh1pkkkK
— Woman’s Place UK (@Womans_Place_UK) November 16, 2022
Obstacle course
Nov 16th, 2022 10:58 am | By Ophelia BensonAnthony Zurcher at the Beeb tells us some ways Trump won’t find it such a doddle this time. There’s all the legal jeopardy for instance.
The former president is currently defending himself against a criminal election-tampering inquiry in Georgia, a civil fraud case targeting his business empire in New York, a defamation lawsuit involving a sexual assault allegation, and federal probes into his role in the Capitol attack and his post-presidential handling of classified material.
That’s five separate items. Bit of a drawback in a chief exec, maybe.
Also Ron DeSantis, unfortunately, is not Jeb Bush.
Above all…they don’t love him any more.
… Read the restAccording to exit polls from the recently concluded midterm elections, Mr Trump is simply not very
Guest post: Legislation from the security guard
Nov 16th, 2022 10:10 am | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Stripes.
It makes one wonder how many other officials and officers with the Scottish government feel it is incumbent upon them to police women in this way. How much of the machinery of government has been reprogrammed to automatically, unquestioningly defend the gender virus that has invaded it? Some Americans are concerned with courts “legislating from the bench.” Well in Scotland, they’ve skipped all that; trans-activism’s extra-legal infiltration has reached down to the committee level, so we have “legislation from the security guard.” How much of this shit has gone on that we don’t know about, that has not been commented upon publicly? If they get away with it, it … Read the rest
Get rid of them altogether
Nov 16th, 2022 9:25 am | By Ophelia BensonThere are no women – women don’t exist – it’s all been a misunderstanding. There are people, and there are men, and there are trans women – but there are no women.
The word “woman” could be erased from specialist NHS clinics dealing with female health issues under proposed new transgender inclusivity rules.
That should improve health care for women (for what?) out of all recognition.
A report proposing new NHS treatment guidelines in Scotland suggests “a general move away from gendered healthcare” and warns that trans people are put off attending services if they are targeted at a certain sex.
Are women put off if services are not targeted at a specific sex? Could such a policy mislead … Read the rest
Currently un
Nov 16th, 2022 8:40 am | By Ophelia Benson
Here we go again.
An event later this month:
https://t.co/lsE1OFfxkx https://t.co/lsE1OFfxkx
— Woman’s Place UK (@Womans_Place_UK) November 14, 2022
But wait. Before you pencil it in on your calendar –
— Anya Palmer (@anyabike) November 16, 2022
This book launch has just been cancelled by Eventbright because it goes against their 'community standards' or some such bollox. I hope they don't think they are going to get away with it?https://t.co/pqX6bpqJyB
— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) November 16, 2022
What do I find when I click on the event?
… Read the restPlant a little seed and watch it grow
Nov 16th, 2022 5:54 am | By Ophelia Benson… Read the restAndrew Tate says women belong in the home, can’t drive, and are a man’s property.
He also thinks rape victims must “bear responsibility” for their attacks and dates women aged 18–19 because he can “make an imprint” on them, according to videos posted online.
In other clips, the British-American kickboxer – who poses with fast cars, guns and portrays himself as a cigar-smoking playboy – talks about hitting and choking women, trashing their belongings and stopping them from going out.
“It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Shut up bitch,” he says in one video, acting out how he’d attack a woman if she accused him
All spiced up
Nov 16th, 2022 5:32 am | By Ophelia BensonHas Trump started to bore even The Base?
In the least surprising news of the year, a low-energy Donald Trump announced that he is running for president again last night. The speech itself was also predictable, hitting the traditional authoritarian and nativist favorites. We heard about the “invasion” at the border and “radical Democrats” in the White House, all spiced up with the usual combination of self-complimenting anecdotes and self-serving lies that we have come to expect from the former president.
In other words we’ve seen this movie before. Seeing as how it’s not exactly Casablanca or Doctor Strangelove, we’re not particularly excited about seeing it again.
… Read the restWhat was much more interesting was the almost complete absence of prominent Republicans
Which one is Cinderella?
Nov 16th, 2022 4:30 am | By Ophelia BensonMartina has a finely honed sense of humor.
All true… ROFLMAO pic.twitter.com/2tLSs3Ipp9
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) November 16, 2022
The photo is courtesy of Princess Ivanka’s Instagram, and there’s widespread hilarity at the fact that she cropped out Junior’s Fox News Lady who was on Princess’s left wearing black.
But the family values joke is interesting as well as funny. It’s sort of a family photo from King Don’s harem. Having them pose together is…odd, isn’t it? I don’t get out much so I don’t really know, but is it usual for wedding photos to have that harem vibe? Is it usual to put the current sex toy in the photo along with the previous one? If Ivana hadn’t fallen … Read the rest
Guest post: Popular enough but toxic enough
Nov 15th, 2022 5:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by Screechy Monkey on For months.
It’s possible that the GOP is in a bit of a box here — Trump is popular enough with their base that they can’t afford to abandon him (and couldn’t if they wanted to), but toxic enough with everyone else that he screws up their chances of winning elections.
I mean, really, what’s the argument for Trump’s appeal to the general electorate, as opposed to Republican primary voters? It seems to boil down to:
1. He eked out an Electoral College victory in 2016.
2. He didn’t get utterly blown out in 2020.
But (1) isn’t really that impressive an accomplishment. It’s actually pretty rare for a party to win … Read the rest
Stripes
Nov 15th, 2022 5:28 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Beeb reports on the suffragette scarf exclusion zone:
The Scottish Parliament’s presiding officer has apologised after a woman was ejected from a committee meeting for refusing to remove a scarf in suffragette colours.
The woman was asked to leave a session of the equalities committee, which was discussing proposed reforms to Scotland’s gender recognition laws.
Sorry sorry sorry it was all a mistake. We haven’t yet made it illegal to mention the suffrage campaign.
The colours have been associated with the suffragette movement, which campaigned for women to be given the right to vote in the early 20th century. More recently, they have also become associated with those opposed to changes to gender recognition laws.
You mean those … Read the rest
Neener neener says academic
Nov 15th, 2022 4:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonVia chainring, more bullying nonsense from the gruesome narcissist Sandy O’Sullivan:
An Australian professor recently said that he ‘misgenders’ students when they choose not to use a preferred pronoun in class.
There’s no such thing as a “preferred pronoun,” in class or anywhere else. It’s an idiotic concept. People can’t swap sex, and issuing commands on “preferred pronouns” isn’t going to change that. People can pretend to swap sex in some circumstances, mostly personal and private, but they can’t force anyone else to play along. They don’t get to change the language for everyone to humor their stupid childish insistence on playing let’s pretend 24/7 in all company.
… Read the rest“I do suggest if you’re teaching online, you ask students
Guest post: For the purposes of reverse no-true-Scotsmaning
Nov 15th, 2022 10:58 am | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by latsot on Poking with a stick.
“Y’all” is very often used, at least by gender identity ideologues, for the purposes of reverse no-true-Scotsmaning.
It’s used to imply that a large group of people hold some ludicrous caricature of an already crazy view, then as an increasing number of counter-examples are presented, the target of the y’all switches to smaller and smaller groups, right down to some girl who goes to a different school, who you wouldn’t know.
It’s both more socially acceptable and more slippery by nature than “you people” because of implausible deniability (“oh, I didn’t mean all feminists are in favour of eating babies, how could you possibly have thought that?”) and because … Read the rest
Hop skip jump
Nov 15th, 2022 10:41 am | By Ophelia BensonThe special US House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is weighing whether to issue a contempt of Congress referral for Donald Trump after the former president skipped a closed-door deposition with the panel that was scheduled for Monday.
He didn’t “skip” it. He flouted it, he snapped his fingers at it, he pissed on it.
… Read the restThe committee’s Democratic chair, Bennie Thompson, said that the contempt of Congress referral targeting Trump “could be an option” – though the Mississippi congressman added that the panel would have to first address a lawsuit filed against it by Trump’s lawyers on Friday. The suit challenged the subpoena ordering Trump to appear at the deposition as a violation of executive
For months
Nov 15th, 2022 10:30 am | By Ophelia BensonSome Republicans worry that maybe possibly Trump has some bad qualities. This is the first they’ve heard of it and they’re concerned.
The Republicans’ failure to deliver the must promised “red wave” in the midterms was a significant blow to Trump’s claim to be the voice of his party’s voters, not least because of the defeat of key candidates endorsed by him. But backing from the grass roots, which gave him a tight grip on the Republicans for years and kept its hostile leadership at bay, has been eroding for months.
Months. Not years, months. Up until a few months ago he was a reasonable compassionate intelligent guy, then suddenly something went wrong.
… Read the restRepublican county chairs and activists say
Our resistance to such diktat
Nov 15th, 2022 10:08 am | By Ophelia BensonA Labour MP.
More of this kind of thing please.
Dictating our clothing, removing us from the public sphere and our resistance to such diktat has a long history in the women’s movement. Still shocking in 2022. https://t.co/Ir7x4emwuQ
— Karin Smyth MP (@karinsmyth) November 15, 2022