Filia in January 2021:

After a frustratingly painful year of violence against women, it seems only fitting that we draw attention to an activist whose relentless dedication to feminist action has made waves across the internet, resonating with women all over the globe.

…

Agence France Presse reported 116 femicides in France during 2019; however, this number is disputed by Femicides by Companions or Ex, an advocacy group who argue that the figure is closer to 138: an average of one woman murdered every three days. Marguerite responded by catalysing a movement of guerilla-style street art entitled Collages Féminicides, for which she installed white collages featuring condensed but powerful messages written in black lettering on the streets

… Read the rest

Meta meta – the Times reporting on JKR’s response to the Times report on the bullied student who had to leave her school.

JK Rowling has condemned the “utterly shameful” treatment of a teenage girl who felt forced to leave her school after pupils hounded her for challenging the views of a visiting speaker.

…

Writing on Twitter to her 14 million followers, Rowling shared the Times article and described her treatment as “utterly shameful”. “Add this to the tottering pile of evidence that people in education and academia who’ve supposed to have a duty of care towards the young have succumbed to an outbreak of quasi-religious fanaticism,” she added. “The girl’s crime? Saying ‘sex exists’.”

Rowling has repeatedly come

… Read the rest

The Mayo Clinic answers this question:

I’m adopting a newborn, and I’d like to breastfeed the baby when I bring him home. Can I produce breast milk if I haven’t been pregnant?

Neither the question nor the answer mentions “woman” but perhaps we can assume it’s assumed.

With considerable dedication and preparation, breastfeeding without pregnancy (induced lactation) might be possible.

Normally, the natural production of breast milk (lactation) is triggered by a complex interaction between three hormones — estrogen, progesterone and human placental lactogen — during the final months of pregnancy. At delivery, levels of estrogen and progesterone fall, allowing the hormone prolactin to increase and initiate milk production.

Induced lactation depends on the successful replication of this process.

… Read the rest

From NPR a few weeks ago:

For the first time during the long legal reckoning over the opioid crisis, members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma heard directly from people who say their company’s main product, Oxycontin, wrecked their lives.

David Sackler, Richard Sackler and Theresa Sackler listened and watched during the roughly two-hour long hearing as people described surviving addiction and spoke of losing loved ones to the epidemic.

…

Roughly 500,000 people in the U.S. have died from opioid overdoses since the opioid crisis began in 1999, including prescription painkillers and street drugs such as heroin and illicit fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virtual hearing was held in

… Read the rest

Can men lactate enough to nurse an infant?

https://twitter.com/AnaOpp/status/1526960135012327425

Or, it’s a man putting his kink ahead of the health of an infant.

The NY Times looked into it in 2019:

Is it possible for a man to breastfeed a baby? For millennia, this question has tickled people’s imagination. It has intrigued; it has disgusted; it has also remained largely hypothetical.

That is, until last year, when a peer-reviewed case report confirmed that a transgender woman, assigned male at birth, was able to breastfeed her child after she was put on a regimen of hormonal drugs. Weeks before the baby’s birth, she was able to produce eight ounces of milk per day, and for the first six weeks, the

… Read the rest

Hooray hooray it’s not just sports, men also get to steal work and fame and money from women in tv shows.

Yasmin Finney is joining the cast of “Doctor Who” as a character named Rose, BBC announced Monday. Her role will debut in 2023, coinciding with the show’s 60th anniversary.

…

“If anyone would have told 8-year-old Yasmin that one day she’d be part of this iconic show, I would have never in a million years believed them,” Finney said. “This show has a place in so many people’s hearts, so to be seen as a trans actress by the legend himself Russell, has not only made my year, it’s made my life. I cannot wait to

… Read the rest

Another one:

A female skateboarding champion has said she is “done being silent,” and is speaking out about her experience coming in second to a biological male allowed to complete in a women’s competition.

On May 17, Taylor May Silverman, a professional skateboarder, posted a statement to her Instagram in which she called out the last Redbull Cornerstone skate event she took part in for allowing a biological male athlete to compete against women, and take the top spot.

In her statement, Silverman writes that she placed second in two previous competitions in which biological males were allowed to compete against female skateboarders, and notes that at the last Redbull-sponsored skate event, the female athletes lost out on financial

… Read the rest

Mary Wakefield at the Spectator on Kirrin Medcalf and “emotional support animals”:

Kirrin appeared in court last week because Stonewall is currently being sued by a lawyer called Allison Bailey, who claims that they bullied her and cost her her livelihood as a result of her insistence that men and women have different bodies, which of course they do. Bailey has been harassed by the usual activists in the usual way – death and rape threats – but nonetheless it was Kirrin who appeared to feel most victimised. Although he appeared in court only online, via Zoom, he insisted on being accompanied by his mum and his support dog. Just the sight of Bailey was too traumatising for him

… Read the rest

The BBC tells us:

BBC Eye investigates the disappearance of Sophia Huang Xueqin, a high-profile feminist journalist who kick-started China’s #MeToo movement.

Spoiler: it was the secret police.

In the summer of 2021, Sophia was awarded a prestigious Chevening scholarship funded by the British government to pursue gender studies at the University of Sussex.

Oh no. That’s the last place a feminist should go for further education. Actually it seems that any UK university is that, but Sussex has a record.

The Beeb goes on to say that China has detained tens of thousands of activists in recent years and that Sophia Huang Xueqin is expected to face trial for “inciting subversion of state power” and that her story … Read the rest

The Scouts (UK) explain what “lesbian” means:

Hey @scouts you seem to think lesbian girls and women should be willing to have sex with “anyone”. How insulting and wrong. This in your guidance for children. pic.twitter.com/8crdGGpJbY

— Jean Hatchet (@JeanHatchet) May 17, 2022

What’s the point of even having the word “lesbian” if that’s what it means? They might as well say “lesbian means attracted to everyone.” Attracted to women including men, says Scouts UK.

Meanwhile does anybody around here know how to put up a tent?… Read the rest

All of a sudden Fox News has gone quiet on the Great Replacement front. I wonder why.

Over at Fox News, however, there was barely any mention of the white gunman’s alleged reasoning for opening fire at a supermarket, killing 10 people and wounding three more, in a predominantly Black area.

The absence of coverage of the motive was revealing, given Fox News’s most popular host, Tucker Carlson, has pushed the concept of replacement theory in more than 400 of his shows – and has arguably done more than anyone in the US to popularize the racist conspiracy.

The racist conspiracy theory, that is.

“What can they say?” said Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters for America,

… Read the rest

Strangio is not honest.

My colleagues have literally spent their entire lives litigating abortion cases and are now being attacked because the ACLU also defends trans people. You can hate us (though you shouldn't), but don't eclipse their decades of work.

— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) May 17, 2022

That’s not why. The reason we upbraid the ACLU is the insistence on erasing the word “women” from all their advertising and commentary on abortion rights. We don’t think it’s possible to defend our rights effectively without ever mentioning us. We also don’t think there’s anything social justicey or otherwise admirable about shoving the subordinated sex back into the closet marked SUBORDINATE.

Also, by the way, of course Strangio’s colleagues haven’t spent … Read the rest

The story of the bullied student appeared on Transgender Trend first, and the Times linked to it. It’s not well written, so I’ll quote only sparingly, but with all the anonymity and Owen Jones’s hunt for heretics, there’s an interest in sources.

Teacher John Rickards has written this account for us of how transgender ideology has infiltrated the girls’ school where he teaches, to the extent that the consequences are severe for any pupil who questions it. Recent government guidance on political impartiality in schools states:

Existing statutory requirements on political impartiality cover all schools, regardless of type or funding arrangement. This includes independent schools.

But there’s an invisible coda that says “except on trans issues.”

Anyway. There was

an

… Read the rest

So Owen Jones decides to bully her some more.

I need your help!

This "story" – claiming 60 girls drove a girl out of a school for "questioning trans ideology" – doesn't include their side of the story or even name the school.

I want to speak anonymously to these girls for their story, so please RT!https://t.co/JaFsKddT69

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) May 17, 2022

What is the story?

A girl who argued that biological sex is real after a talk about transphobia felt forced to leave her school after pupils hounded her for challenging the views of a visiting speaker.

She was treated like a heretic for questioning a politician’s assertions about sex, a teacher at the school

… Read the rest

DOCTOR Jordan P. is mad now. You’ve dissed him one too many. He’s taking his genius and going home.

It's a conscious progressive attempt to manipulate & retool the notion of beauty, reliant on the idiot philosophy that such preferences are learned & properly changed by those who know better (see https://t.co/RLOu4wlNM6)(https://t.co/tUzihxdXOl) but don't let the facts stop you. https://t.co/90uEnV6DL3

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 16, 2022

Ah yes the facts, such as “idiot philosophy” for instance.

Rage away, panderers. And tell me you believe that such images are not conscious and cynical manipulation by the oh-so virtuous politically correct. https://t.co/uAbPSyDllc

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 17, 2022

Those are facts!!

So I

… Read the rest

Jordan Peterson thinks talking about climate change is very bad for children. I wonder what he thinks escalating climate change is going to be for them.

I was speaking of the unacceptable demoralization of young people. I've seen it all over the world. And this cynical dismissal is all you can muster? How utterly pathetic https://t.co/Pvyh3xa0qR @dpakman How do you think endless apocalyptic catastrophizing affects children?

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 16, 2022

He explained about climate change on Joe Rogan’s chat show a few months ago. Word is his explanation wasn’t all that correct.

Leading climate scientists have ridiculed and criticised comments made by controversial Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson during an interview on Joe Rogan’s

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The seminar happens tomorrow; its title is Transitional Experiences: Understanding Embodied Stigma, Stress and Trans Resilience in the U.S.

The seminar-haver is Zachary DuBois (University of Oregon) IAS Visiting Fellow.

Although trans, gender diverse and gender non-binary people are increasingly visible in popular culture in the U.S., political backlash and entrenchment in a strict gender binary continue to contribute to enacted stigma and violence. This talk examines trans experience through a biocultural anthropological lens focusing on how stress and stigma become embodied and explores ways to understand trans lives, transitional experiences and “biologies of resilience.”

Entrenchment in a strict gender binary is it. Hm. Is that like entrenchment in a strict species binary? The one that says you either are … Read the rest

One of the incidents in Manchester yesterday was this guy in the ninja costume physically attacking a woman holding a suffragette flag.

Trans rights activists manhandling lone woman. pic.twitter.com/FNksbmtuoN

— Susan “The Actual Susan” McDonnell (@sleeepysandy) May 15, 2022

I didn’t post it yesterday because I couldn’t make out what the cop was saying to the woman, but now we know, from the woman herself.

https://twitter.com/LightninLex/status/1526167385895469058 https://twitter.com/LightninLex/status/1526226107669876737

So there you go.

Updating to add a clip where you can hear some of what the cop says. H/t NightCrow

I filmed this chap threatening to forcibly remove the woman who was attacked yesterday, which seemed to make the threats stop, and he left her to hold her flag in peace. I

… Read the rest

Elise Stefanik is one of the “Great Replacement”ists.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 3 House Republican, and other GOP lawmakers came under scrutiny Sunday for previously echoing the racist “great replacement” theory…

The one the Buffalo mass murderer embraces.

The baseless conspiracy theory claims that politicians are attempting to wipe out White Americans and their influence by replacing them with non-White immigrants. The theory was cited repeatedly by 18-year-old shooting suspect Payton Gendron in an online document that appeared to have outlined his intention to carry out his planned attack in Buffalo because of its significant population of Black people.

How dare Black people live in Buffalo, right? They should all live in Philadelphia, Mississippi, reliving all the … Read the rest

This is not a decent person.

… Read the rest