Natalya Lusty (a cultural studies academic) reviews Laurie Penny’s new book in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Disappointingly, we never get a clear sense of why “fascism” is the best term to describe the enemy of feminism’s protracted and diffuse battles. In spite of this incoherency, the stark choice presented at the beginning of the book is between feminism and fascism. There are no shades of grey.

Many of the topics Penny covers (heterosexual love, consent, unpaid domestic labour, reproductive rights, extreme misogyny, male abuse of power and privilege) are critical if not new issues but their intractability warrants renewed attention if not outrage. But fused with anecdotes (many about Penny’s or their friend’s own experiences of bad sex and relationships)

Freddie deBoer on the valorization of mental illness:

Marianne Eloise wants the world to know that she does not “have a regular brain at all”. That’s her declaration, on the very first page of her new memoir, Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking. The book catalogues her experience of a dizzying variety of psychiatric conditions…By her own telling, Eloise has suffered a great deal from these ailments; I believe her, and wish better for her. But she would prefer we not think of them as ailments at all. And that combination of self-pity and self-aggrandisement is emblematic of our contemporary understanding of mental health.

Actually it’s emblematic of our understanding of way too many things. I don’t think I’ve thought … Read the rest

Hahahaha yes not unusual at all, very commonplace, you see it all the time.

Am gonna suggest that even "these days" this is still quite unusual. pic.twitter.com/UdeNGa4myS

— FeministRoar (@FeministRoar) April 30, 2022

… Read the rest

The Tavistock don’t want no stinkin’ terf parents.

The head of England’s only NHS gender clinic cut ties with some parents of transgender children after claiming they promoted “transphobic” gender-critical views, The Telegraph can reveal.

Is it normal for medical clinics to “cut ties” with the parents of child patients because of the parents’ views? It doesn’t seem normal at all.

Now it has emerged that both the chief executive and chairman of the Trust told a group of parents they were “disappointed” at their gender-critical views – the idea that biological sex is binary and immutable – and cut ties upon learning of this.

What does anyone’s “disappointment” have to do with anything?

Bayswater Support Group, a

Apologies for the intrusion of some tedious Hollywood gossip here but it has to do with the ACLU so I wanna talk about it.

Actor Amber Heard hasn’t fulfilled her pledge to donate $3.5 million to the American Civil Liberties Union, according to testimony in the defamation case filed by Heard’s ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp.

…

The pledge agreement calls for Heard to donate the money over the course of 10 years, starting in August 2016. But she hasn’t made a payment since December 2018, ACLU Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Terence Dougherty said in recorded video testimony.

Why did she make the pledge? It’s not clear, but it’s hinted.

Dougherty supervises the ACLU finance, legal and other

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on He has never used the toilets.

I made it just about as far into this, before realizing I hadn’t clipped my fingernails for a while. I just find it odd that the BBC, which has produced some fine skeptical programmng in the past, doesn’t have someone investigate this social phenomenon to explore what it means to experience a mismatch between their gender and their sex at birth. This is an extraordinary claim that is to be taken at face value, and they’ve no mind to say “wait, what does this really mean and how can we know that this is what is really happening?” We can’t even get a grip on … Read the rest

The extent to which Fox News PersonAlity Sean Hannity was working for Trump while posing as an employee of a purported news organization keeps being revealed to be even more than we thought. Rival but less deranged news organization CNN reports:

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Fox’s Sean Hannity exchanged more than 80 text messages between Election Day 2020 and Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration, communications that show Hannity’s evolution from staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump’s election lies to being “fed up” with the “lunatics” hurting Trump’s cause in the days before January 6.

I couldn’t care less about Hannity’s “evolution.” What I care about is that he was trying to help Trump … Read the rest

Updating to warn: I got the kid’s sex wrong throughout, as the BBC intended us all to do.

The BBC twists itself into pretzels again to placate the Gender Minotaur.

In the nine months that Felix has attended high school in Fife, he has never used the toilets.

Too much information. Why is a global news organization telling us about the toilet practices of a teenage boy in Scotland?

The 13-year-old is trans and his teachers say he is welcome to use male, female or disabled toilets and changing rooms.

Well that’s no fun. How about a paneled room with armchairs and a fridge full of snacks, just for him?

But like some other trans pupils, Felix would prefer to

This is amusing/horrifying a lot of people right now.

(I told her that’s a contradiction, but…)

On second thought, I’ll update to include the preceding exchange.

We told you what it was about it. You called yourself a woman. You've claimed in the past that you're not a woman. We are by definition interested in getting clarity on this issue – we wonder why you think you're not a woman, and then we wonder why you've changed your mind.

— Ophelia Benson (@OpheliaBenson) April 29, 2022

… Read the rest

An interesting bit of the Allison Bailey tribunal:

DrG: We feel that the ET [Forstater] definition – sex binary, immutable, matters – is a necessary but not a complete part of our campaign.
JR: long answer to short question!

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) April 29, 2022

DrG: gender critical feminism is necessary but not sufficient for our campaign – sex matters to both men and women but we are a women's rights campaign it matters more to women

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) April 29, 2022

JR: there is a very longstanding history of feminism that has nothing to do with gender critical belief. Mary Wollstonecraft, suffragettes

Dr G: suffragettes didn't have the vote because of their sex. Sex mattered to

Criminalizing poverty is the hot new thing, which is especially fun at a time when wages at least in the US have been deliberately held down while housing costs skyrocket. A town near Kansas City has just voted to make it illegal to share housing.

On Monday, a Johnson County city unanimously voted to ban a living arrangement aimed at helping tenants decrease the amount of rent they pay.

The Shawnee City Council voted 8-0 to ban co-living, becoming among the first Kansas City area municipalities to prevent the practice, which has gained popularity in recent years as rent and home prices have soared.

The new ordinance defines a co-living group as a group of at least four unrelated

Apparently William Barr now understands that Trump should not be the US president.

William Barr, Donald Trump’s former attorney general, said in an interview on Thursday that it would be a “big mistake” for the Republican party to nominate Trump for president in 2024.

Appearing on the Newsmax television channel, Barr said Trump, who has hinted that he will run again, would not be a sound choice.

…

In Barr’s book, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, he wrote that Trump had “shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed”.

No shit, Sherlock. He showed that long before he got elected, and throughout … Read the rest

Molly McElwee at the Telegraph mourns the fact that a guy who wants to swim with the women isn’t always welcomed.

In women’s sport the phrase “if you can’t see it, you can’t be it” is widely acknowledged, but the reverse has rung true for trans women, according to swimmer Eden Elgeti. The more visible trans women in elite sport have become, the less inclusive the space at grass roots has felt.

Elgeti took up recreational swimming at a local lido when she began her transition in 2017. Within a few years she started wild swimming at local rivers and ponds, and founded an inclusive swimming club, while Swim England appointed her as an ambassador. The sport became her

Originally a comment by Michael Haubrich on From kulaks to Mariupol.

I watched a program in the nineties about the economic struggles in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. I think that Yeltsin was the mayor of Moscow at the time, and the government was in flux. Many people welcomed the freedoms that they had under Glasnost that they had not had under the Soviets. Recall that art exhibits in the public square, up until very recently, could be bulldozed by the Ministry for Culture if they included any Modern Art. I was surprised at how many of the older Russians longed for the days of Stalin. They said they knew exactly where they stood, and that … Read the rest

It just gets better and better.

*** Speechless *** pic.twitter.com/try2vX267s

— Dr Debbie Hayton (@DebbieHayton) April 28, 2022

Note that “another minority woman.” Joss Prior is neither a woman nor a minority. He’s a vicious toad of a white guy. “Trans”activism should just change its name to vicious toad activism.… Read the rest

This guy was actually an MP for two years.

I appreciate your previous role, but I’d be interested to learn why as a trade minister you are looking to work with two people with views that are very much contrary to #IOC guidance: https://t.co/pXzQOBlO3j #TransRightsAreHumanRights #trans #lgbt #LGBTQ https://t.co/IVJZlYQZAs

— Ben Howlett (@benhowlettuk) April 27, 2022

A Tory MP at that, but he changes the wording just as obstinately as the “activists” do.

The intellectually honest response, in support of your position, would be to say “I know the research, I understand it, but I believe that inclusion should be the priority, and so even though it may not be fair, I support the IOC’s framework”. At least own that.

Hoo boy – as if it weren’t terrifying enough already. Climate change–more pandemics:

There will be at least 15,000 instances of viruses leaping between species over the next 50 years, with the climate crisis helping fuel a “potentially devastating” spread of disease that will imperil animals and people and risk further pandemics, researchers have warned.

As the planet heats up, many animal species will be forced to move into new areas to find suitable conditions. They will bring their parasites and pathogens with them, causing them to spread between species that haven’t interacted before. This will heighten the risk of what is called “zoonotic spillover”, where viruses transfer from animals to people, potentially triggering another pandemic of the

Temperatures are rising in India.

Millions of Indians are experiencing a brutal heatwave that is throwing lives and livelihoods out of gear – and there is no relief in sight.

…

While heatwaves are common in India, especially in May and June, summer began early this year with high temperatures from March itself – average maximum temperatures in the month were the highest in 122 years. Heatwaves also began setting in during the month.

…

The effects are visible. Farmers say the unexpected temperature spikes have affected their wheat harvest, a development that could potentially have global consequences given supply disruptions due to the Ukraine war.

We’re told to remember that weather is different from climate, and not to … Read the rest

Russia has things back to front here.

Sending heavy weapons and other arms to Ukraine is dangerous for European security, the Kremlin has warned Western nations.

Sure, and if I set fire to a neighbor’s house it’s dangerous for the neighbor to summon the fire trucks.

What’s really dangerous for European security is this whole thing of Putin trying to smash Ukraine back into being a branch of Mother Russia. You broke it you pay for it.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a speech by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss urging Kyiv’s allies to “ramp up” military production to help Ukraine.

Western allies have maintained their support does not amount to a military confrontation between Moscow and Nato.

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on From kulaks to Mariupol.

Ukrainian peasants, deprived of food, ate rats, frogs, and boiled grass. They gnawed on tree bark and leather. Many resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. Some 4 million died of starvation. […] Soviet propaganda had repeatedly told them that supposedly wealthy peasants, whom they called kulaks, were saboteurs and enemies—rich, stubborn landowners who were preventing the Soviet proletariat from achieving the utopia that its leaders had promised.

According to Jung Chang the same was true in China during the so called Great Leap Forward. There were villages where there was no bark left on the trees because the starving peasants had nothing else to eat after everything else … Read the rest