BBC Live:

The results: Macron beats Le Pen in presidential election

Projections show that Emmanuel Macron has secured a clear victory over far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Macron sweeps away far-right rival

This is a dramatic victory for the sitting president, and a historic one at that.

Make no mistake, this was Marine Le Pen’s best chance of victory and yet it didn’t happen. Her campaign was slick, her focus on the cost of living chimed with the voters, and she performed well in the big TV duel days ago.

Macron didn’t even enter the election until eight days before the first round, prompting accusations of arrogance. But when he did take part, the voters clearly listened. Even though

Oh thank fuck.

2022 French presidential election: Emmanuel #Macron was reelected with 58.2% of the votes compared to 41.8% for far-right candidate Marine #LePen, according to projections by Ipsos-Sopra Steria for France Télévisions and Radio France. https://t.co/bxZwm5KXV2

— Le Monde in English (@LeMonde_EN) April 24, 2022

… Read the rest

Brendan O’Neill is not a huge fan of Grace Lavery’s book.

I have never liked the term male privilege, but it’s hard to know what other term to use to describe a man writing a book about his ‘bellend’ – he uses that word – while fully expecting that everyone will acknowledge his ‘womanhood’ – he uses that word, too. His womanhood is his most ‘cherished’ thing, he says, which I found shocking because I had assumed it was his knob. If male privilege means anything, surely it is the fact that a dude can publish a book whose front cover features a photo of him with a five o’clock shadow and an iffy wig and still demand that

Kathleen Stock on the importance of being “queer”:

And what else is a a female-led theatre company fronted by a white woman and founded in a middle-class Cambridge Sixth Form to do these days, except announce itself as “queer”? Unlike being black or disabled, saying you are queer or do queer work is a completely unverifiable proposition. It’s entirely compatible with being straight and conventional in practice – but at the same time, it apparently gives you endless cultural clout. So it would be kind of stupid not to, no? I’m not saying that anyone deliberately sets out to mislead people here. I’m saying that you probably come round to thinking of yourself that way, little by little, and

This is very performative, very self-refuting, very watch this backfire, very corroborative of the thing it claims to deny. This is Trump telling a crowd he’s not stupid, and demonstrating how stupid he is by doing so.

Trump: I said.., I don’t like being called stupid. Is there a test I can take to prove to these radical left maniacs that I’m much smarter than them? And he said “Sir, there is a test. It’s called an X test” pic.twitter.com/JGVklls9ci

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 23, 2022

I think it’s diagnostic, that inability to talk in complete sentences, the helpless self-interrupting whenever a new thought intrudes. Isn’t it? That’s not normal cognitive functioning, surely. He’s trying to tell the adoring crowd … Read the rest

Dang, humanism has really gone to the dogs lately; I hadn’t realized.

You're literally obsessed with trans people and it's pathetic. Get a fucking hobby, you transphobic bigot.

— Mike Figueredo (@HumanistReport) April 22, 2022

That’s humanism? I’m shocked. It looks like ignorance, aggression, sexism, and a desperately impoverished vocabulary.

Besides, she has a hobby.

I hear she's taken your advice and joined a book club.

— Billy Bragg in a Billion (@CroneInAMillion) April 23, 2022

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on The bottom rung of the ladder.

Felker-Martin’s work is highly disturbing for reasons that go much further than the characters and plot, which centres on two transgender women hunting down and killing ‘TERFs’ in a battle for survival.

N.B. Much, if not most, of the following, is speculative, as I have not read Manhunt and have no intention of doing so. I have no qualms about trashing or maligning it sight unseen. I have no qualms about taking feminist critiques of it at face value. I have not been given any reason whatsoever to doubt their presentation of the facts of the matter in this conflict. The trans activist side … Read the rest

Ah manly men. Afraid of nothing, they are. Women on the other hand – they’re afraid of everything, like for instance being killed or raped or beaten up or all three.

It's funny that @jk_rowling will put trans women with 20 followers on blast like it's nothing but she's too chicken to say "boo" about MANHUNT. In which she dies. Fictionally.

— Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable) April 21, 2022

JKR is “too chicken” to mention the stupid violent bloodthirsty woman-hating fantasy porn this revolting goon wrote. He on the other hand is so non-“chicken” that he included his fantasy about her dying violently in his filthy book. Takes a lot of courage, that does.… Read the rest

This was fun to watch happen:

Wait for it.

I was just thinking, 'I really fancy dropping in on a random book group that might not even be in my city , of which I don't know the time or date, yet is maybe called something like JKR's Barmy Book Army.' You know how these random thoughts occur sometimes, mid-chapter. https://t.co/1akAcq1WNI

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 23, 2022

There has been a sign. I can't ignore the promptings of fate. To the Barmy Book Army I shall go.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 23, 2022

I wonder how many of the members of that earlier book group are gnawing their fingers with rage and envy.… Read the rest

The NY Times tries to figure out what’s so wrong with some math textbooks that Florida officialdom didn’t want:

After the Florida Department of Education rejected dozens of math textbooks last week, the big question was, Why?

The department said some of the books “contained prohibited topics” from social-emotional learning or critical race theory — but it has released only four specific textbook pages showing content to which it objects.

That’s a bizarre pairing – social-emotional learning or critical race theory. Really? Both of those? Were they in combination? If so, how? Color me skeptical.

The Times looked at some publishers’ samples to try to get a sense of the reasons, while saying that it’s necessarily guesswork because … Read the rest

Julie Bindel on that “novel”:

Most of you, I suspect, will be unfamiliar with the work of self-professed ‘horror author’ and trans woman Gretchen Felker-Martin.

Latterly a little-known film and culture writer, Felker-Martin’s name reached wider circulation this week following the recent release of a debut novel — although not, it must be said, for the quality of the writing.

…

Felker-Martin’s work is highly disturbing for reasons that go much further than the characters and plot, which centres on two transgender women hunting down and killing ‘TERFs’ in a battle for survival.

Hunting down and killing radical feminist women, as one does.

Felker-Martin has apparently seen fit to exact a deeply unpleasant fictional revenge, depicting the successful writer’s

Another snapshot of the ship slowly slowly changing course.

The chairwoman of the equalities watchdog has warned there is a “slow-burn toxicity” around trans rights as she urged campaign groups to co-operate with her.

…

Baroness Falkner of Margravine, chairwoman of the EHRC, said she had been surprised “by the saliency of the issue of sex and gender, and the balance of rights issues”.

…

She said it was “deeply unfortunate” that Stonewall and other LGBT groups had asked the UN to review the EHRC’s accreditation, noting that the attempt had been dismissed.

Her remarks come after publication of the EHRC’s guidance that organisations such as refuges and gyms can legally exclude transgender people from single-sex services in certain

Maybe just maybe people should slow down and think a little harder about this. Maybe it’s not the best idea in the world to halt or swap puberties the instant a child expresses dismay or confusion.

Vulnerable children are wrongly being given gender hormone treatment by the NHS, Sajid Javid believes, as he prepares to launch an urgent inquiry.

The health secretary thinks the system is “failing children” and is planning an overhaul of how health service staff deal with under-18s who question their gender identity.

Step one: understand that “gender identity” is a novel concept, that its meanings are disputed, that it’s subjective and malleable at best, and that it’s not nearly clear or sharp-edged enough to justify something … Read the rest

Majorie Taylor Greene says she doesn’t remember and besides lots of people used her Facebook account to say things so it could have been anyone.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia insisted under oath that she does not remember expressing support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s execution in 2019.

She’s busy. She can’t remember every little thing.

Lawyers from Free Speech for the People, the group challenging Greene’s candidacy, presented the congresswoman with a print-out of a CNN article that documented Greene’s prior support for political violence against some Democrats.

“She’s a traitor to our country, she’s guilty of treason,” Greene said of Pelosi in a 2019 Facebook video, according to CNN. “She took an oath to protect

This is so depressing I can barely believe it.

"There are no ugly women, only lazy ones." Helena Rubinstein would say that, wouldn't she? When she died in 1965 she was worth between $17.5 million and $60 million. The UK beauty industry is valued at £12.14 billion in 2022. pic.twitter.com/JmwssNFqDu

— Margaret Nelson (@Flashmaggie) April 22, 2022

Why why why on earth would anyone prefer the zombie blow-job doll to the gorgeous real woman on the left? Apparently lots of people or this “makeup artist” wouldn’t be doing it, but…I can’t understand why. Zombie blow-up doll looks like exactly that – a porn image, a photo from a failing fashion magazine, a completed mannequin for a store window. You wouldn’t … Read the rest

PCC Lisa Townsend says Nope.

Surrey’s police and crime commissioner has snubbed a complaints panel decision and refused to explain herself to Reigate’s MP after her transgender tweet caused offence. Lisa Townsend was found to have breached her office’s code of conduct by tweeting about “men who keep telling us they are women”.

She has now rebuffed councillors by refusing to carry out their proposed remedy. She said she would “not be writing to explain myself to” complainants, including Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, as was requested by the panel that oversees complaints against her following a two-and-a-half hour long discussion in February.

Women saying men are not women; whatever next?!

Back in December the PCC retweeted and commented

The ACLU has a page for Women in Prison.

I wonder if they really mean women in prison, in the sense of women in prison. The first link we see suggests they don’t.

How Women’s Rights Paved the Way for Gender Justice at the ACLU

Many recent legal battles for the rights of trans and non-binary people are rooted in the same cases that pioneered women’s rights decades ago.

So much for women in prison, and women in general.

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg co-founded the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project in 1972, she recognized that laws that stereotype by gender hurt everyone — no matter your gender.

Then why did she call it the Women’s Rights Project? Why doesn’t the … Read the rest

Marjorie Taylor Greene is in court.

The far right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was cheered into court in Georgia on Friday, for a hearing in an attempt by a coalition of voters and liberal groups to bar her from Congress under the 14th amendment to the US constitution, for aiding the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

Some people in the courtroom cheered and applauded as Greene took her seat.

As the hearing began, Greene tweeted: “Only the People have the right to choose who they send to Congress.”

Well, no, it’s not that simple. Suppose a candidate is convicted of murder and sentenced to prison, and then elected to Congress – does the candidate … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? in Miscellany Room 8.

Canada’s Global News reports on Manhunt author’s fantasized depiction of Rowling’s death in novel.

The reporter, Kathryn Mannie, begins with a brief description of the book:

The book is set in an apocalyptic scenario in which people with a sufficient amount of testosterone get turned into monstrous beasts. All that remains of humanity are cisgender women, non-binary people, transgender men and transgender women.

(I wonder if, in this future, fully intact “transgender women” also turn into beasts? Or do they all have testosterone dutifully reduced to the level that would allow them to join the Penn women’s swim team? And what about transmen? Is Chase Strangio’s T … Read the rest

Hmmm let’s see.

Correct yourself briefly and move on.

No. I was right, so I’m not going to correct myself.

Interrupt people with quick corrections.

Not in a million years. They weren’t wrong, so I’m not going to correct them any more than I’m going to correct myself, and anyway I wouldn’t correct them if they were “wrong.” Officiously interrupting people to correct them on something that doesn’t matter in the first place is not a fun hobby.

Don’t complain about how hard it is!

Don’t tell me what to complain about! Who do you think you are? Anyway I don’t care how hard it is, because I have no intention of doing it in the first place.… Read the rest