Elon Musk is exercising his god-given bought and paid for right to kick prominent journalists off Twitter because they don’t kiss his ring.

The accounts suspended included Ryan Mac of The New York Times; Drew Harwell of The Washington Post; Aaron Rupar, an independent journalist; Donie O’Sullivan of CNN; Matt Binder of Mashable; Tony Webster, an independent journalist; Micah Lee of The Intercept; and the political journalist Keith Olbermann. It was unclear what the suspensions had in common; each user’s Twitter page included a message that said it suspended accounts that “violate the Twitter rules.”

The moves came a day after Twitter suspended more than 25 accounts that tracked the planes of government agencies, billionaires and high-profile individuals, including that

Good news – but we’re still furious.

Here’s the story from last June:

The Norwegian Public Prosecution Service investigates “hate-mongering” tweets by feminist Christina Ellingsen, addressed to a man who claims to be a lesbian woman. If found guilty, Ellingsen could face up to three years in prison.

Ellingsen posted the tweets between February 2021 and January 2022, in reaction to statements of Christine Marie Jentoft, representative of the transactivist group Foreningen FRI. Jentoft is a biological man who identifies as a lesbian.

A (“biological”) man can’t be a lesbian. It’s all in the definition. Only women can be lesbians.

“Why does FRI teach young people that males can be lesbians? Isn’t that conversion therapy?” tweeted Ellingsen. Later,

Giant brain on that Willz.

Is that right? So no films about the January 6 mob? No films about the Proud Boys? No films about incels? No films about abusers in police departments? No films about any set of people unless there are at least 4 billion of them?

Who made that rule? Why have there been no films about it?… Read the rest

Not that Willoughby has a stereotyped idea of what women are and do and like, no no no not at all, he understands women better than women do.

Spend some time with her doing the things girlz do teeheeheeheeheehee… Read the rest

Some deep breaths taken; back to Futrelle.

Rowling came up with the idea for Beira’s Place, she told anti-trans feminist Suzanne Moore, in what can only be described as a fit of pique caused by remarks from Mridul Wadhwa, the trans woman in charge of Edinburgh’s Rape Crisis centre.

Wadhwa had said that transphobic clients of the centre would have their bigotry challenged.

Futrelle simply assumes that the clients in question are “transphobic” and that their awareness that men are men is “bigotry” and thus he implies that Wadhwa was right and virtuous in promising to bully women who need rape crisis services for knowing that men are men.

Wadhwa also said it was possible to “reframe” one’s relationship

I keep hearing distant reports of how thoroughly David Futrelle has gone pro-trans-dogma and anti-feminist-disbelief, so I decided to take a look at the current iteration. It’s thoroughly gone.

Author and anti-trans activist JK Rowling has announced she is launching a crisis center for female victims of rape and sexual abuse. The catch? Beira’s Place, as the center is called, won’t allow trans women to use its services.

That’s not “the catch.” What a ridiculous claim. He said it himself – she’s launching a crisis center for female people. Of course that means it won’t “allow” men to use its services: its services are not for men. It says so right on the tin; Futrelle said so himself when … Read the rest

Roger Pielke’s claim to fame is as a Climate Skeptic^TM.

For those wondering why Roger Pielke Jr is the go-to witness for the Republicans at nearly ever congressional hearing on climate change.

A denialist w/ a veneer of academic credibility–invaluable to the forces of climate inaction… https://t.co/C3NTqwTnq0

— Prof Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) December 5, 2021

But now he’s deploying his skepticism on a different subject – the crazy wacky delusional idea that men are not women.

The phrase MALE ADVANTAGE is a dog whistle (maybe even a human whistle) that says

These folks are MALES

And this a denial of the reality of transgender people

It is hard bigotry, often dressed up in a thin veneer of

In UN news:

Iran was ousted from a United Nations women’s group on Wednesday for policies contrary to the rights of women and girls, a move proposed by the United States after Tehran’s crackdown on protests over the death of a young woman in custody.

The 54-member U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution to “remove with immediate effect the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term.”

…

“This is a victory for Iranian revolutionaries who have been facing guns & bullets as they fight this gender apartheid state,” U.S.-based Iranian journalist and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad posted on Twitter.

Iran’s clerical

The confusion is everywhere.

That's a broad hint that the people you're scolding are genocidal. The normal phrasing would be "If you don’t think trans women should BE in the same space as women" – changing "be" to "exist" is slyly manipulative. So typical of the rhetoric of this "activism."

— Ophelia Benson (@OpheliaBenson) December 14, 2022

https://twitter.com/Writerer/status/1603156297712603139

All of that is wrong. Not a little, not half, not most of it, but all.

Of course trans people’s access to private spaces is restricted; so is mine, so is everyone’s. That’s what “private” means.

Access to some public spaces is also restricted. Many public spaces are for specific sets of people…like public toilets for instance. Most areas in … Read the rest

And they’ve won.

For now.

Note the shouts of laughter as Mister Man says “azza trans woman“…

So they’ve won. Robyn Woof, a self identified trans woman and Trans Liberation Officer has stopped women from watching Adult Human Female. Scotland 2022. Thanks @NicolaSturgeon pic.twitter.com/mFEOnxB2uv

— Susan Dalgety (@DalgetySusan) December 14, 2022

Only for now though.

This film will be shown says the amazing Shereen Benjamin – not tonight but soon #WomenWontWeesht pic.twitter.com/iXK4J613sH

— Susan Dalgety (@DalgetySusan) December 14, 2022

#WomenWontWheesht pic.twitter.com/MiCNnQw82O

— Susan Dalgety (@DalgetySusan) December 14, 2022

… Read the rest

So, of course, some students full of holy zeal went along to close the film down.

The police are here now. pic.twitter.com/UXcxljiTBO

— Lisa Mackenzie (@lnmackenzie1) December 14, 2022

We moved venues in an effort to see Adult Human Female and guess what. A group of students are stopping us from going into the theatre. So much for free speech in the home of enlightenment # pic.twitter.com/advJGOUKC0

— Susan Dalgety (@DalgetySusan) December 14, 2022

… Read the rest

It depends on how you define “definition”…

The Cambridge Dictionary has updated its definition of “woman” to include anyone who “identifies as female” regardless of their sex at birth. 

If you mean some people use the word to mean anyone who identifies as, then that’s what the CD has done. If you mean the actual, generally understood, longstanding, literal definition of the word, then the update is absurd and an insult to almost everyone.

Funny thing: the more “inclusive” you make your definitions, the less useful they are. The more you broaden them to take in the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the less they mean anything. If you “update” the definition of women to include men then … Read the rest

Oh oh oh, what an outrage, a horror film called Adult Human Female has not been banned from the University of Edinburgh.

A screening of the film Adult Human Female is scheduled to occur in a lecture hall on the university’s George Square campus on Wednesday, hosted by the University of Edinburgh Academics for Academic Freedom group.

However the Edinburgh branch of the University and College Union (UCU) wrote to the university’s principal, Peter Mathieson, and called for the screening to be cancelled over concerns it contained content that was “a clear attack on trans people’s identities.”

What is an attack on a set of people’s identities? What does that mean? People have gotten so settled into the jargon … Read the rest

Genevieve Gluck at Reduxx on another comrade:

A woman in Norway is facing criminal charges and a possible prison sentence of up to three years for stating that men can not be lesbians. Tonje Gjevjon, a lesbian artist, was notified on November 17 that she was under police investigation for hate speech over a statement she posted to Facebook.

…

“It’s just as impossible for men to become lesbian as it is for men to become pregnant,” Gjevjon wrote, “Men are men regardless of their sexual fetishes.”

Gjevjon particularly singled-out the actions of prominent Norwegian trans activist, Christine Jentoft – a man who claims to be a lesbian mother, and who currently serves as a representative for the

Originally a comment by latsot at Miscellany Room.

I forgot to mention that the book Transpositions, compiled by Sarah Phillimore and Al Peters (moley) is available on Amazon.

It’s a collection of people’s peaking stories. I have the Kindle version, but I’d recommend the paperback, it’s one of those books that’s good to flick through. Some of the stories are heartbreaking.

I went to the book launch event, which was some high quality TERFing. As you might have heard, Sarah advertised it on EventBrite who pulled the event for “Hateful, Dangerous, or Violent Content.” Then the venue contacted her to ask her not to mention the venue online because they were afraid of violence. In the end, there … Read the rest

Joan Smith on that ridiculous (and insulting) ruling:

“Sex is not limited to biological or birth sex,” according to one of [Scotland’s] most senior judges.

Yes, you did read that right. We are plunging ever deeper into la-la land, where sex is no longer determined by boring old things like biology or physical characteristics. It can be changed by a piece of paper, known as a gender recognition certificate (GRC), with unpredictable consequences for women-only services such as the new sexual violence service set up by JK Rowling in Edinburgh.

Usually the law has no truck with la-la land. It can’t afford to. We can’t afford it to.

The decision explodes the argument by Nicola Sturgeon’s government that its

A court rules that men can be women.

A court has thrown out a challenge against the Scottish government’s definition of a woman in law.

Even governments can’t make lies true. Even courts can’t make a lie the truth. They can pass laws, they can issue rulings, but they can’t just waves their hands and make nonsense The Truth.

The For Women Scotland group complained about the way a bill aimed at gender balance on boards had included trans people under the definition of women.

Imagine if it were about British boards and a bill aimed at national balance, but England insisted that English people who identify as Scots are Scots despite having zero evidence of any Scottish ancestry. … Read the rest

And in come the sneery “wtf is her problem” think-pieces on JK Rowling’s astounding baffling incomprehensible move to open a women’s space in Edinburgh. Why would she do such a thing??? A smug young guy called Ryan Coogan wonders for the Independent:

…up until about a year ago, I held out hope that Rowling was somehow misunderstood or that I just “read her out of context”, as her defenders keep insisting. But I’ve given her the benefit of the doubt, and I’ve seen the context, and if anything it just makes things worse as time goes on. It’s a shame, because she gave me a lot of great memories as a kid, but for me at least, a

TransLucent has me blocked of course but I’m sampling its tweets anyway. Have a nice sample of the intellectual quality:

Cisgender.
The definition is in the dictionary. @murdo_fraser https://t.co/ybl7MFdfgC pic.twitter.com/enb7YEaxRw

— www.TransLucent.Org.UK (@TransLucent_Org) December 12, 2022

A peach, isn’t it? Murdo Fraser notes that many women find the neologism “cisgender” offensive and demeaning, and genius answers that it’s in the dictionary. Guess what!! Lots of offensive and demeaning words are in the dictionary! The fact that they’re in the dictionary doesn’t make them not offensive and demeaning. The dictionary isn’t a private exclusive club that rejects words that don’t wear the right clothes; that’s not the purpose or job of the dictionary. Also there is no “the dictionary”; there are … Read the rest