Joan Smith suggests that maybe just maybe on rare occasions we do need to know when someone is female or male.

Why is it important to know someone’s birth sex? The Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, who chairs the Women and Equalities Select Committee, evidently has no idea. ‘Why on earth would we want to?’ she asked during an interview on this morning’s Today programme.

Why would we want to know someone’s species? Why would we want to know whether someone is animal vegetable or mineral? I don’t know, it’s just part of the whole social thing, isn’t it? I mean if the someone is on the other side of the planet and you’re not interacting then meh, fair enough, … Read the rest

Originally a comment by cluecat on Pretty wild indeed.

This kind of thing was raised against the Suffragettes right from the beginning: a “class problem” of wealthy white women doing things – any things, it doesn’t matter what – and being a “problem” somehow because of Who They Were. Not sticking to approved “Charidee!” work, my dears? Oh no! Women running wild!

This ignores the very reason that wealthy white women were doing most of that work; because working class women were busy working. A 12-hour shift at the factory, plus all the work when they got home, does not leave much time for organising. Nor does the life of a maid-of-all-work. Some of those women did it … Read the rest

There’s a new one.

When Gregor Murray complained about me to the Scouts, Murray claimed not to be a man (and also not to have been suspended)

The Mail has now removed the "M" word from their headline.

Did they get a similar complaint?

We must be able to talk about reality without being bullied. pic.twitter.com/ZQDL4F0XOy

— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) December 20, 2021

Original headline:

Scout leaders apologise to woman hounded after calling bearded man he

New headline:

Scout leaders apologise to woman backed by J. K. Rowling who was hounded for two years after inadvertently calling a bearded transgender scout leader he on social media

Apparently even the Mail is scared to call an obvious man a man.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Roj Blake on Feeble.

The current gender wars are not a fight against the binary roles that constrict our society,

Oh deary me, here I was thinking that it was gender roles that were restricting. Men tough, women caring. Men hunt, women cook and clean. Men talk to god, who lets them know how women should dress, behave, and be docile wives.

Women’s liberation didn’t fight to end the sex binary, it was to set women free from their gendered roles and to make them equal in all aspects of life. And by achieving that, they also helped some men break from their gender assigned roles so they could become better partners to women.

TRAs … Read the rest

Oh good – Trump is coming apart at the seams.

Donald Trump is increasingly agitated by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, according to sources familiar with the matter, and appears anxious he might be implicated in the sprawling inquiry into the insurrection even as he protests his innocence.

Gee, Don, what was your first clue?

He’s pissed off that Mark Meadows said so much, he’s pissed off that his co-crooks are taking the Fifth instead of just ignoring the subpoenas like that swell guy Bannon.

When Trump sees new developments in the Capitol attack investigation on television, he has started swearing about the negative coverage and bemoaned that the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, was too

… Read the rest

Always reframing.

The current gender wars are not a fight against the binary roles that constrict our society, instead this particular manifestation of the culture wars is a battle against trans women in particular. Most of the debate concerns what services trans women should or should not be allowed to access, from public toilets to public services.

And why would that be? Because trans women are men, and women need protections from men in certain circumstances.

Perhaps all of this was to be expected, and perhaps it is just part of a larger backlash against the mainstreaming of LGBTQ+ rights over the decades.

No, it isn’t, because “LGBTQ+ rights” aren’t a big pudding, they’re a bag of rocks, and … Read the rest

This is a ruling that personally affects me and my life. I am incredibly grateful for people like Harry Miller who challenge ridiculous ideas like “non-crime hate incidents” https://t.co/xG1TTPdYXZ pic.twitter.com/JjcsiFLZGQ

— Prof. DR TheFamousArtistBirdyRose (@TheFamousArtBR) December 20, 2021

… Read the rest

So naturally I had to look it up.

Pretty wild stuff pic.twitter.com/KxnI6cX1lu

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) December 17, 2021

Oh yeah?

The Trouble With White Women:

(Let me guess. They’re all Karens. Do I win?)

Subtitle: A Counterhistory of Feminism with Kyla Schuller; author journalist Anne Helen Petersen.

I spent the first two decades of my conscious life figuring out how to confidently declare my feminism. I’ve spent the next (nearly) two decades of my life trying to figure out how to leave white feminism behind. That doesn’t mean that I’m trying not to be white and trying not to be a feminist: it means that I’m trying to leave behind the priorities of “white feminism” as a posture,

… Read the rest

The BBC:

An ex-police officer has won a legal challenge against a national policy for forces to record gender-critical views as non-crime “hate incidents”.

Almost as if it’s a bad idea to have the police recording that women who don’t believe men can become women have perpetrated a “non-crime hate incident.”

Humberside Police visited Harry Miller in January 2020 after a complaint over alleged transphobic tweets he made.

It was recorded on a national database as a non-crime hate incident.

But the Court of Appeal ruled on Monday the guidance was wrongly used and it had a “chilling effect” on Mr Miller’s freedom of speech.

And ours. Very much and ours. Mind you I suppose you could say … Read the rest

And there’s more.

This is a landmark victory for free speech in the UK.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the recording of “non-crime hate incidents” by the police is unlawful.

Congratulations to Harry Miller, @WeAreFairCop and @SpeechUnion for making this happen. https://t.co/2onJKHOQRu

— Andrew Doyle (@andrewdoyle_com) December 20, 2021

It has??? If so that’s huge news. This “recording non-crime hate incidents” is utter bullshit, and a tool for bullies.

Legal eagles are all busy reading the full judgement.

Harry Miller -v- The College of Policing full judgment https://t.co/dJBA1uAOZj

— Judicial Office (@JudiciaryUK) December 20, 2021

Congratulations to Harry Miller

The Court of Appeal unanimously allowed the appeal against the College of Policing https://t.co/DfK2iHgwC6

"The Guidance clearly constituted a

… Read the rest

Yeeha – this just in – Harry Miller won.

https://twitter.com/ShahrarAli/status/1472906348669059074

Ex-police officer Harry Miller wins legal challenge after alleged 'transphobic tweets' https://t.co/OPBi5U0cDO

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) December 20, 2021

Harry Miller -v- The College of Policing full judgment https://t.co/dJBA1uAOZj

— Judicial Office (@JudiciaryUK) December 20, 2021

… Read the rest

A conference takes shape.

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1472558140470222853 https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1472561023894769665

Let’s read it.

The first UK Workshop in Trans Philosophy will take place over two days on 24th and 25th March. Whilst nominally based at the University of Glasgow, the workshop will take place online.

Trans philosophy – philosophy that speaks to the experiences of, politics, and cultural production of transgender people – is one of the fastest-growing fields in contemporary philosophy. In addition to hallmark papers such as Kapusta (2016), Bettcher (2013, 2019), and Dembroff & Wodak (2018), last year saw the publication of the ground-breaking volume of trans political theory and philosophy Transgender Marxism (Gleeson and O’Rourke 2020). Beyond the realm of published work, a new generation of PhD and early career

… Read the rest

More from the Let’s everybody shun JK Rowling file:

The real-life sport of quidditch will be known as something to be determined once it changes its name and distances itself from author J.K. Rowling, who created the game in her best-selling Harry Potter book series.

Because she has cooties.

US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch announced on Thursday that they have started the process of changing their names because of financial limitations and because they want to “distance” themselves from Rowling “who has increasingly come under scrutiny for her anti-trans positions in recent years.”

And by “distance themselves” they mean “show off how sensitive and correct we are.” There’s no objective need to “distance themselves” and no objective … Read the rest

It turns out porn isn’t good for girls.

Speaking on the Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM radio on Monday, [Billie]Eilish, who turned 20 on Saturday, said viewing porn at a young age had caused her emotional damage.

“I think porn is a disgrace. I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was, like, 11,” the top-selling US singer said, adding that it helped her feel as if she were cool and “one of the guys”.

“I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn,” she said, adding that she suffered nightmares because some of the content she

… Read the rest

President of the Human Rights Campaign. A woman. Throwing away women’s rights and opportunities for the sake of a hulking man with long hair who is smashing women’s rights and opportunities.

Attacking young trans people like this is absolutely unacceptable.

Lia, I am here for you. I support you. And I will keep up the fight every day to make the world a safe space for young trans people to thrive. https://t.co/KqLlmJgxNe

— Kelley Robinson (@HRC_President) December 17, 2021

That hulking young man doesn’t need a “safe space” to thrive. It’s the women he’s shoved aside who need that.

Replies are scathing.… Read the rest

Yes but this all misses the point.

Scottish ministers are facing a massive public backlash over their planned gender recognition reforms, according to a poll.

A Panelbase survey suggests the vast majority of voters in Scotland (71 per cent) oppose their plan to let people officially change gender quickly without providing medical evidence of gender dysphoria. Ministers plan to allow trans people to apply for a gender recognition certificate after declaring that they have lived in their acquired gender for three months, and then wait just three months for the certificate to be granted.

The plan follows complaints that current procedures, which can mean transgender people wait for two years for formal recognition, are bureaucratic, invasive and humiliating. This

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sastra on Imagining way too many possibilities.

If someone claims to be sexually attracted to members of their own sex and behaves accordingly — demonstrates romantic attachments and physical intimacy with members of their own sex— that’s pretty damn straightforward (so to speak.) We don’t have to question whether sex exists, wonder what a man or woman is, rewrite evolutionary biology, or exercise huge amounts of trust in their subjective reliability in “knowing their own sexual orientation.” Catch a couple of teens canoodling under the bleachers and there’s the objective diagnosis. Sexual attraction isn’t complicated.

Someone claiming to be the opposite sex in their mind would be equally straightforward, if all we were looking at … Read the rest

Sarah Phillimore on grooming in the schools:

On 16 December 2021 I saw a very distressing video of a mother, Jessica Konen, speaking at a school board meeting in Salinas, California, objecting to the school going behind her back to counsel her suicidal 12-year-old daughter about her claimed “transgender status”. The anger, pain and misery in her voice was evident.

Local press reported that two teachers at the Buena Vista Middle School in Salinas were recorded coaching other teachers how to conceal the nature of LGTBQ clubs from parents.

The teachers led a workshop about how to run a “Gay-Straight Alliance” club in “conservative communities” at a California Teachers Association conference held in October, called “Beyond the Binary: Identity

… Read the rest

Another way to get rid of female people:

TikTok is flooding teen users with videos of rapid-weight-loss competitions and ways to purge food that health professionals say contribute to a wave of eating-disorder cases spreading across the country.

A Wall Street Journal investigation involving the creation of a dozen automated accounts on TikTok, registered as 13-year-olds, found that the popular video-sharing app’s algorithm served them tens of thousands of weight-loss videos within a few weeks of joining the platform.

Some included tips about taking in fewer than 300 calories a day, several recommended consuming only water some days, another suggested taking laxatives after overeating.

Others suggested walking in front of speeding trains, jumping off tall buildings, swimming with sharks.… Read the rest

Speaking of amateurs who refuse to trust professionals –

Guests invited to a holiday party at the home of the leading anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr were urged to be vaccinated or tested for Covid-19 because, Kennedy said, he is “not always the boss at my own house”.

The what?

Why would he be “the boss” at “his own” house? He’s married, so it’s not exclusively his house, is it, and he’s not “the boss,” is he. What a stupid, piggy, ugly way to talk, even assuming he was sort of joking. That kind of joke rests on a lot of piggy assumptions. All that and he’s an anti-vaxxer.

Speaking to Politico, which reported the request before the party

… Read the rest