Andy Lewis aka Le canard noir is doing a letters-debate thing with Embrace the void aka Aaron Rabinowitz. The latter defines some terms at the outset:

The other important term here is moral panic, which I’ve discussed in a few places but just briefly refers to a substantial overreaction to a small or nonexistent problem.

Mm. It’s a small or nonexistent problem – the fact that we (women) are being told we have to redefine ourselves in a way that entails including men as women on demand. If a man tells us he’s a woman we have to agree, or at least comply; if we refuse, punishment is swift. To us that is not a small problem.

Often the

… Read the rest

Girls can’t “identify” their way out of having their genitals sliced off.

The death of a young woman in Sierra Leone, almost immediately after undergoing female genital mutilation, has sparked outrage and revived calls to end the practice.

The body of 21-year-old Maseray Sei was found on 20 December at Nyandeni village in Bonthe district, southern Sierra Leone, a day after the FGM took place. Sei’s family said that after the procedure the mother of two boys complained of a migraine and was in pain, with complications from FGM thought to be the cause, according to activists working on the case.

Maybe pointless mutilation of genitals isn’t such a good idea after all.

Sierra Leone has one of the

… Read the rest

Dress your people in lacquer and rubber:

The sexology department at a Norwegian university headed by a trans-identified male and his wife prompted backlash after requiring students to participate in a fetish club as part of their research.

Zoologists can do research on animals without dressing up as animals. I don’t see why sexologists can’t do the same.

Tonje Kristin Jensen, a student at the University of Agder, told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation that she decided to forego a study trip in Oslo after receiving a letter providing a required dress code that included fetish gear on the theme of “lacquer and rubber.” The memo encouraged students to attend in erotic clothes, such as lace and thigh-high stockings.

Erotic … Read the rest

A letter to the Glinner update from Matt Osborne:

Mr. Linehan,

The following comment from an Alabama Democratic Party insider was just passed along to me:

“How are we going to talk to voters with a straight face after setting a quota for non-binary party officials?”

I have been sounding the alarm all this time, and now the pigeons are coming home to roost. This midterm election year is going to be awful for Democrats. I was just discussing the poor polling on all this gobbledygook with my local-political friends and said “every time another man cheats women out of their sports, Democrats lose ten House seats.” One of them responded by conveying that comment, which is less than

… Read the rest

That’s an amazing story.

https://twitter.com/SpeechUnion/status/1476474387880505344… Read the rest

Innocent on grounds of inability to sweat m’lud.

Lawyers for a US woman who has accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault are seeking proof of the British royal’s alleged inability to sweat.

Virginia Giuffre’s legal team made the request as part of a civil case against the prince in a New York court.

Ms Giuffre, 38, alleges that Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager at the homes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Prince Andrew has consistently denied the allegations.

In a 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight, he said a “problem” with her account was that a medical condition at the time meant he could not have been sweating, as she claims he was.

So … Read the rest

They just straight-up shamelessly lie about her.

When HBO announced its upcoming reunion special “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts,” the star-studded lineup did not include You-Know-Who.

In the weeks leading up to the highly anticipated program, streaming New Year’s Day on HBO Max, not a single teaser, trailer or poster has featured “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who has come under fire in recent years for repeatedly expressing anti-transgender views.

That’s a lie.

Rowling has been known to object to lies of that kind, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Los Angeles Times (normally a respected newspaper) issue a correction with apology.

She hasn’t “expressed anti-transgender views.” It’s not “anti” to point out that … Read the rest

Speaking of people who disagree –

https://twitter.com/WomenReadWomen/status/1476269878843641856… Read the rest

Genius is still at it.

Following his clash with Kellie Jay-Keen over 'sex based rights', Ulrika in York tells James Max: "The word woman is our word."

"If you say trans women are women, you are erasing our sex class."@thejamesmax | @StandingforXX pic.twitter.com/RKW8JWogiS

— Talk (@TalkTV) December 31, 2021

Ulrika in York is a Twitter comrade; she gives him a good pasting, and he keeps coming back with “Yes but other people disagree!!”

You don’t say. What the hell does he think we’ve been doing all this time? We know other people disagree, and that they’ve been dismantling women’s rights because they disagree, and that’s why we’re fighting back.

Other people always disagree. That doesn’t mean they’re right. People … Read the rest

A random accident?

Knoxville’s Planned Parenthood building was engulfed in flames early Friday morning and is a total loss.

Fire crews were called about 6:40 a.m. as heavy smoke was coming out of the back of the structure, Assistant Chief Brent Seymour said. There were no injuries to report. The building was being renovated and the clinic had not been used in some time.

Seymour said it’s too early in the investigation, with parts of the building unsafe to enter, to be able to say what caused the fire.

We can make some educated guesses though.

In January 2021 someone fired a shotgun at the doors of this Planned Parenthood clinic, shattering the glass and lodging bullet holes in the

… Read the rest

My god, this guy!

https://twitter.com/thejamesmax/status/1476633423154487302

Shrill. You couldn’t make it up.

Oh sir, please sir, sorry sir, we’re sorry our shrill squeaking voices hurt your ears, but you see sir, we’re made that way sir, we have higher voices than you strong wise large better people do, which is why we have such a struggle to get people like you to listen to us, and why we don’t want to share all of our spaces and prizes and protections with the deep-voiced kind of people. We’re afraid they might assault us you see sir, because some of you have been known to do that sir. It’s probably because of our shrill voices sir, for which again we apologize sir, but … Read the rest

I wouldn’t call it reflection, exactly.

James Max reflects on his interview with Kellie-Jay Keen.

"I found a lot of what she said deeply uncomfortable. We've seen how minorities are treated in society. We've seen what happens when minorities are treated badly for being slightly different from the norm."@thejamesmax pic.twitter.com/vxPWl6p3lU

— Talk (@TalkTV) December 30, 2021

He doesn’t reflect on it so much as explain why he was right about it.

He tells us he found what Kellie Jay said deeply uncomfortable, and compared it to “the stereotypes and tropes that were used twenty years ago to describe gay people and to um not allow them the human rights that thankfully we have in today’s world” – about what’s … Read the rest

Points still being missed.

What hostile argument??? You're really going with that? You were shockingly rude and contemptuous toward KJ but you're claiming she made a "hostile" argument?

You're an Encyclopedia of Misogyny all by yourself.

— Ophelia Benson (@OpheliaBenson) December 30, 2021

Ok. You've already had this explained to you but I'm willing to give it another go. Women are not worried about 'trans people'. They are worried about losing the boundaries of 'woman only spaces' if anyone who says they are a woman, is allowed in. 1/2

— Milli Hill (@millihill) December 30, 2021

It doesn’t have to be a trans person, it doesn’t have to be a man who identifies as a woman, it can be a … Read the rest

I have to say, full marks to Kellie-Jay for that interview. Starred double first. I have different political views from hers in general, but she’s exactly what’s needed for the James Maxes of the world. She’s direct and calm and decisive, and men like him can’t stand that. He interprets it as “she is evil” when all she’s doing is telling the truth, very crisply. Her performance and his freakout over it are a master class in The Marriage of Trans Dogma and Misogyny. He would take her presentation for granted in a man, but in a woman it looks like creepy supernatural power.

James Max is responding to people on Twitter and with each response he underlines how clueless … Read the rest

No YOU’RE the baddy.

Yesterday u accused me of 'creating untold harm and damage' & 'bullying' – simply on the basis that I pointed out yr discussion with KJ showed yr ignorance. As by yr admission you're only just beginning to understand this debate, don't u think that u owe both me & her an apology?

— Milli Hill (@millihill) December 30, 2021

So, let me get this right, you don't know me, or anything about me, but on the basis of one tweet saying you got trounced in that interview (you were), you felt free to call me a harmful and damaging bully, but you are not sorry? Nor are you sorry to KJ for insulting her? OK!

—

… Read the rest

This guy – honestly.

James Max: "What did I get wrong?"

Journalist Debbie Hayton: "There are two sexes. Male and female. What you got wrong was forgetting that and concentrating on gender identity."@thejamesmax | @DebbieHayton pic.twitter.com/EOtQHy0jrq

— Talk (@TalkTV) December 30, 2021

I’m sorry if you were disappointed. To be fair I was somewhat taken aback by the approach taken by KJ and some of the things she said. Debbie took a much more pragmatic approach to the debate.

— James Max (@thejamesmax) December 30, 2021

To be fair, he was somewhat taken aback by the fact that KJ is sharper than he is and knows a lot more about the subject than he does and was not shy … Read the rest

Kellie-Jay eviscerates that smug conceited prat in the Spectator:

‘I just get the impression she hates men’, said a wound-licking James Max, on TalkRADIO, after he interviewed me on Wednesday. It’s a familiar accusation from those who fail to drum up rational arguments for the destruction of women’s rights.

He got that impression because she’s a great deal more intelligent than he is, not to mention skilled at arguing on live radio. Naturally a woman who makes him look stupid by being cleverer than he is must hate men.

The tone was set when Max tried to link the views of J.K. Rowling to the notorious outing of George Jamieson by the Sunday People in 1961 — four years before

… Read the rest

Look behind the curtain, see how they plot the manipulation.

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1476500190634946561

It’s all about them there “effective opening values” – which turn out to be the inevitable banal “freedom to be ourselves” – which in fact is not any kind of progressive (let alone left-wing) value at all but sheer narcissism.

Also, it’s funny how they say “a race class gender narrative” but then go on to ignore class entirely…as they always always do. Class just doesn’t have the glamour of race n gender, and it doesn’t offer the same opportunities for bullying women. Mention class at the outset and then ignore it entirely in the substance.

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1476501027314622471… Read the rest

James Max is still digging.

This is simply nonsense. The argument from KJ is a well honed piece of narrative to cover a much darker truth. Her ‘factual’ replies simply highlight the prejudices she holds. https://t.co/pSKdcsL8BC

— James Max (@thejamesmax) December 29, 2021

What is the “much darker truth”? He doesn’t say. I guess we’re supposed to surmise that she wants them all killed, or something. Very respectable way to argue.

https://twitter.com/carolinmcmillan/status/1476174484356968453

So he thinks the “physicalities” don’t exist? So, what, then? We’re all just spirits?

Really not a clever man.… Read the rest

Ghislaine Maxwell found guilty on all but one of the charges.

Maxwell has been found guilty on five of six counts – including the most serious charge, that of sex trafficking of a minor.

This carries a possible 40-year sentence, which means the 60-year-old could spend the rest of her life behind bars.

This charge relates to the testimony of Carolyn, who testified about being paid for sex during visits to Epstein’s Florida home between 2001 and 2004.

At the time of her first visit, she was just 14.

Maybe she should decide she’s a man.… Read the rest