… Read the restWho was not invited to participate in the Harry Potter 20th anniversary special? Why, the very woman, who in the most difficult of circumstances, and by the power of her own will and invention, brought the entire phenomenon into existence. She was effectively blacklisted from the celebration of what she created while three pretentious and above all blasphemously ungrateful actors held the spotlight, and further — I’m looking for an elegant verb — dumped on the woman who made them. Made them, almost as completely as she made Harry Potter.
…
Last year when certain authorities began promoting the phrase “people who menstruate” as a replacement for a term familiar since the birth of
All entries by this author
Three blasphemously ungrateful actors
Dec 23rd, 2021 4:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonDistraction is a thing
Dec 23rd, 2021 4:03 pm | By Ophelia BensonNow there’s a headline.
Tesla, bowing to pressure, stops allowing drivers to play video games while driving
Great god almighty. As if people don’t already drive insanely enough.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the company will send out a software update over the internet so the function called “Passenger Play” will be locked and won’t work while vehicles are in motion.
Meaning that currently drivers can play video games while tailgating people going the speed limit in a downpour on a dark winter afternoon. Fabulous.
“The Vehicle Safety Act prohibits manufacturers from selling vehicles with defects posing unreasonable risks to safety, including technologies that distract drivers from driving safely,” NHTSA’s statement said.
But haha manufacturers pay no attention … Read the rest
National Organization for what?
Dec 23rd, 2021 12:01 pm | By Ophelia BensonNo [clap] No [clap] No [clap]
Meanwhile the National Organization for Women, like other national and global organizations for women, should be doing its job and focusing on women, not men who call themselves women and not trans people and not “non-binary” people. You don’t see labor unions dropping all their labor issues to say Respect [clap] the [clap] bosses [clap]. Why is it that women’s organizations are so eager to throw women overboard and “center” the concerns of male people instead?… Read the rest
Women wear trousers
Dec 23rd, 2021 11:48 am | By Ophelia BensonTory MP Caroline Nokes just wants to make the Gender Recognition Act kinder.
In order for an individual to have their acquired gender recognised, a person has to prove to a panel of strangers that they will never meet – the gender recognition panel – that they are either feminine or masculine. It has caused a great deal of concern in the transgender community that the panel, in effect, sits in judgment upon them and their transition. Who is anyone to decide whether someone is feminine or masculine enough?
Well, since you ask, why should whether someone is “feminine” or “masculine” be a matter for government at all? Why should it be officially “recognised”? Why should it even be … Read the rest
Waterstones Crouch End
Dec 23rd, 2021 11:13 am | By Ophelia BensonMeanwhile in Crouch End –
https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1474006071115231233Because men who say they are women are infinitely more deserving and important and worthy of deference and “be kind” than mere women.… Read the rest
Badly written & not well regarded
Dec 23rd, 2021 11:09 am | By Ophelia BensonThis is a novel way for shops to go about things.
If you're going to give vouchers for Christmas, obviously don't give them for a shop whose staff may try and lecture your friend on their reading choices. Still no reply from Waterstones to this tweet yesterday. They must have noticed it by now https://t.co/exJMRCTwWD pic.twitter.com/SdTXgljWfD
— Anya Palmer (@anyabike) December 23, 2021
Bookstores deciding which books are well written and thus to be sold and which are not and thus to be unavailable to customers. What a fantastic customer service! Apparently they read all the books themselves to save the buying public time.… Read the rest
Cutie
Dec 23rd, 2021 10:50 am | By Ophelia BensonPedophile who Identifies as a 5-Year-Old Girl
A 60-year-old pedophile who claims to identify as a 5-year-old girl was found to have been in breach of his child sexual harm prevention order after he approached two little girls and kissed them.
Janiel Verainer, of Chatham, UK, was found by the court to have breached a sexual harm order imposed in 2016 after he was found kissing a small girl outside of a cafe in Thanet, UK. At the time, child sexual exploitation images were also found on Verainer’s devices. Verainer was sentenced to 15 months in prison, and the sexual harm prevention order – one requiring he stay away from all children – was implemented.
But he did it again: … Read the rest
A lot of support and kindness towards trans people
Dec 22nd, 2021 4:37 pm | By Ophelia BensonWe always have to be kinder. Kinder and kinder and kinder and kinder. There’s never enough. No one bother about being kinder to us though. We’re just old boots.
… Read the restTrans rights are a major part of the remit of [Tory MP Caroline] Nokes and her committee, which is currently undertaking the inquiry into the government’s response to Gender Recognition Act reform. (May’s government held a long consultation on updating the GRA and committed to introducing those reforms, which were later shelved by Johnson’s administration.) The committee hearings are extraordinarily sensitive, empathetic and detailed sessions with some of the leading figures on both sides of this debate, one of the most bitter in the current political landscape.
Nokes, in
The beard is visible
Dec 22nd, 2021 3:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonNo, that’s not true.
Woman jailed for having cocaine-fuelled sex with an Alsatianhttps://t.co/fRWqa9eBbg pic.twitter.com/nMlr468VXJ
— The Scottish Sun (@ScottishSun) December 22, 2021
That’s a man.
And humans can’t “have sex” with dogs. The man didn’t “have sex with an Alsation”; he abused a dog.
This is not our crime.… Read the rest
Already fraught
Dec 22nd, 2021 11:02 am | By Ophelia BensonI don’t think so.
Depressing that a handful of people responded to this with WHY WOULD YOU USE THE PRONOUN 'HE.' I can't imagine a better way to derail conversations that are already fraught than to insist, as a matter of principle, on *not* using the pronouns people request. Dumb hill for dying https://t.co/RWXzAzvx3d
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) December 22, 2021
I don’t think it’s daft or purist or obstinate or stupid to dislike customized pronouns. It’s maybe somewhat stupid or wrong to tell off other people for using them, but I think we have good reasons for objecting to them in general.
For one thing they condition us, as is the plan. If we say it we start to … Read the rest
Not those of a charity
Dec 22nd, 2021 10:41 am | By Ophelia BensonJolyon Maugham, aka The Good Law Project, continues his bullying of the LGB Alliance.
… Read the restThe Tribunal has agreed to hear our arguments as to why the LGB so-called Alliance (LGBA) should not have been given charitable status and why their activities are not those of a charity. This means Mermaids, the claimant in the case, will have the opportunity to present the facts in full. The hearing will take place in May 2022.
…
To be registered as a charity, an organisation must be established exclusively for purposes which the law recognises as charitable, and it must pursue them in a way which gives rise to tangible benefits that outweigh any associated harms. We don’t believe that legal
Onside isn’t he
Dec 22nd, 2021 9:33 am | By Ophelia BensonOn Today this morning:
And here it is for those who missed it. #R4Today pic.twitter.com/NBlmAM2qoi
— John Rogan (@JRogan3000) December 22, 2021
Now revising those rules
Dec 22nd, 2021 7:02 am | By Ophelia BensonJames Kirkup thanks Harry Miller and Fair Cop.
He talked to Harry almost three years ago about what the cops had done.
After all, he’d broken no law, and even the police force involved confirmed that. Instead, he was contacted and a record was made of his conduct under rules around ‘non-crime hate incidents’ (NCHIs). These were introduced after the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence, with the intention of giving the police a means of tracking behaviour that, while not crossing the threshold of a crime, gave a fair indication that a person’s actions were likely to escalate to full-blown crime.
Aaaaand does that apply to gender critical tweets? Are gender critical opinion-havers likely to commit full-blown crimes?
Of … Read the rest
When snits go bad
Dec 22nd, 2021 4:58 am | By Ophelia BensonGregor Murray three days ago:
Is this true, @ScoutsScotland ?
If so, please consider this my resignation, @freeby67 – clearly scouting is not a safe space for trans people. https://t.co/aSTl9e45nE
— Non Binary and all that. (@grogipher) December 19, 2021
Gregor Murray two days ago:
Also, my Office 365 account has been deleted, alongwith a whole load of data that was pretty crucial for Scotland's largest Scout event next year. That's going to be very awkward for the volunteers, and I really hope it doesn't negatively impact on the young people.
— Non Binary and all that. (@grogipher) December 20, 2021
He means (he clarifies in a later tweet) that the Scouts deleted his Office account, not that he did … Read the rest
Egg thief lizard
Dec 21st, 2021 6:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonA fossil of a dinosaur about to hatch.
Scientists have announced the discovery of a perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo that was preparing to hatch from its egg, just like a chicken.
Perfectly preserved skeleton, that is.
The researchers say it’s 66 million years old or more.
The discovery has also given researchers a greater understanding of the link between dinosaurs and modern birds. The fossil shows the embryo was in a curled position known as “tucking”, which is a behaviour seen in birds shortly before they hatch.
… Read the restIt's one of the most stunning dinosaur fossils I've ever seen. But it's also important: it tells us that the 'tucking postures' of today's birds–in which they curl their head under their
Over Sarah Palin’s dead body
Dec 21st, 2021 3:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe “you can’t tell me what to do!!” party continues to embrace death by suffocation.
Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate, used the same week that the US passed 800,000 Covid-19 deaths to tell a rightwing gathering she would add to that toll herself before she would agree to be given a vaccine.
“It’ll be over my dead body that I’ll have to get a shot,” Palin told a cheering crowd. “I will not do that. I won’t do it, and they better not touch my kids either.”
Awesome! So brave, so defiant, so protective of her kids’ right to die instead of getting vaccinated.
… Read the restPalin, who tested positive for Covid in March, was speaking at AmericaFest
Ties formally cut
Dec 21st, 2021 3:35 pm | By Ophelia BensonLet’s have a round of applause for You Cee ELLLL.
… Read the restUniversity College London has become the first university to formally cut ties to the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, saying its membership of Stonewall’s programmes could inhibit academic freedom and discussion around sex and gender.
UCL announced that it would end its involvement with Stonewall’s workplace equality index, which rates employers on their policies, and its diversity schemes, following a recommendation from the university’s most senior academics.
“Following a period of debate within our community and careful consideration of the issues, UCL has now taken the decision that we will not re-join Stonewall’s diversity champions programme or make a submission to the workplace equality index,” UCL said in a statement.
Despite warnings
Dec 21st, 2021 11:47 am | By Ophelia BensonTrans people should be able to self-declare their legal gender, MPs have recommended despite warnings of impact it will have on single sex spaces.
That is, on spaces women need for safety and privacy.
A new report from the Women and Equalities Committee has found that the process by which people can legally transition is “unfair and overly medicalised”.
Women and Equalities Committee shafts women.
Drop many of the requirements, the MPs say. No need to live in the bespoke gender for two years first – just go for it.
… Read the restThe Government has also been urged to also remove the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria before a person can acquire a Gender Recognition
Can I just question the premise of that?
Dec 21st, 2021 11:25 am | By Ophelia BensonProfessor Alice Sullivan tells us why we would want to know.
https://twitter.com/ProfAliceS/status/14732345130399252523/ONS lost to @fairplaywomen at Judicial Review when they attempted to change the meaning of the word sex in order to undermine the collection of clear data on sex. https://t.co/UGV0vna96w
— Professor Alice Sullivan (@ProfAliceS) December 21, 2021
5/Those who use the claim that gender identity trumps sex as a justification for not collecting data on sex seek to make it impossible to test their assumptions. This demonstrates a radically anti-scientific approach to evidence.
— Professor Alice Sullivan (@ProfAliceS) December 21, 2021
… Read the rest7/The fact that the Women and Equalities Select Committee don't understand that sex matters is troubling. Even more troubling is their acceptance of the view that