More cheerfully, JKR is on fire today.

.@sally_hines, I've given your book 'Is Gender Fluid?' to several people who want a short primer on what gender identity ideology's all about. So far, 100% of readers have rated it self-contradictory, unevidenced bollocks. You have my permission to use that quote on the cover. https://t.co/gUw8EHnyTz

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 26, 2024

Then a compact little essay:

Gender identity “is a core part of who we know ourselves to be”. It can be “fixed or fluctuate”, absent or neutral. There is no explanation of how we’re supposed to identify our core as male, female or both, though the books’ photographs suggest that if we feel like beauty pageant winners

Then try harder.

"I can't understand why we don't just get on and allow a very small number of people undergoing gender reassignment to live their lives in a happy, comfortable way."

SNP Campaign Manager Stewart Hosie is asked about the differing views in his own party on gender. #BBCR4Today

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) June 26, 2024

… Read the rest

Of course David Tennant’s pious wish for Kemi Badenoch to stop existing is being framed as “a row” between the two of them as opposed to a white man publicly wishing for a black woman to stop existing.

Rishi Sunak has intervened in a row between Kemi Badenoch and actor David Tennant, saying the Doctor Who star is “the problem”.

But it’s not “a row between” Badenoch and Tennant. It’s Tennant publicly wishing non-existence on Badenoch – publicly as in: in a public speech at a sleb event.

Tennant suggested at the British LGBT Awards last week that he wanted a world where the equalities minister “doesn’t exist any more”, and said she should “shut up”.

No he didn’t… Read the rest

Labour v women chapter 7 thousand:

Labour has “a lot of work to do to earn the trust” of women in the wake of rows about transgender rights, the shadow health secretary has said. Wes Streeting said it had taken the party “a while to navigate what has been a pretty complicated and at times toxic debate”, saying it was now time to “show some humility” for the hurt caused.

Oh [Bronx cheer]. Try rage instead of hurt. We don’t need the not so subtle reminder that you fools see women as the whiny sex, the sex that gets “hurt” if you give all its rights away, the sex that doesn’t do rage because it’s not ladylike.

Gender-coded … Read the rest

News I’ve been dreading for some years:

Frederick Crews, Withering Critic of Freud’s Legacy, Dies at 91

A literary critic, essayist and author, he was a leading voice among revisionist skeptics who saw Freud as a charlatan and psychoanalysis as a pseudoscience.

Mr. Crews, a professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley, was the author of more than a dozen books. Most recently, he wrote “Freud: The Making of an Illusion,” a deeply researched evisceration of Freud’s reputation and therapeutic insights that drew wide critical attention when it came out in 2017.

He was a longtime contributor to The New York Review of Books, where his essays and reviews explored the works Melville, Twain and Flannery O’Connor,

Thick thick thick. Thick as a whole load of planks.

The shadow secretary of education thinks that men who “go through a process” should be using the women’s toilets. What “process”? There is no “process” that turns men into women, just as there’s no “process” that turns stallions into mares or bulls into cows.

I suppose the idea is – whether they know it or not – that if men are willing to go to all that trouble then we owe it to them to let them take what belongs to women. They’re sincere, they made an effort, they jumped through hoops, they really really want to. Sorry, wimz, you lose.… Read the rest

I think I know the answer to this dudely question.

I only have one thing to ask: honestly who the fuck does she think she is? pic.twitter.com/8SGgbkSu4P

— Ally Fogg (@AllyFogg) June 25, 2024

She’s someone who amassed an enormous amount of money and influence and clout by writing novels that sell in the millions. She’s someone who decided to put some of that money and clout to use disputing the more unreasonable claims and demands of trans activists, and defending feminist women. I expect she would agree that she fits that description, and I think that’s probably who she thinks she is.

Some people who reply to Ally Fogg are asking who the fuck he thinks he is.

pic.twitter.com/OMYLulZLlQ

Oh no, Labour says, women are abandoning Labour because Labour abandoned women, how will we get them back??

It comes after the Harry Potter author said at the weekend that Labour had “abandoned” women and that she would “struggle to support them” in the election over their stance on trans issues.

Rowling, the Harry Potter author, wrote in The Times that she had a “poor opinion” of Sir Keir’s character and claimed he was “dismissive and often offensive” of women’s concerns about sex-based rights.

That is, dismissive of and often offensive about.

Ya think?

But you’ve been doing the opposite for years now, so women aren’t going to just stampede back to you. Women aren’t going to believe … Read the rest

Can Louisiana force all public school children to stare at “the ten commandments” every day? Nine families are looking to find out.

Nine Louisiana families have sued the state over a new law that orders every public school classroom to display a poster of the Ten Commandments.

…

Under the legislation, HB71, every classroom that receives state funding must by 2025 prominently display the biblical text in a “large, easily readable font” on a poster that is 11 inches by 14 inches (28cm by 35.5cm). The commandments must be “the central focus” of the display, the law says.

The complaint, backed by civil rights groups, says such a display violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees

Spot the blind spot.

During his speech at the British LGBT Awards, David Tennant told Tory politician Kemi Badenoch to ‘shut up’ in a passionate award speech. The former Doctor Who star was honoured at the glitzy awards ceremony for his support of the trans community, winning the accolade for celebrity ally.

…

‘But I think I suppose if I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it, as long as they’re not hurting anyone else, should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it? It is human

Brighton and Hove News on that rally on Sunday:

A group of women took shelter in a shop when they were surrounded by dozens of protesters who followed them after they left a rally in Brighton yesterday (Sunday 23 June).

…

Several of those taking part in the rally yesterday complained that they were subject to aggressive abuse from about 200 protesters who mainly described themselves as trans rights activists.

Let Women Speak tweeted that Sussex Police had shown a “failure to act on multiple breaches of the peace, harassment and intimidation”, with footage on social media capturing several incidents including scuffles. And several of the women were alarmed to see and hear Sarah Jane Baker, also known as

Wiltshire police are deranged.

So, according to the official record, this crime was committed by a male but a female will be sent to prison for it? pic.twitter.com/rcIjzFpc0G

— Wings Over Scotland (@WingsScotland) June 25, 2024

A “person” was found guilty of rape. The court tried this “person” as a woman, even though he is of course a man. Women can’t rape. The police say that at the time of the “offence” – i.e. the rape – he was “living as a man.” What they mean is that he wasn’t yet pretending to be a woman. He was found guilty and remanded in custody. The victim of the rape is referred to as “they.”

Complete dog’s breakfast.… Read the rest

He’s horrified is he? Where’s he been all this time?

I support the nurses and I’m horrified that they’ve had to resort to legal action. We’ve got to find a better way through this and I’d be happy to meet them. We’ve got to find a way through that treats trans people with respect and respects women’s safe spaces.

— Wes Streeting (@wesstreeting) June 24, 2024

He says he’s horrified, yet he still says we have to “find a way through” this business of a man in the women’s changing room, staring at them while they undress. He says he’s horrified, yet he still says we’ve got to find a way through that treats trans people with respect first – … Read the rest

Man thrilled at opportunity to mangle women while playing rugby.

Female rugby players in Alberta, Canada, are expressing concerns for their safety after a male who only recently began to identify as a “woman” was permitted to join their team. The women say their club is more worried about “discrimination” lawsuits than their potential injuries.

Players for the Clanswomen, a female rugby team in the Clansmen Rugby Club (CRC) and under the jurisdiction of the Edmonton Rugby Club, told Reduxx they were only recently informed by a coach that Maeryn Gellhaus, 48, was allowed to join their team.

Several members of the Clanswomen, who are being kept anonymous for their protection, explained that they knew Gellhaus had previously played

Trump goes all ancient Rome on us.

As The New York Times reported, the Republican candidate also told his evangelical audience that he pitched starting a league for migrants to fight one another for sport.

Appearing at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s conference in Washington on Saturday, Mr. Trump described migrants with the dehumanizing terms he often uses to refer to them, saying they were “tough,” “come from prisons” and are “nasty, mean.” Mr. Trump then said that he had suggested to Dana White, an ally of the former president’s who is the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, “Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters?”

In fact, the former president seemed quite animated

Trump tells the same stupid story all over again. To demonstrate that he’s not rambling.

"You heard my story of the boat. With the shark. Right? I got killed on that. They thought I was rambling. I'm not rambling … it's sort of a smart story, right?" — Trump pic.twitter.com/oxtfz6JL83

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 22, 2024

No. … Read the rest

Men respecting women:

The Times on The Heresy:

Rosie Duffield and JK Rowling…were threatened with murder by a man for daring to dispute the transparent absurdities of the extreme trans lobby, and championing the right of women to enjoy female-only spaces free of men who identify as women. Like Galileo before them, the two women prefer science to “luxury beliefs” as a guide to truth. They happen to share the view that some things just are, and whether or not people like them is neither here nor there.

We all (we heretics) share the view that like and dislike have no power to change reality (except in the very narrow sense of changing our feelings about reality). Normally adults are well aware … Read the rest

Man awarded $35,000 Canadian because a salon refused to wax his legs.

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) has awarded $35,000 in damages to an Indigenous transgender woman who was refused a leg wax at a salon in Windsor six years ago. However, the owner of the salon is challenging the ruling, which his lawyer calls “deeply flawed.”

The decision comes six years after the woman contacted Mad Wax Windsor Inc. by phone to book an appointment. She alleged there was a string of discriminatory and retaliatory behaviour by the salon and owner Jason Carruthers. 

…

In their phone call, the woman testified, Carruthers told her there was no one on staff who would be comfortable providing services

As long as I’m on the subject…exploring the Texas ACLU Facebook led me to the page of The Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity. Guess what: they too refuse to say “women.” (And what tf is reproductive equity?) It’s all people who are pregnant, abortion care for Texans, yadda yadda. “Women” is a filthy word and absolutely must never be used under any circumstances.

It’s been two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, forever changing the landscape of reproductive and constitutional rights. Despite the challenges and ongoing attacks on abortion access, we’ve persevered and continue to show up for Texan abortion seekers. Thanks to your unwavering support, we’ve expanded our reach and are helping more people than ever before,