Arielle Scarcella has had enough.

Millennial lesbian vlogger Arielle Scarcella caused a stir last Friday when she announced that she no longer feels a part of the contemporary LGBTQIAA+ movement, the latest evolution of the gay rights movement that stands for ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Allies and others.’

My first introduction to Scarcella was via one of Magdalen Berns’s early videos, in which Magdalen took issue with some bit of trans dogma Scarcella was pushing. It’s been heartening to see her changing her mind since then.

Scarcella, who vlogs about women, sexuality and culture and has over 600,000 YouTube followers, denounced the ridiculously “woke” rainbow coalition movement as “a safe haven for the mentally unstable”, stating that she has been “more cancelled, tortured, tormented, harassed” by what is supposedly her own community than by any other group.

Mary Harrington gets to the core point in explaining why Scarcella has had enough.

The growing desertion of the movement formerly known as LGBT by actual lesbian, gay and bisexual people reflects a core issue raised by its current trajectory, namely the political paralysis that results from an attempt to practice inclusivity in the absence of limits.

Exactly. I keep pointing this out. “Inclusive” and “exclusionary” are bad stupid buzzwords because no politics can be “inclusive” of everyone and everything – politics is all about excluding some things, which entails also excluding people who want to include those things or who represent those things.

Forming a group in order to campaign for that group’s political interests necessarily means defining what that group is, which in turn means defining what it is not. That is, political agency requires a degree of self-definition that is necessarily exclusionary. But as other groups are added, willy-nilly, in the interests of inclusivity, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern the nature of their common political interests.

That + at the end of LGBTQIAA? That’s the door to chaos.

But the growing reluctance to impose limits, and willingness to include even heterosexual people (who sneak in under ‘queer’ or ‘ally’) in the rainbow coalition, renders the political programme ever more diffuse. What, from a political point of view, can lesbian women unite in solidarity with asexuals to campaign for, apart from a general feel-good assertion that ‘we are all valid’?

Not even a feel-good assertion, for me, because it’s such gibberish.

But validation has little meaningful substance as a political programme; in effect it takes away political agency. For if ‘validation’ is the core political demand, those pursuing this kind of identity-based programme ultimately hand power to the authority they claim to challenge, granting the state the ability to confer or withhold personhood itself.

And they turn themselves into something like a library card or a bus pass. No thanks.

The BBC is doing a Lent talk. This year’s sermon: how Jesus is like a trans woman.

Jesus’ 40-day struggle in the wilderness led to his discovery of who he was and what his mission would be. This year’s Lent Talks theme is identity – losing and gaining identity, struggling with identity, accepting and owning identity. Anglican priest Rachel Mann reflects on the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and on her journey of identity as a trans woman.

From the Australian Feminist Law Journal, an abstract:

Sexually Dimorphic Bodies: A Production of Birth Certificates

Birth certificates produce bodies? Who knew?!

Registering a newborn’s gender/sex on the birth certificate is usually seen as a mere formality that reflects a natural state of affairs. This article, however, shows that the registration of gender/sex does something else than record naturally given sex differences in bodies; it actually produces and shapes bodies to develop in a way conformant with understandings of sexual dimorphism.

Hmm. I wonder what Lena Holzer means by “shows.” I say that because I doubt that a journal article can “show” something nonsensical.

Sexed bodies are therefore not pre-discursive and static objects, but they are constantly in the process of becoming, influenced by socio-legal procedures, including gender/sex registration.

Well obviously living bodies are not static, because a static body is dead. And of course bodies are in some sense always in the process of becoming, because they’re constantly changing in various ways.

The jargon makes this abstract look more like literary “theory” than law. You know you’re being conned (or if you don’t you should) when instead of “living bodies change constantly” you get “bodies are not pre-discursive and static objects.” It’s not difficult to think of obvious points one can make to demonstrate that being classified female or male leads to many effects that shape females and males, including their bodies…but that doesn’t sound clever enough for a journal.

By analysing the effects of registering the legal gender/sex on birth certificates and the change of gender markers thereof in various jurisdictions, in particular Australian states and territories, the article aims to show how bodies of intersex as well as endosex cis and trans persons are made into what they are expected to be: sexually dimorphic.

Oh yes? Then how does it work with all the other sexually dimorphic species? They don’t have birth certificates, so how do they manage to be sexually dimorphic anyway? How does the bull moose know it’s time to fight all the other bull mooses and impregnate as many cows as possible? Does someone pass him a note saying “You are a bull”?

It concludes that legally assigning a gender/sex has intrinsically violent effects on bodies, something that could be avoided by eliminating the public registration of gender/sex.

Where did “intrinsically violent” come from?

Whatever. I can tell you this much: if you visit Yosemite or Yellowstone in autumn don’t try to get friendly with the bulls. Rutting season is no joke, birth certificate or no birth certificate.

Someone who probably knows what he’s talking about explains why Trump’s tweet about the virus was so terrible.

Because it’s not “very much under control,” right?

But which is more important, telling the truth so that we can try to prepare, or making Trump look as if he’s doing his job? The question answers itself.

What’s more important – 300 million people, or Trump? Trump, of course, every time. His reputation matters far more than our survival.

Making America great again.

Some children have to be tricked into eating vegetables.

Donald Trump, a 73-year-old man who has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal at his fingertips, must be tricked into eating vegetables. The White House staff has also sought to cut down the president’s ice cream consumption by making it “less accessible.”

They put it in the library.

The newsflash is from an interview with the former White House doctor in the NY Times.

In public, [Ronny] Jackson lauded Trump’s health as “incredible.” At one point, he even told reporters that Trump could live to 200 years old.

Behind the scenes, however, Jackson said he wanted Trump to lose 10-15 pounds. He mapped out a workout routine involving an exercise bike and elliptical machine, while also seeking to alter Trump’s nutrition. Ultimately, “the exercise stuff never took off as much as I wanted it to,” Jackson told The Times. “But we were working on his diet. We were making the ice cream less accessible, we were putting cauliflower into the mashed potatoes.”

And that little boy is only 73 years old.

The story is by Pink News “gender and identity” reporter Vic Parsons, who is or pretends to be incredulous that any women or girls ever have issues to do with excess bleeding.

Conservative peer Lord Lucas has spoken out about gender-neutral toilets, which he bizarrely thinks should be scrapped because women don’t want to “wash their bloody underwear” in front of men.

Vic Parsons doesn’t explain what’s bizarre about that.

The reality is that women don’t want to wash bloody underpants in front of anyone except possibly immediate family. Certainly having to wash blood out of one’s underpants in any public restroom/toilet would be a depressing and embarrassing need, but it would for sure be much worse in a “gender neutral” restroom toilet. Personally I don’t think women do that much – I think it’s more usual to wrap everything in layers of paper towel and wait until you get home to do the washing part. But I think if they do need to they should have a man-free restroom/toilet to do it in. Vic Parsons however is full of disdain.

During a House of Lords debate on Monday, Lucas claimed that gender-neutral bathrooms should be scrapped because women are “unsafe and uncomfortable” sharing space with men when they’re on their period.

“I do not think that any woman really wants to wash her bloody underwear when she has flooded during a period in front of men,” said Lucas, who, despite what this statement would have you believe, has been married to three women and has two daughters.

Maybe one or more of them had or have exceptionally heavy periods. That can happen, you know.

Pink News arrives at peak misogyny.

The BBC is live-updating news on the virus.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US’s top public health agency, has warned Americans to brace themselves for a spread of coronavirus within the country.

“It’s not so much a question of if this will happen in this country any more but a question of when this will happen,” Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), said.

And it will be bad.

In Iran however they’re saying don’t worry, it’s all good.

Amid fears around Iran’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, President Hassan Rouhani has appealed for calm, saying he expects the situation to be “normal” by this Saturday.

He was addressing the first meeting of the National HQ for Combating Corona, which was broadcast live by Iran’s rolling news channel IRINN.

“From Saturday onwards, all processes would be as per normal in the country,” he said. “If there is any special case, which the national HQ itself declares, then it would do so.”

So that’s where Trump is getting his information.

President Rouhani then urged people to go about their business and work as usual, and warned against listening to “conspiracies and fear-mongering of our enemies”, which he said were being spread in an attempt to bring Iran to a standstill.

JUST IGNORE IT AND IT WILL GO AWAY.

Wait maybe Trump isn’t getting his cues from Iran.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he’s “deeply concerned” that Iran’s government may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak in the country.

“The United States is deeply concerned by information indicating the Iranian regime may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak in that country,” he told reporters today.

“All nations, including Iran, should tell the truth about the coronavirus and co-operate with international aid organisations.”

Does that apply to Trump? Or no?

The CDC says look out, it will be bad. Trump says he’s got everything totally under control.

The CDC says:

New outbreaks in Asia, Europe and the Middle East are renewing fears of a coming global pandemic, even as the spread in China appears to be slowing.

RIGHT NOW “We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad,” a C.D.C. official said.

Trump:

He thinks his words are magic.

Now Trump is pretending to think the sane Supreme Court justices should recuse themselves.

President Trump criticized remarks by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as “inappropriate” and said the Supreme Court justices should recuse themselves from cases involving the president.

“I just don’t know how they cannot recuse themselves for anything Trump or Trump related,” Trump said Tuesday in a wide-ranging news conference in New Delhi.

It seems very rude to prattle about something so parochial when he’s in India. But…theory of mind again. He’s not capable of stopping to think that people in New Delhi have other concerns.

He then had the gall to say Sotomayor said something “highly inappropriate.” Dude.

The remarks are an apparent reference to a recent Sotomayor dissent in which she wrote that the administration had made a habit of turning to the Supreme Court after losses in lower courts.

“Claiming one emergency after another, the government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases, demanding immediate attention and consuming limited court resources in each,” Sotomayor wrote. “And with each successive application, of course, its cries of urgency ring increasingly hollow.” She added that the Supreme Court was “partly to blame” because it “has been all too quick to grant the government’s” requests.

In other words her point is that Trump’s administration is doing something “highly inappropriate” and in violation of precedent, so naturally his response is “No YOU are.”

Meanwhile in another (yet related) part of the forest, Mhairi Black MP is defending her decision to take a drag queen to one of those children’s story time gigs we hear so much about. The thing is, the drag queen is on Twitter, with photos, and…well I’ll let a reporter tell the story:

Renfrewshire MP Mhairi Black has defended a decision to invite a drag queen into a primary school to read to pupils, despite an outcry from parents over sexually-explicit social media posts.

Drag queen FlowJob was invited into Glencoats Primary, in Paisley, last week to speak to pupils about the notorious Section 28 Act, which was later repealed.

Flowjob. Erm…is that really a necessary part of the primary school curriculum?

The event was attended by Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Ms Black, who is a vocal activist for LGBT rights.

After parents voiced concern that sexually-explicit images were on FlowJob’s social media profile, Renfrewshire Council has said it would never have invited the performer had it been aware of the posts.

Oops.

But Ms Black slated critics and accused them of homophobia.

She did.

As many many people are pointing out in replies, this isn’t a drag queen as in panto dame, this is a sexualized drag queen. Andy Lewis made a compelling point.

It’s like bringing a pole dancer to a primary school to “teach children to overcome stereotypes” or some such shit – the pole dancer part is a stereotype. So is “Flowjob.”

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1231744865974792195

Can we move to Greenland?

This again. Again. Rewire News:

Across the country, the anti-abortion movement continues to shame, pressure, and punish people who understand that abortion is a human right.

No, it doesn’t. It continues to shame, pressure, and punish women. The anti-abortion movement is about as far from being gender-neutral as it’s possible to be.

For nearly two decades, nearly three million people have ended their pregnancy with medication abortion.

Nope. Not people. Women. It’s not people who end their pregnancies, it’s women.

Self-managing an abortion consists of two sets of pills to be taken at or under ten weeks after the first day of a person’s last period: The first, mifepristone, blocks the hormone essential to advancing pregnancy. In the following 24 to 48 hours, the person takes the second medication, misoprostol, to empty the uterus.

The woman. Not the person, the woman.

Research demonstrates that with pills from reliable sources, accurate information and back-up care in the rare circumstances it is needed, people can self-manage their abortion—empowering individuals to make autonomous choices about their own reproductive health and increasing access to safe, effective abortion care options that fit their personal circumstances.

It’s not “people” who need to self-manage their abortion, it’s women.

The biggest risk to people who self-manage their abortions using medication abortion is not a threat to their health or safety from the abortion itself, but the threat of prosecution as a result of over-policing in communities, systemic racism, and outdated laws. 

The risk is to women. Refusing to call women “women” is insulting and minimizing.

Indeed, since 1973, at least 21 people in the United States have been arrested, investigated, and jailed for ending their own pregnancies. Instead of prosecuting people and providers, our communities should be ensuring that anyone who needs or wants to, can end their pregnancy safely, effectively, with dignity and respect.

Women. It was at least 21 women who were arrested, investigated, and jailed for ending their own pregnancies. Stop erasing them. It’s women and providers who should not be prosecuted. Stop erasing them.

We must pressure the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get rid of the medically unnecessary regulations that make it hard for people to access medication abortion pills. And we must hold our lawmakers accountable and demand they repeal laws that could be used to criminalize people who self-manage their abortions.

Women. Women.

I’ve never understood the point of Chris Matthews anyway: he seems to me to be just what you don’t want in a tv pundit – a loud unmodulated screamy voice saying stupid things without pausing for breath. Now people are saying he should go away because too ignorant for primetime.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is facing calls to resign after he compared Bernie Sanders’ victory in the Nevada caucus to the Nazi invasion of France. Sanders won the Nevada Democratic caucuses with 47 percent of the vote, the Associated Press reported.

As the results came in and Sanders took an early lead on Saturday night, Hardball host Matthews claimed Republicans would release opposition research on Sanders that would “kill him” if he became the Democratic nominee for president. But Matthews said it was “too late” to stop him, at one point comparing Sanders’ victory over other top Democratic contenders to Hitler’s invasion of France.

“I was reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940 and the general, Reynaud, calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over.’ And Churchill says, ‘How can that be? You’ve got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?’ He said, ‘It’s over.'”

People are reacting to the Nazi bit, but it looks to me as if Matthews was talking about the blitzkrieg bit. Nazi ideology is one thing and German military technique is another. The fall of France amazed everyone because it was so swift and unexpected. It’s still a ridiculous analogy though, but that’s the trouble with being a tv pundit whose chief skill is screaming.

I don’t want Sanders to win the nomination though. Over 80 and post-heart-attack? Bad idea. He shouldn’t be running at all.

We don’t seem to be able to do anything right.