UnHerdThe latest casualty of the TERF wars is Sasha White, sacked from her job as an assistant agent at the Tobias Literary Agency. Her crime? Alleged transphobia of course. What other issue instils so much fear among the liberal masses?

Julie Bindel

Sasha tweeted from her personal account that JK Rowling’s TERF wars essay was ‘nuanced and insightful’, questioning whether they/them pronouns are truly progressive and her views and questions as to where trans rights and women’s rights might intersect.

The statement released on Twitter by Tobias following a tsunami of complaints from trans activists read: ‘We do not have any room for anti-trans sentiments at TLA. Period. Thus we have parted ways with Sasha’.

The hashtag #IStandWithSashaWhite was soon trending as decent people on Twitter clocked on to the fact that yet another feminist was being burned at the stake.

In recent months, I have heard from a number of feminists living in fear of losing their income as a result of being called to task for a) refusing to add pronouns to emails b) liking a JK Rowling tweet c) questioning whether single sex workplace toilets should become free-for-all, and d) refusing to use language in official documents such as ‘cervix havers’ and ‘chest feeders’.

Continue reading @ UnHerd.

Yet Another Feminist Burned At The Stake

UnHerdThe latest casualty of the TERF wars is Sasha White, sacked from her job as an assistant agent at the Tobias Literary Agency. Her crime? Alleged transphobia of course. What other issue instils so much fear among the liberal masses?

Julie Bindel

Sasha tweeted from her personal account that JK Rowling’s TERF wars essay was ‘nuanced and insightful’, questioning whether they/them pronouns are truly progressive and her views and questions as to where trans rights and women’s rights might intersect.

The statement released on Twitter by Tobias following a tsunami of complaints from trans activists read: ‘We do not have any room for anti-trans sentiments at TLA. Period. Thus we have parted ways with Sasha’.

The hashtag #IStandWithSashaWhite was soon trending as decent people on Twitter clocked on to the fact that yet another feminist was being burned at the stake.

In recent months, I have heard from a number of feminists living in fear of losing their income as a result of being called to task for a) refusing to add pronouns to emails b) liking a JK Rowling tweet c) questioning whether single sex workplace toilets should become free-for-all, and d) refusing to use language in official documents such as ‘cervix havers’ and ‘chest feeders’.

Continue reading @ UnHerd.

10 comments:

  1. The TERF debate has moved from the sublime to the ridiculous to a witch hunt of McCarthyite proportionsd and I do not use that anology lightly. Trans rights and feminism all concern the fluidity of gernderand gender relations and challenge to patriarchal norms. This mkaes this conflict all the more counter-productive.

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  2. If you have testicles you are a male. If you have an Uterus you are a female. Any 'confusion' is a psychiatric disorder or a sexual preference, so for fuck sake stop this nonsense trying to make society at large conform to stop feelings being hurt.

    Wear a fucking helmet.

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    1. but should these things have that type of essentialism and be forever fixed? That might drive a person to mental illness rather than being a mental illness itself. I prefer fluidity but I am by no means dogmatic around this issue.

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  3. Steve,
    I agree. I've did mental gymnastics with this, played devil's advocate. I can't come to any other conclusion that gender dysphoria is a mental illness.

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    1. I don't see it as a mental illness any more than I see a gay lifestyle as a mental illness. But I feel that people who have that view of it need to be free to air their opinion on the matter. In the North the PSNI spoke to Jim Wells because he expressed a view on the hustings that a gay lifestyle was wrong. That he might be a religious whackjob is neither here nor there. He should be allowed to express the opinion.

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  4. AM
    I don't see the comparison between gender dysphoria and homosexuality. How is sexual attraction the same as believing you were born a different sex.
    I'm no psychiatrist or neurologist but from my limited standpoint believing your a different sex than your genetalia indicates psychological or brain trouble.

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    1. The comparison I focus on is people feeling trapped in a circumstance, physical or psychological, from which they are hopelessly alienated and feel a desperate need to be free from. If a person thought they should be a dog instead of another sex I would see your point. It used to be imagined that it was the natural thing to be attracted to people with different genitalia. Even today we have gay conversion therapy run by some of the religious wackos.
      I get the gay thing much easier. My first experience of a sex change person was in a bar in Hamburg about 20 years ago when a person came in with about four days growth and a skirt and one of our hosts said "let her in beside you." Myself and Tommy McKearney were a bit flummoxed. It was a new situation.
      It might be a mental illness but I have seen nothing to show that it is. I don't have an issue with people having concerns about it but I don't fancy the prejudice.
      My daughter is comfortable with it all in a way I could never be. I am just not of that generation. When her trans friends call they get treated like everybody else and get addressed by whatever name they want to be called.
      My major concern would be the impact on the lives of these people if they make a mistake and their lives are messed up. Not as easy to switch back as it is from a gay lifestyle to a straight one.

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  5. That's a humane response. I concede my view is prejudiced. I understand that viewpoint causes hurt. I wish trans people all the happiness in the world, it's just how my brain sees it.
    I'm wrong about most things, Republicanism, Socialism to name two, hopefully this is another example of me being wrong.
    On your last point I read an article on Autistic people disproportionately becoming trans which I thought worrying if true.

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    1. A humane response it might be but it is something to strive for.I am not sure I am there yet. As I said I am not of that generation and I am too old to be Trendy Brendy. I deal with the situation as it arises and I think my way through it as I discuss it with people like you.

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  6. Sean Mallory comments

    Shared a house in Dublin with a gay hurler from Connemara. When I went for the interview for the room....yeah you had to go through an interview process to get accommodation in Dublin at that time...no idea what the process is now...but the fella representing the landlord interviewed me and never mentioned that there was a gay person in the house because he didn’t want it to put me off as they needed someone to take the room as they were all paying extra rent for the spare room and when it was mentioned to other candidates they all walked away...told me all this two weeks later at the Connemara fellas birthday in the Back Lounge Bar in Christchurch...gay bar but no idea if it is still there....I told him I couldn’t give two flying fucks what a person’s sexuality is...I’m straight he’s not...so fuck’n what but I did point out that I had a habit of being quite candid around these things and don’t expect me to be PC or anything but I would never maliciously refer to him as a fag.....so he was fine with that conversation and then the fellas gay mates all arrived in and sat down next to us....what a bunch of Dolly Mixtures that was...gay, bisexuals, trans, and some who hadn’t made their mind up or fuck'n couldn't... it was my round so I got up and asked....right what would you girls like to drink....one of them started to protest and I raised my hand and said, it’s either girls or fags....which do you prefer...the others laughed as they knew I was taking the piss....had a great nights craic that night...they called me everything under the sun....they admired my accent though....bitches....never ever felt uncomfortable in their company and they didn’t with me.....funny fuckers the lot of them too but there were times I witnessed how difficult their lives could be especially when society and individuals would turn on them....I empathised with them then and would I have stood beside them if they needed me....I can’t honestly say but they never did....courageous the lot of them and their courage would put you to shame too....the Connemara fella ended up a multi-millionaire....Grandmother from Galway died and left her fortune and her extensive property portfolio all to him.....liked him a lot better after that and would enquire if perhaps he wanted me to sit on his knee or anything...he would laugh and tell me to fuck off...
    ......oh the fella representing the landlord.....he was from Cavan and as it turned out She who must be obeyed, well her grandfather was his great uncle.....he was from Monaghan and a bar up the street in Dunlin from the house we lived in was owned by her grandfather’s brother....such a small world indeed but our minds needn’t be......I know, I know, that’s rich coming from me!

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