Oliver Burkeman

[ScrimshawTheSecond]

... was the last remaining columnist I rated at the Guardian, before cancelling my subscription. He's wise, measured, thoughtful and funny.

Heartened to see him calling out much transgender ideology lately on twitter.

is this asking for a response or just a thought post

We have to end this confusion whereby endorsing (or pretending to endorse) such an extraordinarily flawed conceptual framework is seen as the precondition for being maximally compassionate & respectful towards the actual humans involved. Quite the opposite.

He wrote this in response to Janice turner's twitter post.

I think it's a very strong statement.

Oh, it's fab.
I think I might use it as a basis for discussion with a trans-curious teenager of my acquaintance.

I've noticed him commenting before. He makes some interesting points.

Hadley Freeman at The Guardian is great, though.

I regard myself as reasonably intelligent and haven't a clue what your talking about you may need to dumb down for a response from a mere mortal

The OP is pleased that a bloke who writes for the Guardian (who I haven't heard of) is making strong gender critical comments on Twitter.

I assume she has posted so that others can read too if they like

And if they are gender critical, feel pleased that some more poeple in the public eye are saying there needs to be more consideration around all this

Does that help?

Oliver Burkeman's Guardian column, which is kind of a guide to living your life (though it's difficult to explain properly) is brilliant.

And he has done loads of gender critical tweets. I have huge admiration for the guy.

Incidentally, Deborah Orr, who is no longer a Guardian columnist, sadly, did a number of gc tweets yesterday and had something of a standup fight with Roz Kaveney, with Suzanne Moore (another Guardian columnist) chipping in on Orr's side. So that's all good.

Thanks, Nothing. Yes, I find his writing interesting and thought others might also like to check it out.

Gravel1, try reading slowly. It's quite a complex and thoughtfully written statement.

There are a couple of good writers at the graun/observer still. Hadley freedman, Carole cadwalladr, Ewan MacAskill (retired I think now?) and the team who did the snowdon stuff - that’s what the guardian used to be really good on. Apologies if I’ve missed anyone.
Alas the paper itself is a mix of fluff and woke most of the time.

Most of the Guardian team are smart enough to see through this crap. Sadly, I think they think that this super-woke response is what people want...

Then again, the Guardian doesn't give a shit about women. Remember their response to the Cologne attacks and Rotherham?

The Guardian have a number of good journalists still. Amelia Gentleman did fantastic work exposing the Windrush scandal. Rob Evans uncovered "spycops" - the undercover policemen who formed sexual relationships with environmental activists.

They recently did a very good expose on under-regulation of medical implants, and a couple of years ago did some brilliant investigative reporting on the working conditions at Sports Direct.

I know they've been crap on the trans stuff. And I know there's a lot of fluff in there. But I haven't given up hope on them yet.

I'm surprised that Suzanne Moore's getting involved again after what happened in 2013, it was pretty brutal but I'm glad if she is.

I'm a pessimist, but I do think that a stone is being rolled up a very large mountain gathering folk along the way and once it passes a certain point its momentum and the amount of people will carry it over the top.

That's what I hope for, but at the moment we need more people...

What happened in 2013 with Suzanna Moore?

It’s really important and welcome that journalists are engaged, debating and disputing the orthodoxy.

hackmum Oh yes. That was good work. I do wonder what such journalists think of all this . People who are at the sharp end of exposing the corruption and venality of society surely (surely?) cannot for one moment be unaware of the threats to freedom of speech this movement poses?

It shows a stark divide between those willing to look reality in the eye and those whose output is woke, fluff and appeasement.

Terfing - in 2013 Suzanne Moore wrote an article for the New Statesman in which she joked about “not having the ideal body shape – that of a Brazilian transsexual”.

Predictably, she received a lot of abuse on Twitter for being "transphobic".

Then Julie Burchill waded in to her defence with a now-infamous article in the Observer that, let's say, pulled no punches. The Observer was inundated with complaints from people claimng to be "offended" or "hurt" and removed the article from its website.

Bowl - I wonder that too. I can imagine that someone like Amelia Gentleman would love to get her teeth stuck into a story like this but isn't allowed to.

Suzanne Moore always struck me as having guts. I am not surprised if she is getting back into it.

Oliver Burkeman was critical of the spurious attempts to prevent TransGender Trend raising the funds to print copies of its school toolkit.

He has been constant and consistent since then.
July 2018
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3265524-Transgender-Trend-Crowdfunder-suspended?pg=2