How the mighty have fallen. The Age vs Holly Lawford Smith

[DancelikeEmmaGoldman]

I suppose the fact that a major daily newspaper has reported the issue might be seen as a win.

However.

In an attempt to discredit Dr Lawford Smith’s website (www.noconflicttheysaid.org/), which invites women to share their experiences of conflict between women’s rights and self ID (which is law in Victoria), The Age article, (amp.theage.com.au/lifestyle/gender/transphobic-website-puts-melbourne-university-academics-at-odds-20210225-p575u4.html), takes exception to what the journalist believes is the false characterisation of transwomen as predators.

Of the (then 23), pages of stories, he chose this example.

I suppose you could, charitably, interpret the choice as a sly way of agreeing with Dr Lawford Smith without losing woke cookies.

In 3 days of operation and despite concerted cyberattacks, there are 27 pages of stories.

The things they do to prevent us talking. There is a notice on the site atm that due to hacking the submission form isn’t currently operational so everything has to be submitted on email

www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/gender/transphobic-website-puts-melbourne-university-academics-at-odds-20210225-p575u4.html

You can just imagine the journalist scanning through the pages, going "hmm no, I can't discredit that, no, no, no,ah here we are.. .. a guy who just has cartoons of little girls being raped..that's not too bad...."

Very sad that a reputable newspaper takes this stance, and also that it finds any kind of paedophile pornography trivial.

That's quite extraordinary. It's always all about minimising the seriousness of it. It's always 'its just a cartoon' to 'I just downloaded it, I didn't do it' to 'I was under a lot of pressure at the time'.
Excuse after excuse.
Any time someone minimises CSA images, I always think they need their hard drive checked. Decent people don't do that.

The new editor of The Age, Gay Alcorn, recently apologised for running an article by an anonymous parent of a gender dysphoric child who was worried that affirmation was the only treatment available.

I'd like to say that I can't believe a journalist would try to explain away possession of child pornographic material to suit an ideological position on same sex spaces, but unfortunately I can. The Age is a lost cause.

Another story from the same journalist: www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/gender/now-i-use-the-mens-bathroom-but-its-still-uncomfortable-20210227-p576d4.html

For Wolfie Sun, choosing which public bathroom to use is an intensely personal matter.

“I strongly believe that transwomen are women and should have equal rights to whatever toilet they feel comfortable using,” says 24-year-old Sun, who was assigned female at birth, medically transitioned in 2017, and identifies as non-binary." says Wolfie Son.

"“Before I medically transitioned, I still used the women’s bathroom, because I didn’t feel safe using the men’s,” they say. “But you could look at me and tell I wasn’t threatening — I’m Asian, I’m small, I didn’t look like a man. Yet I still got dirty looks from other women in the bathroom.”
"Sun – who appears in a short film that addresses this very idea under the Escape Velocity banner – agrees with the idea of third spaces, but adds: “I do not have any sympathy for people who pretend to have ‘nuanced conversations’ around trans people and bathrooms but who are in reality using this issue as an excuse to discriminate against the transgender community.

“There are more instances of transgender people, particularly transwomen, being the victims and not the perpetrators of violence and sexual assault,” they say. “Unfortunately, this fear-mongering, one-sided conversation has a real impact on the safety of transgender people.”

Some of this seems slightly contradictory...

@Xoxoxoxoxoxox

You can just imagine the journalist scanning through the pages, going "hmm no, I can't discredit that, no, no, no,ah here we are.. .. a guy who just has cartoons of little girls being raped..that's not too bad...."

As one might expect, the Student's Union seem to have similar views:

"The student union’s Queer department....accusing the university of using “the weak excuse of ‘academic freedom’ to protect ... hateful rhetoric”. www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/gender/now-i-use-the-mens-bathroom-but-its-still-uncomfortable-20210227-p576d4.html

Rhetoric: Noun. Speech or argument with which one disagrees.

It's a great website (Holly's) - has it been linked here yet?

www.noconflicttheysaid.org/

Thanks for posting these links, Dance and Yet. Holly’s site has already been attacked, and prevented from receiving women’s testimony. How enraged the gynephobes get when women dare to talk to each other! But you can stii email her.

Male hackers have instigated an attack against the website which means we're not receiving your submissions. What lengths men will go to to make sure women's stories about their behaviour aren't told! You can email me with your submissions directly at [email protected] for now.

I've been reading the site. I think it is important to keep bumping this thread.

So, the 'be kind to men only brigade' think women's experiences don't deserve any respect and we should shut up and keep quiet about any discomfort or even assault.

How universally stunning and brave it seems atm to be vicious and hurl invective towards women.

What a great site. Thank you all for pointing me in their direction!

I read the submissions- they all have different voices, styles, language usage and points of view. Why is listening to women so terrifying to some groups?

What a fantastic site.