James O'Brien: what a twat

Hang on, you are saying that James Whale was impartial, nonsnide and a voice of sweet reason????

It’s very sad what has happened to LBC overall. From 1973 until about 2000 it had a balanced assortment of presenters. The late great Mike Dickin died, then LBC sacked James Whale for a minor breach imo when he said playfully, tongue in cheek, vote Tory. Nowadays anything goes. No one is neutral of course, but I thought it was a requisite of the job to be evenhanded and not snidey. Since Global bought LBC we have seen the rise of the intolerant Left. Apart from Ferrari and Nawaz, there is no regular presenter there who makes a programme free from bitchy comments and without resorting to obnoxious remarks about the usual ...... Putin, Trump, Brexiters.

I can no longer listen to James O’Brien for more than 10 minutes. Ditto Sheila Fogarty. Even the lightweight Steve Allen has started to parrot the tripe which he never used to. No Steve, Muslim people do not celebrate Christmas; they are not allowed to celebrate (in the proper sense of the word) a festival of the Unbeliever. Not going to work over that period does not equal celebration.

Sorry, posted too soon.

Obviously I’ve seen some say that they are amazing, and go straight into pornography speak about the whole issue.

But complaining about them doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue as I might have thought.

TheHumanRace

The thing is, I’ve actually seen quite a few of them say that their neo vaginas are pretty crap. rubbish

hingedspeculum

I think it’s a crying shame that I don’t get to talk about my vagina and that other trans women don’t get to talk about theirs. We should have post surgery vagina circles and pre-vaginal classes.

It’s autogynephilia in action.

There are fetishes and fetishes. But when a man is fetishising me, my body, my biology, it knocks all the others out of the ballpark.

When that man says he’s a woman and this is what being a woman means, I truly want to smack him.

If you want to fetishise women’s biology, do it in a grubby attic bedroom with a single light bulb and your magazine pages stuck together.

Don’t plaster it all over social media, expect praise for it and fondly imagine that you look anything other than the dirty little creep you are.

"Why I’m Practising Mindfulness In The Mirror" or "Other Tales of Indecent Exposure and Living Out My Sexual Fantasies Wherever the Fuck I want".

Another article by Roche:

thequeerness.com/2016/08/01/other-lands/

I agree, nauticant. And I think it's an eye-opener for the uninitiated. Some trans people (the ones who used to be called transexual) genuinely feel themselves to be trapped in the wrong body. For people like Roche, it seems to be something much more sinister and fetishistic. That's not how real women behave.

That is one creepy article. It comes across as one of the fantasy stories you'd see in a porn mag.

Following the warning above, I didn't view it using a work computer.

Someone should send O'Brien this article by transactivist Juno Roche, specifically the bit where Roche opens the changing room curtain and displays her naked body to the shop assistant:

www.refinery29.uk/amp/mindfulness-negative-body-image

PS For the squeamish among you, please note that this article contains reference to a "wank circle".

"Of course O'Brien's behaviour doesn't mean that all other talk show hosts must be behaving in the same way. What a peculiar thing to say."

Sorry-I expressed myself badly. His behaviour is no different from any other talk show host on stations like LBC that depend on "lively" discussions. So if he is a bully, then so are they.

If you think he's a bully, then so are all talk show hosts.

Of course O'Brien's behaviour doesn't mean that all other talk show hosts must be behaving in the same way. What a peculiar thing to say.

"His little monologue things are usually sound and though provoking

Anyone can 'win' an argument if they have full control over the microphone and can cut off anyone who disagrees with them. O'Brien is a bully, whether you agree with his views or not."

He's a talk show host. On a commercial radio station. If you think he's a bully, then so are all talk show hosts.

I mentioned his monologues because they are just him talking, not interacting with the callers, so no "shutting down". And they are always interesting and thoughtful.

When I listened to him he reminded me of the pub bore of old but with modern opinions. Very sure of himself when monologuing and unsure of himself in a dialogue and gets shouty.

Quite macho to my ear. Nouveau Macho to mix my lingo!

I'm a bit conflicted about J O'B. I am prepared to put up with a bit of crap from him because he is, as far as I know, one of the few people in the mainstream media who is openly of the left. His little monologue things are usually sound and though provoking (his Grenfell Tower ones were particularly good) . And he is prepared to hold politicians feet to the fire in a way that journalists just don't seem to be doing any more. Without him, talk radio would be a relentless sea of rightwingery.
And he appears to have thought about trans issues. He has reached conclusions that some of us find unacceptable, but at least he isn't a "shooting's too good for them" like Ferrari and Farage ............

I've dropped a friend because of this. Lefty, liberal, righteous dude (they always bloody are) insisted it was ok for women to share intimate spaces with men, that I was a bigot, and silly and paranoid for thinking otherwise, even though I have the usual experiences as a woman of threats and actual assault. Wouldn't listen to me or any other woman and started telling me how to be a feminist. He also posted a link to a Riley J Dennis podcast and that was that.

WHMB, standing for Women-Hating Man-Babies.

No idea who this guy is, but he seems like a knob. As is depressingly common coming from a male, absolutely no understanding of womens fears about unknown men. Mocking tones when talking about the very real problem of women being unsafe around men (as a group, NAMALT and such disclaimer). The usual 'its about confused kids!!!1' crap. Got it all.

The threads been..interesting to read too. I only have experience of one MRA and the one who was spamming my forum was pretty dense and literally just copy pasted the same few lines into any thread that mentioned women, and even into many threads that weren't anything to do with women but got turned round to be about 'evil feminazis' and such . MRAs are not something I have much experience of (thankfully). Thing is, the one I did deal with..he had some decent points at times and I could definitely see why some of the stats he posted (male suicide stats for example) were concerning, but he never actually wanted to DO anything to help, or even actually discuss the isues he was spamming everywhere. He didn't really care about these men at all, he just wanted an excuse to slag off women. He also used the 'feminism should centre men' line and was extraordinarily happy when the 'first woman on the front line' turned out to be a dude.

As for the usual accusations of 'lack of empathy' for transpeople..I see yet again a lack of empathy for females who do not want males in their spaces. Business as usual eh

I’m glad to find this post here OP. I listened to that segment absolutely open-mouthed. I really like(d) JOB and have listened to him pretty obsessively post-Brexit. That rant was like suddenly seeing a mask slip and it was repellent. I don’t really want to listen to him any more.

What was weird was that he started the show talking about the sterling work being done by Janice Turner and what a great journo she is. I’ve written to LBC to complain, and to suggest he actually reads those articles because it’s very clear he hasn’t (or doesn’t understand them).

If anybody comes long after MNHQ have been through with their red pen and wants to know what Ruth was babbling on about, I've got pdfs of the whole thread as it stands now, his contributions included.

(also useful for comparing content/style for any future suspicious posters)