Support for MN feminists from James Kirkup

What I'm finding fascinating (though not surprising) is that there is very little Twitter action from all those TRAs who'd usually shout at, abuse and block women on Twitter, accusing James of being transphobic. The only main voice I can see is the twitter-bully Giuliana not accusing James of anything himself, but only trying to convince James that he's wrong by showing him women's tweets and writing.

Strange that, isn't it. Almost like Giuliana has a campaign against...solely women. Hmmm!

Great article. Thank you, James Kirkup.

Seriously great article ... but WHAT is wrong with the world when this is the FOURTH article JK has written in TWO MONTHS... each thoughtful and reflective, and even handed.... AND NO OTHER JOURNALISTS are picking up the ball and running with it....

What mad world are we living in where James is still basically flying solo? And thank good ness he is ... I believe others will begin to follow his journalistic lead....but when!

Great article and hopefully one which will encourage a much wider audience to start to consider the bigger picture.

Thanks James. Sometimes it's good to be reminded that there are decent men out there.

As JK says on twitter, thanks too to Fraser Nelson (editor of the Spectator) for allowing him the space to address this issue.

Round of applause for JK!

What other group are vilified as 'TERFs' are?

I see (on further thread reading) I'm not alone in that sub thing

TERF is the new witch. It doesn't matter what you say, or how you say it, nothing less then complete capitulation will spare you the abuse.

It really is. You can be as balanced and reasonable as possible and the response is still a hysterical cry to burn the witch.

I'm glad to see an article which doesn't miss the point; the sinister blaming, shaming and silencing of women and the fact we aren't actually advocating hate language or behaviour.

So thank you James. I've been actually considering a sub to The Spectator, not necessarily my views all the time but I'm enjoying the writing and I don't mind my opinions being challenged by others.

Sorry that was @hackmum.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel That's a good way of putting it. Unfortunately he's a James O'Brien fan, and O'Brien was full of 'but it's just an acronym'.

Very impressive article. So great to see someone who has listened and understood the issues and can see the bigger picture.
Thank you, James.

Really fantastic article thank you James.

One side effect of me discovering these boards and radical feminism is that I have gone from almost exclusively reading (and subscribing to) The Guardian. I have cancelled my sub because of their appalling attitude to women and subscribed to The Times instead because of Janice Turner. So refreshing to read some proper journalism

Brilliant article. Thank you James.

I took out a sub to the spectator last year and also to the Times as a way of thanking Janice and to do the crosswords

Thank you James. It seems only men are allowed to talk about this.

Thank you James.

Tired of Explaining Reality to Fuckwits!

I'm very sorry I can't remember who posted this a few days ago.
I love it but can't take any credit for it.

James has been responsible for me taking out an online subscription to The Spectator. Thank you James

I've also taken out a subscription to The Times, chiefly because of Janice Turner.

Thanks James. I am considering taking out a subscription to the Spectator, thanks in large part to your writing.

’it's just a description, an acronym'.

It doesn’t describe me.

I’m a self-ID sceptic who is nontheless both gender critical and trans-inclusionary.

It’s not so good for handy social media tagging though!

@TheCountesd I am happy to be corrected, but I think it’s a blog opinion piece so online only. Be great if it wasn’t but I’m afraid it’s probably online only.

Is the Spectator article in the latest print edition?

The other thing to remember about the t word is that it is used of people who actually aren't any or all of the things for which it is supposedly a neutral acronym: feminists who are actually liberal not radical, women who have stumbled across the issue but actually aren't feminists, feminists who include transMEN in their analysis and thus cannot be described as trans exclusive.
Same as the way 'paki' was used indiscriminately of people from all over the Indian subcontinent, I think that fact is a pretty good clue to the bad faith of the people who use it.

NotTerfNorCis: one answer is that it's an insult because it's intended as an insult. Imagine referring to your local Asian shopkeeper as a "Paki". You could argue that it's purely descriptive - merely an abbreviation of the neutral "Pakistani", so what's wrong with that? But of course it's a word that is absolutely dripping with hate. Similarly, you only ever see Terf in the context of statements such as "I hate Terfs", "Kill all Terfs", "I punch Terfs" and so on.