Magdalen Berns

I may not agree with everything that Magdalen has said, but I do remember the enormous sense of relief I felt the first time I saw one of her videos.

She put into words the sense of unease I'd had for quite some time about the way the debate around the GRA was going, and the way that GC women were being silenced. I'll always be grateful to her for that.

Love her or hate her (personally I love her), she keeps the debate going, keeps it in sight, and does so with humour and eloquence. We'll always need people like her.

I don't know if that's the result of my proud colonial heritage, or the influence of such wonderful women as Tannie Evita at impressionable times in my life. I have been thinking a lot lately about what Evita Bezuidenhout would say about all this. She seems like an apt person to bring up at this particular intersection of privilege!

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/04/south-africa-racist-evita-bezuidenhout

mobile.twitter.com/tannieevita?lang=en

99point9FahrenheitDegrees
Also, many of us are ignorant loudmoufs, so fair point.

There's nothing like a bit of self deprecating humour

Magdalen Berns is a committed feminist. A strong woman. And a one off.

She is young. Far too young to have suffered so much bad health. But she has an impressive, comforting, burning anger which I utterly relate to.

She's just posted this on her health progress since last year. What a she is.
twitter.com/MagdalenBerns/status/1031267709168836608

Totally not offended. I agree entirely. It's intersectional privilege!

99point9FahrenheitDegrees I hope my post don't offend you.

I took MBs pisstaking was largely rooted in the fact that Meyers is clearly wealthy and has a lot of money to spend on 'feminine' style, beauty treatments and shows disdain for those who can't afford it (perhaps even XX women?). As though 'being a woman' is only open to wealthy people who can afford all of the expensive treatments and those males who don't have the money to devote to 'passing' don't deserve to be in the 'woman' club. Basically Meyer is actually a stuck up classist snob.

The SA connection is that a lot of white South Africans still benefit from the embedded inequality of apartheid. Today the disdain white South Africans show towards Black South Africans is ridden with class snobbery and not just racism. BSAs are the demonised working class, a bit like calling the working class 'chavs' in the UK.

I don't think it came across that well but I think MB was really incensed by Meyers arrogant privilege.

Well. As a white Sowf Effrican, I thought that was hilarious. And MB's point was exactly that she was being as much of a Saffa as TM is being a woman - by performing a stereotype. Also, many of us are ignorant loudmoufs, so fair point.

I couldn't give a fig for how much 'effort' a trans person makes - it still doesn't change their sex. A transwoman is still an male adult human, no matter how much makeup they wear, how much 'cleavage' they show, how much they simper and pout, how many hormones they've taken or surgeries they've had. I'm sure you know the correct noun for male adult human

Yes. I agree with that.
Essentially Meyers is trying to suggest that to be a woman you have to make an effort to be a women. I don't make the kind of flicky-haired, wide-eyed-breathy-voiced effort to be a woman and yet I am one.

What a strange breathy pretend voice that "you ain't my muvver!" Zoe Slater lass from Eastenders has in that video

I am wading in here because I have actually watched the majority of Bern's videos. I think she is brave, and I am a fan. Magdalen has been calling out bullsh*t on YouTube for ages, and tends to make response videos to things that are either directly or indirectly related to her. I would hate to have her Twitter feed, especially when she started this.

I don't agree with Bern's style all the time, or everything she says, but I will acknowledge that her very presence on YouTube has been a comfort. She explains her position well and frequently makes me laugh. She's not there as a neutral commentator, she doesn't speak as a political representative of any specific group. She is freely speaking her mind in a medium where the culture is that everyone bashes each other all the time. Not even Laci Green, that most innocuous and inclusive of feminists, was safe from being flamed. Why wouldn't it be okay for Magdalen to use humour to get her points across?

The video in discussion is a response to Meyer's video that essentially mocks another trans woman (Muscato). I fail to see how the take-away message is that Magdalen is at fault because she is mocking the idea of Meyer making fun of Muscato in order to make a point about the hypocrisy of the whole thing?

I think Berns did the South African accent because she is making a point about identities and who can opt-in to them. It is similar to the idea referenced when other people draw parallels between trans ideology and trans-racialism. Perhaps the song at the end was a "cheap shot", but I don't think it was racially motivated: they are both white and Berns strikes me as someone who thinks about history/politics when it comes to her opinions of countries as a whole. I saw it more as a reference to South Africa's apartheid past. You might as well call her horrendously xenophobic for her anti-American views, given her videos on the topic.

If we say others (including Blaire White, who doesn't exactly mince her words and has a video called "triggering tr*nnies pt 2" wherein she rips into several trans activists looks) can satirize and use humour to talk about difficult subjects, then women (even gender critical ones) should be allowed to do the same. Berns makes fun of almost everyone. Show me where Magdalen is calling for violence against people or calling individuals subhuman, and I will change my mind on her.

A gentle ribbing to me actually makes me feel like she is treating people like equals, instead of wrapping them in cotton wool.

I think Magdalen is exposed to other views ALL the time, given that she makes so many response videos and has tackled anti-feminists/MGTOWs/MRAs/etc. And she has shown that she is willing to defend those that she has previously made fun of (Arielle Scarcella and Jaclyn Glenn come to mind).

There's plenty said on here about trans women who make no effort yet here is someone who is making an effort yet is still fair game apparently to mock.

I couldn't give a fig for how much 'effort' a trans person makes - it still doesn't change their sex. A transwoman is still an male adult human, no matter how much makeup they wear, how much 'cleavage' they show, how much they simper and pout, how many hormones they've taken or surgeries they've had. I'm sure you know the correct noun for male adult human.

I don't pretend to have watched all of Magdalen s videos, but I think her criticism of male transpeople is that they are male people who insist on using women's spaces,not that they don't make an effort.

There's plenty said on here about trans women who make no effort yet here is someone who is making an effort yet is still fair game apparently to mock

What do you mean by making an effort?

Why does she think it is necessary to mock Meyer for being a trans woman? Meyer describes herself as a trans woman.

Probably because Meyers is doing the exact same thing to another transwoman.

Why does she think it is necessary to mock Meyer for being a trans woman?

Why don't you ask Magdalen?

I see her mocking someone who thinks that woman is all about femininity.

Why does she think it is necessary to mock Meyer for being a trans woman? Meyer describes herself as a trans woman.
There's plenty said on here about trans women who make no effort yet here is someone who is making an effort yet is still fair game apparently to mock. The conclusion I get is Berns doesn't like trans people much.

Tagging on the I've never met nice South Afircan song is petty and nasty.

Berns has similar issues with Blaire White- most of her videos about White are similar personal attacks on what White looks or sounds like. Given how critical White is of transactivists, has been the subject of vitrolic attacks by TRAs, has spoken out often about her opposition to transing children and in support of Arielle Scarcella, this leads me to think Berns isn't particularly interested in hearing other opinions.

Interesting. Shouldn't mock people to make a point.

No, women shouldn't mock people to make a point.

Interesting. Shouldn't mock people to make a point.

Hmmmm. Maybe Stephen Colbert, Russell Howard, SNL, College Humour etc should stop mocking people because they can make their points without that. Should I send them an email?

Also shouldn't people not send death threats and insults to people they do not agree with because they can make the point without those?

MB does not think that not being a woman means you suddenly stop existing!

Good grief.

No.