The Times - smear campaign by trans lecturer at Goldsmiths

That's gender expression. Gender identity is the internal feelings that are deep down, known for sure only by the individual, and are extremely difficult to quantify beyond "I just know."

Think of it like inner woo. The man next to you on the train may be wearing the three piece pin stripe suit and carrying a brief case, but those markers are all about expression, and inside, his identity may actually be a shy, yielding transgirl.

If I could be arsed to link them, there are a number of videos on YouTube that go into this distinction in incredibly tedious detail, and I guarantee you will be no clearer by the end of watching them. But there will probably be fairy lights on screen, and they usually have quirky three second theme tunes played on ukeleles.

I am old and confused but what is the marker of anyone’s trans identity EXCEPT for visual presentation? Like literally what else is involved?

What should this Polly have said or done differently? I’m not getting what the problem is. I find the whole Look at me! Don’t Look at me! a bit tiring.

‘Polly felt free to ask Jen whether or not she was a service user of a GIDS on the basis of her presentation alone, with no other information.’

I've been asked or assumed to be trans many times. Short hair, baggy clothes, not the most femme.

DM is reporting on it too but nothing new, just a repeat of The Times article
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6145781/University-researcher-asked-Facebook-group-circulate-list-academics-disagreed-her.html

Bloody annoying appropriation if so - Ada Lovelace Day is specifically for celebrating women in STEM. findingada.com/

As a very distant relative I am irritated.

I think fae - which is another word for fairy - is linked to Ada Lovelace, the mathematician (and daughter of Byron), who was interested in fairies when young and attempted to make wings so she could fly. She wrote a book called Flyology.
Ada worked with Charles Babbage on his computing engine and is considered to be the earliest exponent of mathematical programming. (There is a modern programming language, Ada, named after her.)
Ada also seems to be a popular TRA name. Many TRAs work in IT.
OTOH, I may have misremembered/dreamt all this.

'Mark Hellen is another man who got appointed lecturer without a PhD.

I have never heard of this happening to women.'

It was actually pretty common in the area I used to work in (not education but related). It was a vocational course and people would be appointed for their professional experience and workplace-based research and would do a PhD as part of career development once in post.

That'll be the 'peer review'. Gives it 'credibility' 

Well, no, not that bad.

The actual paper referred to is in this, if anyone is interested

https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/11289170/iav607530020102.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1536412548&Signature=%2FW0WQJ0HKh9Ow4D0EFK3CibiEFQ%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DTransgenderr_childrenmoreethanaa_theoret.pdf#page=26

The 'contributors' section only lists Kennedy, not Hellen. Although it's not transparent(it should have been made explicit in the contributor section for Kennedy if they're one and the same person) , it may be that the paper itself had to have both names listed as author as it references a paper by 'Hellen' and one by 'Kennedy'. I don't know if there's any established convention for handling this situation (though I suppose it's not too different in a way from a woman who has published in different names due to marriage)

Mark Hellen is another man who got appointed lecturer without a PhD.

I have never heard of this happening to women.

www.gold.ac.uk/educational-studies/staff/hellen/

The clue was there all along.

His twitter handle is Saboteuse (sic). Should be Saboteur, Mark.

twitter.com/natachakennedy

To sabotage: deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for political or military advantage.

Not a good look, in hindsight?

Do they cite each other? 'As Kennedy brilliantly argues...'

Mark wrote the first draft (authoritative, manly) and Natacha proofread it (submissive, follower)?

Is anyone else dying to know how this two names thing works with Mark/Natasha's REF submission?
Maybe they have to write twice as many papers because they're two people. Or they can count each paper twice because both Mark and Natasha wrote it. Or they can submit whichever one is higher rated on average.

FIND YOUR BLISS - ERASE YOUR MASCULINITY" emblazoned across a photo of a transwoman wanking (with willie) in a pair of fishnet stockings.

And I'd bet my mortgage that they don't see the irony.

I won't hold you responsible, anlaf!

For those who wish to keep their eyeballs safe, I can report back that about 90% of the tweets containing "transgirl" also contained a hashtag or a picture relating to porn, camming, escorting, fetish, kink, nudity and sissyfication. And one heartbreaking post about a young person being bullied.

All just a coincidence that Natasha isn't aware of, I'm sure.

Paris Lees - Paris Sleaze
Ana Lee - Anally
Shon Faye and Jane Fae

Not to mention Candis Caine = Candi's cane, candy cane.

I'm not going to post anything else here because it is a day of rest, but I did chuckle at one post "FIND YOUR BLISS - ERASE YOUR MASCULINITY" emblazoned across a photo of a transwoman wanking (with willie) in a pair of fishnet stockings.

Sorry -something of a derail.

I would like to distance myself from ownership of the link, tbf.

But it's horrifying/fascinating - so much is around humiliation associated with being a woman or with being a weak, small-cocked man. So much is around porny poses.

But i was shocked (when I looked it up) to see just how little of it is people getting on with their lives, having a chat on twitter. It seems to be a badge with a distinct meaning.

(It's possible of course Natascha would be horrified to see this and would update that facebook intro like hot potatoes)

I clicked on your link, anlaf.

Fucking hell.

Why is it all so porny??

(I know why. But still. My poor eyeballs).

I'm off for a lie down to recover.

VickyEadie MsBeaujangles

I read it again. Jen doesn't say this happened at Goldsmiths specifically, my apologies. But definitely not at a GIDS. She shared a lift (whether elevator or car not said) with Polly Carmichael. The implication of the paragraph is that Polly felt free to ask Jen whether or not she was a service user of a GIDS on the basis of her presentation alone, with no other information.

The chapter Jen contributed to the book is about the links between transgenderism, transhumanism and queer theory. She begins it by relating various anecdotes in which others assumed her to be trans by dint of presentation (short haircut/androgynous clothes) alone. The Carmichael story is one of them.

This is turning into a total derail now - wish I'd not picked that one (of many) to type out! I'll leave it now.

"Ms Kennedy, who describes herself on Facebook as a “stroppy, bolshie transgirl"

If you'd like to know what transgirl means, please have a scroll through the search below BE WARNED IT WILL FEATURE GENITALS
twitter.com/search?q=transgirl&src=typd

cf also tgirl

@VickyEadie - I took it to mean that they had shared a car ride together rather than an elevator so there was more time for chat. I agree it would have been a very odd remark to make to someone in the few seconds spent travelling between floors.

Thanks again to Janice Turner for articulating the issues so much better than I could.

*misogynistic