Private Eye

An obnoxious man, knowing he's already invaded your space and there's nothing you can do about it? His body language alone could easily be enough to intimidate. In fact for many women, his presence is enough.

Absolutely. And for some men this is a thrill. A buzz. Something enjoyed and done quite deliberately. From basic enjoyment of power and dominance - "You're beautiful when you're angry darling" shouts to a woman who is pushed to react to sexual harassment - to the point of it being a sexual turn on. Think the crossdresser who wrote the article in the Guardian 'I like to give her a smirk that says I know you're not enjoying this, but I am.' Women being uncomfortable isn't a downside, it's an active part of the thrill.

And if women get angry, put up boundaries? There's the swearing, the shouting and if you're unlucky, getting clobbered for rejecting and embarrassing him.

Fuck that. Anyone who wants women to line up for that is already giving away their enjoyment of seeing women at risk. Or their wokery based on 'look at me being a good girl, hurt them and not me'.

Darn! I’m on the train and it took so long to load that, I missed the fact that OP has sent the letter.

I might do the lookalike myself, then

Great reply from Datun

But I’d also be tempted to work in a long-standing Private Eye tradition and include this photo as a lookalike with the time-honoured tag ‘I wonder if they could be related?’
(Does ‘Karen’ even have a GRC btw?)

Just reply,

Agreed, you are no scientist.

It is cut and dry though, mate. Sorry if that's inconvenient but (shrugs).

Reveals that these people have

Zero idea of how creepy men operate
Zero idea about women and girls lives

This can't be stressed enough.

Men can do virtually nothing and still horribly intimidate a woman. A deliberately over long stare, a smirk, a comment that sounds innocuous but is intentionally knowing or lascivious.

Especially being in a female space, where women are vulnerable. And doubly so if they know they're not welcome.

An obnoxious man, knowing he's already invaded your space and there's nothing you can do about it? His body language alone could easily be enough to intimidate. In fact for many women, his presence is enough.

Clarke's letter was in response to a letter pointing at the jb's genitals are male. That was in response to a PE piece updating about the jb situation (which they have reported on before) where they said something like 'exposing her genitals'.

Just thought I'd fill that in as the question was asked upthread.

I think all these letters should be sent
also, for balance, some in support of C Clarke, I'm sure we could think of some really awful situations that he might be facing

All of this. The oh well the law is there. It'll happen anyway.

Reveals that these people have

Zero idea of how creepy men operate
Zero idea about women and girls lives

I mean they could do id they tried, loads of info stats stories etc. Women are not so quiet about this stuff. We still don't say at the time, but we do now say. This happened at 12, this at 14, this at 16 etc etc.

Fact is they don't care.

Men never have, apart from 'their'women and girls.

All this commentary just shows up how society, men have not changed at all really, since middle ages or something.

Excellent letter, OP & thanks so much for sending it. I shall be checking my copy next week to see if they've printed it. They have certainly been increasing the attention and space they give to 'identity politics' stories over the past few months, which has been great in shining more light on what's been going on.

For the sake of balance I think that we need to submit a letter in support of C Clarke - perhaps lamenting the lack of beauty salons willing to wax lady balls?

Get it sent!

Re: the biology one. You have a good start, but go from there.

It is a fact that it is not possible for a mammal to change sex, because sex is whether you’re able to make eggs and gestate young, or male and ejaculate sperm. Regarding sexual dimorphism while it is true that many traits are sexually dimorphic that is beside the point at issue. It would be insulting to argue that a short man is somehow “more female” than a tall man, or that a woman who has experienced a mastectomy is somehow “less female” than one who retains both breasts. Sexual dimorphism is not the same as sex.

However the existence of average differences between the sexes has real and measurable effects on women. For example, men are much stronger than women and when assault occurs between the sexes in the vast majority of the time the woman gets the worst of it. Women have to be cautious because a male abuser is likely to be able to easily murder her. The same is simply not true in reverse - It is not a symmetric situation as the LW argues. A male, however they identify, poses a greater physical threat to women that any other female would. Me Too also shows pretty convincingly that males (men) are far more likely to be sexually aggressive harassers, to commit sexual assault than are women. This is something that we desperately need to address as a society. Ignoring the sex of perpetrators is unhelpful to say the least.

I think C.Clarke is affected by self-ID, there's a point where he refers to "us" in the context of trans waiting lists. Just a minor point.

How's this?

Sir,
Your correspondent C.Clarke notes we’re still not out of the woods yet when it comes to a consensus on gender self-identification.

Have we yet come to a consensus on where bears shit? Or can human-identified bears do it in the Ladies?

PE has indeed not drunk the Kool Aid and I don't think it ever will. Editor Hislop has pretty good bullshit detectors.

Please everyone if you have come up with a witty response do send it in (don't let them go to waste) - PE has not drunk the Kool Aid....who knows, they may do a whole page dedicated to responses!

@SonEtLumiere wrote: "Whilst self-id obviously will not impact him personally..."

I think this is the aspect that pisses me off the most. Men who aren't affected by it telling women to STFU and sit down. Same as men have always told women to STFU and sit down.

Since when do men give two shiny shits about women's rights?

Great letter. Hope they use it. Eye deputy editor Francis Wheen - 100 per cent mensch - is with us. A great ally to have. No idea how Hislop feels but he tends to be anti bullshit and is an Orwell fan.

C CLARKE - I'm sure I've seen that name on the letters page before. Plant?

Women everywhere acknowledge C.Clarke's letter of date referring to self-ID.

We note that C.Clarke’s attitude of “rapists gonna rape” (which is, of course, shared by ex-Stonewall Chief Executive Ruth Hunt) will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if they would inform us what his attitude to us would be, were they to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off.

you'll need to replace that last bit with something like : would be grateful if they would inform us what his attitude to us would be were we to refer them to Presdram vs. Arkle.

*next edition

Very good! I eagerly await the edition of PE!

That's good, OP. Very good.