Dr James Barry was trans, apparently

I was just wondering if there is a wiki war over her.

Might delve into the edit history...

OMFG

the twitter replies!

Just peeped at Wikipedia and the entire entry is carefully written to avoid gendered third person singular pronouns... I wonder if it always was?

It's a composition lesson for those constrained or compelled to use people's preferred pronouns.

Lose, not lost.

Nooo! Don't mention the Brontes or we'll lost them, too. At least they can't touch Austen; she published anonymously as ' A Lady' . Whew!

That synopsis for The Cape Doctor is shameful, horrifying how women’s achievements are getting erased

I watched this the other night. The talking head experts were an interesting mix: some clearly stating that she did what she had to do to live the life she wanted at a time when women didn't have that option, one professor of gender studies from Trinity saying that he was trans, and this is really trans history (i.e. not women's history or 'herstory' as the series is called), and another bearded genius confidently asserting that were Dr. Barry alive today, they would identify as gender-fluid.

It wasn't good for my blood pressure.

I’ll give the TRAs this: they are incredibly thorough in steamrolling and erasing women’s achievements

Well i wish they would use this ability as a force for good!

Then the fucking hypocrisy of blethering on about ‘being erased’ when women in history are LITERALLY being erased

According to Amazon, The Cape Doctor is due for publication in October 2020

Ahh - should have checked before posting! Thanks Luna. I've just had a look at the Amazon page, and the male pronouns suggest that the 'sensitive editing' has gone ahead. I suspect (though don't know for sure) that Levy had originally written the book on the premise that Barry was female. For obvious reasons.

Man was a doctor. Nothing to see here...

The great thing about this is that if the programme makers had followed the TRA mantra, these clips would be impossible to parse:

"Had he not changed his gender, he would never have had the opportunity to study, never had the opportunity to actually practice medicine..." what?

Some addendum sheets needed then? Trip to Daunt Books then...

According to Amazon, The Cape Doctor is due for publication in October 2020. I don't know if any changes were made or if Little Brown decided to grow some ovaries.

I'm actually heartened to see that this programme has been made and scheduled given that last year author E. J. Levy had her book on Barry pulled just before publication. She tweeted about it, calling Barry 'a heroine' and the ensuing TRA tantrums caused Little Brown (a major publishing house, not some tiny small press) to withdraw it while they tried to 'work with the author' on publishing it more 'sensitively'. Presumably she refused to cave to the bullying which is why the book has never been rescheduled.

I'm glad that RTE have decided to tell this story. Hope they show more courage than Little Brown and it doesn't get replaced by something else at the last minute.

Well my sister did always think that Andy Pandy was a girl.

Why do they think the Bronte sisters used male pseudonyms?

Shhhhhh, don’t give them any ideas. George Eliot will be next, and it’s only a matter of time before Toad of Toad Hall is claimed.

Honest to god, some of those Twitter profiles read like Titania McGrath wrote them.

I want to be in the front row with a bucket of popcorn when this lot are all grown up with mortgages and bills; and they stumble across their old social media profiles and posts like these.

I mean, I was amused when I read my Friends Reunited profile years later, but the sheer level of cringe coming down the track is going to be glorious (for us, not so much for them).

One of us one of us one of us...

By this logic JK Rowling (who they all hate) is one of their own because she published using a gender neutral pen name to avoid being pigeoned holed as a writer for girls.

So the first women to go to, say Oxford were men? Well whodve thunk it?

I was recently watching a history (lite) programme about QE1 and it did skate close to some our landing theories on her being a boy or intersex. Because a woman couldn’t possibly be a rules and didn’t marry because, well y’know (even through she said it would be signing her own death warrant).

woman is actually a man in a woman's body. Because no actual woman would ever want to be a doctor....

It's worse than that, they seem to be saying that no woman then could have been a doctor. But either way, despite the fact that loads of women now want to be doctors and successfully become doctors.

It’s ridiculous, I don’t understand how the complete rewriting of women’s achievements has managed to get this far

I’ll give the TRAs this: they are incredibly thorough in steamrolling and erasing women’s achievements. As someone else said, sure shows up the underlying aims.

Was bonnie Prince Charlie trans too?

On the IWD 'all genders' thread I commented

...history is so yesterday. Now it's all about Making Women History'

Unfortunately I wasn't joking.

The thing is, these people must know (well, Im assuming they do!) that careers as doctors etc were not accessible to women historically (you know, what with having a pesky vagina and all).

So there are two possible options:

1. woman pretends to be a man in order to access the career she wants.

2. woman is actually a man in a woman's body. Because no actual woman would ever want to be a doctor....

Which is more plausible?

Why do they think the Bronte sisters used male pseudonyms? To release their 'manly essence'?