Guardian back into the fray

It would make some sense of the fact that gender ideology seems logical to so many.

Anything else is either classed as "illegal" or subject to intimidating cancelation and abuse. The subject of your article in fact.

This is the heart of the matter. Sometimes I think they are fully aware that women can't say no to them, and it's a dominance display to point out how they are "warm" towards them.

I bet it's clicks. We shouldn't, any more.

What's the heavy weight perspective?

I do wonder why they don't try and get some really substantial trans activist articles. I am totally fine with the fact that they want to give a platform for that perspective. That's what they are supposed to do. But the stuff they print is so lightweight.

It’s malevolence, not stupidity. They’re doing it on purpose. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there are women in that office who are raging at it. But if you mention it, you get a letter attacking you, like Suzanne Moore.

I also like to imagine there’s a secret WhatsApp group with them all, plotting ways of sneaking things in .

But there’s an editorial malevolence that sees money more important than journalistic integrity, balanced coverage, or women’s rights.

Of course people's experiences are tethered to being embodied. How could it possibly be otherwise? We're not brains in jars like the former presidents on Futurama.

I kind of think I am tethered to the experience of being a woman based on my biology. That's what it means to have a body. I'm not sure what "immutably" means in that context - that it isn't experienced identically in every case? I guess but I'm not sure anyone has ever really claimed that. I'd even go out on a limb though and say that being tethered to our biology is universal for everyone, even if they don't think it is.

This is maybe 12 years ago? 13? Long before Terf wars. I think he bought me some cooking mags as a thank you.

Oh God, I just remembered! He asked spouse to visit at bedside after surgery to 'meet him as a woman'. I made spouse go!

This kind of situation is where my inability to bite my tongue gets me into trouble. "But I already know you, mate" is the most polite I can imagine managing.

That's quite a story Heist.

It would help if the trans women I see didn't all look like a caricature of a porn star. Is that really what they think 'woman' is?

I remember cooking meals for my spouse's boss who was at home on his own after SRS, because his family had left him, and he probably did think it was warm regard from a lovely young feminist mother.

Actually, spouse had begged me to cook some stuff, because TW was making everyone at work's life hell, sending people to HR for microaggressions, and blaming it all on his feminine hormones. So we figured if we did the meals and dropped them off, it was two birds, one stone - firstly, we weren't letting a post surgical person on their own starve! And secondly, it might get him off spouse's back on return to work, at least so that spouse could finish out the year.

But you know, he probably remembers us fondly. Maybe. We were just scared he'd make spouse's life a misery.

Oh God, I just remembered! He asked spouse to visit at bedside after surgery to 'meet him as a woman'. I made spouse go!

They could easily ask for a piece from Kathleen Stock or Jane Clare Jones or Julie Bindel or any one of a number of brilliant female writers but they don't.

Or Karen Ingala-Smith. They are happy to talk to her about DV.
Her barring from Labour membership is a hell of a story, I would have thought it would be right up the Guardian's alley.

kareningalasmith.com/2020/01/20/the-importance-of-women-only-spaces-and-services-for-women-and-girls-whove-been-subjected-to-mens-violence/

kareningalasmith.com/2020/06/27/why-i-was-rejected-for-labour-party-membership-and-my-response/

"Women whose ability to remain employed depends on being warm towards me are warm towards me."

Those pieces always read like they should be on someone's blog, which creates a rather painful contrast with the work of actual journalists like Moore and Freeman.

Yes. They could easily ask for a piece from Kathleen Stock or Jane Clare Jones or Julie Bindel or any one of a number of brilliant female writers but they don't. They fill up their comment pages with absolute crap from TRAs who wouldn't otherwise stand a hope of being published anywhere.

You have to wonder about the cognitive dissonance.

I know. I do wonder at it.

Another word for it is "stupidity".

To return to my starting point, as a trans woman I have found little but warm regard from feminist colleagues, students and friends of all ages.

Anything else is either classed as "illegal" or subject to intimidating cancelation and abuse. The subject of your article in fact.

I guess they'll let anyone be a professor these days.

That was written by an associate professor of sociology and published in a national newspaper?

Dear me.

That was a lot of words to say 'Hold our hands, feminists, or choke on dick'.

"Trans and feminism have certainly had a wobbly relationship over the years" - a professor of sociology doesn't feel it's necessary to clarify that 'over the years' what 'trans' means has changed drastically. Hmm.

"ripples of commentary" is an interesting euphemism for "rape and death threats from trans activists", isn't it?

Exactly. The sit at 0 and 10 on the intellectual scale.