The Guardian job cuts

If "crazy cat lady' is honestly the most cutting insult they can come up with, then the standard of writing has gone further downhill than I realised.

That's a really good point, ThePurported

Sorry! It said it hadn't posted the first time.

Me too.

Me too.

They don't seem to have the slightest idea how self destructive their stance has been. The way I see it, if I can't trust them to report on women's issues, then why should I trust what they say about the government? Or , the economy? Or the Labour Party? Or Donald Trump? or climate change?

Arguably however, one thing that hasn't changed is the legitimacy that is conferred on a topic if traditional media outlets pick it up. And runs and runs with it, like the Guardian has done with their intense promotion of transgender ideology.

But isn't it odd how coy the Guardian is with its support on a more tangible level when it's such a current topic? If transgender ideology is such a wonderful and progressive thing, why doesn't the Guardian interview key figures like Susie Green or give a regular column to one of the heavy hitters who were part of the govt trans inquiry, eg Jane Fae?

It's almost like they love the idea but not the reality.

@RoyalCorgi Well that's some good news, at least. The truth is there is still content I would read The Guardian for, and there are some good journalists still working for them. It's just that the culture of the paper has become so alienating to women, many of their contributors do hold the same views as Crazy Cat Piss Contributor. They just dress them up in saner-sounding language. The Pink News school of misogynistic writing

It's sad that this is what it's come to. What the Guardian purport to stand for - free, unbiased journalism whose agenda is not beholden to some billionaire or media conglomerate - is something I could really get behind. But that's not what the Guardian currently is, and I don't see that it cares about paying any more than lip service to those ideals any more.

@Goosefoot and @TheRealMcKenna That's interesting! I don't have much time for YouTube at the moment, so I tend to just check in on the same old channels I followed years ago. It's been interesting to watch their stance evolve over time. And curious to see how many have failed to evolve. It's funny how many of them are like Lindsay - they seem not to realise their audience has matured alongside them, and in some cases matured past them.

There's such a cognitive dissonance in them. They just cannot wrap their heads around the idea that someone could disagree with gender ideology for any reason other than "transphobia". And these are often people who pride themselves on their critical thinking.

I'll have to start searching for more gender critical content on YouTube and see what the algorithm sends my way. So far all I've got is a bunch of "J.K Rowling is an Evil TERF!!!" type videos recommended to me, which I can't be bothered with.

Well, Titania McGrath got an article published in the Independent, so it doesn’t really mean much.

My husband, who failed his GCSE English and works for a bank, got an article published in one of the country’s most famous car magazines. Maybe he should demand a Twitter blue check!

What kind of content does this, er, writer provide for the Guardian?

Hardly anything. Her name's Karen Geier - I did a search and I could only find one article by her. The truth is that thousands of freelancers write for the Guardian. Angry as I am with the Guardian, you can't blame them for the fact that one of their many, many freelancers is unpleasant and deranged.

What kind of content does this, er, writer provide for the Guardian? Do I even want to know? It can't be this combination of inane and deranged, surely

I mean the cat lady stereotype is straight out of the Big Book of Misogynist Takes.

Supposedly posted by a writer for the guardian... it would explain a lot.

That's hilariously dumb. Why are they all so desperate?

I agree Goosefoot. I think we’re about to see a second version of ‘Gamergate’, only this time it’ll be ‘comic-gate’. Weirdly, gamergate was considered partially responsible for the election of Trump in 2016 and I wonder if we’re witnessing more of the same.

This article, in particular, has irritated a number of YouTubers who already felt that the HBO series of Watchmen was a preachy abomination:

time.com/5857064/defunding-police-superheroes-onscreen/

Lindsay Ellis is a good example of this. She posted a hot take video on J.K Rowling which was a complete mess, then did her damnedest to control the direction of debate in the comments. Lindsay is about to release her first book and probably thought this would be an easy way to suck in some of the Tumblr crowd. The YA market is known to be lucrative and even though her book doesn't technically fit the genre, it doesn't take a genius to see she was hoping to generate some interest in it from that quarter. What Lindsay seems to forget is that she's a married woman in her thirties now, and so are most of the fans who followed her from her Channel Awesome days. Her pandering to the yoof crowd was starting to look a bit cringe as it was. I wonder how many viewers like me looked at her calling J.K Rowling transphobic and decided she'd lost her head entirely?

I saw the same video and reached for the unsubscribe button. A very blatant sell out to the Tumblr and young woke crowd.

To clarify about the Open Society Foundation money, the money was for a specific series of articles reporting "on the state of gender equality in America". The OSF don't have any editorial control over the content:

www.theguardian.com/info/2020/feb/05/about-this-content

Some of the articles in the series have come under the heading of "Genderqueer" - we've had a few threads about the articles, which have been uniformly dreadful (the articles, not the threads).

There may be other articles in the series that actually are on gender equality, though I'm damned if I can find them.

I’m so glad both Xena & Buffy were made long before all the gender shit kicked in.

I follow quite a lot of YouTubers who comment on pop culture and I’ve seen the exact opposite. Most of the ones I follow have become increasingly disillusioned over the last few years about how woke ideology has taken over pop culture and ‘ruined’ certain genres. In particular, book to movie/TV adaptations have deteriorated in quality and authenticity as they’ve focused on being ‘politically preachy’.

Oh my goodness, this is really so true. And it's interesting to hear the rhetoric when someone complains that a film or movie has been so crammed with didactic drivel and virtue signalling that it affects the narrative - its all very, well, you just hate diversity and what to be able to say things that are wrongspeak, what's your problem with fighting $%#ism and *&^phobia?

There are writers I like in the guardian and Marina Hyde is one.

Beyond the clear anti-woman bias, I do wonder to what extent they've just become too big though with too many staff and too many sub-sections and articles that hardly anyone reads.

I don't think it's always a bad thing when organisations who get too big (with lots of non-jobs) have to cut back, and it can make the product better in the end.

The Rowling kerfuffle really does seem to have been a turning point. I follow quite a few YouTubers, those who do "BookTube" or who make videos doing pop culture analysis. And I've noticed that a lot of them were eager to jump on the "JK Rowling is a TERF and a transphobe and we're cancelling her for good" bandwagon.

I follow quite a lot of YouTubers who comment on pop culture and I’ve seen the exact opposite. Most of the ones I follow have become increasingly disillusioned over the last few years about how woke ideology has taken over pop culture and ‘ruined’ certain genres. In particular, book to movie/TV adaptations have deteriorated in quality and authenticity as they’ve focused on being ‘politically preachy’.

Most of these YouTubers have been more critical of the celebrity cowards - in particular the mediocre HP actors - who have all quietly got into Woke line in their criticism of JKR.

YouTube algorithms are a weird thing, and you do end up being ‘recommended’ to follow certain creators with a similar mindset to other people you follow which probably goes a long way to explaining why they all end up having the same opinion.

The Rowling kerfuffle really does seem to have been a turning point. I follow quite a few YouTubers, those who do "BookTube" or who make videos doing pop culture analysis. And I've noticed that a lot of them were eager to jump on the "JK Rowling is a TERF and a transphobe and we're cancelling her for good" bandwagon. It must have seemed like a no-brainer to them. Just an easy way to get clicks and likes. Bit of quick virtue signalling for their fanbase.

But I've noticed a shift even since the publication of these videos. For the first time, they're actually acknowledging dissenting opinions exist. I don't mean that they actually listen to or want to represent us in any way. But it seems like the bubble has been burst and they can no longer deny gender critical feminists exist. Suddenly they're all prefacing their videos with statements like "If you haven't gone full TERF yet, let me be the one to claw you back" or "If you disagree that Rowling's words were transphobic, I don't want to hear it. Just unsub and stay out of my comment section."

What's interesting is that people are disagreeing anyway. YouTube isn't set up to allow viewers to see how many "dislikes" another viewer's comment has, but I've noticed that critical comments of mine are getting likes, almost instantaneously. It's as if people are waiting for someone to speak up, even if they don't have the courage to do it themselves.

I would be incredibly curious to see the loss of followers for these accounts in the aftermath of their videos. Because we've seen time and again here on Mumsnet that there is a silent majority of women who vote with our feet.

Lindsay Ellis is a good example of this. She posted a hot take video on J.K Rowling which was a complete mess, then did her damnedest to control the direction of debate in the comments. Lindsay is about to release her first book and probably thought this would be an easy way to suck in some of the Tumblr crowd. The YA market is known to be lucrative and even though her book doesn't technically fit the genre, it doesn't take a genius to see she was hoping to generate some interest in it from that quarter. What Lindsay seems to forget is that she's a married woman in her thirties now, and so are most of the fans who followed her from her Channel Awesome days. Her pandering to the yoof crowd was starting to look a bit cringe as it was. I wonder how many viewers like me looked at her calling J.K Rowling transphobic and decided she'd lost her head entirely?

I think it'll prove an uncomfortable awakening for some

@CharlieParley and @wellbehavedwomen

Well said.