A podcast to explain?

This is an extract from a speech a couple of years back by an author called Onjali Rauf who has been called a transphobe for it recently.

As I look around in today’s world, I see more and more bewildered women and girls feeling confused, alienated and afraid.

Women like myself and my Sikh or Hindu or Jewish friends who need single-space places to safely unveil, wash up and reconfigure ourselves; or women who are breastfeeding and lactating and needing a space to let it all hang out; or women going through the menopause or chemotherapy who need safe spaces to just be looked after, or young girls on their first ever periods or sprouting breasts who need space for support and reassurance.

Or every woman ever, who needs a safe space like this to come and meet and talk about our fears and battles, and hopefully create better policies and movements for our future women.

Even the smallest annihilation of the basic right to be a woman in the presence of other women can have dire impacts on our health and state of mind.

A case in point: three weeks ago, I took a dear friend to lunch.

All was going well, we were having a beautiful time, and halfway through the meal, she left to go to the restaurant bathroom.

The woman that came back, was not the same one who left the luncheon table: for instead of the carefree, happy being I knew, came back a pale, quiet and slightly shaken version.

It transpired the restaurant had a gender ‘neutral’ bathroom, and as she had made her way down, a very innocent man had walked out of the toilets, banging into her.

Nothing of any significance to anyone watching – not until I tell you that this friend of two decades, had been raped in her university dorm room at the age of twenty, and feared all contact with men – no matter how nice, kind, friendly, non-threatening or ‘effeminate’ they might seem.

I recall that it was agreed that it was very important to respect the rights of religious officials from religions that disapprove of homosexuality not to perform same-sex marriages.

Compare and contrast with how this movement tramples all over Muslim women who say they want single-sex toilets. They're told they must see transwomen as women or they're bigots.

It's like telling a Muslim or a Catholic cleric that they must perform a same-sex marriage ceremony.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4175451-muslim-women-and-trans-policies-in-the-workplace

But ya. There's no more actual debate here than there was when we were asking if gay marriage should be legal.

But... but... there was a huge debate. I was part of it! We made actual points about pension contributions, inheritance tax, next of kin issues, registering deaths, eligibility to adopt, and many more, and the distinction between marriage as a religious institution and as a civic institution.

Are you too young to remember?

Very fair and balanced!

The thing is they've got to try and explain this to Americans, who appear to all have brain worms. So they've got to be very, very gentle with them.

Still, I'm not grumbling. Patron since episode 1.

(And that's only "Reported", not "Deleted", yet).

I just listened to the Blocked & Deleted podcast on the Keira Bell judgement. Very fair and balanced!

The on the trans side of things....

Note how Hibari swerves around this stuff:
oursuperstories.com/wall-of-coercion/
medium.com/@rebeccarc/j-k-rowling-and-the-trans-activists-a-story-in-screenshots-78e01dca68d

Those are the tip of an iceberg of hatred, threats of rape, and death threats. This sheer volume of this stuff on the trans side is almost unbelievable.

Magdalen Berns
PeachYogurt Genderfree

They are on YouTube, but mostly spoken rather than visual, so can be listened to easily. Usually quite short.

GNC Centric:
www.youtube.com/c/GNCCentric/videos

For balance:

Jammidodger on why we should use cis:

King critical's response:

Yes, I think trans marriage should be legal. Hands up anyone who thinks trans marriage shouldn't be legal?

If that's all you want, there's no issue, is there?

Unfortunately the demands are a little bit more extreme than anything ever demanded for gay rights.

But sure, yes, Contrapoints is probably as good as anything you're going to get on the other side. It's quite hard to come up with coherent arguments for some of the demands, so you tend to get style over substance.

I do recall one real classic-style debate - . Worth checking out.

[quote Awning10]There is also King Critical who discusses Contrapoints:
www.youtube.com/c/KingArPharaz%C3%B4n/videos[/quote]
This guy oozes youtube alt-lite energy.

There is also King Critical who discusses Contrapoints:
www.youtube.com/c/KingArPharaz%C3%B4n/videos

There is no "trans debate." It's not a debate.

Like... one one hand: There are a bunch of reactionaries who have become devested from reality, who are either using past trauma to excuse ignorance and fear mongering or simply concern trolling...and then the bad actors who've found a group of people they think it's okay to abuse, all the while hiding in the algorithm bubble and further radicalising themselves with some going full QAnon with it and driving their non-initiated friends and family away.

On another hard there are conservative christian groups fighting the maintain the purity of...well, all their usual schtick.

The on the trans side of things....
Honestly, if you're desperate to listen to something about it. ContraPoints most recent one on JKR does a good job at disseminating things.

But ya. There's no more actual debate here than there was when we were asking if gay marriage should be legal.

I'd recommend getting Abigail Shrier's irreversible damage as an audiobook too

Blocked and Reported

I also liked the interview with the endocrinologist.

Graham Linehan does a weekly YouTube video:
www.youtube.com/c/GrahamLinehan/videos

Arty Morty is one of his regulars:
www.youtube.com/c/ArtyMorty/videos

Jennifer Bilek:

A Woman's Place:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCzFqsUqDzyXEQMJVy42NwUw/videos

I'm just listening to the ROGD episode of Gender a Wider Lens. Its a really interesting series, very sympathetic but some really interesting points being made.

I've been enjoying that too Sophocles.

Gender: a wider lens with Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad is great if you like getting into the psychology.

I'm yet to find one that isn't clearly either side of the debate.

Andrew Sullivan is firmly GC but has been managing to get some interviews with those on the other side recently, but not listened to them yet.

(Actual debates are of course nearly impossible to arrange.)

The Unspeakable by Megan Daum - episode 5 "Why are so many kids saying they're trans? And how big a deal is this?" - there are a few other episodes on related matters.

PP recommended Benjamin Boyce - great suggestion because he's interviewed almost everyone involved in the GC side, from all sorts of angles - feminists, trans people, detransitioners, medics, sports scientists.

But because of his sheer output volume it's hard to know where to start.

I'd start with She's a journalist tackling it as a "general interest" story, and has just finished a book on the subject - out soon.

Podcast version

I'm yet to find one that isn't clearly either side of the debate. I've listened to Triggernometry which was good, some Joe Rogen interviews with Abigail Shrier/Deborah Soh etc.... Wrongthink, Blocked and Reported, I even listened to a bit of the GenderGp podcast but that was....