Jess de Wahls

I also note in that Times interview a detail that hadn't been mentioned before.....that Jess de Wahls said she'd mentioned re-stocking her work at the RA shop on the private part of her website, which is open only to people who pay a small amount to subscribe. So she wonders now whether someone had quietly taken out a subscription in order to keep tabs on her.

The parallels with the Stasi are indeed chilling.

Really love that Times interview. Her comment about Peter Tatchell was spot on.

Was interested in this, too:

“I think they’ve acted appallingly. They have not bothered to apologise. I’ve had two more conversations with them after the whole shitstorm went down: [they said] ‘Maybe we acted a bit hastily.’ No shit! And then again on the phone just stuttering and saying it’s very heated on both sides.”

That's the first indication I've seen that the RA has said anything at all since their original Instagram post about transphobia. They really need to get a fucking grip.

As for Fox Fisher, allmywhite has it: "I love how they’ve elegantly conveyed how insufferable Fox is."

Fox really is simultaneously spiteful, self-righteous, self-important and utterly pathetic. They'd have been utterly at home in post-war East Germany, shopping neighbours to the Stasi.

‘Brown’ eh? In what way?

However, there are many who approve of its decision. Fox Fisher, an artist who describes himself as “a brown, queer, trans masculine, non-binary artist, author, film-maker and trans rights campaigner” is one of them

From the Times article, that made me grin. I love how they’ve elegantly conveyed how insufferable Fox is.

I get what you're saying and you've got a valid point but I don't think Helen Lewis was there to defend the concept of sex being a biological fact; she was there to defend free speech.

The interview was about whether an artist should have their work rejected for having an opinion with which some people disagree and I think that Helen Lewis made a good case for why Jess had been treated unfairly.

The whole racism argument Evan made is a straw man.

Jess is a woman saying that a man cannot become the same sex as her. And she has the right to that belief.

It's like a Korean saying that Oli cannot actually be Korean.

Good on her.

I saw that Rachel had written to the RA asking for her entrance fee for the Summer Show to be reimbursed, because she felt that her work would be unfairly judged on her politics and not on its merits.

I really enjoyed the interview she posted with @camradfems too:
twitter.com/rachelara/status/1406598690710687747

The feminist artist Rachel Ara has withdrawn from the RA’s summer show in solidarity with de Wahls. She wrote on Twitter: “Why so silent academicians and artists? For years female artists, students and teachers have been bullied and excluded for expressing feminist beliefs. @royalacademy has amplified what the rest of the art world has done for years in silence.”

www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2021/06/artist-demands-apology-in-ra-transphobia-row/

From Milady's Times link:

However, Peter Tatchell, the veteran LGBT rights campaigner, this week challenged her assertion that she didn’t believe a trans woman was a woman. “Trans women are different from other women, but being a different kind of woman is perfectly valid,” Tatchell said.

“Of course he would, he’s a guy,” de Wahls says. “What is he doing wading in telling women what women are?”

She is an absolute legend. I have so much admiration for her. What incredible talent and what a brilliant advocate for women.

[quote nauticant](remember the taxi driver who ended up on air by mistake?)

One of the best bits of telly ever BraveBananaBadge:

Oof. That's good, Milady. Jess giving a kicking to Peter Tatchell, and Rachel Campbell-Johnson gunning for the RA's social media manager, named and shamed.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/93775c60-d37c-11eb-bd02-4c692e62e3fd?shareToken=3c24f02c4e4f9eb06fb32e3c6bb980c0

New article in The Times. They are covering this well.

And I'm so pleased that Jess is selling lots of art. There will be Heretic stickers everywhere!

The Royal Academy is within Burlington House, which also houses their neighbours, the Royal Society of Chemists.

The RA could usefully knock on their neighbour's door and ask about the science...

Has anyone got a clip of the sign language translator who blagged his way into [Nelson Mandela's funeral]... but couldn’t actually do sign language and was just waving his hands around?

Etinox asked about a brilliant meme of a harassed looking women holding a tantruming toddler. The woman’s labelled LBG and the toddler TQ- does anyone have a link to it?

I liked it so much I saved a copy. Enjoy.

Comparing TR beliefs to a philosophy also counters the position that they are rooted in an objective reality.

But also means that those of us who say women are biological females are not stating a biological fact but merely a belief.

And to use that defence opens you up to the one ED made which is would you allow racists to say something because they have a belief about POC?

Sex is a biological fact. It is impossible to change sex.

I thought comparing the transgender ideology to a philosophical or religious belief system and giving transubstantiation as an example was perfect.

She was basically saying that some people believe that you can change sex, she doesn't believe that but she supports their right to hold their belief and would treat them respectfully.

That suggests that there should be mutual respect, TRAs should respect the rights of gender critical feminists to say that biological sex is a scientific fact and can't be changed. That's where the support for Jess and her right to voice her opinions comes in.

Comparing TR beliefs to a philosophy also counters the position that they are rooted in an objective reality.

There's another way of looking at that though. We can't do anything about what dead artists do or say. Some beliefs and acts we'd deplore now were acceptable in their time - not seeing that for Gill, Picasso etc though. I don't oppose exhibition / sale of their works all the same.

Living artists? They're subject to the law of the land like everyone else. If they're inciting violence or engaging in hate speech (as opposed to upsetting people on twitter) we have a legal framework to deal with that. Racist hate speech is covered there, surely. There's no need for false parallels.

For an institution working in a democratic state and recognising that democracy - there's no call to police artists writing in case something distasteful slips in. If it's illegal, let the law deal with it.

Wasn't that at Nelson Mandela's funeral toffee? The sign language guy who was faking it, I mean.

Seems like she also lost her job back in 2019 as well:

The response to her blog was immediate. “It’s been a continuous two-year campaign.” She has been forced to contact the police twice over the harassment she has endured, which includes one man expressing the desire to burn her work; she has also quit projects because of the abuse directed at those who’ve hired or collaborated with her. She used to run a hairdressing salon at Soho Theatre, but voluntarily left after the theatre was dragged into a “relentless” social-media campaign targeting them for “harbouring a transphobe”.

www.telegraph.co.uk/art/artists/jess-de-wahls-cancelled-royal-academy-wrong-day-one/

How many more women are there who have been hounded out and silenced who we just haven't heard about.