Janice Turner interviews Jess Philips in the Times

...How do you live in role as a man?" ....

You can't just choose to do this.

Male identity and privilege is reserved for those embodied as male.

Love that skewering of Owen Jones

I thought it was a well written article, and I'm glad that trans issues were discussed. I thought JP came across very well.
I'll be interested to see whether she gets treated the same as JKR for saying similar things.
I am so relieved that we are now reading about these things in MSM. For ages the average reader has not known what's been going on.

Male sevices can provide for straight men, gay men, bi men, or males of any gender identity. Jess saying LGBT OR male is odd. GBT males are just male, why would they need separatating? Lesbians, being female, would use female services.

If they need a specialist trans refuge they can set it up themselves and fundraise like women have always done.

“But I genuinely think the only way a woman will win is if men don’t stand – an all-woman shortlist.”

The massive elephant in this room is who would be eligible for the all-woman shortlist.

An interesting read, thanks for posting ItsAllGoingToBeFine.

JP might not want to jump off the fence, but I fear in the eyes of the most vocal extremists she has condemned herself with this article. Maybe she hasn't quite realised what is now required from our politicians in terms of reality denial and language, but her words will see her attacked as a confirmed transphobe.

Politics was and still is always about compromise, which is reflected in much of what she says. But the GRA was a compromise to placate the church, which is why Labour did not even allow a consideration of the GRA's impact on women. It was a compromise where both sides agreed to give something away that wasn't theirs to give - women's rights. Which is why to women's rights campaigners like me who oppose self-id further compromise is not only not acceptable, it's not possible. And that is something we will have a hard time explaining to politicians like JP whose instinct is that compromise will get you there.

“But I genuinely think the only way a woman will win is if men don’t stand – an all-woman shortlist.”

Jess ran last time saying Labour needed a woman leader but after she dropped out she backed Keir Starmer.

She's right, of course, but she should care, because they are very influential.

And therein lies the problem behind preference falsification - if nobody speaks up for fear of [?] (and this might be a rational fear grounded in reality) then we are left to deal with this phenomenon. (Apologies to those who see me quote this on a regular basis.)

Preference falsification, according to the economist Timur Kuran, is the act of misrepresenting one’s wants under perceived social pressures. It happens frequently in everyday life, such as when we tell the host of a dinner party that we are enjoying the food when we actually find it bland. In Private Truths, Public Lies , Kuran argues convincingly that the phenomenon not only is ubiquitous but has huge social and political consequences. Drawing on diverse intellectual traditions, including those rooted in economics, psychology, sociology, and political science, Kuran provides a unified theory of how preference falsification shapes collective decisions, orients structural change, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities.

A common effect of preference falsification is the preservation of widely disliked structures. Another is the conferment of an aura of stability on structures vulnerable to sudden collapse. When the support of a policy, tradition, or regime is largely contrived, a minor event may activate a bandwagon that generates massive yet unanticipated change.

In distorting public opinion, preference falsification also corrupts public discourse and, hence, human knowledge. So structures held in place by preference falsification may, if the condition lasts long enough, achieve increasingly genuine acceptance. The book demonstrates how human knowledge and social structures co-evolve in complex and imperfectly predictable ways, without any guarantee of social efficiency.

www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674707580

My views on Jess Phillips are all over the place

because Jess Philips's views are all over the place?

she has done sterling work on the issue of sexual violence but otherwise she is a windsock of a politician.

I hope this means the wind is blowing our way

She compares activist-journalist Owen Jones and Novara Media writers to noisy, overexcited children who have had too much sugar – “Who cares what they think, frankly.”

😂😂😂

I have a lot of time for Jess Phillips, I think she does get it really but she knows what will happen to her career if she says anything.

I think she has said more than enough to put herself on the ‘wrong side of history’. Fence sitting won’t win acceptability from the left of the party, so why not just speak clearly? Is the problem that Labour MPs fear deselection?

She compares activist-journalist Owen Jones and Novara Media writers to noisy, overexcited children who have had too much sugar – “Who cares what they think, frankly.”

She's right, of course, but she should care, because they are very influential.

Archive version of interview in case the share token lapses: archive.is/bs2TZ

“I think that biological sex exists, and we are discriminated against on the basis of our biological sex, without question,”

Ooh... twitter isnt going to like that 😬

I might get her book actually, I enjoyed the last one of hers I read.

Councils having only 2 statutory duties is such utter bollocks - their statutory duties number several hundred including housing, waste management, education, licensing, pest control, planning etc that I’m immediately inclined to ignore everything ejse she says as also being founded in utter bollocks

She’s right on LGBT & refuge issues but she knows damn well what the massive elephant in the room is

I have a lot of time for Jess Phillips, I think she does get it really but she knows what will happen to her career if she says anything.
You could accuse her of cowardice, but really she's doing as much as she can while remaining within the Labour Party.

And having an actual feminist with a background in DV work as an MP, is worth the sacrifice of her having to pay lip service to TWAW. In my opinion.

Why the obsession with refuges? Why should women have to run away?

I feel positive to know she is anti prostitution, hopefully she'll be a sensible voice at some point.

She doesn't think sex offenders should be in low security prisons. So she didn't directly say they shouldn't be in female prisons. Still on the fence.

Having specialist services for LGBT or male victims of domestic abuse is totally brilliant and legitimate. They’re not the same. They need different services.

This is where LGBT doesn't work as a group. It's a mix of women and men who are same sex attracted, alongside bisexual men and women, and men and women who say they are the opposite sex or non-binary.

That's a whole random range of people.

I met Jess Phillips at an event a few years ago & asked her about transwomen in single sex refuges. She looked uncomfortable & said they should be admitted on a case by case basis. I suspect that’s what she’d say about prisons.

As for LGBT victims of abuse though - given the choice I’d be using the women’s service every time, not one that lumped me in with men.

I didn't really appreciate journalistic writing until I saw how she put something I knew about into clear, yet informative and illustrative language. A talent and a well honed skill.

They hate her on multiple fronts, so nothing she says is going to placate them. Particularly her opposition to prostitution.