Has anyone read this interview with Philippa Perry?

This does not unfortunately mean he is harmless

No, being honest about being a creep doesn't make you any less of a creep.

in fact, being honest is almost like a double dupe. It stops a lot of people seeing what you're actually doing, while you're telling them you're doing it.

Here he is at a children's cancer charity event, with a prosthetic penis on show.

Grayson Perry has some really useful and interesting ideas about art. He seems to be a fascinating and charming man.

This does not unfortunately mean he is harmless, or blameless.

Yeah I'm not sure how much I would like someone who visits schools and wears an A line dress so he can hide his erection.

I really like both the Perrys. Grayson doesn't pretend to be anything other than what he is, and Phillippa seems to have her feet on the ground and her eyes open. They both get away with saying truths about transactivism that have got many others cancelled - Grayson is especially firm on not needing female pronouns because he's a self-described transvestite!

But I'm not a culture warrior, so likely a little more relaxed than some.

Its possible for Philippa Perry to see the dangers of people altering their bodies to fix something else about themselves, and at the same time, wave away concerns about her husbands behaviour in public.

I can also imagine that someone in her position would be critical of trans ideology up to the point it stops her husband doing what he wants. Thats why we see articles critical of the ideology, but then also ones keen for people not to take it too seriously.

Yes, he said it loses the thrill when people get used to it. It is very much about the shock of breaching people's boundaries and expectations.

He's always been clear that's part of it for him, though - and some of Claire's dresses, with appliquéd spurting penises and so on, means he's hardly hidden it. I have a faint memory that he's said he doesn't dress as Claire so often these days because it doesn't give him such a thrill now.

Wow - I doubt he'd be so open about the sexual element these days.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/04/grayson-perry-dress-tranny-art-who-are-you-tv

this is where the language mangling gets us

a transman is a biological woman

a transwoman is a biological man

dont want a transman with a penis under his skirt using woman’s toilet where my 9 year old is.

When we feel like there is something wrong with us, or we're not happy, sometimes we attack our own bodies.

Wasn't that basically the message of Fst is a Feminist Issue? Haven't read it for years, though.

Did you read her interview with Suzanne Moore on Substack? The two of them are friends and I get the feeling Perry is actually GC. At one point in the interview she says, 'When we feel like there is something wrong with us, or we're not happy, sometimes we attack our own bodies. We might have body dysmorphia, when we think something like, I'd be happy if I could only get rid of my big nose or I lost loads of weight. Because it feels like an easy thing that we can control. But we can make ourselves anorexic. We can even have surgery to apparently change our genders. But this never looks at the underlying issue. It never looks at the problem that the body modification is trying to solve. What we need to do is look at the problem rather than attack the body.' Think the interview has gone behind a paywall now unfortunately.

I could understand not getting involved but her job as a psychologist means that surely she cannot ignore it? My daughter went to a sports club where a 50 year old male is claiming a right to change with the girls because....well, you know why. If my daughter came to her to say (truthfully) that she doesn't want to shower with male adults what would she say? This isn't hypothetical- it's very real for many of us. It's cowardly to dismiss it.

Here’s a share token to The Times article

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/eca202a4-669b-11ee-a4e7-0fb10af55688?shareToken=cbf525eb293dee8fae184b861efecb0d

Try searching for it in an archive site, such as https://archive.today

Any chance you could cut and paste the text please . I am not signed up to the Times

The Perry family is complex, and whilst I haven't watched recent documentaries he does have interesting things to say on gender.

His take on "default man" is spot on, and I remember him interviewing a man who was on DIY hormones to transition and Perry telling him that it seemed a rather masculine thing to do (like a mechanic looking under the bonnet).

Obviously Philippa Perry has to live with a transvestite and acknowledge that, so at least she has life experience.

I think Grayson Perry is a coward. Perhaps he would admit that himself if challenged, I don't know. He knows the trans stuff are nonsense, and his support could have made things easier for Claudia Clare. But he chose to remain silent.

I don't particularly blame Philippa Perry for not speaking out - though I do a bit - but I find her comment that trans issues only affect a small number of people quite unpleasant. Sure, they only affect a small number of people - women in prisons, women who play sport, women who attend rape crisis centre or domestic violence refuges. Such a small number of women, and hardly any of them are naice middle-class women like Perry, so who's going to care about them anyway?

This tells me something:

Perry gives the example of when Flo was little and she decided to not bother taking her to extracurricular activities. “I could not be arsed.” Instead she would give Flo’s friends a tea party at home, which was “a lot easier for me. I chose guilt rather than resentment that time. I have no regrets about it whatsoever. It was a brilliant decision.”

Did she consider Flo in this?

Thanks so much for the share token, MalagaNights. I saw all the comments on X/Twitter about it and wondered what was in the full article.

I think she is far too intelligent not to see that if you accept the concept of social contagion, then it applies to more than one phenomenon.

I think she enjoys her status and is concerned about avoiding a pile on. At the same time, I admire her for her ability to shape a life for herself. It shouldn't be a big thing for a woman to say (paraphrased) 'I am a person in my own right, no matter how famous my husband is' but it is as far as a lot of mainstream media is concerned. She can also communicate to a wide audience, which is a skill.

I think the difference between her and JKR is that JKR is hugely principled. Even if you don't agree with her views on women's rights, JKR could easily have avoided the abuse she got during the independence referendum (and paid a lot less in tax) by moving away from Scotland and keeping quiet. By contrast, Phillipa Perry did get herself in knots talking about selfishness and guilt.

Deleted - incorrect post!

As a comparison, people with genuine coeliac disease have been majorly negatively disadvantaged by all the people jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon because cafes/restaurants etc think most people are just hipster wankers making it up.

Yes and no. Yes, many people think they're making it up, but no, because it's helped a far wider range of gf foods be available, especially compared with when my aunt was diagnosed in the early '60s.

I suspect likewise with ADHD, there are benefits to a wider awareness, such as easier access to support (it's all comparative,) as well as everyone having it.

I think she may be right in that labels aren't always helpful - but other times, they really are. However, when it comes to things like the gender and sexuality alphabetti spaghetti - there are people you fancy and people you don't, and this can change over time. Trying to fit yourself into a restrictive little labelled box is way too rigid IMO, and if you feel the need to do that, you probably ought to ask why, which I think Phillipa Perry's view is. My GP was similar, when I was asking about autism - he would have put me forward for assessment if I'd insisted, but he said he wasn't keen on labelling everything, and I should think about why I wanted a diagnosis and what I expected to follow from it. And I realised whether or not i am, what I wanted was for my manager to stop being an arse and accept me as I am, not trying to fit me into some sexist mould of how nice women behave in the workplace. For others, they have different motivations, but it probably still helps to think about why you want it and what you expect from it, rather than just whacking a label on it without really considering that.

I heard him on the radio, sometime in the last couple of years I think, alluding to there's no point in dressing up for his fetish if he can't get it up anymore.

I agree with PP, I respect that he's apparently open about his fetish but wearing that outfit to a children's cancer charity event is not okay.

As someone whose children have been properly assessed and diagnosed, I would suggest you should be equally concerned by the social contagion element of ADHD diagnosis because such soft, fake diagnoses demean the genuine ones. It makes everyone roll their eyes because “everyone has ADHD these days.”

As a comparison, people with genuine coeliac disease have been majorly negatively disadvantaged by all the people jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon because cafes/restaurants etc think most people are just hipster wankers making it up.

She was getting her arse handed to her on a plate on Twitter yesterday.