Transgenderism not a modish fad because: Jan Morris

NecessaryScene · 27/01/2024 09:42

The modish oddity is the current response to that desire.

How very perspicacious.

I am doubtful Lisa Kerr will change Watson’s stance. The guidance at Gordonstoun (where she is currently Principal) says that supporting social transition will improve the child’s academic performance and they are keen to let pupils board according to gender identity- proactively working on this during future renovations/construction.

It’s not just Melvyn. He has a whole team of senior management and governors supporting him. When I complained about being sent to Mermaids for education and support, my dossier on the Youth Forum was ignored, brushed off and finally dismissed, with the Governors telling me it was not for the school to reject resources recommended by the Scottish Government. Fortunately the Telegraph thought otherwise and it was one of the main triggers for the Charities Commission to finally open an investigation.

I read this article in the times. I cant believe it. I wonder if the new head will persue this stance??

I remember watching a uk tv programme back in 1970’s /early 80’sish about a transgender operation, was this her? When she came out of hospital and the cameraman panned to her feet in her slippers shuffling out and they’re were like feet wiiiiide apart and I remember thinking what a c*nt that cameraman is! Baaad! Lol… Looked it up online years later and I think I may have false memory syndrome but I DO remember feeling her pain and thinking “I know you can, but why would you want to??!!”

@DeanElderberry it's interesting, isn't it. His male socialisation was so ingrained that it didn't change when he transitioned. Where have we seen that before?

I am amused, reading the Guardian obituary, to find J M self-described as 'a wandering swank' . . . .

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/20/jan-morris-obituary

It may have had something to do with J Morris being an ex-public schoolboy and ex-military man. If you have grown up with extraordinary privilege and an expectation of other people deferring to you, that doesn't die easily.

I'm fascinated by the idea of his appropriating Welshness and well as woman-ness as ways to put himself front and centre again when those two pillars became a bit less all-impressive - makes total sense.

@anothernamitynamenamechange "No but the particular way in which they were a shit is strongly correlated with their sex"

Good point. That's what male socialisation does to a person.

Thanks. Happy to be corrected.

No but the particular way in which they were a shit is strongly correlated with their sex

To be fair- just because Jan Morris turned out to be a shit should be nothing to do with her gender.

No that was Diana Thomas https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trans-nhs-hospital-ward-mixed-tories-women-b2423144.html

Was Jan Morris the one who told the story about being in hospital and having a laugh with a couple of nurses who had been discussing JM's vulva while on a break in the staff room and had agreed that they couldn't tell it from a natural one? We found the story slightly implausible as we have never heard of nurses who get breaks or have a staff room.

I could easily be wrong as I do find it hard to tell one ghastly narcissist from another.

@rogdmum how are you all now? Is your daughter ok?

Absolutely, particularly at Clifton College.

he’ll be in his element in entirely captured Bristol :(

That’s a good way of putting it, MrsOvertonsWindow . I still feel ill. We were unable to protect our daughter from this man due to our naivety. We had no idea this particular issue existed for certain middle age men, let alone that there would be other men like Melvyn in positions of power who use it as justification to push social transition and self ID in schools. If I’d known at the time, we would have immediately pulled her out instead of naively thinking it was all a big misunderstanding, that we just had to explain, that the school would work with us.

And now he’s off to Clifton College in August - an example of what DfE is going to come up against when they try to roll out their school guidance. I would say good riddance, but it is sickening.

I can only imagine how it must feel to know that men like this hold your child's safety in their hands rogdmum. There is something dreadfully wrong in certain schools when senior staff openly fetishise transwomen and use them to excuse ignoring the need to safeguard children.

We all know this is a monumental scandal that will eventually implode but the number of child casualties that it's already creating defy belief.

That's comedy gold alright!

Needs a few tweaks though.

He was a man in a man's world who stood out because he looked ridiculous in his twinsets and pearls, and this seems to be exciting to quite a lot of men, who like rubbing it for him!

😂 Comedy Gold!

This quote from Suki Morys' article stood out for me. Haven't we heard Jordan Gray describe Jordan's self as a better woman than a natal woman?

I believe she wanted to be someone totally different from anyone else, a woman who was the centre of attention because of her difference. She was no ordinary woman, as she believed the rest of us were. She was always talked about, always put on some pedestal. Her ego was massive, with people constantly rubbing it. She was a woman who enjoyed being in a man’s world because she stood out. I can’t blame her for that, but Jan certainly did absolutely nothing for womankind.

I’ve felt ill much of today.

This isn’t the first time Melvyn has pushed (choosing my words carefully here) men who have transitioned in middle age. He was responsible for platforming former Mermaids trustee, Bobbi Pickard, at HMC’s spring conference last year:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4796022-hmc-independent-schools-heads-conference-showcasing-bobbi-pickard-in-gift-of-trans-talk

God knows we tried to impress upon him and the school that there is a new cohort of (mostly) adolescent girls who have all sorts of co-morbidities and that the school’s approach to social transition (which includes keeping it secret from parents where the child from 12+ wishes) is not evidence based and goes against everything we know about child development.

He completely dismissed us and at one point even said we thought our daughter’s gender distress was “frivolous” so I find the headline for today’s interview “cannot be dismissed as a modish oddity” very telling. He intentionally brushes aside very serious safeguarding concerns by effectively painting those with concerns as not taking it seriously. DARVO at its most extreme.

The school’s new draft policy was put to parents for consultation last summer. The deadline for comments was the end of September. 4 months on and my understanding is that there’s been silence about it - no final guidance has been published and parents are no longer able to view any internal guidance (ie the previous one or the draft one) on the parent portal.

Clifton College is a very “interesting” place for him to move to.

Rogdmum I imagine it was :-( it seems he has great deal to answer for. If he is indeed moving to Bristol, I hope any parents who encounter his particular educational approach are very much on their guard

@Properhoolietoday I don’t agree about the MN narrative- though I can see how you arrived there. People on MN generally accept that not all men who trans are AGP

Blanchard hypothesised two kinds of transwomen. Older men transitioning, generally straight and AGP. Much younger men, generally gay.

As it’s become so, so much more common and ‘accepted’, the boundaries are a bit less clear- sissy men seemingly wanting to be used by men as part of the degradation, for example. Younger straight men are transitioning, too.

But even young gay men who fully transition are not female, and do not belong in women’s spaces.

I met Jan Morris a couple of times and I agree. My father had met him as James and thought he was arrogant and pompous - and upper class Englishman who had discovered his inner Welshness and with the zealotry of a convert was reinventing himself. I only knew about this after the transition, so I thought it was my father being a bit old-fashioned because he was uncomfortable with transsexualism (a term JM used). But maybe the reinvention as a Welsh nationalist and the transition to 'womanhood' were similar.

It was noticeable at an event I was at well over 20yrs later that all the men were gathered around Jan, hanging onto every word, and Jan was loving it. It was a strange combination of male confidence and privilege accompanied by almost coquettish mannerisms. The men had so much more respect and admiration for Jan than I'd ever seen them express for their female colleagues. It felt like I was watching something from a film.

So many aspects of Jan's story are an illustration of how different trans women are from women. Even if a woman had been born into the same wealth and privilege as James Morris, they would not have had the opportunities he had. The children's, and even Jan's own, accounts of family life sound as if Jan remained in the male gender role regardless of the change in name and appearance. And the women in the family were expected to remain firmly in theirs as support humans.