Waterstones come out as GC and fire TRA for social media post

welp, I tried to find any amazon affiliate link for Tilly Loves Books but came up blank. If anyone knows of such a thing, please @ me in the thread and I'll use it to support Tilly in her time of need, with my next amazon purchase.

Nope. It's do as I say not as I do.

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. That’s how it goes - am I right?

I am very impressed by the way the author comes across on twitterX and rises above all the bad social media behaviour. So I was interested to see what her writing was like.

Vox seems to have become quite popular on my county library website. Fortunately there are plenty copies so I have ordered one. I have been told it is good, but Q is better so that is next 😊

Here's an archive link for The Times article:

https://archive.ph/VBTUp

Edited to add a link to The Telegraph article archive:

https://archive.ph/Rvlcq

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/waterstones-sacks-reviewer-who-said-shed-bin-books-in-trans-row-xs8lskr2d

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/09/tilly-loves-books-sacked-by-waterstones-gender-critical/

I kind of feel like buying Vox via Tilly's affiliate link.

I hadn’t heard of the author before and have just ordered two of her books - from Waterstones. Interestingly, Femilandia is out of stock, so it looks like I’m not the only one.

Ah, no I did not get that. That is definitely not feminism.

I think you've missed the genesis of this - the person you quoted was responding to someone who was arguing that the majority of posters on this thread were being unfeminist in failing to support another woman (Tilly).

So that first person was making a similar argument to that of choice feminism, wherein any choice made by a woman is a valid choice because it was made by a woman.

You can click on quote history to see.

Nope, no one on Waterstones shop floors sees reps anymore. Despite James Daunts’ comments about tailoring stock to individual shops, it’s all grids of data to HO buyers. At most, publishers suggest which type of store is best for each book (metropolitan, rural, etc) when it comes to core stock recommendations.

Well, of course, which is why I said feminism is for women (it's not for men, even those wearing a dress). Women as a sex class.

Feminism is for the advancement of women as a class. Not of individual women, who may be fabulous or horrendous, like all humans. For eg they might, as in this case, be working against the interests of women as a class.

It's not a fucking group hug.

I don't think Waterstones are GC, though the anti-GC rant may have annoyed them as it affects sales. There is a very pro-trans children's book on their prize list.

Well there are very clearly people on this thread who think it's for males and about being fair to males at the expense of females.

But then these people don't understand why you need legal definitions of anything so I guess I declare myself a police officer and can arrest everyone I feel like on whatever grounds I like. Brilliant isn't it?

To be fair, "being a bit mouthy" is a primary use case for social media and I'm not going to cast the first stone there

(looks shiftily at some absolute rippers I've come out with over the years, sometimes even when not in drink)

I think it comes close. Who else is feminism for?

So this has not been the first time she has been a bit mouthy on SM.

"Side of a bus" applies here (unless it is blatant lies about £350 million and the NHS)

That is a very dignified update from Christina Dalcher.

Update from Christina Dalcher https://x.com/CV_Dalcher/status/1811054035773825035

"Couple of quick notes:

1. I have now been contacted by journos at The Guardian (2x), Bookbrunch, The Times, The Bookseller, & other media outlets regarding the situation between Tilly Fitzgerald and Waterstones.

In each case, I have responded with no comment.
The 24 June tweets (at least from my end) remain publicly available.

1. I have not locked/protected my account, deleted tweets, restricted replies, embarked on a blocking spree, or hurled epithets at those who are upset at the situation. I cannot say the same for the accounts held by others, including two of the journalists who claimed to have contacted me for comments.

1. I did not personally see a wide ‘call for sacking’ on the part of ‘gender-critical’ accounts between 24 June and 8 July. I have seen, however, several statements and questions that presuppose such a call.

1. Once again, I blame this war (because it very much looks like a war) on the industries and media who have—for years now—allowed one side’s opinion to rule the roost via boycotts, strikes, downed tools, smear campaigns, and other mechanisms. I do hope it eventually comes to an end."

We do know she instagrammed her dismay at getting her worst bout of covid 2 days before her holiday - cue lots of ‘poor you’ comments. But she travelled anyway, discussing public toilets on the way, spreading the virus. She filmed herself weepingly asking for another job and implied she would suffer badly monetary wise - so much so she later said people were replying, offering her money. Various posters have said it was only a weekend job. She implied the author whose books she wanted to bin wasn’t as worthy as they had less followers than her. And updates the filming to show her reaction to all the well wishes and big reaction she’s been getting - whilst making sure to mention you can click on links which indirectly get her money. All this filming being done whilst she’s staying at a French chalet with stunning views.

What a plonker. I am half expecting it not to be real it’s so ludicrous.

We have absolutely no idea of the background to why this person was fired, what her work contract was, the t&cs, her history. And obviously Waterstones can't share that.

So we'll probably never know unless she takes them to an ET.

Humtum states elsewhere that they are "Forever championing trans policy and EDI representation as part of healthy progressive debate" which makes sense of pp's difficulty in following what is being said. I don't think EDI representation as currently practised is progressive at all, for starters.

There's a lot of appetite for kind, considered and progressive conversation around gender. The more accountability, data, peoples voices (all voices), evidence can only be a good thing

I am sick of people calling for others to be kind.

And the last sentence. OMG. The reaction to the Cass Report tells you everything you need to know about Humtum's "progressive conversation" thinking accountability, data and evidence are a good thing.

Unless I have misunderstood, which is easily done given the post.

the only comment i remember from the Indy article was from the Author asking them to clarify when and how they had "tried to contact" her.

I saw an exchange on Twitter between the author (Christina Dalcher) and two UK journalists who reported on this story. Dalcher was asking why one of the journalists hadn’t tried to contact her for comment and the journalist’s reply was that they’d tried contacting Dalcher’s representation but had received an out of office email. A second journalist also claims to have tried to contact Dalcher for comment via Twitter but it was at 02.30am American time so Dalcher was asleep. Apparently that was all the work journalists were prepared to put into getting Dalcher’s comment. Dalcher asked why they made no attempt to contact her directly via email but there was no reply at that time when I was on Twitter yesterday and I can’t find one at the moment after doing a quick search.

Dalcher has since put a tweet out saying she has no comment regarding Tilly and that other journalists have been able to find her email address and contact her directly.

the only comment i remember from the Indy article was from the Author asking them to clarify when and how they had "tried to contact" her.

There are some concerning aspects to this story. Is it ok to fire someone when they are not there? Do we want companies to have that sort of power? or was she on a casual kind of contract where that's ok (I have no idea how the world of work functions in England).

As Alice might say "curioser and curioser"