Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
MaIeficent · 09/03/2026 04:43

MrsStarskie · 08/03/2026 23:36

Frankly, she gives me 'lady of the manor educating the undeserving poor'
Agree with this.
Did intelligent people like her get sidetracked early in the debate by the activists who claimed 'being trans is inherent' like being gay is. Could not see that in practice it was obviously a lifestyle choice. An idea they still cling on to. because she is very competitive and will not be bested.

I'm not entirely sure there's any more scientific proof of innate homosexuality than innate gender dysphoria at this point though tbf. Unless there's been a recent discovery. Both seem to be based on feelings. Some men father children before 'realising' they've always been gay, just like how some realise they've 'always been a woman'.

The fact that one is a biological impossibility doesn't rule out cognitive causes. Just like how a schizophrenic person who thinks they're Jesus isn't any less schizophrenic because they're not really the son of God.

Nonetheless, they're still men and should use the appropriate facilties.

MaIeficent · 09/03/2026 04:34

singthing · 06/03/2026 17:13

Our old friend Sam Smith was piping up again out of nowhere the other week, so he's probably got an album out soon.

What's the equivalent for Emily? Run at leadership perhaps? Another new Labour party spin-off?

Sam Smith. 🤣 Last outfit I saw him wearing looked like a haemorrhaging sausage wrapped in clingfilm.

Bertiebiscuit · 09/03/2026 00:58

Politicians who are too lazy to get their facts checked, and who spout nonsense just because it's what the sheep brains are all saying on X or tiktok are extremely dangerous and should find other employment where they won't harm so many people. She is a classic example.

Bertiebiscuit · 09/03/2026 00:49

Believing in ideas that are provably untrue is the very definition of stupidity, nothing to do with "opinions" There are no fairies at the bottom of my garden, so if i claim there are, I'm stupid, not just having a "different opinion". Ditto flat earthers, and TWAW.

MrsStarskie · 08/03/2026 23:36

Frankly, she gives me 'lady of the manor educating the undeserving poor'
Agree with this.
Did intelligent people like her get sidetracked early in the debate by the activists who claimed 'being trans is inherent' like being gay is. Could not see that in practice it was obviously a lifestyle choice. An idea they still cling on to. because she is very competitive and will not be bested.

maltravers · 08/03/2026 20:22

Starmer gave her the chop and she was quiet for quite a while, because she thought her career was over I suspect. Starmer is now potentially in trouble and she’s sprung to life and is making a pitch to the left. It’s mainly “politics” imo.

Keeptoiletssafe · 08/03/2026 19:42

RapidOnsetGenderCritic · 07/03/2026 10:58

My guess is that she hasn't really thought about it in any depth, but goes along with the groupthink of her political/social circles. The reason I think that's likely is that I was there myself only about 4 years ago – I assumed that trans was gay rights repeated, and therefore we must not make the same mistakes; we must be much nicer as a society to trans people than we were to gay people who just wanted to live their lives etc. It has to come very close to home for some of us to start to experience the cognitive dissonance that leads to reading trans books and gender critical books. Then we start thinking for ourselves, and following our assumptions to their logical conclusions.

I swallowed a lot of propaganda whole before I started having doubts when people close to me tried to explain their worldviews, or suddenly changed behaviour but couldn't or didn't want to explain why. I'm no more or less intelligent than four years ago, but my views on "trans" have changed considerably with exposure to the thinking behind trans politics. I still like the trans people in my life – I haven't personally met any horrible ones – but my eyes have been opened to some of the harms caused by trans politics, not least to trans people themselves.

So I don't think Emily Thornberry is stupid, but I do think she is blinkered, and she won't want to remove the blinkers or for anyone else to remove them. It's a disturbing process to have part of your worldview torn up. And then there's the politician's self-interest; they have to, or think they have to, calculate the impact of every utterance. That's how you get a PM stating that it's not right to say that only women can have a cervix.

It’s interesting with single sex spaces because Emily has spent weeks of her life discussing toilets. Many of Emily’s earlier cases as a lawyer were to do with cases of men in toilets and arguing they weren’t misusing them.

She also sat on a panel discussing the provision of public toilets in 2008 in Parliament. It was lengthy document. Trans people were not even mentioned. From what I recall about public toilets she didn’t seem that bothered about council-run toilets being retained, she thought private businesses make take the strain. That’s maybe a London thing? Maybe she doesn’t use council-run toilets? It probably disadvantages different groups of those with which she mingles (disabled, poorer, elderly, bowel conditions). Maybe she thought misuse in council-run toilets was so bad that they were beyond saving (even though she argued it wasn’t happening) so that privately run toilets were the way forward. It’s not very socialist.

I would be interested in her views.

Leafstamp · 08/03/2026 18:35

Just wanted to sign in to say fuck off Emily Thornberry.

UtopiaPlanitia · 08/03/2026 15:38

Ithinkofawittyusernamethenforgetit · 06/03/2026 17:40

Why do you find her tiresome and smug? She is the MP for my neighbouring constituency and she does a great job. There is a lot to balance in a constituency such as hers - she spoke so well and movingly at the Chanukah event on Islington Green, only hours after the attack on Bondi Beach and the week of the murder of a 15-year-old near H&I station. I find her genuine and dedicated, I don’t understand this nonsense about her trying to sound posh?

I made no comment about her accent.

I find her tiresome and smug because, in any interview I've watched, she condescends to and patronises those on the other side of the argument. She frames everything in terms of moral superiority and she frames her interlocutor as shamefully adhering to immoral and (what horror!) old-fashioned beliefs. Her argument generally boils down to her views being superior and correct because she is nice.

Speaking as a Lefty, Thornberry epitomises everything I've come to dislike in the upper middle-class, middle management politicians who have taken over Labour. She seems to have no clue when it comes to class-based analysis or class consciousness, instead she seems to hold the full set of bien pensant views that 'naice' upper middle-class women find fashionable to hold these days (á la Stella Creasey) and if those beliefs disadvantage the less well off then so be it, as long as her fellow travellers see her as being kind.

Frankly, she gives me 'lady of the manor educating the undeserving poor' vibes.

Pingponghavoc · 08/03/2026 15:36

She didn't post a derogatory remark. She posted the words "Image from She didn't post a derogatory remark. She posted the words "Image from Rochester" - entirely neutral. Thornberry was unfairly traduced for that, I thought, and it's interesting that so many people misremember it." - entirely neutral. Thornberry was unfairly traduced for that, I thought, and it's interesting that so many people misremember it.

It was part of her 'image from...' twitter series where she posted views from across the country?

Of course it wasn't neutral. If thats whats she's claiming, she thinks everyone else is stupid.

Pricesandvices · 08/03/2026 14:37

I really want to like ET but she keeps coming out with rubbish like this. I thought she was smart enough to know better.

teawamutu · 08/03/2026 14:34

RoyalCorgi · 08/03/2026 13:06

She didn't post a derogatory remark. She posted the words "Image from Rochester" - entirely neutral. Thornberry was unfairly traduced for that, I thought, and it's interesting that so many people misremember it.

I actually think Thornberry is pretty smart. Why then does she appear so stupid on the trans issue? Best guess is that she hasn't bothered to think about it or inform herself about it, so just repeats the standard lines that all the progressives parrot. One of these standard lines is that trans people are the most vulnerable and marginalised group in society. No doubt at some level Thornberry knows this isn't true, because it's ridiculous, but if you're not going to put effort into thinking about it, then you just reach for the standard thought-terminating cliche that everyone else is using.

I don't think she was unfairly traduced at all, tbh. She might not have said 'look at this thick prole flag-waver' but I remember it well, and it was bloody obvious what she meant.

There was, and is, a strong streak of bien-pensant 'the hoi polloi are too stupid or uneducated to vote for us, who know best for them', and along with Corbyn, Owen Jones and others ET is a prime example.

And as said up thread, she has a trans family member. So it's as much about maintaining a self-serving fiction and fuck all those boring ordinary women as anything else.

OP posts:
RoyalCorgi · 08/03/2026 13:06

Tunnockstester · 06/03/2026 19:56

I remember when she posted an image of a house with a large England flag and made some derogatory remark. Such a stupid thing for a politician to do, so, yes she is a bit thick and in the Westminster bubble.

She didn't post a derogatory remark. She posted the words "Image from Rochester" - entirely neutral. Thornberry was unfairly traduced for that, I thought, and it's interesting that so many people misremember it.

I actually think Thornberry is pretty smart. Why then does she appear so stupid on the trans issue? Best guess is that she hasn't bothered to think about it or inform herself about it, so just repeats the standard lines that all the progressives parrot. One of these standard lines is that trans people are the most vulnerable and marginalised group in society. No doubt at some level Thornberry knows this isn't true, because it's ridiculous, but if you're not going to put effort into thinking about it, then you just reach for the standard thought-terminating cliche that everyone else is using.

Pingponghavoc · 08/03/2026 12:01

I don't think she's thick, but i dont think she's particularly bright, either. Shes just average and trying to fit in with the other Labour people, not a great independent thinker.

So shes accepted TWAW policy, seen family members transitioning, and heard trans are the most marginalised in society and not applied any critical thinking.

Its not in her favour to change her view, but i think ego has a lot to do with it, too.

EdithStourton · 07/03/2026 21:18

soupycustard · 07/03/2026 11:59

I came on to say the same thing. There is something deeply uncomfortable about how much some of the Labour Party despise the working classes.

Agreed.
Posh types exuding vibes of, 'Gosh! Those awful proles! They're meant to just vote for us and not have opinions!'

EdithStourton · 07/03/2026 21:15

lcakethereforeIam · 06/03/2026 17:36

Partly because I came across this in the Telegraph (and wanted to put it somewhere) and partly as a riposte to the misinformation peddled by Thornberry, Connie Shaw recently gave a talk at UCL

https://archive.ph/JDH3d

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/06/how-i-stood-up-to-pro-trans-bullies-who-tried-to-silence/

She needed bodyguards and there was a Police presence to maintain order. There was a demonstration and posters put up complaining about her presence. GC students were able to use the event to meet likeminded others, having previously been successfully frightened into silence.

Kudos to UCL for hosting the event and not caving into the crybullies.

The Society of Women at Cambridge circulate info about their talks to their subscribers, and don't tell ticket holders where the talk will be until just before the event.

That's GC normality. But there goes Emily about the Most Marginalised.

She's annoyed me for bloody years.

HildegardP · 07/03/2026 20:49

Sausagenbacon · 07/03/2026 08:41

I think she's wrong in this, and i disagree with her about other issues, but i think the overarching problem is that posters automatically jump to say that she's stupid.
What future is there in society if we can't accept that other people don't share our opinions?

Would it be better if we said she's dishonest, or that she's behaving with political stupidity in placing her own family member ahead of intellectual rigour, honesty, women's rights, LGB rights, & safeguarding?

Sometimes "stupid" is adequate shorthand.

1984Now · 07/03/2026 18:18

The moment "suicidal empathy" was explained to me was the moment I "got" the motivations of the likes of Thornberry and the wider progressive movement on trans.

Sausagenbacon · 07/03/2026 18:07

I agree with you and disagree with her stance on Gender Issues.
I used to use the 'either thick or a liar' line. But i now strongly believe there is no way forward in that approach. We should be able to disagree with each other with more grace.
Check out JK Rowling. She's devastating on this, without insults.

WorriedMutha · 07/03/2026 13:50

Stella Creasey popped up today to say it shouldn't be the place of Labour to show hostility to immigrants. Both London Labour MPs and both signalling to progressives that they share turf with the Greens. They know the Greens will be coming for them. Polanski might even run in Stella's seat.

WallaceinAnderland · 07/03/2026 13:50

Sausagenbacon · 07/03/2026 08:41

I think she's wrong in this, and i disagree with her about other issues, but i think the overarching problem is that posters automatically jump to say that she's stupid.
What future is there in society if we can't accept that other people don't share our opinions?

The simple fact is that there is no data to back up her statement.

There is no study that shows trans people in the uk at more at risk of assault. No one has done the research. Victims of crime have been allowed to state their gender rather than their sex. Perpetrators' crimes have been recorded as the gender they prefer, rather than their sex. All the data is mixed up.

She has made a public statement as a matter of fact without fact checking and that, to me, does seems rather stupid.

TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 07/03/2026 13:03

I'm not sure what else you'd call someone who wants to think with the heart instead of the brain, the organ that actually evolved to do the thinking, than stupid.

soupycustard · 07/03/2026 11:59

Womanofcustard · 07/03/2026 10:11

I haven’t forgotten her sneery comments, years ago, when she passed a house flying an England flag. The flag was for a football match.
It’s stuff like that that ushered in the dreadful tories, and possibly reform at the next GE.
They just don’t get it.
Happy International Women’s Day!

I came on to say the same thing. There is something deeply uncomfortable about how much some of the Labour Party despise the working classes.

Justme56 · 07/03/2026 11:20

One of my biggest dislikes with politicians is all the vagueness of their platitudes. The whole be nice attitude doesn’t solve problems. I’d much rather they come up with the specifics. What exactly does ‘indulging’ mean when it comes to single sex spaces. If she thinks they shouldn’t exist why doesn’t she just come out and say it. What is she scared of?

Shortshriftandlethal · 07/03/2026 11:12

You could see how conflicted ET was on the Laura Kuenssberg show when Jake Berry )said he wouldn't want any of his children used in the puberty blocker trial/experiment and threw open the question " Would you?" to both Thornberry and Billy Bragg. They both looked momentarily paralysed, and sheepish.