Laurie Penny is actually a feminist!

Oh I just read that article courtesy of an archive version

https://archive.ph/XMtoV

"..One early-spring evening I went to Mince, a performance night in aid of Five for Five, a crowdfunder for transgender causes. It was held at the Feminist Library in Peckham and “free for dolls” (trans women), cheaper for other trans people, and “about a tenner for cis people”. The walls were covered in women’s liberation literature and posters on resisting immigration raids; a pole-dancing class was taking place in the next room. The audience was nearly all young women. ..."

They'd be mortified that Mumsnet might be discussing them 😄

I felt a bit bad for purloining it but it was too good not to

Themsplaining.

Brendan is as always right on the money. I hope Laurie is “self googling” as she admits to in the thread I linked and reads it

So she’s not really talking about men and women at all. What a way to blow up your own thesis. Men have ruined everything, and only a progressive women’s politics can save us, but men can be women too if they want, so this progressive women’s politics will sometimes include men – that’s this book boiled down. I hate to mansplain, but I foresee a glitch in Penny’s glorious feministic uprising against white male ‘fascism’ if it includes within its number loads of those white males who have been culturally programmed to grab pussies with their sweaty hands but who now wear dresses and call themselves Tallulah.

Oh, God, no.
I like gardening.
Lauri Penny drives me up the bloody wall.

(Like your username, btw. I saw it in the wild the other day.)

What cracks me up about the they/them pronouns and the assertions of boyishness (usually justified by mentioning that she reads sci-fi, which of course women and girls are banned from doing)... I find it hard to think of anyone less androgynous, never mind masculine, than Laurie. She's tiny, and her style and mannerisms are all extremely girly.

I think what she means is that she's not like the other, boring girls.

It's a bit cheeky, though, to insist that she's not a woman and then to write columns and books (well, collections of blog posts) setting herself up as an authority on feminism, and telling off women who know what a woman is for womaning wrong.

It's a bit like if Ta-Nehisi Coates went around claiming that he's not black, except when he's got a book out on the state of Black America.

Why does she keep calling herself a fuckboy?

https://lauriepenny.substack.com/p/extremely-important-writing-advice

Some people just dont seem to evolve past certain life stages, do they.

"I'm certainly looking into it now"

19 November 2021

https://nitter.net/scarimor/status/2042653724615537098#m

"What Foucault got right"

25 November 2021

https://lauriepenny.substack.com/p/what-foucault-got-right

includes trigger warnings though .

And still simping for Michel Foucault after pretending she didn't know about his history of child sexual abuse.

Michel Foucault and Neil Gaiman? That's beginning to look a bit patterny.

I was wondering what has happened to her. Pennyreds last guardian column before this was in 2020.

I note the comment about her surprise (heterosexual) pandemic zoom wedding and the fate of her US millennial feminist contemporary Lindy West (ugh, millennials. How OLD.🧓😂).

(Summary from Helen Lewis here https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/lindy-west-millennial-feminism/686488/)

The all encompassing Polyamory Discourse that her book Adult Braces has triggered has prompted Mx Penny to summarily ban "straight men" (cis men?) from it.

https://lauriepenny.substack.com/p/straight-men-are-now-banned-from

She was also sufficiently triggered by the Helen Lewis article on the whole miserable business as to take a pop at her as well. So still a true TRA bunny. And still simping for Michel Foucault after pretending she didn't know about his history of child sexual abuse.

There's a bunch of them in exile. I suspect it's the MEK rather than the Tudeh, because the MEK have an impressive record of hiring western politicians to argue their talking points and not look too hard at what kind of an organisation the MEK is.

The Iranian communists? I thought Khomeini wiped them out in the 80s.

I've just seen that John Bercow is now acting as a spokesman for the Iranian communists, so I suppose it will be fun to see what humiliating gigs Laurie is prepared to accept as the price of staying "relevant".

Yes excellent JB piece (I too read it at the time but she’s always worth a re-read)

And very good value as I followed the links to the other excellent reviews by Brendan O'Neill and Julie Bindel.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/20/the-revenge-of-the-posh/

https://archive.ph/wYLhP

I must admit I've never heard of her outside Mumsnet but she does seem to be the gift that keeps on giving.

God, what a delight that was to read. Outstanding quotes from Julie Bindel and JK Rowling in a piece by Julie Burchill - made my day 😁

Now that is fucking excellent and I love Julie Burchill.

Absolutely pitch perfect.

I mean based on the New Statesman's cover story this week - which they tout as "new feminism rising" but seems mainly to be angry young femcels voting for Zack Polanski (and also failing the Bechdel test because they're constantly talking about men) - Laurie might have had a niche in the early 2010s, but she's not going to be short of competition from wannabe pundits almost young enough to be her daughters.

If she so much as hints at it, I will send a note to Zia to make sure she's gatekept.

Her next move could be a Hitchens type volte face ?

Why I am joining Reform after finally seeing the light !

Had a look at her Wikipedia entry. Appeared on the scene when she was about 20, had sudden influence that peaked when she was about 25, and in the 15 years of decline since there's been the rage-bait type articles and special identities.

All rather sad. Especially with her being 40 later this year and in real need of a new schtick.

Not gardening, please.

At a certain point Laurie was unofficially blackballed at the Guardian (also the Independent and New Statesman) because they'd all tried her out as a regular columnist and she proved impossible to work with. Editors came to look on her the way left wing MPs look on Zarah Sultana.

I suppose running the occasional comment piece from her is tolerable if she's not actually going to be on your regular rota.

The question is, how long is she going to be able to pull off the "angry voice of youth" shtick when she's pushing 40 and there are lots of young women out there who have the batshit politics Kath Viner likes, who are a lot cheaper, and who can even do what Laurie can't and write about subjects other than themselves?

It's not really a sexist double standard, because even Toby Young had to knock the enfant terrible act on the head eventually. This might be a good time for Laurie to start looking for interests she can write about - maybe gardening, or restaurant reviewing.

Read that at the time but thoroughly enjoyed my revisit. Especially the glorious payoff.