Linehan tweeting misogyny and racism now

The IT Crowd is a shit programme, and his writing of Jen as 'Dumb woman doesn't understand computers and is obsessed with shoes' is unquestionably misogynist.

...Okay, now I'm leaving.

I'm going to leave this thread because it's not doing anyone any good, but I just want to say one final thing.

This is a discussion thread, and so many people have the knee-jerk reaction to reply with 'Well, it's not my responsibility to have this discussion'.

Yeah, no shit. It's not your 'responsibility' to let old people cross the road. It's not your 'responsibility' to recycle. It's not your 'responsibility' to consider people's feelings when you talk to them.

But... If that's the case, just don't engage. If you don't want to acknowledge a problem then fine, but don't just pretend the problem doesn't exist. And, if someone wants to talk about the problem, don't act like they're trying to somehow shame you into doing the right thing.

I'm sick to the back teeth of an atomised social media landscape where every argument has to be taken to the extreme, and I think you all are too. But treating the most extreme voices of your opponents as if they are the norm is exactly what's escalating discussions like these until people who agree with each-other on 99% of a subject are frothing with rage over the 1% they don't.

I don't think it's unreasonable to point out that there are bad actors who are willing to use GC people's genuine concerns as a wedge issue to push them to more extreme views, in exactly the same way that some TRAs are radicalised to the point of posting disgusting threats online. There is absolutely a comparison to be made with Linehan's extreme social media addiction leading him to the point where he's openly cheering the extrajudicial killing of an innocent woman simply because she's on a different 'side' to him, and just sticking your fingers in your ears won't change that.

Nobody thinks they're being radicalised in the same way that no-one thinks that they're susceptible to propaganda. But the refusal to even discuss violence against transpeople just because 'it's not your responsibility' is just an abdication of basic empathy, and reduces actual lives down to a dehumanised monolith.

Argue the rest of this amongst yourselves, since apparently it's not my responsibility to make you see the bigger picture or become more caring people.

The IT Crowd is a shit programme, and his writing of Jen as 'Dumb woman doesn't understand computers and is obsessed with shoes' is unquestionably misogynist.

...Okay, now I'm leaving.

Yes! It would be great to find a solution, and I'd love to talk about it. Unfortunately, any time I do try to talk about it, someone follows it up with a post saying that it's not they're responsibility, and I shouldn't even be asking.

I'm not saying that anyone has to find a solution, but I think everyone can agree it'd be nice if they did

I'm going to leave this thread because it's not doing anyone any good, but I just want to say one final thing.

This is a discussion thread, and so many people have the knee-jerk reaction to reply with 'Well, it's not my responsibility to have this discussion'.

Yeah, no shit. It's not your 'responsibility' to let old people cross the road. It's not your 'responsibility' to recycle. It's not your 'responsibility' to consider people's feelings when you talk to them.

But... If that's the case, just don't engage. If you don't want to acknowledge a problem then fine, but don't just pretend the problem doesn't exist. And, if someone wants to talk about the problem, don't act like they're trying to somehow shame you into doing the right thing.

I'm sick to the back teeth of an atomised social media landscape where every argument has to be taken to the extreme, and I think you all are too. But treating the most extreme voices of your opponents as if they are the norm is exactly what's escalating discussions like these until people who agree with each-other on 99% of a subject are frothing with rage over the 1% they don't.

I don't think it's unreasonable to point out that there are bad actors who are willing to use GC people's genuine concerns as a wedge issue to push them to more extreme views, in exactly the same way that some TRAs are radicalised to the point of posting disgusting threats online. There is absolutely a comparison to be made with Linehan's extreme social media addiction leading him to the point where he's openly cheering the extrajudicial killing of an innocent woman simply because she's on a different 'side' to him, and just sticking your fingers in your ears won't change that.

Nobody thinks they're being radicalised in the same way that no-one thinks that they're susceptible to propaganda. But the refusal to even discuss violence against transpeople just because 'it's not your responsibility' is just an abdication of basic empathy, and reduces actual lives down to a dehumanised monolith.

Argue the rest of this amongst yourselves, since apparently it's not my responsibility to make you see the bigger picture or become more caring people.

Agree, Datun, it’s sexism all the way down.

Male prisoners are also disproportionately affected by DV, child abuse, poverty, brain injury and so on. That doesn’t mean they are not guilty of violent crimes. It is true that several hundred female prisoners have committed violent crimes out of the 3,500 that are currently prisoners indicating the vast majority of female prisoners are not violent. Your post merely confirms what I wrote, that over 90% of women are in prison for nonviolent crimes.

I stated that trans prisoners are kept in a separate wing, which you called shite and not fact checked, and referenced Karen White. Well that happened in 2017 and it wasn’t sexual assault but stabbing. It’s been almost a decade since transwomen were anywhere near women in prisons not “five minutes” as it is 2026.

a) female prisoners are not locked up with transwomen and haven’t been since 2017
b) gender pay gap reporting has been the basis of several successful court cases where women have received back pay and increased wages and not just for middle class workers at the BBC or rich actresses, but also the women working in Amazon warehouses and the women on the shop floors of major grocers like Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose because the men were being paid more than the women. It does make a difference because with no evidence, women can’t file a class action civil suit against a company that is not complying with the fair pay act. You seem to think just because there is a law on the books making it illegal that companies won’t pay men more than women for the same job, this is very childish. We all know they do and they get away with it. The gender pay gap reporting is essential to ensure companies actually do follow the law.

Considering how thin-skinned and vindictive he is, why would we want to do that? He's spent the last week raving against Helen Lewis and JKR for not being suitably deferential to him (as well as Nick Wallis - but he apologised to him... I wonder why 🙄). He treats even the mildest criticism like a personal affront, excuse us if we don't want him dragging us out in front of his followers to screech at.

I started this thread to point out that Linehan is no friend of women because I was sick of the constant glazing of him I see on here. I'm as GC as they come, but he's consistently been a spiteful, vindictive little man, and his misogyny clearly shines through; just a few days ago he was posting pictures of Helen Puttick and crowing about her being a man. His immediate jump to mocking physical appearance absolutely reeks of misogyny, and he clearly has a baseline of what he thinks a woman 'should' look like - and woe betide any woman who falls short of that.

Okay, but you see how this is exactly what I mean? That's disgusting, I agree, but the post was made by a single TRA, not some monolith of transpeople. I've seen GC people crowing about attacks on transpeople, and I know they're not representative of most GC people. But then TRAs share those and act like they're representative of all GC people. It's a cycle, and it doesn't do anyone any good

So much of this is just cherry-picking examples to get outraged over, and it's disingenuous to pretend that only one 'side' does this when it's just a symptom of social media that deliberately stokes rage and rewards bad impulses with more engagement.

But this does bring up an interesting point; transpeople do face some discrimination - you'd have to be in completely in denial to ignore the fact that they face verbal harassment on the street and have to experience 'tranny' jokes. The threshold for their belligerence, though, seems to be a lot lower on here - they do have right to be annoyed & on their guard, even if the actions of TRAs go too far.

That's not to excuse TRAs, but I think there is a cycle going on there which isn't helpful to anyone - it's characteristic of social media bringing out the worst of people's impulses and flattening out nuance, and that includes JKR.

Male prisoners are also disproportionately affected by DV, child abuse, poverty, brain injury and so on. That doesn’t mean they are not guilty of violent crimes. It is true that several hundred female prisoners have committed violent crimes out of the 3,500 that are currently prisoners indicating the vast majority of female prisoners are not violent. Your post merely confirms what I wrote, that over 90% of women are in prison for nonviolent crimes.

I stated that trans prisoners are kept in a separate wing, which you called shite and not fact checked, and referenced Karen White. Well that happened in 2017 and it wasn’t sexual assault but stabbing. It’s been almost a decade since transwomen were anywhere near women in prisons not “five minutes” as it is 2026.

a) female prisoners are not locked up with transwomen and haven’t been since 2017
b) gender pay gap reporting has been the basis of several successful court cases where women have received back pay and increased wages and not just for middle class workers at the BBC or rich actresses, but also the women working in Amazon warehouses and the women on the shop floors of major grocers like Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose because the men were being paid more than the women. It does make a difference because with no evidence, women can’t file a class action civil suit against a company that is not complying with the fair pay act. You seem to think just because there is a law on the books making it illegal that companies won’t pay men more than women for the same job, this is very childish. We all know they do and they get away with it. The gender pay gap reporting is essential to ensure companies actually do follow the law.

As a lot of the messages on this tread suggest, there are GC women who find Linehan odious and don't want to be represented by him. Similarly, there are transpeople (and even TRAs) who find the people posting that shit to be equally odious.

For all the arguing that Linehan is a bad actor who doesn't represent all GCs, there are posters on here who are happy to treat extreme TRAs as fully representative of all transpeople. Being Gender Critical is not a monolith, and I don't think it does anyone any favours to suggest that being a TRA is either.

Yes, but my point is the refusal of many GC people to even acknowledge the issues that transpeople face.

When JKR wrote that first essay, she made mention of the fact that she would march with transpeople if they were discriminated against; in the last two years, has she done that even once? Has she made any comment about violence against transpeople? I agree she's not obligated to, but not doing so is certainly inconsistent with what she previously wrote.

I'm proud that none of that violence has any connection with GC people; I'm firmly against self-ID and support single-sex spaces, but I'm not going to pretend there isn't any nuance to the matter; for instance, if a transwoman has fully medically transitioned, she is going to be at risk in the men's toilets. Does that mean there should be a third space? How would that be implemented? Or is there a level of medical transition that should entitle a transwoman to use women's toilets?

Again, I want to speak gently because I'm in the same position as you, and have seen the same thing, and I do find it genuinely enraging. I think the way that GCs are treated is disgusting, and agree wholeheartedly with you that the treatment of Rowling is particularly unpleasant.

However (and this is why I really want to be clear that I'm speaking gently and just want to have a calm conversation about this), I have seen the same response from GCs towards reasonable transpeople. For instance, in the example of the medically-transitioned transwoman in the men's toilets; the responses immediately on this very thread have skirted around the central point and haven't offered an actual solution. The only two options seem to be A. The transwoman should just go in the Men's where he'll be in danger, or B. The transwoman just shouldn't exist.

@murasaki
"I don't see why you think it's women's job to facilitate these men. It's men's, or theirs to argue for other spaces, which it would seem they don't want as there's no validation in that."

I fully agree with you! But that's not something that's going to happen overnight, and I think an actual discussion on the subject should be wide-ranging enough to discuss its nuances. I certainly don't think it's a woman's responsibility to stop men from being misogynists, but we don't live in an ideal world where men will just magically decide not to be misogynists. And denying that transwomen do face some dangers is the first step to addressing those nuances.

First of all, are they? What is the evidence?
Why are you asking for evidence in a hypothetical scenario? This is just debating the premise of the question, not engaging with it substantively.

Secondly, if that's true, where is the campaign to tackle this terrible behaviour from men?
As above - that's my point! It's important to tackle violence by men against transpeople, but whenever I bring it up, you reply telling me that transpeople are the real violent ones and we go around in a circle.

Thirdly, if third spaces and needed, go for it. Most GC types have been advocating this for years (and been called bigots as a result)
But do not make male on male violence women's problem to solve. Do not attempt to shame and bully women who rightfully refuse to give up their rights to ameliorate the effects of male behaviour
Simply having a discussion about something isn't 'making it women's problem to solve'. Do you see posts on here about Trump and reply 'Well, what do you want me to do about it?'? It's possible to have a discussion about something without acting like the entire weight of the world is on your shoulders.

the responses immediately on this very thread have skirted around the central point and

The central point is that a man in the ladies is not acceptable.

haven't offered an actual solution.

Not our circus, not our monkeys.

The only two options seem to be A. The transwoman should just go in the Men's where he'll be in danger, or B. The transwoman just shouldn't exist.

B is a flat lie. But making it to, what, message 300+ before the mask slips is impressive.

Ladies, we are going to have to tighten up our TRAdars, they are getting better at flying under them.