Magdalen Berns is back!

[nolongerblue]

Hoorah!

I'm afraid I included Riley. That's how annoying.

hipsterfun, one website said 26 years old.

As an aging feminist I enjoyed Magdalen's sarcasm, a lot, but am disappointed by the video.
My transgender (only just) adult offspring loves Ash Hardell, and a couple of years ago gave me all their Christmas money to send to Ash who was crowdfunding to get their book published.
Up to about half way through Magdalen's video I was going to show it to my child: 'see, the ideas are the same, it's the nuances of interpretation that are different: the trans plan is to make sex unrelated to gender and so is the feminist one! We are on the same side!' and then Magdalen started being rude. There's no way I can show my child that as a basis for a discussion.
Look: she's very young and very peppy and slightly irritating but Ash Hardell is no fool. She has lived out some horrid times in her life through social media while being beautiful and eloquent and chirpy and the teens LOVE HER! If we could find someone as eloquent as Magdalen to engage with someone like Ash it would have such huge impact on our young people, rather than being something else to disenfranchise them.

Ugh taking money that kids don't have much off and grooming them

Ugh ugh ugh

Ash is absolutely fine, and coining it

I don't think Magdalen is trying to appeal to the likes of ash any more than ash is trying to appeal to the likes of Magdalen.

@FermatsTheorem

Can I ask what the reference is to the guy who helped Magdalen out and if he is ok? I only heard yesterday that she was attacked by a guy - is that what you were referring to? What happened?

I don't think Ash is that young either, she's not a kid.

But we are not on the same side Gah. Magdalen doesn't want your daughter to chop off her breasts but Ash does. Ash also made about £2k last month from her YouTube channel. And yet she's grifting to exploit young people like your daughter.

Two years ago, Ash was wearing make up and making videos with Riley Dennis. Ash is not your daughter's friend. Ash is fucking toxic and Magdalen is absolutely right to ridicule her.

Nolonger Magdalen was attacked by a man, and a male bystander came to her aid - he (the bystander) actually came out of it worse than she did, I believe, and ended up having hospital treatment for his injuries. I believe Magdalen tweeted that he probably saved her life.

*But we are not on the same side Gah. Magdalen doesn't want your daughter to chop off her breasts but Ash does. Ash also made about £2k last month from her YouTube channel. And yet she's grifting to exploit young people like your daughter.

Two years ago, Ash was wearing make up and making videos with Riley Dennis. Ash is not your daughter's friend. Ash is fucking toxic and Magdalen is absolutely right to ridicule her.*

I reiterate: the teens LOVE ASH. I (as a feminist and a mother) need someone as eloquent as Magdalen to engage with Ash and actually debate. Ash is painted as a victim and this (if I didn't really like Magdalen) does come off as 'cute chatty trans kid being belittled by embittered old feminist. I'm trying to make my child see that if you take the Rad Fems and TRAs and the politicising out of it their position and mine are actually very close indeed, with just a tweak of emphasis. I'm not talking about violent males here, I'm talking about a huge swathe of bright young women who are choosing to be non-binary or male identified rather than being gay women.

'does come off as 'cute chatty trans kid being belittled by embittered old feminist."

Apparently, ash is 26, not a kid. She chooses to act young and cute in a video asking kids for money.

Parents need to make their children aware that people aren't always who they claim to be.

Actually I think we owe it to children to tell them (gently) when they're talking complete bollocks so they get a grasp on the distinction between fact and fiction before they reach adulthood and the outside world tells them they're talking bollocks in a much less kind way.

Thanks @FermatsTheorem. That's terrible.

Gahwhatever, i don't really see the similarity of position between TRAs and Radfems (or me, not sure I am a radfem). TRAs seem to be wanting to separate women's embodied experiences from womanhood. They seem to want to colonise women's experiences and redefine and rename them, even our bodies. They seem to be solidifying sex stereotypes and planting the idea that if you are not a woman/man who is like THIS, then you may not really be a woman or a man at all. Feminism, to me, is about saying that there are many ways to be a man and many ways to be a woman. You can be as you are and still be male or female. I say this as someone who suspects that some people are born with a biological drive to identify with the opposite sex and these people have gender dysphoria. But TRAs seem to be promoting an belief system which is counter to my goal to challenge sex stereotypes and sex based discrimination, especially when they seem to have been successful in removing to language to even speak about sex based discrimination.

Some of the personal insults on here directed towards Ash are unkind but Magdalen is absolutely right to call Ash out on her complicity in her workplace's sexism. Maybe it feels like kicking a puppy because these trans tumblr adultkids base their brand on their self-identified vulnerability, but it's all this trigger-warning safe-space poor me bullshit shutting down debates in universities and no-platforming feminists. Women's rights are genuinely threatened by this youtube claptrap and damn right it should be tackled.

It's a good video. Transgenderism isn't progressive, it's a deeply regressive anti-women political ideology and these daft youtubers are nothing but tools of the patriarchy. Young people aren't stupid, they will get it. They might not agree straight away because they're socialised in a sexist society and we all know that vocal assertive women with opinions are never going to win popular support over a cutesy non-confrontational girl apologising for her own femaleness, but if they're exposed to videos like Magdalen's they will begin to see through their misogyny and they'll get it eventually. It'll do no good to kowtow to their bloody preciousness.

Well yes, that's why I said if you take the radfems, TRAs and politics out of it the basic principles are essentially similar: your sex should not limit how you present yourself or limit your opportunities.
That is the fundamental issue in both ideologies.
The problem is that while feminists accept biology but don't want the limitations of gender, plus we believe that women do need some additional protection because of long term patriarchy and male violence, the trans folk believe that biology can be overcome to some degree so that rather than being gender non-conforming you can actually change sex to 'fit' the gender you prefer and thus be 'uber-gender-conforming'.

I'm just trying to find common ground with my troubled child here.

My kids sometimes watch crap on YouTube and believe it. We rewatch it together and then take down every single bogus argument in turn. Gah - it sounds like your daughter is hugely invested in the transcult. Why don't you watch the Ash video with her and make the same arguments that Magdalen has and see if she'll listen? I bet she won't.

Sorry pressed post too soon. My point is that your daughter has invested time, money and emotion in propping up Ash. She has been brainwashed and I don't think it will be an easy task to get her to realise that her idol is a manipulative grifter

Gah I get that. I think you're right in the sense that a lot of teens would just dismiss Magdalen's video. I feel for you that your child is struggling.

It just makes my blood boil. Ash is 26? Ash, then, is similar to Zoella who it could be argued grooms her young fans by playing much younger on screen so teens can relate to her. Did I as a 26 year old woman want a bunch of 15 year olds to think I was their best mate and one of them and understood what they were going through? Like fuck I did. It's a strategy to make money and gain influence. Kids are not savvy enough to spot that most of the time.

Yeah Ash does have something of the adorable puppy vibe and I can see her appeal. I totally get where you’re coming from GahWhatever She’s also done some pretty frank and ‘adult’ videos on sex toys if I remember rightly (all in the name of education). I can totally see the appeal to the younger generation - it’s all very cutesy with a plinky plonky ukulele and/or xylophone naive soundtrack (a la Alex Bertie, Jake ft Magic) but then they hit you in the face with the innocuous sounding ‘top’ surgery (double mastectomies actually) and the trials and tribulations of getting on ‘T’. And they all appear in each other’s videos and I imagine it’s totally seductive being their ‘friends’ online especially if you’re suffering alone in your bedroom. I want to show my DS this video but I won’t because I don’t want him to think it’s OK to tease any trans individuals he comes into contact with but I DO want him to get educated on Feminism as I’m having to counter some misinformation that’s he’s obviously already come across such as ‘aren’t Feminists just man-haters?’. I totally understand it would be a ‘challenging’ video to watch if you had a DD who was immersed in the trans narrative. Cruel to be kind perhaps? Don’t see Magdalene and Ash getting together anytime soon to make a video!

Magdalen should run assertiveness and antisexism courses for these fragile waifs. Being that scared of life isn't a good thing. It seems odd to decide to identify as a man whilst exaggerating the high voice and the "cute little old me tackling the big bad scary man" stereotype of toxic femininity.
All very silly. Pretending to be a kitten will only work for so long.

holly

Great post

It's striking that she resembles a 16 year old but is in fact much older

I get the feeling that infantilizing themselves is part of the appeal for people like Ash,

As far as I can gather Ash identifies as non-binary but she wants to dress like a ‘man’ and have a baby with her wife like a woman (but also remove her breasts) and take And I totally lose the thread when she discusses her sexuality!

I love Magdalen too. She gets straight to the essence of everything. She is brilliant.

Agree 2rebecca