The magnificent Jane Clare Jones

[Anlaf]

I think she's thoroughly great already, and she has just published this on "Gay Rights and Trans Rights – A Compare and Contrast"

janeclarejones.com/2018/09/09/gay-rights-and-trans-rights-a-compare-and-contrast

Subtitle So, Momentum made a video huh?

Enjoy

Brilliant stuff. Inspirational.

such a fan am I, I hadn't actually read the piece yet

Some highlights:

People just want to be told what the good right-thinking progressive position is and then get on with the business of trying to get on with their business. Fair enough. But there’s a massive problem with all this. And that’s because the parallel between gay rights and trans rights is as superficial and insubstantial as that glossy sound-bite-stuffed Momentum video

The use of the concept of ‘homophobia’ to dismiss objections to gay rights carried a ton of weight because the basis for a legitimate moral or political objection would be that something causes a harm, and in the case of gay rights there is a complete dearth of convincing arguments as to why homosexuality is a harm. It doesn’t harm homosexuals (whereas repressing it evidently does), and it doesn’t harm anyone else.[1] But this is precisely where the ‘homophobia-transphobia’ parallel falls completely apart. Because in the case of the trans rights agenda there is actually a load of potential harms we might reasonably be worried about.

Let me just state something really fucking obvious that apparently needs to be stated: You cannot mandate how people perceive the world. That is totalitarian as all living fuck. You cannot demand people perceive the world in line with your ideology and that perceiving something that ALL humans perceive is actually the same as being a genocidal racist.

Such a good read! Well argued, comprehensive and intelligent.
Cheered me up no end.

There's so much to enjoy!

It’s only slight hyperbole to say that right now a lot of us feel like we’re stuck in Room 101 except O’Brien looks like Riley Dennis and the ‘2+2=5’ is ‘Sex does not exist’ and the rats are a bunch of trans activists threatening us with baby blue and pink baseball bats (and in case you want to wilfully misinterpret me, I’m not saying trans people are vermin, I’m using the exact reference of the thing that scares Winston shitless and is used to coerce him).

Such clarity there. Eye fank yew, Jane.

She is indeed magnificent

Just a long cool drink of clearly argued sense in a desert of obfuscation and bs.

JCJ is another shero - love her and her fierce (and sweary) intelligence.

Wow, she’s good.

Very helpful.

She's on Twitter twitter.com/janeclarejones

She's brilliant at the kind of patient, humorous arguing that is intended to get the other person to think and to understand, not just shout an argument across twitter.

Like here with someone who just doesn't know how we can define women

All categories have fuzzy edges. That's how concepts are. The fact that you don't understand how concepts work and are instrumentalizing that specifically to undermine the concept of 'woman' is politics.

Does the existence of Jaffa-cakes mean that cakes and biscuits don't exist? No. Does the existence of Irish coffee mugs means that glasses and mugs don't exist? No. Does the existence of high bar stools with backs mean that chairs and stools don't exist. No. Etc, etc, etc....

(cf also the other marvellous feminist philosophers, Kathleen stock, Rebecca rc,..)

Came here to see if there’s a thread, and here we are.

So good. So well written.
Feels like luxury to wrap oneself up in such a brilliantly, richly developed discussion about the myths of “transphobia “.

She’s brilliant and spot on with her analysis.

Thanks for this. Brilliant.

She is awesome. Thank you Jane!

Even the "feetnotes" are thrillingly informative. for JCJ

Ok, I think this is possibly one of the most useful things I've read recently on the subject. I've long felt that the 'comparison' with gay rights has been a huge, unwarranted catalyst for the success of the trans rights movement. You often hear prominent trans activists (Paris Lees et al) blethering on about the gay rights movement whilst apparently trying to defend trans ideology. They have no choice. Trans ideology has no leg to stand on.

I've found that encouraging well meaning people to think more deeply about this comparison has been extremely helpful in getting them to see the light. This piece articulates the issue very, very well.

I really like her. That thread on post structuralism, that's something I have never been able to even come close to getting my head round. And now I can. She's a a great teacher.

Excellent article.

re the Momentum Video discussed in the article, Dr Nic Williams (Fairplay for Women) comments today:

'Hello everyone. Just to let you all know that I was booked to go onto BBC breakfast to discuss the film with Juno Dawson. Juno did not want to debate with me and to cut a long story short the discussion was cancelled and I was dropped. As women, we are stakeholders in this debate and should have been given a voice in this piece - it was incomplete without it. Please make your discontent with this known by complaining to the BBC and writing in to newspapers letters pages asking why women are being let down and excluded from a very important public debate during a public consultation period."

thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3362097-BBC-Breakfast

Thanks R0wan!

Now, wondering what to do this weekend? Dip into THREE HOURS worth of Jane Clare Jones talking about sex, gender, Queer theory, Judith Butler, post structuralism, "sex-neggers" and probably more (I'm only 15 mins in):

An excellent article.

Thanks Anlaf! That's my Saturday morning lie in sorted.

Wonderful stuff

Loved this article! And I was doubly heartened that it was my dp who first showed it to me. He finally gets it!

Hurrah!

Can i also link to this piece on a philosophy site. Backstory: an academic journal publishes two papers using word TERF. JCJ, Rebecca Reilly Cooper and other wonderful women write a ripping piece in response.

Their piece is excellent on "why terf is a slur and not appropriate in academic papers", and the comments (right at the bottom of the page are SUPER.

dailynous.com/2018/08/27/derogatory-language-philosophy-journal-hostility-discussion/