Janice Turner - article in the Times about Mermaids

[feministfairy]

Excellent column from Janice:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-ideologists-are-spreading-cod-science-m8n0pdbq3?shareToken=eb2c06153578d29f71c393769844ab17

And Lucy Bannerman / Gabriella Swerling covers the the Martina story:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/navratilova-trades-volleys-with-trans-athlete-in-twitter-row-zhc0tq0bl?shareToken=9f16b69427d0ce67f3dc77392f6eae37

Well worth my subscription!

Brilliant

if anyone has yet to email Big Lottery, please send them a link to that article as it sums up all the very serious, compelling reasons why Mermiads shouldn’t be given a penny more.

Here's mermaids statement in response on FB - not got time to go through the details but anyone else interested can review their stats etc.

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1952394018190698&id=192046384225479

There's a reason she wins awards! Also I suspect she pays attention to what's being discussed here, so if you're reading, Janice, thank you so much for being ethical enough to keep covering this issue despite the pressure not to,

And yes, Datun, Susie Green seems to want to party like it's 1959 and I can't figure out how anyone has convinced themselves that her commitment to archaic gender roles is in any way progressive. Let little boys play with dolls and dress up if they want to, ffs.

Comments are up on both articles - and they're predictably horrified at both Mermaids and RM

it’s really hard to defend that “training session” and anyone who listens to it, apart from hardcore TRAs will probably be horrified. It’s interesting that she thinks the chap who questioned the “trainer” was trying to dominate the session. If anything, I think the audience were overly respectful, overly compliant and should’ve spoken up far more often and far more vociferously. This is a poor, poor response from Mermaids, in an attempt to justify what they must know was an embarrassing bit of diversity “training”

Strong article from Janice and comments are good so far.

Biological sex is on a spectrum, she says, like skin tone and (seriously) bra size. A person’s “gender identity jelly baby” has nothing to do with how we are raised: it is inside you at birth. You know you are a man because you walk like a man and like “manly” things. A listener questions why this lecture is based upon stereotypes and is told “you’re going too clever”.

Too clever? Too clever?! Yes, that's right dears: the catechism is all you need. Just recite the articles of jelly baby faith: that'll see you right.

Although I can see why they might use the jelly baby analogy when addressing (let's be honest, indoctrinating) children I'm baffled as to why anyone thought that was an appropriate analogy to use when addressing a group of adults in a professional setting.

Here's mermaids statement in response on FB - not got time to go through the details but anyone else interested can review their stats etc.

From that: If the child does not have supportive parents then disclosure of their gender identity would constitute a potential safeguarding risk.

No. If a child has abusive parents, information sharing is vital. There should be no secrecy involving at risk children: that is the safeguarding risk and a failure of information sharing can lead to catastrophic outcomes. Parents who are not affirmative in the extremist way Mermaids recommends are not abusive.

Vile twisting of protocols and language there

Just common sense :" The Mermaids trainer declares that we should stop categorising children by their genitals because “we do raise boys and girls differently.” But isn’t the answer to change our child-raising practices, not the bodies of quirky kids? Feminists are constantly accused of being on the wrong side of history. Yet Mermaids, with its clownfish and jelly-babies, is clearly on the wrong side of science."

Both awesome articles that pull no punches

#bemorelikejanice

Another brilliant piece from Janice - thank you!

Excellent article, but Janice missed out a pertinent part of the quote by Susie Green;

twitter.com/i/web/status/1059817455395237888

''Marci Bowers saying surgery should be allowed based on competency NOT age of majority. Psychological assessment should not be needed for surgery as this is not required for cisgender surgeries of ANY type.
Removal of the sterilisation clause is key''

The 'sterilisation clause' protects children from being sterilised for non essential surgery. Susie Green wants to have that protection removed.

Eugenics. When you boil it down, it's advocating sterilising those who don't conform in their early years.

Between the thirties and seventies 60,000 young Swedish women were sterilised. A (Danish) friend's thesis was on the subject of eugenics in Denmark, and he found that many women were sterilised just because they were prostitutes. The current attack on non-conforming teenagers may present as being different, but it originates from the same attitude of forcing everyone to fit the social norms, and if they don't they'll be 'fixed'.

The comments under the Mermaids FB response are laughable. 'Why do journalists insist on being sooo horrible?'

Just a little thing called, you know, facts

Janice on Twitter:

I wrote this for all the men who style themselves as rational & scientific yet chide feminists as “transphobic” for pointing out dangerous unscientific ideology Mermaids spread about gender- nonconforming kids. Please pause your knee-jerk wokeness & THINK

twitter.com/VictoriaPeckham/status/1076394748900978688

Julie Bindel replies to Janice:

"Are you on the right side of history for Christmas this year Janice? I am trying to be, but I'm not sure which of the tube lines goes there".

David Baddiel chimes in:

"I’m starting to worry I might have to get a replacement bus"

What, journalists doing investigative reporting and having what they've discovered printed in a national newspaper? It's an outrage! The job of journalists is to attach their names to barely edited regurgitations of our press releases.

(Serious nods all around from Mermaids and Friends Of Mermaids.)

God that's a good article. And the comments are so encouraging. Is the tide turning at last?

I wrote this for all the men who style themselves as rational & scientific yet chide feminists as “transphobic” for pointing out dangerous unscientific ideology Mermaids spread about gender- nonconforming kids

That describes an acquaintance of mine perfectly. He calls himself a "scientist" while accusing women who don't believe that tw are women as "bigots".

I am glad to see the comments are massively in favour of Ms Turner and Ms Navratilova.

Fuck off, MacKinnon, and take Mermaids with you.

jelly baby faith

🤣🤣🤣

Giles Coren has responded

@gilescoren
34m34 minutes ago
More
With you all the way, of course. Question though: You’ve written it for “men who style themselves etc.” But how numerous are they? Surely - surely! - it’s a few hundred weirdos who come pre-ridiculed (Matina’s prime troll has barely 4,000 followers) - are they really significant?

Yes, Giles needs to wake up. As Janice says, they are small, but influential. It's not about the number, it's about the effect.