Josie Long refers to women as 'terfs'

[abuseofpowercomesasnosurprise]

...and defends the Mermaids jelly baby scale. I'm so pissed off at people like this who have apparently done zero research and yet are happy to put their woke two cents in whilst also casually using misogynistic slurs. How can they not see how utterly sexist it all is? How is calling other women by a derogatory slur at all productive? How is using gender stereotypes in any way helpful? How about if we used them for race? Where would you fit on the race scale? Do you like eating watermelon and ribs or do you have a good sense of rhythm? Then you're more at the black end of the scale. No no no no no. The stereotypes are the problem, we don't need to work with the stereotypes we've got and be told to pick a place on the scale, we need to escape them altogether. FFS.

Uugh she is AWFUL. Stumbled into the comedy tent at Glastonbury when she was on and was just the worst sort of woke lefty unfunny rubbish. I wouldn't be surprised if ahe knows Madigan given she clearly is very involved with Momentum types. Student common toom stuff only she’s about 35. Avoid.

DancelikeEmmaGoldman but that joke's the same kind of set-up as "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" and relies on a belief in the Bible in the first place for it to work, so not keen on that one - sorry, Marilyn's otherwise great though!

I'm pretty sure John Finnemore is GC.

John Finnemore and Josie Long are often employed by the BBC are they not? In which case, they’ve probably been bathing in Kool-Aid.

I am going to see Josie Long and Grace Petrie this week. I am not going to stop seeing them just because I disagree on this point.

One woman I know tried to convince me that animals don't feel pain about 30 years ago when she was a revolutionary communist. I found it fascinating that she could override her own senses for an ideology. She now speaks much more sensibly, and campaigns for women.

I know Grace has been called anti-lesson for pro-trans views, I can see why people say this but she does just reply "what, I am a lesbian?!".

I think both of them know that transwomen aren't really women.

I have heard of her, she did a radio show (Five Live I think) with Andrew Collins after Richard Herring left, and she was pretty dreadful and the show was cancelled shortly after.

If you listen to Book Shambles podcast you see some fine examples of male/female socialisation from left wingers who consider themselves pro feminist.

I like the podcast but I have to grit my teeth at times.

In terms of comedians Ricky Gervais has made a few references to this debate. His take on rapists in women's prisons was good.

I went to uni with Josie. Expected better of her!

Oh, do shut up with ignorant ally comments, Josie Long. (Whoever you are. Never heard of you and I'm not going to waste any of my time Googling you.)

Titania McGrath, on the other hand, is a pleasure. More power to your elbow, Titania.

Why does being an ally mean throwing women under the bus? That’s not being an ally that’s being, what?

I did Google, always interesting to discover new minor celebs.

Julia, there's a difference between an online chat area for parents and women's prison. Honestly hun. There really is.

Shame she feels she has to resort to slurs.

Disappointing from Josie, thank heavens I don’t find her funny.

I’ve recently come across James Dreyfus (Gimme Gimme Gimme) on Twitter - part of his bio says “don’t call me cis”. He’s a gay male actor/comedian speaking out, he’s donated to Vancouver Rape Relief, called out Antony Watson etc.

Gives me hope!

Ironically, we're the ones who are always accused of being ignorant when in fact we're just more experienced and know what we're talking about from first hand experience

This is so true. Most of the people I know are "trans" (in the modern sense), not just "some of my friends are..." (lol) but like 90% of them. That's how I know what the ideology is and how damaging it is for women both in our communities who have either gone to the sidelines, left altogether, or are now trans-identified themselves, and outside of our communities, i.e. I know damn well who might be ID'ing into their spaces and I know that the situation would not be fair, or safe.

I'm completely unsurprised thatJosie Long has this view.

I see the mention of Marcus Brigstocke by WokerThanWoke.

He was one of the first signs I was becoming disillusioned with progressive politics. Years back the lovely progressive people around me were lapping up his stuff as I was finding it less funny and more lazy and sneering. I started to realise that there was something really nasty in "look at those wrong-thinkers who are morally inferior to us!".

Didn't Ian or Paul make a comment once on HIGNFY about Trans and then quickly said 'no you don't want to go there'

The idea being that you couldn't criticise the ideology publicly. Would be funny if it wasn't true

Why does being an ally mean throwing women under the bus?

It is the basest and laziest of tribalism: allying yourself to whoever has power. You can be sure if women had power, allies would be sucking up to us.

I think both of them know that transwomen aren't really women.

If that’s the case and they don’t feel able to be openly GC, it would be better if they said nothing, rather than perpetuate anti-science, anti-women sentiments. Anything else is thoroughly dishonest and self-serving.

It's a shame because her charity Arts Emergency, providing mentoring and a contacts network for working class kids wanting a career in the arts, does bloody good work.

Along the same lines, Jonathan Pie, who's main thrust is to say the unsayable and vigorously attack both Left and Right, hasn't got the balls to cover this. I don't always find him funny, but he often hits the nail on the head and i'd like to hear what he had to say about tg issues

Ally all you want. People don’t forget though so choose carefully. Boooo you!

She has quite a sweet series on Radio 4 called Shortcuts, which is basically people just telling stories about their lives. Her standup isn't very funny, though. I'm not that bothered that she's swallowed the Kool Aid - so many have.

On the other hand, I'd be massively disappointed if John Finnemore, who is one of my comedy heroes, turned out to support the TRA line.

but that joke's the same kind of set-up as "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" and relies on a belief in the Bible in the first place for it to work

Nah, I don't think it does and I don't expect Marilyn believes the story of Noah and the ark. It just requires an understanding of why you would have to take a male and a female of each species to repopulate the earth.

MagicMix True, it's not as bad as the homophobic example because it's talking about the biological facts of procreation rather than love.

[Brigstocke] was one of the first signs I was becoming disillusioned with progressive politics. Years back the lovely progressive people around me were lapping up his stuff as I was finding it less funny and more lazy and sneering. I started to realise that there was something really nasty in "look at those wrong-thinkers who are morally inferior to us!".

Yep, me too.

I think what bothers me is the sense that a lot of them have a fair bit of down-punching class contempt going on.