Julie Burchill - GC article

[Hullabalooo]

FEMINISM - THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM - Julie Burchill

"Until January 2013, I’d never thought much about transsexuals. If pushed, I’d have said I felt vaguely sorry for them, as I do white people who pretend to be black or my teenage self when I pretended to be Jewish. It’s unfortunate to be confused about what you are once you’re past adolescence.

And then they went after my friend.

I don’t mind anyone having a pop at me. I’ve enjoyed copious fame and fortune from dishing it out, and not being able to take it would make me a sissy and a hypocrite. Also, kinkily, I enjoy a bit of verbal abuse, finding it bracing in the manner of a cold swim.

But my weak spot has always been people picking on my mates; when that happens, I see red. Ironically, the piece that the angry trans-mob took exception to was part of a compilation about Female Anger, in which my friend mentioned that are women are sick and tired of being told to aspire to impossible ideals in all areas of their lives, one of which was achieving ‘the body of a Brazilian transsexual.’

I was exchanging some bitchy quips on Facebook about the ensuing Twitter brouhaha while getting ready to go out when an Observer commissioning editor asked me - BEGGED ME! - to fashion them swiftly into a piece. When I said they were just for my friends entertainment and that I was busy, I was offered twice my usual word rate. I’m only human! I dashed off a quick piece, in which intemperate language such as bed-wetters in bad wigs may have been used. But I was by now an Angry Female - my mate was getting death threats and the police had been called in. I went out and thought no more of it.

I awoke on Sunday morning to a right old rumpus in the small and self-important world of the media. Some Lib-Dem MP with delusions of adequacy was calling for me to be sacked from the Observer; this would have been difficult because I had no contract with them even though I wrote for them regularly - a situation which, the editor John Mulholland was soon murmuring comfortingly on the phone, would continue.

Within 24 hours the column had been expunged from the Guardian/Observer website and I was never hired by the Observer again. Luckily, I was richer and tougher than all the bed-wetters (bad-wigged or otherwise) who both pilloried me and lost their nerve when it came to hiring me and survived my Wilderness Years pretty well, writing only for the bold and unbowed Spectator and Spiked until the Telegraph hired me last year.

Looking back, I see that I was the first person to be demonised by the allegedly liberal, free-thinking Establishment who have continued to crumble in the face of the surreal demands of the Call-Me-Madam mad-men; in academia, in psychiatry, in medicine and now, most bizarrely, in the case of the Canadian beauticians being prosecuted for refusing to wax the scrotum of a repulsive cross-dresser. Whereas misogyny was historically Right-wing, it’s now hysterically Left-wing. We see it best in those vile cry-bullies the Woke Bros, who have found a fresh’n’funky way to hate women without seeming like sexist dinosaurs.

There’s a really good way to justify hitting women if you’re a Woke Bro - just call them TERFs and punching them becomes a brave anti-fascist action instead of the default setting of every cowardly wanker who would never dare to hit a man. 62% of women at university have experienced sexual assault, 56% by known perpetrators - a lot of them will be Woke Bros. Women report being choked by male sexual partners - ‘Breath-Play’ to give it its innocent-sounding sex-name - to an extraordinary extent; that’ll be those Woke Bros who feel no guilt about watching porn because, hey, sex work is work like any other kind. (Except when it comes to their sisters.) Pornography-using men who call themselves feminists are so monumentally dumb that they probably delude themselves that the reason why the average age of death for a female performer is 37 is because they die of pleasure - having all those orgasms! An astonishing number of the showbiz sleazes called out in MeToo identified as feminists - Woke Bros to a man. But most of all, you’ll find them taking the side of female impersonators against born females.

The Woke War Against Women is well and truly under way and the Woke Witch Trials have started. So I’m extraordinarily pleased that I called out the poisonousness of the New Misogyny right from the start - and to be financially supporting this event by MAKE MORE NOISE. I’ve said it before - but I knew I was right. What a fascinating time to be a feminist!"

What are your thoughts? We'd love to hear what you have to say!

Want to come and see women speak about feminism's elephant in the room? Come to Manchester this Saturday. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/feminism-the-elephant-in-the-room-tickets-64496743496

Wow, she takes no prisoners!
"picketing events where she is speaking about such minor issues as the rape of children and the trafficking of women just because she refuses to accept that their relationship with their phantom limb is the most pressing problem that women – real and imagined – are facing right now."

It's interesting that according to the Iain Dale piece, Owen Jones was once given a hard time on Twitter about not being transsympathetic enough. Might explain his current mode of operation.

I'm not going to click on the Paris Lees link at the bottom this morning though. I'll wait til I feel stronger.

She was bloody right about a lot of things. As far back as the 80s I remember her skewering the misogyny of the Left and the hypocrisy of their cosying up to religious fundamentalists. She was clearsighted about the need to recognise and challenge misogyny no matter what the religious or cultural or ideological background of the perpetrators and had the courage to call it out. She just doesn't give a fuck. I love her.

She also hosted Posie Parker's "Woke News" in Brighton. When I used o read the Guardian I missed her columns. Whilst Julie may be a strong woman, there is no doubt the Woke Bros have deprived her of income and us of an amusing and incisive voice in the mainstream.

I've always liked Julie Burchill. Even if I don't agree with what she says, I like the way she says it.
Didn't she leave the Guardian because they offered to buy her a new sofa by way of payment?

'Whereas misogyny was historically Right-wing, it’s now hysterically Left-wing'

That's the one line I disagree with as it happens.

Left wing men have always been just as misogynistic as right wingers. They may have hidden it better at times but it was always there.

Otherwise bang on the money.

Julie Birchill not writing for the observer is the reason I stopped reading newspapers to be honest. I read her work vociferously since the NME days and it was the one thing I used to buy the damn paper for.

She is what I would call a proper journalist, as she literally gives no fucks. I'm so glad she is involved with this now. Her voice has been so very much missed.

This is quite an old article, isn't it? I know I've read it before.

Julie is fecking brilliant.

That was absolutely amazing. No punches pulled. More like this please, it's improved my mood immensely.

That's an excellent article. Is there a link to it? (For the comments).

It's a relief to read something so strong and unafraid. And a writer that doesn't bother with the of course trans people should have rights preamble, just straight to the what the fucks. A refreshing focus, centring women.

And funny. Wit will always win me over.

That is superb.

And I don’t think it can be an old article, given the reference to JY’s “human rights” tribunal”.

"Some Lib-Dem MP with delusions of adequacy"

Superb
Controlled anger and great writing, a winning combination.

This article is so good.
It resonated on every single level and remains unflinching.

Thanks Julie. Nail. Head. Delivered in your usual brilliant style.

I love the way she she writes,

Call-Me-Madam mad-men perfectly sums up the lunacy of transgender ideology.

I love Julie Burchill, she is extremely skilled at getting to the essence of an issue and condensing things into a short, sharp single line.

That's great. I followed the link to the Paris Lees article. It's disappeared, along with most of Paris' back story

For those wondering this is where it was published makemorenoisemanc.wixsite.com/mysite/post/the-elephant-in-the-room

The rings are nothing like the scold's bridle and they prove that the writers of S3 are no longer following Atwood's principle about everything having happened somewhere. Which is a pity imo as it was a principle that helped to give the series its power.

Oops. Wrong thread

Burchill always cuts straight to the chase. I really admire her and her writing. I hadn't read that piece before, so thanks for sharing!

It's a relief to read something so strong and unafraid.

Isn't it just.

Don't always agree with what Burchill says, but that doesn't matter because I like the gives zero fucks way she says it.

Reading that original article penned in defence of Suzanne Moore was one of the first examples I saw of anyone in the left wing press refusing to be nice and bow down to the brave and stunning .

It made me realise that the unspeakable could be said, that other people might have the same doubts and questions that I secretly had regarding the TRAs agenda and it started me on the path to truly undertanding what was really going, becoming gender critical and rediscovering feminism.

Thank you Julie.

a gaggle of transsexuals telling Suzanne Moore how to write looks a lot like how I’d imagine the Black and White Minstrels telling Usain Bolt how to run would look. That rude and ridic.

I've always loved Burchill's writing since her NME days. Her autobiography was excellent. I remember that column, and being one of her few supporters btl.
You can still read her old columns on The Guardian website, they're way better than anything the publish these days.

I used to love JB in the Guardian on Saturdays I think it was. It was so much fun to see her winding up the liberals.

She was fabulous in the Guardian back in the day, makes me sad for what the Guardian has become.

They had Burchill and Charlie Brooker.

Now they have LOJ.