Private Eye

[WineIsMyCarb]

Letter attached. I would like to reply. Please help me frame my argument.

Initially my thoughts are:
"Anyone can be a sexual predator"

• need link to evidence that 90+% of offenders are men, and that trans people offend at the same rate

"Ridiculous fears". Undermining he valid concern that self-ID laws will be taken advantage of by predatory men.

"I'm no scientist but sexual dimorphism and nature is not so supposedly cut and dry"
It is a biological fact that mammals cannot change sex.

Sugggestions and proposed phrasing very welcome please.

On train after 2 long days of meetings so can only come back to this seriously at work on Thursday. Sorry if don't reply to this until then.

Thanks.

It’s hard to reply to that latter because it’s hard to tell what their actual point was. Was the letter writer responding to anything in particular about Jess Bradley?

What is a self-identifed radical feminist! I think the point that the author is trying to make us that people who are predators will always be predators regardless of their identity and this shouldn't hold back laws on self ID. But why should even one woman or girl be assaulted in this rush to self ID if these predators are allowed access to female spaces. It is already happening, I believe there is a web page documenting trans crimes you could link to this and pick some examples.
What is the trans community doing to call out the predators in their community? It seems to me they never condone the behaviour and often victim blames instead.
Good luck with the letter.

Its private eye. Keep it short and sardonic.

Something like 'self identifying as anything you like is available to anyone now, just as it's always been. Moving to being legally treated as the sex you're not, a biological impossibility giving access to all single sex spaces including being invited for smear tests when a prostate checkup would be more to the point, should be something that requires a process, just like most lifelong legal changes such as getting married'.

Oh ignore that. I'm in a weird mood this morning.

The letter says "self-identification won't give anyone a free pass" and "The mythical future where trans sex pests are untouchable is absurd".

The simple facts of the Jess Bradley scandal are that JB did get a free pass because the NUS wouldn't act and as such this did make JB untouchable. (Well, except by JB.)

I'd hope that even the minor coverage in Private Eye will have encouraged some people to search for "Jess Bradley". The set of search results this gets is a thing of beauty. JB may well want to ditch that name.

Sounds like C Clarke would agree with Ruth Hunt’s view that ‘men are always going to rape women’ so why bother to do anything about it?

I'd mention the writer's interesting disdain and insulting tone towards women concerned about their rights and safety - that pretty much speaks for itself.

Most GC women I've spoken to here and elsewhere don't give a toss who identifies as what, dresses as what, does what. Their concerns boil down to it's immoral to take away women's needed single sex spaces and stop meeting women's needs as parting of helping male people's feelings - that's impractical, ridiculously misogynistic, causes massive issues for those women you want to use, and look at these vulnerable groups you're excluding. So no. Have a third space, great. Have trans provision, fantastic. Remove women as a sex class to give to a tiny percent of males? What planet are you on? What exactly is the morality there?

And drugging, sterilising, mutilating and quite possibly making life time chronically ill adults out of children too young to get a tattoo or smoke, but being galloped at high speed into transition? Talk to the transitioners. Why are most of these children actually young girls with a high proportion of lesbians and children with autism? Why would it be that male born adult late transitioners love their sex drive and have no desire for surgery but are desperate to gallop children down a road they wouldn't go?

Oh and homophobia. Compulsory sex with penises for all women. Changing the focus of sex for gay women to a social duty they must comply with out of care and consideration for males (who give not one fuck about them and belong to a group that issues death threats to women who say no.) Any moral values there at all?

'POV if you're a t* in my mentions' Tweets (men brandishing weapons to beat up and kill women who say no). All ethical and fine?

Temporary i

Are you allowed to send pictures?

Sir,

A recent correspondent comfortingly claimed, that it is "absurd' of women to worry over a "The mythical future where trans sex pests are untouchable".

I'm sure this went a long way to reassuring the two female inmates of New Hall women's prison, where transwoman Karen White has been convicted of sexual assaulting them.

I do wonder if reflecting on whether they were being 'absurd' was paramount in these women's minds while the convicted rapist and paedophile, was forcing them to look at her 'erect penis'. And I can guess, with considerable confidence, that they rather wished it was both mythical and untouchable.

Signed Mrs R. Fears.

I saw that letter, thought about replying and didn't. (Laziness and a sense of ennui, essentially.) The letter is replying to an item from a previous edition, can't remember what it was about specifically.

I think in the bit where it talks about anyone being capable of being a sexual predator, regardless of genitalia, just point out that 98% of sex offenders are male, and that women have good reason to protect their private spaces from sexual predators. That's probably all you need to say.

All I'd add is if you're going to write, do it soon - that issue was out last week, the next one is due out on a week today so probably goes to press on Monday at the latest.

Blasted phone. Temporary is right - keep it short and sardonic (just because you're grumpy doesn't mean you're wrong ).

How about making use of their spot the difference format - photo of Karen White and a cartoon of a little old lady.

"Self ID clearly won't cause a problem, in the same way multiple rapist Karen White didn't cause a problem when inviting female inmates in a women's prison to touch his erect penis (which wasn't in any way a male penis because as any fule kno these days, modern biology is terribly complicated)."

What Jess Bradley allegedly did by showing her Penis to the Internet was to make more folk self-identity as being against women showing their penises (is that the right plural?) in public.

More sobering is that the letter writer appears to be 20. I wish them well.

Sexual harassment laws already exist: So the letter writer (and TRAs) want women to be forced to experience sexual harassment and then they may or may not receive justice from the criminal justice system. In effect, the price of self-identification is the increased sexual harassment and rape of women.

You have to google for the information about 98% of sexual offenders being men. I’m sure the figures aren’t hard to find, but I will take a look for myself later. There is little evidence that shows the rate at ‘transwomen’ commit sexual offences compared to men, but there is one study which looked at transsexuals, the group which we would expect to be closest to biological women. I will post once I can find it.

Also, this isn’t evidence but it it worthy of note. Barely a week goes by without us hearing about a ‘woman’ committing some sexual offences against women. These women are always transwomen. If there were biological women committing these kinds of offences we would hear because it’s so unusual for women to commit these offences, so why aren’t we hearing about the female sex offenders committing violent sexual offences? Go on court news UK and type ‘voyeurism’ into the search facility and see the deluge of male offenders. I looked for female offenders on that or a similar website previously and gave up eventually. Loads of males, though.

In terms of the sex offenders will always offend regardless of who they are argument, is the letter writer arguing that we should make it easier for them to offend. Burglars will always burgle, especially as many have addictions to feed, but try explaining to your home insurer that you left you doors and windows open because the burglar would have got in anyway. Locked doors and windows provide a barrier. They don’t stop burglary necessarily, but they delay entry and forcing them may attract attention that prevents the burglary. Likewise a single-sex toilet/changing room system has the safeguard that those who don’t fit in are instantly identified and can be removed.

As usual with people making these arguments, the basic fact that only penises rape and impregnate is obscured . How those penises' owners identify is irrelevant to that irrefutable fact.

I suspect PE was hoping for some very witty replies to include in their next edition when they published this.

I'd plagiarise a handily brief and very PE-relevant response:

Sir,

Women everywhere acknowledge C.Clarke's letter of date referring to self-ID.

We note that C.Clarke’s attitude of “rapists gonna rape” will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if they would inform us what his attitude to us would be, were they to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off.

Buzz wins the thread! Please send that (either Buzz or OP).

Brilliant, but I've got one minor suggestion: Sir,

Women everywhere acknowledge C.Clarke's letter of date referring to self-ID.

We note that C.Clarke’s attitude of “rapists gonna rape” (which is, of course, shared by ex-Stonewall Chief Executive Ruth Hunt) will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if they would inform us what his attitude to us would be, were they to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off.

Buzz and Datun. Like a coalition of sark.

ooh nice edit, Empress!

"I looked for female offenders on that or a similar website previously and gave up eventually. Loads of males, though."

On the following link to the ONS, there is a green tab which leads you to an XLS spreadsheet. Within the XLS you then go to table 13

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/sexualoffendingministryofjusticeappendixtables

Do you write to Private Eye a lot Datun? Your letter is perfect.

Someone please, please send this.
I get PE and suspect it's just the sort of response they will relish publishing.
Further (boring) suggestion - might want to make they/his pronouns consistent for C Clarke one way or the other.

Do you write to Private Eye a lot Datun?

No, never! Do they pay? 😃