Dr James Barry was trans, apparently

[RoyalCorgi]

For a taste of woke stupidity in full flow, read this thread:

twitter.com/RTEOne/status/1228673565324505089

Lots of TRAs angry at a television channel referring to pioneering surgeon James Barry as a woman. Even though she was, you know, a woman.

I'm actually heartened to see that this programme has been made and scheduled given that last year author E. J. Levy had her book on Barry pulled just before publication. She tweeted about it, calling Barry 'a heroine' and the ensuing TRA tantrums caused Little Brown (a major publishing house, not some tiny small press) to withdraw it while they tried to 'work with the author' on publishing it more 'sensitively'. Presumably she refused to cave to the bullying which is why the book has never been rescheduled.

I'm glad that RTE have decided to tell this story. Hope they show more courage than Little Brown and it doesn't get replaced by something else at the last minute.

According to Amazon, The Cape Doctor is due for publication in October 2020. I don't know if any changes were made or if Little Brown decided to grow some ovaries.

Some addendum sheets needed then? Trip to Daunt Books then...

The great thing about this is that if the programme makers had followed the TRA mantra, these clips would be impossible to parse:

"Had he not changed his gender, he would never have had the opportunity to study, never had the opportunity to actually practice medicine..." what?

Man was a doctor. Nothing to see here...

According to Amazon, The Cape Doctor is due for publication in October 2020

Ahh - should have checked before posting! Thanks Luna. I've just had a look at the Amazon page, and the male pronouns suggest that the 'sensitive editing' has gone ahead. I suspect (though don't know for sure) that Levy had originally written the book on the premise that Barry was female. For obvious reasons.

I’ll give the TRAs this: they are incredibly thorough in steamrolling and erasing women’s achievements

Well i wish they would use this ability as a force for good!

Then the fucking hypocrisy of blethering on about ‘being erased’ when women in history are LITERALLY being erased

I watched this the other night. The talking head experts were an interesting mix: some clearly stating that she did what she had to do to live the life she wanted at a time when women didn't have that option, one professor of gender studies from Trinity saying that he was trans, and this is really trans history (i.e. not women's history or 'herstory' as the series is called), and another bearded genius confidently asserting that were Dr. Barry alive today, they would identify as gender-fluid.

It wasn't good for my blood pressure.

That synopsis for The Cape Doctor is shameful, horrifying how women’s achievements are getting erased

Nooo! Don't mention the Brontes or we'll lost them, too. At least they can't touch Austen; she published anonymously as ' A Lady' . Whew!

Lose, not lost.

Just peeped at Wikipedia and the entire entry is carefully written to avoid gendered third person singular pronouns... I wonder if it always was?

It's a composition lesson for those constrained or compelled to use people's preferred pronouns.

OMFG

the twitter replies!

I was just wondering if there is a wiki war over her.

Might delve into the edit history...

Yep, wiki wars writing history. Then gullible people believing it's true.

EH Carr would have had a field day with wiki.

Wow, Neurotrash - excellent delving. (I wouldn't have the first idea how to reveal that stuff, so I'm fascinated.)

'To you it's small beans', says the re-writer of history and eraser of women. Er, no mate, that's another thing you're wrong about.

You just scroll down to just below external links and above related articles and there's a bar detailing last edit. The Barry page was edited 3 days ago.

It looks like anyone can edit wiki tbh, without logging in.

I learnt an awful lot from the fourth wave feminism page; I'd read it months before and on returning barely recognised it. What is taken out is often more informative than what remains.

To be fair I had no idea till someone pointed it out in a feminist group; the issue with wiki is that obviously it's mostly men who spend time on these online things and TRAs circle anyone like Barry constantly.

Lol,

A year ago:

changed it back to more accurate pronouns, please stop vandalising this page with your own transphobic bias

Amusing reading while nursing a very fevered toddler.

Oh ffs! What the hell is happening to society that this arrant nonsense is allowed to pass?

Just shows how regressive the thinking of some TRAs is... In the past, women had to act as men to have equality. Now... You can do what you want, just means you are actually the opposite sex.

Where the men/boys who played the female characters in Elizabethan theatre also trans?

Very vaguely reminded me of:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hyde,_3rd_Earl_of_Clarendon#Alleged_cross-dressing

It looks like anyone can edit wiki tbh, without logging in.

I think pages start off open but then ones which may be contentious get protected to prevent 'vandalism'. Which in some cases is just that, but once protected then edits are restricted and there are not enough women (especially sensible older ones) among the people with edit privileges.

There are three excellent books about Barry; Dr James Barry, A Woman Ahead Of Her Time by Michael du Preez and Jeremy Dronfield, published 2016 , James Miranda Barry by Patrica Duncker , published in 1999, and Scanty Particulars by Rachel Holmes , published in 2002. A fascinating woman and living in South Africa means I have visited many places where she visited and seen her portrait in The Alphen , a beautiful 17th building that she visited on many occasions during her eventful time in Cape Town.

@Whatsbrownandsticky They already came for Mulan. The racism is staggering, a bunch of white teenagers trying to rewrite a traditional Chinese story.