Alex Massie Scottish Times today

[Tootsweets23]

Didn't see this posted elsewhere, Alex is bloody superb today in the Times.

I've been a fan of his for a long time, but he has some marvellous observations, for example:

But if gender exists on a spectrum, being trans does so too. At one end there is the person who has undergone surgery and received a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) and at the other there is a man with a beard and a penis who has no intention of having surgery but demands you call him a woman. I do not believe it is “transphobic” to suggest that these are different people with very different experiences. It is possible to respect their choices while appreciating their distinguishing features.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/if-gender-exists-on-a-spectrum-surely-being-trans-does-too-v7f86pdr8

I do not wish to be unkind, but this is loopy to the tonsils

Existing thread here - the quotes in that piece are jaw-dropping

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3838009-Alex-Massie-in-the-Times-Scotland

If “woman” is merely an “umbrella term” there can be nothing particular or essential about being a woman. It is a term stripped of all meaning. I think it is reasonable for women to object to that and to worry that this cancellation might have unpleasant consequences. These go beyond questions of biological males being incarcerated in women’s prisons or taking part in women’s sporting events and cuts deep into how many women see themselves and experience their lives. If anyone can be a woman, just by saying so, is there anything distinctive about womanhood? That is not a small question

Quite so. The myriad inconsistencies and absurdities at the centre of identity politics on display. The idea that women are oppressed specificallybecause of their biological sex and its imperatives is made nonsensical if anyone can identify as a woman. This category is either exclusive. Or it is meaningless.

Ah sorry! Didn't realise it had been posted elsewhere.