Julie Bindel's withering review of Alison Phipps' latest book

[MrsSnippyPants]

"Reading the back cover of the soon to be released Me Not You: The trouble with mainstream feminism, I assumed Titania McGrath had churned out a new book. But on further inspection I realised it is in fact the latest from Alison Phipps, Professor of Gender Studies at Sussex University – a disciple of the ‘sex work is work’ and ‘trans women are women’ faux-feminism cult. This book has clearly been written for the hard-of-thinking."

www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-latest-gender-studies-literature-is-indistinguishable-from-satire

which would never be missed if it were wiped from the syllabus.

Besides if she as an MP can do a “joke” stab threat, why can’t he as a candidate make a joke about not being a rapist?

Oh, please!

He didn't make a joke about 'not being a rapist'. He didn't say he wouldn't rape any woman - he specifically said he "wouldn't even rape" Jess Phillips, implying that he would rape her if she didn't repel him. In fact, he later said, “I suppose with enough pressure I might cave. But let’s be honest nobody’s got that much beer.” All this because she'd raised the issue of women getting rape threats. He later refused to "apologise for my crimes against political correctness".

The man is a vile, misogynistic prick.

I've no time for the handmaiden Jess Phillips but 'stabbing someone in the back' is a metaphor - and it was pretty obvious from the interview during which she said she'd stab JC 'not in the back but in the front' if she saw he was hurting Labour more than helping them, that she wasn't threatening physical violence, jokingly or otherwise.

The man is a vile, misogynistic prick.

He’s really not. I listen to him a lot, and I find him clever, entertaining and well-researched with some really interesting viewpoints. I agree with some of then and not with others, but I’m certainly not going to condemn him based on the Jess Phillips stuff. He was right not to apologise about that.

He is not a supporter of far right politics, far from it; however, if you only read the MSM coverage about him, they’ll have you believe that he’s somewhere to the right of Hitler. It really is bizarre when you listen to him regularly and then see how he’s covered - it’s like they’re talking about a totally different person. He is against ideology in any form and an absolutist when it comes to freedom of speech (unlike many journalists these days it seems) - and he has spoken out repeatedly about women’s rights in the trans debate - really bringing this issue to the forefront of his work - which is fantastic given that he’s got hundreds of thousands of followers.

Wow, this arsehole. So, it's fine for her to take swipes at Bindel but Bindel has no right to respond because pandemic? But promoting your new book is pandemic appropriate?

Babdoc
Sending lots of support. IIRC you’re a doctor? Have you had of the Roth Score?
Quick screening test anyone at home can do if they’re worried about their breathing....
Count to 30 in your native language. If you can get past 10 in one breath and take 7 or more seconds before next breath than oxygen levels likely to be ok. It’s a rough rule and doesn’t eliminate need for proper medical advice if you’re concerned but for a bit of reassurance in the middle of the night it’s quite good.

Best wishes Babdoc.

Very sorry to hear you're ill, Babdoc. Hope your recovery is swift and simple.

Please keep us posted when you can, Babdoc!

But I also don’t want to waste my very precious time at the moment reading a load of misogynistic crap. so I might have to leave that dilemma for another time

You can get the introduction from here.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526147172/

Phipps is very good at scolding others for their lack of self- awareness and narcissism whilst being oblivious to her own.

Oh and she's not like the other girls, definitely not.

But promoting your new book is pandemic appropriate?

That's hilarious isn't it? Particularly a book which in the best of times would be entirely pointless.

I was going to say her book would be as much use as a chocolate teapot but actually a chocolate teapot would at least give you melted chocolate.

Also you could break off bits of teapot to eat when you get peckish. The only potential use for this book would be as rather scratchy and very expensive toilet paper.

BTW has everyone seen this parody of all the celebs singing Imagine?

Phipps is white and very middle class

What makes someone " middle class" in your view?

Born into material privilege? Educated to degree level? Articulate and well read? If you have known deprivation, poverty and homelessness but now live in a nice house and have foreign holidays what are you?

Have to say the use of 'white' and 'middle class' to dismiss people can a rather crude tool, that suggests intellectual laziness to me. a bit like calling someone a " bigot" because they don't agree with you. Not saying this is what you are doing, however,

Have to say the use of 'white' and 'middle class' to dismiss people can a rather crude tool, that suggests intellectual laziness to me. a bit like calling someone a " bigot" because they don't agree with you. Not saying this is what you are doing, however

I suggest you take your complaint up with Alison Phipps- because she is doing exactly what you are criticising me for.

But to answer your question- anyone at her level in academia is middle class.

I should mention btw that there are 2 Professors Alison Phipps.

Professor Alison M Phipps is at Glasgow

www.gla.ac.uk/schools/education/staff/alisonphipps/

The author of this book is Professor Alison Phipps , who is at Sussex.

www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/188060/research

.. What makes someone " middle class" in your view?..

Anyone who wears sportswear to do actual sport in?

When someone talks about, say, stabbing J Corbyn in the back we all know it's a metaphor and no daggers and blood are involved. So when that person retorted with the stab-in-the-front comment it was clearly still a metaphor and I think the intention was to convey the idea that it would not be done cowardly but to his face...but still a metaphor.

On the other hand that bloke from the UKIPs clearly meant that the woman was too ugly for him to consider raping. (We are left to muse over who exactly he would rape.)

Anyone who can't see the difference between those two scenarios must be a bit thick.

Anyone who thinks a joke about rape is a good idea is a fucking bounder.

Does the UK even have a “religious far right”?

We have some far-right fringe religious groups, but they would all hate each other for believing in the wrong sort of God more than they would hate liberal secualr society which they all hate.

None of these groups have any leverage with any political party. There are less than a handful of Tory MPs who give them ear; Philip Davies, Daniel Kawczynski etc. If there is an etc?

Lovely to log on here and see people sticking up for someone who has made a career out of hating women. I used to be on here all the time but I can rarely stomach it now because of the infiltration of right-wing politics and people rushing to explain how people with really quite vile views are misunderstood.

The book sounds awful of course.

I suggest you take your complaint up with Alison Phipps- because she is doing exactly what you are criticising me for

Not criticising you, as such....just interested to understand the various meanings and connotations of the term 'middle class'. All sorts of people, from all sorts of backgrounds go to university these days..and as such it is no longer a purely middle class pursuit. Depends, of course, on how you define 'middle class'. Is it about money & wealth? Is it about culture? Is it about education? Is it about how someone speaks - their accent?

To my mind it is a term usually used in dismissive ways..... often with an underlying assumption that one's place or position in life is immutable or fixed - and that working class must always mean downtrodden and suffering, and that 'middle class people' can never have suffer deprivations and/or hardships.

can never have suffered deprivations

In what world is a university professor not middle class? The thing is that Alison Phipps embodies all the things that she criticises other people for. She’s white, affluent and Oxbridge educated but apparently she gets a free pass from criticism because she has special insights and thinks that men are women.

I used to be on here all the time but I can rarely stomach it now because of the infiltration of right-wing politics and people rushing to explain how people with really quite vile views are misunderstood

I'm not even aware of who the man in question is TBH.......but what is it that you consider right wing? That, along with people being dismissed as 'White" or Middle Class' is another interesting 'accusation' to explore and unpack.

What sorts of views or things do you consider 'right wing' ? How do you define or categorise Right & Left? Could you explain?

In what world is a university professor not middle class? The thing is that Alison Phipps embodies all the things that she criticises other people for. She’s white, affluent and Oxbridge educated but apparently she gets a free pass from criticism because she has special insights and thinks that men are women

I'm not interested in Alison Phipps...she clearly speaks total nonsense, whatever 'class' she is. I'm interested in labels ( and how people use them to dismiss others).

Also the fact that someone may have become more upwardly socially mobile in their life does not necessarily mean that they do not know or understand deprivation and hardship, or prejudice.

Nobody cares justathought stop detailing the thread.

Alison Phipps book is shit. That is all.