Gappy Tales: Laurie Penny's T*RF Wars: Aguide to cognitive dissonance

[SunsetBeetch]

Laurie wrote a crazily long spiel on Medium recently regarding the "Terf Wars" (honestly, it's excruciating, but here's the link):

medium.com/@pennyred/terf-wars-why-transphobia-has-no-place-in-feminism-60d3156ad06e

The brilliant Gappy Tales takes it apart here:

medium.com/@GappyTales/laurie-pennys-terf-wars-a-guide-to-cognitive-dissonance-27779863dd5c

Excellent piece.

Wow, paragraph after paragraph.

I found this sentence hidden deep in the Laurie Penny weeds instructive: "Nobody is actually saying there is no such thing as natal sex."

Instructive, because it seems to contradict the Trans Women Are Women mantra.

A similarly long stream of justificexplanation has been turning up in my social media and hyped by Pink News; this video by gynecologist Mama Doctor Jones

At about 9 minutes 25 seconds in, she admits "Nobody is really claiming that you can change your genetic sex. "

Why aren't these two people being taken apart as horrible transphobes?

Why do they keep saying that? What does the phase 'assigned female at birth' mean if it is not denying that natal sex is a real thing?

It's saying tha sex is so irrelevant to anything that there are no names for female and male sex
It's also implying female and male personalities

im sensing that there's a concerted switch of tactics here re the whole "of course we never meant people could literally change sex" after saying for the last few years that it was completely possible

denying biological sex exists is an exercise in futility because it's so easily proved that their are 2 sexes and now more sunlight has been let in, it's one of the things the general public are going to 'get' straight away.

as it's one of the things we've hammered away at for some time, it's now going be used against us vis 'of course we never meant people could actually change sex, those feminists who've been attacking us on this basis just dont understand he difference between sex and gender and look how mean they've been when all we want to do is live our lives quietly'

then all the times we've gone on about how you cant change sex will be held up as an example that we in fact are the deranged ones going on about sex being immutable which they the reasonable ones have had to deal with it even though of course they never meant that in the first place

dont let them get away with that shit

The natal sex thing is hilarious - after JKR's essay half of the activists were busy saying "no one is saying natal sex doesn't exist!" while the other half continued to assert that "there's no such thing as biological sex!" Laurie Penny is an entitled Oxford leftie who will write literally anything to keep in with the Owen Joneses - she's one of the reasons I no longer read The Guardian. Or vote Labour.

I'm now going to screenshot every time i get told on Twitter that there's no such thing as biological sex.

Another 'This Never Happens'

Ok, I have a suggestion, given that this is a very clear change of tactic and yet again, it's a linguistic trick.

We do not need to press 'you can't change sex'. The immutability of sex is pretty self evident at this stage. Besides which, the cult language has done what we predicted about a year and a half ago, and shifted away from changing to confirming, so the person has always been 'female', etc.

The TRAs are doing this - 'Of course you can't change sex, but actually sex is a wide variety of possibilities that are almost too complicated to clearly define, and essentially pointless for all practical purposes'.

The best counter to this is - There are two sexes, and for some very significant things, SEX MATTERS.

Because this is, and always has been, the crux of our argument. Keep saying it. Don't let them own the narrative.

Sex is real, and sex matters.

"Nobody is actually saying there is no such thing as natal sex."

Yes they are. Dawn Butler MP is one, and given her close contacts with some of the most influential TRA campaigners in the UK, I doubt she made it up herself.

It doesn't matter whether these people actually believe that biology is just a construct and sex is arbitrarily 'assigned' at birth. They want to elevate gender identity above sex, and the end result is the erasure of sex in all contexts where it matters.
I assume Mama Doctor Jones would be happy to include girldicks in her gynaecology?

I like your post Floral. Yes they are trying to change tack - which is what you do when you know you're losing ground.

yes definitely Flosime - they know they are not convincing the public so they are shifting the goalposts

such a shame the interent is forever.....;)

Gappy Tales is a brilliant writer.

And judging from her response to it, there's no way want to read the actual article.

The bits she's quoted are just more of the same male centric bull that some people don't even realise they're wedded to.

And I agree the whole 'we're not akcherly saying sex isn't real, dur' is damage limitation.

Excellent.

Then a) it matters obvs.

And b) you can now, at long last, define it then?

Here's a good thread from Malcolm Clark. Keeping evidence of their chicanery will help too. I've attached a couple of notable examples).

1./ A thread. Does the gender identity lobby even know what it's arguing for? That's the question posed by the bizarre reaction to @jk_rowling 's tweet yesterday in which she points out the dangers of denying biological sex is real 👇t.co/QCO8cCdtcz

twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1269600864857206787?s=19

I know Medium won't be editing the articles submitted to them but JFC Laurie could use an editor.

Here's another good thread from Malcolm

When @jk_rowling warned about denial of biological sex thousands of 'gender identity' activists shouted as one, "we've never denied biological sex!'. And yet we know they have and constantly do. Here's @KirstySNP arguing today not just Transwomen are Women but they are female.👇

2./ Why does this matter? All through the GRA Reform consultation this year we were assured by @SASomerville the single sex exceptions in the Equality Act (2010) would be unaffected. Here's the Scottish govt's own consultation advice saying just that 👇t.co/3h3SRF4kpu

twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1270380759623360519?s=19

Does the gender identity lobby even know what it's arguing for?

If you've been paying attention for the last few years you'll have noticed that their arguments evolve in response to ours. What I mean is, we say "no, you can't have what you want because X" and they then respond with "yeah but is X even real anyway? it's all about Y anyway", at which point we go "ah but you're not actually Y either", and then they go "actually Y never did matter, it's all about Z". And on and on in that same pattern. They weren't claiming that transwomen were biologically female or that sex doesn't exist until women started saying "regardless of what your gender may be your sex is male so no, you can't come in to this space".

If you've ever had the misfortune to argue with an abuser the pattern will feel very familiar.

So Adult Human Female is right after all?

And Adrian Harrop's epic humiliation by Posie Parker was all for nothing?

@TheProdigalKittensReturn

Does the gender identity lobby even know what it's arguing for?

If you've been paying attention for the last few years you'll have noticed that their arguments evolve in response to ours. What I mean is, we say "no, you can't have what you want because X" and they then respond with "yeah but is X even real anyway? it's all about Y anyway", at which point we go "ah but you're not actually Y either", and then they go "actually Y never did matter, it's all about Z". And on and on in that same pattern. They weren't claiming that transwomen were biologically female or that sex doesn't exist until women started saying "regardless of what your gender may be your sex is male so no, you can't come in to this space".

If you've ever had the misfortune to argue with an abuser the pattern will feel very familiar.

Totally. Very insightful.

Originally, when you asked them to describe how they know they're a woman, they would reel off a whole load of gender stereotypes.

Until we said you're reeling off a whole load of gender stereotypes.

Then it became an indefinable essence, formless but ever-changing and unique.

So called biological sex George, which, as a gay man, you know all about

I used to follow him on Facebook- shame, he was funny before he started coming out with all this woman hating bullshit

It's very Orwellian - and indeed very Trumpian - to deny having said something you know perfectly well they said, because actually you have multiple screen shots of them saying just that thing. Hence one of my favourite pieces, which I've shared before, is a piece entitled 'An Open Letter to the Guy on Twitter Who Wonders if Biological Sex is Real'

medium.com/@genderdetective/an-open-letter-to-the-guy-on-twitter-who-wonders-if-biological-sex-is-real-58d2cb4403f5

We know that academics like Sally Hines and co are forever denying that biological sex is real, and that it's simply an idea dreamt up by Western colonialists who then imposed it on the hapless indigenous peoples of the world.

You almost have to admire Penny's nerve in coming out with this shit.

Well. As you all know sex is a spectrum so of course no one can change sex. There are numerous scientists and academics who discuss this theory in as much depth as an espresso cup but use big words so they must be experts. One is even a marine biologist and therefore their expertise is clear.

Of course, the science behind knowing you were always the gender you identify with will be proven. It is just a matter of time. Just like in the future, people will be able modify themselves permanently down to the cellular level so they will be living the authentic lives they say are living today.

Transwomen were always female. Don’t you know that were never male at all? I am surprised at you all for being so behind science.

Oh forgot to add. These are the arguments I have seen from activists this past two weeks.

"There are two sexes, and for some very significant things, SEX MATTERS."

This has been the concept underpinning all of my thinking in this. Wasn't there a group or campaign called "sex matters" a while ago?

What was Maya F's case about if it wasn't about disagreement with (and ruling against) the belief that sex was real?

So Adult Human Female is right after all?

And Adrian Harrop's epic humiliation by Posie Parker was all for nothing?

Is there a video?

I thought the Doctor has been pretty consistent in his views - biology is real, but it's transphobic to talk about it.

Is there a video!