Damian Barr

[AbsintheFriends]

I know there's loads going on at the moment, and Damian Barr is just one bearded misogynist in an increasingly dystopian world, but he's the one who kicked up a huge self-righteous fuss about Baroness Nicholson and got her ousted from her position at the Booker Prize on the grounds of homophobia and transphobia. Who would have imagined that such a zealous icon of ideological purity would turn out to have said things like this??

twitter.com/MLagouste/status/1278345389150662658

(Oh yes. Any one of the several million of us on FWR who has seen a bearded misogynist hiding behind a trans-rights banner...)

[ScreamingMeMe]

The BBC dropped Gareth Roberts for far less.

[ArabellaScott]

I hadn't seen any sexist comments, Sophocles. What a nasty, small minded bully of a man he is coming across as.

[Sophoclesthefox]

@ArabellaScott

Ah, but he's one of the Naice right thinking ones.

I will never, ever get over him making a joke about a failed suicide attempt. It's despicable. As well as transphobic, actually transphobic.

Me neither.

God, I’m so sick of the sexism. Does he still speak the same way about women, even if he’s been forced to lay off the transphobia?

[RoyalCorgi]

I wondered what the long term consequences would be for Damian Barr. They turn out to be him getting his own programme on Radio 4:

Of course they are. He's a man. It doesn't matter how many nasty transphobic comments he makes, he's immune.

[ArabellaScott]

Ah, but he's one of the Naice right thinking ones.

I will never, ever get over him making a joke about a failed suicide attempt. It's despicable. As well as transphobic, actually transphobic.

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

Who would have imagined that such a zealous icon of ideological purity would turn out to have said things like this??

Agreed, the mere fact that somebody has the arrogance and self-confidence to make the comments he did about the Baroness should be taken like the warning rattle on a rattlesnake about the likelihood of certain attitudes.

[nauticant]

I wondered what the long term consequences would be for Damian Barr. They turn out to be him getting his own programme on Radio 4:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000xf0n

[BatShite]

Wow just read this thread properly..the fucking arrogance it takes to basically scream that those who found the transphobic tweets(that HE made, and much more actually transphobic than most things I have seen that are from GC people..) and brought them up are the transphobes in this situation?! What? And this is accepted too?

Such privilege the bepenised ones have eh?

[ChattyLion]

thank you. That’s interesting. Wonder if he’ll use the extra spare time to think about cancel culture, misogyny and campaign to have Baroness Nicholson reinstated at the Booker as well as apologising to her?

[Clymene]

That he had been asked to leave the Brighton fringe because of his disgusting transphobic tweets. According to prick news (not going to link) he stepped down

[ChattyLion]

I get a link to the Times saying this article has been removed. What was the story?

[BatShite]

Unsurprising. Many of the 'TRAs' and wokebro supporters are simply MRAs..ecstatic to have found some way of removing womens rights. Quite clear not many of them actually give a shit about transsexual people, thats for sure..

[Kit19]

Ah you have to have a heart of stone not to laugh 😆😆

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/damian-barr-ousted-by-arts-festival-after-being-accused-of-transphobic-tweet-mqtbpgtgw

Sorry on my phone so can’t go share token

[ScrimpshawTheSecond]

Anne, I meant that all the things Damian Barr is failing to say are so very telling.

People can’t have this all ways without having glaring double standards.

Yes, but 'glaring double standards' seems to be having a moment lately.

[ChattyLion]

Either apologies are acceptable in which case Damian Barr now needs to apologise for the sexist and racialised stuff he tweeted too, and should apologise properly (without blaming other people) for the awful transphobic suicide mocking tweet. Then he can start a clean slate.
And if apologies are acceptable then the Baroness should be reinstated by Booker.
The Savoy, and anyone else standing by Damian Barr, but without calling on Booker to reinstate the Baroness as part of that, is promoting sexist double standards.

Or.... the alternative is that apologies for nasty tweets are not acceptable in which case they should both be cancelled.

Secondly, the accusations that the Baroness has been ‘homophobic’ have still not been substantiated. So that slur should be withdrawn and she should be apologised to.

Or... if it’s ‘homophobic‘ simply to vote against same sex marriage (which IMO is not a proof of homophobia, as much I personally think the option of marriage should be open to same sex couples) then to be consistent David Willletts should be kicked out of Booker as a Trustee, as well as the Baroness being let go. Trustees have actual power in directing the Booker charity. She was only in an honorary role.

People can’t have this all ways without having glaring double standards.

[AnneOfQueenSables]

I don't think it's about saying nothing. Lots of us called out Barr for his misogyny and hypocrisy which were blatantly apparent from the moment he went after Baroness Nicholson and I completely agree with NoSquirrels that it's about targeting JK Rowling by proxy.
They are all bullies and cowards.

[ScrimpshawTheSecond]

Just leaving this here. 'Saying nothing says everything', from Mr Barr's facebook feed, recently.

[Ereshkigalangcleg]

^When found out Barr didn't apologise. He firstly ran away. Then he issued an apology that was hidden from his critics. The apology was a non-apology and used DARVO. There is no sign whatsoever of him taking responsibility and being properly contrite.
He's getting rewarded for this shitty behaviour and given half the chance we can expect more targeting of women from him in the future.^

Exactly.

[AbsintheFriends]

nauticant and squirrels said it much better

[NoSquirrels]

I agree with you, Anne, but where I have found this whole Damian Barr vs Baroness Nicholson objectionable in particular is the seeming dishonesty with which DB acted to get BN discredited.

Yes, she voted against gay marriage years ago. Yes, she appeared rude & very dismissive - potentially even aggressive - in her recent tweets to MB.

But the fact is, her real crime was to stand with JKR. They couldn’t get JKR - she’s said absolutely nothing wrong, and they know it. The Baroness got targeted and drawn into the tweets to MB precisely because of JKR. The ‘Baroness Nicholson is so homophobic she’d have the wedding ring off my finger’ was so emotive, so calculated when DB - who is an intelligent man - MUST HAVE KNOWN that her voting record was historic and nothing to do with the real issue at hand. There was 1 tweet where she tried to explain her reasoning for her historic voting record - but Twitter is no place for nuance and it was not well worded or received - and was then cynically spun into ‘see, she’s ACTIVELY homophobic’.

Then everyone lauded him for ‘being so perceptive’ as to ‘notice’ the heinous situation and flocked in droves to support his campaign - and it really was a campaign, not just his expressed personal opinion. He also played victim by saying HE was being viciously attacked even though he escalated it x100.

And now the non-apology for mocking a suicidal person.

I couldn’t give a shiny shit about the use of the slang word he’s apologising for- it’s totally irrelevant. He mocked for laughs someone who attempted to end their life. Who does that? No one with the empathy, sensitivity and compassion he’s spent years making his living from - his reputation is based on being a sensitive interviewer and critical thinker.

So it’s piss poor, frankly. He’ll come out of it just fine in the end - but with some added victimhood and woke points for all the vicious bullying he’s received.

Bloody shitshow, frankly.

[nauticant]

I don't agree with cancel culture but there are situations when the witch finder getting burned in lighting the pyre is something I can be pleased about.

Barr led a witch hunt against a woman for "criminal statements" when he'd said far worse. Hypocrisy like that is deeply offensive.
It's clear Barr has misogyny running through him like words through a stick of rock. So in hindisight him targeting a woman looks very predictable.
When found out Barr didn't apologise. He firstly ran away. Then he issued an apology that was hidden from his critics. The apology was a non-apology and used DARVO. There is no sign whatsoever of him taking responsibility and being properly contrite.
He's getting rewarded for this shitty behaviour and given half the chance we can expect more targeting of women from him in the future.

[AbsintheFriends]

I feel the same Anne, except here it's not cancel culture in isolation, it's in the context of what happened to Baroness Nicholson as a direct result of Damian Barr's efforts.

She had her position stripped from her - a position that must have meant a great deal to her, as it was in an organisation founded by her late husband. I feel that if Barr isn't called to account, if he keeps all the positions he has worked (or networked) to achieve, when his misdemeanours have been so much more serious, and reveal evidence of a truly unpleasant streak, it just not just double standards but something even more unjust.

I believe the relentlessness of his campaign against Baroness Nicholson left a slightly nasty taste in collective mouths because underneath everyone knows she is an honourable and admirable person. But, you know - must support the oppressed, don't want to be seen to be secretly on the side of homophobia etc etc. But then, when his unsavoury history comes to light, lots of media people can cower behind the line that they don't like cancel culture and we should just move on. In other words, he got to make the last move in the game of cancelling, and it was such an unpleasant one that it kind of changed the rules, meaning that he himself can't be cancelled.

I don't know - I haven't expressed it very well and I hope it doesn't sound like I'm disagreeing with you. I just feel that he should be more accountable than he has been for a crusade that he started. (And was so roundly and loudly applauded by the great and the good for seeing through to its conclusion.)

[AnneOfQueenSables]

I feel really conflicted about this. I don't agree with cancel culture and I don't agree with trawling old Tweets for wrong-think. Yy the TRAs and Mr Barr do both but I think both positions threaten freedom of speech and don't allow for growth. I'd feel like a hypocrite if I suddenly acted as though it's ok to get people cancelled as long as I don't agree with the person involved.

[NearlyGranny]

Well, that's something Twitter account holders can usefully do: politely let these organisations know who they're aligned to. Not that I hold with the cancel culture generally, but it's up to an organisation who they allow within the fold, and DB is looking more and more like a wolf in sheep's clothing.


Alternately, there's Shakespeare:

"Meet it is I set it down, that one may smile and smile, and be a villain -"

[nauticant]

Like ScrimpshawTheSecond says, we need to look at the indirect benefits:

• Barr knows he's been shown up to be a hateful hypocrite and he knows that loads of other people know it. From now on, whenever he publicly puts himself on the moral high ground, he'll be looking around to see if his tweets appear and get seen by even more people.
  
• The trans activists who came to his support did it knowing they were supporting someone who has been willing to spread really nasty transphobia. They probably had to do this with gritted teeth knowing that anyone watching could see how they were discrediting their campaigning.
  
• His friends and acquaintances are in a better position in that at least they were able to do the 3 Monkeys routine. But now they know they're associated with a nasty bigot. A real one. Who says things that really are bigoted and phobic.
  
• It's been made crystal clear that the campaign against Baroness Nicholson was strongly motivated by misogyny. A lot of people have seen this.
  
• The Booker Prize know they've been manipulated and even worse have had to pretend nothing that bad has gone on. While a lot of people watched and sadly shook their heads.
  
• The other charities, groups, entities, etc that give Barr status know that if they're going to remain associated with him, and they probably will, this is a tarnish to their brands.
  
• A lot of people have seen the curtain pulled back and the mind-bending double standards in operation. This is depressing but will motivate many.
  
• The right side of history looks a bit grubby as a result of this.