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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Damian Barr

375 replies

AbsintheFriends · 01/07/2020 17:39

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...)

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SerenityNowwwww · 03/07/2020 08:31

We had a dog.

She was a lovely thing but if you had chocolate or twee trying to get her on a lead/go for a walk in the rain or lock her in the back room she would look at you with her huge brown eyes, wimper a bit and develop a limp. Poor me! Poor me! You can’t be cross with me for chewing the kitchen chair leg! I only peed on the rug because I just couldn’t be bothered to go out in the rain! You can’t really blame me...

AbsintheFriends · 03/07/2020 08:56

The difficult upbringing makes it more inexcusable, imo. He KNOWS what women endure at the hands of men. He must also therefore know how important it is for women to be able to access spaces separate from men. To be allowed the dignity of naming and defining themselves - women, not 'menstruators' (which is where this whole righteous shitshow of a TRA crusade against JKR began.) He KNOWS that women are vulnerable to violence and control and abuse - he's seen it with his own eyes. And not only is he refusing to listen to women talking about those experiences, he's raising his voice above theirs, and calling them bigots for wanting to discuss it, and why it matters.

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NearlyGranny · 03/07/2020 09:12

Perhaps all the noise and hypocrisy is actually him trying to suppress memories of childhood trauma, though? That's the best gloss that could be applied to this sorry mess.

What on earth made him feel safe enough to call out BN with all that hate speech sitting there under his own name just waiting to come to light? It beggars belief.

Will his male privilege (assigned on the strength of nothing more than a cursory glance at his birth if we are to believe the current dogma) protect him from the kind of pile-on and cancellation storm JK Rowling has had for daring to day sex is real?

Probably. We shall have to wait and see.

SerenityNowwwww · 03/07/2020 09:19

My friend when I was a teenager had been sexually abused by her grandfather when she was a child. She eventually told the family and it really caused a lot of bad blood on the family (some believed her and some didn’t). Her parents broke up, she went with her mum who treated her like a flat mate/tenant.

Didn’t make her an abusive arsehole.

PronounssheRa · 03/07/2020 09:19

Cancel culture is so destructive once it's unleashed there is no control over what happens

I hope Damian and others like him who are so enthusiastic to engage in this kind of behaviour reflect on the actual impacts of what they are doing.

Male privilege is however already protecting Damian, Owen jones, pink news, stonewall etc are all silent on this.

SerenityNowwwww · 03/07/2020 09:21

Silence is marginally preferable to the usual shrieks of outrage and scoring victim points. Don’t tell me they actually have a line?

ChattyLion · 03/07/2020 09:21

No I don't think he fully sees the GC viewpoint that's all I think he ought to bd I'm not excusing what's done.

Tbf no one on here’s saying he should be in any kind of trouble (.. like being professionally or personally harmed, like maybe being called names and losing a prestigious work gig, maybe like being involved with a major national prize like the Booker ) for the reason of not being gender critical.

That’s his politics. I don’t agree with those views, but he could say same about mine. That alone shouldn’t get either of us sacked.
It’s still a free country, just. There’s still (barely!) free speech (if you are gender critical!). And cancel culture, as seen here, contributes to undermining free speech. He can say what nasty stuff he likes. Other people can go ahead and say what they think about that.

And it’s always fine with other adults- whatever someone’s background- and I’m really sorry to learn that of his- to point out when they’ve been a hypocrite, or been transphobic, sexist, racist or a bully, or just been unfair to someone. Also fine to say that you disagree with their politics and give reasons.

It’s clearly awful and transphobic to write absolutely horrible mocking tweet about the ‘failures’ of a suicidal ‘tranny’. (Plus the sexist, racialised stuff) which he has published on Twitter while he’s been urging on the removal of a woman for her political views being different to his. Nobody who notices nastiness and hypocrisy should have to not point it out though, because to notice it is in itself ‘nasty‘. That’s what Barr himself went big on in his risible ‘apology’ tweet.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 03/07/2020 09:26

Cheltenham Festival did someone say... let me have at that one! I know one of the ladies who currently run it through some networking groups... I wonder how she stands on the TWAW/GC issue?

Fanthorpe · 03/07/2020 09:35

DB completely understands the GC point of view, Janice Turner was a close enough friend to go to his wedding. Deborah Orr and he were also close. There’s no way he’s ignorant.

Divoc2020 · 03/07/2020 13:17

One of the interesting things I've observed in this whole 'DBarrcle' (see what I did there... Wink) is the fact that Barr himself and his followers talk about the Baroness 'setting her followers' on him and the 'orchestrated' and 'organised' campaign against him. Much of this is obviously puff and rhetoric to make himself the victim, but I think he probably can't quite understand that there could be such a large group of women (and their allies) who have chosen to back the Baroness from their own volition!

If only I had time to take part in a large-scale, orchestrated, feminist campaign! I'm not sure when I'd fit it in though - perhaps in a short slot after work, grocery shopping, cooking and laundry?!

SulisMinerva · 03/07/2020 13:32

One of the interesting things I've observed in this whole 'DBarrcle' (see what I did there... wink) is the fact that Barr himself and his followers talk about the Baroness 'setting her followers' on him and the 'orchestrated' and 'organised' campaign against him.

It’s straight up DARVO isn’t it? He’s the one who led a witch hunt...

nauticant · 03/07/2020 13:36

A brief moment of Wikipedia reporting a trans-related controversy accurately. It'll be gone shortly.

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Damian_Barr&diff=965785387&oldid=965780755

justanotherneighinparadise · 03/07/2020 13:41

🤣

CuriousaboutSamphire · 03/07/2020 13:44

Assuming his personal wiki page willhave to change too

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_Barr

Barr was accused of hypocrisy when it emerged that he had used offensive language toward transgender people and women on Twitter. In April 2009 he wrote: “Tittering sickly @ story of 6’5” tranny who failed to hang herself from 5ft balcony this wknd. How many failures can one person take?” In May 2009 he tweeted a reference to a “nice tranny charity”, adding: “lady-man truckers unite.” In March 2013, he tweeted about a “mad tranny going through my recycling bin”. Tweets were also found on his account referring to women as "bitches". In response, Barr locked his account before sending out a tweet saying that he had used the word 'tranny' “flippantly, not maliciously”.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 03/07/2020 13:45

Ooh! I see now... sorry!!!

nauticant · 03/07/2020 13:49

I linked to the particular version edit from right now because the "offending material" will almost certainly be edited away CuriousaboutSamphire.

At least Wikipedia realises the importance of not airbrushing history away. That might change.

OliveKitteridgeAgain · 03/07/2020 14:12

Good work on the Wiki. It's saying he's FRSA - I thought they'd parted company?

Boireannachlaidir · 03/07/2020 14:14

I do agree with you and others @ChattyLion i don't why of my posts

Bananabixfloof · 03/07/2020 14:20

@Boireannachlaidir

I'm not a beardy woke bro supporter, I'm a GC feminist. I'm saddened to read this thread as Damian as indeed had a difficult upbringing. One where he saw his mum abused by his violent father and he was close to his mother and sister. I think if he had read about the transgender ideology that harms women and girls he wouldn't be jumping on the band wagon.

Too ma

I had a bloody awful childhood, terrible awful things were done to me. Yet I have never said such a disgusting thing about a suicidal person.

He should be ashamed of himself and he definitely should do better. But please God dont use his childhood as an excuse.

Boireannachlaidir · 03/07/2020 14:21

Laptop playing up, I will start again I don't know why my previous post was deleted ConfusedI'm not suggesting that a shitty upbringing excuses it or condones him I wasn't trying to garner sympathy

I find it terribly sad though and yes @ChattyLion I agree with that he doesn't have be GC etc I expected more support for women from him given that he knows what it is like to experience violence and abuse etc.

Boireannachlaidir · 03/07/2020 14:22

@Bananabixfloof I'm sorry if it came across like that it wasn't my intention

Bananabixfloof · 03/07/2020 14:27

That post from boir has absolutely maddened me, I'm going to scroll back to the email addresses posted earlier and send off some blistering emails. Poor bloody diddums barr using his childhood abuse as a excuse to be truly revolting about a suicidal person.
Beyond the pale now.

Clymene · 03/07/2020 15:45

You're saddened to read this thread @Boireannachlaidir because he had a difficult upbringing?

Fuck me, people are really scraping the barrel now. Damian Barr has shown himself to be a really nasty little man. Cancel culture is odious and if you're going to lead a witchhunt, you really need to make sure your twitter is full of disgusting misogynist and transphobic tweets.

It's no one's fault that he left his skidmarks pants out for the world to see except him.

SerenityNowwwww · 03/07/2020 15:55

My grandmother had a terrible upbringing. Her dad had a tragic childhood. So what - it's not a competition.

Tragedy and hardship don't make you an arse, or unable to understand what's right and wrong does it? Its not an excuse to be dredged up when you have been caught out.

ChattyLion · 03/07/2020 18:19

I would imagine the vast majority of families have experienced trauma of some kind, it would be a rare family who have not. Who has a perfect life? Many won’t have any resources (of whatever kind) to help them manage what happened and many families have repeated, compounding traumas. It’s awful. But we’ve all still got to be responsible individually (as adults) for how we behave.