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...)

It's certainly proving problematic for the media tribe on twitter. People like Suzanne Moore who have been such fearless advocates for women are now conflicted because he's their mate. And so it will get excused, minimised and shoved under the carpet by those who are best placed to show this ugly, pervasive misogyny for what it is.

Profoundly depressing.

I'm quite puzzled as to the whereabouts of Same Old Posters who continually tell us we're transphobic and cruel and not kind.

I wonder if they also condemn the words of this vile little man? Maybe I'm doing them a disservice and they are all over Twatter now giving him the same message they give us?!

As a slight aside, when something like this occurs and people are quick to point out justifications like "That was a long time ago/I've changed since I said that, grown, yada yada". I actually think this is bollocks. I do not believe that many people's views and opinions change that drastically. If you've been a racist once chances are your always going to be one. If you've been homophobic once you will probably always be. If you regularly and publicly referred to women with such venom you will probably always view them as such.

The only thing that may change as you get older is you're more selective about when or with whom you reveal that side of you. Because you know nowadays it is likely to come back and bite you on the arse.

Once a nasty prick, always one.

I've looked at the savoy tweet and all the responses. All those replies at the time pattting him on the back have vanished oooo it's a mystery

It's almost like they don't want to be guilty by association by just liking him and end up being set upon and cancelled themselves. Like any supporter of JKR has found. Taste of their own medicine!

It’s just another crack in the veneer of the vessel that will eventually shatter.

Barr mocked a transwoman who attempted suicide.

It's astonishing that anyone is backing him up.

@VickyEadieofThigh

Barr mocked a transwoman who attempted suicide.

It's astonishing that anyone is backing him up.

I know! It’s depressing in its predictability and highlights the absolute hypocrisy of the TRA continent and their beardy woke-bro allies.

His ‘banter’ and how he talked about women is extremely offensive. But, hey, I’m sure he’s a nice guy really...

*contingent

Autocorrect randomness...

I was reading about the red guard and struggle sessions only yesterday. The 'four olds'

• old culture, old customs, old habits and old ideas.

They attacked people of the wrong class, intellectuals, and very often, older people.

Fascinating.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards

Isn’t anyone taking this seriously?

Barr mocked a transwoman who attempted suicide.

That's Kiwi Farms level bantz by any of their standards, surely?

The offensive tweets are all on view:

twitter.com/search?q=damian%20barr&src=typed_query

In interesting news from the publishing world, the trade publication The Bookseller put up a survey this morning to gauge the effect of 'cancel culture' and social media/free speech with specific regard to writing/publishing/bookselling and called for anonymous submissions/participants.

Almost as soon as it went up, it got a lot of vocal 'this survey is biased' responses - accused of leading questions, 'flawed design', 'there is no such thing as cancel culture just holding to account' etc.

They have taken it down after 300 responses rather than let it run.

twitter.com/thebookseller/status/1278664452699807745

NoSquirrels I was just coming on to link to that survey. I got in under the wire, it seems. It didn't seem that loaded to me, but then I'm not sure I have the same agenda as the ones composing about it on Twitter.

Gah, *complaining that should read, not composing. Sorry!

Glinner must be seething. He got kicked off for saying men aren't women and this bile-filled bantz stays up unquestioned.
What a time to be alive.

Accio it didn't seem that loaded to me either - but perhaps I am 'systemically biased' myself. I responded to the follow-up question they linked to say as much.

The interesting thing to me about the responses to the survey was that everyone was responding in outrage from their own position of perceived discrimination - so there were people being outraged about the race aspect, or the LGBTQ+ aspect, or whatever. They all saw it as aimed at their own particular angle. Which is bias in its own way, no?

Sarah Perry has been responding very calmly and interestingly (imo) to the survey and to follow-up questions on DB, JKR etc.

Editor of The Bookseller responded that it was meant as a "listening exercise" and is being told that wasn't how it came across and he's revising history.

Sigh. It just all seems so toxic it can't even be explored anonymously, let alone discussed. Such a culture of fear on all sides.

Yes, I saw Sarah Perry's response too. I thought it was going OK until she started defending the tweets as 'just how people talk to each other in LGBT circles' (not a direct quote, but the gist of it).

I see that Damian Barr has just been stripped of his Fellowship of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts) so perhaps this will be seen as a 'tit for tat' and will now quieten things down.

I do think he has been foolish though, and this will become his legacy.

I see that Damian Barr has just been stripped of his Fellowship of the RSA
Where did you see that?

twitter.com/theRSAorg/status/1278662935347433472

But the RSA won't issue a statement. They're hoping it will all go away with as little awareness as possible.

Of course TRAs will still support Damian Barr. We all know the reason why.
I'm more interested in how any feminists who were tweeting approvingly when Barr stitched up Baroness Nicholson are feeling, now that his contempt for women is laid out for all to see. (Laurie Penny was one as I recall - not seen what Sarah Perry said.)
I don't expect any of them to comment but I'm curious as to how they will square it in their own heads.

Was he an RSA fellow until now?

Someone's been quick editing this page but here's a cached version:

<a class="break-all" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pmQG_kFCCksJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fellows_of_the_Royal_Society_of_Arts+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-b-d" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pmQG_kFCCksJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fellows_of_the_Royal_Society_of_Arts+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-b-d

Hmm. RSA says "No statement is planned."

I'm going to guess that DB has cancelled his own membership - (as the "only right thing to do") and the statement will come in time from him, as a media-managed apology for full and proper publicity.

Just a guess.

I don't really care if he is still a Fellow or not. I would be properly surprised if they'd actually 'cancelled' him, though - I think they'd not want to do that because of the free speech implications, and so that's why I think he'll have done it himself...

well the rsa tweet says 'Mr. Barr is no longer a Fellow of the RSA. These tweets do not represent the values of the RSA.'. Is he the chap who is something to do with a large london hotel?