Irish women - literary wokeness

[notyourhandmaid]

“I think transwomen are women, transmen are men, and trans rights are human rights,” she says. “I find it deeply distressing that this targets a group who we all know have a higher incidence of violence and suicide. I really don’t understand why people [who call themselves feminists] have an issue with them. It’s like Flavia Dzodan says: my feminism will be intersectional or it will be bulls**t.” - Sinead Gleeson in today's Irish Times (www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/sin%C3%A9ad-gleeson-i-wanted-it-to-be-a-mix-of-canonical-and-contemporary-1.4361654)

Not a surprise to see this but a tad depressing that someone who writes about the female body and anthologises women's short stories goes into slogan-mode here.

"When I try to draw Ahern on the challenges of writing a woman of colour, especially these days when writers are under scrutiny like never before, often employing “sensitivity readers” to avoid causing offence, she is cautious. I go on to mention JK Rowling and John Boyne as writers who have been criticised in recent times for aspects of their work, but she does not want to offer a view except to say that kind of attention is not something she “goes after”."

• Roisin Ingle on Cecelia Ahern, also today (www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/cecelia-ahern-i-don-t-have-small-worries-i-have-big-worries-like-the-end-of-the-world-1.4362541)

[Vagaries]

Thanks, @DonkeySkin and others. I find Sinéad Gleeson tiresome at the best of times, but this is far beyond that, and the Cecilia Ahern interview was a masterclass in evasion.

[irishfeminist]

to fend off the anticipated backlash directed at anyone who has the temerity to mention Greer. I mean

[teawamutu]

I read Constellations. She very very obviously knows that female biology is A Thing so I can't begin to fathom how she then pretends she doesn't know in order to chant the mantra.

The people I know who also read it are unanimous that she comes across as pretty self-obsessed and self-righteous.

I really wanted to like it, she makes some good points, but overall just... Meh.

[yesawoman]

@XXSex

I wonder what roisin ingles views are?

I wonder about Roisin. I dont think I've seen her trot out the TWAW mantra. She is very psychophantic (sp ??) towards all the British feminists who we are not allowed to like in Ireland.

[yesawoman]

@teawamutu

I read Constellations. She very very obviously knows that female biology is A Thing so I can't begin to fathom how she then pretends she doesn't know in order to chant the mantra.

The people I know who also read it are unanimous that she comes across as pretty self-obsessed and self-righteous.

I really wanted to like it, she makes some good points, but overall just... Meh.

I found it a little bit meh too. I find her a bit insufferable in general now tbh.

But this is the thing. Women who are known to be intelligent and capable of critical thinking and nuance just spouting out sloganistic non-sequitors. I feel like I'm losing my mind.

[irishfeminist]

@teawamutu

I read Constellations. She very very obviously knows that female biology is A Thing so I can't begin to fathom how she then pretends she doesn't know in order to chant the mantra.

The people I know who also read it are unanimous that she comes across as pretty self-obsessed and self-righteous.

I really wanted to like it, she makes some good points, but overall just... Meh.

Yeah, she's so central to the (very small) Irish arts establisment now that it's hard to imagine any sort of criticism of it being aired. It was a bit dull and derivative and said nothing new. Which made the nasty little Germaine Greer swipe even more enraging as her work on the body in The Female Eunuch was far superior and clearly an influence.

[thinkingaboutLangCleg]

Careful, DonkeySkin. You’re using thought, observation and analysis of facts and expressing the results with honesty and clarity.

You know how that triggers the Woke. I can just see their lips quivering with dismay, until one of them recovers enough to shriek “Bigot!”. Then with great relief they can get back safely to their slogans.

[7Days]

I think you're bang on about the fear of hitting the danger age.

Keep young and wokiful, if you want to be loved 🎶🎶

And also they are afraid of their lives of being called right wing / Catholics.

[Bedroomdilemma]

That’s quite a good article with John Boyne, I think. One undercurrent which I don’t really see acknowledged here much is the extent to which the gay marriage and abortion referendum meant t many people became activists or voted for both women’s rights and gay rights, and the issues became entwined. This dynamic, where both women and gay people were oppressed by the conservative society and both won freedoms around the same time, doesn’t exist to the same extent in the UK. And then trans rights get bound up in that.

[yesawoman]

I see Roisin has just tweeted the Jenni Murray Daily Mail article

[Vagaries]

@Bedroomdilemma

That’s quite a good article with John Boyne, I think. One undercurrent which I don’t really see acknowledged here much is the extent to which the gay marriage and abortion referendum meant t many people became activists or voted for both women’s rights and gay rights, and the issues became entwined. This dynamic, where both women and gay people were oppressed by the conservative society and both won freedoms around the same time, doesn’t exist to the same extent in the UK. And then trans rights get bound up in that.

Yes, I think that’s absolutely right. People are just thinking of ‘trans rights’ as something that should self-evidently be supported, like voting for abortion rights or gay marriage, without thinking at all about the erosion of women’s rights.

Also slightly relieved to encounter other people who didn’t care for the acclaimed Constellations. I expected to like it, I bought it as soon as it came out, and I thought it was tiresomely-overwritten and by someone who never once questions her reader’s fascination with her experience.

[EarlofEggMcMuffin]

yesawoman- thanks for the heads up. I went to have a look.

The first comment that I can see is from the (apparently male) Communications Officer of The Rotunda (maternity hospital) referring a Terf being cancelled.

[yesawoman]

@EarlofEggMcMuffin

yesawoman- thanks for the heads up. I went to have a look.

The first comment that I can see is from the (apparently male) Communications Officer of The Rotunda (maternity hospital) referring a Terf being cancelled.

Yes I noticed that too 🙄 . Am monitoring now to see who likes / RTs ( obsessed , me ? )

[purplepizzabunny]

Me too.

[purplepizzabunny]

Interestingly dame jenni also referenced expressing views on Brexit as an example of being cancelled but needless to say mr Beardy woke doesn't seem that worthy of mention.

[swingsandroundabouts1]

@EarlofEggMcMuffin

yesawoman- thanks for the heads up. I went to have a look.

The first comment that I can see is from the (apparently male) Communications Officer of The Rotunda (maternity hospital) referring a Terf being cancelled.

Was the master of the Rotunda calling Roisin a Terf? . Sorry I am not on Twitter so can't check myself.

[purplepizzabunny]

No a communications officer.

[EarlofEggMcMuffin]

@swingsandroundabouts1 No, no not the Master of The Rotunda, let me be clear.

Roisin Ingle tweeted the Daily Mail story about Jenni Murray.
The first comment is from someone with a standard male Irish name, who has "Communications Officer @ The Rotunda" in his Twitter bio.

His reply is "Daily Mail article about someone with TERF-y views talking about being 'cancelled'?" and he adds a emoji.

Here

[swingsandroundabouts1]

Thanks Earl. A communications officer in a maternity hospital using a slur towards women with an opposing views is not a good look for a hospital. So many Irish women are being made feel irrelevant by this ideology.

[irishfeminist]

That's shocking about the Rotunda communications officer using the word "terfy". I think Roisin is probably gender critical. She isn't academic and I mean that in a good way, in that she still has some grasp of reality and common sense. Fair play to her for retweeting Jenni Murray and I hope she stands her ground.

I see my comment was deleted, a bit on the nose maybe? I don't think I said anything that isn't true though. Oh well.

Bedroomdilemma, that's a great point about abortion rights and gay rights getting entwined in recent years. During the 80s and 90s they definitely weren't - I remember lesbian women being involved but I don' t remember gay men having any interest or involvement in the abortion issue and certainly no trans people, so the rewrite of history there - "trans people have always been involved in the campaign for reproductive freedom!" is just bizarre, frankly. The burning issue for gay men at the time was AIDS treatment and research funding, and certainly the same kind of progressive people tended to support and campaign for that as well as reproductive rights for women. But they were quite discrete issues.

[7Days]

A communications officer at a maternity hospital who wont listen to women.
In a sane world that would not be a good look

[Annasgirl]

Thanks all for this - I subscribe the the IT but often am tempted to cancel due to the lack of any sane voices writing there on anything to do with this issue.

@DonkeySkin - what a fabulous post, I think we would be great friends in real life!!!

I was coming on to post about a different article in yesterday's IT reporting on Women politician's experiences of misogyny. There was a conference held on it this week where female politicians outlined their experience of online and real life hate and death threats. It really is frightening. Hazel Cho mentioned some online communities dedicated to this with thousands upon thousands of members - my God, I despair. Anyway, the relevance is on the knowledge by everyone there (it was attended and promoted by Amnesty - yes the Wokerati who say TWAW - there is no room in my head for the eyeball) of what it is to be a woman and how women (biological ones) are targeted because they are women (not because of a feeling, but because of a biological reality).

So, we have all these female politicians attending an event where they know what a woman is but when we ask them to defend the rights of said women, they run for the hills. How no one can join the dots between the misogyny of these actions and the misogyny of removing sex based protection from biological women is shocking, but not surprising.

[irishfeminist]

@7days a young bearded bloke no less. What are they even doing hiring someone like that as communications officer for one of the country's largest maternity hospitals? His Twitter bio says "views my own" but clearly associates him with his workplace.

[ForeverFaithless]

DonkeySkin - excellent explanation, I'll be borrowing this in the future, thanks.