Suzanne Moore left the Guardian

[DialSquare]

I've just seen this on Twitter. That'll be even more lost readers then. Not that I'm one of their readers.

[EmpressWitchDoesntBurn]

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria

I can't see Lilla's tweet as they have blocked me.

Who on earth is Lilla and how did I upset them?

Lilla’s blocked me too & I've never heard of them. They’ll be using some block list or other.

[vivariumvivariumsvivaria]

I can't see Lilla's tweet as they have blocked me.

Who on earth is Lilla and how did I upset them?

[MissLawls]

It's like Jolyon Maugham - white, male, immensely wealthy - telling his fellow men that they shouldn't listen to "privileged" women on the issue of trans rights. It feels like we're back in the nineteenth century sometimes. Men literally think that women have nothing worth saying.

Soooo much this! And it isn't just that they think we have nothing worth saying - they want to stop us saying it. We infuriate them by having Minds Of Our Own. Deep deep down in the places they don't like to talk about at parties many men's attitudes towards women really haven't changed in hundreds of years.

[RoyalCorgi]

And Jones retweets this without irony.

They really don't see themselves, do they? They have literally no idea that excluding women is anything other than perfectly normal and reasonable. It's like Jolyon Maugham - white, male, immensely wealthy - telling his fellow men that they shouldn't listen to "privileged" women on the issue of trans rights. It feels like we're back in the nineteenth century sometimes. Men literally think that women have nothing worth saying.

[DialSquare]

Brilliant article. It's got everything. She writes so well and with humour too. Thank you Suzanne. You have put all my feelings in to words.

[showmethegin]

Next time someone pulls the 'woman' is exclusionary crap on me I'll simply tell them that denial of this is "denying my right to exist"

[lionheart]

This takes courage and she has it.

[NotBadConsidering]

@RoyalCorgi

But ultimately it was ‘blokes’ banter with OJ looking amused and indulgent while Piers proverbially waved his cock around.

Exactly. It's all a fucking joke to them. For us, it's deadly serious.

And of course OJ wouldn't interview JKR. Why not? For a start, he's not interested in talking to women. This is a men's issue for men to talk about. OJ, like his chum Jolyon Maugham, has absolutely no interesting in hearing what women have to say.

Secondly, OJ has probably dimly registered that Rowling would wipe the floor with him because she has more intelligence in her little finger than he does in his entire stupid fat head.

And Jones retweets this without irony:

mobile.twitter.com/JustALillaBit/status/1331261251457052672

I have no issue with Owen Jones giving Piers Morgan a platform, as long as he’s strongly challenged - which he was. My issue is that, once again: trans people are being spoken about, rather than spoken to.

[Blackberrycream]

Great article that is honest about the complexity of the situation.
I also thought of Jenni Murray.
It does seem like we are in a reactionary moment in terms of women and our ability to discuss women’s rights.
The twitter campaigns are misogynistic in the extreme.

[Wrongsideofhistorymyarse]

If you lose friends due to this, it says way more about them than you. If the friendship cannot survive having different viewpoints then it clearly wasn’t very strong in the first place. I can’t imagine cutting a friend out of my life just because they didn’t believe men were women. If i was on my deathbed looking back at having done that, I would feel very ashamed.

I went to a very woke university as a mature student and the people who've ditched me are fellow students. I have a group of student friends for whom this issue is irrelevant and they're what I call real friends.

[TackyTriceratops]

Just brilliant. And gut wrenching. And brutally honest.

I immediately thought about Jenni Murray too!

[dopenguinsdance]

Suzanne Moore's long (25 minute read) essay Why I had to leave the Guardian is published today on Unherd [https://unherd.com. She's also done an interview with Unherd's LockdownTV.

[RealityNotEssentialism]

@Wrongsideofhistorymyarse

Great article by Suzanne.

I've lost friends because of my views and can't talk about them at all at work.

If you lose friends due to this, it says way more about them than you. If the friendship cannot survive having different viewpoints then it clearly wasn’t very strong in the first place. I can’t imagine cutting a friend out of my life just because they didn’t believe men were women. If i was on my deathbed looking back at having done that, I would feel very ashamed.

[Wrongsideofhistorymyarse]

Great article by Suzanne.

I've lost friends because of my views and can't talk about them at all at work.

[thinkingaboutLangCleg]

Private Eye is great.

One of the few news sources I really trust, even if their opinions sometimes irritate me.

[thinkingaboutLangCleg]

I felt a peace descend when I finally realised that democracy, free speech and women's rights were more important to me than my intellectual snobbery.

It takes courage to be so honest, Highame. With other people and with yourself.

I am realising that, if my GC or other views lose me some friends, I will sadly have to accept that.

It hasn’t happened yet, and it’s not a huge risk for me, as most of my friends are feminists. It’s the workplace that’s most dangerous. Actually I don’t think I’ve lost any by saying I can’t bear to buy The Guardian any more, either.

Not that I can be sure, as we’re past the age when someone might scream “I don’t like you any more”, either in person or on social media.

[HecatesCats]

Well quite, Piers Morgan has been more vocal on trans issues than Suzanne Moore, but he's alright because he's a bloke.

[AvocadoBathroom]

@Rubidium

Funny you should mention Suzanne Moore, Owen Jones and YouTube...

Here's Owen Jones today, on YouTube, talking about Suzanne Moore's departure from The Guardian (and much more about trans issues), with Piers Morgan:

It's long, and frequently maddening, but worth a watch, and it highlights the paucity of Jones's arguments: "It's just like the arguments against gay people in the 80s" (yawn).

The comments are all "isnt it great to see a healthy debate"
OJ can only talk respectfully to other men it seems.

[HecatesCats]

In these fearful reactionary times, I will not be fearful and I will not be reactionary, but I will centre women and children and the possibility of freedom, as I always have, at the heart of my work.

Thank you Suzanne

[Temporarything]

Great article. Shocking and depressing though.

[StandUpStraight]

She’s also in the Telegraph today. www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/suzanne-moore-betrayed-bullied-saying-women-should-not-silenced/

“All the major writers on the paper wrote letters or messaged me. I got a message from someone saying: ‘I wish I could have spoken up for you but I was afraid of losing my job.’

“There are a lot of people with mortgages and with children who want to speak up but can’t – women especially. This isn’t just about newspapers. I can walk along my street and a woman will stop me and say: ‘I’m a teaching assistant and I said something the other day and I think I might lose my job.’ It’s because of the incredible lobbying and institutional capture Stonewall [which campaigns for LGBT rights] has had on our education and public sector. It’s become quite a witch-hunt.”

Unfortunately, they don’t do share tokens.

[SophocIestheFox]

Just finished reading the article and came here to gush about it

It’s a long piece, but she’s done it very cleverly (as you’d expect). Well worth getting a cuppa and settling down for a read when you have fifteen or twenty minutes spare.

[boatyardblues]

What a fantastic article! A long read, but well worth it. So sorry to hear you have been treated so badly by your colleagues Suzanne, and especially the ones you counted as friends.

[Melroses]

[Melroses]

unherd.com/2020/11/why-i-had-to-leave-the-guardian/

Suzanne Moore - Why I had to leave The Guardian