Author Naomi Wolf condemns UK's 'moral panic' on trans issues

[stumbledin]

Britain is in the grip of a “moral panic” about transgender issues, according to U.S. author Naomi Wolf, who said she was angry that trans women were being linked with predatory men having been a victim of rape herself. ...

“It’s always this mythology of a man dressed as a woman in ladies bathroom who’s going to rape a woman - which just doesn’t happen,” Wolf told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview, adding that women were far more at risk from men.

“Anyway there are already laws in place against you being molested by anyone in a bathroom.”

Wolf, 58, said every time she stood up for trans rights she was attacked online by “waves and waves of bots”.

And more like this at uk.reuters.com/article/britain-lgbt-history/interview-u-s-author-naomi-wolf-condemns-uks-moral-panic-on-trans-issues-idUSL8N2ID2IG

Just posting for information.

Not sure it is worth discussing, though needless to say she was an invited speaker at what should have been an event about Gay rights, but of course has been trans(formed) into a LGBTQ event.

Sigh.

There has been a lot of focus on the "death recorded" error in Wolf's book Outrages; one consequence is that people generally miss the degree to which the entire book is a work of utmost incompetence, with vague, confused assertions, and occasional defences of child sex abuse. The work is supposedly based on her PhD thesis, though I struggle to believe that someone capable of producing a book as bad as that is capable of a doctorate.

@nauticant

From the posts above here's the moment when Wolf's reputation for scholarship fell to pieces live on Radio 4:

twitter.com/thymetikon/status/1131702577878503425

The very last words of the recording are particularly ouch-y.

What went wrong there was that rather than asking what the odd term "death recorded" might mean, she went with what she wanted it to mean. I'd say the same kind of thing is happening in her current intervention.

Oh Nauticant, thanks for that, what a witty thread!!1. I had read about her take down in the newspaper but had not heard it - it was sublime.

I like many, loved her when she wrote the Beauty Myth - if only the world had stayed in a place where my only concern as a feminist was the myth of beauty .

She must really hate the UK, she made a fool of herself on the radio last time she was here.

@JohnRokesmith

There has been a lot of focus on the "death recorded" error in Wolf's book Outrages; one consequence is that people generally miss the degree to which the entire book is a work of utmost incompetence, with vague, confused assertions, and occasional defences of child sex abuse. The work is supposedly based on her PhD thesis, though I struggle to believe that someone capable of producing a book as bad as that is capable of a doctorate.

I think Oxford still hasn’t officially awarded her the PhD as she is still ‘making corrections’, four years post-viva. Obviously a celeb gets special treatment there because I only got a month to do mine. She’s been merrily using the doctor title though of course. If I were her PhD examiners, I’d be a bit ashamed for passing her (but it sounds like they did require her to revise it).

Naomi Wolf is completely out of touch with reality as demonstrated via this link

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201130064433/www.mikelousada.com/london/17/The-Sunday-Times.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20201130064433/www.mikelousada.com/london/17/The-Sunday-Times.html

She actually encourages other women to surrender to yoni massages performed by the extremely dodgy Mike Lousada

Naomi is so far down the rabbit hole of “goddesses", yoni massages, vaginal steaming, jade eggs and predatory neo-tantric cults that she’s out Gwynethed Gwyneth.

Wolf inhabits planet New Thought, far, far away in the Louise Hay galaxy of batshittery.

In this galaxy you can become anything you want to be just by thinking about it in the right way. A goddess, a lightworker, cancer-free, a blissful multi-orgasmic awakened real woman living you best life, a unicorn a member of the opposite sex, you literally can be anything you want to be as long as you are right thinking.

Fail to be what you want to be and it’s because your thinking isn’t right.

Or you were a Nazi in a former life. Or maybe you simply have failed to recover memories, often via yoni massage, that your parents were the leaders of a foetus eating, blood drinking satanic cult. Obviously.

So, er, yeah, let’s all give credence to Naomi’s words of enlightened wisdom. (sarcasm)

It becomes "loopier as it goes on. We learn that women think and feel through their vagina, which can 'grieve' and feel insulted.

Mine certainly carries a grudge. Why, only last week I had to refuse her a Jason Momoa binge because I didn’t feel well enough to sit with my legs over my head through both Aquaman and Justice League. She bit the postman, chewed my good slippers and wouldn’t come out for a week, even to watch Angel repeats. In the end I had to light one of Goop’s candles and she came out spent the afternoon sniffing around for intruders.

@persistentwoman

Wrong Connie. Self ID doesn't have to be connected to any rules about birth certificates.

And - you're on Mumsnet - where women are allowed our own opinions and to swear - without permission. (faints)

Connie ... be warned Mumsnetters have been known to turn on a kettle and make a cup of tea WITHOUT ASKING PERMISION... and other wicked things. Brace yourself.

I’d like to see her in a convo with Germain Greer... like Godzilla interviewing Sooty...

dance 😀

oh Germaine would have her served up for breakfast...

dancelike

🤣

Fucking hell that MS interview is a car crash!!! I quoted her in my dissertation. That's really damaged her credibility

could we arrange an encounter with Sarah_Jane? that would be fabulous... we could sell tickets and fund our shadowy organisations

Another glorious moment from NW. She deleted that tweet and claims she was misunderstood, but my word that was a crass thing to say in the first place.

Wow, I’d no idea quite how out to lunch she is 🤣

Douglas Murray bitchily expands on NW's lunching:

unherd.com/2019/10/how-did-naomi-wolf-get-away-with-it-for-so-long/

Didn't she also claim that when someone has a caesarian section, their entire uterus is taken out of the body (then put back in)?

My those pelvic ligaments must be stretchy.

@StrangeLookingParasite

Didn't she also claim that when someone has a caesarian section, their entire uterus is taken out of the body (then put back in)?

My those pelvic ligaments must be stretchy.

Well that would explain a lot about my poor body after 3 of the fuckers! I wondered why they all took so long! 😱

I've just spat Earl Grey over the dog reading some of the posts on here. Thanks lasses, I needed cheering up.😂

[quote nauticant]Douglas Murray bitchily expands on NW's lunching:

unherd.com/2019/10/how-did-naomi-wolf-get-away-with-it-for-so-long/[/quote]
Ah, I see she's not exactly a stranger to seeing fascists around every corner...

That Belfast tweet surely shows she knows bugger all about the U.K.
(Leaving aside wtf its lack of 5G has to do with anything ... does anywhere in the U.K. have it yet?)

Naomi is so far down the rabbit hole of “goddesses", yoni massages, vaginal steaming, jade eggs and predatory neo-tantric cults that she’s out Gwynethed Gwyneth.

So most of us know just how wrong Naomi Wolf is, and it is in the public domain, so the issue is why have a "respected" group of Barristers chosen her to speak.

I know mumsnetters are really good at gather info etc.. But none of this addresses the real issue.

Why would anyone in this day and age who need to retain their credibility, choose someone who has lost credibility?

People in the legal professions must have knowledge of all the legal issues and arguement going on at the moment, yet pick someone who does the classic derail about "bathrooms" rather than the fundamental challenge to women's rights.

That is the issue, that despite everything those coming from a gender critical perspective, just so arrogantly ignore it.

many of the US "socalledfeminists" really don't have a clue about UK feminism. They are all terrified of the word 'socialist' for one thing, and have no clue about the historic relationship between socialism and feminism here.

As for bots - well I suppose I could code a nice little bot to converse with her, she's clearly not very bright and wouldn't be able to spot it, given that she seems to think some real people I've actually met are bots 🤣

The feminist bots are as real as the cheques to UK feminists from the American evangelical right. She really hasn't got a clue has she? and that Belfast tweet was the icing on the cake - how insular do you have to be to not be aware of what was happening in Belfast in the 70's.

I was there in the 70's, working in a summer camp that brought together kids from both sides of the political & religious divide, calm it was not. She just doesn't get that many of us involved in this issue have a background in real activism (yeah Greenham!). She's a theorist and a popularist - she's used to advising politicians on how to dress and say "the right things" to attract voters. She doesn't critically engage with hard ideas IMO. She's a lightweight.

I wish she'd confine her nonsense to the US.
Ditto for a lot of US-based Twitter accounts. The situations in the US and the UK are poles apart and it is so annoying to be told that we are the bigots because TW deserve health care too - yes, we know and they get it. A lot of American commentators seem to have no idea what life is like outside the US.