Kathleen Stock Review in the Sunday Times

[Igneococcus]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/41937da0-a291-11eb-9808-bf328d2144aa?shareToken=2893a0e3427a168da6512273624f0c02

That's good.

"What you will find is a methodical dismantling of weak, misleading and false arguments."

"Her book is a call for cool heads at a time of great heat and a vital reminder that revolutions don’t always end well."

Wow quite an endorsement for Dr Stock' s book. Well done.

Wow, by Christina Patterson? If that's who I think it is that is a particularly impressive review. Good stuff.

Thank you for the share!

Looking at the image of the child in heels I'm reminded of a 7 yr old I taught in my first class in an sen school years ago.

Whenever the dressy ups came out he'd put on the high heels ASAP. I commented on this in a general meeting about the class with the head and a therapist and both talked about the proprioceptive feedback that heels give and how young children like that, and he in particular missed out when younger as he had some physical difficulties plus a difficult home life.

However, even without Sen, kids love heels. The proprioceptive feedback, the noise etc. I loved tap shoes and football shoes for exactly that reason.

It's just more common in stereotyped fashion for women and girls to have heels.

Fantastic review

Great review. I wonder who the target audience is? It's hardly a light summer read that will appeal to the masses but if it reaches intellectuals who haven't give the issue much thought before then that will be a real achievement. Nice work Kathleen Stock.

Great review. I admire Professor Stock hugely. She puts herself out there time & time again. The hate she’ll get for this will be off the scale.

The guardian will be lining up emotional beeee kiiiiindd trans stories every day fjr the next 2 weeks

Their review of it (probably by one if their high profile trans writers) will be of the “puzzled & sad” variety, wang on about feelings and wonder why she’s denying their existence because as always they can’t dispute the facts

I've had this on preorder for AGES. Can't wait to read it.

What's great about Stock is she doesn't write in a transphobic way; she points out the key issues and is empathetic to people who are trans.

She's illustrating something different.

Very good point that adults aren't medically transitioning, or if taking hormones, aren't necessarily having ops, and are campaigning for self ID, where as for children it's become pathologised and medicalised.

Adults have the choice to wear the clothes and change the name only. Children must be physically changed.

The disparity is odd and worrying.

I note that the sole criticism of Dr Stock's prose is that it 'lacks journalistic élan' but I think that's a good thing. I actually think Shrier's book would have benefitted from a more dispassionate approach and less editorialising.

Ah, I'd mixed up the reviewer Christina Patterson with the philosopher Christa Peterson Not who I thought the writer was. I couldn't believe Christa Peterson would have written such a fair piece, and indeed they didn't.

Agreed, can't wait to read it.

Excellent review thanks for sharing OP. Looks like a great book, more sunlight on the way

@SapphosRock

Great review. I wonder who the target audience is? It's hardly a light summer read that will appeal to the masses but if it reaches intellectuals who haven't give the issue much thought before then that will be a real achievement. Nice work Kathleen Stock.

The kind of people I hope will read this are journalists, editors, policy makers, politicians, educators, social workers..... people who generally are fairly intelligent, but if they just sheepishly follow Stonewall-type training and don’t engage their own critical thinking skills, end up having a lot of influence in media, law, policy, education etc detrimental to women’s and children’s rights, health and safeguarding, thinking they are doing the right thing because they have been told they are.

The more these usually reasonable, intelligent people understand what the concerns actually are (rather than believing, as some
TRAs would have it, that feminist concerns around WSBR & child safeguarding are “anti-trans”, hate etc), then the more we can have sensible media & political discussion on the issue.

(extract)
"In 2004, she tells us in the introduction, “it was estimated there were about 2,000–5,000 trans people in the UK”. That was the year the UK government introduced the Gender Recognition Act, which allowed trans people to apply for a gender recognition certificate and start the legal process towards their “acquired gender”."

AngryAttackKittens wrote 03-Jan-19,
"I'm going to point every "but the nice, harmless old school transsexuals whose movement has been unfairly appropriated by the nasty transgender people" person to this thread from now on.

All the same elements we're seeing now were there in that old BBC roundtable from the 70s with the 4 transwomen, the politician, and the doctor. None of this is new."
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3463920-Lets-go-back-to-2007

Very interesting to see so many intelligent / supportive comments from men under that article who completely understand the issues.

It is a great review. I think the same journalist also reviewed the Abigail Shrier book for the Sunday Times.

The book I'm really excited about is the Helen Joyce one. Can't wait for that.

Reviewed by Christina Patterson, freelance journalist, who previously worked for The Independent. Have seen her on the Sky News review more recently.

I meant to write 'Sky News press preview'.

@WarriorN

Thank you for the share!

Looking at the image of the child in heels I'm reminded of a 7 yr old I taught in my first class in an sen school years ago.

Whenever the dressy ups came out he'd put on the high heels ASAP. I commented on this in a general meeting about the class with the head and a therapist and both talked about the proprioceptive feedback that heels give and how young children like that, and he in particular missed out when younger as he had some physical difficulties plus a difficult home life.

However, even without Sen, kids love heels. The proprioceptive feedback, the noise etc. I loved tap shoes and football shoes for exactly that reason.

It's just more common in stereotyped fashion for women and girls to have heels.

Yes, with or without SEN, it's worrying that we've lost consideration of sensory issues.

Looking forward to reading this.

Stella O'Malley review for Evening Standard
concludes:
"The gender wars are complex, the issues are difficult to understand and many groups are claiming oppression. Stock’s organised mind clearly outlines the many concepts that lie beneath these issues and by doing this, she helps the reader understand both the conceptual framework that gender identity is built upon and how it impacts society.

‘Material Girls’ is well-named as it focuses on the material reality of being female in a world that has moved from ‘feminism is for women’ to ‘feminism is for everyone’. Although Stock has been heavily criticised for daring to speak out about this controversial subject, she has also recently received the accolade of an OBE for services to higher education and so this book is likely to be condemned as hate speech by some and praised for its honesty by others.

But it’s an important book and it is the middle ground who need to read it as it shows how, if we are to live in a world where gender identity trumps biological sex, then it will be women – the physically weaker sex – who lose out. "

www.standard.co.uk/culture/books/material-girls-why-reality-matters-for-feminism-kathleen-stock-trans-gender-activism-b931417.html

Positive review of Kathleen Stock's book in the Morning Star:
morningstaronline.co.uk/article/c/time-get-real-sisters#.YRQjI0mAbjA.twitter

By TRA logic, this must mean that the Morning Star is now on the far right.

Final paragraph:
"I would particularly recommend it to those left-wing men who claim not to understand what all the fuss is about — it is about time we all wised up about the consequences of gender identity ideology whether we think we have “skin in the game” or not."

The Morning Star have been good about this issue for ages. They must be in hock with American Christian fundamentalists!