Jess de Wahls

[Mollyollydolly]

The Royal Academy have removed Jess' work from their shop due to a handful of complaints that she's 'transphobic'. If you want to support Jess her website is here.
www.jessdewahls.com
So sick of these utterly craven organisations. I hope she has a legal case against them for discrimination.

@toffeebutterpopcorn

“Yeah ma, you shouldn’t have dissed the Spurs defence strategy like that. You were asking for it...”

My mind went straight here

Wish Grayson Perry would speak up. He’s a textile artist and must be aware of the story.

Glad Eric Gill had been mentioned.

The bbc also have works by him. In fact I think the original bbc logo was his typeface.

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/09/eric-gill-the-body-ditchling-exhibition-rachel-cooke

The hypocrisy is extremely misogynistic.

Let's consider which posters deserve our time and mental energy, eh? For me it's the ones making coherent points in good faith.

@nauticant Definitely. I've only got interested in the issue really recently and that's through mumsnet.

There must be so many people out there who are like I was: not really interested in trans issues but against prejudice generally so thinking that it's good that trans people are facing less discrimination now; not having thought deeply about the need to protect women's rights and women's safe spaces; completely unaware of the awful behaviour of some TRAs.

Helen Lewis came across as so moderate and reasonable that her arguments must have come across well to any neutral listeners.

Sorry if this has been mentioned but the RA sell Gill Xmas cards.

shop.royalacademy.org.uk/eric-gill-the-good-shepherd

My view cariadlet is there's more value to be had from getting through to the uninformed and undecided than there is in covering all of the talking points that people think have to be discussed.

I thought Helen Lewis was hopeless.

First of all she compares the "crime" that Jess de Wahls has been complained of is equivilant to male artists who were child sex abusers! What???

Then ED (a committed trans activist) gets in the usual comment that being gender critical is the same as being a racist.

And she then diverts of into it isn't like that its like having different belief systems.

ie there are some crackpots who deny you can change sex but you should be mean to them about their delusion.

We really need news programmes that dont just ring up their friends in the media to do a quick interview / comment. they should at least get someone who is engaged with the issue.

ie there are some crackpots who deny you can change sex but you should be mean to them about their delusion.

I thought it was the other way round and I thought it was a good point.

Her point was that why are these sexual abusers happily sold by the RA while a woman expressing that a man can't be a woman is vilified.

But I do feel it was badly made.

@nauticant

"What if an artist had been blatantly racist?" asks Evan Davis. Helen Lewis is pushing back against that intelligently.

I didn't hear the interview but the answer to that question is surely that race discrimination is unlawful and race is a protected characteristic under EA; the belief that humans cannot change sex is not unlawful (or incorrect) and that the right to hold that belief is, following Forstater, a permitted belief..

Well in fact they both said no one really cares about crimes in the past (re male artists) but she just crumbled when faced with the comparison to stating that you cant change sex is the same as being a racist.

"We really need news programmes that dont just ring up their friends in the media to do a quick interview / comment. they should at least get someone who is engaged with the issue."

Exactly, live news programmes need someone quick and sometimes it doesn't much matter who (remember the taxi driver who ended up on air by mistake?). I very much feel this kind of approach led to the unfortunate ubiquity of Farage, and look where that got us. I digress - in this case Helen Lewis on the face of it would have seemed a good fit after Difficult Women, etc.

Why did the sweet summer child ask "if"? Given how many child abusers and murderers have been mentioned so far, whose work is nevertheless hosted and promoted by the RA, does Eric really think none of them were racist, too?

I mean, what about Gauguin?

The good news is that it is still getting air time. This must be about the 3rd day since the story broke.

The RA can't keep hiding and hope it is going to go away.

The lack of response is starting to become a story of its own. It's extraordinary.

There ought to be an online counter (like those ‘XX days accident free’ ones you see on building sites on tv).

Royal Academy
XX days
Alone free

Alone! Spine (autocorrect is censoring me!)

(remember the taxi driver who ended up on air by mistake?)

One of the best bits of telly ever BraveBananaBadge:

Has anyone got a clip of the sign language translator who blagged his way into tv ... but couldn’t actually do sign language and was just waving his hands around?

Seems like she also lost her job back in 2019 as well:

The response to her blog was immediate. “It’s been a continuous two-year campaign.” She has been forced to contact the police twice over the harassment she has endured, which includes one man expressing the desire to burn her work; she has also quit projects because of the abuse directed at those who’ve hired or collaborated with her. She used to run a hairdressing salon at Soho Theatre, but voluntarily left after the theatre was dragged into a “relentless” social-media campaign targeting them for “harbouring a transphobe”.

www.telegraph.co.uk/art/artists/jess-de-wahls-cancelled-royal-academy-wrong-day-one/

How many more women are there who have been hounded out and silenced who we just haven't heard about.

@YellowFish12

Simultaneously showing the Wallace collection and Jess some love would be good, as the Wallace was ALSO targeted by the same people who targeted the Royal Academy.

If the Wallace didn't cave, they should be rewarded for that

Agreed

The Wallace collection is also the nicest place to get a pot of tea and a slice of cake in the area AND, if I recall correctly, it is sometimes possible to actually try on the armour - I think replicas rather than the original 15th century stuff, but still very cool. You might have to make an appointment for that, though.

Wasn't that at Nelson Mandela's funeral toffee? The sign language guy who was faking it, I mean.

@stumbledin

Well in fact they both said no one really cares about crimes in the past (re male artists) but she just crumbled when faced with the comparison to stating that you cant change sex is the same as being a racist.

I wondered if the past / present divide would come up.

There's another way of looking at that though. We can't do anything about what dead artists do or say. Some beliefs and acts we'd deplore now were acceptable in their time - not seeing that for Gill, Picasso etc though. I don't oppose exhibition / sale of their works all the same.

Living artists? They're subject to the law of the land like everyone else. If they're inciting violence or engaging in hate speech (as opposed to upsetting people on twitter) we have a legal framework to deal with that. Racist hate speech is covered there, surely. There's no need for false parallels.

For an institution working in a democratic state and recognising that democracy - there's no call to police artists writing in case something distasteful slips in. If it's illegal, let the law deal with it.

I thought comparing the transgender ideology to a philosophical or religious belief system and giving transubstantiation as an example was perfect.

She was basically saying that some people believe that you can change sex, she doesn't believe that but she supports their right to hold their belief and would treat them respectfully.

That suggests that there should be mutual respect, TRAs should respect the rights of gender critical feminists to say that biological sex is a scientific fact and can't be changed. That's where the support for Jess and her right to voice her opinions comes in.

Comparing TR beliefs to a philosophy also counters the position that they are rooted in an objective reality.