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.

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

But also means that those of us who say women are biological females are not stating a biological fact but merely a belief.

And to use that defence opens you up to the one ED made which is would you allow racists to say something because they have a belief about POC?

Sex is a biological fact. It is impossible to change sex.

@toffeebutterpopcorn

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?

That was at Nelson Mandela's funeral, there are clips on You Tube - sorry I don't know how to copy to here. He was trying to sign what Barrack Obama was saying!

Etinox asked about a brilliant meme of a harassed looking women holding a tantruming toddler. The woman’s labelled LBG and the toddler TQ- does anyone have a link to it?

I liked it so much I saved a copy. Enjoy.

Has anyone got a clip of the sign language translator who blagged his way into [Nelson Mandela's funeral]... but couldn’t actually do sign language and was just waving his hands around?

The Royal Academy is within Burlington House, which also houses their neighbours, the Royal Society of Chemists.

The RA could usefully knock on their neighbour's door and ask about the science...

@toffeebutterpopcorn

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?

The R.A. aren't waving; just drowning.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/93775c60-d37c-11eb-bd02-4c692e62e3fd?shareToken=3c24f02c4e4f9eb06fb32e3c6bb980c0

New article in The Times. They are covering this well.

And I'm so pleased that Jess is selling lots of art. There will be Heretic stickers everywhere!

Oof. That's good, Milady. Jess giving a kicking to Peter Tatchell, and Rachel Campbell-Johnson gunning for the RA's social media manager, named and shamed.

[quote nauticant](remember the taxi driver who ended up on air by mistake?)

One of the best bits of telly ever BraveBananaBadge:

[/quote] Oh God that face! It's still hilarious after all this time

From Milady's Times link:

However, Peter Tatchell, the veteran LGBT rights campaigner, this week challenged her assertion that she didn’t believe a trans woman was a woman. “Trans women are different from other women, but being a different kind of woman is perfectly valid,” Tatchell said.

“Of course he would, he’s a guy,” de Wahls says. “What is he doing wading in telling women what women are?”

She is an absolute legend. I have so much admiration for her. What incredible talent and what a brilliant advocate for women.

The feminist artist Rachel Ara has withdrawn from the RA’s summer show in solidarity with de Wahls. She wrote on Twitter: “Why so silent academicians and artists? For years female artists, students and teachers have been bullied and excluded for expressing feminist beliefs. @royalacademy has amplified what the rest of the art world has done for years in silence.”

www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2021/06/artist-demands-apology-in-ra-transphobia-row/

I saw that Rachel had written to the RA asking for her entrance fee for the Summer Show to be reimbursed, because she felt that her work would be unfairly judged on her politics and not on its merits.

I really enjoyed the interview she posted with @camradfems too:
twitter.com/rachelara/status/1406598690710687747

@stumbledin

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

But also means that those of us who say women are biological females are not stating a biological fact but merely a belief.

And to use that defence opens you up to the one ED made which is would you allow racists to say something because they have a belief about POC?

Sex is a biological fact. It is impossible to change sex.

Well, racists are allowed to say what they want about their beliefs, and make arguments for their POV.

Good on her.

The whole racism argument Evan made is a straw man.

Jess is a woman saying that a man cannot become the same sex as her. And she has the right to that belief.

It's like a Korean saying that Oli cannot actually be Korean.

@stumbledin

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

But also means that those of us who say women are biological females are not stating a biological fact but merely a belief.

And to use that defence opens you up to the one ED made which is would you allow racists to say something because they have a belief about POC?

Sex is a biological fact. It is impossible to change sex.

I get what you're saying and you've got a valid point but I don't think Helen Lewis was there to defend the concept of sex being a biological fact; she was there to defend free speech.

The interview was about whether an artist should have their work rejected for having an opinion with which some people disagree and I think that Helen Lewis made a good case for why Jess had been treated unfairly.

However, there are many who approve of its decision. Fox Fisher, an artist who describes himself as “a brown, queer, trans masculine, non-binary artist, author, film-maker and trans rights campaigner” is one of them

From the Times article, that made me grin. I love how they’ve elegantly conveyed how insufferable Fox is.

‘Brown’ eh? In what way?

Really love that Times interview. Her comment about Peter Tatchell was spot on.

Was interested in this, too:

“I think they’ve acted appallingly. They have not bothered to apologise. I’ve had two more conversations with them after the whole shitstorm went down: [they said] ‘Maybe we acted a bit hastily.’ No shit! And then again on the phone just stuttering and saying it’s very heated on both sides.”

That's the first indication I've seen that the RA has said anything at all since their original Instagram post about transphobia. They really need to get a fucking grip.

As for Fox Fisher, allmywhite has it: "I love how they’ve elegantly conveyed how insufferable Fox is."

Fox really is simultaneously spiteful, self-righteous, self-important and utterly pathetic. They'd have been utterly at home in post-war East Germany, shopping neighbours to the Stasi.

I also note in that Times interview a detail that hadn't been mentioned before.....that Jess de Wahls said she'd mentioned re-stocking her work at the RA shop on the private part of her website, which is open only to people who pay a small amount to subscribe. So she wonders now whether someone had quietly taken out a subscription in order to keep tabs on her.

The parallels with the Stasi are indeed chilling.

So a wee mealy mouthed statement by RA - not quite ‘sorry not sorry’ but literally the very least they could have done - and way too late.

Media Statement from the Royal Academy of Arts

There has been a great deal of debate around the RA’s recent communication about no longer stocking the work of Jess de Wahls in the Royal Academy shop. We have thought long and hard since then about this and the wider issues it raises.

One thing is clear to us now – we should have handled this better. We have apologised to Jess de Wahls for the way we have treated her and do so again publicly now. We had no right to judge her
views on our social media. This betrayed our most important core value – the protection of free speech.

There was also a failure of communications internally which resulted in Jess de Wahls first hearing via social media that we would no longer stock her product in the RA shop. We will now reopen
discussions with her regarding the restocking of her work.

Plurality of voices, tolerance and free thinking are at the core of what we stand for and seek to protect. These events raise some fundamental issues. Freedom of expression can open up debate,
create empathy or respect for difference, it can also at times cause hurt and outrage. This has confirmed to us our commitment to freedom of expression and to addressing complex issues through
engagement and debate.

We will continue to reflect on this and to look at our internal processes to ensure we learn from it. We want to make sure we navigate this better in future.

For further press information, please contact: [email protected]
23.06.21

Sorry, can’t link from Twitter.

Yes, mealy mouthed towards Jess, but they have come up with a statement to which an arts organisation ought to hold itself accountable in terms of freedom of expression.

royal-academy-production-asset.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/b5758780-33b8-47a9-9dea-0b3312981235/Royal%20Academy%20statement%2023.06.21.pdf

Fox is brown?