Femi Oluwole

[Justme56]

Having just watched this mornings talk radio interview between Julia HB and Harriet 'I'm sitting on the fence' Harmen (sorry not sure how to link it), I was interested to see a retweet by Femi. Not someone I usually take much notice of:

"The entire conversation is infuriating. It only requires 2 things:
A recognition that sex (biological/objective) is different to gender (socialised/subjective).
A rational discussion about which areas of life should the divide be based on sex and which based on gender"

Femi, the anti-Brexit guy? Do you have a link I couldn’t see it on his TL.

I follow him - he's good value on Twitter & sound on things I care about. Good to see a bloke seeing sense about biology.

Haven't seen this yet. I've been waiting for Femi to say something

It was from 2020, but he quote-tweeted it in response to a Talk Radio tweet re a discussion between Julia Hartley-Brewer and Harriet Harman mobile.twitter.com/Femi_Sorry/status/1407316476638416899

We all know (and Femi should know and call it out), that if a woman said that she'd probably be on her second wave of rape threats having had her livelihood damaged.

Should be pointed out that Femi's been saying similar things for a while.

Not just speaking out now it's becoming "safe".

I remember Femi tweeting TWAW no debate so if he's shifted from that, I'm pleasantly surprised.

I'm pleased to be wrong.

He does say he consults Tara Hewitt though...

He's an intelligent and compassionate man; but it's taken him a while to work his way round to this position. To be fair, that goes for many of us. A couple of years ago he'd acknowledged that there was a difference between sex and gender but took a very minimal attitude towards whether the former should ever matter.

I seem to remember a TWAW position. If he's moved on from that to, y'know, reality, I hope he explains his intellectual journey. It would be useful.
I'm happy for people to change their mind. As an articulate voice, more detail would be helpful

I'm happy for people to change their mind.

Likewise, I appreciate it, particularly if people are willing to share their journey.

A change of mind upon further reflection or in the light of new evidence or a full consideration of the body of knowledge that exists is always to be welcome. Sometimes, it's as straightforward as realising that one has only ever been exposed to a very skewed perspective.

I don't remember who it was, but somebody on FWR once likened it to discovering that we didn't just have scales on our eyes to remove once, we had scales, upon scales, upon scales - and sometimes it takes a while and a lot of discomfort.

He has been v keen on sex and gender being different for a long time (2017, 2019, 2020 on twitter). Eg this in march 2020:

"This entire conversation is infuriating. It only requires two things:

1. A recognition that sex (biological/objective) is different to gender (socialised/subjective).
2. A rational discussion about which areas of life should the divide be based on sex and which based on gender."

He doesn't seem to take on board that the problem is the conflation of both, or overriding one with the other, by advocates for trabs ppl. The last thing the trans charities have been asking for is a rational debate about when to recognise sex and when to recognise gender identity.

Agree @Manderleyagain which is why we need more from him. Yes, I will take JHB and others speaking about it because at least it raises the issue and people can peak themselves. But we need people like Femi. Ok, I mean, men like Femi because, it turns out it's sport that is peaking the world not untested drugs on kids.

His is the exact argument I'm wanting to see more. Not that gender identity doesn't matter, but that there are issues where biological sex takes precedent. Good for him!

If we really want to achieve things we have to recognise that we need as many different voices as possible speaking up.

When you see Femi, Jess de Wahls, Chimamanda Adichie saying "it's OK to talk about sex and gender being different" then these are very recognisably "people like us" in a way that Julia Hartley Brewer isn't. They aren't always going to go full gender critical but it's still enormously valuable.

Laurel Hubbard and the Jess de Wahls affair are cutting through in a way other things haven't. Need to make the most of it.

What I'm not clear on is when/where it would benefit women and girls (or at least have a no impact) to organise things using gender, rather than sex

Femi on children and puberty blockers - helpful to re-up this during Sonia Appleby's hearing and other relevant matters:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/a3822429-Femi-Rushes-In-Where-Angels-Fear-to-Tread?

Femi rushed in again with a disappointing recourse to lazy stereotypes.

Right-wingers are going to keep getting triggered by phrases like "pregnant people" until we come up with a different word for woman (the sex) to the one we use for woman (the gender).

twitter.com/Femi_Sorry/status/1421140100990308358

Then he hasn't really got the whole picture. The entire point is that women aren't allowed to have a word for woman (the sex).

As soon as woman was captured (TWAW), the battlefront moved to female.

I'm not right wing, and I'm only 'triggered' by something over my face, dickhead.

Pregnant people are female, tho. Women suffices. 'Woman and' if you have any plausible reason to suppose females who really dislike being acknowledged as women while pregnant will ignore you if you don't point out you mean them too.

Tweet deleted. That didn't take long.

He was being quite sheepish in replies in the thread. I think he did realise that he had waded into something he didn't understand.

@BraveBananaBadge

Tweet deleted. That didn't take long.

He deleted it before my attempt to archive it failed.

However, bits of the conversation are still available.

So he got his arse handed to him on a plate. Lovely stuff

He did say that he had seen Andrew Neil and piers Morgan being 'triggered' by it, and that's why he thought of and mentioned right wing ppl.