Royal Academy have apologised!

[bastardmonkfisher]

Just dropped

They need to say they had no basis for saying she was 'transphobic' and it was wrong to accuse her of being a bigot without proof.

It was defamatory and I wish she'd sue them.

Belief in biology is not bigoted.

Ot would indeed be wonderful and hopefully some day soon it will happen too!

Now they need to restock her work asap. A mealy-mouthed release isn't good enough.

Ironic that museums love to push the idea that art is for everyone and meant to push the envelope - yet one word of wrongthink and the artist is castigated. The RA's use of the word "betrayed" is nice.

And I'm very disappointed in all those big name self identified free thinking artists who utterly failed to support her. I'll make allowances for Tracey Emin because of her health but where were the others?

I was thinking the same, @Floisme. I wondered if I had missed all the solidarity ...

Hurrah!

Very pleased to read this from the RA.

How can the fact of biology be discounted on the one hand, and yet there are currently conversations around the fairness of trans women competing in women’s sport as they have male advantage.

I am fortunate that I am able to discuss this with my friends and their husbands/ partners. The men in particular were very vocal about having their heterosexual orientation redefined to include, say, Eddie Izzard when in “girl mode” or risk being construed as transphobic. They were equally dismissive of being labelled as having a “genital preference”.

Well a bit of controversy isn't always a bad thing for an artist and it certainly hasn't hurt her if she's been wiped out of patches and stock! But well done on them for actually apologizing and I hope they keep it in mind for next time they try and burn the witch woman who didn't get prior approval for her opinions. .

Cowards! They haven’t put it on Instagram where they originally trashed her, the Twitter announcement doesn’t mention her name (just “apology” - for all you know from looking at it they may be apologising for the central heating breaking down and it being a bit chilly in the gift shop) and the original tweet didn’t even link to the apology.

I agree - needs to be on Instagram and needs to be a pinned tweet so that everyone can see their apology. Feels like they're trying to slip it out otherwise.

@AssassinatedBeauty

It's not too bad an effort, imo. They have avoided the "we are sorry if you were offended" non-apology, and they make it clear they have apologised directly to Jessica already (I hope this is actually true). They also seem to be implying that they will be open to restocking her art in their shop, which is a really great result.

Yes, I've seen it called mealy mouthed but it didn't seem too bad to me. Should have been done sooner, of course.

The best thing is it should make any other institution think a good deal more carefully before doing anything similar

It’s progress. I wrote in to complain so I’ll see if they reply. Sunlight, sunlight, sunlight. Maya’s judgement has made such a difference.

It’s a start. Would have been nice if they had said that they had taken advice from sensible people and realised that it is impossible to change sex, but hey, like I said, it’s a start.

Hope they do publish it on Instagram

Good

I haven’t really followed this apart from hearing about the hideous ‘transphobic’ post they did

Too right they should apologise

Fox Fisher is quoted at length in the Times article. Last hear of a year ago when they and their partner Owl, were protesting about the support their literary agency was giving JKR.

I assume that Fox is one of the eight complainants. I hope we are getting to a place where organisations look dispassionately at issues, and don't feel they have to tiptoe around very sensitive feelings.

As well as the Maya case etc, I think Liz Truss, and her advice to Government departments about reconsidering relationships with Stonewall has made a huge difference to the landscape. A clearly signal that Stonewall is no longer untouchable and their advice immune from scrutiny.

Jess de Wahl seems to have had a rough ride over the past couple of years. Her name should be added to the list of brave women who stood up and were counted.

The Guardian has it as "Royal Academy of Arts apologises to Jess de Wahls in transphobia row."
Where are the inverted commas around 'transphobia'?

They need to have their R.A. handed to them.

I wonder if they only did this when many people resigned their membership in protest.

Well it's something, I've seen worse - though I'd have liked to have seen a 'thank you for holding us to account on this', as that was the most irksome line in the original statement for me!

@Defaultname

The Guardian has it as "Royal Academy of Arts apologises to Jess de Wahls in transphobia row." Where are the inverted commas around 'transphobia'?

To denote that there wasn't actually any transphobia, or that it's merely alleged and disputed, I assume. It would be wrong for them to not have those quotes.

Sorry, I misread that... you're right, they've not used quotes.

The apology was written by a grown up, which is good, but I'd be more impressed if they had apologised straightaway. Instead, they have tried to ride out the storm without climbing down, and have only apologised once it became clear that the ostrich approach wasn't working.