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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Margaret Atwood

567 replies

MummBRaaarrrTheEverLeaking · 19/10/2021 14:22

twitter.com/MargaretAtwood/status/1450429768067846145?t=8q-A8MlvzZsx6pt4Vu1_LA&s=19

Has retweeted an article from the Toronto Star "why can't we say woman anymore" and bloody hell are they coming for the latest witch burning in the comments!

Ranging from disappointment to the usual sweary abuse. I thought oh how long till the capitulation begins, turns out I didn't have to wait long!

She's following it up with retweets about 'we can say people when it's accurate and inclusive' and then defending the article because the writer isn't "a terf"???

Not really sure what she's trying to achieve here, anyone?

OP posts:
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19
MonsignorMirth · 19/10/2021 14:26

She's been pretty TWAW before, hadn't she? So this is interesting, to me...

Fariha31 · 19/10/2021 14:26

MA has been a handmaiden all her life for a while now. I was wondering why, what was causeing her to take the position she has, fear, a true beliver, internal misygony.
Guess your post has answered my question, looks like good old fashioned fear. You'd think in her position she would not fear much but I guess even once you've climed the greasy pole, fear of being unfashionable is still a thing for many.

NecessaryScene · 19/10/2021 14:31

I just got the impression she hadn't actually read what the TWAW crowd were actually saying, or thought through the consequences.

She may genuinely have no idea that the article is "TERFy".

beastlyslumber · 19/10/2021 14:32

Wow. They are really laying into her. They go mad when an ally breaks step.

Wonder if Atwood will start to see that there is no way for her to win now.

Floisme · 19/10/2021 14:33

@MonsignorMirth

She's been pretty TWAW before, hadn't she? So this is interesting, to me...
Yeah, assuming this is The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood then I'm interested too.
bellinisurge · 19/10/2021 14:34

Has she really come over to the dark side? Hope her courage holds. Doesn't she have form for caving in on this?

Scraggythang · 19/10/2021 14:42

When she started sucking up to the mob last year with her “of course we can change sex! Look at the humble barramundi fish! Wink” rubbish, I wondered if she was being purposely ignorant or not. Still not sure.

Hilarious that the comments are lot of “not you as well!”- like there are sooooo many influential women brave enough to say what they really think.

WineAway · 19/10/2021 14:42

This reply has been deleted

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oldwomanwhoruns · 19/10/2021 14:44

Wow, a scary lot of replies, very few are supportive, mostly on the lines of 'ugh, not you too'

Go go Margaret. I would just LOVE her to come out on our side.

Mollyollydolly · 19/10/2021 14:47

She'll be apologising within the hour. A massive disappointment .. look how they're going for her though. Must make her think surely. Awful people.

oldwomanwhoruns · 19/10/2021 14:53

Please not. Fingers crossed that she will hold the line ...

MaudebeGonne · 19/10/2021 14:53

I am a huge fan of Margaret Atwood's writing, but she has never been a cheerleader for the sisterhood. Nearly all her books have some element of female betrayal. She won't come out on anyone's side but her own. It doesn't take away from the fact that she is a fantastic writer.

Mollyollydolly · 19/10/2021 14:55

She's now using the word 'terf' in her followup tweet. Such a charmer.

yourhairiswinterfire · 19/10/2021 14:58

Read her piece, she's not a terf

''Don't turn on us, we're not like all the other girls'' 🙄

Signalbox · 19/10/2021 14:59

How long until the grovelling apology?

Fariha31 · 19/10/2021 15:01

Do you think they are going for her because they think she is likly to cave. Its interesting how they go for some but not others.
Being a woman and an 'ally' seems to be a terrible combo, anyone in that camp even looking like they might step out of line and the response is off the scale.

beastlyslumber · 19/10/2021 15:03

Maybe Atwood is about to learn what a terf is, and that she is one? She strikes me as someone who has fallen for the propaganda so I think it will be interesting to see if this experience changes anything for her.

bellinisurge · 19/10/2021 15:05

Surely she should know how abusive the word TERF is? I mean, aren't words her actual day job? Watching the craven reversal will be fun/depressing

LobsterNapkin · 19/10/2021 15:06

@NecessaryScene

I just got the impression she hadn't actually read what the TWAW crowd were actually saying, or thought through the consequences.

She may genuinely have no idea that the article is "TERFy".

Yeah, I think this is about the size of it. She has no clue.
Joystir59 · 19/10/2021 15:06

Watching with interest

Lammysaurus · 19/10/2021 15:07

Well, she's correct, the writer is not a TERF, not that Margaret Atwood should even be using that term. However, the small addled children who live on Twitter no doubt think everyone who isn't exactly like them and doesn't prattle misogynist nonsense all day long is a "TERF" and have no idea what it means.

If they met an actual TERF - which is very unlikely - they'd probably wet their pants.

WeeBisom · 19/10/2021 15:10

I actually feel a tiny bit sorry for women like Atwood, because it must be like walking on egg shells all the time. It is very, very difficult to wholeheartedly agree with everything that trans ideology demands simply because a lot of it is unscientific, illogical, and harmful to women. And we can see here that there is absolutely no slack whatsoever. Atwood has been an enthusiastic cheerleader of TWAW for years, but she retweets one slightly questioning article and suddenly she’s an evil witch. I have a friend who is a trans rights activist and she keeps getting distressed because if she says the wrong thing , or asks a controversial question, she gets called a t* and is told to re-educate herself until she’s a better ally (this is coming from her trans friends). Personally I couldn’t live like that, and I would get pissed off really quickly. But I imagine for some people there is a real fear of being branded gender critical so they want to cling to their ally status at all costs.

ErrolTheDragon · 19/10/2021 15:13

I can't read the article, can anyone?
What the tweeters seem to be disingenuously missing is that while sure, we can still say 'woman', it's starting to be systematically written out of official documents of various sorts, health campaigns etc. We've got some egregious examples from Scotland, yesterday ACAS, today the website of a girls school which avoids using the word 'girl'.

NecessaryScene · 19/10/2021 15:15

I think she is naive enough to have believed the campaigners' descriptions of "TERFs": an apocryphal group of evil bigots who hate trans people for... some reason... and want to send them all off to camps.

She just hasn't noticed the difference between the "TERF" in the mythology and the real women who are actually being called "TERFs".

NecessaryScene · 19/10/2021 15:18

And we can see here that there is absolutely no slack whatsoever. Atwood has been an enthusiastic cheerleader of TWAW for years, but she retweets one slightly questioning article and suddenly she’s an evil witch.

Good article on that by ExcelPope:

Why J K Rowling must die

Margaret Atwood