Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

"Why I stopped being a good girl" by Hadley Freeman

86 replies

spacehardware · 21/02/2022 12:22

It's a long read but Hadley deconstructs the issues, and all the "this is like homophobia/racism/you're a right wing schill" nonsense (honestly the TRAs must share Cliffs Notes) brilliantly.

unherd.com/2022/02/why-i-stopped-being-a-good-girl/

OP posts:
Floisme · 22/02/2022 09:45

I wonder if she was one of the signatures denouncing Suzanne Moore?
No she was not. Suzanne has also said that Hadley publicly stood up for her at a staff meeting.

Pluvia · 22/02/2022 10:14

Hadley's right. She always has been.

Where's Katharine Viner in all this?

NotBadConsidering · 22/02/2022 10:52

Hadley definitely did NOT sign that letter, to reiterate Floisme’s post before the idea she might have takes hold. These are the people that did:

www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sr64n9

DomesticatedZombie · 22/02/2022 11:18

it's not clear whether he was going on to say it's "not correct", or he was suggesting it's morally wrong to say it (because it upsets people?)

So either he's going with 'it's factually incorrect' or it's 'morally wrong'.

Would be great if he could clarify. I mean, either way it's pretty shocking.

Marr:... to say that only women have a cervix?

Starmer: It is something that shouldn't be said. It is not right.

Why, Keir? Why?

DontLikeCrumpets · 22/02/2022 18:01

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

What is the basis for you claiming the Guardian only pays lip service to trans issues?

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 22/02/2022 18:12

@DontLikeCrumpets, the words of Hadley Freeman in the article. unherd.com/2022/02/why-i-stopped-being-a-good-girl/

Occasionally a professional peer would send a text saying that they agreed with me, but they couldn’t say so publicly because their editor wouldn’t like it, or their teenage kids would shout at them, or it was just too stressful.

and

An editor said it to a friend of mine when she wanted to look at the effect of puberty blockers on gender dysphoric children (“I know, I know, but we want to be on the right side of history…”), and a US magazine editor said it to me when I asked if I could interview Martina Navratilova about her views on trans athletes: “I know what you’re saying, and I’m on your side, really I am. But you have to wonder what the right side of history is,” he said.

and

When I wanted to write for a magazine about the vilification of JK Rowling, I was told no, because it would cause “too much of a Twitter storm”. A friend wanted to put together a book of collected gender-critical essays, but an editor told her “the Twitter kickback would be too strong, and it wouldn’t get past the sensitivity readers anyway”.

and

... there was a period, about three years ago, when I honestly thought about quitting my job. I felt so hated for saying things — things that are scientifically, biologically and factually true — and so unsupported by people who I know secretly agree with me but are too scared to say so out loud that I nearly left journalism. Well, I didn’t. Instead, I decided to stop being so frustrated by it all, and to stop taking what is going on in the progressive media circles and institutions so personally. For so long, I defined myself as a Left-wing journalist, but political categories are watery these days, and I’m OK with feeling out of step from so many people I once thought of as my side. I know they see things differently from me and I fully support their right to express their views; that feeling, I know all too well, is not mutual.

JustSpeculation · 22/02/2022 18:25

So sensitivity readers are censors really. Reminds me of Humbert Wolfe's:

You cannot hope to bribe or twist
thank God, the British Journalist.
but seeing what the man will do
Unbribed, there's no occasion to.

EmbarrassingHadrosaurus · 22/02/2022 19:06

Good follow-up about the Unherd piece in Daily Mail:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10537957/Guardian-columnist-Hadley-Freeman-takes-swipe-left-wing-media-capitulating-trans-rights.html

Stopsnowing · 22/02/2022 20:49

Excellent article. She is such a good writer.

candycane222 · 23/02/2022 21:34

Belatedly popping in to say - wonderful article, really wonderful. Thank you spacehardware for sharing

MangyInseam · 23/02/2022 22:02

@JustSpeculation

So sensitivity readers are censors really. Reminds me of Humbert Wolfe's:

You cannot hope to bribe or twist
thank God, the British Journalist.
but seeing what the man will do
Unbribed, there's no occasion to.

It's very insidious.

And it's happening in a lot of areas. had the thread on Clanchy the other day, Another example - the reason Jonathan Kaye left The Walrus was because he was not allowed to publish a piece he had commissioned by Cree author Thompson Highway about his experience in residential schools, as it didn't fit the narrative their readers and sponsors expected. That's a major magazine that's supposed to offer high level reading, and an essay by one of the foremost indigenous authors on the continent.

You start to wonder, how much of what we read is being highly curated.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page