Owen. Not getting it or goady? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

[viques]

Article in the Guardian about why homophobia against straight men needs to be addressed. Apparently straight men are at risk of homophobic abuse if they “violate the boundaries of masculinity”, which according to Owen include, being kind and empathetic and “ by not objectifying women or treating them as equals”. Blimey, that will put the frighteners on the guardian readership even faster than news that quinoa is in short supply.

He also challenges ( if that is the word) “perceptive discrimination” when people are treated unfairly on the grounds that they are ‘perceived’ to have a protected characteristic, he gives as an example Sikh men( not, you notice Sikh women, or even Sikh people) who are abused because they are perceived to be Muslim. Not sure where “perceptive discrimination” leaves women, but am pretty sure it is low down on the pecking order as usual, though also in todays guardian interestingly enough is an article by a transwoman who is apparently astonished at the unwarranted verbal sexual harassment she gets, which apparently didn’t happen at all when she wasn’t a transwoman. Maybe she ought to get together with Owen for support.

Anyway good to know that straight men have such a champion in their midst. I hope they can all breathe a little easier knowing that OJ is on their side. He has done such amazing things for gay and transitioning men after all.

Despite spending a lot of time on it, I don't think Owen understands the internet much. This was evident from his book "Chavs" in which it became apparent that he'd never read any of the frenzied online vitriol aimed at the McCanns BECAUSE they are middle class and are perceived by some to have "got away with it" due to their social position. Really astonishing lack of research there.

I didn’t realise he’d ‘discussed’ the McCanns.

Journalist isn't a protected title. Although tbh lots of protected titles are misused on Twitter anyway.
You also don't need to be a member of the NUJ to be a journalist. The NUJ gives you a press card which they can withdraw if you break their code of conduct.

As others have said, the problem here is not wanting to get 'the other side of the story'. The problem is putting the shout out to his 1 million followers on Twitter, potentially outing the girl in question and causing a pile on. He has form for working in this way for his podcast though doesn't he? He will say 'who is a good person to talk about the situation in Ukraine/trans rights/misogyny' and then will select people that his friends suggest. It seems like a very unprofessional way for a so called journalist to operate, and I dont see others doing this?

If he wants to do some investigative journalism on that Times story then he can, but do it behind the scenes surely, especially where kids are involved? It all just seems so amateur.

Also, he wasn't keen to get the other side of the story on the WiSpa incident, and when it did transpire that the 'transwoman' in question was actually a big fat sex offender after all, it was quietly brushed under the carpet and never spoken of again....

Owen did a public shout-out to someone claiming on another person's thread that s/he was a parent at the school, and asked in full view of his 1 million followers if he could contact him/her in private. He's deleted the tweet now, but he should never have made it.

Oh, and the person he gave a shout-out to? Um, their timeline is not left-wing in the least. The stuff posted was vile. Turns out OJ doesn't mind associating with right-wingers so long as they have children who are trans activists!

When you think of the incidents of things like bullying at your school, how many people would have told their mothers the truth? Who on earth would go home and say "yeah me and a bunch of other girls crowded around and picked on a girl for her opinions"?

Even within a school its such a game of telephone. I had a disagreement with another girl and was crying in one of the bathrooms as I was upset as she was a friend but it got all around the school that I was crying because she punched me (she hadn't and we went back to being friends after a phonecall later that evening)

"I didn’t realise he’d ‘discussed’ the McCanns"

He discusses everything

This got a retweet from him:

mobile.twitter.com/AnneBonnysKat/status/1527014039200702467

Apparently women breastfeeding and keeping it all to themselves is "authoritarian intolerance". Obviously babies are mere props.

Bloody hell. He really actually did.

Oh Owen.

Jones isn't looking to do due diligence at all imo, it's literally just to try to discredit a reputable story he doesn't like.

(I can't even comment on the breastfeeding tweet, the absolute horror of what's happening!)

Putting a call out on Twitter isn't a substitute for research or integrity but tbh at this stage I tend to agree with the person who said OJ is the 'progressives' Milo Yiannopoulus - drunk on his own narcissism; courting clicks rather than credibility and playing to an US demographic that he doesn't really understand.

He didn’t want to get “both sides” when he was assaulted, when a Palestinian journalist was shot, or when any other story featured someone on “his side” suffering. He doesn’t want to get both side here, either, he is asking only to get the side of the alleged attackers.

his mother is a full professor of something or other, his father by the looks of things a lot less professionally successful (worked for a council, implied not close to being top brass since heavily involved with union stuff). this state of affairs may have given Owen some slightly unusual ideas about the balance of power between the sexes.

He is such a tedious little scrout, I’m not sure why anyone pays any attention to him. Well past his sell-by date and a mediocre thinker at best. Another one who is best ignored or we we become his narcissistic supply. If we really feel a response is necessary, mockery and laughing at him is best, narcs like Owen can’t abide that. His Uribe is tedious and the guardian is a comic at this point. He is an irrelevant has- been.

That person has now deleted her Twitter account. I wonder if Jones has persuaded her to go public for his article & has advised her to clean up her racist social media history? Or perhaps she had a chat with her daughter and decided to quietly let it drop 🤔

I hope it's because s/he's letting it drop. I hate bullying as much as the next person, but I don't think national media publicising the names of teenagers caught up in mob behaviour at school gets us anywhere. Especially if there's a chance that twitter account history is going to be brought into it. Imagine being named in national media as a bully and the daughter of a racist.

There is also the possibility that the account-holder is not a school parent at all, but claimed to be one for their own reasons. Could be that they were getting too much attention.

I recall his mother tweeting (in support of Jones' twitter shenanigans, naturally) that it was stereotyping to say lesbians weren't interested in penises. She informed us all that lesbians used dildos.

A very phallocentric view of lesbian sex lives. Even if it were the case that lesbians were dependent on sex toys to the degree that porn for the male view no doubt implies (it's not!), dildo+attractive female partner =/= penis with man attached. The man bit, with male face, male body shape, male pheromones, and so on? It's not a minor detail!

Yes, I don't want to see any further media attention on the girls involved in this. Hopefully what has been reported so far has given the school enough of a shock to ensure that they revisit their anti-bullying policies

Well said, Purgatory. This case seems like anything that disproportionately negatively affects females, in that time is spent on seeing if her character could be assassinated and not on the substance of the issue.

There is an important issue here, which is the uncritical teaching of ideas that include things like "sex changes over time" (as the AB tribunal revealed). No it does not. In fact, these aren't ideas - they're straight up lies. In no other area of life or education do we smile and nod at lies. Enough is enough.

but I don't think national media publicising the names of teenagers caught up in mob behaviour at school gets us anywhere
See, people are just making stuff up now.
Nowhere did he say that.
It literally said it was to verify the story, by getting more details.
Which is what they do.
Even said it would be anonymously.
Not '' national media publishing the names of teenagers'' - you've completely misunderstood.

I believe he publicly engaged with someone claiming to be a parent at that school. In so doing, it is possible to piece information together that identifies others. He has 1M followers, he must know the risk of tweeting will mean people reply in a public fashion. IIRC his public activities on Twitter and their consequences for other people were the subject of a recent report. It's not really credible to say that things weren't being made or capable of being made public.

One of his complaints about the story was that it didn’t publish the name of the school. Do you see how publishing the name of the school, as Jones wants to do, would cause problems for both the victim and the bullies?

If it were just something posted on twitter then maybe there'd be a call for 'other side' calls but that's not what's happened. This is a researched story published in a national newspaper who will have done due diligence and put the story through their legal team. There has been plenty of verification, it's obviously not a made up story. It's in the Times FFS.

He's casting doubt because he doesn't like the story and encouraging further bullying of the girl in question.