Penny Mordaunt thinks we're stupid. Her thread on Twitter...

[bellinisurge]

... makes no mention of her standing at the Dispatch Box in Parliament saying TWAW TMAM.

Tell us you've changed your mind , Penny, or don't bother.

twitter.com/pennymordaunt/status/1545908402475438080?s=21&t=ZSHEr4Fn9b9DGh7JkJC95Q

Her thread explains why biology can make someone a woman. She also thinks there are other types of women (legal women, women by ‘gender identity’), and she also thinks a biological woman can be a man.

Thing is that's fine, as long as law and practice differentiate between women and transwomen where it matters.

It should frighten you. It’s gaslighting to get power.

It's obviously just about power for all of them but she does have a track record of caring about women's issues. In many, many respects Penny Mordaunt would be a much better PM for women than the likes of Sunak. The problem is: how can we trust her given her previous statements?

If she wants to be trusted she needs to talk in detail about how women's rights can be prioritised in prisons, schools and the NHS. She needs to make firm promises.

I just watched Mordaunt’s pound-shop Churchill campaign video, reminding us that the new Tory leader will ‘colour every aspect of our institutions’.

We need no reminder! We know.

I'm trying to appeal to all sides, Mordaunt may well have pissed the trans lobby off with this thread whilst failing to bring any actual feminists back on side.

I won't be placated until she stands up and says TWANW. I refuse to go down this road of having to start referring to myself as a biological woman in order to distinguish myself from males.

@donquixotedelamancha

She’s lying. She believes TWAW. If they’re women, there is no reason to exclude them from socially female spaces: prisons, rape crisis shelters, changing rooms, accommodation on work and school trips etc.

This isn’t a hard question to answer. If you need a ten tweet thread, you’re lying somewhere.

In not I'm

What is worse?

That you believed TWAW in the first place in the face of all sensible and rational evidence to the contrary?

That you say it, even if you don't believe it, for political expediency, no matter what the (potentially dire) consequences to the female sex class and vulnerable children?

That you really do believe TWAW, but will reverse ferret and/or throw them under the bus because your own ambition means more to you than the rights you've previously professed to be so important?

I don't believe Penny Mordaunt. I don't believe Keir Starmer. They are either really fucking stupid or unprincipled liars or both.

Times spelling it out though www.thetimes.co.uk/article/269305b0-ffbb-11ec-9d35-8e47eb25050e?shareToken=633964ba1f41fe7f42c98c27a8a9b213

She’s lying. She believes TWAW.

I think it's very unlikely she thinks they are literally women. The position outlined in that thread is the one we will have to eventually work with- what matters is getting the protections women need.

That said, I agree she's very bad on this issue and is unlikely to pay more than lip service to feminists. I think the fact she's been forced to do this is brilliant. I also think this issue will destroy any chance of her winning. We have come so far :-)

From Times article -

However, Mordaunt, a former equalities minister whose twin brother is both gay and a self-proclaimed “trans ally”, has previously been criticised for her pro-transgender rights stance — something that is likely to come under scrutiny during the leadership contest.

While in the equalities post in 2018 she said that “trans women are women and trans men are men”.

Mordaunt reiterated her stance last year while paymaster general, repeating at the dispatch box that “trans men are men and trans women are women” during a debate on maternity allowances. It is claimed she tried to get the word “mother” removed from the maternity bill, which was introduced when Suella Braverman went on maternity leave.

Her ministerial colleagues, including Truss, Nadine Dorries and Chloe Smith, had to go to Johnson to get him to overrule her. Her backers are said to include Caroline Noakes, the chair of the women and equalities committee, and Maria Miller, her predecessor on the committee.

She’s a fucking snake. I’d rather have Boris.

mol.im/a/10999369

Take a bow Conservatives for Women

That article is written by maya forstarter so while I agree with every word of it, it’s hardly a random journo’s viewpoint.

*forstater

On a side note, it’s wonderful that her previous brainless comments and TWAW stance is now seen as a threat to her campaign. Quite the about face from 2 years ago, now that “no debate” has been smashed.

This may be of interest to anyone who wasn't around for, or wants a recap of, her appearance on MN:

eleanorscottarchaeology.com/els-blog/2019/3/14/the-day-that-mumsnet-took-down-penny-mordaunt-mp

The comments are unequivocal.

@donquixotedelamancha

I think the point is that people who believe this ideology have given up on the idea of ‘literally women’. They are invested in a more subjective definition: you are literally a woman if you think you are. We no longer have a definition against which the claim can be tested.

Maybe I was wrong and Mordaunt's thread won't piss off the trans lobby. It is being retweeted by prominent TRA and ex-government equalities panel member, Jayne Ozanne.

Mordaunt may know what a woman is, she needs to demonstrate that she also knows what a woman is not.

I guess to be fair, she is correct in the legal women comment, as as far as I am aware, if you have a GRC then you are in 'theory' the opposite sex.... I mean I don't think people are, but in the eyes of the law..... or am I wrong in that..?

The thing is Penny dear, if you had stood up for women and made all these beliefs clear by your words and actions in the past, then you wouldn’t have to be justifying yourself now you think you might have alienated a good proportion of the electorate.

You see, that’s the trouble with jumping on bandwagons, they don’t always go to the right destinations, sometimes it is better to walk then you won’t get dumped at the no hope terminus.

I have written to Penny Mordaunt a few times, probably most recently a year ago. And her replies were definitely more nuanced than her TWAW performance. So maybe she has been slowly changing her mind. Only maybe, I remain to be convinced.

I think the point is that people who believe this ideology have given up on the idea of ‘literally women’.

The few nutter who really believe that can't bring themselves to write a thread like Mordaunt's today.

She's famously quite lazy on policy details. I suspect she genuinely think she supports women's rights and trans rights but in practice she doesn't really care about either and just says what she thinks is popular.

But we still want politicians like that (of which there are many) to pretend to give a shit because it moves the debate. We want them back onto our side (gits that they are) if we are going to win practical victories.

I'm mostly sanguine because I think she has no chance of winning.

@Tabasco007

Wrong. The GRA gives the right to be treated as your acquired gender for most legal purposes.

You are almost right, but the difference is important. What the GRA does not do is legally declare that someone is a man or a woman. It also does not entitle a person making use of it to override the provisions in the Equality Act for single sex spaces, because they are not their legal sex. They are still the sex they were born.

If there continues to be this sort of argument about this, more and more people will demand the repeal of the GRA.

Thing is that's fine, as long as law and practice differentiate between women and transwomen where it matters.

That's how most reasonable people see it. Unfortunately SW and trans rights activists think transwomen should be also be women in the legal sense.

It's great to see Penny Mordaunt realising her past views ie twaw are brainless but there's far more points she has not yet clarified. I continue to feel mistrustful of her intentions.

So, she feels the need to distance herself, sorry I mean- explain how we all misunderstood - her support for gender idology.

Interesting, interesting...