Floisme: we've still had the likes of 'dim' 'thick' 'stupid' 'bitchy' (which normally gets shot down pretty quickly on here) and 'piece of shit'.
ScreechingEchoChamber: Calling anyone a piece of shit is unacceptable. And yes, insults are unnecessary. VM is clearly intelligent.
I was the one who wrote “piece of shit” and I apologise for the wording but not for the sentiment.
The all-out, long-term assault on women’s rights in Scotland is personal to me. I'm somewhat privileged and insulated, but it has hurt and continues to hurt people I love and care about including (and disproportionately) some who are NOT privileged and insulated. It has drained and diminished a country I love. It has redirected energy and resources which are needed for the basic work of protecting people, of building a better society, of mitigating the harm of events like Brexit and COVID and letting people live and thrive. It has redirected resources which belong to everyone in order to help men and hurt women in a society where women are already systemically disadvantaged.
It's not OK.
I am angry, and I am bone weary. I hate what Val McDermid is doing. I hate the effect it has on real people. (Yes, woman are real people.) I hate what Scotland appears to have become, what it looks like to the world.
I read Val McDermid's piece in The Times this past weekend (Val McDermid: fears over trans rights overblown) which OldCrone linked above. Lots of people in Scotland (and beyond) read it. It reduced a very old friend of mine, a longtime Scottish feminist and LGBTQ2IA2+ activist, to tears of despair. Most people who’ve been on here for a bit will recognise the (well-worn, dishonest and intentionally misleading) script: women critiquing the negative impact of policies like self-ID are motivated solely by the fact that transwomen threaten their womanhood/femininity!!!!! Aiiiiiiiiiiii, however, am evolved and so transwomen do not threaten maiiiiiiiiiii womanhood.
This comes on the heels of a campaign Val McDermid ran earlier this year: she spoke at the annual Lesbian Lives conference in Cork, where Susan Stryker was the keynote speaker. Of course McDermid has the right to speak where and when she likes, and if the best candidate that Lesbian Lives could find to give their keynote address happened to be a transwoman, then have at it.
The problem is, though, Stryker is not "just" a transwoman. Stryker is an anti-woman activist (AWA) and is well known in the USA as an outspoken anti-black racist. For these reasons alone, Stryker was an inappropriate choice to lead the conference. When McDermid was questioned about her support of Stryker as keynote speaker, though, she refused to engage and denounced and blocked anyone asking questions one the basis that they were "transphobic".
The principle that a transwoman - ANY transwoman, however egregious personally and politically - should and must lead a lesbian conference was the only thing that mattered to Val. Anybody raising any other concerns was shut down and blocked by Val. Please stop and think for a minute - and if you know a trans person you can speak with honestly, ask them: should trans people be supported in doing and saying absolutely anything just because they are trans? Or is that assumption, in and of itself, an example of (possibly "benign") transphobia?
Val McDermid is an AWA. She is virulently misogynist, whether she actively seeks to harm women as a group and to minimise and hide the structural, systemic damage done every day to women as a group or whether she "just" downplays and attempts to silence all criticism of harm to women in her pursuit of money and fame. I don’t know why she is this way and honestly I can no longer spare the energy to give her the benefit of the doubt or to care. I can’t reason with or influence her if she simply blocks everyone who disagrees and clamps her hands over her ears and sings “na na na na I can’t hear you!” while continuing to use her power, visibility, and privilege to do harm.
And make no mistake, McDermid is doing real, material damage. Real harm. Irreversible harm. To people. To women. Disproportionately, to disadvantaged women.
While ca$hing in on claiming to be a feminist and claiming to care about Scotland. And she actively uses her power and privilege to shut down any criticism or dissent.
It’s not OK.
I’m never going to say or think that it’s OK.
Thanks for reading, anyone who made it this far. Sorry again about the bad word.