Maya, Whittle, and Phoenix

[RethinkingLife]

It's rather too much of a scrum to explain but Whittle is styling Sex Matters as anti-trans and a hate group.

Maya,
I was as blunt as it is possible to be in my lecture. All the examples of extremist assertions of apparent rights for women but not trans people, that I gave were from Sex Matters.
Any group which cannot support & respect the rights of others (in this case rights…we fought a very long & hard battle for) is suspect. You may claim your concern is women’s rights but your organisation is solely targeted on trans people & their rights.

https://twitter.com/stephenwhittle/status/1754114765616484384

Phoenix has intervened in an offshoot of the discussion that involves schools.

Been thinking about this overnight. @stephenwhittle your tweet bears an uncanny resemblance to the open letters in my ET against OU. You have published this to the world - if your beef was what the schools did the proportionate response would be to write to them.

You make a highly negative pejorative (I suspect) defamatory claim. You might want to consult your lawyer about this but it does look like a slam dunk.

There is no distinction between the group to which you refer and @MForstater.

It contains a direct call for discrimination on belief grounds.

It contains a veiled threat. “Better be a school without public funding or …. [threat: you are a failing head and we will come after you…]

This did not work so well for several OU employees.

I’m making no legal threat here but I’m thinking academics such as yourself might look to whether they are contributing to a hostile work environment for your GC fellow employees.

You may also wanna get ready to defend your defamation of Maya coz it really does look like defamation to me.

The way I see it, any of your fellow employees who are GC may well screen shot this and it could end up in grievance that has your name connected to it.

Either way, I am pretty sure you just crossed several lines and I’m kinda sure every VC, every uni lawyer and every head of HR will have read my judgement.

https://twitter.com/JoPhoenix1/status/1754079044432240929?

Phoenix wrote that in response to Whittle implicitly referring to Sex Matters as an anti-trans hate group.

What head of school lets this anti-trans hate group in?

Better be a school without public funding or the head is failing their obligations under the Eq Act s.149 public sector duty obligations

https://twitter.com/stephenwhittle/status/1753757101485142123

TathingScinsel · Yesterday 19:07

I’ve seen Whittle lying on Reddit that Maya personally received the crowdfunding cash (rather than it going straight to the legal team, as all LegalJustice funders do) and insinuating that Maya has ripped off those of us that donated.

Dear me, isn't that defamatory?

Some of the best money I’ve ever spent - me too. That case is the one that all the other ones are built upon: its importance cannot be overstated. No wonder Whittle is bitter about it overturning many years of plotting and scheming.

If anyone deserves this it's Maya. And whilst I'm on a limited budget (being made redundant after my first child put paid to my career, and being on part time jobs ever since - something that happened because of my sex not my inner feelings) I can honestly say I'd be happy if my donation was spent on champagne for Maya.

She's done more for my and my daughter's rights than pretty much any politician or academic (with the exception of Jo P) and many politicians and academics like Whittle are actively seeking to undermine basic protections and safeguarding for children and then chastising women when they protest.

I remember that thread where Whittle went on about contraceptives on guide camps then, IIRC, decide to chastise us for caring about safeguarding our own children in the UK more than crash helmets for children in India. Speaking with the blind privilege of someone who thinks a jaunt to a conference in India is normal.

Whittle is a safeguarding ignoramus. Knows nothing about appropriate safeguarding, the law around it, nor about what most parents think is appropriate.

I remember that thread where Whittle went on about contraceptives on guide camps then,

Me too. And Whittle musing like some sixth former from a fictional college for young gentlewomen.

A rather startling way of talking that one couldn't help feeling further investigation of would produce all the reasons for the transition.

Also showed a huge ignorance of normal people and how easy they are to hoodwink. As if condescension was going to work on MNetters!

It's difficult after that thread and Jo P's trial not to think that academia is full of people who are quite dangerously idiotic in their lack of realism and practicality. And the Jo P judgement seemed to agree.

It's the children who are affected by all this intellectual wankery that I feel sorry for the most. Far too many people in positions of power have fallen for it. Again I think largely due to real privilege - I doubt if anyone who's come up against real life deprivation would buy any of it because it's at the sharp end of life more than any other that sex matters.

" It's a public hall, with several people sleeping in it. What do you think might happen?"

Anyone daft enough to say something like this has shown themselves to be so far away from understanding reality that they should have no sway about anything at all.

Does this person really think that women don't get assaulted in public spaces? Because that's imbecilic.

🙃

Agreed on the Emeritus (can't comment on the rest).

It feels clear when we recall Whittle's role in Press for Change.

This is strategic.

Thought this was a baby name thread. Was going to advise against Whittle. 😀

Thank you, proper made me laugh!

I'd seriously consider Maya or Phoenix for a baby though. Alas, too late, but if I ever get a cat....

Social psychologists like Cialdini might say that the desire to be consistent with some stances (and prove your commitment) can drive people to speak in line with that even when they spout something that is unwise to the point of self-harming.

Gurwinder Bhogal: When intelligent people affiliate themselves to ideology, their intellect ceases to guard against wishful thinking, and instead begins to fortify it, causing them to inadvertently mastermind their own delusion, and to very cleverly become stupid.

I was raped in a school hall at a mixed sex camp. Which is exactly why my daughter will never go on a camp without me there as a leader.

That's hideous, YesterdaysCheese. I don't know how you start to recover from that.

I’m so sorry yesterdayscheese.

I'm so sorry, Yesterdayscheese.

OK, I know we have lurkers, but seriously!!!

She came, she read, she has an account and didn't comment!!

Waves 👋

https://twitter.com/MForstater/status/1754502604371918860?s=19

I’m sorry, but Maya used “thru” as a contraction of through, so I’m going to have to ask for my money back. Grammar Matters.

Is that related to Alma Matters?

Looks like it.

No, married to Grampa Matters.

I've just been sent a clip of Professor Whittle speaking on LBC yesterday morning, representing Press for Change. Her cognitive capacities seem to have declined considerably - she couldn't make a coherent argument on a very basic point (she was suggesting the the 'educational film' under discussion would not be shown to 11 year olds, but the benefit of it would be that it would help 11year olds). She was emotionally as well as cognitively dysregulated and hung up without finishing the conversation.

Perhaps Press for Change will decide that Whittle is no longer fit to represent them. Perhaps this has already been decided but Whittle phoned in anyway?

I am rubbish at tech so can't embed a link, but if you want to listen it's on catch up on Global Player, Nick Ferrari's show, 1 hr and 22 mins in from the start.

That's rather sad. Echoes the Biden situation in a way. Only 69 (70 later this year).

It was sad. What was particularly sticking was an inability to tolerate/ manage the incoherence of her own argument.

Over the years, she has put forth the usual trans arguments that don't hold water, but has adopted a smug/demeaning persona that 'pities' those who don't get it due to their biases and bigotry. I expect she is experiencing difficulties holding onto complex arguments- and let's face it, TRA try to make the simple seem complex in order to 'queer it'. I expect Whittle will find it harder and harder to argue trans positions.

For her sake, I genuinely hope that she doesn't end up one of those transsexuals with dementia who are distressed by their transitioned body and are certain about their natal sex and do not have a gender identity

All those hormones and Whittle still sounds like an old woman.