blimey-trouble at mill-prick news goes weird.

[lonelywater]

www.reddit.com/r/transgender/comments/1evyjfm/pinknews_refuses_to_cover_trans_issues_on_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Bit on iplayer too https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0026ldb/pinknews-behind-closed-doors

Just finished watching the report, really terrible allegations against Ben and his husband.

edit to add: Ben has locked his X account

That is a heartbreaking read for all the staff there. It seems like a very toxic workplace with very little trust and very little integrity.

Allegations of misogyny have also emerged and several people told us that some young female members of staff had been asked to act as the couple's surrogates.

Often delivered as ‘a joke’, apparently.

I'm completely unsurprised by these allegations, I am surprised the BBC covered it, I guess there must be some really solid evidence to back it up.

I hope the staff effected are all doing OK

Sickening allegations. I hope.those affected have good support.

Utterly disgraceful. Co-founder's father was the company lawyer. Was he away the day they covered employment law? Surely he could see that the company was not being properly run and his son's and son-in-law's behaviour was setting the company up for employment tribunal problems?

Is Dr James still a practising GP? Wasn't he a Trustee at Mermaids too?

Gosh.

A man who doesn't understand the principles and ethics of consent, turns out to not understand the principles and ethics of consent.

A man who strangely can't see how those with less power and status are being abused, turns out to be a man who abused his power against those with less status.

Gosh.

This is earth shattering in its revelation.

I must hide my shock.

I guess this is going to be the end of Pink News.

Ain't Karma a bitch?

Yes, this has to be the end of it. Appalling behaviour from appalling men.

Awaits the police investigation....

And there it is. There it is at last! And the BBC bringing them down is some icing on the cake.

The years they put in trying to destroy the reputation of JKR and others like her telling the truth. Multiple stories a day fuelling that fire of misogyny against one person and framing themselves as the good guys. Doing immense wider damage to the profession of journalism, and their own cause, with their biased, fact-free reporting which has now just become the norm.

The absolute nerve of these men.

Totally agree.

It's really shocking how so many politicians took them seriously.

Yet another organisation that has viciously and relentlessly attacked women who dare to ask questions.

Anyone keeping track of how many vociferous and extreme trans rights activists turn out to be abusive?

We knew that they didn't think women should be allowed to consent. It's not that surprising to hear that they didn't think their staff should be allowed to consent either.

BBC: Allegations of misogyny have also emerged and several people told us that some young female members of staff had been asked to act as the couple's surrogates.

That sentence is badly constructed. It reads as though the second part of that sentence qualifies as misogyny. They can’t exactly ask young male members of staff. Odd two phrases to put together.

Edit to say: I am not implying that it was right to do, just that it is not not a good example of misogyny

It's quicker to keep a list of those that haven't.

I do hope that JKR has cracked open a bottle of champagne this morning!

and all our ploppers and regular multi-usernamed participants who used PinkNews as some kind of reputable news source to Tell It To The Terves. They can all get in the bin too. Bunch of spanners.

Didn't know Ben Cohen was a pornographer.

Someone really needs to do this. It frustrates me that there isn't a single comprehensive list somewhere because it would be so useful when arguing with people online.

Perhaps we could do it collaboratively by creating a thread and adding examples but I don't know if it would be against MN rules.

There doesn't have to be 'a good example of misogyny' in the second part of the sentence - the word 'and' can be used as a conjunction, but it can also be used to introduce an independent clause, which is how it is used here.

I think asking various junior members of staff if they want to act as surrogates is a good example of misogyny - if it was said 'jokingly' that is just a jokey form of misogyny.

It doesn't make it less misogynistic because they didn't ask male staff to have their babies, it shows that the comments made to female staff were targeted at them as women.

I think the point you make about them not asking young male members of staff to act as surrogates is interesting, though maybe not in the way you intended, in that it shows that they know there is a difference between men and women, that biology matters, and that the differences between the sexes are real.

The report doesn't say if they asked any transwomen to carry their babies, but I bet they didn't.

There are many disturbing this about this report, but sentence construction isn't high up on my list.

What gets me is there's been comments and rumours that something was up with Cohen for a while.

How the heck is men in a position of power acting as if young women should be willing to be 'surrogates' not misogynistic?

A heck of a lot of misogyny and structural sexism is rooted in reproductive biology.

I agree. Pity about the forced teaming, though. I sound like a broken record sometimes, but it does the sex-class-realist Ls, Gs and Bs a huge disservice. And there are some excellent LGB YA books that have literary value. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, as one classic example.