The latest fallouts in GC world

[Pluvia]

My terfing energy has been focussed elsewhere in recent months and I haven't been here or on TwiX or social media much. Now I've taken responsibility for tweeting/ comms on behalf of a small but potentially significant LGB group and I discover that there seems to be something going on — another schism — in GC world. Jane Clare Jones's name seems to be coming up a lot. Something seems to have gone on but I can't work out what.

If it was my own account I'd just ignore, but the followers of this account are bringing it up and seem to expect an opinion to be expressed or a side to be taken. Also I'm seeing a lot about 'ultras' and 'lites', which is new to me. Can anyone enlighten me? I need to tread carefully.

As long as trans men continue to get pregnant a GRC is bollocks. IIRC you have to affirm (?) that you will "live in the acquired gender". Getting pregnant isn't that

I was concentrating on MtF cases but, yes, if GRA repeal isn't an option, I would include pregnancy as one of the grounds for temporarily suspending a GRC.

Thinking about what could be improved has really brought home how bad the original legislation was. The drafters clearly thought that "ah well, it's only a few vulnerable people" was protection enough.

JK Rowling has just posted a lengthy tweet connected to the current fallings- out with a mention about men behind makeup counters.

So well said.

"What you call the GC movement hasn’t ever been a monolith, but a loose collection of separate political movements and individuals, some of whom have literally nothing in common but the belief that sex is real and matters. This has been both blessing and curse. On the positive side, real, lasting solidarity has been forged between women in different political parties who’ve worked collaboratively to fight back against the massive assault on their rights. On the negative, left-wing feminists are being lumped together with people whose attitude towards gender expression is as regressive as that of hardened trans activists (‘if you want to wear lipstick and a dress, you’re a woman’/‘dresses and lipstick are only for women’). I will say this, though. Many, many women who wouldn’t have thought twice ten years ago about asking for help from a gorgeous young man in lipstick working at the MAC counter have now been on the receiving end of so much aggression and so many direct threats from men in lipstick that they’ve developed a conditioned response, an instinctive wariness, where formerly there was complete indifference. I’ve experienced this personally. I was approached in the street by a pink-haired young man with what I’ll call very exuberant dress sense and my adrenaline shot through the roof. For a second I thought, ‘this is where I finally get punched.’ And he couldn’t have been sweeter, wanted to talk Harry Potter and get a selfie. Ten years ago my immediate response to somebody with his style would have been purely appreciative, but no longer, sadly, and the change in me, and in a lot of other women, has been brought on by a tsunami of threats and rage, not because we think there’s anything innately wrong with men wearing make up."

forgot the link:
https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1869699557660975482

oh, and she posted yesterday that she's done with The Hallmarked Man!

She's so right. Perfectly put as always.

I adore JKR and want her to rule the world. Just bought my DD the ickabog for Xmas!

Thank you for sharing that. She's so insightful.

She's absolutely right, and I was saying the exact same thing after the Posey Parker issue.

When you've been on the receiving end (as those women have), of disgusting threats, you see a different side to the cohort than other people.

There's not a person on the planet who would give any of these men, any quarter, if they read the website 'things transactivists say', first.

The only possible reason for any compromise is because you think they're not all like that.

Well who fucking cares?

As JKR said, her adrenaline went through the roof. If a significant percentage of dogs have rabies, you're not going to want to pat any of them.

I've seen some of the threats that well known women have received, and they are so clearly from horribly crazed, violent men filled with rage over GC women, that even if it was one man in a thousand you wouldn't take a chance.

And it's not just the violent ones, it's all those with the sense of entitlement that women are just there purely for them. Their wants, their needs, their validation, their sex.

The Gisele Pelicot case is a fucking bad advert for men in general.

Yes, she's spot on. No issue with men in make-up or men in skirts. But the genie has been let out of the bottle. We now know about AGP and fetishes and we're seeing how easily disposable women's rights and single-sex spaces are and we are very much more wary — and rightly so — than before.

I didn't know the thumbs up was ironic. I've used it twice today to... well, give people the thumbs-up. Life is so ruddy complicated.

https://malcolmrichardclark.substack.com/p/why-lgb-alliance-mattered-so-much

A blog from Malcolm Clark that struck me as pertinent:

'The coalition was made up of a constellation of newly formed groups run on a shoestring and a prayer from feminists and concerned parents to people of faith and old-style trade union stalwarts. There were traditionalists. There were radicals. There were even Scottish nationalists (they’re not all mad, apparently).

If the story of how that coalition turned the medical tide is ever made into one of those quintessential British movies in which a bunch of plucky amateurs take on Goliath it’ll have an unlikely supporting cast. Their campaign would never have gained traction without a certain best-selling novelist, a Tory Baroness, an Irish comedian and a ballsy politician of Nigerian extraction. More of them later. Oh and did I mention two rather formidable lesbians?'

Nobody should be surprised that people within this group have hugely varying views and disagreements.

I know what Malcolm says is accurate: JKR changed the game. But I do hope all the thousands of little nobodies who had to cut back on food spending or holidays in order to pay the bus fare to London to attend protests and events don't get completely overshadowed. We would have got there without JKR, but it would have been a slower process. Nicola Sturgeon and Isla Bryson would still have happened, Kemi Badenoch, Jo Phoenix, Maya Forstater would still have happened.

I see that Malcolm deliberately left her out, but KJK ramped things up and spoke to women whom Julie Bindel and Janice Turner et al couldn't reach. I think it's rather shameful that he decided not to mention her. And Glinner. KJK and Glinner are much-admired in Australia and New Zealand for getting the fightback started there.

We would have got there without JKR, but it would have been a slower process. Nicola Sturgeon and Isla Bryson would still have happened, Kemi Badenoch, Jo Phoenix, Maya Forstater would still have happened.

Wasn't JKR's famous tweet in response to Maya's tribunal?

I doubt we will ever know the full extent of JKR's support. It might yet prove to be a pivotal moment in history and that, without her SM presence, advocacy, and other support, this may never have progressed.

As for the rest, isn't Malcolm a co-founder of LGB Alliance? It's understandable he'd offer a narrative that showcases them (understandably).

There will be other histories and timelines available. Some of the general 'movement,' others of specific topics like the Tavi, puberty blockers etc. There's a lot of rich history to be written and acknowledgements made.

I know: I'm a lesbian and have an LGBA hoodie and baseball cap, so I understand Malcolm focussing on Kate and Bev.

I've never been to a Let Women Speak event: I don't own KJK merchandise. But I don't want to see her written out of this. I know JKR and the big girls and the professionals and the academics don't approve of her, but I have respect for all those involved. To paraphrase Andrea Dworkin, this fight has been against male supremacy and misogyny and I want all those involved, male and female, including the people I don't like, including people I don't want to be around, to be credited for what they've done.

I don't want this to turn into a knees-up for famous people and the professionals.

Agree, Pluvia.

Well said Pluvia

Sorry, on a bit of a rant here — but I'd like all the professionals to remember how many women with very little cash to spare helped crowd-fund for the court cases and bought the books and the t-shirts and travelled four hours on a coach to an event, stood shoulder to shoulder with fellow terfs and then got back on the coach for the return journey.

👏 👏 👏

"Working class" refers to anyone who gives their labour to an employer for payment. It's not about education level, or even how much you earn.

Otherwise you have the ridiculous situation of a graduate nurse on £32k being "middle class" whilst a train driver without a degree on £65k, twice the pay of the nurse is "working class".

an Irish comedian

Is that not Glinner?

Yes and without any money, power or a platform and often at great personal cost quietly took on the anti-safeguarding dereliction of duty harming children in schools. Writing again and again to SLT, suffering threats and abuse, being scared the activist teachers would take it out on your kids all for pointing out clear and obvious safeguarding failures.

Being reasonable and moderate and softly spoken all the time when actually you want to scream 'stop abusing my children! They are not in school to validate your fantasy!'. And your children saying they're scared because they're being compelled to say something that isn't true like some Orwellian nightmare.

Or the families desperately trying to keep a neutral space for their children to grow up with unaltered bodies and healthy minds when all the professionals have lost their minds and are doing the equivalent of giving diet pills to children suffering from anorexia because it's trendy. And having to be the adult in the room pushing back against child harming madness gently so as not to dent the egos of those who should know better when you're unspeakably scared for your child and only trying to do what's best for them.

We've seen a number of women on here recount these soul crushing battles. SSA pushing forward always with endless receipts for safeguarding failures and no-one bloody listening when it's child health and wellbeing we're talking about! (Honorable exceptions for Kemi Badenoch and Miriam Cates)

A million likes for this 👏👏👏👏

I think in the modern era it's a little more complicated than this, and one of the main differences is that the middle classes have a foot in both camps - yes, they sell their labour, but they also have things like pensions, and they may also have assets like homes which can give access to credit.

If I were going to try and set out who is wc in the modern context I would say lack of access to these things is a major gap between the vulnerable workers and the professional middle classes.

Does JKR giving her opinion on this issue mean that the Big Name GCers will now also modify their views? 🤔

This sort of thing's happened before e.g. when KJK gave her opinion on using correct sex pronouns - she got piled on - and then JKR gave her opinion on using correct sex pronouns and the BNGCers started using correct sex pronouns when making public statements. When KJK was attacked in New Zealand, JKR called out the dreadful behaviour by the NZ police and then the BNGCers (some of whom had been slagging off her LWS tours abroad) all chimed in in support of KJK.

Is it only acceptable to these people if an opinion comes from JKR? Sometimes it seems like no matter how useful or correct the point or suggestion is, if KJK makes it some BNGCers will decide they're anti that point and begin sneering.

they also have things like pensions, and they may also have assets like homes which can give access to credit.

We almost all have workplace pensions now, that was mandated several Govts ago.

Royal Mail postmen/postwomen/posttheythems have had pensions for a very long time. Are you going to suggest that my postie isn't working class?

Thatcher's Right To Buy turned a lot of people into homeowners who would otherwise have been too poor to even buy a parking space. Are those people now middle class?

Your use of the term "vulnerable workers" makes me wonder if you are using "middle class" and "working class" when you mean "workers whose employers have decent pay and conditions and respect employment law" and "precariat" or "gig economy workers"? Recognition of the precariat is important, but its existence doesn't make the working class not working class.

several Govts

"several Parliaments". I'm not sure whether the Govt changes at every General Election, or only when the ruling party changes.

Very interesting observation.