Stephen Fry - Stonewall "nonsensical"

[fromorbit]

Another Reverse Ferret dashes out of cover.

Stonewall ‘has got stuck in a terrible quagmire,' Stephen Fry tells Triggernometry. ‘I have no interest or support of this current wave of nonsensical… It’s shameful and sad.’

The Rise of the Right is the Left's Fault - Stephen Fry

Good to see on one level, but irritating at the same time Fry didn't support the truth when it was hard. He also slags off Dave Chappelle for truth telling in the same interview. Someone tried to kill him though. Thousands of women faced death threats for saying biology is real, lost jobs and opportunities. Kids had their lives ruined.

More to the point now Fry feels it is safe to come out it shows we are winning, but a LOT more to do and the genderists will resist every step of the way.

Pathetic. Where was he for the last decade? And didn't he fund surgery for a trans man? I'm highly unimpressed.

But also - yes good to see mainstream 'entertainers' coming out in support I guess.

Pusillanimous, patronising asshole.

But although I will despise you privately to the grave, if you're prepared to speak up for lgb rights, women's protections and the safeguarding of children, welcome on back over the golden bridge.

What an insufferable rat

I’ve only watched half of this so far but I’ve noticed all of the references he gives, whether it’s philosophers or modern-day quotes, are men. He only mentions women in passing and always in a censorious context (Mrs thatcher, Mary whitehouse, his great aunt). Perhaps if men like him had been more inclined to take women’s viewpoints seriously and engage with the rationale behind our views, trans ideology and its harms would never have been able to take hold to the extent it has. I hope some day men like Fry acknowledge that.

So many people I used to respect have revealed such disappointing qualities.

Cowardice, arrogance, pomposity, weakness, dishonesty, self interest, cruelty, a staggering lack of integrity.

Anyway. Jolly good, Stephen old chap. Hurry up before the golden bridge crumbles into the sea of fucking perimenopausal rage and the rising tsunami of scandal over children being sterilised and mutilated.

That's enraging. It pisses me off so much to hear people like him coming in NOW, only when they see the tide has turned. He's been all "less heat more light" "fault on both sides" for years. What's changed now Stephen?

Stephen Fry is an out and out misogynist

Hard to see how it's taken someone of his supposed intelligence so long.

There are people here at MN who have always had clarity of thought and vision, who could see this issue for what it was right from the start. For those women I have nothing but admiration, and they have every right to regard Fry with nothing but scorn.

Then there are those like me. If you'd asked me six (?) years ago what I thought about trans people I would have said something like: "...um, yeah, cool. Live and let live and all that. Why would anyone have anything against them?".
For us it took something to shake us out of our complacency, something to let us see what was actually going on, what was actually being demanded of women.
For me it was the attacks on Helen Steel: "Helen steel?! THE Helen Steel?! you're telling me that Helen Steel is a fascist?". That shook me out of whatever little dreamworld I'd been existing in, and I suppose most people have some similar event that woke them. I still have a few decent friends who cannot quite bring themselves to side against long term allies like Stonewall, but one by one they are beginning to see what's been happening, something is making them go "now THAT is too far".
I don't think we - the people who had to be shaken - should condemn Fry too much. It took him a long time, far too long, to have his eyes opened, but he seems to have got there. He's said a few shite things in the past, but he was never full TRA, and he remained friends with JKR when it was easier to abandon her ... he might have even listened to her.

Golden Bridge remember. We want as many people to open their eyes as possible. Maybe when we've rinsed every last bit of anti-women activism out of the system we can have an enquiry, but until then I'll take allies where I can get them.

Better late than never, I guess.

Shall we start a book on which ferret scuttles backwards out of the rainbow hued sewer next?

For a supposedly intelligent and well-read man to consistently use the term 'intersex' reeks of ignorance and lack of real knowledge of DSDs. I don't think he's at all bright. I think he's one of those blessed with an eidetic memory and able to just parrot knowledge. And he doesn't consider women worth as much as men.

I haven't watched the interview but it's good to hear that someone else is stepping onto the golden bridge. Even pompous people are welcome. Aside from his significant blind spots (e.g. the value of women, beyond the superficial/necessary), I do enjoy his humour and wit.

This from Arabella sums it up beautifully:

Anyway. Jolly good, Stephen old chap. Hurry up before the golden bridge crumbles into the sea of fucking perimenopausal rage and the rising tsunami of scandal over children being sterilised and mutilated.

Presumably Sandi Toksvig will tentatively follow in his footsteps at some point (hopefully quicker than the 13 years before he handed her the QI baton) and say that perhaps lesbians don't have penises after all.

Then maybe Jason Manford will join in and say that perhaps he was a bit rash with his rage-filled tweeting when he defended all lesbians with penises earlier this year.

Like many others at the time, I earned my Jason Block Badge for a response to his tweet. I think I said I'd enjoyed the QI episode with him and Jordan Gray, and that I'd found Jordan pretty funny in it (if I ignored the grim bit with the covid face masks used as bras.. I didn't mention this).. but still didn't agree lesbians had penises. I might have also sarcastically mentioned Jordan's appalling penis piano playing. Can't quite remember.

I was just having a look for the excellent Mole at the Counter tweet about Jason's blocking spree... I couldn't find it... but it turns out Jason has unblocked me. Obviously I couldn't care less either way but, on the assumption that he's done a mass unblocking rather than specifically coming to find me (😂), perhaps he too is starting to wake up to what's going on.

We might be on the cusp of a posh and working class luvvies' renaissance... 🤞

Stephen Fry is on record (various interviews) as having made some… interesting… comments about younger people and sexual attraction.

I wouldn’t extend any sort of bridge, golden or otherwise, to someone with his on-record views.

Who are ILGA-Europe.org ? They’ve put out a statement calling on the UK to rescind the ban on PB’s
I can’t copy the Statement from the website but this is a snippet

In the UK, where no form of trans-specific healthcare is currently available for minors through the NHS and waiting lists have reached six years, the government’s decision to ban the private prescription of puberty blockers for trans youth constitutes a de facto ban on puberty blockers. This decision, which overrides years of established medical guidance and expertise, is deeply political, rooted in a divisive public discourse and misinformation rather than the recommendations of leading medical authorities. It threatens the well-being of vulnerable trans youth, whose lives depend on timely, supportive, and individualised healthcare.
ILGA-Europe, IPPF European Network, TGEU, IGLYO, and The Kite Trust call on the UK government to reconsider this harmful decision and to engage meaningfully with both the medical and scientific community and civil society groups representing the interests of trans youth and trans adults.

Why is anyone surprised? I've never got the love for him. He's always been insufferably pompous.

Can I put a tenner on Jason Manford please?

See above.

Sandi will take a bit longer I think. She's probably still consulting with people to understand what she's supposed to say when deciding who the women are. The break up of the Women's Equality Party will have presumably left her unclear on which path of blowing wind she should follow when forming her "own" opinion.

Sandi, if you're reading this, here's a clue: if you listen to the people who want to end this experimentation on children's brains and bodies, they all say the same thing about who the women are. Second clue: no, they aren't upholding traditional stereotypes about how women should behave and be. That's the other lot.

Yes he's a number of many misogynistic men and their handmaidens who will be deciding that they picked the wrong side of history.

The trouble is we've seen them.

He thinks he is a very clever man.

Whatever, better to have someone that many think of as clever and influential to speak out now than not speak out at all.

I have always thought Stephen Fry despicable. I don't for one minute think he supports women and I wouldn't be one bit surprised if this is just a publicity stunt to get his horrible self back in the limelight.

He strikes me as being an insufferable arsehole. Always has, always will.

And always comes across as absolutely, unshakeably sure of his own brilliance and rightness.

Loathe him.

And Sandi Toksvig can get to fuck as well. Another one that seems to think an education and a way with words gives them a better understanding of Important Things than the rest of us.

He is muttering about wanting a baby with his much younger husband. I assume he wants to avoid comments like 'Stephen knows what a woman is when he wants a baby'. Hence the stepping away.

Stephen: you won't avoid the comments.

Like everyone else, I feel a good deal of contempt for Fry and the way he has behaved in the past few years. He's been perfectly happy to throw women under the bus, to go along with the medical trans-ing of children and to attack lesbians for standing up for their rights.

So now he's cautiously decided to change his mind, while pretending of course not to have changed his mind. ("We have always been at war with Eastasia!") I don't really care either way what Fry thinks or doesn't think, so this is only interesting as an indication of a turning tide. He has had a glimmer of realisation that wholeheartedly endorsing the gender nonsense is going to look pretty bad before too long and he'll end up, heaven forfend, on the wrong side of history.

How will others - Toksvig, Sara Pascoe, Nish Kumar, all the rest of the idiots - respond? Will they follow Fry by tiptoeing gently across the golden bridge, hoping nobody notices, or will they all ostracise him for siding with the evil Terfy fascists? What a difficult decision that is going to be. I'm sure we'll all derive a lot of amusement from watching the gears grind in their tiny little brains as they work it all out.

How will others - Toksvig, Sara Pascoe, Nish Kumar, all the rest of the idiots - respond? Will they follow Fry by tiptoeing gently across the golden bridge, hoping nobody notices, or will they all ostracise him for siding with the evil Terfy fascists? What a difficult decision that is going to be. I'm sure we'll all derive a lot of amusement from watching the gears grind in their tiny little brains as they work it all out.

Yes, objectively speaking it's going to be pretty hilarious to see who lands where. Each of them will have had their reasons for backing this wholeheartedly. For some it'll just be about Being Kind (and demonstrating this for PR purposes) but for others there could be some personal investment, so they'll dig in.

Toksvig and Kumar I'm ambivalent about. Overall it'll be helpful to see more common sense emerging but I'll continue to enjoy their comedy (I do miss the Mash Report) while also thinking they have failed a critical thinking test and contributed to the ostracisation of those who did have this skill. Pascoe I would like to see wake up. I saw her present the Booker shortlist book readings (all 6 authors were there) at the National Theatre a few years ago and loved her warmth, humour and curiosity. Obviously this is currently her blind spot, but it used to be mine too when I was a Be Kinder. (I never threw anyone under a bus but I certainly would have recoiled at anyone being "blunt" about what sex and gender identity mean, as I would have seen it).

He is such a hypocrite and a coward. I have no respect for him.

'I don't think he's at all bright. I think he's one of those blessed with an eidetic memory and able to just parrot knowledge. And he doesn't consider women worth as much as men.'

Couldn't agree more. He's pretty insufferable