Helen Joyce and Julie Bindel at Oxford Lit Festival 2025

[DungsWearingHarpy]

https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/april-2/trans-gender-identity-and-the-new-battle-for-womens-rights

Great talk! Only a small handful of protesters during the event (got there late and left early). Did not stop us hearing. So many recognisable terfs there!!

So many recognisable terfs there!!

Damn, that sounds wonderful, wish I'd been able to go!

It was wonderful and so much more relaxed than the meetings held a few years ago. Great atmosphere and lots of laughs.

So many faces I recognised! Fiona McAnena, Michael Foran, Sarah Phillimore, Richard Dawkins, Maya of course...was a great afternoon. As pp said the protesters did not arrive until we were in the venue and we could almost convince ourselves they were not there at all, but Julie said "Oh I thought they didn't love us anymore" when they did appear. The protesters were moved on before the meeting ended. Afterwards one of the attendees were heard saying "we are all going to the Turf Tavern, very apt" but we went across the road with a lovely group of sex realists. Helen was fab, Julie was fab, what a day.

So glad it went off well.

I met the great Jo March today!

I was there too!

There was a great atmosphere. There were a lot of laughs, some interesting bits of information (eg, the high rate of girls from Blackpool identifying as trans/being referred).

I was really impressed with some of the questions, especially from the fourth year student who deals with a hostile climate at her university. She came across as articulate, thoughtful and quite brave.

I only have one criticism, which was that the event should have lasted longer.

@WelcomeToBoycottCity I totally agree it could have been much longer. Although the seats upstairs were a bit uncomfortable! I think there was a lot more of the book they could have talked about

Just home, it was a brilliant day. Helen and Julie B on fine form in the venue, (many serious moments but also some wickedly funny ones!) intelligent questions, and lots of laughs in the pub before and after.

The galleries were packed but there were a few empty seats on the floor with cards on; reserved for who knows but it was a shame they remained empty.

Women were allowed to speak, and no one died!

It was a great event - though could have been much longer - in and of itself, but also because it happened. Finally, in the mainstream.

The protests were odd - started about twenty minutes in (we heard them from outside) and stopped after about half an hour. The protesters weren't around either when we went in or when we left.

Lots of good comments. One that struck me was Helen Joyce, when asked about publishing people and their response in supporting trans/ideology but could be relevant about anyone:
What makes them gatekeep so ferociously?
Because it's not true.

Was such a great event! In the pub after I got chatting to the lovely young female student who posed the last question in the session. What a phenomenal woman-I thanked Helen for well, everything! And had far too much red wine! A super day! Now to head home

Amazing! How did you know it was Jo March? And did she tell you her real name? And (finally) is she a Mumsnetter?

Just seen this in the Times:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/e04d82c8-bd23-4301-9c1a-8db8491f1a91?shareToken=ce2b39c5bce876c67d534fd436156503

Thank you for posting the Times link. May be my imagination, but it feels slightly nasty.

It will upset a lot of people, but it needed saying. Especially to the medical profession.

Yes, it's the way it phrases things. "Joyce ridiculed a doctor", "Sex Matters, which describes itself as a human rights charity",...

She's not saying anything I disagree with, she's absolutely right that some of the surgeons should go to jail.

Well at least they're allowing women to self ID for once! It IS a human rights charity if you think women are full humans.

So maybe the author doesn't think that?

It's a most unsympathetic article.

Written by he Arts correspondent. Mostly good comments though.

It's an odd article. She comes across as very strong, and I wonder if it's just instinctive for some people to push women back when they overstep an imaginary line.

Ridiculing a doctor is still akin to one of the seven deadly sins for some people.

Even one that reckons you can't tell men from women and the definition of female is a sperm producing, adult human male.

We see it on here a lot. Women can be fuming, upset, self-righteous, outraged, but they'd better stop short of taking the piss

Ooh, the "describes itself as a human rights charity" bit has gone! I don't think I was imagining things, but it's not there now. I don't know if anything else has changed.

I wasn't imagining it, it's in the archive: https://archive.ph/hwZxw

Just home now as i decided to make a bit of a mini break of it.

I very much enjoyed the talk. Mara Yamauchi was there too I heard. Another Shero.

[Waves] to the lovely lady with the pretty dino necklace I met in the line and the other Lovely MNetter who lives in Oxford and with whom we chatted.