Eva Wiseman in today's Observer

[MarkWithaC]

Anyone read this?
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/02/our-hard-won-rights-are-being-erased-one-letter-at-a-time www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/02/our-hard-won-rights-are-being-erased-one-letter-at-a-time]]

I didn't like her already, but fuck me this is a new low.
Aligning the right to abortion with 'trans rights' (whatever they are).
Talking about 'restricting gender-affirming care' (by this does she mean the kind of 'care' that is against the Cass Review and schools guidelines?)
And the kicker: 'when the words start disappearing, our rights are surely not far behind.' What words, Eva? Words like 'woman'? like 'sex' (as opposed to 'gender')?

I'll say it again: fuck me. She's shameless.

She thinks banning men from women's sport is unfair 🤯.

I stopped buying the Observer because of sexist numpties like her.

Transgender rights should never have been conflated with sexuality rights and neither should they now be conflated with women’s rights or the rights of minoritised communities.

I want the debate around gender roles to continue because it’s better for all of us to breakdown the rules around what a man is, what a woman is, what they can earn, what they wear, how they can talk, much space they can take up, whether or not they can be care-givers, whether they’re allowed to feel pain or to cry etc etc, but I disagree with Eve Wiseman that the answer to this gender bullshit is to convert to the other sex if the sex they are doesn’t conform to our notions of what gender that is.

So what she wants to protect is still very much up for debate for many of us (medicalising this, removing heathy body parts for this etc etc) and conflating it with other areas of inequality that society is fighting for, is just random really.

I do agree though, that the far right seem to want only to support straight white men so any attack on any group that isn’t that group is a sign that they could very easily come for the group you support (or are in) very soon. So her call that we should all sit up and listen is a valid one.

How odd.

More & more it looks as if any rights women & LGB people have won are held hostage by the TQI+.

The Democrats in the US, who entirely failed to protect Roe v Wade, tried to silence dissent about their embrace of all things Trans & beyond by saying “Don’t like this? Well, kiss reproductive rights goodbye!” … as those rights were already lost on their watch.

I do agree though, that the far right seem to want only to support straight white men so any attack on any group that isn’t that group is a sign that they could very easily come for the group you support (or are in) very soon. So her call that we should all sit up and listen is a valid one.

Yes, I get that. But 'they're' already coming for (have already come for) women's reproductive rights and single-sex sports, to give two examples. I say 'they' in quote marks because the US government are a different 'they' from the professional sports bodies, college sports organisations etc that allow men and boys to compete against women and girls. Which is the problem.

I've read (WDI USA Twitter) that '79% of American voters, including 67% of Democrats, think men and boys don't belong in women's sports.'

https://x.com/WDI_USA/status/1895144069954764807

Wiseman and her ilk appear to the be ones who are out of touch

Rats. The Observer is usually much better on this issue. There's clearly been some wooo overflow from the Grauniad.

Yes. I gave up on the Grauniad long ago, very sadly, after decades of loyalty. The Observer seemed to stay sane for longer. Shame if it’s now captured too.

To be fair she lost me early on at ‘make-up bag’ because I haven’t got one. I am a woman but no idea what category she’d sort me into.

I don’t want the word ‘woman’ to disappear so she’s got that last sentence right. Can you imagine the hundreds of thousands of editors you’d have to employ to redefine that one in all the literature using that word. I don’t actually think it could be done.

So maybe there would be a day. Like BC and AD to define when woman didn’t mean adult
human female anymore.

2025 as 0AR (After Reality) whereby you need to define what you mean when you use the term woman? Before 2025 it could be BR (Biological Reality)?

This is the stuff the Supreme Court is going to have to look at if the ‘woman’ definition does disappear because every ‘woman’ in every law, medical book, pharmacy, science text book, novel, historical record and document is going to have to be put in context.

It's just Eva Wiseman...I think she was one of the signatories against Suzanne Moore, wasn't she?

"the deletion of the word from a website dedicated to one of the most important areas of gay activism works immediately to delegitimise trans people and clear the way for conservative groups to frame them as sick "

Wasn't it only a couple of years ago we were being told that trans people are sick, with gender dysphoria?
But I guess we're not allowed to talk about that now the narrative has changed.

It's hilarious.
Don't like what Trump is doing with abortion rights?
Then you simply must be outraged when men are not allowed into women's bathrooms! The dark clouds of fascism are gathering over America if men are not allowed into women's sports!
Rolling together abortion rights with trans rights and sticking them together with ideological sticky tape isn't going to work.

Her email address is at the bottom of the article. It is [email protected] so we can tell her what we think

I imagine she'd respond by blocking. I might write to the readers' feedback section. Bet they wouldn't publish it though.

I sometimes watch liberal podcasts from the USA. Like Meidas or Majority Report or Pakman. Mostly because I want to hear tidings of comfort and joy from that benighted land. And you will hear stuff you would otherwise miss I suppose.
But recently I listened to Majority Report hosts Sam Seder talking about trans rights. The gist of it was that very few men or boys were taking part in women's sports. Therefore people claiming to have women's rights at heart are obviously lying. The truth is they are bigots, venting their irrational hatred on a vulnerable group. It was quite a rant and made me think : they've learnt nothing really. I know this is not the main reason Kamala lost. But it is congruent with liberal contempt for the working class etc. Quite depressing really.

What all of them fail to grasp is if it just one woman or one girl losing to a man in a women or girl’s competition or sports scholarship place etc it is one woman or girl too many.

It's just Eva Wiseman...I think she was one of the signatories against Suzanne Moore, wasn't she?

Yes, Wiseman was on the list of signatories, that Suzanne posted on Twitter.

The tweet appears to have been archived but it's still available here:
web.archive.org/web/20240520000930/www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sr64n9

Just to mention, if you don't subscribe to the Guardian on the app and you only get 30 free stories a month, so are unable to read articles once you have exceded your limit, you can go to theguardian.com and read anything you like.

Is there an antonym for nominative determinism? Because Eva seems to be somewhat opposite to her name.

Thanks for this, I've just spent a good two minutes trying to work out what the antonym of Eva is!

Wiseman...

Yes, I got there in the end 😂 I clearly can't claim to be much brighter than Eva, but I do at least know that men don't belong in women's sports!

I have emailed her. Will let you know if I get a response

" It is bewildering, though, to see feminists who engage in anti-trans rhetoric offering up their own reproductive rights as a sweetener"

I know this is some sort of cheap dig but I am not sure exactly what she is going on about here

Isn't she claiming that gender critical women are praising Trump's anti trans initiatives, while he/ Republicans are seen as responsible for the rolling back of abortion rights?

Yes, and it's not even one woman or girl. All the women or girls in a race or competition have to step down a place. It affects the whole chain. It's never "just" one woman or girl.