The Five Stages of Victory - Helen Joyce

[lcakethereforeIam]

Just read this in the Critic, thought it was too good to not share and, feck it, let's give it its own thread

https://thecritic.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-victory/

Enjoy

Might be my favourite paragraph

Nothing I can say about the violent, fetishistic narcissism at the heart of trans activism is half as persuasive as what trans activists say themselves. Every time they speak, they make it harder for all but the most gender-addled politicians to continue insisting that every “transwoman” is a vulnerable sweetie nobly coping with the tragic, albeit puzzlingly metaphysical, disability of having been born looking exactly like a man.

Reminds me of a MN thread. Goes from deadly serious to hilarious via profound. We're very lucky.

Thanks for posting

Cracking read, thanks for that.

It's been just astounding how the media have centred men in interviews about the SC judgement and tried to punish the women for being, as Helen says, 'mean bitches'.

Be kind still only goes one way, from women towards men.

I like this paragraph on her own feelings:

"Rage at the colossal waste of time and at the obdurate stupidity and nastiness of the other side. At the fruitless attempts to get MPs to listen or get a hearing on mainstream broadcasters or in the left-wing press. Rage and grief at the stories of women bullied out of work for saying men can’t be women and of parents devastated at the harms done by gender doctors to their children. "

That’s a great read, thank you!

As always, Helen has the perfect words and perfect analysis for the occasion. Thanks for posting,

Quite apart from anything else (and I admire Helen Joyce unreservedly), I highly commend her for her use of the word “scofflaw”, perfect in this context.

HJ used one of my favourite words - scofflaws.

As ever, excellent writing. And it’s remarkable how HJ’s perspective on the time it will take to resolve has changed from her early days.

ETA crossed with BTQ.

Many thanks for this. More superb analysis and writing from Helen. We're lucky to have her.

Excellent article. I like the justified swipe at the BBC and others for asking 'but what about the men?'.

When did they ever ask 'what about the women?' when our rights, our safety, our refuges, our medals and our dignity were being stripped from us? They applauded and they applaud still. They are unspeakable and these fools think they are on the right side of history.

Scofflaws is a new one for me - thank you Helen, it’s perfect.

Fantastic article, thanks for sharing.

Excellent article! My admiration for HJ increases by the day.

If it was ever possible for HJ to peak further, I think going on woman’s hour did it.

Helen Joyce is iconic. I've listened to so many interviews of her that I hear her voice in my head as I'm reading; I can just imagine her tone and facial expression at 'One cross-dressing man wanted the world to know that his "pussy tasted like non-biological fairy liquid".' 😂

Isn't she great. As she points out:
"Nothing I can say about the violent, fetishistic narcissism at the heart of trans activism is half as persuasive as what trans activists say themselves"

We see this on here regularly as transactivists descend to sneer, dissemble and argue that the sky is green and we're all bigots for objecting to men in our changing rooms...

Such a glorious article for the holy month of Pride!

Her work is a joy to read (and I too can’t not hear “Helen” in my head).

I love her clarity and her bravery. Thank you for posting that!

Heh. Helen always knows the right words to pick.

Thanks for sharing it OP.

Thanks for the link, a good read, I think I'm stuck in stage 2: Rage, I've been there for years.

'At the fruitless attempts to get MPs to listen ..'

This in spades, neither my MP or SM are worth the time it takes to press send, it's like talking to a brick wall, one a Labour party drone and one a Cheerleader Transmaiden.

Thank god for Mumsnet, a place that listen's.

Brilliant article. She's so right about everything. I've been stuck at the rage stage for eight years now, and there's little sign of moving on.

She's amazing, cuts through all the pretence and gets to the truth.

Thanks for sharing this superb writing from Helen. This paragraph really puts into words my feelings of the disbelief of how we ever got to such a ridiculous situation.

The disbelief is tinged with fear. It’s sobering to realise how fragile our institutions are: both how easily internal activists have subverted them and how cowardly the regulators who should be punishing them are. Theorists of economic development make much of institution-building. Ours, it’s increasingly obvious, are decaying from within.

I'm pretty sure all Fairy Liquid is non-biological. Has that bloke never done the washing-up?

Excellent article.

I don't know if you read on here, Helen, but if you do, I really look forward to whatever you're going to do next.

I have a lovely dream of the world stretching out afresh, once we've beaten back the most insane attempt to remove women's rights.

So much has been learned, and there are so many things to be done.