Laurie Penny is actually a feminist!

[MyrtleLion]

Laurie Penny has finally realised she's actually a woman.

Feminists began raising the alarm about the manosphere decades ago – and we were ignored | Laurie Penny https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/13/gamergate-andrew-tate-manosphere-feminists

Excuse me while my eyes roll out of my head.

🙄

Meanwhile, we still await Laurie reflecting on her good friend Neil Gaiman, who got her work in Hollywood, and whose right-on nice-guy persona proved to be a very effective cover for being a prolific abuser of women.

Given how close Laurie was to Gaiman, and how she effectively functioned as a character witness for him for years, "I was rude about Carl Benjamin ten years ago" just doesn't cut it.

is this the Laurie Penny who said that a girl should just avert her eyes if she didn't want to see a semi-erect penis on a male person who accessed a female single sex provision? Because apparently that is all that is needed to avoid sexual abuse?

That Laurie Penny?

She's a chump. I got very sweary when I saw that headline earlier 🙄🙄🙄

Fucking idiot handmaiden. That is all.

Honestly, it's not as if left wing activist spaces are short of women who make excuses for dodgy men, but Laurie still stands out with her record.

Of course, Laurie puffing up Neil Gaiman, and blaming the victims for the Cologne rapes, and saying small girls should just avert their eyes from laydee penis, makes perfect sense if you assume that everything Laurie says is part of a status game, which is why her "feminism" relies overwhelmingly on dunking on low-status men like Andrew Tate and the Ayatollah of Swindon.

I will think about taking Laurie seriously if, and only if, she ever takes a stance that might risk her status in her little world.

Can an enby be a maiden?

Handperson.

And still she doesn't see that trans activism, with men threatening women who believe in biological sex, is part of this wider movement!

I'm always surprised by Laurie's own self worth. You could almost admire it. Perhaps this is her great act of establishing equality - at last we have a female with the confidence of a mediocre white man.

Handtool

It's at least a decade since I've spoken to Laurie, but in a way it's heartening to see that she's still as clueless, bumptious and self-important as ever.

When I did know her, I often felt like Terry Wogan trying to gently explain to David Icke that the audience was laughing at him.

Brilliant! 👏😂

Brilliant comments! Thank you.

Had a busy day so couldn't nurture my own thread. 😔

The Guardian still referred to her as 'they' at the end of the article.

They'll never give up as long as Viner is still there.

Didn't she a a run in with David Starkey some time back and he cut her right down to size?

Yes @GwenniMcKinney .

For those who fancy revisiting or haven't yet had the pleasure: https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DBPQB9CM_ZkQ&ved=2ahUKEwjmlOXb8-yTAxU1UEEAHXyyADAQFnoECB4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw2CHV6MJ8Mh9QCLg8c_lZ2N

And as so often, damn this timeline for making me think 'ah, you're a despicable arse but you've mustered a coherent and sensible argument, unlike the other despicable arse whose politics I'm in theory more aligned with'.

There's a minute from 2:13 which is the main action. Penny states that Starkey has a house in America. She then asks him where he is domiciled for tax purposes. He says in the UK and that he pays full taxes.

Then Starkey becomes angry and tells an anecdote about Penny demanding such a huge fee for a speaking engagement with him at the Thomas Paine Society that the event had to be cancelled. He was charging nothing.

And then he says I will not be lectured to by a jumped up public school girl like you. I came from the bottom and I will not have it.

Starkey grew up in near poverty and his parents were unemployed for long periods of time and he won a scholarship to Cambridge.

By contrast Penny was educated at the independent school, Brighton College, and went to Oxford. Not in a scholarship.

David Starkey is an old man who has been in public life for a very long time and has said plenty of things that a reasonable person might object to.

On the other hand, he's very obliging when it comes to speaking to anyone who's willing to invite him, and he won't bankrupt your group for having him as a speaker. He might appreciate dinner and some wine, but he's there to get his ideas across and entertain the audience.

He's also been generous about praising historians like David Olusoga who don't share his beliefs, and who would be very unlikely to return the compliment.

Laurie Penny, on the other hand, has from a young age had an unshakeable belief in her own celebrity, and that she deserves to be well paid for sharing her wisdom, and that morality is the exclusive property of her political tribe (or, more precisely, her small circle of friends).

If I had to choose one of them to invite to dinner, it would be Starkey every time. He'd say something to outrage me, but that comes priced in with Starkey, and he wouldn't wag his finger and scold me for not believing 100% of the things he does.

I completely agree. Starkey was brought up by Quakers, meaning he will be thoughtful. His poor background means he is happy to pay tax and not try to avoid it. For these reasons I love him - and he's a brilliant historian.

He is also of his time and I definitely don't agree with his attitude on a lot of issues, but I imagine he would listen thoughtfully and make some interesting contributions. We would both probably learn something and hopefully respect each other.

Penny, though? If I asked her to consider the alternative view that even some men might exploit gender identity to prey on women, she would just keep on with her point of view.

She really is insufferable

I remember that confrontation between Starkey and Penny, which took place back in 2012.

It's true that she was very rude and interrupted him with a personal attack when he was trying to make a point.

On the other hand, he really lost the moral high ground, in my view, by responding so aggressively. I think it looks pretty crap when an older man, with a substantial public reputation and therefore a lot of social capital, lays into a young woman like that. He could simply have disagreed with her politely and asked her to let him continue making his point.

Yes, I didnt enjoy that exchange at all. Neither came away looking good.

Enjoy when she came to MN

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3244928-Laurie-Pennys-Mirror-World

Brilliant! I’ve had a soft spot for David Starkey ever since I was a 6th former nearly 50 years ago when I heard him speak about the Tudor in a local 6th form college. This is pure gold - she is such an entitled CF.