Cold Mountain Part 1

Update 370 Twitter Storm Special

I am splitting this update into two parts, dear readers, to make it more digestible (I hope!).

Sticking with the Aussie theme from the last leading female, No 34 in the Leading Female Season is Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain. Thanks to two readers for suggesting Ms Kidman.

When North Carolina secedes from the Union on May 20, 1861, the young men of Cold Mountain enlist in the Confederate States Army. Among them is W.P. Inman (Jude Law), a carpenter who has fallen in love with Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), the preacher's daughter who came from South Carolina to care for her father. Their courtship is interrupted by the war, but they share their first kiss the day Inman leaves for battle. Ada promises to wait for him.

Eventually Inman does return.

Renée Zellweger is Ruby Thewes who works for Ada.

Thanks to the usual two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.

He’s A Man!

Thanks to my wife for keeping me abreast of this saga.

A trans identifying man( a man, in other words) has taken over as manager of a senior women’s football club.

This led JK Rowling to tweet as follows: https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1790004839595774458

This led to some other men getting very upset:

https://twitter.com/AhmedBaba_/status/1789815922787500063

This led to Glinner pointing out:

https://twitter.com/Glinner/status/1789958136096301106

This led to this piece by Lauren Smith on Spiked:

JK Rowling has every right to call a man a man

No, the Harry Potter author didn’t ‘bully’ that wig-wearing football manager. (13 May)

Once again, it has fallen to the bestselling author of children’s fantasy novels to give the rest of the adult world a reality check. JK Rowling is back in the news because she dared to refer to a man as a man.

At the weekend, LGBT organisation Pride posted on X to celebrate 51-year old Lucy Clark becoming ‘the first trans manager in the top five division of English women’s football’. Clark also holds the somewhat niche accomplishment of being the world’s first openly trans football referee. Attached to the post was a picture of Clark. It showed a bulky man in a costume-shop wig and padded bra.

Responding to the X post, Rowling, the Harry Potter author and bête noire of the trans movement, sarcastically quipped: ‘When I was young all the football managers were straight, white, middle-aged blokes, so it’s fantastic to see how much things have changed.’

Pride then swiftly deleted not only the tweet in question, but also its entire account on X, presumably out of embarrassment.

Trans activists online were quick to denounce Rowling for her supposed ‘cruelty’ and ‘bullying’ of Clark. Even some anti-PC liberals got involved. New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait chimed in to scold her. ‘Just call people what they want to be called’, he said. ‘It’s basic decency.’ Clark himself even responded, complaining of ‘another day of hate-fuelled transphobia against me’.

But was Rowling really being a bully? After all, she was simply telling the truth. Clark, who has a wife and child and who began his transition in 2018, is simply not a woman. As his photo clearly shows.

As Rowling has rightly pointed out, ‘Crossdressing straight men are currently one of the most pandered-to demographics in existence, and women are under no obligation to applaud the people caricaturing us’. We must all have the right to call a man a man.

Which prompted Debbie Hayton to get involved in The Spectator:

JK Rowling is playing with fire (13 May)

The transgender debate has a habit of bringing out the worst in people. It’s no wonder, really. It’s an issue rooted in identity – and therefore close to people’s hearts – and spiced up with the fear that fundamental concepts like the meaning of the words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ might be redefined by others, and to their advantage. It’s then hosted on social media – an environment where grown adults seem to forget that there are real life human beings involved.

Even the rich and famous can succumb. Over the weekend, JK Rowling became embroiled in an unedifying spat over a transgender football manager. This is not premier league stuff. Lucy Clark hit the headlines in 2018 as the ‘world’s first ever transgender football referee’. Clark has now become the ‘first trans manager in the top five divisions of English women’s football.’

While the news was clearly important to a social media account calling itself @prideukorg, it’s not clear to me why anyone should really care. Football management is open to both sexes, and whoever a club chooses to manage its team is a matter for it and its supporters. However, it bothered Rowling enough to tell her 14.1 million followers on Twitter that, ‘When I was young all the football managers were straight, white, middle-aged blokes, so it’s fantastic to see how much things have changed.’

Any uncertainty over her mood was dispelled when she reacted to the inevitable outrage that followed. Mail Online suggested that she had compared Clark to a ‘straight, white, middle-aged bloke’. Rowling’s response was cutting, ‘I didn’t compare him to one. He IS one’.

Whether you agree with Rowling or not, her tone is remarkably different to the essay she wrote in 2020 when she set out her reasons for speaking out on sex and gender. Then, she wrote: ‘Trans people need and deserve protection’, and ‘I want trans women to be safe.’ Perhaps she has changed her mind in the four years that have passed? But in a lengthy and considered statement posted just last month she added:

‘Some people feel strongly that they should have been, or wish to be seen as, the sex class into which they weren’t born. Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it. I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety.’

Has she changed her mind in a month? Or is she being manipulated by her environment? Twitter might have rebranded itself as X, but the rules of the game are the same. The quote-Tweet is possibly the most brutal weapon that exists on social media – especially in the hands of influencers with thousands of followers. Anything an opponent says can be captured and broadcast to your audience. Sarcasm, ridicule, or downright abuse then set the tone for the mob who can ‘pile on’ and deluge the original with more of the same, and worse.

If Twitter is anything it is a great leveller. Notable people with huge followings inhabit the same space as private individuals. But as well as sharing the same medium, human beings also share the same emotions. We like to be noticed and when the likes and (friendly) replies flood into the phone, dopamine can flood the brain. No matter who you are, this has the potential to become addictive.

Social media followers then often demand increasingly direct and shocking posts to stay on board. Is this happening to Rowling? That’s not for me to say, but her output has become increasingly single-issue. Even the man in charge of the platform has noticed. Last week, Elon Musk told Rowling that, ‘While I heartily agree with your points regarding sex/gender, may I suggest also posting interesting and positive content on other matters?’ But those ‘other matters’ might not bring in the hits.

Of course, we all have a right to say what we think. But politics is about persuading people as well as playing to the crowd. And while your social media followers might applaud your every word, your one negative comment in a hundred can be dissected, quoted – most likely out of context – and broadcast to startled bystanders who have yet to pick a side. Kindness is a virtue, and lack of kindness can be off-putting. 

It does seem that gender identity ideology is on the wane, at least in the UK. There are many people who helped to push it back, but JK Rowling is surely one of the most notable. She came out publicly for the first time in 2019 in support of Maya Forstater who had been forced out of her job for saying that people cannot change their biological sex. Rowling’s courage had a profound impact on campaigners when it seemed more likely that science, reason and common sense would become trampled underfoot.

Rowling’s contribution continues to be immense, but she does not need to attack individuals on social media. Yes her frustration is justified. But as I might ask children in my class who have said what they thought rather than what is wise: is it helpful? Is it necessary? And is it true? Unless all three answers are affirmative then maybe it is best not to say it at all.

IMO JKR is, of course, completely correct and spot on. And, Mr Hayton, that is a classic instance of the pot calling the kettle black! You say you know you are a man. Then you should go to the school where you teach dressed as a man not as a woman thus gaslighting the children ( to say nothing of your fellow teachers). And let’s not go into the situation you have placed your wife and children in. I expect you spent much, much less time writing that drivel for the Spectator than I am spending here doing these two updates. I suggest you pay your fee back to them. I’m doing this for free BTW!

This update is a bastion of free speech, of course, so please let us know what you think in the comments. I would even be happy to publish a short piece of your opinion if you wanted me to.

Women’s Rights Network

Just two pieces from their latest excellent newsletter. I am in touch with one of the women who was at the Derby screening and she says a great day was had by all 😎 Unfortunately she does not appear in the video clip.

Derby Screening of Adult Human Female (11 May)

Last month’s successful screening of Adult Human Female took quite some work from WRN Derby, the University of Derby, and Academics for Academic Freedom. You can now hear from the organisers on any device you have, wherever you are.

Solidarity With Women Writers in France (11 May)

The two women who wrote Transmania: An Inquiry into the Extremes of Transgender Ideology are facing calls for their murder simply because they argue that being a woman is not a feeling but a biological reality. Paris has banned public advertisements for the book and French advertising firm JCDecaux said the posters had been removed, and “apologised to people who could have been hurt by them”.

Dora Moutot, one of the book's authors, denounced "censorship based on assumptions rather than an analysis of the contents" of the book. She said she and co-author Marguerite Stern had interviewed trans people for it and posted, "It is a sourced investigation into puberty blockers and certain actors who push for gender transitions and make a profit from it.”

WRN stands with Dora Moutot and Marguerite Stern. 

Dusty - and so do I and I’m sure so do all of us - brave ladies!

We say, “Solidarité avec nos sœurs de la France! Solidarity with the women of France and @doramoutot @Margueritestern. Men have been clamouring to drown women for centuries. Now the new ‘witches’ are those who dare to assert themselves as women and hold fast to our rights”.

The Civil Service

It appears that some in the Civil Service and the unions have not yet caught up with the Cass review!! But well done, Esther McVey!!

Martin Beckford in The Mail Online ( EXCLUSIVE Civil servants could go on strike over government policies they claim are 'transphobic' - as main trade union for Whitehall staff is to consider calls for 'industrial and legal action' over 'any new anti-trans guidance' 13 May) reports:

Civil servants could go on strike over government policies they say are transphobic.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which represents Whitehall staff, is set to consider calls for ‘industrial and legal action’ over ‘any new anti-trans guidance’.

A motion over the issue has been tabled by two of the union’s branches for the PCS’s conference later this month.

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It cites the Department for Education’s draft guidance which warns teachers against letting pupils identify as the opposite sex without parental consent as an example.

The motion says this ‘would make life harder for trans and non-binary school students’.

The full article is here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13410167/Civil-servants-strike-government-policies-claim-transphobic-main-trade-union-Whitehall-staff-consider-calls-industrial-legal-action-new-anti-trans-guidance.html

Dominic Penna in The Telegraph (Esther McVey pledges to ban rainbow lanyards in the Civil Service 13 May) reports:

Ms McVey MARTYN WHEATLEY/I-IMAGES© Provided by The Telegraph

Rainbow lanyards are to be banned in the Civil Service, Esther McVey has announced.

The minister for common sense warned mandarins they should not try to express political views “by the back door” through rainbow-coloured lanyards that are worn to demonstrate support for LGBT rights.

Ms McVey said the Government would instead introduce a standard design for all Whitehall and departmental staff to show a commitment to “delivering for the citizens of the UK”.

Rainbow lanyards were banned by the Scottish Parliament in March over concerns that the design could lead to accusations of bias.

Dusty - Cor blimey! The Scottish Parliament has done something sensible!!

In a speech for the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, Ms McVey said: “We want work to be a happy, inclusive place, not one where division can be sowed and people feel pressured. I want a very simple but visible change to occur too.

“The lanyards worn to carry security passes shouldn’t be a random pick and mix, they should be a standard design reflecting that we are all members of the Government, delivering for the citizens of the UK.

“Working in the Civil Service is all about leaving your political views at the building entrance. Trying to introduce them by the back door via lanyards should not happen.”

The full article is here:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/esther-mcvey-pledges-to-ban-rainbow-lanyards-in-the-civil-service/ar-BB1mjdoD?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=7ffd678a66944fdab2e1a47aff82a054&ei=25

Glenn TV

I can’t speak for the approach of Glenn TV on other topics but this is an excellent analysis of ‘gender affirming care’ including an interview with Mia Hughes who wrote The WPATH Files and with a detransitioner.

Amateur Surgeon Jailed

In case you missed it, EDI Jester reports on the jailing of a man for removing genitals from other men. He was not medically trained but Barry asks the question: ‘What is the big difference between this and gender surgery?’

Good question!

Women’s Prisons

Thanks as ever to Feminist Legal Clinic for this piece. A real FFS report!!!

Male Inmate Charged with Raping Woman Inside California Women’s Prison, CDCR Confirms Pregnancy ( 12 May)

Natalie* had been housed with Tremaine Carroll in a prison cell in Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) for just a few days when she says he attacked her in the shower and raped her. According to charges filed by the Madera County District Attorney’s office – which includes enhancements because Tremaine has prior sex offenses – there was at least one other victim at the prison besides Natalie.

Before California passed SB 132, “The Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act”, the law already allowed males who had surgery, and were deemed to not pose a “management and security risk”, to request housing in women’s facilities. However, the law did not allow men with penises, or those who were considered too dangerous, to be housed with women, regardless of gender identity. That all changed when California passed SB 132, which went into effect in 2021.

After serving nearly two decades of his sentence, Tremaine began identifying as a woman and seeking transfer to a women’s facility shortly before SB 132 went into effect. The law was intended to facilitate the transfer of male inmates like Tremaine, who had penises and did not meet security standards for “gender identity” based housing in the women’s prison.

SB 132 is being challenged by four women who have already experienced harm from this policy: Janine Chandler, Krystal Gonzales, Tomiekia Johnson, and Nadia Romero, who are represented by the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF).

Tremaine is one of four intervenors in the lawsuit, represented by the ACLU of Southern California and other advocacy groups supporting the right of male prisoners to self-identify into women’s prisons. Even if they have ordinary male anatomy. Even if they are sex offenders. In a sworn declaration to the court, Tremaine stated, “I am not a threat” to the women at CCWF.  Now, he is charged with forcibly raping two of them and has been moved back to the men’s facility.

The Transgender Law Center and ACLU of Southern California, representing Carroll in the case, did not immediately reply to comment.

Tremaine is just one of the many dangerous men with whom the women in California prisons are now forced to live. One-third of the men requesting transfer into California women’s prisons are sex offenders. According to FOIA requests, 50% of men in federal prison who identify as women are sex offenders. This is likely understating the problem – Tremaine himself is not considered “sex offenders” under this definition, despite his first- and second-strike offenses being for a kidnapping which included “forced oral copulation.”

Source: Male Inmate Charged with Raping Woman Inside California Women’s Prison, CDCR Confirms Pregnancy

Endpiece

Thanks again to my wife for this 😊

https://twitter.com/marycatedelvey/status/1789331743259930671

The next Part will follow as soon as feasible, Terven.

If you like this update, please send to a friend. Until next time, Terven. This isn’t over yet! Please subscribe for free, like and comment.