OK, OK any excuse for a strong ( very strong) female lead. Erin Brockovich is a 2000 American biographical legal drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film is a dramatisation of the true story of Erin Brockovich, portrayed by Julia Roberts, who fought against the energy corporation Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) regarding its culpability for the Hinkley groundwater contamination incident.
Plus Erin Brockovich reminds me a lot of someone else. Let me think. I think the name begins with a K? Or is it a P? :)
That is no 11 in the Addled Brain series! :)
OK, back to the coal face…what have we got today?
Sunak 1 Starmer 0
Sam Lister and Martyn Brown in The Daily Express ( Starmer refuses to apologise for ‘hounding' MP in her fight for women's rights 27 April) report:
Sir Keir Starmer refused to apologise to Rosie Duffield for the way she has been treated by the party in her fight for women's rights. The Labour MP revealed in the Daily Express last week that she has been "hounded and harassed" over the views about the clash between trans and women's rights.
…
She said a clique around the party's leader had left her isolated after their "non-stop" abuse.
But Sir Keir dodged questions from our paper about why he had not offered her any support or if he wanted to apologise.
He said: "Look, I listen carefully to what Rosie Duffield says, listen carefully to what very many women in the parliamentary Labour Party say and provide support wherever we can and that is the appropriate and the right thing to do.
"I do think that when it comes to issues on which there are strong and different views, we need to create in particular the environment of respect and tolerance, to have the debates that we need to have and I've said that openly on a number of occasions."
Pressed on the issue, he added: "Well, I mean, I obviously talked to Rosie Duffield a number of occasions and I'm very happy to continue those discussions. Of course.
"I think the most important thing is to create those circumstances of respect and tolerance. There are different views on some of these issues.
"It doesn't serve anybody well to have an environment where we're not respecting and tolerating each other in other terms that we will have that respect and tolerance."
It comes after Rishi Sunak backed our crusade to protect women's rights.
The Prime Minister attacked Sir Keir's "questionable" record on women when the pair clashed in the Commons yesterday.
Mr Sunak said the Labour leader needs to work out "what a woman is" before "preaching" about his party's proposals to make teaching respect for women and girls part of the national curriculum.
It followed a question by Conservative Tim Loughton who, said: "Given that the Leader of the Opposition apparently doesn't know what a woman is, that he won't stand up to defend women in his own party voicing views on women's rights and, according to his own frontbench, failed to prosecute rapists when he was in charge as DPP (director of public prosecutions), does (Mr Sunak) think the Labour Party are in any position to teach anyone about respect for women, and is irony dead?"
Sir Keir could be seen shaking his head as Mr Loughton spoke in the Commons.
Mr Sunak said the Tory MP was "absolutely right".
"The Leader of the Opposition's record on women is questionable at best," he added.
"Before Labour do start preaching about this issue, they should work out the answer to one very simple question: I'm certain what a woman is - is he?"
Meanwhile, Conservative MP Angela Richardson quizzed ministers on the "importance of protecting" single-sex spaces.
Equalities minister Stuart Andrew said: "We are committed to maintaining the safeguard that allows organisations to provide single-sex spaces.
"It is important that the principle of being able to operate spaces that are reserved for women and girls.
"The Government is committed to tackling harassment and abusive behaviour by all individuals and ensuring that single-sex spaces are safe."
These are fine words but we need more action from the Government. We need firm school guidance on sex education and other issues. We need the Tavistock and Gids closed. We need the Equality Act amended to make it clear that the protected characteristic relates to biological women and biological men ( see further below).
KJK today also looks at politics and the upcoming Party of Women:
EDI Jester also addresses this topic in his usual entertaining way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtmg-90ckXg&t=6s
More from EDI
On the subject of the prolific Jester, he also addresses conversion therapy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCKW1-W7DB8
He further discusses a totally bonkers proposed re-definition of ‘transphobia’ by the Australian Greens which would make it virtually impossible to say anything about this subject and the great news that LGB Alliance are setting up LGB groups in universities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMr1rgPwf_g
Minnesota paedophile law
I can’t really believe this but we have long suspected that some of the trans activists ( or anti-women activists as I now prefer to call them) have very, very suspect motives. Reduxx reports that a trans identifying male state representative in Minnesota has moved to strike a clause in the state legislation that prevented paedophilia from being classified as a sexual orientation. If adopted, "sexual attachment to children" could become a protected characteristic!! We had better start calling them anti-children activists as well! This man should be investigated!!
https://twitter.com/ReduxxMag/status/1651298797660565506
Non-violent resistance
Excellent article by the Feminist Legal Clinic about non-violent resistance by women against the Nazis during the Second World War - Spying, sabotage, subversion, people-smuggling: the brave women who resisted the Nazis through non-violence.
In answer to their final question, I do think that military force was required to defeat the Nazis but fully agree that it is shameful that these non-violent actions by women who often lost their lives as a result have been woefully ignored. I think non-violent action is the way forward for our gender critical/ pro women movement.
Additionally women were drafted into munitions factories, military operation rooms and other factories and locations to help in the fight - see the Rosie the Riveter campaign at the time in the States:
Do read the article:
Adult Human Female
A second attempt at screening this excellent film at Edinburgh University was again thwarted by anti-women activists. A disabled woman was prevented from entering the building and Elaine Miller bravely confronted the activists. The stewards seemed to be mainly concerned at making sure the event didn’t occur rather than enabling people to enter the building!!
https://twitter.com/_Ross_Hunter/status/1651260062348853254
More advances in the States
John Hanna in the Associated Press (Kansas legislators impose sweeping anti-trans bathroom law 27 April) reports:
Kansas Governor, Laura Kelly
Republican legislators in Kansas have enacted what may be the most sweeping transgender bathroom law in the U.S. on Thursday, overriding the Democratic governor's veto of the measure without having a clear idea of how their new law will be enforced.
The vote in the House was 84-40, giving supporters exactly the two-thirds majority they needed to override Gov. Laura Kelly's action. The vote in the Senate on Wednesday was 28-12 and the new law will take effect July 1.
At least eight other states have enacted laws preventing transgender people from using the restrooms associated with their gender identities, but most of them apply to schools. The Kansas law applies also to locker rooms, prisons, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers.
The Kansas law is different than most other states' laws in that it legally defines male and female based on a person's reproductive anatomy at birth and declares that “distinctions between the sexes” in bathrooms and other spaces serves “the important governmental objectives of protecting the health, safety and privacy.” Earlier this week, North Dakota enacted a law that prohibits transgender children and adults to access bathrooms, locker rooms or showers in dormitories of state-run colleges and correctional facilities.
I would prefer to refer to this as a pro-women rather than an anti-trans law but good news anyway :)
In the defence of the Equality Act
There has been some talk about whether the Equality Act (EqA) 2010 should be repealed. I am utterly opposed to this as it would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. This Act is vital for women.
The problem lies not with the EqA but with the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) 2004 and the For Women Scotland case against the Scottish Government where Lady Haldane stated:
“The meaning of sex for the purposes of the 2010 Act, 'sex' is not limited to biological or birth sex, but includes those in possession of a GRC [ Gender Recognition Certificate] obtained in accordance with the 2004 Act stating their acquired gender, and thus their sex."
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23188087.women-scotland-lose-legal-case-definition-woman/
In other words, Lady Haldane decided, as it were, that the GRA trumps the EqA. This is why the definition in the EqA needs to be strengthened to make it clear that sex refers to biological sex. Following the brilliant Sex Matters and Women’s Rights Network petition this is what has been proposed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and it seems that the Westminster Government are intent on doing this. A debate in Parliament is coming up soon.
For a full discussion on all these issues, see the Sex Matters website:
The Times
I am still working through the Times cuttings from Fingers! Bear with me!
Stop Press
I have been through all the cuttings now and most of them are either about different matters or cover things I have already sufficiently covered. So the only thing I think it is worth quoting is a letter to the editor on 23 April referring to a previous report on guidance to schools:
I would have jumped at the chance to be the opposite sex. I despised my own sex and everything associated with it. I never cried, I would pick fights and behave aggressively. I didn’t want to be the female me.
Now I think how silly I was. I can’t believe I ever felt that way, and for so many years. But these situations are real for the people going through them and it is support that is needed - support for the younger me, and for those going through these feelings now. I wish them all luck.
Hear, hear!
Cat with abs of steel
Following the example of JL who often finishes a Good News Supplement on Glinner with a cat video, here is ‘ the cat with abs of steel’ :)
If you like this update, please share with a friend. Until next time, Terven. This isn’t over yet! Please subscribe for free, like and comment.
Re "We had better start calling them anti-children activists as well!" how about "anti-women and children activists (AWACAs)"? ... or just Gender Identity Theorists (GITs)?