The Battle Of Ideas - The Battle for Sex Realism
Update 719. #BeMorePorcupine.
I am doing a quick post here and will skip the film series and Terf Island Discs until the next full update. The first session that I attended was so good I have skipped off for the moment to do a report on that. Hopefully sessions will be available online in due course.
The session was entitled Sex Realism in Publishing and was expertly chaired by Timandra Harkness. Obviously I was especially interested in this session as a citizen journalist myself.
writer and haulage worker
Children’s publishing is very poor quality at the moment. She mentioned theNational Library of Scotland initially banning The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht from an exhibition because of internal staff lobbying. [ Dusty - We reported on that here:https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/gremlins-a-night-at-the-movies?utm_source=publication-search ]
The editors of the book fought back and it was allowed into the exhibition and an internal review has been promised.
The publishing industry is feeble. There are a handful of small and independent publishers and there is the possibility of self-publishing. Then there is podcasting and independent media.
writer and journalist; podcast host, The Same Drugs.
She is cynical of the situation. She started being cancelled in Canada in 2015. She was an editor and columnist at Rabble News. She did an article about Laverne Cox. [ Dusty - here it is https://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/04/22/laverne-coxs-objectified-body-empowers-no-one/ ]
Loads of complaints came in about it including reference to her as a “white cis non-sex working person”!! This got the biggest laugh of the session!!
The left don’t debate - you have to agree. Her final ‘outing’ in Canada was a piece about Planned Parenthood’s use of language such as ‘menstruater’ and ‘pregnant people.’ Her boss accused her of “erasure of trans males”!!
Then she criticised Bill C16 in Canada in 2015 [ Dusty - Bill C-16 is a Canadian law that was passed in 2017 to add “gender identity or expression” to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code ].
The media in Canada is government funded. [ Dusty - to pause here I note that I find it very difficult to find Terfy news items about Canada - apart from via Meghan herself who now lives in Mexico !].
In 2019 she attended an event at Toronto public library. There were some 700 protestors outside. There was an audience of about 100. She lost a publishing deal at the time.
There is no diversity of thought in Canadian publishing.
writer and critic; former assistant, New York Times; author, Saving Culture (from itself) Substack.
Abandon the left and learn to co-exist with the right. The left is as dead as Monty Python’s parrot!! Labour exercise two-tier justice and demonise the working class. There is censorship and intimidation. Woke is driving this and this is largely because of certain left wing women! She referred to a recent report from SEEN In Journalism ( https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/new-report-on-everyday-cancellation-in-publishing/ ). She suggested that us sex realists should perhaps abandon the terms left and right.
writer, the Daily Telegraph.
Language is central. She did a 2020 Terfy piece in the Guardian and got loads of complaints. She chose to leave and is now with the Telegraph. She has not been cancelled but has lost friends as well as much access to the media and to the arts. She likes the word TERF as now meaning ‘Tired Of Explaining Reality to Fuckwits’ [ Dusty - I think that is this substack’s understanding of the term 😂 ].
Free speech is part of the battle. She referred to the recent controversy about the Polari Prize [ Dusty - see here: https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/before-sunrise?utm_source=publication-search John Boyne ].
Words are not violence! If you only get news from the Guardian, the Independent and the BBC you will not know what is going on. For example, the Guardian didn’t cover the scandal at the Tavistock. Our side of the argument is much better informed. The ‘trans activists’ are getting more deranged and violent.
social researcher; author, Evidence-Based Parenting and Teenagers – The Evidence Base.
She was the author of the recent Sex Matters report [ Dusty - https://sex-matters.org/posts/publications/everyday-cancellation-in-publishing/ ]. ‘Gender critical’ books sell much better than ‘gender ideology’ books but GI books are still being commissioned!! Some GC authors have not been able to publish. There is internal lobbying within publishers. They use the language of ‘trans exclusion’.
BBC’s Women’s Hour featured larping man Grave Lavery about his (awful) book [ Dusty - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Please_Miss ] but have not invited Helen Joyce or Kathleen Stock to talk about their books.
From The Floor
Then there were points and questions from the audience.
Someone from SEEN said that the Sex Matters’ report ( see above) and the Supreme Court judgment are beginning to improve things.
A young woman called Maeve who is at Cambridge University says Universities will be the last places to fall but she has set up a women’s only group. Go, Maeve!!
A librarian said that CILIP [ Dusty - https://www.cilip.org.uk/ ] did not speak out against the National Library of Scotland’s action ( see above). She has now complained to CILIP.
Joanna Williams said she does not like the word ‘gender’ [ Dusty - I’ll join with that!]. However the sex realists should not revert to gender stereotyping [ Dusty - don’t worry, Joanna, I don’t think there’s any danger of that - ‘Ooh, missus!’].
Back to the Panel.
Meghan said you could not have an event like this in Canada!!!
Suzanne said we should not ( of course) forget the women in Afghanistan, Iran etc
Gillian said that the BBC have failed in their duty.
Jenny said that Universities have destroyed the minds of countless young people. She said that she was not a feminist since some feminists have allowed in ‘transgender culture’.
Great session. I am now heading back for the final sessions of the day and to meet up with mates, Mark and Sue and, of course, the missus. I was talking to Kelly Dougall and her friend earlier on and managed to get my copy of ‘Terf Island’ signed by Fiona McAnena 😊
I hope you find this early report back useful. For those sending me e-mails and info I am very behind so will get back to you asap. Thanks for all the info, queries and comments that wonderful readers are sending through. Keep them coming!! I was glad to see the mention of Substack in this session.
All thoughts gratefully received.
#BeMorePorcupine
One year soon, I'm going to get to the Battle of Ideas.
It all sounds great Dusty, thanks for the update. The cool people really are those on the right these days.