So I have now read Kathleen Stock's book "Material Girls". It is thoughtful, but deeply flawed.
The best part of the book is the philosophical analysis in the first two chapters. After that it sadly degenerates into polemic.
It is also unfortunately littered with ad hominem attacks against certain academics with whom Stock disagrees, and there are instances of outright hypocrisy - for example she castigates trans activists for misrepresenting statistics, then misrepresents statistics herself.
She makes repeated assertions that are not supported by evidence and which are open to question. There are also some painful non sequiturs.
For example, she says that some women (and men) are emotionally attached to extreme stereotypes of their own sex. This is true, though probably fairly rare (and I don't see why extreme stereotypes should be called "ideals".) But...
... she then goes on to assert that because most people don't identify with these extreme stereotypes, therefore most people don't have gender identies. Eh???
I was also pretty horrified by the ableism she displays, particularly towards people on the autistic spectrum. In this excerpt she effectively asserts that children with autism are unable to determine their own gender.
It is a real pity that the clear thinking in the first part of the book did not extend into the second. I think it would have been a much better book if it had been approached more rigorously, with care taken to avoid her personal priors influencing the logic of her argument.
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Jeopardy is a general knowledge quiz show which women are every bit as capable of winning as men. The implication that it is somehow surprising that women can win it is misogynist. And so is the claim that a trans woman winning it is unfair to cis women.
Women's brains are not weaker than men's. Nor are they less capable of learning and recalling general knowledge. There is therefore no need to prevent trans women from competing as women.
Mulling over this post on technological obsolescence. The well is a good example, obviously, but so are the brickfields that once surrounded where I live.
Old maps show how, in the second half of the 19th century, the brickfields expanded from their original location close to the banks of the Medway to cover much of the area where I now live.
Census records show that male employment in the Kent brickfields rose from 3,335 in 1891 to 5,119 in 1901, an increase of 54% in just 10 years. Working on brickworks was often a family affair, including children, so total employment was higher.
Preventing trans women from entering women-only spaces cannot possibly protect women from domestic violence.
This may seem obvious, but in an interview today a prominent "gender critic" cited domestic violence as a reason to exclude trans women from women-only spaces.
I am now adding "domestic violence" to the list of spurious excuses for violating the protected rights of trans women. Along with "paedophilia", "heteronormativity" and "biology".
In the same interview the gender critic insisted that she would not use trans women's preferred pronouns, because to her they are "men". But pronouns are a linguistic convention which has nothing whatsoever to do with biological sex.
@shaunjlawson This is my first atttempt at extended writing since I broke my wrist at the end of November. It took me quite a while to write, as my wrist is still in plaster. So it pre-dates the Women and Equalities Committee's report published yesterday and linked at the end of the post.
The piece is free to read and everyone is welcome to comment. Comments are moderated, please take a look at the comments policy. I will not debate this subject on twitter.
It is fine for Rod Liddle to write a column in a newspaper read by adults. It is not fine to invite Rod Liddle to speak to children in a school, any more than it is fine to show an 18-rated movie to children in a school. I would have thought this distinction was obvious.
There is a second issue too, which is the fact that children in school have no power to decide whether or not they wish to listen to a speaker invited by the head. They are forced to attend, unlike university students who are free to walk out.
For both these reasons, therefore, I think it would be highly irresponsible of a head teacher to invite Rod Liddle - a man who has publicly expressed not only racist views, but also paedophilic inclinations - to speak to children.
Disturbing similarities between the treatment meted out to #Arthur by his father and stepmother, and the way Maria Colwell was treated by her mother and stepfather. Maria was killed by her stepfather in January 1973. mandyparrytraining.co.uk/spotlight-on-m…
Like #Arthur, Maria had a troubled family history and was known to social services. The report into Maria's death found widespread social and institutional failures - notably, communication failure between the various institutions involved.
Already, in #Arthur's case, there is disturbing evidence of communication failure between the institutions involved. Nearly half a century since Maria died - has anything really changed?