Helen Joyce Profile picture
May 18 6 tweets 2 min read Read on X
One of the most irritating thing about transactivists is the way they think everything is all about them. I don't call trans-identifying men men in order to harass them - I do it because THEY ARE men, and I'm not willing to be bullied into pretending they are not. 1/6
As well as doing it because the ordinary way to use words is to describe the facts I see, I do it because these particular facts matter. If I call a trans-identifying man - Robin Moira White, say - a woman, it's harder to say why he should stay the hell out of women's spaces.2/6
Of course this isn't harassment! It's not conduct, or a course of conduct, towards the trans person at all - it's just me speaking standard English & declining to accept the imposition of someone else's quasi-religious observances, thereby indicating a belief I do not share. 3/6
I feel the same about this as I would about a religious colleague insisting I say things like 'I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty' or 'Praise be to Allah', or a flat-earther colleague insisting I never mention that the Earth is a globe because it upsets them. 4/6
I'll tell you what really _might_ reach the threshold for harassment in the workplace: nagging a colleague to use quasi-religious wording they don't believe in, and complaining and threatening them if they won't. If someone has asked me to pretend to believe in genderism... 5/6
...and I've declined and indicated that I will continue to use ordinary, polite words in an appropriate manner according to the standard linguistic rules of the English language, they should leave me be. That's how we can all rub along: they use their words and I use mine. 6/6

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More from @HJoyceGender

May 14
Just listened back to the recording of myself on @BBCWomansHour - happy enough with it (though blackshirts not brownshirts 🤦‍♀️). I wasn't well-prepared to be asked about Robin's most stupid point - that because people sometimes bring a child of the opposite sex...1/5
into loos with them [???] checkmate transphobes. As I said - it's quite different to bring a minor of the opposite sex into the loo with you than to allow adults of the opposite sex in - a friend messaged & said she'd consider allowing Robin in if he brings his mum 🤪2/5
If I had been ready, what I would have said is this: one of the most loathsome things about transactivism is the way it weaponises women's needs and vulnerabilities against us. It's women who do most childcare, and are most likely to have to bring a child to the loo with us 3/5
Read 5 tweets
Apr 25
One of the stranger things about getting involved in the sex'n'gender stuff is discovering that some law firms, and lawyers, invent both facts and the law. I'm so puzzled at how anyone is willing to be their paying client. 1/5 rollonfriday.com/news-content/e…
This piece describes law firm Brabner's initial take on the Supreme Court judgment in FWS: "The case in question arose from a challenge brought by a transgender woman who was seeking to compete in elite-level women’s sport", hallucinated the firm. 🤪2/5
It then moves on to two serial offenders: Robin Moira White and Jolyon Maugham. RMW says: "refusal to accept a trans person's gender identify [probably supposed to be identity]" constitutes transphobia - which would now appear to catch the justices of the Supreme Court. 🤪🤪3/5
Read 5 tweets
Apr 17
Yesterday and today I gave some longer interviews to several news organisations live from the Supreme Court in Westminster, and then from their studios, about the historic Supreme Court judgment in the case of @ForWomenScot - a thread. 1/6
First, the Daily T podcast, with @CamillaTominey and @kamalahmednews - Julie Bindel @bindelj and Emma Hartley @hartleythinking were also interviewed 2/6
Then around the corner to the @spectator offices, where Michael Foran @mforan and I did a joint interview with Lucy Dunn 3/6
Read 6 tweets
Apr 16
Since the amazing, wonderful judgment this morning, I and my colleagues have been running around, giving interviews, talking to journalists who have FINALLY woken up to the fact that the law has been misrepresented and misunderstood for years. 1/6 spectator.co.uk/article/suprem…
We haven't had a moment to breathe. And I still can't quite believe it - this judgment couldn't be a more resounding endorsement of the arguments we and other women have been consistently making, that you cannot protect everyone's human rights... 2/6 telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/1…
...if you pretend in anti-discrimination law that humans can change sex. That pretence harms women's rights, and especially lesbians' rights. The Supreme Court came to the right decision - the one that makes the law clear and simple to apply... 3/6 sex-matters.org/posts/updates/…
Read 6 tweets
Apr 7
When I heard that a researcher for John Oliver had been emailing campaigners for women's rights to ask biased questions about trans-identifying men in women's sports, I thought the researcher (a trans-identifying man) simply HAD to be freelancing. 1/3
It was beyond belief that Oliver would seriously spend time on yet another idiotic defence of men cheating (only a few, most oppressed minority, women should just be kind) IN THE WEEK THAT TRUMP DECIDED TO DESTROY THE WORLD ECONOMY, AMERICA FIRST. 2/3
I guess I still underestimate just how much some men hate & despise women, & how many women will clap along because they despise women too, or simply in order to suck up to men. A mistake I'll no doubt make again. Anyway, my contempt for Oliver has increased even further 3/3
Read 4 tweets
Apr 6
I've seen scepticism about whether OLF really tried hard to find someone to debate me. Believe me - they tried. One of those invited, Constantine Sandis, said he wouldn't share a platform with me, and was instead given a separate event - it's tomorrow 1/9 oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-eve…
In the same venue, the Sheldonian. He's sharing that platform with Sophie Grace Chappell. I hope their moderator provides some pushback. But I'll note that the moderator is, like both panellists, a man, so this is a manel talking about a subject that largely affects women 2/9
In discussion about the event with OLF I said I wasn't willing to appear alongside people I regard as malevolent clowns. That wasn't my precise wording - I believe I said "no monkeys, only organ-grinders". What I meant by that was - only serious people. 3/9
Read 9 tweets

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