I've been predicting for several years what's happening on the gender identity front at the moment, ie a backlash, not just from the far right, but from a wide range of socially conservative people who are offended &/or frightened by facets of the current GI orthodoxy.
1/ I couldn't foresee the myriad of post-covid, & loony-right groups honing in on the sex vs gender identity debates, in addition to the usual array of ultra-right warren-dwellers whose presence has served to accelerate & complicate the issues.
2/

For the moral pretzels out there, I'll say this again – when you PUNCH anyone in the head, you risk causing severe injury or even death.
Facts:
Men on average punch way harder than women. Most young men can punch way, way harder than most women & probably all old women.
1/ Most older women will have loss of bone density; some will have severe bone loss.
The spinal vertebrae are especially at risk of fracture & in some, bone loss is so severe, even a violent sneeze can result in a fracture. An older person may not know they're that vulnerable.
1/

In case anyone hasn't realised, I'm an old socialist feminist - "old" in both the chronological & time-served senses.
I don't play the person, preferring to address what I see as the core issues.
I'm not claiming to be correct always, but I do claim principle & rationality.
-> There's a schism on the left & in the newly energised women's rights movement.
IMO, schisms serve one set of interests – it's not women, it's not trans people & its most certainly not all those beings in the world at greatest risk of harm in this volatile & dangerous era.
->

It's grimly fascinating to see people who'd protest loudly if anyone victim-blamed an assaulted woman for dressing the "wrong way", or being in the wrong place at the wrong time – doing just that to the mainly older women who attended the Auckland "Let Women Speak" rally.
1/ It’s almost as riveting as someone feverishly likening those chaotic scenes to the "ANZACs keeping Nazism from our shores”.

Or, likening it to opposing the Springbok tour back in the day.
2/

This is the result of being hyped up on adrenaline, testosterone disinhibition & moral certitude.
It's also abject cowardice.
What do you suppose the likes of this brave SJW would've done to PP if he'd got his hands on her.
Had a nice chat?

https://twitter.com/l1ber_te/status/1639917380569821185

No doubt there will be some who'll try to excuse this by saying "but she supports PP so she's a Nazi & it's okay to punch Nazis".
Is it okay to cause broken bones, brain damage or death, because when a young man punches an elderly person in the head, it's likely outcome.

1/ I'm not a fan of Spiked but when people with huge social media followings call for a book to be burned before it's even been published - what passes for the broad Left these days needs to pull its collective head out of the sand

spiked-online.com/2020/09/16/now… 2/ before a tidal wave of extreme social conservatism sweeps away all the advances of the past 100 years.

Rowling's become either the villain or the hero in this 21st century melodrama largely scripted for social media.

Those for whom she's the former seem to have lost the

Interesting UN data on 'femicide':

1/
87,000 women were recorded as intentionally killed in 2017.

58 % were killed by intimate partners or family members ie 137 women across the world are killed by a member of their own family every day. 2/
Oceania accounts for the largest share of all the regions in terms of women killed exclusively by intimate partners, at 42 % while Europe accounts for the lowest, at 29 %.

Old feminist here. May I say this is one of the more patronising comments I've seen on the subject & Twitter fair heaves with them.
I was going to answer @thewildernerd directly but I thought a multi tweet reply was a tad instrusive. cont / 2/ So Michael, what was women's oppression rooted in, if not the female role in reproduction?

Bear in mind we've been a discrete species for 250k years; recorded history is about 10k; capitalism - 450yrs; the digital/plastic age - about 50yrs. cont/