Aussie-Kiwi-American. Several qualifications, some more useful than others.
Australia
Joined January 2019
- Tweets4.3K
- Following284
- Followers228
- Likes3.2K
Bun retweeted
1/ One great Patrick Stewart anecdote from his memoir: He was cast in David Lynch's DUNE, in which he gave a commanding performance. Uncharacteristically, Lynch was cold and weird toward him and the shoot was torture because Lynch was so odd...
There is now a new goal for writers that lets you know that you have truly arrived as an author.
Since Clive James denied me the opportunity to be done down in print in the literary reviews by inconveniently expiring, I’ve wondered what my new metric should be.
I must confess that my unexpected appearance on Mumsnet has been rather educational.
Until now, my knowledge of the place was largely confined to occasional screenshots, second-hand accounts and the sort of folklore one picks up while wandering through the less salubrious districts of the internet.
This was my first proper expedition.
I had initially assumed that someone had casually mentioned my essay in passing. A perfectly unremarkable occurrence. Someone writes something on X, somebody else shares it elsewhere, and the world continues turning upon its axis.
Imagine my surprise upon discovering that I'd apparently become the subject of a modest public inquiry.
My intelligence, masculinity, literary qualifications, psychological disposition, political affiliations and presumed resentment of successful women had all been submitted for consideration.
Naturally, I was delighted.
I had written an essay about J.K. Rowling and somehow acquired an unofficial biographical committee.
Some of the ladies and gentlemen did attempt to address the arguments, and I appreciate the effort. Others appeared rather more interested in reconstructing my personality from the available evidence, which consisted principally of a few thousand words and an unusually theatrical manner of expressing myself.
Still, I understand that several contributors have suggested I might like to register and make an appearance.
How very hospitable.
But I really must decline.
I have no particular desire to descend upon Mumsnet like an excessively verbose Spanish conquistador, unfurl my standards in the town square and demand that the assembled mothers of Britain answer for their remarks.
You have your community. I have mine.
You're perfectly entitled to discuss, criticise, ridicule and dissect anything I publish. I rather enjoy the idea that something I've written might generate conversation somewhere I've never visited.
And I have no particular desire to antagonise women going about their business on a forum simply because some of them have been unkind about me.
I realise this may be disappointing to those who have already concluded that I am an embittered misogynist with an insatiable appetite for female humiliation.
But there we are.
This is me respecting your space and your boundaries.
I trust the irony will receive the careful consideration it deserves.
In the meantime, please carry on.
I shall remain here, safely on the other side of the internet, where I can continue committing aggravated pomposity without inconveniencing the residents.
And if another essay finds its way across the border, I can assure you it will have travelled entirely of its own accord.
I have enough trouble keeping the bloody things under control as it is.
So good.
A little thought experiment for Mr Sapir.
You're walking down the street with someone you love when they suddenly collapse, clutching their stomach and screaming in agony. You call an ambulance. A crowd gathers. People offer assistance. Humanity, for once, rises magnificently to the occasion.
Then a gentleman elbows his way through the crowd, produces a Swiss Army knife and announces that your loved one has suffered a ruptured appendix. Immediate surgery is required. Fortunately, he is here.
As he begins lifting their shirt, you grab his wrist.
"What the FUCK are you doing?"
"Performing an emergency appendectomy."
"Are you a surgeon?"
"No."
"A doctor?"
"No."
"Have you received ANY medical training whatsoever?"
The gentleman looks positively scandalised.
"My good man, surely you understand that expertise is about competence in applying the scientific method, rather than merely possessing formal credentials? I've read extensively on the subject and consider myself considerably more knowledgeable than many qualified physicians."
Now, here's the question, Leor.
Do you let this magnificent bastard open your loved one's abdomen with a Swiss Army knife, or do you succumb to the intellectually bankrupt tyranny of credentialism?
Because here's the thing. Qualifications aren't infallible, and outsiders can make valuable scientific contributions. But expertise requires demonstrable competence, and that competence isn't established by announcing that you've understood the scientific method better than everyone else.
Otherwise, every lunatic with a scalpel, a Substack subscription and an unshakeable conviction in his own intellectual superiority is suddenly a consultant surgeon.
And the rest of us are apparently anti-science for refusing to climb onto his operating table.
Dont forget sending them to the countryside for re-education…
Nailed it. These crazed people in my replies screaming for segregation of the sexes don’t realise that the legal and financial backers of the GC movement are religious conservatives trying to overturn existing equality legislation.
Where are these 100’s of men trying to get into women’s toilets? Are they in the room with you right now?
Why did you start a new thread? Was it because everyone on that thread called you a halfwit?
Should be quite time-consuming, starting a new thread to answer every single post.
You stated: "Women fought for the right to EQUALITY of the sexes and to END protective legislation that segregated the sexes."
Nobody fought to end single sex safeguards and facilities. Just like when (real) women did get the vote, there weren't 100s of males lining up at every women's public toilet all those years ago. Because the whole world understood what 'equality' meant.
Still haven't cleared up the last point, so I'll assume it's 'dick-pandering fuckwit'.
The funniest thing about this is all the crazed people in the replies screaming that all men are, in fact, predators and agreeing that society must be segregated.
Taking a leaf from such bigots as racists, they don’t even realise how effed up they sound.
Actually scratch that, your average racist has more discretion than these crazies.
So in this weeks episode of GC’s having a normal one, we have apparently learned from them that:
- all men are possibly predators and must be safeguarded against.
- all male doctors must be safeguarded against.
- all male hairdressers must be safeguarded against.
- I am a man. Or I might be trans. They can always tell or something.
- @socfemoz and @Funfems are definitely men.
- Segregation (their word) of the sexes is the only safe option.
- They have a right to live in a segregated society.
I’ve seen this kind of rhetoric before about race and it doesn’t lead anywhere good.
It is utterly disingenuous to pretend a discourse about a NSW Health policy that says that you can’t request a doctor of your preferred sex in a public hospital emergency department is actually about toilet cubicles.
New one for the list:
- All men are loaded guns and must be handled with care.
Phrasing, people. Are we still doing phrasing? 😂
Me: NSW Health policy is that you can’t request a doctor of your preferred sex in a public hospital emergency department because of staffing constraints.
Vanderbilt: F#%CK YOU, TRANSWOMEN MISOGYNIST, TOILETS, PERVERTS.
Really? You don't think it was the right to vote, get an education, hold a bank account, equal pay for equal work, get an education and be equally involved in society?
You seriously think it was to let male perverts into changing rooms with little girls?
Emily Davidson jumped in front of the king's horse so blokes can grow wank-moobs and take women's places on all female shortlists?
What are you, a particularly misogynist trannee male, transhausen parent or just a dick-pandering, mindless fuckwit?
I wonder if Jenny remembers the recent case of the female nurse who killed all those babies? Should we safeguard against female nurses working with children?
unavailable
You obviously don’t know what protective legislation is.
Protective legislation was the norm until the 1970’s in Australia, the US and the UK and is still extant in places like India which still has a ban on night shift. It’s premised on the idea that women are vulnerable and need protection from men in sex segregated facilities and workplaces. In practice, it meant women were banned from eg public bars and couldn’t work in many jobs, particularly those requiring night shifts. There was an international workers union ban on women doing nightshift except for nursing which required sex segregated nurses quarters on site. So women were eg not allowed to work as bakers in 1970’s Australia. Women also couldn’t continue working if they got married as they might get pregnant and be even more vulnerable, so eg the Commonwealth Bank fired you if you got married.
So yes, we certainly f*cking DID vote to end protective legislation and sex segregation.
Women fought for the right to EQUALITY of the sexes and to END protective legislation that segregated the sexes. You’re the one sleep walking into undoing 60 years of progress.
