Mick Hartley

Author: Mick Hartley

  • Top women

    The latest BBC’s 100 Women list, and….well, of course you knew there'd be a man:

    The BBC has included a transgender Colombian scientist in its annual list of 100 inspiring women, just days after sparking controversy over its choice for women’s footballer of the year.

    Every year, the broadcaster compiles a list of women who have achieved great things in public life.

    Its nominees include transgender biologist Brigitte Baptiste, described in the citation as a “trans woman” who “explores the common patterns between biodiversity and gender identity”.

    The BBC says the scientist uses a “queer lens to analyse landscapes and species in a bid to expand the notion of ‘nature’ to better protect ecosystems”.

    In a 2018 TED talk, Baptiste claimed scientists had discovered “transsexual” palm trees and stated that the “change of sex and gender has been reported regularly in science”. On this basis, she argued that it was wise to do away with ideas of “naturalness” in nature, stating: “There is nothing more queer than nature.”

    Right. Naturalists are reporting how they can't tell which animals are male and which are female any more, the amount of transitioning that goes on.

    This is BBC 100 Women’s 11th year, and in only two of those years has the list comprised 100 women.

  • The fall of the Oxford Union

    October 7th massacres. The vast majority of the room remained still. Here was an Oxford Union audience which would have buried its head in the sand over the barbaric Palestinian terrorism of that dark day, without trying to prevent it at all.

    Yoseph Haddad, an Israeli Arab who has dedicated his life to dismantling the apartheid lie, faced similar treatment. The international law commentator Natasha Hausdorf was hectored to finish her speech far quicker than her proposition counterpart.

    Meanwhile, the proposition speakers trafficked in unforgivable and dangerous rhetoric. Miko Peled, a relentless anti-Israel activist, described the atrocities of 7 October as acts of “heroism.” I presume that includes the slaughter and kidnap of babies.

    Novelist Susan Abulhawa demonised Jews as foreign colonisers, claiming their true homeland lay in Europe. Her later post on X branded me and Natasha “white colonisers”….

    By the time the motion passed – 278 in favour to 59 against – it was clear that the entire event had been a sham. This was not a debate; it was a show trial, it seems to me, orchestrated by a deeply biased president and cheered on by a mob that had no interest in facts or truth.

    This felt like a marker, the moment when the Oxford Union truly fell. Not just as a debating society, but as a symbol of intellectual freedom. The room that night was not filled with future leaders engaging in the battle of ideas; it was a mob baying for blood, intolerant of nuance, and utterly resistant to the values the Union claims to uphold….

    As our driver sped us out of Oxford, my colleagues and I compared notes about what we had just experienced: it was no less than the fall of the Oxford Union.

    The Union president Ebrahim Osman Mowafy was disqualified in June, but reinstated after claims that this had been motivated by "racism, islamophobia, and persistent bias". Hmm.

    Sacerdoti's claim that this event marks the fall of the Oxford Union surely isn't overstated. It was a disgrace: a black mark against the university. The Union isn't the university, of course, and no doubt the vast majority of students have no idea and little interest in what's going on there. Still….a desperately grim sign of the times, as what used to be a place for aspiring politicians to practice their debating skills is taken over by zealots with an interest, not in debate, but in spreading their poisonous antisemitic ideology.

  • At UCLA

    The mission of the UCLA Cultural Affairs Commission is "to put on quality programming with cultural, political, or social relevance that are accessible to all students". Except Jews.

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  • The rewriting of history

    m' or received a few book-burning videos.

    I've been sent thousands of threats of murder, rape and violence. A trans… pic.twitter.com/aiGv2yHDCO

    — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 2, 2024

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    Full text:

    Opponents of gender ideology haven't merely 'endured unsparing criticism'. I haven't simply been told I 'betrayed real feminism' or received a few book-burning videos.

    I've been sent thousands of threats of murder, rape and violence. A trans woman posted my family's home address with a bomb-making guide. My eldest child was targeted by a prominent trans activist who attempted to doxx her and ended up doxxing the wrong young woman. I could write a twenty thousand word essay on what the consequences have been to me and my family, and what we've endured is NOTHING compared to the harm done to others.

    By standing up to a movement that relies on threats of violence, ostracisation and guilt-by-association, all of us have been smeared and defamed, but many have lost their livelihoods. Some have been physically assaulted by trans activists. Female politicians have been forced to hire personal security on the advice of police. The news that one of the UK's leading endocrinologists, Dr Hillary Cass, was advised not to travel by public transport for her own safety should shame everyone who let this insanity run amok.

    Lest we forget, gender apostates have been targeted for crimes such as doubting the evidential basis for transitioning children, for arguing for fair sport for women and girls, for wanting to retain single sex spaces and services, especially for the most vulnerable, and for thinking it barbaric to lock in female prisoners with convicted male sex offenders.

    Now the political landscape has shifted, and some who've been riding high on their own supply are waking up with a hell of a hangover. They've started wondering whether calling left-wing feminists who wanted all-female rape centres 'Nazis' was such a smart strategy. Maybe parents arguing that boys ought not to be robbing their daughters of sporting opportunities might, sort of, have a point? Possibly letting any man who says 'I'm a woman' into the locker room with twelve-year-old girls could have a downside, after all?

    Mealy-mouthed retconning of what has actually happened over the past ten years is predictable but will not stand. I don't doubt those who've turned a blind eye to the purges of non-believers, or even applauded and encouraged them, would rather minimise what the true cost of speaking out was, but 'yes, maybe trans activists went a little over the top at times' takes are frankly insulting. A full reckoning on the effects of gender ideology on individuals, society and politics is still a long way off, but I know this: the receipts will make very ugly reading when that time comes, and there are far too many of them to sweep politely under the carpet.

  • The trans reign of terror is over in America

    After the election a few Democrats, aware of the part that a disastrous support for gender ideology played in their defeat, have indicated a willingness to do some rethinking. Congressman Seth Moulton, for instance, has proposed that a more nuanced approach was required: "I do know that women’s rights are important and transwomen’s rights are important, so we have to find a balance that makes sense". Meghan Murphy begs to differ – "the entire concept of gender identity must be scrapped":

    There is no surgery that can turn a male female. There is no child that must be mutilated and sterilised in order to ‘really be themselves’. There is no circumstance where it is reasonable to allow a male to compete as a female in sport. So long as gender identity exists as a concept under law – that is to say, the idea that one can ‘identify’ as the opposite sex – men will be able to claim they are female and access women’s spaces….

    We are already seeing the rewriting of history – or at least the whitewashing of history. The same progressives and Democrats who called those of us who spoke out against trans activism loathsome bigots now play at reasonable discourse, pretending things were never really as bad as they were.

    An article in the New York Times this week described the threats, censorship and persecution experienced by dissidents as ‘unsparing criticism’. I guess if that’s what you want to call my having to hire private bodyguards in order to speak about women’s rights in public, or having to outrun a masked gang of trans activists desiring to ‘kill all TERFs’, or having been banned from social media for four years for calling a man ‘he’, that’s your prerogative. But it’s a lie.

    The response to those of us who spoke out against gender-identity ideology was not simply criticism. It was years of violent threats, blacklisting, loss of income and jobs, stalking, censorship, No Platforming, harassment, ostracisation, loss of friends and endless public libel….

    Now, the very same activists who pushed all this on us are apparently ‘rethink[ing] and recalibrat[ing] their confrontational ways, and are pushing back against the more all-or-nothing voices in their coalition’. I call bullshit.

    The trans reign of terror is over in America. We won. Any related ‘soul-searching’ happening is in response to that reality. It is an attempt to convince us to roll back this massive triumph. But we mustn’t allow a softer approach to cloud our commitment to women, kids and reality.

  • Toomaj Salehi revisited

    Sentenced to death in April – and now freed:

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    "After being handed the death sentence in April 2024, Iranians pushed a campaign for international attention on the dissident rapper's case, knowing the regime tends to backtrack when the world's eyes are on it.

    "His death sentence was overturned shortly after, and today, on December 1, 2024, Toomaj was finally released. Thank you to everyone who said his name."

  • Hypocrite

    This has not gone well for gender fan Harriet:

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    "I'm a little confused why it's our duty to challenge predatory, lewd men in the workplace, but it's also our duty NOT to challenge predatory lewd men in the workplace women's lavatories. Perhaps you could advise?"

    "What like speaking out about males stealing prizes & places in sports meant for women & girls?"

    "Where the fuck were you when Pakistani gangs were raping their way across the north of England? And how’s PIE going these days?"

    "Now … Imagine what it’s like to face a creepy predatory man in a women’s toilet."

    "You’re such a hypocrite. You don’t want *any* women to challenge predatory fetishistic men in their own spaces."

    "You literally went to bat for kiddie fiddlers you horrible woman."

    "Care to tell us what a woman actually is then?"….

  • Erasing the reality of womanhood

    At least someone at the UN is doing their job:

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    "I am very concerned by the increasing onslaught on women-specific language, which seeks to erase the reality of womanhood itself and deny its innate and sex-related specificity. A number of influential media outlets, organizations, academic and health institutions, and experts are complicit in what can only be described as a new form of #ViolenceAgainstWomen. It must be stated that words such as "non-transgender women”, "cis women" and the like do not reflect any UN- or otherwise internationally-agreed standards. I call on media and all stakeholders to uphold the dignity of women and respect their human rights."

  • “Part of a broader culture that seeks to marginalise and dehumanise Jews”

    Further to my earlier post on "artwashing" – "Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art caved to radical student activists last month, severing ties with prominent Jewish philanthropists Candida and Zak Gertler after a targeted campaign against their personal relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu" – this from the JC:

    A major Jewish arts patron has resigned from all her voluntary positions within UK arts institutions over the “alarming rise of antisemitism” and “the tacit normalisation of hate” in her sector.

    Candida Gertler, co-founder of the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, announced her decision after Goldsmiths’ Centre for Contemporary Art at the University of London said on Monday that it would remove her and her husband’s names from one of its galleries and its donor board, following a months-long boycott by anti-Israel activists.

    The move comes after more than 1,100 artists and art workers signed an open letter calling on Tate to cut ties with Outset. Signatories of the letter include the current Turner Prize nominee Jasleen Kaur, as well as past Turner Prize winners Helen Cammock, Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Charlotte Prodger, according to Art Newspaper.

    Outset, which Gertler co-founded in 2003, has raised over £16 m ($20.3 million) for the arts, earning her an OBE “for services to Contemporary Visual Arts and Arts Philanthropy”.

    The fund also contributes to Israeli art institutions, and Gertler is a committee member of the British Friends of Art Museums in Israel.

    Gertler is married to billionaire German-British real estate developer Zak Gertler, who reportedly hosted Benjamin Netanyahu’s 70th birthday party in 2019 and donated to the prime minister’s political campaigns.

    Gertler wrote in her resignation letter: “It is with profound reflection and a heavy heart that I announce my resignation from all voluntary positions within UK arts institutions. This decision comes not out of fear, weakness, or defeat, but as an act of principled protest against the alarming rise of antisemitism and the tacit normalization of hate within physical and online spaces meant to foster creativity and inclusion.

    “As someone who has dedicated much of my life to supporting contemporary art, championing dialogue, and creating platforms for diverse voices, I can no longer stand silent when institutions, intimidated by violent and aggressive activism that dismisses dialogue, or any kind of communication fails to uphold the foundational values of equality and respect. Recent revelations of vile antisemitic sentiments in these spaces have shocked and appalled me. These are not isolated incidents but part of a broader culture that seeks to marginalise and dehumanise Jews…."

    Philanthropists donating their money to help art and artists in the UK, but their money isn't wanted – because they're Jewish. This is where we are.

  • A malicious anachronism

    =”font-size: 11pt”>So why the controversy over the Mary movie? Why are so many people eager, even desperate, to deny Mary’s Jewishness?

    It is clear that partisans for the Palestinian side in the current war wish to do anything they can to delegitimize Israel and Judaism in order to gain credibility for their cause. They understand well that many American Christians, especially evangelicals, sympathize with the Israelis in part because they know their Bible. If they can sever Christianity’s roots from Judaism in the Christian imagination, they reason, they can gain sympathy among followers of Jesus. But to claim the historical Mary as a “Palestinian”—a people and a concept that did not exist at the time of Jesus’s birth—is a malicious anachronism.

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