The Speed of Hate
On recent acts of fury over gender and race by the usual suspects.
I wrote the below post before Imane Khelif was relentlessly vilified and dehumanised by a group of people who decided that she must be trans. I also wrote this before the far right violence across the UK, followed by the vast and peaceful anti racism demonstrations.
What linked the incidents was the speed with which those certain of their hate fashioned these events into what they would have liked them to be. The murderer of three young girls was immediately imagined to be a recently arrived Muslim immigrant as that was, as grotesque as it might sound, the narrative that would most please the far right. Grifters like Farage and Yaxley Lennon felt it was in the immediate public interest to know the religious and racial identity of the murderer. Why that should be of such immediate importance when the person is already in custody, I don’t know. Equally, we see how important the racial and religious identity of rapists is if it is politically useful, and yet we hear little from these hucksters and inciters when it comes to the closing down of rape crisis centres or indeed the number of women violently murdered every year. Your murder or brutalisation is only of interest if it fits into a useful narrative.
Similarly with Khelif, the moment her opponent withdraw from their fight, it was decided that she must be a trans woman as that was the most satisfying and useful narrative for those who wish to dehumanise trans people.
During the street violence, it was perhaps unsurprising, that some leading voices against trans equality on both sides of the Atlantic also sided with the those committing acts of violence in the streets.
It has been heartening to see the vast numbers of people who have spoken up in support of Khelif, and who have taken to the streets to voice their support for immigrants, refugees and the diversity of the nation.
I spend my life traveling the United Kingdom and many of the gigs I do are free entry and I try to go anywhere that wants me. I meet people from many backgrounds and of many ages and walk around the towns and cities, eavesdropping in cafes and pubs. My belief from my limited experience is that people are far fairer and kinder than some might imagine despite the battles many face due to our crumbling infrastructure.
I don’t know how much that changes what I wrote before all this, you can judge.
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I am on that lengthy list of people that a leading cis male trans critical tweeter (LCMTCT) tries to poke and stir. I don’t go looking for his various attacks and mis or disinformation about me. I know it has helped inspire people to put up posts that that tell people that I hate women and some even write to the BBC and tell the broadcaster that I should not be allowed to present science shows because I do not understand the science of gender etc etc etc.
The media has been very good at highlighting abuse towards trans critical voices and almost silent on the intensity of abuse towards those that have tried to be trans supportive.
At this point, I would like too make it clear I am not pro abuse, I think it is almost always counterproductive and can also be very dangerous.
It is so much part of Twitter because it is very often the first emotional response, one of fury, and we can express it in the heat of the femtosecond and then, because it exists in “print”, we find it hard to back down.
Twitter was a very effective machine in terms of scaring trans supportive voices into silence and I was quiet for too long because, like many I know, my attitude was “do I want to be crushed under fury and lies, and be painted as something that I am not?”
I cracked some years ago because too many cis female friends of mine who had lived much of their lives as feminist activists, and paid the price for that, were now being attacked by the LCMTCT and all those that defended him.
One was a friend who had spent years fighting for abortion rights in Ireland, at great personal cost to herself but, due to writing a calm and on ideological piece suggesting we must spend a little time thinking of the lives of trans people, was turned into someone who “will do anything to please me”.
Another was a friend and artist who would define herself as butch who was targeted by, among other lies, saying that she insisted all Lesbians must have sex with trans women. This was, of course, utter nonsense.
A comedian was attacked and removed her social media account after relentless bullying when all she had been trying to do was highlight the work of period poverty campaigners, Bloody good Period.
The list goes on, but you get the general idea.
When I criticised the transphobic material of a Netflix comedy special, I received hundreds, maybe thousands, of comments saying that if I did not support transphobia then I must be a rape apologist (as well as the usual death threats etc).
When I was on Twitter, I always knew if I put up anything that even slightly supported trans people or trans supportive voices, off we’d go again to the merry-go-round that spins in Hades. I was in Austin, Texas when Roe versus Wade was repealed. I walked through the streets seeing the fury and passion of so many women who had just witnessed this aggressively regressive step in women’s rights. When I got back to my hotel, I was surprised to see that the lead trend on Twitter was Emma Watson being attacked because she had said something supportive towards the trans community. This was translated as her attacking the wizard author as, the general feeling of many in the twitter trans critical movement, is that it was wrong for any of the cast of the wizard films to have any opinions that contradict the author of the books the movies they starred in are based on. This seems a very antiquated idea of how you lose your freedom of expression to whoever is the richest person in the franchise you are involved with. Similarly, the number of times Watson was angrily told that she was ungrateful for having her own opinions seemed very similar to the reaction towards any woman in Hollywood who criticised the abuse within the system and was told to shut up because they were lucky to have a career.
When I commented on this strangeness, I was told that I was a very bad man.
It’s all been a lot quieter since I shut down my twitter account. I am surprised by how many people are still on it and often unhappily so.
Anyway, last week, having failed to heckle me anywhere else, the LCMTCT found that he could now shout at me on instagram.
Under a video that had nothing to do with anything about sex or gender, he wrote, “Hi Robin, when are you going to apologise for your part in the medical scandal revealed in The Cass Report?”
Now this was the first news I had of being anything to do with The Cass Report or indeed of making any medical pronouncements.
Pretty much everything, which is not very much, that I have written on transgender issues or the trans community has been against dehumanisation. Unlike some people, I do not believe I am the best person to offer medical advice, but I am reasonably good in telling people about Hammer horror movies and the career of Peter Cushing and have a basic knowledge of Jean Rhys. I am also usually quite good on giving directions.
It continued, rather grotesquely, with, “or are you using the murder of Brianna Ghey to score political points against feminists?”
This would be tricky as the feminists that I know, that I work with, that are my close friends, that are members of my own family, were horrified and deeply saddened by Brianna Ghey’s death.
A message that was often sent to me was “why aren’t you listening to the women?”
When I replied that I was listening to many many women, many I have been allied with for many years and who have fought feminist battles since they were at school, I was told that they must be the wrong women and to ignore them as they didn’t count.
He finished with “I ask here because I think you’ve left Twitter to avoid questions like this?”
I mainly left twitter because it was just no fun and a bully and bigots paradise.
I replied, “not to avoid questions like this just to avoid people who pretend they are feminists whilst relentlessly attacking women who disagree with them - including women who have fought for abortion rights , putting out lies about Lesbians you dislike, organising pile ons on women who are campaigning against period poverty and generally using your platform to repeatedly attack lifelong feminists who do not obey your instructions on what they must believe” (apologies for lack go punctuation)
Shortly after this reply, the thread disappeared as the original comment was deleted.
The first comment under my previous post on Sinead O Connor was about sex based rights and I think it was a not particularly covert jab at me. I replied that Sinead was both a powerful voice against sex based injustice and an ally of Transgender Equality Network Ireland.
She was a truly inspiring example of someone who showed that fighting against your own marginalisation doesn’t mean having to fight against other marginalised groups, but being an ally.
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Robin Ince is a multi-award winning comedian, writer and broadcaster. As well as spending decades as one the UK’s most respected stand-ups, Robin is perhaps best known for co-hosting The Infinite Monkey Cage radio show with Prof Brian Cox. For his work on projects like Cosmic Shambles he was made an Honorary Doctor of Science by Royal Holloway, University of London. His latest books are The Importance of Being Interested and Bibliomaniac.
 | A guest post by
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All politics and abuse aside, if the reality is that Imane Khelif really does have a difference of sex development such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5%CE%B1-Reductase_2_deficiency , i.e. was born superficially looking female, may have been raised (socialised) as female, but has working internal testes that produce male levels of testosterone, had a male puberty and now has a fully masculine, adult male body, would your position in this change at all?
i.e. would Imane's gold win still be valid?
The position of gender critical feminists is that someone's personal beliefs about themselves don't matter one jot (that's why they're fine with women who claim to be "non-binary" or "trans men" competing against women, as long as they're not injecting testosterone, even if they find those personal beliefs somewhat ridiculous).
It's whether sports should be sex segregated or not, and from the evidence:
1. interviews with their coach ( https://archive.is/ALwjQ )
2. the IBA's tests that rejected Imane from competing previously on account of having XY chromosomes
3. the footage of the fights
it looks like Imane Khelif may well have had a male puberty and could be biologically male, despite having a DSD. Personal beliefs should not matter when it comes to sport.
You and your friends have had extremely difficult and unpleasant experiences with certain people and groups online but I and many others have nothing to do with that, and believe everything above still stands on its own regardless of politics and online abuse.
Now it's beyond doubt that Imane Khelif was a boy born with a DSD that made him appear superficially female, then went through a male puberty and is now an adult man, does this change anything for you?