Arrgh! New comments page means my song lyrics on previous page will be missed and never make the big time…
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
So who’s this Paul Martin and what’s his frame of reference? He appears to be an bit of an ignorant dickhead, tbh. Well he can fuck right of with his tribal irrational-ism. Conflating right-wing bigotry with a scientifically based gender critical world view, is no way to support sustainable, inclusive, social equality.
Gender as Lived Time: Reading The Second Sex for a Feminist Phenomenology of Temporality
Abstract
This article suggests that Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex offers an important contribution to a feminist phenomenology of temporality. In contrast to readings of The Second Sex that focus on the notion of “becoming” as the main claim about the relation between “woman” and time, this article suggests that Beauvoir’s discussion of temporality in volume II of The Second Sex shows that Beauvoir understands the temporality of waiting, or a passive present, to be an underlying structure of women’s existence and subordination.
Accordingly, I argue that Beauvoir does not see “woman” as a mere becoming, as that which unfolds in time, but instead understands becoming a woman to be realized as lived time. As such, Beauvoir’s account shows that gender and temporality are deeply entangled, and thus she challenges the classic phenomenological account of temporality as a general, given structure of human existence.
More specifically, I argue that her account shows how a particular experience of time is an underlying structure of sexual objectification, a claim that expands on the feminist phenomenological claim that a particular relation to space becomes a way in which women take up and negotiate their own subordination and objectification.
Regards the singer you’re asking about, I played a video on Off Topic shortly after the referendum. I believe it features the same song that you are looking for. This video has now had 65 million views on youtube, not bad for a Scottish mountain biker.
The singer is Fiona Hunter and this is her singing said song last year at the Glasgow Hydro with Danny Macaskill the mountain biker from Skye who features in the first video.
RE. Dr. Dorothy Kim and wonk speech. I’m very out of touch but that appeared to be a combination of post-colonial theory and queer theory, heavy on the queer. There is nothing wrong with being inclusive but it is certainly up for debate whether it is right to affirm and empower mental ‘disorder’ (allowing self-ID). Women’s sex-based rights are human rights that are protected by Public International Law.
Understanding Postcolonial Feminism in relation with
Postcolonial and Feminist Theories
Abstract
Postcolonial feminist theory is primarily concerned with the representation of women in once colonized countries and in western locations. While postcolonial theorist struggles against the maiden colonial discourse that aims at misrepresenting him as inferior, the task of a postcolonial feminist is far more complicated. She suffers from “double colonization” as she simultaneously experiences the oppression of colonialism and patriarchy.
She has to resist the control of colonial power not only as a colonized subject, but also as a woman. In this oppression, her colonized brother is no longer her accomplice, but her oppressor. In his struggle against the colonizer, he even exploits her by misrepresenting her in the nationalist discourses. Not only that, she also suffers at the hand of Western feminists from the colonizer countries who misrepresent their colonized counterparts by imposing silence on their racial, cultural, social, and political specificities, and in so doing, act as potential oppressors of their “sisters”.
In this article, I explore these struggles of a postcolonial feminist, for it is in her struggle against the “postcolonial” and “feminist” theorists that she can assert her identity as a “postcolonial feminist.”
Keyword: Postcolonial, Third World Feminism, Western Feminism, Nationalism, Identity, Postcoloniality
While I’m at it. Remember, sex is grounded in biology, gender is grounded in the psychology of the self (as we relate to the world around us). Creating law that conflates sex with gender, undermines legal reason and the potential for rational jurisprudence.
Gender mainstreaming as feminist politics
A critical analysis of the pursuit of gender equality in
Swedish local government link to oru.diva-portal.org
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
@Julie Bindel
?Indeed, “UTTER bellendary”. Re. the ongoing marginalisation of lesbians and the penetration of “womanhood” by radical science (constructivism and gender-ID). Well, science has always been used as a means of oppressing women*, but you already know that. 😉
Sexual orientation, Gender Identity and International Human Rights Law – Practitioners Guide No. 4 link to refworld.org
*That is not the purpose or radical constructivism but it has been pirated by patriarchy.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
@Edinburgh University
Better get this sorted before if gets out of hand. No charge, that’s free advice.
Global Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights
Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights
On the re-affirmation of women’s sex-based rights, including women’s rights to physical and reproductive integrity, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls that result from the replacement of the category of sex with that of ‘gender identity’, and from ‘surrogate’ motherhood and related practices.
Introduction
This Declaration reaffirms the sex-based rights of women which are set out in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979 (CEDAW), further developed in the CEDAW Committee General Recommendations, and adopted, inter alia, in the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women 1993 (UNDEVW)….
The (dis)establishment of gender:
Care and gender roles in the family as a constitutional matter
Abstract
This article reasons that for women, as constitutional subjects, the emancipatory promise of constitutionalism was – from its inception – fundamentally limited by the entrenchment of the separate spheres tradition. Focusing on evolving constitutional jurisprudence in the US, Germany and Italy, the article describes a gradual and still imperfect process of (dis)establishment of the originally enshrined gender order, as it has unfolded since the 1970s in US and European constitutionalism.
It is argued that these processes have allowed the constitutional doctrine of sex equality to challenge the most forthright expressions of the separate spheres ideology, denying the possibility of according men and women a different legal status of rights and duties and keeping women away from the marketplace. In spite of this, to this day, the sex constitutional equality doctrine has been an inadequate tool to fully subvert the pre=established gender order in both its transatlantic iterations. In the US, we find assimilationist workerism with its anti-stereotyping conception of gender equality, providing no support for working women, and in Europe accommodationist workerism, wherein special measures are fostered at the risk of entrenching rather than subverting existing gender roles.
The article then describes recent evolutions in constitutionalism pointing to a promising third way, with Nordic inspiration, which, challenging traditionally accepted notions of family privacy and foregrounding fatherhood as opposed to just motherhood, would allow us to retain the central importance attached to care and reproduction, but at the same time assist in the process of overcoming traditional gender assumptions and stereotypes built around them.
A wee footy O/T
If England over valued flop Maguire is getting touted at £65million, surely Celtics Tierney must be worth twice that, as he is at least twice the talent of Maguire.
Or is it just the usual “you play in Scotland so your shite, here have some porridge and be thankful.”
Thepnr
5 years ago
@galamcennalath
The song played on the Yes bikers video wasn’t Fiona Hunter after all, it’s the same song but the singer you seek was this one.
re “The wrong puberty”. This must surely convince those not yet sure, that gender ideology is not conducive with rationality. Introducing irrationality into law would undermine the coherence of legal doctrine and the effectiveness of jurisprudence. And that’s for starters.
A defence of the category ‘women’
Abstract
Against influential strands of feminist theory, I argue that there is nothing essentialist or homogenising about the category ‘women’. I show that both intersectional claims that it is impossible to separate out the ‘woman part’ of women, and deconstructionist contentions that the category ‘women’ is a fiction, rest on untenable meta-theoretical assumptions.
I posit that a more fruitful way of approaching this disputed category is to treat it as an abstraction. Drawing on the philosophical framework of critical realism I elucidate the nature of the vital and inevitable process of abstraction, as a means of finding a way out of the theoretical and methodological impasse that the ‘ban’ on the category ‘women’ has caused. Contrary to many contemporary feminist theorists, I contend that, although the category ‘women’ does not reflect the whole reality of concrete and particular women, it nevertheless refers to something real, namely the structural position as woman.
[Critical Review of Gender Ideology in the Light of Metaphysical Realism].
Abstract
The implementing of gender ideology in the imaginary of current welfare-state societies owes much to a long process in the history of thought, which has culminated in an accommodation of post-feminist discourse. This paper sets out the epistemological principles that are present in gender ideology, as a response to both its recent and more-remote antecedents.
It is furthermore framed by an urge for emancipation that began with medieval scholasticism, the latest manifestation of which lies in the post-structuralist deconstructionism that outlines the concept of queer. This concept has dissociated the categories of sex and gender to the point of making them irrelevant for the determination of sexual identity, leaving the latter susceptible to being infinitely de- and reconstructed.
This article also reviews the liberal-hedonistic context of the new postmodern setting, while showing how the concepts of ?a subjective feeling of happiness? and ?a life fulfilled? do not express similar content. The paper goes on to challenge the theory of gender from the perspective of metaphysic realism; stressing that the human being only appears as a real person via the possibility of anticipating another’s contemplation, thereby cancelling out the abstraction of pure subjectivity. It finally offers its conclusions, with certain substantive recommendations in the field of education.
This article also reviews the liberal-hedonistic context of the new postmodern setting, while showing how the concepts of “a subjective feeling of happiness” and “a life fulfilled” do not express similar content.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
Sorry for taking up so much space but like I said, undermining women’s rights is only the thin end of the wedge.
I’ve just read two news reports: one about how Universal Credit is causing poverty, hunger and homelessness and one about how Harry n Megan are spending 3.2 million doing up their multi-bedroomed ‘cottage’. I am physically incapable of screaming loud enough to express my disgust, anger and despair at what Britain has become. I feel myself becoming more hopeless every day that there will ever be fairness or even simple human decency in UK government. We have to get out of it before it corrodes what little is left of our souls. I wish I knew how to convince nay-sayers to stop supping Westminster’s poison and I also wish that the thieving, heartless bastards that infest the dungheap would all lose their jobs, their homes and their health. Then they might know how real people feel. I know this is pointless but I had to put it down somewhere lest I choke on my outrage.
Thepnr
5 years ago
Hey Smallaxe
In the off chance that you look in here now again, I saw this tonight and you popped into my head. Don’t ask why as eh dinnae ken why 🙂
What is a state if it looses sight of natural law and justice? Well it’s not a liberal democracy, that’s for sure. Does the full-English Brexit suggest Scots are afforded natural justice by the British state?
Mad Caddies – …And We Thought Nation States Were A Bad Idea [Propagandhi] link to youtube.com
Thepnr
5 years ago
@CameronB Brodie
I thought it might have been another lengthy essay but I’ll give you 10/10 for that, was cool 🙂
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
The Chemical Brothers have always required a high degree of crowd expectation and enthusiasm.
I’m not a cat lover, but if you have chunky bills, I’d join any crowsfund.
Brian Doonthetoon
5 years ago
Hi Thepnr.
I thought “Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth 1967” sounded familiar. I was right, in a way.
The song was featured on an Island compilation LP, “you can all join in” I bought in 1969. However, the band performing it, “Art”, had changed the title to “What’s That Sound”.
Well spotted my man, if anybody knew something about the record I’m sure it would have been you. I’ve no idea why I know that song, obviously from when I was a wean but don’t know which band I heard, suspect though that it was Buffalo Springfield.
Who cares anyway, it’s a good tune.
Thepnr
5 years ago
Here’s what I’m hoping for in the Tory election contest.
Boris Johnson is victorious and becomes leader of the Tory party, he pulls the UK out of the EU with no deal by 31st October.
Then he sorts out the Scotland “problem” by abolishing the Barnett Formula and lets the treasury decide how much pocket money Holyrood will be allowed to spend with no regard to needs or spending in England, he just cuts our money.
This satisfies the more rabid supporter of the Tories in England and wins him more kudos.
No money now for free university tuition or personal care for the elderly in Scotland. Prescription charges to be the same as the rUK and why not? Holyrood won’t be shutdown it would be neutered, no cash for them.
Bojo WINS Scotland LOL.
In your dreams, bring it on Bojo, I really can’t wait for you to become Prime Minister and guarantee our Independence.
Betty Boop
5 years ago
@Thepnr
@CameronB Brodie
@Bdtt
Well, I am noticing it is a wee bit quiet in here for a change (folk on holiday?), so, gives me a chance to say hi again to those who are about in the past day or so. @Alex Waugh, sorry, I’ve not met you, but, hi.
So, a wee check in with y’all as I don’t post much at all these days. Cameron, keep up the good work; I enjoy a challenging read! Brian, I’ll see you Saturday, no doubt (mind and not forget your jacket) and Alex, you never know. I just watched the video you put up a few days back of the mountain biker crossing Loch Scavaig and riding the Cuillins ridge; don’t recall seeing it the first time you put it up. Really enjoyed the music, but, that guy, jings, a mountain rescuers nightmare!
Cheers all.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
British nationalists really need to take a long look at themselves and the value they place on constitutional democracy, IMHO. So here’s a post-structural analysis inspired interpretation of the neo-feudal structurally racist nature of the full-English Brexit. Nice. 😉
Betty Boop
Will do. Here’s a wee read I’ve just gotten hold of through my google account. I expect it will describe Scottish ‘nationalism’ as being an entirely differnet animal to contemporary (white) British nationalism. I think it might also highlight the need to focus on the threat to ‘cultural certainties’, the full-English Brexit represents. 😉
The Political Thought of Scottish Nationalism
The brand of nationalism that now plays such an influential role in Scottish politics is of a surprisingly recent vintage. Barely fifty years old, its origins lie not in the medieval battles for Scottish statehood, the Scottish Reformation, the Act of Union, the Scottish Enlightenment, or any of the other familiar historical milestones that regularly crop up in debates about Scottish identity.
Rather, Scottish nationalism as we know it today began to take shape only in the 1960s and 1970s, and achieved its present ideological maturity in the course of the 1980s and 1990s. The nationalism that emerged from this testing period of Scottish history was unusual, in that it did not primarily demand independence for Scotland in order to defend a threatened ancestral culture. Instead, Scottish nationalists emphasised that independence was the most effective way to promote the political agenda of the left in a neoliberal era.
Insofar as an ancestral culture was believed to be threatened by the British state, it was the culture of social democratic corporatism, which Scottish nationalists regarded as well suited to Scotland’s long-standing egalitarian and democratic traditions. In the face of the neoliberal restructuring of the British economy that emanated from London, Scottish nationalists interpreted growing opposition to the Conservative party in Scotland as expressive of a deep political divergence that could only be resolved by the creation of a new Scottish state.
This article examines the political thought of this form of Scottish nationalism. What are the key arguments and intellectual influences that have come together over recent decades to produce this now ubiquitous case for Scottish
independence? How do the major political ideas deployed in this nationalist discourse sit together? In particular, the article draws attention to three crucial, but discordant, ideological themes that have become recurrent features of the arguments for a ‘yes’ vote in the 2014 referendum: an analysis of the British state indebted to the New Left; a surprising enthusiasm for the politics of the British labour movement; and a belief that we are witnessing the end of the era of absolute state sovereignty.
In the debate on Scotland’s future that is now unfolding, the ideology and history of unionism has been the subject of considerable, and at times coruscating, analysis. But the character of Scottish nationalism has thus far escaped detailed analytical discussion (though not knockabout political argument) – a reflection, perhaps, of the irresistible compulsion to expose the deficiencies of the Labour party that has gripped the Scottish blogosphere and many of the heavyweight commentators on the Scottish political scene.
The myths, traditions and outright fudges that have shaped Labour’s unionist social democracy have been mercilessly dissected. But no comparable exercise has been undertaken with respect to Scottish nationalism. This article is therefore not intended to be solely descriptive. It is also a contribution to the development of a more forensic investigation of the ideological foundations of Scottish nationalism analogous to the critical treatments of unionism readily available elsewhere.
Stanley Baxter does Regional Accents, 1973. (2mins)
Interesting/ironic to note that the only region to suffer microphone problems in this sketch is, yes you guessed it, Glasgow…
link to youtube.com
Stanley Baxter – Parliamo Glasgow – Mia Farra’s farra, the marra & the barra (6 mins)
link to youtube.com
“3 Ways to Sound More British” | Pronunciation Lesson (6 mins)
“Learn to speak with a British English Accent with this pronunciation lesson! 3 tips to improve your British English accent.”
🙂
Pay attention Jo!
We launched the Inform Scotland BBC Bias campaign following a workshop at the Wingers get-together in Glasgow in 2016.
We continue to archive examples of BBC Bias and share them widely on social media. We also promote any and all writing on BBC Bias in Scotland. Our car-sticker campaign continues, but we have done no billboards or other similar campaigns lately. see http://www.informscotland.com
Our Chairperson Simon (who you all know) feels he needs to stand down at this stage and the rest of us feel we are in need of new blood to come on board as Directors of our not for profit company Inform Scotland Ltd.
Are any of you interested in a bit of BBC-focused activism and have suitable skills to act as a director?
We We also want to find new writers on the theme of the BBC and its machinations in Scotland.
We are also just about to launch our 2019/2020 fundraiser.
Your thoughts are welcome and feel free to share with well-connected individuals you think you can help.
Just want to congratulate Dan on his latest opus, (up the thread) with regard to a new song to promote independence.
From a Taff who (despite his stereotypical nationality) sings like a crow with a sore throat but appreciates creativity.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
@OwenJones84
Stop conflating sex with gender, if you can? I’m no brain of Britain but I reckon you’re a bit of an ideologue who is melding in stuff that is above your pay grade, ie. science, philosophy and law. I hope you’ve got your ears pinned back lad?
SEXUAL AND GENDER VARIATION IN AMERICAN PUBLIC
LAW: FROM MALIGNANT TO BENIGN TO PRODUCTIVE
Sexuality, gender, and the law now constitutes an important field of legal inquiry and scholarship. This Article traces the evolution of the “big idea” in this area: Contrary to natural law assumptions, the nation is moving decisively toward the norm that sexual and gender variation are typically benign and not malignant.
Today, this liberal norm is hotly contested by both traditionalists who oppose legal reforms that require them to accommodate sexual and gender minorities, and progressives who argue that the norm should be pressed more aggressively to assail status quo institutions such as marriage. The notion that sexual and gender variation is benign and can be educational continues to revolutionize American constitutional as well as statutory law.
INTRODUCTION
THE LIBERAL NORM: TOLERABLE OR BENIGN
SEXUAL AND GENDER VARIATION
B. Antidiscrimination: Suspect Classifications and Beyond
In 1961, hundreds of state-sanctioned discriminatory practices targeted adult citizens because of their (female) sex, (nonconforming) gender, or (homo)sexual activities. Following the civil rights model, feminists and sexual minorities sought repeal or invalidation of these practices and the adoption of affirmative state policies barring discrimination by private employers, schools, and public accommodations.63
Their arguments reflected a shift toward a more aggressive interpretation of the liberal model embodied in criminal law reform: Sexual or gender variation is not merely tolerable, but benign. This normative point also drew inspiration from the civil rights movement, which successfully maintained that racial variation ought to be considered completely benign as a matter of public policy and constitutional doctrine.64
Feminists have been particularly successful in invalidating sex discrimination and securing laws barring sex discrimination in the workplace, educational settings, and public accommodations.” The Supreme Court came within one vote of ruling that sex-based classifications, like race-based classifications, require strict scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause.66 Subsequent decisions have usually struck down sex-based classifications that discriminate against women. In the workplace and other arenas, sex variation is legally benign and cannot be the basis for discrimination.
Gay people have also successfully advanced the liberal norm of benign variation: The federal government and a large majority of states bar sexual orientation discrimination in government employment; nearly half the states and more than one hundred municipalities bar such discrimination by private employers, and almost as many states and cities bar such discrimination in public accommodations and/or educational institutions.68 A dozen states and a number of municipalities have extended their antidiscrimination rules to include gender identity or orientation as a presumptively irrational basis for employment decisions.69
As was the case with decriminalization campaigns, public opposition to antidiscrimination rules has increasingly argued within the liberal model, at the expense of the natural law model (which many Americans still privately embrace as a matter of religious faith). Support for rules openly discriminating against women because of sex has virtually disappeared. Supporters of rules discriminating against sexual and gender minorities have largely abandoned the old arguments that “homosexuals” or transgendered persons are immoral, mentally defective, or unnatural, and argue instead that such minorities disrupt the workplace or other public spaces.70
The most interesting and ascendant argument is completely liberal, both philosophically and constitutionally: Equal protection for sexual and gender minorities can be harmful because it abridges the liberties of religious minorities-namely, fundamentalists who adhere to the natural law model largely rejected by modem legal culture.”
@OwenJones84
That’s one side of the medical-legal model, so here’s the other side. How you gonna woke your way out of this and why do you want to undermine women’s rights? Remember, according to your former boss, Severin Carrell (a.k.a. the “Semiotic Kid”), ‘we live in a semiotic world’. So stop using words to mean what you want them to mean!
Reporting Sex, Gender, or Both in Clinical Research?
Virtually every clinical research report includes basic demographic characteristics about the study participants, such as age, and how many participants were male/men or female/women. Some research articles refer to this latter variable as sex, others refer to it as gender. As one of the first pieces of data reported, the importance of including sex appears undisputed. But what does the sex-gender category really entail, and how should it be reported?
With emerging evidence that both sex and gender have an effect, for instance, on how an individual selects, responds to, metabolizes, and adheres to a particular drug regimen,1 there is an ethical and scientific imperative to report to whom research results apply. This Viewpoint explains the contexts in which sex and gender are relevant and provides suggestions for improving reporting of this characteristic.
@OwenJones84
Obviously you should use words as you want them to mean but that does not indicate you can arbitrarily change contextual meaning of words simply through the repetitive use of irrational language. Stop conflating sex with gender, you are undermining open, liberal, society and any hope for social equality between men and women!
Language and Gender.
Second Edition.
CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO GENDER
Sex and gender
Gender is not something we are born with, and not something we have, but something we do (West and Zimmerman 1987) – something we perform (Butler 1990). Imagine a small boy proudly following his father. As he swaggers and sticks out his chest, he is doing everything he can to be like his father – to be a man. Chances are his father is not swaggering, but the boy is creating a persona that embodies what he is admiring in his adult male role model.
The same is true of a small girl as she puts on her mother’s high-heeled shoes, smears makeup on her face and minces around the room. Chances are that when these children are grown they will not swagger and mince respectively, but their childhood performances contain elements that may well surface in their adult male and female behaviors. Chances are, also, that the girl will adopt that swagger on occasion as well, but adults are not likely to consider it as cute as her mincing act.
And chances are that if the boy decides to try a little mincing, he won’t be considered cute at all. In other words, gendered performances are available to everyone, but with them come constraints on who can perform which personae with impunity. And this is where gender and sex come together, as society tries to match up ways of behaving with biologically based sex assignments. Sex is a biological categorization based primarily on reproductive potential, whereas gender is the social elaboration of biological sex.
Not surprisingly, social norms for heterosexual coupling and care of any resulting children are closely intertwined with gender. But that is far from the full story. Gender builds on biological sex, but it exaggerates biological difference, and it carries biological difference into domains in which it is completely irrelevant. There is no biological reason, for example, why women should mince and men should swagger, or why women should have red toenails and men should not. But while we think of sex as biological and gender as social, this distinction is not clear-cut. People tend to think of gender as the result of nurture – as social and hence fluid – while sex is the result of nature, simply given by biology. However, nature and nurture intertwine, and there is no obvious point at which sex leaves off and gender begins.
But the sharp demarcation fails because there is no single objective biological criterion for male or female sex. Sex is based in a combination of anatomical, endocrinal and chromosomal features, and the selection among these criteria for sex assignment is based very much on cultural beliefs about what actually makes someone male or female. Thus the very definition of the biological categories male and female, and people’s understanding of themselves and others as male or female, is ultimately social.
Anne Fausto-Sterling (2000) sums up the situation as follows: labeling someone a man or a woman is a social decision. We may use scientific knowledge to help us make the decision, but only our beliefs about gender – not science – can define our sex. Furthermore, our beliefs about gender affect what kinds of knowledge scientists produce about sex in the first place. (p. 3) link to web.stanford.edu
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
@OwenJones84
See if you can get up from this, woke-boy. Natural law is vital to the delivery of justice but the ‘type’ of natural law is important. It can also become harmful if language is dislocated from contextual meaning. It is vital that a “plain language” understanding of “sex” is safeguarded to secure safeguarding and stuff, IMHO. Conflating sex with gender is inherently anti-social and, somewhat paradoxically, undermines the potential for inclusiveness and diversity.
Our statement on sex and gender reassignment: legal protections and language
As the national body charged with protecting and promoting equality and human rights in Britain, we welcome the Scottish and UK governments’ consultations on proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to remove unnecessary barriers trans people currently face in obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) in England, Wales and Scotland.
In UK law, ‘sex’ is understood as binary, with a person’s legal sex being determined by what is recorded on their birth certificate. A trans person can change their legal sex by obtaining a GRC. A trans person who does not have a GRC retains the sex recorded on their birth certificate for legal purposes.
The Equality Act 2010 protects individuals sharing a protected characteristic from discrimination and harassment. Protected characteristics include sex (being a man or a woman) and gender reassignment (an individual who is ‘proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process or part of a process to reassign their sex). There is no requirement for a trans person to have any kind of medical supervision or intervention in order to be protected from gender reassignment discrimination.
Certain exceptions in the Act set out circumstances in which it is permissible to treat someone differently because of their sex or gender reassignment, for reasons of public policy or to protect the rights of others. The use of such exceptions generally needs to be justified as being a proportionate way to achieve a legitimate objective. This will often require a case-by-case approach to determine what is legitimate and proportionate in any given circumstance….
….’Gender’ refers to socially constructed roles of women and men and/or an individual’s conception of their identity. The term is often used interchangeably with ‘sex’, partly in recognition that much of the inequality between women and men is driven by underlying social and power structures rather than by biological sex. Although the Equality Act protects people from discrimination because of their sex, other UK legislation (such as the regulations requiring employers to publish their gender pay gap) refers to gender. This may cause confusion in some circumstances. To avoid any ambiguity, we are reviewing our use of language across our website and publications to ensure clarity and consistency. However, it is important to note that any mistaken or structural use of the term gender does not affect how the law works in practice.
As with the Scotland consultation, in preparing our response to the England and Wales consultation we will consult widely and give careful consideration to the need to respect the rights of all individuals affected by any proposed changes. The issues at stake are complex and personal, and we are aware that some people have expressed concerns and uncertainty about the effect of change. It is essential that we all continue to engage in a constructive and respectful way when we have these important conversations, in order to understand the full implications of the current system and any proposed changes to it. We will respond to the consultation in due course.
P.S. It is disheartening to note that The Equality and Human Rights Commission appear to conflate sex with gender themselves. But then again, Scots are unable to access constitutional justice and must make-do with the human rights that Westminster considers politically acceptable (see the “Right to Development” and the full-English Brexit, for example).
P.P.S. Has a “constructionist” interpretation of “sex” colonised legal doctrine in Britain?
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
@OwenJones84
You are supporting patriarchy and sexist stereotyping, so you are on the wrong side of history re. self-ID. If you are rational rather than tribal, do you not think you might be also be wrong in thinking British nationalism is best for Scotland?
Gender Identity
Definitions
Gender identity and gender role
Gender identity is defined as a personal conception of oneself as male or female (or rarely, both or neither). This concept is intimately related to the concept of gender role, which is defined as the outward manifestations of personality that reflect the gender identity. Gender identity, in nearly all instances, is self-identified, as a result of a combination of inherent and extrinsic or environmental factors; gender role, on the other hand, is manifested within society by observable factors such as behavior and appearance.
For example, if a person considers himself a male and is most comfortable referring to his personal gender in masculine terms, then his gender identity is male. However, his gender role is male only if he demonstrates typically male characteristics in behavior, dress, and/or mannerisms.
The trans-rights movement is not selling intersectional feminism, they are selling the colonisation of womanhood by men who’s psychology is disordered from their physiology.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
re. intersectional feminism. Remember, from a critical realist perspective, sex is characteristically binary, male or female. It might also be helpful to remember that ‘the social position of biological women’, is the primary concern of feminist theory.
Developing a Critical Realist Positional Approach to Intersectionality
This article identifies philosophical tensions and limitations within contemporary intersectionality theory which, it will be argued, have hindered its ability to explain how positioning in multiple social categories can affect life chances and influence the reproduction of inequality.
We draw upon critical realism to propose an augmented conceptual framework and novel methodological approach that offers the potential to move beyond these debates, so as to better enable intersectionality to provide causal explanatory accounts of the ‘lived experiences’ of social privilege
and disadvantage.
I’m sorry for taking up so much space but I might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb. So here’s one with The Royal Astronomical Society in mind. The SNP and Scotland’s judiciary could do worse than giving themselves a shake, as well.
Legal Realism and Natural Law
Abstract:
The possibility of any meaningful relationship between the legal realists and natural law looks at first rather far-fetched. When it first appeared on the jurisprudential scene, legal realism was savagely attacked by proponents of natural law theory. To this day legal realism is depicted as a modernist, critical, at times almost nihilist approach to law, the polar opposite of the ancient natural law theory that traces its roots to Greek and Roman philosophy, and insists on unchanging objective values. And yet, two of the most famous legal realists, Karl Llewellyn and Jerome Frank, expressed in some of their writings more than a passing endorsement of natural law theory.
The purpose of this essay is to try and explain this seemingly odd aspect of their work and in this way help in reassessing their work. We do so by explaining how they understood natural law and how they incorporated it in their work. Though they did not understand the term in precisely the same way, for both of them natural law was connected to the values of the community, which both of them thought were central to understanding law, for explaining how it could remain relatively certain, and ultimately, how it derived its authority.
Keywords:
Legal realism, natural law, Karl Llewellyn, Jerome Frank, jurisprudence
re. Phantom Power “Journey to Yes stories #16 Economy”, Richard Murphy’s overview of indy Scotland’s economy and his critique of GERS. Scotland has not voted for a neo-liberal party for some time, if ever. So what right does Westminster have to enforce a neo-liberal political economy on Scotland? One that is grounded on extremely shaky theoretical grounding, i.e. neo-classical economic theory.
One for our politicians who think they are advancing diversity and inclusion by disregarding science and law, in order to claim that TWAW.
Why Has the Ethics of Care Become an Issue of Global Concern?
Abstract
Since Carol Gilligan published her masterpiece, In a Different Voice, many scholars, especially feminist scholars in various fields, including moral theory, philosophy, and political and legal theory, have been inspired to establish a more inclusive approach to social injustice as well as sexual inequality. The purpose of this article is to explore the depth and expanse of the ethics of care for its potential as a political philosophy. To pursue this end, the article analyzes first the main claims of care ethics by responding to its typical counterarguments, which criticize the ethics of care as being too dependent on gender differences, particularism, and essentialism.
The second section examines three challenges that care ethics poses to the male-oriented mainstream of political philosophy, especially the theory of justice. The ethics of care provides us with a new approach to moral and political issues because it focuses responsively on social injustice, proposes a new idea of relational self and takes the social connection model to justice. With these three perspectives proposed by the ethics of care in mind, the article turns its eyes to global implications of care ethics by referring to the issue of the “comfort women” of Japanese troops during the Second World War.
P.S. I wonder how many of these “comfort women” had cocks?
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
So what is a ‘Different Voice’?
The Oxford Handbook of Rationality
Gender and Rationality
Abstract and Keywords
This article explores feminist stances toward gender and rationality. These divide into three broad camps: the “classical feminist” stance, according to which what needs to be challenged are not available norms and ideals of rationality, but rather the supposition that women are unable to meet them; the “different voice” stance, which challenges available norms of rationality as either incomplete or accorded an inflated importance; and the “strong critical” stance, which finds fault with the norms and ideals themselves.
This contribution focuses on assessing the various projects – some rival, some complementary – being pursued within the third, critical camp. This article offers a reconstruction of Catherine MacKinnon’s critique of norms of rationality according to which they function to maintain relations of dominance by deauthorizing feminist claims to knowledge.
@SNP management
You have a responsibility to manage your team effectively. “Sex” is defined and protected by law. Trans-women do not poses the sexual epistemology of biological women, so they have no right to claim women’s sex-based rights. Get you members telt.
It’s a sad day when a man in his fifties is more of a feminist than women caught-up in the trans-cult. Especially female politicians, who think they know what they are talking about. The trans movement is ideological entry-ism, and it threatens independence.
This trans-rights movement has certainly put a fox in the hen-house. Not only in Scotland mind. Like I said, conflating sex with gender undermines women’s rights and, subsequently, their social position.
Backlash in Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Rights
Abstract
This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the FEMM Committee, is designed to identify in which fields and by which means the backlash in gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights in six countries (Austria, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia) is occurring. The backlash, which has been happening over the last several years, has decreased the level of protection of women and girls and reduced access to their rights.
Overview of the political and theoretical context. The “gender ideology” debate
There are two terms that are used to refer to a reversal to previously accepted norms and a decline in “progress” in the field of women’s rights and gender equality. Backsliding is used in political science to describe a reversal in transitions to liberal democracies,10 whereas backlash is used in feminist journalism and academia to describe a reversal of progress with implementing feminist equality policies and related language. The latter term was first used by Susan Faludi in her 1991 book on Reagan’s 1980s that, in her analysis, thwarted the progress that women had achieved in the 1970s in the form of a challenge by the New Right.11
The English word “gender” in its sociological-feminist sense has not become mainstream in the languages of the aforementioned countries outside academia, and usually cannot be translated using a single word.12
Discussion of the origin and development of the ideological and popular movement against “gender ideology” or “gender theory” which started in around 2012 in Europe continues to be a hot topic, but appears to be based on some earlier (mainly religious) schools of thought from the early 2000s.13 Outside Europe, other words are being used to describe the phenomenon such as “Cultural Marxism”, “Gayropa” (post-Soviet countries and Russia) and “political correctness” (USA). Different human rights issues are under attack in these mobilisations, from women’s reproductive rights through LGBTQI rights to technical governance methods (gender mainstreaming) and the academic discipline of gender studies.
Much of the analysis is placed in this ‘backlash’ framework that is shared by academia, gender experts, feminists, and LGBTQI activists. However, there is also growing left-wing criticism of the (often also left-wing) backlash discourse, especially focusing on East-Central Europe, which seeks to examine regional differences and to move away from ideological oppositions to understand how the transition to the market economy policies have affected women and why this region has become susceptible to such attacks on modernism.
The human rights paradigm of the EU, it is argued, while focusing on the individual rights of women, does not treat the injustices emerging from the economic order that developed after the transition of 1989 and the austerity policies after the 2008 crisis which affect the everyday lives of women.14 The two most comprehensive edited volumes on the topic are: Gender as Symbolic Glue (Kovacs & Poim, 2015)15 and Anti-Gender, Mobilizing against Equality Campaigns in Europe (Kuhar & Paternotte, 2017).
On the one hand, it is argued that such attacks represent cultural backsliding against social changes (gender equality, sexual rights, abortion, in-vitro and assisted fertility treatments, interpretation of the causes of violence against women as contained in the Istanbul Convention, gay and trans rights and same sex marriage, and adoption by same-sex couples), a critique of modernity, or a “conservative revolution”.16 To quote one academic analysis: “To use a substantive but contextualized approach we define backsliding as states going back on previous commitments to gender equality norms.
We operationalize policy backsliding in the field of gender equality along four complementary dimensions: 1) discursive (de)legitimation of gender policy objectives; 2) dismantling and reframing existent policies, 3) backsliding in implementing institutions, coordination, policy programming and funding, 4) dismantling accountability and inclusion mechanisms.”17
On the other hand, it has been shown that the meaning of “gender” itself has changed over time, and may be being used differently by policy-makers and activists. Some issues monopolised by the “war on gender” also deeply divide the feminist movement (e.g. gender as an innate feeling in identity politics vs. gender as social construction, trans rights for children, and surrogacy, just to name a few). To quote one expert, Kováts states that:
“First, in the English speaking context gender became widely a substitute of biological sex (e.g. in the case when we speak about gender quotas or gender pay gap, what is meant is male-female ratio). Second, it came to mean women, e.g. gender analysis in policy-making is often used to describe how this or that measure would affect women (and less, as intended, gender relations). Third, it is an analytical category to describe the social quality of distinctions based on sex, the power structures in a given society, between men and women, and the roles, possibilities and constraints in society, assigned on being born male or female (e.g. if we speak about gender-based violence, it refers to the gendered nature of a specific type of violence, rooted in the prevailing patriarchal structure of our societies). Fourth, many use it in the trans and genderqueer activism to mean gender identity18 (a person’s felt sense of identity and expressions, meaning identifying or not with being born male or female).”19 The same author argues that “…the vehement debates on the continent about “gender ideology” seem to be connected to the current contestations in the Anglo-Saxon world about identity politics, a simplified notion of intersectionality and gender understood as identity.”20
In our study we claim that a backlash in women’s rights is on-going in relation to certain topics (sexual and reproductive health and rights, institutional mechanisms, Istanbul Convention’s ratification, rhetorics, women’s rights civil space, etc.) while there is progress in other areas, mostly disguised as family policy (in family and care policies and the reconciliation of work and private life) at the same time. Sometimes, as in the case of work-life balance, rhetoric about mothers as innate primary caretakers of children contradicts the actual practice of helping working mothers with new policies re-enter the labour market after childbirth earlier, although these are not framed as being related to gender equality. A comprehensive picture can only be created by understanding both these trends.
re. the popular urban myth of ‘lady-dick’ and how lesbians must accept them. This rhetorical device is used by trans-activist to shame women into submission, and is an infringement of basic human rights. No man has a right to have sex with a woman. Trans-women are not women, they are trans-women.
Do We Need a Sex/Gender Distinction?
1. The Context of the Distinction
The original context of the distinction was given by Robert
Stoller:
With a few exceptions there are two sexes, male and female. To determine sex one must assay the following conditions – chromosomes, external genitalia, internal genitalia, gonads, hormonal states, and secondary sex characteristics …. One’s sex, then, is determined by an
algebraic sum of all these qualities, and as is obvious, most people fall under one of the two separate bell curves, the one of which is called ‘male’, the other ‘female’.
Gender is a term that has psychological and cultural rather than biological connotations; if the proper terms for sex are ‘male’ and ‘female’, the corresponding terms for gender are ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’, these latter being quite independent of (biological) sex. Gender is the amount of masculinity and femininity found in a person, and obviously, while there are mixtures of both in many humans, the normal male has a preponderance of masculinity and the normal ‘female’ a preponderance of femininity.4
Ann Oakley, whose book Sex, Gender and Society helped popularise the distinction, sums up: ‘Sex is a biological term; “gender” a psychological and cultural one.’5
The concept was developed further by sex-role theory, in terms of ‘sex-role stereotyping’. If sex is given in terms of the biological characteristics set out above, one’s gender is given by one’s sex-role, that behaviour which forms a role or is deemed appropriate for a person of a given sex. Such a notion is both heavily normative (although the role notion is neatly ambiguous between a normative and descriptive sense of role6) and relative to a particular society, place and time where the deeming is done.
This notion of gender assumes a simple set of uniform social expectations for gender apparently taken as shared by all members of society, and neglects or fails to invite questions about social dynamics, power, and whose expectations are relevant. The degree of conformity to one’s sex-role is the measure of gender, one’s degree of masculinity, femininity, and one’s successful socialisation into the appropriate role.
But although the distinction initially appeared within this context it would be a mistake to view it as irrevocably tied to such a behavioural context, or to a context of role theory, or socialisation theory. Many current aspects of the use of the distinction do not need to rely on the extra theoretical baggage which these contexts impart to it. The distinction does not stand or fall then with the context in which it was introduced, and now leads a somewhat independent life.
In order to see how far the distiction is necessary and how far it might be reconstructed in a different context, it is important to look at its major functions and uses. I don’t want to suggest that the use of the distinction is always clear-cut. In fact there seems to be a good deal of confusion about some areas of use. For example, we usually speak of love between the sexes. But if it is as social beings, both embodied and as a part of society which treats that body in certain ways, that men and women love one another, then it is love between the genders which is in question.
Clearly there are confused uses about, and often the distinction seems little more than a nuisance, insisting that we make a choice and division (is it biological or social love?) where no choice seems needed or indeed possible or relevant. We need a piece of inclusive terminology too it seems, for when we can’t or we don’t need to make a distinction. Nevertheless the distinction does have a real point, as I argue below.
I would have been better suggesting that nobody has the right to have sex with anyone else. Or do trans-activists think laws against r4pe don’t concern them because they are special?
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
P.S. As far as I’m aware, martial rape was outlawed in Britain as recently as the 1990’s. Legal doctrine is inherently sexist, hence feminist jurisprudence.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
P.S. As far as I’m aware, martial r4pe was outlawed in Britain as recently as the 1990’s. Legal doctrine is inherently sexist, hence feminist jurisprudence.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
Is it not obvious why lesbians are being discriminated against? Firstly, their sexual preference means they have no need for men, which is an affront to patriarchy. Second, they are the ones most threatened by “lady dick”, so most resistant to law that would endanger them. Third, a large portion of Britain’s homosexuals are misogynistic dickheads (see Owen Jones, for example), so lesbians can whistle if they expect any solidarity from the homosexual mainstream. As such, lesbians will be excluded from woke society.
I see Stonwall UK are double down on their misogyny. Promoting a r4pe guide is certainly not a good look. These guys appear determined to undermine open, liberal, society. Given their advocacy for pedophiles, I reckon Stonewall poses a real and present danger to women and children. Yet thay are publicly funded. That’s a total brain-melt.
Feminism, Foucault, and R4ape: A Theory and
Politics of R4pe Prevention
Why isn’t r4pe the same as a punch in the face? In October 1977, the Paris-based Change Collective published a volume entitled “La folie encerclee.”‘ In it is reprinted a series of debates on themes related to repression. It was in one of these roundtable discussions that French philosopher Michel Foucault asked this very question, arguing that the crime of rape should be punished as a form of physical violence “and nothing but.”2 He argued for the decriminalization of r4pe as a sexual crime:
One can always produce the theoretical discourse that amounts to saying: in any case, sexuality can in no circumstances be the object of punishment. And when one punishes r4pe one should be punishing physical violence and nothing but that. And to say that it is nothing more than an act of aggression: that there is no difference, in principle, between sticking one’s fist into someone’s face or one’s penis into their sex …. [T]here are problems [if we are to say that r4pe is more serious than a punch in the face], because what we’re saying amounts to this: sexuality as such, in the body, has a preponderant place, the sexual organ isn’t like a hand, hair, or a nose. It therefore has to be protected, surrounded, invested in any case with legislation that isn’t that pertaining to the rest of the body …. It isn’t a matter of sexuality, it’s the physical violence that
would be punished, without bringing in the fact that sexuality was involved.
Foucault’s claim sent a tremor through feminist intellectual circles and has since sustained an entire genre of feminist engagement.4 This paper situates Foucault’s provocative question within his sprawling oeuvre on power and the body, focusing specifically on its implications for a feminist politics5 of r4pe and, in particular, r4pe prevention. What exactly does it mean to the gendered subject to “desexualize” r4pe? What might it mean to take seriously Foucault’s
paraphrased question: why isn’t r4pe the same as a punch in the face? In particular, what might it bring to a feminist response to r4pe and r4pe prevention both theoretically and practically? 6
It is alarming that folk still can’t see a problem with the proposed change to the GRA. Law aims to deliver justice through logic and reason. However, the law’s potential for impartiality is undermined if the law’s use of language become arbitrary. Justice becomes arbitrary at that point.
The proposed changes to the GRA would introduce irrealism and irrationality into legal reason, thereby undermining the coherence of existing international public law aimed at gender equality. As such, the proposed changes would impair the effectiveness of international public law protecting biological women from the effects of patriarchy.
Transgender ideology was invented to disrupt and dismantle existing cultural norms. To do so, transgender ideology must disrupt and dismantle legal reason. In doing this, transgender ideology would strengthen patriarchy and open the door to regressive totalitarianism, on a global scale.
Anglo-American neo-liberalism is a re-packaging of the economic system of 18th century slavery. The powers that be will not easily allow their domination of society to be undermined (see Farage as go-between between American fascism and British politics).
However, as it appears that Scots law is happy to debase itself in order to sustain British nationalism, I think we’ve certainly rocked the shit out of Establishment’s self-confidence and sense of self-entitlement and exceptionalism.
O/T
I will be talking to a bad boy tonight (just outa the jile) who has quite a lot to say about how we deal with crime and prisons etc on my Roundabout show at 7 pm on Argyll Independent Radio online -if he turns up (or hasn’t been nicked again).
David
5 years ago
I saw this vid of a music fan in a wheelchair crowd-surfing at a music festival in Spain, and it really impressed me.
People *can* do the right thing, they can help each other without needing a reward other than knowing they are doing the right thing.
Can I talk about sex again? Well, I’ve a bit of a one-track mind, tbh. Sex-classes must remain grounded in biology if they are to have any practical value, so here’s an ethical way to determine whether trans-women are women or whether they are trans-women. 😉
Why Are There So Many Theories for Sex,
and What Do We Do with Them?
Abstract
It is widely known that there exists a multitude of possible explanations for the maintenance of sex; however, it is less clear how to handle such an explanatory pluralism. In this paper, we address one older and one more recent discussion on what might constitute a good theory for sex and find that they reflect a trade-off between maximizing the scientific virtues of generalism, realism, and precision.
A historical analysis indicates that varying research interests and research backgrounds of the different biologists shape the trade-off. We use the reflection on the trade-offs in order to understand the existence of the diversity of theories in the field and discuss how to address the explanatory pluralism.
We find that the existence of multiple theories for sex, that is, explanatory pluralism, is not surprising or embarrassing but can be seen as a resource. Still, it is important to clarify the possibilities of integration of different theories. Integration between certain theories might be complex, however, as they involve models and theories from different disciplines that have diverged historically in both conceptual and methodological aspects.
explanatory pluralism, Levins, maintenance of sex, philosophy of science, trade-off
Back in the day before feelz overtook realz in Canada.
Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition
Chapter 12. Gender, Sex, and Sexuality
Learning Objectives
12.1. The Difference between Sex and Gender
Define and differentiate between sex and gender
Define and discuss what is meant by gender identity
Understand and discuss the role of homophobia and heterosexism in society
Distinguish the meanings of transgendered, transsexual, and homosexual identities
12.2. Gender
Explain the influence of socialization on gender roles in Canada
Understand the stratification of gender in major North American institutions
Describe gender from the view of each sociological perspective
12.3. Sex and Sexuality
Understand different attitudes associated with sex and sexuality
Define sexual inequality in various societies
Discuss theoretical perspectives on sex and sexuality
The reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 is so named, as it refers to the re-assignment of “gender” and not “sex”. It is not possible to self-determine one’s sex.
Aretha Franklin – (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman link to youtube.com
David
5 years ago
Anent CameronB’s postings, would I be right in thinking that much of the recent gender/sex stramash is based on people misinterpreting a Shania Twain song…
🙂
P.S. I like the role reversal in Shania’s backing band, compared to Robert Palmer’s earlier hit “Addicted to Love”.
Shania went with himbos, where Robert went with bimbos. 🙂
Island businesses are closing because of the CalMac and CMAL incompetence.
In breach of their charter, the British Unionist Media State broadcaster is at it again with their SNP-badddd meltdown. The SNP rescued Ferguson Shipbuilders from closure.
Decent minded Scots and especially islanders are grateful for a government that actually did something to help save a Scottish Shipyard.
When, oh when will Holyrood debate the BBC repeatedly breaching the BBC charter and the BBC fraudulently taking money off of people with menaces.
Stuart, PLEASE can you put a big red button on your website directly linking us and WoS to their complaints form page so e can all report the BBC every time we see this carp? Serious request. Thanks.
I pay the BBC license fee as my job would be lost with a criminal conviction, but it gives me the dry boakhaving to give these BBC pe do supporters money to defame my First Minister and my government…
The BBC bias is causing IndyRef2 heaps of damage and either costing Islanders their jobs with this ferry pi sh or worse, killing us aff via Westminster DWP and ATOS etc.
Stu., any chance you can help nudge the Scottish Government to bring the highly paid BBC Scotland executives before committee at the Scottish Parliament to explain themselves?
I believe Scotland will NOT win Independence until the likes of BBC Scotland stop this SNP badddd garbage.
We know the BBC are bias creeps. But old Labour Mrs McGinty in the schemes and LibDem Hamish McSporran up the glen could do with some help opening the eyes to the excrement they are being served from the Union TV channel.
Cactus
5 years ago
Evenin’ aye anna recent WingsScotland twitter re-tweety:
Q. Take away ALL of the WORDS from the ad board, what do you see?
A. Cunt.
Ian Brotherhood
5 years ago
This was playing in the Stevenston Morrison’s today – FFS, haven’t heard it for years, instantly transported me back to a strangely happy time when some new music could still give a real thrill:
@Jo Swinson
In order to believe that trans-women are literally women, one has to reject the biopsychosocial model of health. Queer theory in law seeks to challenge existing norms, which is nice, but should not trump ethical reason. Trans-women are trans-women, so they do not have any human right to claim sex-based rights accorded to biological women.
Or do you think “womanhood” is solely an emotional state relating to patriarchal stereotypes?
The Neuropsychology of Sex Differences in Human Brain Organization
Abstract
Over the past decade, the media have focused much interest on the topic of sex differences in cognitive abilities, behavior and human brain organization. As the demand for information increased, so too did the amount of speculation, distortion and oversimplification of the original facts and theories. Indeed, there seemed to be an inverse relationship between the limited knowledge base and the proliferation of non-scientific publications.
This paper intends to redress the imbalance by summarizing some important clinical discoveries in the past five years pertaining to sex differences in human brain organization of verbal and spatial abilities (for review of previous data see McGlone, 1980). Emphasis will be placed on prospective studies of neurological patients with localized brain dysfunction caused by disease, surgery, drug injection or direct electrical stimulation.
The Gender Recognition Act is so named, as the process of gender-reassignment does not change the individual’s sex, it simply modifies the physiology of the individual to reflect they now wish to be viewed as being of the opposite gender to their biological sex. Biological sex is not a performance though, it has real effect in the real world. Allowing men to legally claim they are women, undermines public safety for women and children, for starters. Simples.
It is vital that sex-classes remain grounded in biology, for all sorts of practical reasons.
Woman/man as cross cultural categories
The sex/gender distinction with reference to the so-called third sex
The sex/gender distinction is widely used among social scientists. It is considered to be a useful analytical tool for studying differences between men and women. This essay will discuss the significance of this distinction with reference to the third gender and the contents of and relations between the two categories….
Traditional approaches to sex and gender
Every society seems to categorise its members on the basis of gender. Gender is related to, and in one way or another based on sex (Shapiro 1991). Gender is normally referred to as the socially and culturally constructed differences between men and women within a cultural system. Sex, on the other hand, is traditionally seen as a biological entity (Seymour-Smith 1986).
Social anthropologists emphasise gender variations in their studies of differences and similarities between the sexes. They try to offer an alternative to biological determinism, which argues that behaviour is grounded on biological facts. Sex is for social anthropologists a category which is considered to be universal and unproblematic. Biology, and thus sex, is often seen as something which is just there and has little influence on the social reality. Margaret Mead found through her studies in Samoa that gender is socially constructed rather than determined by biology (Caplan 1987). This is in many ways characteristic of the way social anthropologists approach sex and gender….
….From the discussion above, one can see that gender identities are grounded in ideas about sex and cultural mechanisms create men and women. But some boys become women and some girls become men. Judith Shapiro defines transsexualism like this: “…suspension of the usual anatomical recruitment rule to gender category membership” (Shapiro:248).
Because of this nature of transsexualism, it is especially helpful to study the phenomenon in order to see the relevance of the sex/gender distinction. According to Shapiro the transsexuals who wish to take, or have undergone, a sex operation show us that gender is more powerful than biological sex, although sex can be problematic. Transsexuals have a clear idea about their gender identity. But their biological identity does not correspond to their gender.
Transsexuals do not wish to change the categories: male and female. They try to “pass” as a gender that does not fit with their original biological sex, but by doing so they do not create a new category. In this sense they do not constitute a third gender. They merely uphold the distinction society makes between men and women. Shapiro argues that this shows us that gender cannot be predicted by anatomical sex:
“…the basis on which we are assigned a gender in the first place (that is, anatomical sex) is not what creates the reality of gender in ongoing social life” (Shapiro:257).
FFS! That’s the first time I’ve seen that longer version, only ever saw clips before.
Feels like an awful long time ago now. And how much credit has to go to a certain Ronnie Anderson for making those demos so effective?
😉
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
I’m thinking of changing my online-ID to “Because they refused to wax Jessica’s scrotum.”. When legal interpretation takes a constructivist view of “sex”, legal reason and the potential for justice are jeopardised. Particularly if you are a biological woman. Long live patriarchy and the full-English Brexit, apparently.
Governing Legal Embodiment: On the Limits of Self-Declaration
Abstract
This article presents the first empirically-based and theoretically-informed investigation of the effectiveness of the ‘self-declaration model’ of legal gender recognition in Denmark, the first European state to adopt it.
Drawing upon analysis of legislative materials, as well as interviews with stakeholders in the legislative process and trans and intersex legal subjects, it contends that self-declaration is not without its limitations. By conceptualising embodiment as an ontological and epistemological process of becoming, and emphasising the institutional dimensions and effects of such processes, it demonstrates that self-declaration may not address the complexities of legal embodiment, particularly concerning restrictions on trans and intersex people’s access to health care.
The article’s empirical findings are directed towards the policymakers and activists tasked with shaping reforms of gender recognition legislation in the UK and elsewhere. The analytical agenda it develops may be adopted, and adapted, by scholars working in this area and other regulatory contexts.
Keywords
Denmark Embodiment Gender Recognition Self-declaration Trans
I forgot to sign-off but I appear to be on a bit of a role, not a bap.
N.B. From the perspective of Critical Philosophy and Critical Sociology, “performativity” should be viewed as mode of being that conforms to the neo-liberal transformation of society, i.e. it appears to offer choice but actually bolsters patriarchy.
Gender Trouble in Social Psychology: How Can Butler’s Work Inform Experimental Social Psychologists’ Conceptualization of Gender?
Abstract
A quarter of a century ago, philosopher Judith Butler (1990) called upon society to create “gender trouble” by disrupting the binary view of sex, gender, and sexuality. She argued that gender, rather than being an essential quality following from biological sex, or an inherent identity, is an act which grows out of, reinforces, and is reinforced by, societal norms and creates the illusion of binary sex.
Despite the fact that Butler’s philosophical approach to understanding gender has many resonances with a large body of gender research being conducted by social psychologists, little theorizing and research within experimental social psychology has drawn directly on Butler’s ideas.
In this paper, we will discuss how Butler’s ideas can add to experimental social psychologists’ understanding of gender. We describe the Butler’s ideas from Gender Trouble and discuss the ways in which they fit with current conceptualizations of gender in experimental social psychology. We then propose a series of new research questions that arise from this integration of Butler’s work and the social psychological literature. Finally, we suggest a number of concrete ways in which experimental social psychologists can incorporate notions of gender performativity and gender trouble into the ways in which they research gender.
It is possible to protect the human rights of trans individuals, without adopting a constructavist interpretation of “sex” in law and medical practice. Allowing self-ID of sex undoes legal boundaries that society has created in order to protect the vulnerable. That doesn’t advance global human rights, it undermines them and supports patriarchy.
Rendering the Sexed Body Legally Invisible: How Transgender Law Hurts Women
The gross misappropriation of executive power to utterly remake the meaning of very basic legal terms threatens not only the structure of our government. It threatens the rule of law itself. This distortion of legal language is a particular threat to laws concerning women.
Ultimately, most of us just want to be healthy, happy and left in peace to do our own thing. Unfortunately, modern politics in the immanent state of Brexitania, is not conducive to respecting inalienable human rights of many (see austerity and the full-English Brexit). So I’m a wee bit sorry for the length of this post, but sometimes stepping back from a situation can reveal illuminating context.
Rereading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Plurality and Contestation, not Consensus
3. Contested Dignity, or, Where Agreement Stops and Politics Begins
The idea of human dignity is central in the UDHR. Parekh sums up the issue, saying ‘Ultimately the assumption of the natural dignity of human being became part of the UDHR despite the attempts by the drafters to keep the language neutral on this topic.’ (Parekh 2007, 763) Supporter and critic alike agree that “human dignity” in the UDHR points to the essential human characteristics that give rights their authority, where they part company is on whether a neutral and consensual definition was achieved – or is possible at all.
There are two problems with this understanding. First, the focus on a neutral account of dignity, or its absence, is required by the legislative understanding of rights, which sees them as moral principles that determinately limit the boundaries of politics. If we reject this view in favor of an agonistic one, then the contestation over, and ambiguity of, human dignity is as important as the consensus, or lack thereof. This highlights the second problem with conventional understandings of human dignity in the UDHR: they only focus on those elements emphasizing the need for, and achievement of, consensus – leaving the contest over the meaning of dignity under-examined.
In this section, I focus on why the drafters19 thought human dignity was so important to the UDHR, as well as how they disagreed about the meaning of dignity, which suggests that rather than achieving a consensus, the UDHR is an early opening in an ongoing discussion of human dignity and its significance in world politics. Reading histories of the UDHR, and transcripts of the drafting process, one is struck by how long the drafters spent suggesting, debating and revising individual articles. Yet, an important philosophical conversation prefaced this practical work and constantly re-emerged.
As P. C. Chang, the primary Chinese representative, stated in a meeting of the UNCHR intended to define their task, ‘I am afraid when we are asserting rights, rights, and rights, we are apt to forget the standard of man. It is not merely a matter of getting things, getting things, but also: what is the objective of being a man?’ (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947b) The discussion of human dignity was seen by many of the drafters to be a vital part of the declaration, for it served as justification in the preamble for the rights articulated.
While others, notably Colonel Hodgson, representing Australia, and Hansa Mehta, representing India, were critical of the extended philosophical debates that were had throughout the drafting process. Yet, despite trying the patience of some, there was an overall sense that these philosophical issues mattered. Charles Malik, of Lebanon, responded to Mehta’s impatience with philosophical talk by underlining that ideology informs all thought and insisting that the UNCHR deal with such matters in the open.
Then, the honourable representative from India said that the Charter already contains a mention of human dignity and worth and that we should not enter into any ideological maze in our discussion here. Well, unfortunately, whatever you say, Madam, one must have ideological presuppositions and, no matter how much you fight shy of them, they are there and you either hide them or you are brave enough to bring them out into the open and see them and criticize them. Furthermore, it is precisely my intention to give meaning to that vague phrase, human dignity and worth, which is used in the Charter to give it content and,
therefore, to save it from hollowness and emptiness. (Charles Malik quoted in UN Commission on Human Rights 1947e)
The discussion of dignity was important in revealing the different views of why human dignity justified the new human rights declared, but it did more than that. By focusing the drafters on the task of, as Chang put it, ‘making the standard of man respected,’ (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947b) the focus on human dignity clarified the problem they were addressing. The declaration of these new human rights was intended to affirm universal moral principles for
international politics based not on the authority of states but the value of human dignity. Early on Chang grasped the novelty of what they were doing, saying, ‘we are dealing with something which has not been dealt with before, namely the international aspect of equality.’ (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947e)
While it is possible to overstate the importance of Nazi atrocities to the UDHR drafting (Waltz 2001, 53), the wider context of WWII was the immediate backdrop. In particular, there was a sense that the defense of human dignity provided by a new human rights institution was called for by the mistreatment of, and extreme demands placed on, individuals (Lauren 2003, 204–205). Assistant Secretary General, Henri Laugier, opened the 1st meeting of the UNCHR with a clear evocation of this purpose:
With your boundless devotion to the cause of human rights and to the cause of the United Nations, let us here gather strength for our fight from the recent memory of the long darkness through which we have come, where tens of millions of human beings died so that human rights might stay alive, from the memory of all those men and women who have found in their dignity alone the strength to sacrifice their lives in order, obstinately, to proclaim, amidst the depths of surrounding darkness, the presence and the permanence of the stars. (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947a)
The work of defending human dignity was seen as a deeply moral task demanded by concrete political tragedy. In particular, there was a sense that a common humanity had to be affirmed and that individuals protected from the power of the state. Cassin expressed these commitments often:
We have seen and lived through a period when human society has been practically destroyed by the application of a concept of race, or concept of the nation, or concept of the volk, I will call it; and it is a most important fact that we should have lived to see this possibility of men crushing and denying the rights of man, both as communities and as individuals. I think we must insist upon this fact: that we must finally reach the fusion of the idea of man as a community and man as an individual. (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947b)
The State, in other words the collectivity, has asked the maximum from millions of people, the greatest thing they could offer – their lives. (Drafting Committee 1947f)
The sacrifice demanded by the state played a key role in understanding both rights to membership and welfare provisions as central to human dignity.16 This is important because the discussion of human dignity was not simply an abstract philosophical discussion, but a form of practical moral reasoning at work, articulating a moral ideal to guide political change. Human dignity was defended against a backdrop of real offenses – all encompassing interstate war, mass slaughter, enormous civilian casualties, nationalist and racist ideology, statelessness, economic depression – and the debate reflected that situation even as it revealed a pluralism of views on how to address it.
Malik, Chang and Cassin are widely considered to be the primary intellectual forces involved in the drafting (Glendon 1997, 1157–1159).17 This, however, did not mean they were of one mind on the meaning of human dignity. In an early UNCHR meeting, Malik focused on dignity in terms of conscience, defined as the ability to change one’s mind:
If we have any contribution to make, it is in the field of fundamental freedom, namely, freedom of thought, freedom of conscience and freedom of being. And there is one point on which we wish to insist more than anything else, namely that it is not enough to be, it is not enough to be free to be what you are. You must also be free to become what your conscience requires you to become in light of your best knowledge. It is therefore freedom of becoming, of change that we stress as much as freedom of being. (Malik 2000, 16–17)18
This led him to focus on the protection of persons from the power of the state, to accord a special place to civil society, and to support the preservation of space for free thought, opposition and even rebellion against established authority (Malik 2000, 26). Further, he was among the strongest advocates of human rights because he thought they ensured that the people determined the state. ‘We intend to say that the people are active and take the initiative in the determination of the State. It is not as though you come to the people, offer them something, and they consent to it. It is our intention that originally the people, themselves, take the initiative in determining what the state should be.’ (Drafting Committee 1947f)
So, while it is accurate to point to Malik’s emphasis on ‘natural rights’, we see that his understanding of their justification was hardly orthodox and attempted to preserve, in the concept of human dignity, what he saw as essential in human being and becoming.19 There is a tension in Malik’s view, or perhaps blindness, in asserting that the most important freedom to protect is a person’s freedom to change and become, while also asserting that we can build a social order upon man’s essential nature that does not limit that very freedom. Yet, despite his essentialist rhetoric, Malik continuously put the protection of the freedom of the person into the context of his times.
Who is this person? This person, Mr. President, is the living, dying man who suffers and rebels, is scared, is often undecided, makes mistakes, the man who thinks, hesitates, decides, and gossips, and who needs to be lifted when he falls. It is the being even who blushes, laughs, and changes his mind when he knows better. This being, Mr. President, in his own personal dignity and self-respect is in danger of being drowned and obscured by political and ideological systems of all sorts. (Malik 2000, 60)
Whatever the consistency of his metaphysical beliefs about human nature, Malik’s defense of human rights was based on an opposition to forms of social order that failed to respect persons as feeling, thinking and creative beings increasingly subject to the power of the nation-state, at the cost of intermediate ties, and devalued by contemporary conditions and ideologies. Along with Malik, Chang was probably the most philosophically inclined participant.20 In addition to clearly articulating the task the drafters had before them in terms of human dignity,
Chang also made important contributions the idea as it developed in the UDHR. His primary thought was that conscience, as an essential aspect of dignity, involved what he called ‘two-man mindedness.’ (Drafting Committee 1947d) The idea of two-man mindedness implies sympathy as fellow feeling, but also something deeper and more demanding, what Chang described as ‘extending our consciousness to others.’ (Drafting Committee 1947d) This involved both recognition of mutual duties between all human beings and respect for the values of others. ‘The definition of man is to be human-minded – namely, that whatever he does, he thinks of the other person as if the other person were in his place.’ (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947b) This entailed not only the acknowledgment of a common humanity, but also an insistence that two-man mindedness enabled understanding across cultural barriers and could inspire consideration for others….
I wish my imaginary scenario with the gynecology discipline were a satirical proposition. It is for the moment. But I have no faith that it will remain imaginary. The following words have—in format—become a cliché, but only because the insight the original words represent is so often the most fitting commentary on a democracy’s demise, which always begins with the sacrifice of individual freedoms on the altar of irrational dogmas: “First they came for the waxologists, but I did not speak up because I was not a waxologist …” – Barbara Kay
Strangely enough, I was looking at this earlier on today. Telt you I’m a bit of a weirdo. Spooky. 🙂
Wittgenstein against ‘Positivist’ Approaches to International Relations: Replacing the Anti Representationalist Objection
1.1 Concise Statements of the Anti-?Representationalist Objection
An explicit statement of the ARO is found early on in Kratochwil’s 1989 book entitled Rules, Norms and Decisions.
There, in the introduction, Kratochwil writes: “I shall argue that our conventional understanding of social action and of the norms governing them is defective because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the function of language in social interaction, and because of a positivist epistemology that treats norms as ‘causes.’
Communication is therefore reduced to issues of describing ‘facts’, properly, i.e. to the ‘match’ of concepts and objects, and to the ascertainment of nomological regularities. Important aspects of social action such as advising, demanding, apologizing, asserting, promising, etc., cannot be adequately understood thereby.
Although the philosophy of ordinary language has abandoned the ‘mirror’ image of language since the later Wittgenstein, the research programs developed within the confines of logical positivism are, nevertheless, still indebted to the old conception. I shall argue in this book that only a fundamental reorientation of the research program is likely to overcome these difficulties.” (Kratochwil, 1989: p.5-?6)
In this passage Kratochwil identifies his target as ‘conventional’ approaches to IR which were “developed within the confines of logical positivism”, and allegedly employ “a positivist epistemology that treats norms as ‘causes’” and reduce communication to the ‘description of facts’ and “the ascertainment of nomological regularities”. Kratochwil argues that the relevant approaches to IR are indebted to an old conception or ‘image’ of language as a ‘mirror’, which he claims was long ago abandoned by ordinary language philosophers in the wake of later Wittgenstein.
The suggested conclusion is that the historical abandonment of the mirror image of language within philosophy, and the criticisms that led to this abandonment, should lead IR scholars to fundamentally reorient their research programmes away from ‘positivist’ approaches to IR. It is worth noting that although the above passage was written in 1989, Kratochwil has asserted as recently as 2001 that ‘positivism’ is “the orthodox understanding of science among IR specialists” (Kratochwil, 2001: p.14), and has continued in his contemporary work to warn against ‘theories’ of IR “in the fashion of ‘science’” (Kratochwil, 2016: p.291). Less detailed expressions of the above line of argument are also found in Kratochwil’s 2001 and 2013 essays respectively (2001: p.29 & 34; 2013: p.2).
A similar statement of the ARO is found in the following passages taken from Fierke’s 2010 article entitled ‘Wittgenstein and International Relations Theory’:
“Wittgenstein’s early work, in the Tractatus, informed the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle. While logical positivism per se is no longer in fashion, the picture theory of language continues to underpin assumptions about hypothesis testing within the social sciences. At the other end of the spectrum, Wittgenstein’s U-?turn in the Philosophical Investigations (1958) gave impetus to the postmodern critique of the autonomous rational agent (Honneth 1995).
In the middle of this spectrum, his argument that language use is action has influenced social theory more broadly (e.g. Austin 1963; Searle 1969; Berger and Luckman 1967).… The transition in [Wittgenstein’s] thought from a picture theory to a more constitutive notion of language is precisely the transition that has been underway within IR debates for the last twenty years, from the unquestioned assumption, best articulated by Waltz (1979), that theory mirrors the logic of the international system across time, to the ‘constructivist turn’, and the greater attention to cultural difference, meaning, context and processes of constitution and change (Fierke 2002).” (Fierke, 2010a: p.83-?4)
“Wittgenstein cannot be ‘applied’ in the way you would, for instance, apply realist or institutionalist theory. The latter are explanatory models. Wittgenstein, in his later work, provided a critique of the picture theory of language, which is often assumed in explanatory theories. Hypothesis testing rests on a picture theory of language and the idea that we can compare scientific categories with the world to see whether they correspond.” (Fierke, 2010a: p.84)
In these passages, Fierke echoes Kratochwil’s argument that approaches to IR that were developed under the influence of ‘logical positivism’ are beholden to an outdated philosophical conception – or, in Fierke’s stronger terminology, a ‘theory’ – of language that was criticised by later Wittgenstein, according to which language supposedly “pictures” or “mirrors” reality.20
While Kratochwil characterised such approaches to IR as focusing on the identification of “causes”, the description of “facts” and the ascertainment of “nomological regularities” (Kratochwil, 1989: p.5-?6), Fierke characterises them as “explanatory theories” or “models” which employ “hypothesis testing” (Fierke, 2010a:p.84). Like Kratochwil, Fierke suggests that these sorts of approaches involve making the assumption that one can ‘match up’ theoretical concepts with objective entities or features of reality.
Fierke acknowledges that contemporary social and political scholars have largely moved on from endorsing ‘logical positivism’ per se, although she argues that explanatory theoretical approaches to IR nevertheless continue largely to be underpinned by the ‘picture theory’ of language….
Oh how much is Smallaxe missed on here…
The man with the ability to shut shit down in one sentence..
I so hope you are well my friend and looking after Mrs Smallaxe xxx
Don’t be thinking I just miss ye when there’s an idiot on the main thread…. I think of you and Mrs Smallaxe often….
And am always sending ye both my very best XXX from me and mine to you and yours X
Ian Brotherhood
5 years ago
@Liz g –
Hear hear.
🙁
Marie Clark
5 years ago
@Liz g- yes me too.
I often think of them and hope that they are doing all right.
I wonder what happened to my dancing partner Tinto Chiel, he’s been missing for a while as well. Hope he is okay, miss his humour,oh and Harvey of course.
Cactus
5 years ago
The Wingers are ALWAYS watching
Time revolves as do Wingers
It’s a beautiful thing
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
I’m open to individuals declaring themselves the opposite gender to their biological sex, but I can not support gender-ID as the basis for gaining access to sex-based rights. Allowing self-ID of sex would make a mockery of human rights.
Natural law, human rights and women’s rights: an investigation into the foundations and limitations of appeals to women’s rights outside the law
Abstract
Since the end of the Cold War, human rights language has become the dominant discursive framework within which issues of ethics, politics and international law are debated and contested. There is a widespread acceptance of the concept of universal human rights, even although this has paradoxically occurred at a time when postmodernism has called into questions all values and practices based on appeals to universal values or norms.
Human rights theorists and practitioners continue to debate the extent to which the concept of human rights may be ‘nonsense on stilts’ (Jeremy Bentham), a pragmatic ethical system which abandons the quest for foundations in favour of ‘sentimental education’ designed to inculcate western democratic values into societies and individuals (Richard Rorty), or a concept which is implicitly dependent upon theological perspectives associated with natural law and divine justice (Michael Perry).
This research project examines the natural law tradition and its relationship to human rights theory and law, with a particular emphasis on questions of women’s rights. It argues that natural law theology and philosophy provide a resource for reflection on the relationship between law, rights, gender and justice, while affirming the affinity between humankind and the natural world in a way which has implications for environmental concerns and the understanding of nature….
The world hasn’t gone mad but human reason is being tested. A symptom of the authoritarian capitalism, or neo-liberal totalitarianism, that is becoming the global social norm. I just hope the SNP’s researchers are making full use of the resources I’ve highlighted, and their legal advisors familiarise themselves with international legal doctrine, as they appear to be ignorant of basic facts of anti-discrimination law.
Who ordered the civil service to drop best practice when designing the consultation?
Gender equality
“… [T]he advancement of gender equality is today a major goal in the member States of the Council of Europe and very weighty reasons would have to be put forward before such a difference of treatment could be regarded as compatible with the Convention … In particular, references to traditions, general assumptions or prevailing social attitudes in a particular country are insufficient justification for a difference in treatment on grounds of sex.” (Konstantin Markin v. Russia, Grand Chamber judgment of 22 March 2012, § 127)
Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights of 4 November 1950:
“The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.”
Article 1 (general prohibition of discrimination) of Protocol No. 12 to the Convention of 4 November 2000:
“1. The enjoyment of any right set forth by law shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.
2. No one shall be discriminated against by any public authority on any ground such as those mentioned in paragraph 1.”
Forgot to sigh off there but it gives me the opportunity to remind folks that from a Scottish and N. Irish perspective, the full-English Brexit is discrimination on stilts.
Brexitania: the psychotic fantasy of zombie, neo-liberal, neo-consevative, nationalists. Not those who voted for it, well not all of them anyway, those who paid for it.
One last one. Can we get a crack at indy now, please.
Genomic resource centre
Gender and Genetics
Genetic Components of Sex and Gender
Humans are born with 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs. The X and Y chromosomes determine a person’s sex. Most women are 46XX and most men are 46XY. Research suggests, however, that in a few births per thousand some individuals will be born with a single sex chromosome (45X or 45Y) (sex monosomies) and some with three or more sex chromosomes (47XXX, 47XYY or 47XXY, etc.) (sex polysomies). In addition, some males are born 46XX due to the translocation of a tiny section of the sex determining region of the Y chromosome. Similarly some females are also born 46XY due to mutations in the Y chromosome. Clearly, there are not only females who are XX and males who are XY, but rather, there is a range of chromosome complements, hormone balances, and phenotypic variations that determine sex.
The biological differences between men and women result from two processes: sex determination and differentiation.(3) The biological process of sex determination controls whether the male or female sexual differentiation pathway will be followed. The process of biological sex differentiation (development of a given sex) involves many genetically regulated, hierarchical developmental steps.
More than 95% of the Y chromosome is male-specific(4) and a single copy of the Y chromosome is able to induce testicular differentiation of the embryonic gonad. The Y chromosome acts as a dominant inducer of male phenotype and individuals having four X chromosomes and one Y chromosome (49XXXXY) are phenotypically male. (5) When a Y chromosome is present, early embryonic testes develop around the 10th week of pregnancy. In the absence of both a Y chromosome and the influence of a testis-determining factor (TDF), ovaries develop.
Gender, typically described in terms of masculinity and femininity, is a social construction that varies across different cultures and over time. (6) There are a number of cultures, for example, in which greater gender diversity exists and sex and gender are not always neatly divided along binary lines such as male and female or homosexual and heterosexual.
The Berdache in North America, the fa’afafine (Samoan for “the way of a woman”) in the Pacific, and the kathoey in Thailand are all examples of different gender categories that differ from the traditional Western division of people into males and females. Further, among certain North American native communities, gender is seen more in terms of a continuum than categories, with special acknowledgement of “two-spirited” people who encompass both masculine and feminine qualities and characteristics. It is apparent, then, that different cultures have taken different approaches to creating gender distinctions, with more or less recognition of fluidity and complexity of gender.
The cost has still to be reckoned obvs., and we’ll be the suckers if we let it engulf Scotland. I meant the individuals/parties who paid for the criminal electioneering and stuff. And the media barons who’ve been selling Euroscepticism since the 1960’s. Well, England had to define a new role in the world for itself after loosing an empire, innit?
My favourite Fela piece
“Yellow Fever”
His blast against the Nigerian ladies who used bleaching creams to try to look more white. I did 25 years in Nigeria, mostly in a womens’ teachers college, and they looked just fine the way they were. And some.
What great musician and band leader.
Actually I met Ginger Ginger Baker in Kano,Nigeria on his way to the studio in Lagos. Paul McCartney used it for Wings and Band On The Run
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
re. Malcolm Clark @TwisterFilm, and his comparison between gender-modification surgery and legal amputation. Why do you think I’ve already posted about the ethical and legal implications of voluntary amputation, already? 🙂
Gender modification is definitely not a life-changing decision that children are capable of making, and it is not a decision their parents should be able to take for them. Those that suffer gender dysphoria experience a disorder between their mental and physical states. The danger of a constructavist interpretation of what sex is, is that it leads legal and medical practice to affirm disorder, rather than addressing it properly, as an incongruence of cognition. Worryingly, these are the two professions where a gender-critical, biologically grounded, perspective must remain the mainstream. Otherwise, women can kiss goodby to any ideas of further social emancipation.
Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID)—Is the Amputation of Healthy Limbs Ethically Justified? link to tandfonline.com
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
This is the ticket, this is the real intelligence. This should also prove informative about how the full-English Brexit, pisses all over the legal personhood and human rights of those living in Scotland.
NON-NORMATIVE BODIES, RATIONALITY AND LEGAL PERSONHOOD
This article questions how legal personhood is constructed by law. Elective amputation is used as a way of interrogating the institutional, material and discursive relations that combine in order to suspend legal personhood. Elective amputation is introduced in terms of medical and psychological explanations. Additionally, the perspective of self-identified elective amputees who choose to share their stories through online blogs is utilized to gain a narrative sense of how these individuals understand and engage with law. In particular, the areas of disability, sexuality and rationality are used to exemplify law’s continuing commitment to normative embodiment as grounds for ascribing legal
personhood.
Over to you Scottish judiciary, or are you all “ambivalent” about the full-English Brexit?
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
I forgot to sign-off, so here’s a wee insight into the concept of “legal personality”. We all have one, not only those who support British nationalism, though the British constitution only recognises and protects those who believe Britain is ‘One Nation’, apparently.
Book Reviews
J. E. Nijman. The Concept of International Legal Personality, An Inquiry into the History and Theory of International Law. The Hague : T. M. C. Asser Press, 2004. Pp. 494.
This book offers a solid and detailed inquiry into the doctrinal evolution of the concept of international legal personality (ILP). Its main purpose is to show in what socio-political context and with what legal-political aim a certain
understanding of ILP has been advanced by a specific author or group of authors at a specific time. The concept of ILP is not only a theoretical notion, which underlies the construction of international law. It is also a political notion, a locus of change or of conservation.
It is a locus of change when new subjects are postulated or admitted to the arena of international law; it is a locus of conservation when international law is shielded from the penetration of new subjects into its body. It is these dynamics which the book seeks, in the first place, to uncover. The keyword for the book as a whole could thus be ‘context’….
I only ‘discovered’ Fela recently, love his work, especially how one ‘track’ can be half an hour long. And the guy’s life story is just mind-blowing, we could all learn a lot from it.
😉
Dave McEwan Hill
5 years ago
Ian Brotherhood at 7.52
A very brave man indeed.
Dave McEwan Hill
5 years ago
Typo
I didn’t do 25 years in Nigeria. Typo. I did 15 years in Nigeria. Approaching 200 million people with Lagos city at about 20 million it represents a huge problem the world is not facing.The population of West Africa as doubling every twenty years and together with climate change this is the most destablising issue we now face.
Dave McEwan Hill
5 years ago
Got a beautiful piece of music from Texas,beautifully sung and beautifully backed. Going to get it onto CDs and prepared for distribution
Here’s the words
Ancient Home
Can you hear, Can you hear the sounds in the distance! Voices calling with growing insistence! Listen closely and you will hear! The time for redemption is growing near.!
Scotland’s Pride in its sons and daughters! No longer lambs for the English slaughter! Thin red lines in foreign lands! To stand and die at their commands!
Growing whispers calling for freedom! Want no part of the United Kingdom! For the Blood is strong!
The Heart is Highland!
The pipes play on, We’ll make a stand!
Let the Brits begone from this sacred land!
Scots taking back their own ” Ancient Home.!
No more hat in hand in our land!
With Scotland’s resources ours command!
No more crumbs from our own tables!
We can’t stand alone is an English fable!
Too long to suffer such injustice!
Stolen lands that the Lord entrusted!
We shall rise for those that have fallen!
Could the English conscience be calling!
As these voices become a roar!
Freedoms’ call can’t be ignored!
‘Cause the Blood is Strong!
The Heart is Highland!
The Pipes play on, we’ll make a stand!
Have the Brits begone from this Sacred Land!
Scots taking back their own Ancient Home!
Scots taking back their own Ancient Home!
Can you hear, can you hear the call for freedom”
” Copyright Claimant: Elizabeth D. Tucker, Brooks R. Tucker! Words & Music: Elizabeth D. Tucker, 1951-, Brooks R. Tucker, 1970-.! Date of Creation: 2005
I bid you goodnight, thanks for all the tunes tonight. You certainly livened the old place up again 🙂
Dorothy Devine
5 years ago
Smallaxe and Sybil, lovely to see you here ! Take care of you.
And Sybil , I remain passionate about my country and any time anyone tells me I’m raving on I tell them I’m just passionate about my country – you taught me that response so Ta!
From a ComRes poll reported in Telegraph. (Daily, not Greenock)
4 possible UK general election scenarios. The ONLY one where Tories are likely to win is if election is held after October 31, and UK has left EU with No Deal by then. Otherwise the Tories get punished by people voting for the Brexit Party.
Boris Johnson thinks of party not country, and has:
NO incentive to hold a general election before Oct 31.
NO incentive for any Withdrawal Agreement with EU.
NO incentive to ask EU for an extension.
We’re heading for the EU exit door.
Poll date was from 16 July, so *maybe* it needs updating, but it is still grim reading: link to britainelects.com
I’ve just seen your post (Above) as I wasn’t online last night. You’re welcome to come through for a few hours but I’m going to visit friends south of the border later this evening.
Do you have transport? I’ll come and pick you up if you haven’t.
🙂 link to youtube.com
I’m just getting back into the commenting groove after my wee holiday to Campbeltown. Always a wee tad lethargic commenting after my summer sojourn.
Onnyhoo…
Hi Smallaxe – good to see your fingers active again!
Thepnr – three Dundee tracks for you; the first featuring the legendary Jim Kelly, who played guitar on the Honeybus single “Girl of Independent Means”, then another featuring him on guitar and vocals, with one of the most famous bands in the world in Dundee.
Hi Mr B, I was off to bed but thought I’d give your links a quick listen. The opening to that first track by Honeybus was definitely Bowies Jean Genie don’t you think? Then it goes all Simon and Garfunkel on you LOL, good pick and a new one for me 🙂
The second one, never heard that either. Sounded OK to me, surprised it didn’t make any waves back then. People can be fickle as fuck lol.
I liked the last one the best and I’ve never heard that either, just a catchy tune and a decent video. was good 🙂
hackalumpoff
5 years ago
Shane MacGowan meets Calum Kennedy – Peat and Diesel In the Western Isles
That was great and brought a smile to my face, Scotland’s very own version of Shane MacGowan and the Pogues 🙂
Thepnr
5 years ago
@Brian Doonthetoon
Now that WAS Jean Genie, I suppose there are only so many musical notes and so many tempos and so many orders they could be played and so many…
The second one had no resemblance to all The Young Dudes for me.
Here’s the most famous example of plagarism in the music industry and for which George Harrison had to pay out more the $1m in the 1970’s for ripping off a Chiffons song.
Here’s the comparison a “side by side” video. You’ll know this tune.
I find myself silently singing “All the young dudes” as a counter melody/harmony when I’m listening to “Reputation”. Jiss me, I suppose.
RE: He’s so fine and plagiarism. I read years ago, that you can’t copywrite an arrangement. So, as far as I’m aware, composer royalties from these two tracks would go to the writers of “He’s So Fine” and “Wild World”. Cat Stevens wrote the latter.
Disclaimer: the inclusion of the following two links in this comment in no way endorses the sexual proclivities of the artiste involved.
Met an old friend today that I haven’t seen for nearly 10 years. He’s an Englishman living in Scotland arghhh!
He never voted in the last Indyref but he will be in the next. He’s now a Yes and so is his two sons, just by doing nothing we are gaining support. We must thank the Tory party for that 🙂
Thepnr
5 years ago
I can’t believe I’ve just spent the last half hour of my life watching this LOL. It’s so boring that I became fascinated 🙂
Click on the link in my last comment, then scroll back to the preceding comment.
Certain underbridge dwellers have a penchant for leaving an anti-indy comment as the last comment on older pages.
Thepnr
5 years ago
If you’ve read these pages before then you’ll probably know that I like the stuff that Johnny Cash did. I was surprised to find that before Kenny Rogers made this song a number one hit Johnny Cash had released it before him.
There is a resemblance to George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord that anyone can hear. Who can say if it was intentional or not? Only a judge I guess and one did.
Thepnr
5 years ago
Now here’s My Sweet Lord, it’s not that much like the Chiffons song but hey, who am I to judge 🙂
The name Cash comes from Strathmiglo in Fife and Johnny Cash’s daughter is well aware of it at one point having acquired some historic Cash building in that area.
Cactus
5 years ago
Excellent tae rekindle wae yerguidself and the lovely missus, Smallaxe
SO howsabout this latest Scottish independence poll…
Hi Brian and Thepnr, keep up the good work. I notice that you’ve had a couple of good catches on the older threads, Brian. Alert reader! 🙂
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
@The police of Humberside
I don’t know who has been filling your heads with woke mince, but you need to start respecting the gender-critical view, if you want to remain within the limits of bounded rationality. Otherwise, your practice will tend towards totalitarian authoritarianism.
Human Rights – Human Bodies? Some Reflections on Corporate Human Rights Distortion, The Legal Subject, Embodiment and Human Rights Theory link to link.springer.com
@The police of Humberside
Stick this in your pipe and smoke it.
Human rights for women: an argument for
‘deconstructive equality’
Abstract
The status of universalism has been much debated by feminists at the end of the twentieth century. Poststructuralist feminism is readily positioned in these debates as antagonistic to normative universalism. It is criticized as such: how is injustice to be judged and condemned if contestation and the openness of ungrounded universalism are the only ideals?
This paper is a ‘sub-philosophical’ enquiry into the normative commitments to equality implicit in poststructuralist feminism and its relationship to ‘actually existing’ human rights for women as they have been re-worked by the international feminist movement. It argues that poststructuralist feminism can be used to provide support for one possible understanding of equality encoded in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
It addresses feminist concerns over universal rights as androcentric and ethnocentric, arguing that extending human rights to women is compatible with poststructuralist commitments to anti-essentialism and anti-foundationalism and required by the model of ‘deconstructive equality’ implicitly shared by CEDAW and poststructuralist feminism.
Keywords: international feminism; poststructuralist feminism; human rights; equality; ethnocentrism.
Feminist re-workings of androcentric human rights
….Human rights are a means to equality for poststructuralist feminists because the strongly articulated ideal of equality as ‘de-gendering’ on which their current development is based is the version of equality that is most consistent with the anti-essentialism to which poststructuralist feminists are committed.
Anti-essentialism involves the claim that ontologically there is nothing about sexual difference that is fixed or necessary. On the contrary, the necessary instability of sex, gender and sexuality means that, in principle, complete transformation of all these categories and the relations between them is possible. Given the post-structuralist commitment to the continual disruption of sexed identities with a view to appreciating a plurality of lived possibilities, the model of equality to which poststructuralist feminism is inclined is not the ‘difference’ model, which is premised on the idea that binary sexual difference should be celebrated.
Nor is it a model of equality as androgyny, which (even if did not imply gender reassignment for the entire world population) would seem to suggest a limiting of lived possibilities rather than their expansion. A poststructuralist version of equality would involve rather the continual disruption of gendered practices and identities without penalty or disadvantage to any person. In other words, it would mean the transformation of social practices such that any sex, gender or sexual orientation – and poststructuralist feminists would not expect these to be binary – could be occupied by any individual was always open to contestation and change and was not discriminated against.
This possibility, encoded in CEDAW as the ‘de-gendering’ model of equality insofar as it commits states to eliminating stereotyped gender roles, is what I propose to call ‘deconstructive equality’.3 It differs from androgyny in that ‘deconstructive equality’ does not require ignoring sexual differences. On the contrary, it requires ongoing transformation of all aspects of sex, gender and sexuality in the name of equal treatment for all individuals regardless of their personal sexual characteristics, biography or choices. (Of course, we shall have to look into the foundationalism of ‘the individual’ invoked here, and we shall do so in the following section).
The idea of ‘deconstructive equality’ is well illustrated by problems of the application of human rights for women. If my argument is correct, the post-structuralist model of gender equality is closely related to the strategy of ‘degendering’ implicit in human rights as they are currently being developed. However, the problem of androcentrism in the application of human rights remains. The difficulty is that proving discrimination in court has generally been taken to require a male standard of equality. ‘[W]omen are forced to argue either that they are the same as men and should be treated the same, or that they are different but should be treated as if they were the same, or that they are different and should be accorded special treatment’ (Cook 1994: 11).
The few cases that have been brought to court under CEDAW have successfully used the ‘male comparator’ test against discrimination, but it is limited in its potential. The ‘male comparator’ standard of equality ignores the biological and structural differences between the sexes and makes systematic inequality invisible. To deal with this difficulty, feminists propose a different test, currently being used in Canada: that of disadvantage. This test requires that a person show that as the member of a group they suffer disadvantage where some distinction is made that puts that group at a continued or worsening disadvantage in relation to others.
If they can do so, as they have successfully done in the Canadian courts, there is a case of discrimination to answer. This test is preferable because it requires that judgement be made concerning women as they are currently positioned, potentially enabling far-reaching challenges to sexual hierarchy (Mahoney 1994). Although such a test looks, on the face of it, to be more appropriate to the ‘difference’ model of equality, since it requires the mobilization of women’s rights as women, it is also compatible with deconstructive equality.
Deconstructive equality concerns the elimination of individual disadvantage that results from distinctions made on the basis of sex, gender and/or sexual differences; it does not involve ignoring or eliminating differences. The disadvantage test does not necessarily lead to deconstructive equality because, in principle, it makes possible the genuinely ‘equal but different’ political community proposed by ‘difference’ feminists, where women’s capacities, roles and concerns are as valued as men’s.
The danger of ‘difference’ equality is that it may contribute to solidifying gender identities in ‘traditional’, if re-valued ways. However, insofar as deconstructive equality requires the re-valuing of practices currently associated with women and femininity if it is to become a practicable possibility, the ‘difference’ model of equality is potentially important as a step in the right direction.
Moreover, the disadvantage test works against a conservative interpretation of sexual difference because it encodes the principle of individual autonomy on which deconstructive equality, and liberal human rights as such, ultimately relies. Although it may lead to judgements with far-reaching implications for other members of the group in the name of which the test is being carried out, the disadvantage test allows an individual to claim discrimination where, as an individual, they are disadvantaged because they happen to be a member of a particular group.
Most significantly, perhaps, it allows the claim that a woman or man may be disadvantaged as an individual should she or he choose to do something that is ordinarily the preserve of the other sex. In this way, the notion of individual autonomy enables the possibility of continually contesting fixed gender identities on the grounds of sex discrimination. What this suggests is that feminists concerned with the androcentricism of human rights and persuaded that equality is an important goal of feminism should be as concerned with individual rights as with equal rights for women as a collectivity.
@The police of Humberside
A re-fill for your pipe, I hope you’ve got a healthy pair of lungs. I’m away to to keep mind and body together. Or in other words, ma tea’s out.
What is gender? Feminist theory and the
sociology of human reproduction
Abstract
Feminist theory and research on the sociology of human reproduction have historically been bound together as each has developed. Yet recently sociologists of reproduction and ‘women’s health’ have lost sight of core debates in feminist theory. They still tend to work with the assumption that
feminism is an internally coherent body of thought, despite the emergence of significant internal divisions since the mid-1980s.
In this paper we evaluate the challenge that feminist poststructuralism poses to prior conceptualisations of gender in the context of reproductive health through a critique of sociological work in this area from the 1970s and 1980s. We conclude with a critical exploration of the new insights that might emerge from a post-structuralist ‘deconstruction’ of gender in the context of human reproduction.
The post-structuralist critique applied to the sociology of reproduction
From the perspective of feminist post-structuralism binaristic thinking has had a number of negative consequences for research on gender and health. These include: the universalising of women’s health and health care experience and, in some cases, the valorisation of gender differences; a preoccupation with the abnormal and the pathologisation of women’s health; the production of poorly drawn health care ‘alternatives’ and the homogenisation of the ‘mainstream’; and, finally, a focus on women rather than gender (and a consequent lack of attention to men’s health).
The universalising of women’s experience and the valorisation of gender differences
In summarising the dilemma of ‘modernist’ feminism, Di Stefano (1990:73) writes that ‘the choice seems to be one between a politics and epistemology of identity (sameness) or difference.’ This is an ongoing debate among feminists, for example psychologists have struggled with the consequences of the substantiation of these positions through scientific evidence (Kitzinger, 1994). More broadly, in ‘equality feminism’ identified in early work (Beauvoir, Freidan etc.) and in contemporary liberal feminist work (especially in the USA; see Wolf, 1994) there is an appeal to gender neutral humanism where a central place is given to the rational subject (Jaggar 1983, Tong 1992).
Concern is with the particular roles and statuses that men and women inhabit. Explicitly or implicitly, women’s circumstances (which includes her health) are problematic because she is excluded from the valued social positions held by men (for example, the world of paid employment).
In the 1970s, political agendas centred quite appropriately upon identifying barriers (particularly legal and educational) to women’s access to the public sphere. This body of thought has had a considerable influence upon research on the gendered patteming of illness (see Verbrugge 1985)’. Yet here men are still the standard against which women are defined, a position which also holds for radical feminist work, even though the latter operates within an epistemology of difference rather than identity.
Referring to the problems of assimilation for women, Di Stefano aptly characterises the counter-appeal of radical feminism; ‘the critical activity and insight produced by the voice of the other [i.e. women] provides a visceral, tangible sense of altematives’ (1990:71). Yet, as she goes on to note, the ‘choice’ between improving women’s conditions (and, in our terms, their health) by reference to either sameness (liberal feminism) or difference (radical feminism) is a pseudo-choice since it is a choice already framed by a ‘gendered narrative of us and them’ (1990:73).
Post-structuralist feminism ‘stands on the back of this previous work. Indeed, as Bordo notes, how ‘could we now speak of the differences that inflect gender if gender had not first been shown to make a difference?’ (1990:141). Aware of the need to keep in mind that radical feminism is not a unitary position (Hanmer 1990), we can nonetheless identify as a common theme the designation of patriarchy as the root of oppression militating against any possibility of ‘equality on men’s terms’ (Rowland and Klein 1990).
While it is clearly recognised in most of this work that women are located differently by geography, age, class and race, and may experience oppression differently, there is simultaneously the view that women form an inherent class.
Feminised difference is a project for the elimination of women’s oppression which is, importantly for our concern with health, built around control of the body. Women’s embodiment (as differentiated from that of men) is crucially anchored in reproduction and a given affinity with ‘nature’. The extent to which this work is imbued with essentialism is a subject of quite heated debate in feminism.
Essentialism can be defined as a belief in a true essence ‘that is most irreducible, unchanging, and therefore constitutive of a given person or thing’ (Fuss 1989:2). Here female/male can be seen as prior to the social experience mapped onto them. Essentialism has been argued to underpin much of radical feminism through the work of such writers as Mary Daly, Andrea Dworkin, Adrienne Rich and Susan Griffin all of whom have given attention to issues of women’s health.
The term radical feminism, of course, covers a wide spectrum of thought. (Ramazanoglu (1989) identifies it as the feminism most difficult to define because of its diversity). In its strongest form there is a celebration of women’s bodies and the capacity to nurture and create (Gatens 1992), and motherhood is celebrated (Weedon 1987). There is a sense of a pure and original femininity, a female essence outside of the social and untainted by patriarchy (Fuss 1989).
The work of Nancy Chodorow (1978) exemplifies this. For Chodorow, a distinct self is formed out of the process of mothering which creates women as different from men through the formation of an essentially relational form of interaction with others. In these terms, women must reclaim their bodies from men. The following quote from Lipshitz illustrates this perspective; ‘women are witchlike in being able to give birth to live beings and are therefore possessors of an invisible internal substance that provokes fear because it links them to another world than that of male culture’ (1978:39). Similarly, Rich summarises her views in the following way,
I have come to believe . . . that female biology . . . has far more radical implications than we have yet come to appreciate. Patriarchal thought has limited female biology to its own narrow specifications. The feminist vision has recoiled from female biology for these reasons; it will, I believe, come to view our physicality as a resource, rather than a destiny. In order to live a fully human life we require not only control of our bodies . . ., we must touch the unity and resonance of our physicality, our bond with the natural order, the corporeal ground of our intelligence (1992:39).
I’m only posting this material, in the hope someone in the SNP will get the woke brigade telt. Their lack of understanding of diversity and equality, threatens to undermine support for the cause of Scotland’s emancipation from cultural subjugation.
Toward a More Transformative Approach:
The Limits of Transgender Formal Equality
III. THE DISCURSIVE LIMITS OF CLASS-BASED APPROACHES
2. Critique of Transgender Sex-Stereotyping Claims
B. Sui Generis Protections
In light of the sex-stereotyping framework’s explicit reification of biological sex, an alternative transgender legal strategy is to argue for explicit protection for transgender people qua transgender people. Rather than shoehoming trans people into existing binary frameworks, protection against transgender discrimination as distinct from sex discrimination would acknowledge that transgender discrimination stems precisely from a challenge to dominant binary norms.59
If trans people are explicitly embraced by antidiscrimination laws, they would no longer be legally forced into silence and could openly defy dominant gender norms through the erasure of their prior legal invisibility.60 However, the two dominant approaches to sui generis transgender protection – a “transgender” – specific class or a broader “gender identity/expression” class – nevertheless still fail to reach the underlying norms that structure and regulate the manifestation of these social categories.
The following subsections will address the shortcomings of each of these approaches. By delineating gender normativity through an articulation of legally-protected gender deviancy, the existing dominant framework retains its dominant status through an implicit affirmation of its validity. Moreover, by focusing the discrimination inquiry on the identity status of a trans plaintiff, courts are never forced to confront the underlying hierarchical construction of deeds that constitute that identity.
As I’ve said, I’m very, very rusty, but I hope I’ve managed to link the self-ID of sex with Scotland’s constitutional crises. It all boils down to embodied rights and legal recognition, facilitated through semiotics and plain English law, obvs. 😉
Human Rights, Sex, and Gender: Limits in Theory and Practice
I. Conflating the Terms “Gender” and “Women”
To the extent that we wish to acknowledge the limitations of identity categories while nevertheless deploying them strategically to advance equality-oriented rights claiming, as Suzanne Goldberg described on our panel, we need, at the very least, working definitions that are not nonsensical. We cannot move “beyond sex and gender” before arriving at the difference between sex and gender.6
In the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’s General Recommendation 19, for example, “gender based violence” is “violence that is directed against a woman, because she is a woman, or that
affects women disproportionately.”7 No room is left for gendered violence that harms men, a glaring omission considering that male victims of sexual violence are routinely feminized, while their perpetrators maintain a dominant, masculinized role.
As I have explored in detail elsewhere, the human rights cannon repeatedly conflates sex and gender, thereby limiting state accountability to acts of gender-based violence against one sex.8 Meanwhile, international criminal law, specifically in the form of the Rome Treaty establishing the International
Criminal Court, set out to define gender for the first time in an international treaty.
The bland and still confusing result – “two sexes, male and female, within the context of society”9 at least includes both sexes as well as social context, if only as a secondary modifier. Notably, it was women’s rights NGOs that attempted to advance a more sophisticated and still quite workable definition of gender: “socially constructed differences between men and women and the unequal power relationships that result.”10
But human rights law fares worse than international criminal law, with gender typically assumed to be something relevant only to women and girls. This not only erases opportunities to understand gender as relative, but it prohibits the application of law to situations that do not follow traditional gender scripts. The most comprehensive and conscientious United Nations’ (UN) definition of gender I have seen is as follows:
Gender: refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, as well as the relations between women and those between men. These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes. They are context/time-specific and changeable.
Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a woman or a man in a given context. In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and men in responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources, as well as decision-making opportunities. Gender is part of the broader socio-cultural context. Other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis include class, race, poverty level, ethnic group and age.11
Unfortunately, this definition is currently located on the UN Women website, not in a formal instrument.
@Mhairi Hunter
?I understand the possible source of your confusion, as there is a lack of legal clarity concerning the human rights of women and the sexuality of individuals. You’re a complete melt though if you believe it possible to change sex, and a complete moron if you conflate sex with gender. Unfortunately, you would not be alone in such confusion.
Btw, you do realise much of the drive to allow self-ID of sex, is the desire to protect homosexuals living in oppressive societies, such as Iran? In other words, self-ID of sex is largely intended as a means of subverting draconian, illiberal, law. There is no comparable need for such indirect affirmative protection for homosexuals in Scotland.
Genes, Behavior, and the Social Environment: Moving Beyond the Nature/Nurture Debate.
5 Sex/Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Health
SEX/GENDER
Although the terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably, they, in fact, have distinct meanings. Sex is a classification based on biological differences – for example, differences between males and females rooted in their anatomy or physiology. By contrast, gender is a classification based on the social construction (and maintenance) of cultural distinctions between males and females. Gender refers to “a social construct regarding culture-bound conventions, roles, and behaviors for, as well as relations between and among, women and men, boys and girls” (Krieger, 2003).
Differences in the health of males and females often reflect the simultaneous influence of both sex and gender. Not only can gender relations influence the expression of biological traits, but also sex-associated biological characteristics can contribute to amplify gender differentials in health (Krieger, 2003). The relative contributions of gender relations and sex-linked biology to health differences between males and females depend on the specific health outcome under consideration.
In some instances, sex-linked biology is the sole determinant of a health outcome – for example gonadal digenesis among women with Turner’s syndrome (due to X-monosomy). In other instances, gender relations account substantially for observed gender differentials for a given health outcome – for example the higher prevalence of needle-stick injuries among female compared to male health care workers, which is in turn attributed to the gender segregation of the health care workforce.
The prevalence of HIV infection through needle-stick injury is higher among female health care workers because the majority of doctors are men, the majority of nurses and phlebotomists are women, and drawing blood is relegated to nurses and phlebotomists (who are mostly women) (Ippolito et al., 1999).
Legal human rights are a relatively recent social phenomena, and their current construction is far from perfect, being drawn from legal doctrine that is inherently masculine in outlook and interpretation. I still support their universal application though, they just need to be developed a bit.
Trans-women are not women, they are trans-women. Ergo, trans-women have no automatic right to claim sex-based rights afforded to biological women for their protection against discrimination and other forms of legal and physical violence.
Theorizing Gender in Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology
Abstract
Early sociolinguistic studies of gender often assumed that gender should be studied where it was most salient, and that gender was most salient in cross-sex interaction between potentially sexually accessible interlocutors, or same-sex interaction in gender-specific tasks. There are many problematic assumptions about gender embedded in this recommendation, including that (1) gender is closely wedded to sex, and the study of gender is closely wedded to the study of heterosexuality; (2) gender is an attribute; and (3) the study of gender is the study of individuals rather than of institutions and larger systems.
This chapter explores each of these in turn, noting that to decide between different theories of gender is no mere theoretical exercise; it is directly linked to deciding upon political strategies for effective feminist activism. Certain assumptions about gender may be unwittingly complicit with rationalizing or even deepening existing inequalities in ways that feminist scholars need to continue to interrogate.
@Mhairi Hunter
Being either male or female (or neither), is an inescapable accident of biology. Identifying as the opposite gender to that which is socially associated with one’s biological sex, is an expression of the individual’s sexuality. Though an individual’s biological sex and their sexuality are connected, they are not the same thing. Legislating as if they are the same, would be bad, mk.
Full marks to the observant who noticed me highlighting “practice theory”, as I started going full-Tonto, a good while back. 😉
N.B. The full-English Brexit threatens to annihilate the political agency of all those living in Scotland. Even the yoons, though not the rich ones, frankly. Their relational autonomy will probably receive a boost from supporting authoritarian English nationalism.
Chapter 49: Agency and Practice Theory
Agency and Practice Theory
In 1984, Sherry Ortner predicted that practice would be the key symbol of anthropology in the 1980s. Research on practice, agency, structure, and power actually filled not only the 1980s, but also the 1990s and extended into the 2000s as well. Issues of inequality, oppression, and resistance have been a staple of anthropological literature and have influenced its many theories, both before and after the 1980s. However, time, from the 1980s up to and including today, has seen a steady strengthening and thickening of agency-related theories.
The critiques of feminism, postcolonialism, and race and ethnicity studies brought to light the many problems with earlier constructions of agency. Two main lessons were taken from these critiques. First, agency is not …
Cameron B, blimey, Conway Twitty, there’s a walk down memory lane. Thanks for that, brings back a lot of happy memories when I was just a wee lassie.
Brian Doonthetoon
5 years ago
Can I just point out that a wee space for comments, is sitting there, unloved, with no comment since 18th January? A waste of a resource just pleading for academic input?
That last one…
We used to visit my Mum’s cousin in Glasgow regularly and she took us to a cafe in Alexandra Parade with a jukebox, where my choice was always that last one.
again, all the way through. In my DJ days, it was always a floor-filler.
Dave McEwan Hill
5 years ago
Today would have been the 145th birthday of PM John “Jock” McLellan DCM of Dunoon the most prolific composer of pipe music. He wrote “The Bloody Fields of Flanders” to which Hamish Henderson wrote Scotland’s international national anthem “The Freedom Come A’ Ye” . Here is Dick Gaughan and 5 Hand Reel’s brilliant version
Marie Clark
My pleasure, and I really am sorry for taking up so much space. I just know a bit about relevant stuff. 😉
Thepnr
5 years ago
@CameronB Brodie
You’re not sorry, your being a complete prick. You already destroyed Off Topic and now your having another go? You and your psychobabble shite can fuck right off as far as I’m concerned because see here on Wings we seek Independence and
WE ARE NOT TRYING TO SOLVE ALL THE WORLDS ILLS
All of that right now is none of our business, you are on the wrong website at this time. If you want to pose a view on Independence or play a fucking tune on Off Topic I would welcome it, the crap you have posted in the last year or two you can shove it, I doubt even YOU read it.
Find somewhere else to post it, it is shit Cameron and people just scroll on by. Know why? It is not relevant at all to what we hope to achieve here.
Thepnr
You’re one to talk about getting a grip. I’ll speak with you face to face, if you don’t mind.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
Thepnr
Btw, the biopsychosocial model of health, supported by critical and feminist legal theories, as well as post-colonial theory, is not “psychobabble shite”.
The biopsychosocial approach and global mental health: Synergies and opportunities link to indjsp.org
Marie Clark
5 years ago
BDTT @ 11.07, great what a piece of music can do eh? It fairly digs into the auld memory banks, but it also means that you must be aboot as auld as me.Ha ha.
I didnae think you looked that auld when I met you and Lollysmum at Dumfries in Dock Park. By the by, do you know how Lollysmum is getting on after her accident. I see that she pops in occasionally, just wondered how she’s keeping.
Cheers guys, thanks for the memories as Bob Hope used to sing.
Arthur C
5 years ago
@PNR
Well said sir, if a bit industrial, it’s about time some stood up to CameronB Brodies babbling.
It really does spoil my enjoyment of other posters opinions, not just in here but on all Wings threads.
Maybe we should start a class action for all the burnt out scroll buttons.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
Arthur C
So you another who wants to limit the scope of the debate to the boundaries of your understanding? Do you generally think experts, such as your GP, are full of shite?
Critical Social Theory and Sustainable Development: The Role of Class, Capitalism and Domination in a Dialectical Analysis of Un/Sustainability
How many folk here have insight into critical political and critical legal philosophy? I’m certainly not claiming I know it all, but insight into post-modern critical social theory, is definitely the sort of enlightenment the indy movement needs, IMHO. That’s what I have been trying to introduce to the discussion. MK.
I’m sure all the people queeing at the foodbanks or sleeping in doorways are thinking ALL the time about “post-modern critical social theory”
In fact they have nothing better to do and it fair cheers them up, I’ll tell you that to your face too CBB.
Macart
5 years ago
Good to see you back Smallaxe.
Been away for some time myself over the past couple of months and it’s a genuine pleasure to know you’re still paying a visit.
All the best to you and Mrs Smallaxe. 🙂
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
Btw, I’ve spoken with other WOS contributors who are glad to see the back of the chit-chat and tunes. You can’t please all the people all the time, but it is important to always try to foster constructive dialogue. Dugdale’s going to find it hard doing that and maintaining allegiance to the outdated principle of Parliamentary sovereignty, in that new think-tank job of hers.
Educating for democracy
Rolf Gollob, Peter Krapf, Wiltrud Weidinger (editors)
Background materials on democratic citizenship
and human rights education for teachers link to rm.coe.int
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
Thepnr
Don’t be a dick. This is my training, to foster sustainable democracy. This might bore the tits of you but I wouldn’t be busting my nads if I didn’t think critical theory was having an impact, somewhere.
We enjoyed the visit from you and your lovely wife a few weeks ago, it was good to see you both again. Ronnie A came back the next day and we had a good conversation for a few hours.
😉
Give your son and his new bride our love, please. We wish them every happiness. link to youtube.com
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
Thepnr
So you’re calling me a liar now? And I had credited you with common sense.
Thepnr
5 years ago
Looking out the window and it’s dark dull and depressing, a bit like Wings gets at times. Never mind, there’s always tomorrow eh.
Smallaxe, nice to see you managing to post again. Great stuff. I know that your health is not too good at the moment, but dinnae gon onywhaur, you’re needed for the upcoming fight.
Look after yourself, love to you and the family.
By the way fella’s, correct me if I’ve got this wrong, but my understanding of the reason OT was created, was to enable us to have a chit chat and play some tunes. Mibbies just me.
It started because people kept posting music video links on the main thread and they were embedded so they could be played there. The Rev blocked that but people when they were bored still kept posting links to music or Still Game videos ect ect whatever. So he made Off Topic.
The thing is everybody needs a release valve, a place to chit-chat or play some music or comedy is a good thing.
Marie Clark
5 years ago
Cameron, Cameron, calm doon a wee bittie. You’re very keen to jump in on top of anybody that makes any kind of comment. I am not having a go at you.
OT was started for a bit of fun and light relief from the MT. I don’t recall asking you to stop anybody posting what they like, that’s fine. All that several people, myself included, are trying to tell you is that you need to ease up. Who asked you to open anyone’s mind on OT. It’s maybe not the place for it.
You know, my late father, who was a very fair minded man, always would say to me, that if others were telling me that perhaps I was wrong, to stop and take time to think about that. Could be that the others were right and maybe I was wrong.
Cameron, I have absolutely no wish to either offend, or upset you, but perhaps before you jump on my head again, you could take a wee bit time to think about what I have said.
By all means post your tunes and chit chat on OT, but think about keeping your more serious post for the MT.
CameronB Brodie
5 years ago
Smallaxe
It’s good to see you posting and I wish more folk had stuff to say or contribute. Remember though, play to the whistle. I hear some mumping but I take my orders from the site owner, i.e. “Your Majesty”.
Arthur C
5 years ago
CameronB Brodie says: 9 August, 2019 at 11:08 am
“Arthur C
So you another who wants to limit the scope of the debate to the boundaries of your understanding? Do you generally think experts, such as your GP, are full of shite?”
I have been to see my GP about your question. He has prescribed 6 Months in quarantine for you, cheery bye Loon.
Thepnr
5 years ago
@Smallaxe
That Steak & Kidney tune showcased Lanarkshire’s finest talent at his very best. Sung by the grandad at every Glasgow party ever since, absolute class 🙂
I must reciprocate and the crowds are still being WOWED even now, here’s the evidence. Who’d have thunk it? LOL.
Marie Clark
Sorry if I misinterpreted you’re intentions. Your late father was correct, but I wasn’t aware OT was created for anything specific, other than off topic comment. I’ve tried to confine my comments on MTs, to material I thought relevant to MT topics. Self-ID of sex, for example, doesn’t really fit in to that discipline, though the site owner, i.e. your majesty, appears concerned about the matter. I’m trying to be lighthearted and engaging, but democratic citizenship is serious business.
I’ve said enough. I’m not taking the hump but if folk can’t stand up for their own indy supporting opinion on WOS, how the feck are we going to get the undecided over the line?
Marie Clark
5 years ago
Cameron, not by preaching about Self-ID or sex is going to convert anyone to independence. Most folk just don’t care.
Anyway, we’ll no fall out about it. I’ve enough going on in my life at the moment that is indeed upsetting, and I don’t need or want anymore at the moment.
Okay, let’s just agree to disagree, and be polite to each other.
Another from Niteworks.
I believe my father made the chanter being played in this song.
link to youtube.com
Arrgh! New comments page means my song lyrics on previous page will be missed and never make the big time…
So who’s this Paul Martin and what’s his frame of reference? He appears to be an bit of an ignorant dickhead, tbh. Well he can fuck right of with his tribal irrational-ism. Conflating right-wing bigotry with a scientifically based gender critical world view, is no way to support sustainable, inclusive, social equality.
link to onlinelibrary.wiley.com
@galamcennalath
Regards the singer you’re asking about, I played a video on Off Topic shortly after the referendum. I believe it features the same song that you are looking for. This video has now had 65 million views on youtube, not bad for a Scottish mountain biker.
link to youtube.com
The singer is Fiona Hunter and this is her singing said song last year at the Glasgow Hydro with Danny Macaskill the mountain biker from Skye who features in the first video.
link to youtube.com
RE. Dr. Dorothy Kim and wonk speech. I’m very out of touch but that appeared to be a combination of post-colonial theory and queer theory, heavy on the queer. There is nothing wrong with being inclusive but it is certainly up for debate whether it is right to affirm and empower mental ‘disorder’ (allowing self-ID). Women’s sex-based rights are human rights that are protected by Public International Law.
link to researchgate.net
While I’m at it. Remember, sex is grounded in biology, gender is grounded in the psychology of the self (as we relate to the world around us). Creating law that conflates sex with gender, undermines legal reason and the potential for rational jurisprudence.
Gender mainstreaming as feminist politics
A critical analysis of the pursuit of gender equality in
Swedish local government
link to oru.diva-portal.org
@Julie Bindel
?Indeed, “UTTER bellendary”. Re. the ongoing marginalisation of lesbians and the penetration of “womanhood” by radical science (constructivism and gender-ID). Well, science has always been used as a means of oppressing women*, but you already know that. 😉
Sexual orientation, Gender Identity and International Human Rights Law – Practitioners Guide No. 4
link to refworld.org
*That is not the purpose or radical constructivism but it has been pirated by patriarchy.
@Edinburgh University
Better get this sorted before if gets out of hand. No charge, that’s free advice.
link to speakupforwomen.nz
@Edinburgh University
The next one isn’t on tick. 😉
Women in International Law: Research Resources
link to www2.lib.uchicago.edu
Bravo Sofonisba Anguissola.
link to academic.oup.com
A wee footy O/T
If England over valued flop Maguire is getting touted at £65million, surely Celtics Tierney must be worth twice that, as he is at least twice the talent of Maguire.
Or is it just the usual “you play in Scotland so your shite, here have some porridge and be thankful.”
@galamcennalath
The song played on the Yes bikers video wasn’t Fiona Hunter after all, it’s the same song but the singer you seek was this one.
link to youtube.com
The clue was on the link you posted lol.
re “The wrong puberty”. This must surely convince those not yet sure, that gender ideology is not conducive with rationality. Introducing irrationality into law would undermine the coherence of legal doctrine and the effectiveness of jurisprudence. And that’s for starters.
Link
link to journals.sagepub.com
Sorry, I can’t find an open text to this.
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Sorry.
This article also reviews the liberal-hedonistic context of the new postmodern setting, while showing how the concepts of “a subjective feeling of happiness” and “a life fulfilled” do not express similar content.
Sorry for taking up so much space but like I said, undermining women’s rights is only the thin end of the wedge.
Fu Manchu – The Action is Go
link to youtube.com
I’ve just read two news reports: one about how Universal Credit is causing poverty, hunger and homelessness and one about how Harry n Megan are spending 3.2 million doing up their multi-bedroomed ‘cottage’. I am physically incapable of screaming loud enough to express my disgust, anger and despair at what Britain has become. I feel myself becoming more hopeless every day that there will ever be fairness or even simple human decency in UK government. We have to get out of it before it corrodes what little is left of our souls. I wish I knew how to convince nay-sayers to stop supping Westminster’s poison and I also wish that the thieving, heartless bastards that infest the dungheap would all lose their jobs, their homes and their health. Then they might know how real people feel. I know this is pointless but I had to put it down somewhere lest I choke on my outrage.
Hey Smallaxe
In the off chance that you look in here now again, I saw this tonight and you popped into my head. Don’t ask why as eh dinnae ken why 🙂
link to youtube.com
Now this is sheer class and a version I’d never seen before. Cockney Rebel from 1975 and a top quality video.
link to youtube.com
What is a state if it looses sight of natural law and justice? Well it’s not a liberal democracy, that’s for sure. Does the full-English Brexit suggest Scots are afforded natural justice by the British state?
Mad Caddies – …And We Thought Nation States Were A Bad Idea [Propagandhi]
link to youtube.com
@CameronB Brodie
I thought it might have been another lengthy essay but I’ll give you 10/10 for that, was cool 🙂
The Chemical Brothers have always required a high degree of crowd expectation and enthusiasm.
The Chemical Brothers – Get Yourself High ft. k-os
link to youtube.com
Thepnr
Cheers mate, I’ll need to tag post as ‘heavy’ or ‘light’. 😉
Here’s a real hippy tune, still relevant today I’d say.
link to youtube.com
George Baker- Little Green Bag
Yes you do know it 🙂
link to youtube.com
Staying on the film theme, this is good, if you a sick Scot lol.
link to youtube.com
I’m not a cat lover, but if you have chunky bills, I’d join any crowsfund.
Hi Thepnr.
I thought “Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth 1967” sounded familiar. I was right, in a way.
The song was featured on an Island compilation LP, “you can all join in” I bought in 1969. However, the band performing it, “Art”, had changed the title to “What’s That Sound”.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Hi Thepnr.
It’s actually on YouTube.
link to youtube.com
@Brian Doonthetoon
Well spotted my man, if anybody knew something about the record I’m sure it would have been you. I’ve no idea why I know that song, obviously from when I was a wean but don’t know which band I heard, suspect though that it was Buffalo Springfield.
Who cares anyway, it’s a good tune.
Here’s what I’m hoping for in the Tory election contest.
Boris Johnson is victorious and becomes leader of the Tory party, he pulls the UK out of the EU with no deal by 31st October.
Then he sorts out the Scotland “problem” by abolishing the Barnett Formula and lets the treasury decide how much pocket money Holyrood will be allowed to spend with no regard to needs or spending in England, he just cuts our money.
This satisfies the more rabid supporter of the Tories in England and wins him more kudos.
No money now for free university tuition or personal care for the elderly in Scotland. Prescription charges to be the same as the rUK and why not? Holyrood won’t be shutdown it would be neutered, no cash for them.
Bojo WINS Scotland LOL.
In your dreams, bring it on Bojo, I really can’t wait for you to become Prime Minister and guarantee our Independence.
@Thepnr
@CameronB Brodie
@Bdtt
Well, I am noticing it is a wee bit quiet in here for a change (folk on holiday?), so, gives me a chance to say hi again to those who are about in the past day or so. @Alex Waugh, sorry, I’ve not met you, but, hi.
So, a wee check in with y’all as I don’t post much at all these days. Cameron, keep up the good work; I enjoy a challenging read! Brian, I’ll see you Saturday, no doubt (mind and not forget your jacket) and Alex, you never know. I just watched the video you put up a few days back of the mountain biker crossing Loch Scavaig and riding the Cuillins ridge; don’t recall seeing it the first time you put it up. Really enjoyed the music, but, that guy, jings, a mountain rescuers nightmare!
Cheers all.
British nationalists really need to take a long look at themselves and the value they place on constitutional democracy, IMHO. So here’s a post-structural analysis inspired interpretation of the
neo-feudalstructurally racist nature of the full-English Brexit. Nice. 😉Learning To Play The Shenanigan
link to youtube.com
Betty Boop
Will do. Here’s a wee read I’ve just gotten hold of through my google account. I expect it will describe Scottish ‘nationalism’ as being an entirely differnet animal to contemporary (white) British nationalism. I think it might also highlight the need to focus on the threat to ‘cultural certainties’, the full-English Brexit represents. 😉
link to academia.edu
For Jo Swinson 🙂
link to youtube.com
Stanley Baxter does Regional Accents, 1973. (2mins)
Interesting/ironic to note that the only region to suffer microphone problems in this sketch is, yes you guessed it, Glasgow…
link to youtube.com
Stanley Baxter – Parliamo Glasgow – Mia Farra’s farra, the marra & the barra (6 mins)
link to youtube.com
“3 Ways to Sound More British” | Pronunciation Lesson (6 mins)
“Learn to speak with a British English Accent with this pronunciation lesson! 3 tips to improve your British English accent.”
🙂
Pay attention Jo!
WINGERS PLEASE HELP
We launched the Inform Scotland BBC Bias campaign following a workshop at the Wingers get-together in Glasgow in 2016.
We continue to archive examples of BBC Bias and share them widely on social media. We also promote any and all writing on BBC Bias in Scotland. Our car-sticker campaign continues, but we have done no billboards or other similar campaigns lately. see http://www.informscotland.com
Our Chairperson Simon (who you all know) feels he needs to stand down at this stage and the rest of us feel we are in need of new blood to come on board as Directors of our not for profit company Inform Scotland Ltd.
Are any of you interested in a bit of BBC-focused activism and have suitable skills to act as a director?
We We also want to find new writers on the theme of the BBC and its machinations in Scotland.
We are also just about to launch our 2019/2020 fundraiser.
Your thoughts are welcome and feel free to share with well-connected individuals you think you can help.
Cadogan Enright FCCA Treasurer Inform Scotland
you can email informscotland@gmail.com or myself directly cadogan@enright.ie
Just want to congratulate Dan on his latest opus, (up the thread) with regard to a new song to promote independence.
From a Taff who (despite his stereotypical nationality) sings like a crow with a sore throat but appreciates creativity.
@OwenJones84
Stop conflating sex with gender, if you can? I’m no brain of Britain but I reckon you’re a bit of an ideologue who is melding in stuff that is above your pay grade, ie. science, philosophy and law. I hope you’ve got your ears pinned back lad?
link to digitalcommons.law.yale.edu
@OwenJones84
That’s one side of the medical-legal model, so here’s the other side. How you gonna woke your way out of this and why do you want to undermine women’s rights? Remember, according to your former boss, Severin Carrell (a.k.a. the “Semiotic Kid”), ‘we live in a semiotic world’. So stop using words to mean what you want them to mean!
link to jamanetwork.com
@OwenJones84
Obviously you should use words as you want them to mean but that does not indicate you can arbitrarily change contextual meaning of words simply through the repetitive use of irrational language. Stop conflating sex with gender, you are undermining open, liberal, society and any hope for social equality between men and women!
Language and Gender.
Second Edition.
CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO GENDER
Sex and gender
Gender is not something we are born with, and not something we have, but something we do (West and Zimmerman 1987) – something we perform (Butler 1990). Imagine a small boy proudly following his father. As he swaggers and sticks out his chest, he is doing everything he can to be like his father – to be a man. Chances are his father is not swaggering, but the boy is creating a persona that embodies what he is admiring in his adult male role model.
The same is true of a small girl as she puts on her mother’s high-heeled shoes, smears makeup on her face and minces around the room. Chances are that when these children are grown they will not swagger and mince respectively, but their childhood performances contain elements that may well surface in their adult male and female behaviors. Chances are, also, that the girl will adopt that swagger on occasion as well, but adults are not likely to consider it as cute as her mincing act.
And chances are that if the boy decides to try a little mincing, he won’t be considered cute at all. In other words, gendered performances are available to everyone, but with them come constraints on who can perform which personae with impunity. And this is where gender and sex come together, as society tries to match up ways of behaving with biologically based sex assignments. Sex is a biological categorization based primarily on reproductive potential, whereas gender is the social elaboration of biological sex.
Not surprisingly, social norms for heterosexual coupling and care of any resulting children are closely intertwined with gender. But that is far from the full story. Gender builds on biological sex, but it exaggerates biological difference, and it carries biological difference into domains in which it is completely irrelevant. There is no biological reason, for example, why women should mince and men should swagger, or why women should have red toenails and men should not. But while we think of sex as biological and gender as social, this distinction is not clear-cut. People tend to think of gender as the result of nurture – as social and hence fluid – while sex is the result of nature, simply given by biology. However, nature and nurture intertwine, and there is no obvious point at which sex leaves off and gender begins.
But the sharp demarcation fails because there is no single objective biological criterion for male or female sex. Sex is based in a combination of anatomical, endocrinal and chromosomal features, and the selection among these criteria for sex assignment is based very much on cultural beliefs about what actually makes someone male or female. Thus the very definition of the biological categories male and female, and people’s understanding of themselves and others as male or female, is ultimately social.
Anne Fausto-Sterling (2000) sums up the situation as follows: labeling someone a man or a woman is a social decision. We may use scientific knowledge to help us make the decision, but only our beliefs about gender – not science – can define our sex. Furthermore, our beliefs about gender affect what kinds of knowledge scientists produce about sex in the first place. (p. 3)
link to web.stanford.edu
@OwenJones84
See if you can get up from this, woke-boy. Natural law is vital to the delivery of justice but the ‘type’ of natural law is important. It can also become harmful if language is dislocated from contextual meaning. It is vital that a “plain language” understanding of “sex” is safeguarded to secure safeguarding and stuff, IMHO. Conflating sex with gender is inherently anti-social and, somewhat paradoxically, undermines the potential for inclusiveness and diversity.
link to equalityhumanrights.com
P.S. It is disheartening to note that The Equality and Human Rights Commission appear to conflate sex with gender themselves. But then again, Scots are unable to access constitutional justice and must make-do with the human rights that Westminster considers politically acceptable (see the “Right to Development” and the full-English Brexit, for example).
P.P.S. Has a “constructionist” interpretation of “sex” colonised legal doctrine in Britain?
@OwenJones84
You are supporting patriarchy and sexist stereotyping, so you are on the wrong side of history re. self-ID. If you are rational rather than tribal, do you not think you might be also be wrong in thinking British nationalism is best for Scotland?
link to emedicine.medscape.com
The trans-rights movement is not selling intersectional feminism, they are selling the colonisation of womanhood by men who’s psychology is disordered from their physiology.
re. intersectional feminism. Remember, from a critical realist perspective, sex is characteristically binary, male or female. It might also be helpful to remember that ‘the social position of biological women’, is the primary concern of feminist theory.
link to pdfs.semanticscholar.org
I’m sorry for taking up so much space but I might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb. So here’s one with The Royal Astronomical Society in mind. The SNP and Scotland’s judiciary could do worse than giving themselves a shake, as well.
digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=olsrps
re. Phantom Power “Journey to Yes stories #16 Economy”, Richard Murphy’s overview of indy Scotland’s economy and his critique of GERS. Scotland has not voted for a neo-liberal party for some time, if ever. So what right does Westminster have to enforce a neo-liberal political economy on Scotland? One that is grounded on extremely shaky theoretical grounding, i.e. neo-classical economic theory.
The Skatalites – Reasoning
link to youtube.com
Dialogue on the reform of economics with Tony Lawson’s
Reorienting Economics as focal point
Critical Realism in Economics: a different view
link to paecon.net
One for our politicians who think they are advancing diversity and inclusion by disregarding science and law, in order to claim that TWAW.
link to onlinelibrary.wiley.com
P.S. I wonder how many of these “comfort women” had cocks?
So what is a ‘Different Voice’?
link to oxfordhandbooks.com
@SNP management
You have a responsibility to manage your team effectively. “Sex” is defined and protected by law. Trans-women do not poses the sexual epistemology of biological women, so they have no right to claim women’s sex-based rights. Get you members telt.
The Tort of Negligence – Establishing a Duty of Care
link to cfrlaw.co.uk
It’s a sad day when a man in his fifties is more of a feminist than women caught-up in the trans-cult. Especially female politicians, who think they know what they are talking about. The trans movement is ideological entry-ism, and it threatens independence.
Chapter 2
DUTY OF CARE AND ETHIC OF CARE: IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCE?
link to eprints.whiterose.ac.uk
This trans-rights movement has certainly put a fox in the hen-house. Not only in Scotland mind. Like I said, conflating sex with gender undermines women’s rights and, subsequently, their social position.
link to europarl.europa.eu(2018)604955_EN.pdf
PJ Harvey – Man-Size
link to youtube.com
re. the popular urban myth of ‘lady-dick’ and how lesbians must accept them. This rhetorical device is used by trans-activist to shame women into submission, and is an infringement of basic human rights. No man has a right to have sex with a woman. Trans-women are not women, they are trans-women.
link to radicalphilosophy.com
….No man has a right to have sex with a woman.
I would have been better suggesting that nobody has the right to have sex with anyone else. Or do trans-activists think laws against r4pe don’t concern them because they are special?
P.S. As far as I’m aware, martial rape was outlawed in Britain as recently as the 1990’s. Legal doctrine is inherently sexist, hence feminist jurisprudence.
P.S. As far as I’m aware, martial r4pe was outlawed in Britain as recently as the 1990’s. Legal doctrine is inherently sexist, hence feminist jurisprudence.
Is it not obvious why lesbians are being discriminated against? Firstly, their sexual preference means they have no need for men, which is an affront to patriarchy. Second, they are the ones most threatened by “lady dick”, so most resistant to law that would endanger them. Third, a large portion of Britain’s homosexuals are misogynistic dickheads (see Owen Jones, for example), so lesbians can whistle if they expect any solidarity from the homosexual mainstream. As such, lesbians will be excluded from woke society.
Veruca Salt – Seether
link to youtube.com
I see Stonwall UK are double down on their misogyny. Promoting a r4pe guide is certainly not a good look. These guys appear determined to undermine open, liberal, society. Given their advocacy for pedophiles, I reckon Stonewall poses a real and present danger to women and children. Yet thay are publicly funded. That’s a total brain-melt.
The last paragraph wasn’t meant to be indented, as i wasn’t part of the quote. Sorry.
It looks like I missed an edit, I thought I’d avoided the word filters. Bugger. 🙂
Just in case the Rev. is too busy to clean-up after me.
Feminism, Foucault, and R4ape: A Theory and
Politics of R4pe Prevention
link to scholarship.law.berkeley.edu
I’m really sorry for being a smartypants and taking up so much space.
Thievery Corporation – Forgotten People
link to youtube.com
Not been much in here of late, it seems, so here’s a wee musical interlude with a message of which you might all possibly approve:
link to youtube.com
It is alarming that folk still can’t see a problem with the proposed change to the GRA. Law aims to deliver justice through logic and reason. However, the law’s potential for impartiality is undermined if the law’s use of language become arbitrary. Justice becomes arbitrary at that point.
The proposed changes to the GRA would introduce irrealism and irrationality into legal reason, thereby undermining the coherence of existing international public law aimed at gender equality. As such, the proposed changes would impair the effectiveness of international public law protecting biological women from the effects of patriarchy.
Transgender ideology was invented to disrupt and dismantle existing cultural norms. To do so, transgender ideology must disrupt and dismantle legal reason. In doing this, transgender ideology would strengthen patriarchy and open the door to regressive totalitarianism, on a global scale.
Becoming Woman, or Sexual Difference Revisited
link to blackwellpublishing.com
As that one wasn’t particularly ‘easy-access’.
Human Rights Advocacy on Gender Issues: Challenges and Opportunities
link to academic.oup.com
Anglo-American neo-liberalism is a re-packaging of the economic system of 18th century slavery. The powers that be will not easily allow their domination of society to be undermined (see Farage as go-between between American fascism and British politics).
However, as it appears that Scots law is happy to debase itself in order to sustain British nationalism, I think we’ve certainly rocked the shit out of Establishment’s self-confidence and sense of self-entitlement and exceptionalism.
Lee Perry – Panic in Babylon
link to youtube.com
O/T
I will be talking to a bad boy tonight (just outa the jile) who has quite a lot to say about how we deal with crime and prisons etc on my Roundabout show at 7 pm on Argyll Independent Radio online -if he turns up (or hasn’t been nicked again).
I saw this vid of a music fan in a wheelchair crowd-surfing at a music festival in Spain, and it really impressed me.
People *can* do the right thing, they can help each other without needing a reward other than knowing they are doing the right thing.
Article in English, contains link to video:
link to thelocal.es
Some real stuff
link to youtube.com
And really funny
link to youtube.com
Can I talk about sex again? Well, I’ve a bit of a one-track mind, tbh. Sex-classes must remain grounded in biology if they are to have any practical value, so here’s an ethical way to determine whether trans-women are women or whether they are trans-women. 😉
link to academic.oup.com
Back in the day before feelz overtook realz in Canada.
link to opentextbc.ca
The reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 is so named, as it refers to the re-assignment of “gender” and not “sex”. It is not possible to self-determine one’s sex.
Aretha Franklin – (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
link to youtube.com
Anent CameronB’s postings, would I be right in thinking that much of the recent gender/sex stramash is based on people misinterpreting a Shania Twain song…
🙂
link to youtube.com
Shania Twain – “Man! I Feel Like A Woman”
P.S. I like the role reversal in Shania’s backing band, compared to Robert Palmer’s earlier hit “Addicted to Love”.
Shania went with himbos, where Robert went with bimbos. 🙂
link to youtube.com
Robert Palmer – “Addicted To Love” (1986)
.
BBC FFS…
Island businesses are closing because of the CalMac and CMAL incompetence.
In breach of their charter, the British Unionist Media State broadcaster is at it again with their SNP-badddd meltdown. The SNP rescued Ferguson Shipbuilders from closure.
Decent minded Scots and especially islanders are grateful for a government that actually did something to help save a Scottish Shipyard.
When, oh when will Holyrood debate the BBC repeatedly breaching the BBC charter and the BBC fraudulently taking money off of people with menaces.
Stuart, PLEASE can you put a big red button on your website directly linking us and WoS to their complaints form page so e can all report the BBC every time we see this carp? Serious request. Thanks.
I pay the BBC license fee as my job would be lost with a criminal conviction, but it gives me the dry boakhaving to give these BBC pe do supporters money to defame my First Minister and my government…
link to bbc.co.uk
I want Scotland to become independent to stop the Tories killing the disabled. Catch a load of Theresa May’s coupon on the welfare reform death list….
http://www.calumslist.org
The BBC bias is causing IndyRef2 heaps of damage and either costing Islanders their jobs with this ferry pi sh or worse, killing us aff via Westminster DWP and ATOS etc.
Stu., any chance you can help nudge the Scottish Government to bring the highly paid BBC Scotland executives before committee at the Scottish Parliament to explain themselves?
I believe Scotland will NOT win Independence until the likes of BBC Scotland stop this SNP badddd garbage.
We know the BBC are bias creeps. But old Labour Mrs McGinty in the schemes and LibDem Hamish McSporran up the glen could do with some help opening the eyes to the excrement they are being served from the Union TV channel.
Evenin’ aye anna recent WingsScotland twitter re-tweety:
link to twitter.com
Q. Take away ALL of the WORDS from the ad board, what do you see?
A. Cunt.
This was playing in the Stevenston Morrison’s today – FFS, haven’t heard it for years, instantly transported me back to a strangely happy time when some new music could still give a real thrill:
Terence Trent D’Arby, Dance Little Sister –
link to youtube.com
@Jo Swinson
In order to believe that trans-women are literally women, one has to reject the biopsychosocial model of health. Queer theory in law seeks to challenge existing norms, which is nice, but should not trump ethical reason. Trans-women are trans-women, so they do not have any human right to claim sex-based rights accorded to biological women.
Or do you think “womanhood” is solely an emotional state relating to patriarchal stereotypes?
link to nobaproject.com
The Gender Recognition Act is so named, as the process of gender-reassignment does not change the individual’s sex, it simply modifies the physiology of the individual to reflect they now wish to be viewed as being of the opposite gender to their biological sex. Biological sex is not a performance though, it has real effect in the real world. Allowing men to legally claim they are women, undermines public safety for women and children, for starters. Simples.
It is vital that sex-classes remain grounded in biology, for all sorts of practical reasons.
link to partapuoli.com
The Jokers – Tabou
link to youtube.com
Oops, I’m sure folk could have search for themselves, but here’s the correct link to the brain science above.
link to link.springer.com
Anyone want to see the Ian Brotherhood Show from 2014?
link to youtube.com
8=)
@BDTT –
FFS! That’s the first time I’ve seen that longer version, only ever saw clips before.
Feels like an awful long time ago now. And how much credit has to go to a certain Ronnie Anderson for making those demos so effective?
😉
I’m thinking of changing my online-ID to “Because they refused to wax Jessica’s scrotum.”. When legal interpretation takes a constructivist view of “sex”, legal reason and the potential for justice are jeopardised. Particularly if you are a biological woman. Long live patriarchy and the full-English Brexit, apparently.
link to link.springer.com
I forgot to sign-off but I appear to be on a bit of a role, not a bap.
N.B. From the perspective of Critical Philosophy and Critical Sociology, “performativity” should be viewed as mode of being that conforms to the neo-liberal transformation of society, i.e. it appears to offer choice but actually bolsters patriarchy.
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The Jokers – Soul Sound
link to youtube.com
It is possible to protect the human rights of trans individuals, without adopting a constructavist interpretation of “sex” in law and medical practice. Allowing self-ID of sex undoes legal boundaries that society has created in order to protect the vulnerable. That doesn’t advance global human rights, it undermines them and supports patriarchy.
link to thepublicdiscourse.com
P.S. Womanhood isn’t simply a range of stereotypicaly feminine flavours, is it?
The Jokers – Instant Coffee
link to youtube.com
Ultimately, most of us just want to be healthy, happy and left in peace to do our own thing. Unfortunately, modern politics in the immanent state of Brexitania, is not conducive to respecting inalienable human rights of many (see austerity and the full-English Brexit). So I’m a wee bit sorry for the length of this post, but sometimes stepping back from a situation can reveal illuminating context.
openaccess.city.ac.uk/2201/1/HOOVER_Rereading_the_UDHR_FINAL.pdf
I forgot to sign-off again.
Odetta – I Know Where I’m Going
link to youtube.com
For today in particular
link to youtube.com*
Strangely enough, I was looking at this earlier on today. Telt you I’m a bit of a weirdo. Spooky. 🙂
In this passage Kratochwil identifies his target as ‘conventional’ approaches to IR which were “developed within the confines of logical positivism”, and allegedly employ “a positivist epistemology that treats norms as ‘causes’” and reduce communication to the ‘description of facts’ and “the ascertainment of nomological regularities”. Kratochwil argues that the relevant approaches to IR are indebted to an old conception or ‘image’ of language as a ‘mirror’, which he claims was long ago abandoned by ordinary language philosophers in the wake of later Wittgenstein.
The suggested conclusion is that the historical abandonment of the mirror image of language within philosophy, and the criticisms that led to this abandonment, should lead IR scholars to fundamentally reorient their research programmes away from ‘positivist’ approaches to IR. It is worth noting that although the above passage was written in 1989, Kratochwil has asserted as recently as 2001 that ‘positivism’ is “the orthodox understanding of science among IR specialists” (Kratochwil, 2001: p.14), and has continued in his contemporary work to warn against ‘theories’ of IR “in the fashion of ‘science’” (Kratochwil, 2016: p.291). Less detailed expressions of the above line of argument are also found in Kratochwil’s 2001 and 2013 essays respectively (2001: p.29 & 34; 2013: p.2).
A similar statement of the ARO is found in the following passages taken from Fierke’s 2010 article entitled ‘Wittgenstein and International Relations Theory’:
link to ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk
Pornland – Invasion Of The Booty Snatchers
link to youtube.com
Oh how much is Smallaxe missed on here…
The man with the ability to shut shit down in one sentence..
I so hope you are well my friend and looking after Mrs Smallaxe xxx
Don’t be thinking I just miss ye when there’s an idiot on the main thread…. I think of you and Mrs Smallaxe often….
And am always sending ye both my very best XXX from me and mine to you and yours X
@Liz g –
Hear hear.
🙁
@Liz g- yes me too.
I often think of them and hope that they are doing all right.
I wonder what happened to my dancing partner Tinto Chiel, he’s been missing for a while as well. Hope he is okay, miss his humour,oh and Harvey of course.
The Wingers are ALWAYS watching
Time revolves as do Wingers
It’s a beautiful thing
I’m open to individuals declaring themselves the opposite gender to their biological sex, but I can not support gender-ID as the basis for gaining access to sex-based rights. Allowing self-ID of sex would make a mockery of human rights.
link to gtr.ukri.org
The world hasn’t gone mad but human reason is being tested. A symptom of the authoritarian capitalism, or neo-liberal totalitarianism, that is becoming the global social norm. I just hope the SNP’s researchers are making full use of the resources I’ve highlighted, and their legal advisors familiarise themselves with international legal doctrine, as they appear to be ignorant of basic facts of anti-discrimination law.
Who ordered the civil service to drop best practice when designing the consultation?
link to echr.coe.int
Forgot to sigh off there but it gives me the opportunity to remind folks that from a Scottish and N. Irish perspective, the full-English Brexit is discrimination on stilts.
Brexitania: the psychotic fantasy of zombie, neo-liberal, neo-consevative, nationalists. Not those who voted for it, well not all of them anyway, those who paid for it.
Jonathan Coulton – Your Brains
link to youtube.com
One last one. Can we get a crack at indy now, please.
link to who.int
onathan Coulton – That Spells DNA
link to youtube.com
The cost has still to be reckoned obvs., and we’ll be the suckers if we let it engulf Scotland. I meant the individuals/parties who paid for the criminal electioneering and stuff. And the media barons who’ve been selling Euroscepticism since the 1960’s. Well, England had to define a new role in the world for itself after loosing an empire, innit?
This is noteworthy for the title alone!
Fela Kuti, ‘Equalisation Of Trouser And Pant’ –
link to youtube.com
Ian Brotherwood
My favourite Fela piece
“Yellow Fever”
His blast against the Nigerian ladies who used bleaching creams to try to look more white. I did 25 years in Nigeria, mostly in a womens’ teachers college, and they looked just fine the way they were. And some.
What great musician and band leader.
link to youtube.com
Actually I met Ginger Ginger Baker in Kano,Nigeria on his way to the studio in Lagos. Paul McCartney used it for Wings and Band On The Run
re. Malcolm Clark @TwisterFilm, and his comparison between gender-modification surgery and legal amputation. Why do you think I’ve already posted about the ethical and legal implications of voluntary amputation, already? 🙂
Gender modification is definitely not a life-changing decision that children are capable of making, and it is not a decision their parents should be able to take for them. Those that suffer gender dysphoria experience a disorder between their mental and physical states. The danger of a constructavist interpretation of what sex is, is that it leads legal and medical practice to affirm disorder, rather than addressing it properly, as an incongruence of cognition. Worryingly, these are the two professions where a gender-critical, biologically grounded, perspective must remain the mainstream. Otherwise, women can kiss goodby to any ideas of further social emancipation.
Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID)—Is the Amputation of Healthy Limbs Ethically Justified?
link to tandfonline.com
This is the ticket, this is the real intelligence. This should also prove informative about how the full-English Brexit, pisses all over the legal personhood and human rights of those living in Scotland.
NON-NORMATIVE BODIES, RATIONALITY AND LEGAL PERSONHOOD
This article questions how legal personhood is constructed by law. Elective amputation is used as a way of interrogating the institutional, material and discursive relations that combine in order to suspend legal personhood. Elective amputation is introduced in terms of medical and psychological explanations. Additionally, the perspective of self-identified elective amputees who choose to share their stories through online blogs is utilized to gain a narrative sense of how these individuals understand and engage with law. In particular, the areas of disability, sexuality and rationality are used to exemplify law’s continuing commitment to normative embodiment as grounds for ascribing legal
personhood.
Elective Amputation, rationality, normativity, legal personhood, disability, sexuality
link to eprints.whiterose.ac.uk
Over to you Scottish judiciary, or are you all “ambivalent” about the full-English Brexit?
I forgot to sign-off, so here’s a wee insight into the concept of “legal personality”. We all have one, not only those who support British nationalism, though the British constitution only recognises and protects those who believe Britain is ‘One Nation’, apparently.
link to ejil.org
Link Wray – Fire And Brimstone
link to youtube.com
@Dave McEwan Hill –
Soo-perb!
I only ‘discovered’ Fela recently, love his work, especially how one ‘track’ can be half an hour long. And the guy’s life story is just mind-blowing, we could all learn a lot from it.
😉
Ian Brotherhood at 7.52
A very brave man indeed.
Typo
I didn’t do 25 years in Nigeria. Typo. I did 15 years in Nigeria. Approaching 200 million people with Lagos city at about 20 million it represents a huge problem the world is not facing.The population of West Africa as doubling every twenty years and together with climate change this is the most destablising issue we now face.
Got a beautiful piece of music from Texas,beautifully sung and beautifully backed. Going to get it onto CDs and prepared for distribution
Here’s the words
Ancient Home
Can you hear, Can you hear the sounds in the distance! Voices calling with growing insistence! Listen closely and you will hear! The time for redemption is growing near.!
Scotland’s Pride in its sons and daughters! No longer lambs for the English slaughter! Thin red lines in foreign lands! To stand and die at their commands!
Growing whispers calling for freedom! Want no part of the United Kingdom! For the Blood is strong!
The Heart is Highland!
The pipes play on, We’ll make a stand!
Let the Brits begone from this sacred land!
Scots taking back their own ” Ancient Home.!
No more hat in hand in our land!
With Scotland’s resources ours command!
No more crumbs from our own tables!
We can’t stand alone is an English fable!
Too long to suffer such injustice!
Stolen lands that the Lord entrusted!
We shall rise for those that have fallen!
Could the English conscience be calling!
As these voices become a roar!
Freedoms’ call can’t be ignored!
‘Cause the Blood is Strong!
The Heart is Highland!
The Pipes play on, we’ll make a stand!
Have the Brits begone from this Sacred Land!
Scots taking back their own Ancient Home!
Scots taking back their own Ancient Home!
Can you hear, can you hear the call for freedom”
” Copyright Claimant: Elizabeth D. Tucker, Brooks R. Tucker! Words & Music: Elizabeth D. Tucker, 1951-, Brooks R. Tucker, 1970-.! Date of Creation: 2005
Dave McEwan Hill,
I saw your post above, the lyrics that you mention are in this film from 2018.
link to youtube.com
Thanks, Smallaxe.This will be widely shared
Your welcome, Dave. 🙂
Our beautiful Scotland;
link to youtube.com
Feast your eyes Wingers and see what we’re fighting for!
Solomon Burke: “None Of Us Are Free”
link to youtube.com
Imelda May: “Johnny’s Got A Boom Boom”
link to youtube.com
The Fureys & Davey Arthur: “When You Were Sweet Sixteen”
youtube.com/watch?v=PTNPgRK0PK8
Eddie Cochran: “Summertime Blues”
link to youtube.com
Eddie Cochran: “Three Steps To Heaven”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxj–MkqACY
Cheers Smallaxe, simply soo-perb.
😉
Hey Smallaxe
So good to see you posting.:-)
Hope you and Mrs Smallaxe are well… XXX
Hi, Ian. A wee word or three from our Welsh cousins;
Cymru: “WE ARE NOT BRITISH”
link to youtube.com
🙂
Hi, Liz. Peace and Love to you and yours, I’m never far away just reach out!
The Four Tops;
link to youtube.com
I’ll be there.
😎
The Commitments: “Try A Little Tenderness”
link to youtube.com
It works sometimes…if you’re lucky!
😉
‘My People My People’ Goori classic by the late Chris Phillips;
link to youtube.com
Willie Nelson: “Shoeshine Man”
link to youtube.com
“Man of the World”: Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green)
link to youtube.com
Shall I tell you about my life?
😎
No Chance!
Wilson Pickett: “In the Midnight Hour”
link to youtube.com
Goodnight folks.
Sweet Dreams;
link to youtube.com
@Smallaxe
You’re BACK 🙂 Here’s a bit of a rap tune for you.
link to youtube.com
Thank’s Alex. I’ve overdone it a wee bit, bed calls but I’ll leave you in the very capable hands of…
Rory Gallagher: “Going to my Home Town”
link to youtube.com
Goodnight my friend.
🙂
@Smallaxe
I bid you goodnight, thanks for all the tunes tonight. You certainly livened the old place up again 🙂
Smallaxe and Sybil, lovely to see you here ! Take care of you.
And Sybil , I remain passionate about my country and any time anyone tells me I’m raving on I tell them I’m just passionate about my country – you taught me that response so Ta!
Love to you both.
Hi, Dorothy.
Keep that
‘Passion’
link to youtube.com
Everybody needs it!
😉
We’ll pop back again soon.
From a ComRes poll reported in Telegraph. (Daily, not Greenock)
4 possible UK general election scenarios. The ONLY one where Tories are likely to win is if election is held after October 31, and UK has left EU with No Deal by then. Otherwise the Tories get punished by people voting for the Brexit Party.
Boris Johnson thinks of party not country, and has:
NO incentive to hold a general election before Oct 31.
NO incentive for any Withdrawal Agreement with EU.
NO incentive to ask EU for an extension.
We’re heading for the EU exit door.
Poll date was from 16 July, so *maybe* it needs updating, but it is still grim reading:
link to britainelects.com
Image:
link to pbs.twimg.com
Poll results highlights-
Scenario 1: Gen Election held after UK leaves EU with No Deal:
Con-36 Lab-29 Brx-8 Lib-15
Scenario 2: GE before Oct 31, while UK is still in EU:
Con-28 Lab-27 Brx-19 Lib-16
Scenario 3: GE after extending the date of Brexit:
Con-22 Lab-28 Brx-23 Lib-16
Scenario 4: GE after Brexit with a Withdrawal Agreement:
Con-26 Lab-29 Brx-18 Lib-15
Lab and LibDem votes are steady, but the Tories only get votes from Brexiters if they deliver a hard No-Deal Brexit.
“May you live in interesting times.” 🙁
Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry Be Happy
link to youtube.com
Ahm in ah nanna nanna nah nah…
Ahm in Annan, DG12, Smallaxe, fancy ah visit in the next three?
Ahm in Scotland!!!
The union
youtu.be/X9uav5Je9Kg
Cactus;
I’ve just seen your post (Above) as I wasn’t online last night. You’re welcome to come through for a few hours but I’m going to visit friends south of the border later this evening.
Do you have transport? I’ll come and pick you up if you haven’t.
🙂
link to youtube.com
Dave McEwan Hill;
Fixed that link for you, Dave.
link to youtube.com
😉
Thanks, Smallaxe. Useless a this sort of stuff.
No problem, Dave.
Just take away the (https//) bit before posting and it appears back again when you post.
You only have to do this with youtube, everything else is ok as far as I know.
link to youtube.com
🙂
Hey Smallaxe, jist catchin’ up, aye we’re here and thinking Monday afternoon suit good furra visit… we are mobile
Have an excellent Saturday the 3rd evening everybuddy
Now is the time to ROCK!
Well, that was a flurry of excitement when Smallaxe appeared.
We now resume normal service i.e. torpor and doldrums…
🙁
But here’s a crackin Stone Roses track anyway, and it’s a bit reminiscent of Smallaxe’s constant message to us all.
‘Love Spreads’
link to youtube.com
The Charlatans, ‘The Only One I Know’ –
link to youtube.com
@Ian Brotherhood
Your last tune reminded me of a Dundee band, there not the same at all but I was reminded of them none the less LOL
link to youtube.com
Hi peeps.
I’m just getting back into the commenting groove after my wee holiday to Campbeltown. Always a wee tad lethargic commenting after my summer sojourn.
Onnyhoo…
Hi Smallaxe – good to see your fingers active again!
Thepnr – three Dundee tracks for you; the first featuring the legendary Jim Kelly, who played guitar on the Honeybus single “Girl of Independent Means”, then another featuring him on guitar and vocals, with one of the most famous bands in the world in Dundee.
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
The last one – spot all the Dundee locations in the video…
link to youtube.com
@Brian Doonthetoon
Hi Mr B, I was off to bed but thought I’d give your links a quick listen. The opening to that first track by Honeybus was definitely Bowies Jean Genie don’t you think? Then it goes all Simon and Garfunkel on you LOL, good pick and a new one for me 🙂
The second one, never heard that either. Sounded OK to me, surprised it didn’t make any waves back then. People can be fickle as fuck lol.
I liked the last one the best and I’ve never heard that either, just a catchy tune and a decent video. was good 🙂
Shane MacGowan meets Calum Kennedy – Peat and Diesel In the Western Isles
link to youtube.com
Hi Thepnr.
That riff is well known amongst us music aficionados.
This is the track that inspired Bowie:-
link to youtube.com
Then listen to this and compare it to “All The Young Dudes” also ‘written by’ Bowie…
link to youtube.com
@hackalumpoff
That was great and brought a smile to my face, Scotland’s very own version of Shane MacGowan and the Pogues 🙂
@Brian Doonthetoon
Now that WAS Jean Genie, I suppose there are only so many musical notes and so many tempos and so many orders they could be played and so many…
The second one had no resemblance to all The Young Dudes for me.
Here’s the most famous example of plagarism in the music industry and for which George Harrison had to pay out more the $1m in the 1970’s for ripping off a Chiffons song.
Here’s the comparison a “side by side” video. You’ll know this tune.
link to youtube.com
Here is a amazing piece
link to youtube.com
Hi Thepnr.
Reputation/All the young dudes…
I find myself silently singing “All the young dudes” as a counter melody/harmony when I’m listening to “Reputation”. Jiss me, I suppose.
RE: He’s so fine and plagiarism. I read years ago, that you can’t copywrite an arrangement. So, as far as I’m aware, composer royalties from these two tracks would go to the writers of “He’s So Fine” and “Wild World”. Cat Stevens wrote the latter.
Disclaimer: the inclusion of the following two links in this comment in no way endorses the sexual proclivities of the artiste involved.
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
————————————
Hi hackalumpoff.
Peat and Diesel was fine!
Hi, Cactus, I’ve just surfaced after having a late night last night.
Early tomorrow afternoon will be fine as I’ve got an appointment with the quack in the morning. See you tomorrow!
Jacques Dutronc: “Les cactus”;
link to youtube.com
I have no clue as to what this means. 😎
Met an old friend today that I haven’t seen for nearly 10 years. He’s an Englishman living in Scotland arghhh!
He never voted in the last Indyref but he will be in the next. He’s now a Yes and so is his two sons, just by doing nothing we are gaining support. We must thank the Tory party for that 🙂
I can’t believe I’ve just spent the last half hour of my life watching this LOL. It’s so boring that I became fascinated 🙂
link to youtube.com
Hi peeps.
At the end of the weekend, can I jiss type that I am chuffed that I caught David’s hanging comment – on the 4th oldest active page?
link to wingsoverscotland.com
@BDTT
Nope, you lost me there?
Hi Thepnr.
Click on the link in my last comment, then scroll back to the preceding comment.
Certain underbridge dwellers have a penchant for leaving an anti-indy comment as the last comment on older pages.
If you’ve read these pages before then you’ll probably know that I like the stuff that Johnny Cash did. I was surprised to find that before Kenny Rogers made this song a number one hit Johnny Cash had released it before him.
link to youtube.com
@BDTT
Ah, got you now. Glad to see your on the job 🙂
Here’s the Chiffons with He’s So Fine.
link to youtube.com
There is a resemblance to George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord that anyone can hear. Who can say if it was intentional or not? Only a judge I guess and one did.
Now here’s My Sweet Lord, it’s not that much like the Chiffons song but hey, who am I to judge 🙂
link to youtube.com
I do prefer the George Harrison song, think that’s just a familiarity thing.
Hi Thepnr.
Did you catch my comment from earlier, re plagiarism?
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Thepnr at 12.01
The name Cash comes from Strathmiglo in Fife and Johnny Cash’s daughter is well aware of it at one point having acquired some historic Cash building in that area.
Excellent tae rekindle wae yerguidself and the lovely missus, Smallaxe
SO howsabout this latest Scottish independence poll…
link to youtube.com 🙂
NOW is the time to MAKE LOTS OF NOISE about it!!
(NB it is always the time to do SOMETHING)
@Cactus
I hope he remembered to play you some of his reggae tunes 🙂
In case he forgot then here’s the one he would have played for you.
link to youtube.com
Hi Thepnr.
(Repeat)Did you catch my comment from earlier, re plagiarism?
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Hi Smallaxe.
For you, inspired by Cactus and Thepnr.
link to youtube.com
@BDTT
Yes I did 🙂
Hi Cactus,
We had a most enjoyable time yesterday it was good to see you again.
Ziggy Marley: “Love Is My Religion”
link to youtube.com
Hi Brian and Thepnr, keep up the good work. I notice that you’ve had a couple of good catches on the older threads, Brian. Alert reader! 🙂
@The police of Humberside
I don’t know who has been filling your heads with woke mince, but you need to start respecting the gender-critical view, if you want to remain within the limits of bounded rationality. Otherwise, your practice will tend towards totalitarian authoritarianism.
Human Rights – Human Bodies? Some Reflections on Corporate Human Rights Distortion, The Legal Subject, Embodiment and Human Rights Theory
link to link.springer.com
Roy Orbison – A Cat Called Domino
link to youtube.com
@The police of Humberside
Stick this in your pipe and smoke it.
link to gold.ac.uk
Johnny Burnette – Rockabilly Boogie
link to youtube.com
@The police of Humberside
A re-fill for your pipe, I hope you’ve got a healthy pair of lungs. I’m away to to keep mind and body together. Or in other words, ma tea’s out.
link to onlinelibrary.wiley.com
the Wise Guyz – Jumping Record
link to youtube.com
I’m only posting this material, in the hope someone in the SNP will get the woke brigade telt. Their lack of understanding of diversity and equality, threatens to undermine support for the cause of Scotland’s emancipation from cultural subjugation.
scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1269&context=bglj
I forgot to sign-off again
Mickey & Sylvia – Love is Strange
link to youtube.com
As I’ve said, I’m very, very rusty, but I hope I’ve managed to link the self-ID of sex with Scotland’s constitutional crises. It all boils down to embodied rights and legal recognition, facilitated through semiotics and plain English law, obvs. 😉
link to core.ac.uk
Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs- Lil’ red riding hood
link to youtube.com
Doh! There’s me forgetting relational autonomy. 😉
How Long Will Critical Human Rights Theory Continue to Ignore Race and Gender?
link to criticallegalthinking.com
@Mhairi Hunter
?I understand the possible source of your confusion, as there is a lack of legal clarity concerning the human rights of women and the sexuality of individuals. You’re a complete melt though if you believe it possible to change sex, and a complete moron if you conflate sex with gender. Unfortunately, you would not be alone in such confusion.
Btw, you do realise much of the drive to allow self-ID of sex, is the desire to protect homosexuals living in oppressive societies, such as Iran? In other words, self-ID of sex is largely intended as a means of subverting draconian, illiberal, law. There is no comparable need for such indirect affirmative protection for homosexuals in Scotland.
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Legal human rights are a relatively recent social phenomena, and their current construction is far from perfect, being drawn from legal doctrine that is inherently masculine in outlook and interpretation. I still support their universal application though, they just need to be developed a bit.
Trans-women are not women, they are trans-women. Ergo, trans-women have no automatic right to claim sex-based rights afforded to biological women for their protection against discrimination and other forms of legal and physical violence.
link to researchgate.net
@Mhairi Hunter
Being either male or female (or neither), is an inescapable accident of biology. Identifying as the opposite gender to that which is socially associated with one’s biological sex, is an expression of the individual’s sexuality. Though an individual’s biological sex and their sexuality are connected, they are not the same thing. Legislating as if they are the same, would be bad, mk.
Language, Gender, and Sexuality
link to oxfordbibliographies.com
Sorry for being a space-hog again, but it really nips my bits when I see patriarchy being supported in the name of equality.
Conway Twitty – It’s Only Make Believe
link to youtube.com
Full marks to the observant who noticed me highlighting “practice theory”, as I started going full-Tonto, a good while back. 😉
N.B. The full-English Brexit threatens to annihilate the political agency of all those living in Scotland. Even the yoons, though not the rich ones, frankly. Their relational autonomy will probably receive a boost from supporting authoritarian English nationalism.
link to sk.sagepub.com
Tami Lynn – I’m Gonna Run Away From You
link to youtube.com
Cameron B, blimey, Conway Twitty, there’s a walk down memory lane. Thanks for that, brings back a lot of happy memories when I was just a wee lassie.
Can I just point out that a wee space for comments, is sitting there, unloved, with no comment since 18th January? A waste of a resource just pleading for academic input?
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Onnyhoo…
Marie Clark’s comment, for some reason, reminded me of these, from my tiny years.
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
That last one…
We used to visit my Mum’s cousin in Glasgow regularly and she took us to a cafe in Alexandra Parade with a jukebox, where my choice was always that last one.
Revisiting Quarantine, I just watched
link to youtube.com
again, all the way through. In my DJ days, it was always a floor-filler.
Today would have been the 145th birthday of PM John “Jock” McLellan DCM of Dunoon the most prolific composer of pipe music. He wrote “The Bloody Fields of Flanders” to which Hamish Henderson wrote Scotland’s international national anthem “The Freedom Come A’ Ye” . Here is Dick Gaughan and 5 Hand Reel’s brilliant version
link to youtube.com
Marie Clark
My pleasure, and I really am sorry for taking up so much space. I just know a bit about relevant stuff. 😉
@CameronB Brodie
You’re not sorry, your being a complete prick. You already destroyed Off Topic and now your having another go? You and your psychobabble shite can fuck right off as far as I’m concerned because see here on Wings we seek Independence and
WE ARE NOT TRYING TO SOLVE ALL THE WORLDS ILLS
All of that right now is none of our business, you are on the wrong website at this time. If you want to pose a view on Independence or play a fucking tune on Off Topic I would welcome it, the crap you have posted in the last year or two you can shove it, I doubt even YOU read it.
Find somewhere else to post it, it is shit Cameron and people just scroll on by. Know why? It is not relevant at all to what we hope to achieve here.
@CameronB Brodie
From me to you.
link to youtube.com
Thepnr
You’re one to talk about getting a grip. I’ll speak with you face to face, if you don’t mind.
Thepnr
Btw, the biopsychosocial model of health, supported by critical and feminist legal theories, as well as post-colonial theory, is not “psychobabble shite”.
The biopsychosocial approach and global mental health: Synergies and opportunities
link to indjsp.org
BDTT @ 11.07, great what a piece of music can do eh? It fairly digs into the auld memory banks, but it also means that you must be aboot as auld as me.Ha ha.
I didnae think you looked that auld when I met you and Lollysmum at Dumfries in Dock Park. By the by, do you know how Lollysmum is getting on after her accident. I see that she pops in occasionally, just wondered how she’s keeping.
Cheers guys, thanks for the memories as Bob Hope used to sing.
@PNR
Well said sir, if a bit industrial, it’s about time some stood up to CameronB Brodies babbling.
It really does spoil my enjoyment of other posters opinions, not just in here but on all Wings threads.
Maybe we should start a class action for all the burnt out scroll buttons.
Arthur C
So you another who wants to limit the scope of the debate to the boundaries of your understanding? Do you generally think experts, such as your GP, are full of shite?
Critical Social Theory and Sustainable Development: The Role of Class, Capitalism and Domination in a Dialectical Analysis of Un/Sustainability
link to westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk
How many folk here have insight into critical political and critical legal philosophy? I’m certainly not claiming I know it all, but insight into post-modern critical social theory, is definitely the sort of enlightenment the indy movement needs, IMHO. That’s what I have been trying to introduce to the discussion. MK.
Critical Theory and Social Justice
link to scielo.br
I’m sure all the people queeing at the foodbanks or sleeping in doorways are thinking ALL the time about “post-modern critical social theory”
In fact they have nothing better to do and it fair cheers them up, I’ll tell you that to your face too CBB.
Good to see you back Smallaxe.
Been away for some time myself over the past couple of months and it’s a genuine pleasure to know you’re still paying a visit.
All the best to you and Mrs Smallaxe. 🙂
Btw, I’ve spoken with other WOS contributors who are glad to see the back of the chit-chat and tunes. You can’t please all the people all the time, but it is important to always try to foster constructive dialogue. Dugdale’s going to find it hard doing that and maintaining allegiance to the outdated principle of Parliamentary sovereignty, in that new think-tank job of hers.
Educating for democracy
Rolf Gollob, Peter Krapf, Wiltrud Weidinger (editors)
Background materials on democratic citizenship
and human rights education for teachers
link to rm.coe.int
Thepnr
Don’t be a dick. This is my training, to foster sustainable democracy. This might bore the tits of you but I wouldn’t be busting my nads if I didn’t think critical theory was having an impact, somewhere.
Hi, Macart, thank you, it’s good to see you contributing again also. I’ll be popping in now and again when I’m up to it.
Peace and Love to you and yours, my friend.
Freddie McGregor: “Love Makes The World Go Round”
link to youtube.com
😉
All in All, You’re Just Another Brick in the WALL!
link to youtube.com
B=P
“Btw, I’ve spoken with other WOS contributors who are glad to see the back of the chit-chat and tunes.”
Well, maybe just me but I think…
link to youtube.com
@Smallaxe
My son got married just a couple of months ago, a humanist conducted the ceremony and the bride wore a white dress, my son the full Scottish.
This is the song the bride walked down the aisle too, I was very surprised. It was for her dad, nearly had me greetin 🙁
link to youtube.com
Hi Thepnr,
We enjoyed the visit from you and your lovely wife a few weeks ago, it was good to see you both again. Ronnie A came back the next day and we had a good conversation for a few hours.
😉
Give your son and his new bride our love, please. We wish them every happiness.
link to youtube.com
Thepnr
So you’re calling me a liar now? And I had credited you with common sense.
Looking out the window and it’s dark dull and depressing, a bit like Wings gets at times. Never mind, there’s always tomorrow eh.
link to youtube.com
Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers: “Tomorrow People”
link to youtube.com
😉
Smallaxe, nice to see you managing to post again. Great stuff. I know that your health is not too good at the moment, but dinnae gon onywhaur, you’re needed for the upcoming fight.
Look after yourself, love to you and the family.
By the way fella’s, correct me if I’ve got this wrong, but my understanding of the reason OT was created, was to enable us to have a chit chat and play some tunes. Mibbies just me.
Hi Marie, You’re correct, it says on the main page “Zany Comedy Relief” Off Topic!
ANSWER TO EVERYTHING: Steak and Kidney;
link to youtube.com
Just Devine.
😎
Marie Clark
How can I stop people posting? I can’t, can I? How can I open minds? I apparently can’t do that either.
Civic Education and Liberal Democracy
Making Post-Normative Citizens in Normative Political Spaces
link to palgrave.com
@Marie Clark
The very first post on Off Topic was this:
Paula Rose says:
30 March, 2014 at 2:58 pm
Look! Nice shiny new play room – time to put on some music!
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Second post was this:
CameronB says:
30 March, 2014 at 3:43 pm
Hello. Meet my mate Dave. He swims like a fish. ?
link to wingsoverscotland.com
It started because people kept posting music video links on the main thread and they were embedded so they could be played there. The Rev blocked that but people when they were bored still kept posting links to music or Still Game videos ect ect whatever. So he made Off Topic.
The thing is everybody needs a release valve, a place to chit-chat or play some music or comedy is a good thing.
Cameron, Cameron, calm doon a wee bittie. You’re very keen to jump in on top of anybody that makes any kind of comment. I am not having a go at you.
OT was started for a bit of fun and light relief from the MT. I don’t recall asking you to stop anybody posting what they like, that’s fine. All that several people, myself included, are trying to tell you is that you need to ease up. Who asked you to open anyone’s mind on OT. It’s maybe not the place for it.
You know, my late father, who was a very fair minded man, always would say to me, that if others were telling me that perhaps I was wrong, to stop and take time to think about that. Could be that the others were right and maybe I was wrong.
Cameron, I have absolutely no wish to either offend, or upset you, but perhaps before you jump on my head again, you could take a wee bit time to think about what I have said.
By all means post your tunes and chit chat on OT, but think about keeping your more serious post for the MT.
Smallaxe
It’s good to see you posting and I wish more folk had stuff to say or contribute. Remember though, play to the whistle. I hear some mumping but I take my orders from the site owner, i.e. “Your Majesty”.
CameronB Brodie says: 9 August, 2019 at 11:08 am
“Arthur C
So you another who wants to limit the scope of the debate to the boundaries of your understanding? Do you generally think experts, such as your GP, are full of shite?”
I have been to see my GP about your question. He has prescribed 6 Months in quarantine for you, cheery bye Loon.
@Smallaxe
That Steak & Kidney tune showcased Lanarkshire’s finest talent at his very best. Sung by the grandad at every Glasgow party ever since, absolute class 🙂
I must reciprocate and the crowds are still being WOWED even now, here’s the evidence. Who’d have thunk it? LOL.
link to youtube.com
Marie Clark
Sorry if I misinterpreted you’re intentions. Your late father was correct, but I wasn’t aware OT was created for anything specific, other than off topic comment. I’ve tried to confine my comments on MTs, to material I thought relevant to MT topics. Self-ID of sex, for example, doesn’t really fit in to that discipline, though the site owner, i.e. your majesty, appears concerned about the matter. I’m trying to be lighthearted and engaging, but democratic citizenship is serious business.
I’ve said enough. I’m not taking the hump but if folk can’t stand up for their own indy supporting opinion on WOS, how the feck are we going to get the undecided over the line?
Cameron, not by preaching about Self-ID or sex is going to convert anyone to independence. Most folk just don’t care.
Anyway, we’ll no fall out about it. I’ve enough going on in my life at the moment that is indeed upsetting, and I don’t need or want anymore at the moment.
Okay, let’s just agree to disagree, and be polite to each other.