Joyce Activated

I attended two excellent conferences in London last Saturday: one organised by the London Society of the New Lacanian School (a style of psychoanalysis) and the other organised by left-wing feminist campaign group Woman’s Place UK.

In which Maya Forstater and I attend the Women and Equalities Select Committee, and fail to keep straight faces.

Last week I promised I’d return to the importance of the definition of sex in law. But as I’ve written this week’s issue, I’ve found myself explaining why the law isn’t enough, though shoring it up is still where I think we have to start.

In this issue I explain why I’ve decided not to return to my journalism job, but instead keep doing campaign work. And I explain why schools are such an important battleground in the fight for sex-based rights, and what the Department for Education needs to do.

This week I reflect on what I learn from appearing on panels and from being interviewed. For me, thinking aloud really is thinking allowed.

I’ve used the first issue of the new year to do a bit of stocktaking on 2022, and some forward thinking for 2023. As I’ve been writing my mood has turned darker, probably because of the disastrous and farcical vote before Christmas in Scotland for gender self-ID.

This week I’m using my newsletter to think aloud about something rather abstract: what the hell is queer theory all about? By now I’ve learned that when my mind keeps worrying over some contradiction, I might as well pay attention.

On December 8th I spoke at UnHerd’s new space in Westminster, together with Julie Bindel, in an event entitled “Should TERFs unite with the Right?”—a live question within British feminism. In this issue I share my speaking notes.

Recent years have seen the formerly niche genre of fanfic explode in popularity. Much is pretty hardcore—and a surprising amount features couplings between two men who are straight in the source material. I think this may be part of what is fuelling trans-identification among teenage girls.

This week I’ve been thinking about the important role played by the personification of gender-identity ideology, in the form of known individuals seeking to be treated as exceptions, in poor media coverage of trans issues, and in the destruction of sex-based rights.