Franck Pauly

I am an optimist living in the singularity.
Love Champagne, fine wines, espresso & good food. Dislike superstition in all its forms! Love travelling.…

[Franck Pauly @EpicureanFranck]

@lefoudupuyy Je dirais "be strong! “

[Emma Hilton @FondOfBeetles]

OK, science geeks. Sex testing and sport.

There are many people spreading misinformation about the reliability of sex testing, repeating arguments made for its abolition some 25 years ago.

I don’t know if they have noticed that we’ve undergone something of a genetics revolution over the past few decades 😀

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

You’ve asked me several questions on this thread and accused me of avoiding answering, so here goes.

I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others.

I don’t believe a woman is more or less of a woman for having sex with men, women, both or not wanting sex at all. I don’t think a woman is more or less of a woman for having a buzz cut and liking suits and ties, or wearing stilettos and mini dresses, for being black, white or brown, for being six feet tall or a little person, for being kind or cruel, angry or sad, loud or retiring. She isn't more of a woman for featuring in Playboy or being a surrendered wife, nor less of a woman for designing space rockets or taking up boxing. What makes her a woman is the fact of being born in a body that, assuming nothing has gone wrong in her physical development (which, as stated above, still doesn't stop her being a woman), is geared towards producing eggs as opposed to sperm, towards bearing as opposed to begetting children, and irrespective of whether she's done either of those things, or ever wants to.

Womanhood isn't a mystical state of being, nor is it measured by how well one apes sex stereotypes. We are not the creatures either porn or the Bible tell you we are. Femaleness is not, as trans woman Andrea Chu Long wrote, ‘an open mouth, an expectant asshole, blank, blank eyes,’ nor are we God’s afterthought, sprung from Adam’s rib.

Women are provably subject to certain experiences because of our female bodies, including different forms of oppression, depending on the cultures in which we live. When trans activists say 'I thought you didn't want to be defined by your biology,' it’s a feeble and transparent attempt at linguistic sleight of hand. Women don't want to be limited, exploited, punished, or subject to other unjust treatment because of their biology, but our being female is indeed defined by our biology. It's one material fact about us, like having freckles or disliking beetroot, neither of which are representative of our entire beings, either. Women have billions of different personalities and life stories, which have nothing to do with our bodies, although we are likely to have had experiences men don't and can't, because we belong to our sex class.

Some people feel strongly that they should have been, or wish to be seen as, the sex class into which they weren't born. Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it. I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety. I do not, however, believe that surgeries and cross-sex hormones literally turn a person into the opposite sex, nor do I believe in the idea that each of us has a nebulous ‘gender identity’ that may or might not match our sexed bodies. I believe the ideology that preaches those tenets has caused, and continues to cause, very real harm to vulnerable people.

I am strongly against women's and girls' rights and protections being dismantled to accommodate trans-identified men, for the very simple reason that no study has ever demonstrated that trans-identified men don't have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men, and because, however they identify, men retain their advantages of speed and strength. In other words, I think the safety and rights of girls and women are more important than those men's desire for validation.

I sincerely hope that answers your questions. You may still disagree, but as I hope this shows, I’m more than happy to have this debate.

[Martin J Keatings 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @MartinJKeatings]

@AngusMacNeilSNP If it is an election FOR independence then they'll get my vote, if it's an election to ask for a referendum, not to put too fine a point on it, but the SNP leadership can f**k right off. I'll not be voting for them. And if they break the promise on the 1st one, i'll never....

[Mark Hirst @Documark]

Since November 2014 @theSNP leadership sought to emulate New Labour. Gain power and hold it, regardless of any founding principles.

They did to independence what New Labour did to socialism and SIDELINED IT for personal gain.

By any definition they are traitors.

[Liam Garvey @garvey_liam]

3. The SNP, and the Scottish press, say some horrible things about Campbell, questioning his sanity, his loyalty etc. etc. and retweet each other's hot takes.
4. It turns out that Campbell is correct.
5. Crickets.
Every single time.
Every. Single. Time.
2/2 Fin.

[Liam Garvey @garvey_liam]

I've been a reader of Wings for going on 10 years.
Here's how it goes. (This will take a tweet or three).
1. Stu Campbell asks an uncomfortable question of the SNP.
2. The SNP, and the Scottish press, deny that anything is amiss, or could possibly be amiss 1/n

[Barrhead Boy (Through A Scottish Prism) @Scotpol1314]

To all those that chose to stay silent when good guy Douglas Chapman and the Finance committee resigned because of Murrells refusal to open the books, you cannot now say you are cooperating with police and have nothing to say. If you had spoken up this might never have happened.

[¢яαιgтнєρι¢т - Justice for Alex Salmond @craigthepict]

Say what you like about @WingsScotland (you're being told to hate him btw) but he should take a bow for his investigative journalism. Stop being conned and start paying attention or you're doing the yoon bidding.

[¢яαιgтнєρι¢т - Justice for Alex Salmond @craigthepict]

I hope many of you independence supporters who have been told to hate @WingsScotland, @AlbaParty and those questioning the SNP will change your mindset and realise who the enemy is.

[suzanne moore @suzanne_moore]

Those asking me to denounce particular women. No I will not do it. I am against all violence against ALL women. I don't need to agree with anyone 100% to think they should not be threatened. Is that clear enough for you?

[Liz @indyfan57]

@JamesKelly There comes a point as a member when you can no longer turn a blind eye,when your own red line is crossed. For some it was the AS trial, the capitulation following Brexit, the stitch up of the NEC, the GRR bill. You leave because there is no way you can stay.

[Mel 🕊️ @meljomur]

Sturgeon’s legacy

SNP membership Nov. 2014- 85K
SNP membership Mar. 2023- 72K

Support for Indy Nov. 2014- 44%
Support for Indy Mar. 2023- 39%

SNP majority Gov. Nov. 2014
SNP minority Gov. Mar. 2023

Reality Bites #SturgeonsLastDay

[Colin Wight (not Colin Wright) @colwight]

You have to love Twitter. Three eminent biologists (Dawkins, Winston, and Nüsslein Volhard ) say there are only two sexes and that humans can’t change Sex, and Twitter randoms, and Katy Montgomery (as always)) say they’re wrong. We need a term for this madness. Dunning Kruger doesn’t come close.

[Franck Pauly @EpicureanFranck]

@DarrellLerner Send.

[Joanna Cherry KC @joannaccherry]

I disagree with @neilgraysnp that everyone in @theSNP is responsible for the own goal of misleading statements made re membership. Some of us have been warning for years that HQ was not being run professionally or transparently. We were monstered for it.

[Cyril Mitchell @cyrilmitchell23]

@martin_compston If you are in any way confused about what has just happened to your party, tread very carefully whilst reading this.
https://t.co/3Je1rgGzLr

[Allison @LetAlbaFlourish]

@thelauramitch It’s “how we do things in the SNP” that’s become the problem.

Ignore complains = members leave
Allow bullying = members leave
Turn conference into rallies = debate dies
No debate = no robust policy

Control ultimately chokes power.

Time membership was breathed back into SNP.

[Albannach @SaorAlbannach]

I wonder why people, especially independence supporters, would feel capable of talking about the 'legality' of self-determination.

We know that it's a right from our constitutional law.
Most of us exercised that right in 2014.
So why are the likes of Yousaf saying we must beg?