Jenny Lindsay

Writer/ recovering poet.

Weekly @TheScotsman. Words elsewhere too.

'Hounded: Women, Harms & The Gender Wars' @politybooks

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

Well. I know yer supposed to do a selfie when yer books arrive, but I've just burst into snottery tears. IT'S REAL!! I DID IIIIIIITTTTTTT!! 😭🤩🦊Thank you @politybooks! Oh, this is such a lovely feeling. *sobs*

Preorder here: https://t.co/isgDovaW5Y

[Nick Wallis @nickwallis]

Puberty blocker trial permission hearing decision tomorrow.

https://t.co/zlk8QS9TVw

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

Yes, I agree. I admire Jacob Mchangama very much, and his book on the history of free speech is a wonderful tome. But this misses both the intent and consequence of what has been said about women's groups by Amnesty, the severe consequences of being targeted, surprisingly downplaying both. This isn't simply a free speech issue.

[Victoria Smith @glosswitch]

How many times are women told "I'll listen to you when you've calmed down", when the measure for being considered "calm" is not saying anything at all?

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

Come to this on Sat 28th Nov! I'm so pleased to be coming down for it from my little hideaway on west coast Scotland. Been a while, since last year's incessant promo! Come help me remember how to speak in public about dreadful things but with funnies to take the edge off. 😆🦊xx

[Women’s Rights Network- Greater Manchester @WRN_Manchester]

💜Right here. Right now💜

Come and get your Early Bird tickets for Manchester Fringe Book Festival 📚

It’s going to be an awesome day with awesome people.

QR code in replies, or click the link.

#MFBF26

https://t.co/LsvQnMiAUz

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

@BipolarRunner @GlasgowAlbum Oh. My god. 🤣🤣🤣

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

Mr Huxley's determination to catapult this lovely picture off the wall continues. Cheeky wee shitebag gorgeous boy.

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

I mean, obviously things flow from those three core beliefs (partic 2 - 'concerns' is pretty wide) that are more complex than this - a feminist analysis, for one - and lead to different opinions, but in essence, any woman who has been targeted over this has tripped the wire on one or all three of those core things. So, for that debate Allison claims she wants to happen, we need agreement on that third one at the very least. Is my thesis, anyway!

[FeministRoar @FeministRoar]

This is *definitely* part of the problem.

People like Allison say "Trump etc agree with you" and the reply is "yes, so what?"

But Trump does not agree with us. He doesn't think gender is a system of stereotypes that hurts people or that women should be treated as fully human...

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

@SeeRedWoman1 @AllisonMorris1 @HannahMatha @Glinner This ideology will hitch a ride on whatever other cause seems the most expedient. Been speaking with pals in Montenegro this evening about this very thing. Wowee, what a thing!!

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

@SeeRedWoman1 @AllisonMorris1 @HannahMatha @Glinner I feel kind of guilty I hadn't really realised how mental it was there. Commenting on here has been like being chucked into Scottish arts land circa 2018, but with new insults. 😳STILL on the 'you're all right wing' stuff?! Jeezo, man. Many sympathies, from a 'Tan.' Apparently.

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

@SeeRedWoman1 @AllisonMorris1 @HannahMatha @Glinner Your tribunal was a farce on so many levels, and I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve that. I hope being entirely correct on this issue takes the edge off a wee bit at least. xxx

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

@DearRebelAda He'll be the death of me. He went to eat a bit of onion the other day despite them being toxic - thankfully I stopped him! Honestly, the maddest bastard of a cat. I've trained him to understand 'careful' in a low growl, but my god. He's tried to sniff lit candles. Maniac.

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

I'm resharing this because it's bloody beautiful and deserves all the reads. My parents had a horrific divorce and were unable to be in the same room for quite some time; upsetting all round really. They can now! But this is just lovely. ❤️

[euan mccolm @euanmccolm]

My @MailOnlineScot column on the day I asked my ex-wife out for a drink: https://t.co/tF9sPcG5TD

[euan mccolm @euanmccolm]

horrendous that this continues to happen. it’s doubly cruel when one considers that Murphy’s boringly rational views are shared by many other high profile people who prefer to say nothing.

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

Hi Allison. 'GC' beliefs are:

1: Women are materially definable as a class of human being. Ie, we are adult human females.
2: On this basis, we have specific needs, rights and concerns, and
3: Women should have freedom of speech and assembly, on matters that affect them profoundly. Ie, we should not be fired, beaten up, threatened, or face other illiberal measures, for asserting either 1 or 2.

Which do you disagree with and why?

And, while this forum is hardly a great space for political discussion, when women's events are *routinely cancelled* it doesn't leave many options. There's a really simple solution to that, of course. Stop cancelling perfectly ordinary events, where women are going to be saying perfectly ordinary things about material reality and their rights. 🤷‍♀️

Actually have the discussion. Book the many women who have written extensively on this issue to festivals and events. Host debates - non hostile ones - across the aisles. Engage with local WRN groups. Read our literature. Social media is not the only space that this issue must be discussed - and we're very, very, very far along with this now, with women you've smeared having been the reason that's happened. Engage with them without calling them all the names under the sun and you might see that. They are the best of women and have defended our rights with tenacity, brilliance, and effectiveness. They are admired globally, despite how you and others speak of them. You seem unaware of this, perhaps because this is the only forum you've engaged with. That's a bit silly.

Oh - and guilt by association is just tiresome.

[euan mccolm @euanmccolm]

My @MailOnlineScot column on the day I asked my ex-wife out for a drink: https://t.co/tF9sPcG5TD

[ThisIsntWorkingPodcast @IsntWorkingPod]

Starting to lose count of the orgs and institutions proudly advertising how rotten their senior leadership has become, as activists were allowed to climb to the very top. We predicted it - but it's still astonishing to watch 😵‍💫

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

Oh it's robbed so many of so much. The work that was never made, as the @Freedom_in_Arts report highlights; those fearful to speak out, or walking on eggshells. Terrible stuff. Cancel culture is very often an attack on competency. The motivation for some of my hounders was envy or revenge for me not booking them as much as they thought I should. That was perfectly obvious, as was getting competition out of the way, as was the case with @KateClanchy1. Of course, it's the institutions that are to blame. They let them. Scotland is far too small a place to survive this kind of stuff. Thankfully, many outside of Scotland have been braver re: my prose/ essays! I'm very lucky in the grand scheme of things!

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

When I got targeted by gender identity activists, I stopped being anything other than a 'TERF' in my old world.

No longer an award-winning events producer, caring mentor of young poets and writers, talented compere, director of poetry stage shows, entertaining performance poet (they do exist, haha), creative teacher who went into schools, mentoring hundreds of young people; no longer a promoter of grassroots music, theatre, poetry, putting on newbies alongside top names in brilliant showcases; no longer a passionate advocate for literary excellence, fair pay in the arts, and sorting out the double-standards applied to women on stages since the age of only 20; no longer the writer/performer of my own daring, creative, literary performances. No longer anything other than a 'TERF.'

I've watched every achievement I ever had in the creative arts erased - literally - from YouTube channels, people's CVs, from any and all histories of Scottish live poetry. I'm in current battle with a European project attached to a top university, who want to put trigger warnings on an interview I gave them, where I use Kae Tempest's old name and pronouns, retro-fitting what I was saying about women in poetry.

My name, when brought up in those circles, is - according to a literary editor who did this recently - like dooking an entire room into ice water. My name has been made unsayable. I lurk in a Poetry & Spoken Word group on FB where I've seen people give me the 'She Who Must Not Be Named' treatment; including an ex, which was very painful.

So, I won't reduce a certain Belfast crime correspondent to her gender-identity beliefs either, and note all of her other, many talents and achievements in covering the appalling state of male violence in Northern Ireland. But for the love of almighty fuck, the double-standards. That atrocious behaviour towards Helen Joyce on BBC radio today is absolutely something that needs called out. And it has been, robustly, and for the most part very fairly. No, it doesn't diminish her other worthy achievements. But it was a total disgrace, and completely unwarranted.

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

@TheParty1sOver No no, believing women are adult human females, important on that basis, and shouldn't be throat-punched for holding meetings makes me extremely right wing. Last I heard, anyway. 🥹

[Jenny Lindsay @msjlindsay]

😀Good lord. I agree with a UK Prime Minister on something. What a nice feeling.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 BREAKING: Andy Burnham says the assisted dying debate should wait until after palliative care and social care is fixed