Jo Macfarlane

Award-winning freelance journalist. Health/medical/science. Doesn't make candles 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

@danny_robins @The_Lowry @uncannypodlive See you in Northampton! 👻

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

@liamgallagher speaks for everyone over 40 👊

[Liam Gallagher @liamgallagher]

After party’s are for wankers I’m getting straight of after the gigs get my beauty sleep this level of sexiness doesn’t happen by staying up talking bollox to bellends

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

All of this without the dogs, please.

[𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗶 @perrigame]

Instead of nightclubs I want a 24hr library with hot chocolate stations, a dessert bar, coffee machine, big comfy chairs and beanbags, blankets, dogs welcome, just people who want to spend the evening reading alone, together, peaceful, a cosy fire, plants, an indoor waterfall.

[Dr Rachel Clarke @doctor_oxford]

Very few people realise that the vast majority of hospice and palliative care is provided by charity - not by the NHS.

I think this is a national scandal.

Please RT if you do too 🙏

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

@GymCentral @MailOnline Thanks, but not sure where you’re seeing that spelling mistake - it’s not in the article?

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

Something must be done

[Daily Mail @DailyMail]

How Gen-Z think Jarvis Cocker is a breed of dog: Survey reveals youngsters' lack of knowledge of 90s pop culture - with one in ten believing Liam and Noel Gallagher are TV chefs https://t.co/odnNKusJLJ

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

@RobinsonOly This is amazing, Michelle - you must be so proud of her

[British Menopause Society @BrMenopauseSoc]

Testosterone is not an “essential” hormone for women. Misinformation in the media risks medicalising a normal life stage. Testosterone is only indicated for low libido in postmenopausal women & doesn’t support claims that it helps other menopause symptoms, bone loss or dementia.>

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

@YorkshireBook48 Kitchenly 434, by Alan Warner

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

@jennykleeman One flew into my bedroom last week through a sliver of open window. At midnight. That did not go down well.

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

Four days after I wrote this story, with DHSC claiming they weren’t aware of clarithromycin shortages, two Serious Shortage Protocols have been issued….for clarithromycin #pharmacy #whoopingcough

[Medical Journalists' Association @mjauk]

Pharmacists warn shortages of whooping cough antibiotics amid outbreak - from @jomacfarlane

https://t.co/LdBHGKAk0g

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

“…this popular undertaking of endurance”

[Joyce Harper @ProfJoyceHarper]

Please can all women over 40 who are Asian complete this survey so we hear what you think about menopause. And please share. We have less than 100 women who have completed the survey so far. We want to hear from as many as possible. Thank you.

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

@Turning_Pages7 @ToppingsBath ??

[Being Scottish @BeingScots]

Oor words are just the best words 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

This happened to me on Saturday, going to work on a completely empty train at 7am. Guy walks through several carriages - all empty - to slap himself down right next to me.
It’s intrusive, and aggressive, and always men. I got up and moved.

[Duchenne UK @DuchenneUK]

We’re calling on the MHRA to quickly approve Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment givinostat.

Our co-founder and Chief Executive, Emily Reuben OBE, shares her painful personal experience to highlight the need for its quick approval.🔗
https://t.co/qbBPV2evqS

[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.

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

@PervyPepper Paging @camillajnichol 😂

[Jo Macfarlane @jomacfarlane]

Wrong type of feathers on the line

[Thameslink @TLRailUK]

⚠️ We have been informed that we have an endangered species of bird ( Herring Gull) on the tracks at Brighton.

⚡ Power to some platforms will need to be switched off at 1900 whilst the bird is moved away from the railway.