Mulder, it's me 🏳️‍🌈

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

If you believe free speech is for you but not your political opponents, you're illiberal.

If no contrary evidence could change your beliefs, you're a fundamentalist.

If you believe the state should punish those with contrary views, you're a totalitarian.

If you believe political opponents should be punished with violence or death, you're a terrorist.

[Morrissey Archive @mozpicsdaily]

morrissey with his cousin sue, 1970s

[L'Art Impressioniste @allontanarsio]

The Cat with Julie Manet, 1887, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

[Morrissey Archive @mozpicsdaily]

morrissey at the royal albert hall in 1985, photographed by amanda hill

[Morrissey Archive @mozpicsdaily]

morrissey and kirsty maccoll

[Joe Frady 🎗️ @JoeFrady]

#MORRISSEY in 1979: the Lipstick on His Cigarette Years
c/o Joe Smart

[Morrissey @strangexways]

Morrissey backstage at the Glasgow Queen Margaret Union, 1984

📷 Ross MacKenzie

Happy birthday Mozzer 🥳

#TheSmiths

[Ramones @RamonesOfficial]

48 years of punk rock. 

‘Ramones’ was released on this day in 1976.

[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.

[Morrissey Archive @mozpicsdaily]

morrissey and stephen street at the wool hall studios, 1987. photo by vini reilly.

[Rough Trade Records @RoughTradeRecs]

"𝘕𝘰, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘶𝘴..."

40 years ago today we released The Smiths' debut album.

[Morrissey Archive @mozpicsdaily]

morrissey and johnny marr photographed by ross mackenzie, 1984

[Virginia Woolf Bot @botvirginia]

#OnThisDay in 1882 in London, Virginia Woolf was born.

She’s timeless; always in the heart of the old, and winning the heart of the young.

142 years!

[Morrissey Archive @mozpicsdaily]

morrissey photographed by anton corbijn, 1990

[Morrissey Archive @mozpicsdaily]

morrissey and shirley manson backstage in mexico city, 4 september 2023. photo by hannah martin.

[The Kinks @TheKinks]

Thank you for the days ❤️

The Kinks on a rooftop in London in 1965

[Morrissey Archive @mozpicsdaily]

morrissey and fanny the cat photographed by jake walters, 2010

[Marianne @sadglamour]

🖤
"You praise her now ONLY because it is too late. You hadn’t the guts to support her when she was alive and she was looking for you."
https://t.co/ug713KZ32S

[Morrissey Archive @mozpicsdaily]

morrissey having tea with sinéad o'connor, 1991. photo by linder sterling.