The Madness of Crowds
Page 33
38 ‘Only 7 per cent of Britons consider themselves feminists’ The Telegraph, 15 January 2016.
39 YouGov/Huffington Post, Omnibus Poll, conducted 11–12 April 2013.
40 ‘Men with muscles and money are more attractive to straight women and gay men – showing gender roles aren’t progressing’, Newsweek, 20 November 2017.
Interlude: The Impact of Tech
1 James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times (1933), reprinted Prion Books Ltd, 2000, pp. 33–44.
2 See the case of the Covington Catholic High School boys in January 2019.
3 Jon Ronson, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, Riverhead Books, 2015.
4 Barrett Wilson (pseudonym), ‘I was the mob until the mob came for me’, Quillette, 14 July 2018.
5 Tess Townsend, ‘Google is still mostly white and male’, Recode, 29 June 2017.
6 Private account of discussions involving a major tech company in Brussels, 5 February 2019.
7 See ‘Twitter “bans women against trans ideology”, say feminists’, BBC News, 30 May 2018.
8 Meghan Murphy, ‘Twitter’s trans-activist decree’, Quillette, 28 November 2018.
9 ‘Twitter has banned misgendering or “deadnaming” transgender people’, The Verge, 27 November 2018.
10 Jack Conte interviewed by Dave Rubin on ‘The Rubin Report’, YouTube, 31 July 2017.
11 Google video at https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/fairness-overview.
Chapter 3: Race
1 Anne Helen Petersen, ‘Ten long years of trying to make Armie Hammer happen’, Buzzfeed, 26 November 2017.
2 ‘Call Me By Your Name star Armie Hammer leaves Twitter after “bitter” Buzzfeed article’, Pink News, 28 November 2017.
3 Ashley Lee, ‘Why Luca Guadagnino didn’t include gay actors or explicit sex scenes in “Call Me By Your Name” (Q&A)’, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 February 2017.
4 ‘“White privilege” lessons for lecturers’, The Sunday Times, 11 March 2018.
5 See footage on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTnDpoQLNaY.
6 See ‘Campus argument goes viral as Evergreen State is caught in racial turmoil’, Vice News, 16 June 2017; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cMYfxOFBBM
7 See footage on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzrPMetGtJQ
8 See footage on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZtuDqbfO5w
9 See footage on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf5fAiXYr08&t=1941s
10 Evergreen State College, Board of Trustees meeting, 12 July 2017, on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL54iN8dxuo
11 Vice News, 16 June 2017.
12 See full video at YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiMVx2C5_Wg
13 See video on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6ZVEVufWFI
14 Nicholas A. Christakis, ‘Teaching inclusion in a divided world’, The New York Times, 22 June 2016.
15 ‘Identity politics: the new radicalism on campus?’, panel at Rutgers University, published on YouTube, 13 October 2017; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ijFQFiCgoE
16 Michael Harriot, ‘”Diversity of thought” is just a euphemism for “white supremacy”’, The Root, 12 April 2018.
17 The letter of 17 April 2017 can be viewed here: http://archive.is/Dm2DN
18 Andrew Sullivan, ‘We all live on campus now’, New York magazine, 9 February 2018.
19 National Geographic, April 2018.
20 David Olusoga, ‘National Geographic’s righting of its racist wrongs is well meant but slow in coming’, The Guardian, 1 April 2018.
21 Emily Lakdawalla, Twitter, 13 February 2018.
22 The Root, Twitter feed, 22 November 2018.
23 Vice, Twitter, 6 December 2018.
24 Mathieu Murphy-Perron, ‘Let Nora Loreto have her say’, National Observer, 11 April 2018.
25 Vice review of Dumbo, 13 June 2018. Incidentally the online version of this was changed after wide online ridicule.
26 Eliana Dockterman, ‘Altered Carbon takes place in the future. But it’s far from progressive’, Time, 2 February 2018.
27 ‘Sierra Boggess pulls out of BBC West Side Story Prom over “whitewashing”’, BBC News website, 25 April 2018.
28 Ritu Prasad, ‘Serena Williams and the trope of the “angry black woman”’, BBC News online, 11 September 2018.
29 Carys Afoko, ‘Serena Williams’s treatment shows how hard it is to be a black woman at work’, The Guardian, 10 September 2018.
30 The video (one of a series) is available on YouTube, produced by Soyheat (posted 23 September 2016).
31 See Andy Ngo, ‘Would you like some strife with your meal?’, Wall Street Journal, 31 May 2018.
32 Robby Soave, ‘White-owned restaurants shamed for serving ethnic food: it’s cultural appropriation’, Reason, 23 May 2017.
33 Dawn Butler Twitter, 18 August 2018.
34 ‘Teenager’s prom dress sparks cultural appropriation debate’, Independent, 30 April 2018.
35 Lovia Gyarke, ‘Lionel Shriver shouldn’t write about minorities’, New Republic blog, September 2016.
36 Yassmin Abdel-Magied, ‘As Lionel Shriver made light of identity, I had no choice but to walk out’, The Guardian, 10 September 2016.
37 The Atlantic, 7 May 2018.
38 The original article is captured online here: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/44655/1/__Libfile_repository_Content_LSE%20Review%20of%20Books_May%202012_week%204_blogs.lse.ac.uk-Intellectuals_versus_society_ignorance_and_wisdom.pdf
39 Aidan Byrne, ‘Book Review: Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell’, LSE Review of Books, 26 May 2012.
40 The View, ABC, 15 June 2015.
41 MSNBC, 17 June 2015.
42 ‘Benedict Cumberbatch apologises after calling black actors “coloured”’, The Guardian, 26 January 2015.
43 Sarah Jeong tweets from 23 December 2014; 25 November 2015; 31 December 2014; 18 November 2014; 1 April 2014.
44 Sarah Jeong tweets from 28 November 2014.
45 Sarah Jeong tweet from 24 July 2014.
46 Statement from The New York Times, 2 August 2018.
47 Quoted in Zack Beauchamp, ‘In defence of Sarah Jeong’, Vox, 3 August 2018.
48 Ezra Klein, ‘The problem with Twitter, as shown by the Sarah Jeong fracas’, Vox, 8 August 2018.
49 Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir, Spiegel & Grau, 2008, p. 6.
50 Ibid., p. 70.
51 Ibid., pp. 74–5.
52 Ibid., p. 168.
53 Ibid., p. 177.
54 Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me, The Text Publishing Company, 2015, pp. 86–7.
55 Dr Cornel West on Facebook, captured at https://www.alternet.org/2017/12/cornel-west-ta-nehisi-coates-spat-last-thing-we-need-right-now/
56 For some chapter and verse examples of this see Kyle Smith, ‘The hard untruths of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Commentary, October 2015.
57 ‘Leak: The Atlantic had a meeting about Kevin Williamson. It was a liberal self-reckoning’, Huffington Post, 5 July 2018.
58 Reni Eddo-Lodge, Why I’m no Longer Talking to White People about Race, Bloomsbury, 2017, pp. 14–15.
59 Photo via Martin Daubney on Twitter, 21 January 2018.
60 This piece was later retitled ‘How white women use strategic tears to silence women of colour’, 7 May 2018.
61 See The Tab, n.d. 2016.
62 See ‘Asian Americans suing Harvard say admissions files show discrimination’, The New York Times, 4 April 2018.
63 See Malcolm W. Browne, ‘What is intelligence, and who has it’, The New York Times, 16 October 1994.
64 Steven J. Rosenthal review of The Bell Curve at https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/steverbc.html
65 Douglas Murray in conversation with Jordan Peterson, UnHerd, YouTube, 4 September 2018.
66 David Reich, ‘How genetics is changing our understanding of race’, The New York Times, 23 March 2018.
67 Pete Shanks, ‘Race and IQ yet again�
��, Center for Genetics and Society, 13 April 2018.
68 Sam Harris, ‘Waking up’ podcast, with Charles Murray, 23 April 2017.
69 Ezra Klein, ‘Sam Harris, Charles Murray and the allure of race science’, Vox, 27 March 2018.
70 Diana Soriano, ‘White privilege lecture tells students white people are “dangerous” if they don’t see race’, The College Fix, 6 March 2019.
Interlude: On Forgiveness
1 Quinn Norton on Twitter, 27 July 2013.
2 Ibid., 4 September 2009.
3 Quinn Norton, ‘The New York Times fired my Doppelganger’, The Atlantic, 27 February 2018.
4 ‘Labour, Work, Action’, in The Portable Hannah Arendt, Penguin, 2000, pp. 180–1.
5 W. H. Auden. ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’, in The English Auden: Poems, Essays and Dramatic Writings 1927–1939, ed. Edward Mendelson, Faber, 1986, pp. 242–3.
6 ‘Manchester University students paint over Rudyard Kipling mural’, The Guardian, 19 July 2018.
7 See ‘Toby Young quotes on breasts, eugenics, and working-class people’, The Guardian, 3 January 2018.
8 Toby Young, ‘Confessions of a porn addict’, The Spectator, 10 November 2001.
9 The Times, 6 January 2018.
10 The Evening Standard, 5 January 2018.
11 See Toby Young, ‘The public humiliation diet’, Quillette, 23 July 2018.
12 ‘Conor Daly loses Lilly Diabetes sponsorship over remark his father made over 30 years ago’, Associated Press, 25 August 2018.
13 Matthew 18:21–2.
14 ‘Lewis Hamilton apologises for “boys don’t wear dresses” remark’, BBC News, 26 December 2017.
15 GQ, August 2018.
Chapter 4: Trans
1 ‘Moeder van Nathan spreekt: “Zijn dood doet me niks”’, Het Laatste Nieuws, 2 October 2013.
2 ‘Mother of sex change Belgian: “I don’t care about his euthanasia death”’, Daily Telegraph, 2 October 2013.
3 For instance, see The Sunday Times, 25 November 2018, p. 23.
4 In relation to the public consultation on the Gender Recognition Act (2018).
5 See ‘Schools tell pupils boys can have periods too in new guidelines on transgender issues’, Daily Mirror, 18 December 2018.
6 https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1006
7 Alice Dreger, Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar’s Search for Justice, Penguin, 2016, p. 21.
8 Ibid., p. 20.
9 Ibid., p. 6.
10 ‘Masculine Women, Feminine Men’, lyrics by Edgar Leslie, music by James V. Monaco, 1926./
11 Jan Morris, Conundrum, Faber and Faber, 2002, p. 1.
12 Ibid., p. 42.
13 Ibid., p. 119.
14 Ibid., p. 122.
15 Ibid., p. 123.
16 Ibid., p. 127.
17 Ibid., p. 134.
18 Ibid., p. 138.
19 Ibid., p. 128.
20 Ibid., p. 143.
21 Dreger, Galileo’s Middle Finger, p. 63.
22 ‘Criticism of a gender theory, and a scientist under siege’, The New York Times, 21 August 2007.
23 Dreger, Galileo’s Middle Finger, p. 69.
24 Andrea Long Chu, ‘My new vagina won’t make me happy’, The New York Times, 24 November 2018.
25 See Anne A. Lawrence, Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism, Springer, 2013.
26 Time magazine cover, 9 June 2014.
27 ‘Stonewall to start campaigning for trans equality’, The Guardian, 16 February 2015.
28 New York Post, 16 July 2015.
29 ‘When women become men at Wellesley’, The New York Times, 15 October 2014.
30 Julie Bindel, ‘Gender benders, beware’, The Guardian, 31 January 2004.
31 Suzanne Moore, ‘Seeing red: the power of female anger’, The New Statesman, 8 January 2013.
32 See Suzanne Moore, ‘I don’t care if you were born a woman or became one’, The Guardian, 9 January 2013.
33 Julie Burchill, ‘The lost joy of swearing’, The Spectator, 3 November 2018.
34 Germaine Greer, The Whole Woman, Doubleday, 1999, p. 66.
35 Ibid., p. 74.
36 ‘Germaine Greer defends views on transgender issues amid calls for cancellation of feminism lecture’, ABC News, 25 October 2015.
37 Ibid.
38 Eve Hodgson, ‘Germaine Greer can no longer be called a feminist’, Varsity, 26 October 2017.
39 ‘Woman billboard removed after transphobia row’, BBC News website, 26 September 2018.
40 Debate between Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull and Adrian Harrop, Sky News, 26 September 2018.
41 ‘Blogger accused of transphobia for erecting a billboard defining “woman” as “adult human female” is branded “disgraceful” by This Morning viewers – as she insists trans women do not fit the criteria’, Mail Online, 28 September 2018.
42 Julie Bindel, ‘Why woke keyboard warriors should respect their elders’, UnHerd, 24 October 2018.
43 See ‘April Ashley at 80’, Homotopia festival. On YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX-NhWb47sc
44 See video from 2 mins in here: https://vimeo.com/185149379
45 The case of ‘Lactatia’ Nemis Quinn Melancon Golden is described, among other places, in ‘Nine-year-old drag queen horrifically abused after modelling for LBGT fashion company’, Pink News, 9 January 2018.
46 ‘The school was already calling her “him”’, The Sunday Times, 25 November 2018.
47 ‘Trans groups under fire for 700% rise in child referrals’, The Sunday Times, 25 November 2018.
48 Ibid.
49 Michelle Forcier interview on NBC, 21 April 2015: https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/one-doctor-explains-the-journey-for-kids-who-are-transitioning-431478851632?v=railb&
50 https://vimeo.com/185183788
51 May 2018.
52 Jesse Singal, ‘When children say they’re Trans’, The Atlantic, July/August 2018.
53 Johanna Olson-Kennedy, MD, ‘Mental health disparities among transgender youth: rethinking the role of professionals’, JAMA, May 2016.
54 ‘Deciding when to treat a youth for gender re-assignment’, Kids in the House (n.d.).
55 Singal, ‘When children say they’re Trans’.
56 Wylie C. Hembree, Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, Louis Gooren, Sabine E. Hannema, Walter J. Meyer, M. Hassan Murad, Stephen M. Rosenthal, Joshua D. Safer, Vin Tangpricha, Guy G. T’Sjoen, ‘Endocrine treatment of gender-dysphoric/gender-incongruent persons: An Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline’, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 102, no. 11, 1 November 2017.
57 Video at https://archive.org/details/olson-kennedy-breasts-go-and-get-them
58 For one such description see Susan Faludi, In the Darkroom, Metropolitan Books, 2016, p. 131.
59 See http://uspath2017.conferencespot.org/
60 Audio available here: https://vimeo.com/226658454
61 Many of the screen-grabs and other materials on this case can be found here: http://dirtywhiteboi67.blogspot.com/2015/08/ftm-top-surgery-for-sky-tragic-story-in.html
62 ‘GP convicted of running transgender clinic for children without licence’, The Telegraph, 3 December 2018.
63 ‘Things not to say to a non-binary person’, BBC Three, 27 June 2017.
Conclusion
1 Figures from the World Economic Forum, June 2018.
2 See ‘Do trans kids stay trans when they grow up?’, Sexology Today (www.sexologytoday.org), 11 January 2016.
3 Advocate, 16 November 2008.
4 Voddie Baucham, ‘Gay is not the new black’, The Gospel Coalition, 19 July 2012.
5 Open letter to Hypatia: https://archive.is/lUeR4#selection-131.725-131.731
6 ‘Philosopher’s article on transracialism sparks controversy (Updated with response from author)’, Daily Nous, 1 May 2017.
7 The Real, KPLR, 2 November 2015.
8 Patrick S
trudwick, ‘The newly appointed editor of Gay Times has been fired for posting dozens of offensive tweets’, Buzzfeed, 16 November 2017.
9 ‘Gay Times fires “Jews are gross” editor who sent vile tweets’, Pink News, 16 November 2017.
10 Statement from Gay Times on Twitter, 16 November 2017.
11 Josh Rivers interview with Lee Gray, ‘The Gray Area’, YouTube, 8 June 2018.
12 ‘Transgender women in sport: Are they really a ‘threat’ to female sport?’, BBC Sport, 18 December 2018.
13 Stephie Haynes, ‘Dr. Ramona Krutzik, M.D. discusses possible advantages Fallon Fox may have’, Bloody Elbow, 20 March 2013.
14 Joe Rogan conversation with Maajid Nawaz and Sam Harris, Joe Rogan Experience 1107, YouTube, 18 April 2018.
15 ‘Business insider deletes opinion piece defending Scarlett Johansson’s role as trans man in new film’, Pink News, 9 July 2018.
16 ‘Trans activists call for boycott of film starring Matt Bomer as transgender sex worker’, Pink News, 15 April 2018.
17 William A. Jacobson, ‘Cornell Black Students group issues a 6-page list of demands’, Legal Insurrection blog, 27 September 2017.
18 The BBC’s This Week, 26 October 2017.
19 Laith Ashley interviewed on Channel 4 News, 13 April 2016.
20 ‘Vox writer navel-gazes his way into a hole over fat-shaming’, The Daily Caller, 5 November 2018.
21 See for instance Marieka Klawitter, ‘Meta-analysis of the effects of sexual orientation on earnings’, 19 December 2014 (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/irel.12075).
22 See United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/median-weekly-earnings-767-for-women-937-for-men-in-third-quarter-2017.htm
23 Sky poll carried out on 14–16 February 2018. Results at: https://interactive.news.sky.com/100Women_Tabs_Feb2018.pdf
24 Camille Paglia, Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism, Canongate, 2018, p. 133.
25 Ibid., pp. 131–2.
26 CNBC on Twitter, 24 January 2019.
27 ‘Here’s how much you save when you don’t have kids’, CNBC, 17 August 2017.
28 The Economist, Twitter feed, 17 November 2018.
29 Wendell Berry, ‘A Few Words for Motherhood’ (1980), The World-Ending Fire, Penguin, 2018, pp. 174–5.
30 See Madeleine Kearns, ‘The successful, dangerous child sex-change charity’, National Review online, 23 January 2019.