The Bluestocking, vol 95: Patriarchal pavements
Happy Friday!
Since our last letter, I reviewed Michelle Obama's memoir and went on Woman's Hour to talk about why the gender debate is so toxic. Stonewall's Bex Stinson refused to be in the studio with me, as part of their "No Debate" policy, which seems fairly baffling for an organisation which is publicly lobbying to change the law.
Also, as I pointed out on-air, I believe that trans women are women (it's a social category, like Britishness, you don't need to be born into it) and therefore can't be accused of "denying her right to exist", however widely you draw the boundary of that allegation. If Stonewall won't talk to me, then basically they won't talk to anyone who disagrees even fractionally with them. In fact, they are declaring that good faith disagreement is impossible. They would have more of a right to this bad opinion if they weren't receiving more than £600,000 a year from the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments.
Why do I keep talking about this subject? Because, as with other polarising topics, there's a danger that we end up focusing on the disagreements rather than the broad swathe of consensus - in this case, that trans people deserve to be protected from discrimination and abuse, but that there are also structural inequalities that affect people born with wombs (the artists formerly known as women).
Helen
I decided to start walking down the street like a man. Spoiler: it didn’t go well
It did not start well. Within minutes of entering the British Library, a man came racing down the stairs directly towards me. I braced myself and continued climbing. He skidded to a halt one step above me, and stared in surprise. I stopped and met his look. We stood face-to-face for a good 15 seconds, until he slowly side-stepped and I continued to the top of the staircase. Later that day, as I was walking through Kings Cross, a large white man in a blue suit came barrelling forwards, precisely in my line of travel. I winced in anticipation. And he did it, slamming straight into me, staring in amazement as if I’d appeared that moment in a puff of smoke.
One of the most fascinating asides in this piece by Rachel Hewitt on how men take up more space on pavements and don't dodge obstacles as much as women is this: this behaviour is literally killing them.
Nothing on this page is real
He had launched his new website on Facebook during the 2016 presidential campaign as a practical joke among friends — a political satire site started by Blair and a few other liberal bloggers who wanted to make fun of what they considered to be extremist ideas spreading throughout the far right. In the last two years on his page, America’s Last Line of Defense, Blair had made up stories about California instituting sharia, former president Bill Clinton becoming a serial killer, undocumented immigrants defacing Mount Rushmore, and former president Barack Obama dodging the Vietnam draft when he was 9. “Share if you’re outraged!” his posts often read, and thousands of people on Facebook had clicked “like” and then “share,” most of whom did not recognize his posts as satire. Instead, Blair’s page had become one of the most popular on Facebook among Trump-supporting conservatives over 55.
This piece is about the liberal man running a "satire" page on Facebook, which posts mis-spelled, absurd news stories - such as the suggestion that Michelle Obama and Chelsea Clinton flipped off Trump - and then laughs at the dumbclucks who like and comment on them. Only . . . you meet one those people in the piece, and she doesn't see the satire at all. The stories about sharia law and migrant caravans seem real to her.
So the sad conclusion is that Blair is - at best - running a fake news page that lets him indulge his desire to cruel and rude to people with poor comprehension skills and no critical judgement. At worst, he's making a living by knowingly poisoning the information water supply, under the thin veneer of "satire".
This story depressed the hell out of me. I would like to read more about what seems like a common internet phenomenon: unironic irony, eg the alt-right co-opting Pepe the Frog, or the "white power" gesture that was supposedly a joke on silly liberals who see racism everywhere, but has now been adopted by actual racists.
"It's a bit Greek": the cast of Succession
Macfadyen: We had a [wardrobe] fitting, and I suddenly put the turtleneck on, and it was like, “Of course.” ’Cause he would have picked it out very carefully for the family Thanksgiving. And we just thought, “Yeah.” I looked sort of like a demented mime artist who thinks he’s James Bond.
HBO's Succession was absolutely my favourite TV show of the year: funny, smart, luxurious, and rooted in a recognisable, yet appalling, family. Team Wambsgans for ever.
Quick links:
One of the most positive things to come out of #MeToo is this idea: "intimacy co-ordinators". Part-stunt choreographer, part-ombudsman. I guess the trouble is that the directors who most need one are exactly the ones who wouldn't think of having one.
I can't stop watching this video of a man dancing like Michael Jackson ONLY BETTER. At university, I once spent a whole week watching MJ performances, particularly Smooth Criminal (complete with its impossible lean) and the first time he ever Moonwalked, where (as you might imagine) the audience LOST THEIR SHIT. It's at just after four minutes in.
This week, fellow newsletterer Caroline Crampton edited her last New Statesman podcast, and boy does she have some exciting new projects. There's a book about the Thames with Granta next year, but for now, there's a podcast about the golden age of women's detective fiction, called Shedunnit.
Michelle Goldberg on why it's hard for people who are ideologically motivated to understand people who just like being close to power. She's writing off the back of a gay American couple who decided the Hillary Clinton concession party was a downer, and so became Trump supporters. Her argument is that for those of us who have deeply held principles, it's easier to understand people with opposing deeply held principles, than to understand people with no principles at all. It's a useful point in the Trump era. The people around him also think he's an idiot.
Richard Godwin on why we are so competitive about leisure activities, and why that's ruining the whole point of leisure. (I feel seen.)
Interesting comeback profile of Lena Dunham, who is supposed to be a newer, humbler version but still seems like the same compulsive blurter and over-sharer she always was. If this profile does anything, I hope that it shows Angry Extremely Online People that even the "privileged" can have absolutely crappy lives, and deserve better than to be drafted as caricatures into the culture wars. Ha.
The current issue of 1843 magazine might as well be called Relevant to Your Interests, Helen. Here's current NS columnist Ian Leslie on what rock bands can tell us about management; former NS assistant editor Sophie Elmhirst on life as a millennial influencer (exhausting); and a great longread on one of my former NS profile victims, director Robert Icke, on his mission to make theatre less dull.
Should straight people use the word "partner"? Always love a new language blog from Deborah Cameron.
A longread on whether we are pooing wrong. Come on, you know this is the one link you are going to click. It's OK. Bowel health is very important.
Guest gif: We now go live to Brexit
See you next time....