Mick Hartley

A plea from Jean Hatchet at The Critic – come on, by now we all know about the gender debate: enough of the prevarications and the plain cowardice. Plenty of (mostly) women have spoken out, suffered, and come out victorious, whether it's the latest case of Jo Phoenix, or Rachel Meade, or Maya Forstater – so why not you?  Everyone knows it's bollocks, all this stuff about changing sex and hundreds of different genders and "non-binary" and  "inclusivity". Speak up!

It is infuriating to be told by other women, “It’s different for you though. You’re so brave, but I can’t risk saying anything out loud.” It is no longer okay to leave it up to other women to risk their livelihoods, friends and even safety. You have information, you have legal precedent, you have examples and evidence to back up everything you really believe but don’t have the courage to say. Academics, lawyers, journalists, doctors, teachers, artists, writers, dancers, nurses, girl guide leaders and women from many walks of life, have all paved the way for you to acceptably (if slightly uncomfortably) say what you have always known is the truth. So, when you say it’s different for us, why is it? Why do you get to hide while another woman takes lashes from the ideological whip? Why is it painful for you but not for her? 

And there are degrees of resistance. You might only take small steps, like refusing to put the pronouns in your email at work. Or tackling the family member over the wedding buffet shouting “trans women are women and you’re a bigot”. This still matters. This is a brave step too….

Imagine if you did something? Imagine if you stopped pretending. The noise would be deafening if we collectively rose up to speak truth to power about women’s rights and our need to defend them — to protect the word “woman”, and protect our children from irreversible medical harm, and protect the vulnerable women forced to share space with men in prison, rape crisis centres etc, and ensure fair competition in sport for women and girls, and ensure we have clear knowledge around medical issues affecting only female people, and secure accurate statistical reporting of crimes of men’s violence against women and girls. Because you know all these things are happening. I know you do and you know you do. It must make you squirm to read this piece where I call you a coward.  

To be clear I do not call traumatised women cowards. I do not expect women at risk from male violence to place themselves at risk of harm. Those women, however, are relying on those of you living your lives in relative comfort and safety to stand up for them….

The arts, for example, are different in many ways as there is so little formal employment for many creatives. But some women are still brave enough to take on discrimination cases so that other, less protected women, who follow them can begin to be honest about their views. It comes at great cost nevertheless. Claudia Clare is a successful ceramicist. Her career was affected by the gender issue even though she already had a rebellious feminist reputation for her work. She says:

The art world started policing female artists, especially feminists, about our views on gender, mostly via social media. I had exhibitions, displays and lectures cancelled from 2019 and got listed as “forbidden” after I’d given a lecture on freedom of expression at Oxford Brookes University in 2018. So, with this history it would have been pointless keeping quiet. Maya Forstater changed everything.

I deliberately sought press coverage because above all other things we need to TALK in the artworld. The persistent silence is doing enormous harm, not least because it exacerbates the fear. The trans issue is hitting young and new artists very hard indeed. They are in no position to take reputational risks before they’ve even got started.

Which is why successful and established, and therefore somewhat protected, writers, artists, singers must not stay quiet. Those celebrities, bolstered by reputation and wealth, know exactly what is happening and need to stop pretending they don’t.

Let’s not forget JK Rowling who told FiLiA: 

I’ve looked around and realised that it has to be someone who can take the hit. And it has to be me. I can afford it. 

Well, now it has to be you too. Your days of pretending are over.