Mick Hartley

Joan Smith at UnHerd:

Get ready for foot-stamping. For too long, a motley collection of trans activists and green zealots have only needed to threaten to withdraw from literary events, and the organisers have taken fright. Now the Oxford Literary Festival has discovered a backbone, inviting the gender-critical author Helen Joyce and the feminist campaigner Julie Bindel to take part in this year’s programme. Cue the predictable outrage.

There have been calls for authors to withdraw, on the dubious (some would say bonkers) premise that the invitation puts other writers at risk. Harry R. McCarthy, a lecturer in early modern literature, grandly announced that he had withdrawn from his scheduled session on “Shakespeare for the modern age” because Joyce and Bindel are part of the programme.

Then there was the American author, Hesse Phillips, who apparently uses “she/they” pronouns. “This decision was not taken lightly,” she/they declared in a lengthy statement this week. “I’ve conferred with other queer and trans authors, cis and straight authors, friends and family, and in the end I feel that stepping down from my panel is the only way forward, both for my personal safety and my conscience.”

At one level, it’s hard to take this nonsense seriously. But the reference to “personal safety” implies that the mere presence of gender-critical authors in the same city as adherents of the cult of identity politics puts the latter in danger. It’s a disgraceful slur, as is the suggestion that Joyce and Bindel are calling for the “eradication of an entire class of human beings”. Phillips has also smeared the organisers of the festival, accusing them of prioritising “hate speech over the safety of LGBTQ+ speakers and attendees”. It’s intended, I suspect, as a warning to other festivals of what to expect if they dare to platform heretics…

When gender warriors obsess about threats to their “safety”, they’re actually revealing that they can’t bear to be challenged. They’ve got used to mixing with people who stroke their egos and don’t question the ludicrous claim that their lives are in danger.

The Oxford festival must have anticipated this reaction. If it stands firm, it’s to be hoped that others will stop giving into an insidious form of authoritarianism. In countries such as Russia and Iran, writers face genuine threats to their lives. Literature in this country can survive the hissy fits of activists — and will be all the healthier for it.

I'm not at all convinced that the Oxford festival will stand firm, given the dismal history of last-minute cave-ins, and the general unthinking acceptance of gender woo in the literary world. In October the Cheltenham Literary Festival highlighted “gender-critical views” as the kind of speech which should not be tolerated by decent literary folk, prompting JK Rowling to write on X: “Might start a literary festival where legal beliefs can be expressed from the stage without the chairpeople wetting themselves.”

Ah well. Let's hope the Oxford festival organisers are made of sterner stuff.