It’s summer but the war on women continues. The latest person to fall victim to the transgender thought police is Labour MP Rosie Duffield after she liked a tweet by Piers Morgan where he harrumphed CNN’s reference to ‘individuals with a cervix’. Duffield later angered her critics more by asking: ‘I’m a ‘transphobe’ for knowing that only women have a cervix….?!’
Morgan is a man, of course, so he escaped censure. But Duffield was not so lucky. This modern witch hunt tends to target women, specifically those who have the audacity to reclaim the word ‘woman’ to describe their sex.
The inherent sexism in this whole sorry saga stares us in the face. From the original statement by CNN – which doesn’t refer to ‘individuals with a prostate’ when tweeting about men – to the intimidation and abuse hurled at those who call it out, it is women whose label is stolen from them and women who are bullied for objecting.
However, there is another asymmetry that should be also be troubling Labour’s leader Keir Starmer.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in