I am a cis white feminist, like Julie Burchill. I have quite a lot of privilege, although perhaps not as much as Julie Burchill, given that national newspapers don't give me a platform for my views. Also like Julie Burchill, I do not pretend to understand the experience or feelings of transfolk
Where I differ from Julie Burchill appears to be that I consider trans people to be human beings whose thoughts and experiences are just as valid as my own. I can't understand but I can empathise and I can listen and I can try to not be an ignorant hate filled shitstain. The article printed in today's observer under Burchill's name is filled with the kind of prejudicial language that makes any person with a heart feel sick. The observer would never have printed an analogous article on the subject of (for example) race. If somebody wrote a piece saying niggers and pakis should shut up and stop whinging and making "jokes" about curry, the observer would rightly refuse to publish it. Why in the name of Cthulhu they thought this article was acceptable, then, I can't even begin to fathom. Perhaps it's Daily Mail style link bait. Perhaps it's talking up controversy for the sake of website hits. Whatever it is, it's naked and unadorned hatred, and it's unacceptable from a newspaper which claims to be progressive.
Julie Burchill does not speak for me, and if she speaks for you then you are not a person I want to pay any attention to whatsoever.
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