I’m in the mood for ranting…

Paul Ilett describes himself as a “best-selling author”. If you find that interesting, I’ll leave you to check out the novel he once wrote.

A couple of nights ago, he took it upon himself to conduct what he later described as “an interesting experiment”. This involved posting an absurd and unsupportable statement, which he undoubtedly knew would anger and offend countless women and some men.

His challenge to anyone thus offended, however, was not that they should explain why they felt as they did nor that they should attempt to engage him in a civil exchange of views in the hope of developing greater mutual understanding. Instead, he asked anyone who disagreed to ‘simply block’ him.

Many of those who are active on social media will be familiar with seeing the assertion that ‘transwomen are women’ followed by a wearisome demonstration on the part of the poster of their total inability to offer anything remotely resembling a coherent substantiation.

Almost invariably, anyone who invites an explanation of how someone born male can be a woman will be blocked, usually well before they’ve subjected the poster to anything that could be described as abuse.

So I was surprised to see Paul Ilett claim that, instead of people taking the “peaceful and quiet opportunity” to block him as he kindly suggested, he was “set upon in a fairly abusive way”, even though many of these alleged abusers, he says, “quite rightly, condemn online abuse against JKR”.

Set upon? That sounds a bit dramatic but remember Ilett is a “best-selling author” of fiction.

His mention of the abuse of JK Rowling provides a clue as to what drove Paul Ilett to shamelessly advertise his lack of regard for the feelings and concerns of all those whose lives have been blighted by transgender ideology. I mean, of course, the cheated sportswomen, the vulnerable and traumatised women and children forced to share sex-segregated spaces with trans-identifying men, those who had irreversible medical procedures they lived to regret, those who have been victimised in ongoing campaigns of harassment – not to mention the family members whose own lives have been devastated by the impact of their loved ones ‘transitioning’.

People from all of these groups have been speaking out for a while now, as have many trans people who don’t go along with the mantra that transwomen are women and transmen are men. Unfortunately, many of those who would describe themselves as trans allies are sticking their fingers in their ears and singing la la la.

I’ll wager that Paul Ilett – who also claims to be a life long feminist, Heaven help us – buys into the narrative that both sides in this debate are as nasty and abusive as each other and he set out to prove it by posting his deliberately provocative statement on what is probably the most toxic social media platform ever created by, well, Man.

If that was the experiment, it failed. Some people who responded were perfectly civil in their disagreement. Others responded with irritation and sarcasm. He got a called a few names: a beard, an idiot, a silly old man, an MRA (men’s rights activist) and a misogynist. Of these, only ‘silly old man’ seems uncalled for to me. He may be silly and a man but he is just about young enough to be my son, for crying out loud. You can see most of the responses in the screenshot here.

But seriously…this is his idea of abuse? As someone pointed out, he wouldn’t last two minutes as a woman.

Or maybe the real abuse came in the “offensive DMs” he claims to have received but, although he was asked repeatedly for proof, none has been forthcoming.

A few people drew attention to the kind of abuse JK Rowling and other feminists get in comparison. One used these examples:

Nevertheless, Ilett is hung up on the idea that condemning the kind of disgusting and terrifying abuse that JKR and other feminists endure while calling him an idiot and a misogynist for behaving like an idiot and a misogynist is ‘hypocrisy’. He also bangs on about his ‘abusers’ being anonymous, evidently oblivious to the risks involved in challenging gender ideology, in spite of what has happened to JKR, Rosie Duffield, etc.

And another thing:

Yes, telling trans people that gas chambers should be brought back for them is abhorrent and of course we condemn it! But Ilett provided no evidence of that particular comment and I don’t believe for second that, if it happened at all, it came from a feminist or ally fighting transgender ideology.

It’s the kind of thing said by one of the real transphobes who, for some reason, never get targeted as we do.  It so happens that I do have evidence of a comment just like that one, which was posted on my YouTube channel. I don’t require anyone to condemn it because it goes without saying that all decent people would.

While it is somewhat worrying that a best-selling author apparently can’t see the difference between the “abuse” he got and what JKR and the rest of us get, this is less important than the fact that the only defence he gave of the nonsense that transwomen are women was that “millions of women”, including his four sisters, agree.

I’d respectfully suggest that the reason his four sisters and any other woman he knows of agree is that they actually don’t have a clue about the fact that men – under the pretence of being women – are crushing girls’ dreams of sporting success, filming and sexually assaulting girls and women in toilets and prisons and doing jobs working with traumatised victims of male violence that only women should do. The moment they – or one of their daughters or grand-daughters is affected – they will join the rest of us in fighting back against the likes of Paul Ilett and his fellow MRAs.

Until then, I suggest Paul Ilett posts a tweet that is racist or anti-semitic or which mocks disabled people and asks anyone who disagrees to take the peaceful and quiet opportunity to simply block him. We’ll see how well that goes down with other people who are fighting to hang on to their human rights.

Published 29.10.20

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