Tuesday 15 January 2013

lobstergate explained




It's hard to keep pace with events, as the Observer removes Julie Burchill's post (not a move welcomed by any trans people that I know, as it should be available so that people know what we're up against). Then the Telegraph posts it up instead. And various reactionaries talk about censorship and freedom of speech....  the orcs are gathering in the forest.

So here's the business expressed as a Venn diagram. Just to keep things in proportion.


oh, the lobster reference? -from Julie's piece, describing her meeting Suzanne Moore: 

"I’ve got an entertaining budget of £12.50!" she said proudly. "Sod that, we’re having lobster and champagne at Frederick’s, and I’m paying," I told her. Half a bottle of Bolly later, she looked at me with faraway eyes: "Ooo, I could get to like this…’ And so she did.

5 comments:

  1. I thought your diagram spot-on.

    'Lobstergate' is jolly witty.

    Lucy



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  2. Oh, it's been taken down, has it? I personally don't disagree with that. When I first read the piece, my main thought was that personal rants like that, written in haste and anger are perfectly understandable, and even useful. But it's the job of an editor to make sure they *never see the light of day*...

    Taking it down just seems like the editorial decision that should have been made in the first place, i.e. the editor should have printed something else and told Burchill to take a few deep breaths and try again next week.

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  3. I think you have the position spot on but somewhat exaggerated the size of JB by several thousand percent though it does represent the area covered by her foul stench.

    No word of her being told to take gardening leave yet?

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  5. Thanks, Lucy!

    I don't think her piece was any more hasty than her other stuff, Matt; apart from the pointless pottymouthing, it was an attempt to cast her friends as hapless victims of the evil trans cabal, and presumably it worked for those people who wanted to hear that sort of thing, or who are really stupid....

    Fair point, Caroline, but I guess that Julie's circle is indeed more about her malignity than her stature

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