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Owen Jones is having a memory lapse about #cunnilingusgate so here's what actually happened. In Feb 2015 OJ wrote an article claiming that saying "transwomen are not female" is akin to misogyny, racism and homophobia in the 1950s rather than a statement of fact.
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In the article he makes the false claim "the iconic Stonewall riots of 1969 that did so much to galvanise the gay rights movement were dominated by trans people." No mention of Stormé DeLarverie who is believed to have started the riot, another black lesbian erased.
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He writes that allowing female people to have sex segregated spaces means people who id as trans cannot get an education or job. No mention that we are afforded these spaces to help mitigate the impact of our oppression, safety from male violence, freedom from the male gaze etc
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He claims people who id as trans are "trapped in the wrong body", this makes no sense and relies on biological essentialism. He's not actually interested in what "being trans" means, which is at the heart of the issues he's commenting on.
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To OJ all that "matters is that the happiness, security and even lives of a minority are at stake, and all too little has been done about it." Not "the happiness, security" etc of the most marginalised, lesbians, or the oppression that 51% of the population, female people face. >
So obviously a great deal of women responded, with lesbians leading the charge. They asked him to consider the impact of his words on lesbians, on all women. Rather than self reflect OJ yelled "transphobe" and blocked us, which will come as a surprise to no-one.
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One feminist, the wonderful @firewomon, challenged OJ about the impact on lesbians of his TWAW mantra - an impact that was already there for all to see across the internet, women being called "vagina fetishists" and the cotton ceiling rhetoric etc.
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As part of this challenge FW asked when was the last time OJ performed cunnilingus, a question obviously meant to highlight the absurdity and homophobia of denying sex, as well as highlighting OJ's refusal to acknowledge the coercion lesbians were (and still are) facing.
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Owen Jones immediately blocked FW and went on a days long rant about how her question was homophobic or a homophobic trope. But it could only be considered homophobic if you reject the idea that some male people have vaginas, right?
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Right. Here is Owen Jones telling you what he really thinks: that talking about cunnilingus is telling a gay man to "go and have sex with a woman."
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So for OJ it's homophobic to talk about sexual interactions between gay men and a TM (who he calls women). All whilst insisting TW are female and ignoring that lesbians are subject to intense coercion to have sexual contact with males under the ideology he is promoting.
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OJ is a hypocrite. He supports misogyny and lesbophobia. He does not stand against oppression, his only concern is for males - who stand at the top of every power hierarchy that exists.
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I'm going to leave the final words to @firewomon, the woman who asked OJ the question. A wonderful woman and tireless fighter for the rights of lesbians and all women. A woman no longer on Twitter because of the misogyny of men like OJ. Screenshots from her (now private) blog:
Also, here's a link to OJ's article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/18/stonewall-trans-issues-neglected-progressives
Dammit, I missed a tweet out. Many women pointed out that when lesbians make the exact same claim that OJ is making here they are called 'transphobic', 'terfs' and 'bigots' and asked why it was ok for him to defend his sexual boundaries but not for them. (We all know why).
Also worth noting that most of the women involved in challenging OJ during #cunnilingusgate are no longer on twitter, some have had their accounts removed because of the above accusations others could no longer abide the misogyny they were being subject to. >
Blogs have been closed too, as women needed to protect themselves or got burnt out. Makes it very difficult to document a significant part of the 10+ year history of UK women's work challenging gender id ideology and the misogyny/homophobia of the movement.
Here's @firewomon's fantastic blog about Owen Jones, misogyny, lesbophobia and #cunnilingusgate. You should all read it. https://web.archive.org/web/20150329070352/https://firewomon.wordpress.com/
It is brilliance.
