August 25, 2020 - 3:00pm

The latest casualty of the TERF wars is Sasha White, sacked from her job as an assistant agent at the Tobias Literary Agency. Her crime? Alleged transphobia of course. What other issue instils so much fear among the liberal masses?

Sasha tweeted from her personal account that JK Rowling’s TERF wars essay was ‘nuanced and insightful’, questioning whether they/them pronouns are truly progressive and her views and questions as to where trans rights and women’s rights might intersect.

The statement released on Twitter by Tobias following a tsunami of complaints from trans activists read: ‘We do not have any room for anti-trans sentiments at TLA. Period. Thus we have parted ways with Sasha’.

The hashtag #IStandWithSashaWhite was soon trending as decent people on Twitter clocked on to the fact that yet another feminist was being burned at the stake.

In recent months, I have heard from a number of feminists living in fear of losing their income as a result of being called to task for a) refusing to add pronouns to emails b) liking a JK Rowling tweet c) questioning whether single sex workplace toilets should become free-for-all, and d) refusing to use language in official documents such as ‘cervix havers’ and ‘chest feeders’. All of these examples are real. These women are all currently under investigation and risk being made unemployed and unemployable.

In the current climate where the trans-led Queer ISIS has the first and last word on anything to do with feminism, women are losing their jobs, reputations, university education and livelihoods. Many of the women affected at present are of colour, such as the Black lesbian barrister Allison Bailey for speaking at an event deemed to be TERF, and the Indian feminist filmmaker Vaishnavi Sundar who has questioned extreme trans activism.

The likes of Owen Jones and Billy Bragg insist that cancel culture doesn’t exist. Those hard Left elitists over at Novara Media would have you believe that anyone complaining about voices in the transgender debate being silenced are merely rich white folk who are upset that young people are ‘calling them out’ for expressing offensive views.

Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to the trans issue. Feminists, many of whom have spent their lives campaigning to end male violence, are the ones being bullied and hounded in the name of ‘intersectionality’.  This has nothing to do with bigots being held to account for spouting heinous opinions, it is all about silencing women who expose misogyny.

The trans-lobby demand total capitulation from women so that we are not even allowed to question the ‘trans women are women’ mantra. It is about who gets to speak, and who is silenced. Right now, feminists are the casualties. When women demand the right to name our own oppression and fight to end it there is a name for it. No, not transphobia. Feminism.


Julie Bindel is an investigative journalist, author, and feminist campaigner. Her latest book is Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation. She also writes on Substack.

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