White punks on dope

Although Mamet admits to owing a great educational debt to English literature, he accuses classic novelists such as Anthony Trollope and George Eliot of using "stock Jew" characterisations. "And the authors of today," Mamet adds, "I'm not going to mention names because of your horrendous libel laws, but there are famous dramatists and novelists over there whose works are full of antisemitic filth."

Oi yoi yoi. More filth, more phobia. David Mamet, author of some of the best plays and screenplays of the last thirty years or so, has gone totally hatstand. Those English liberal literary types are anti-semites, you see, yet they cannot be named for fear of torts. So who are they, these writers? I think we should be told. Am I one of them? I think I should be told.

But that was the week, that was. Closer to home, this blogeur was declared an academic white dude, a racist and a transphobe by Queen of Thorns; meanwhile her running mate Octavia Spitfire employed her / and burn tactics on the English language to provide us with a few things that are cissexist/trans*phobic.

Assuming that criticism of an event/movement/etc by trans* people is merely wanting to cause trouble/ruin everything/is like saying that the entire thing is worthless. And that defending themselves against cissexism is trying to "inflame" things/is unimportant/etc. This is based on the (conscious or subconsciously absorbed) idea that the natural place for trans* people is on the outer; their concerns are 'fringe issues' and deserve to be treated as such, they are strange/dangerous/irrationally angry and therefore can be dismissed as trouble-making, they should be grateful for crumbs because it's not like cis people 'have' to make an 'effort' anyway, etc.

And so/on. Rumours that Queen of Thorns/Octavia Spitfire are the same per/son* have not been substantiated. Fortunately for us all, the battle for the Hand Mirror has ended, the only reported casualty being a frightened epistemologist.

Meanwhile, it turns out that, according to the director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, everybody in Britain is anti-semitic, apart from George Eliot. Oh dear.

Next exit: a fight brought to you by the genius of Imperator Fish.