There is always someone whose problems are worse than yours

[rozk]

I mean, all that is really wrong in my life is that I made the mistake of trying to have an exchange of letters with Julie Bindel. I know, I know, after everything I've said...I've saved the whole thing - because she might try and use it against me - and have mailed copies off to respectable people, and may post it some time. It is too depressing - this is someone who claims that she need not pay attention to anything any trans person says because some of us have allegedly done bad things, and then gets offended at being called a bigot.

The terrifying thing is, I don't even think she is mad; her views and those of her school of 'radfems' are such that they make people act as if they were crazy.

But at least, unlike Lindsey Lohan and Julia Ormond, I was not in I Know Who Killed Me a serious contender for worst film I have ever seen. I did not write it or produce it. I merely made the mistake - I am doing a lot of that today - of ordering it from Lovefilm on the assumption that it cannot be as bad as its reputation. It is indeed so much worse than its reputation as to take the breath away.

I just explained it to a friend in AIM

rkaveney2 (01:09:31): Yes, it is one of the total ultimate stinkers
rkaveney2 (01:09:54): The silliest plot ever
rkaveney2 (01:10:00): There is a missing girl
rkaveney2 (01:10:12): An earlier missing girl has turned up dismembered.
rkaveney2 (01:10:24): And dead
P (01:10:33): Generally that comes with dismembering, yes
rkaveney2 (01:10:36): She turns up dismembered but alive
rkaveney2 (01:10:49): Missing hand and leg
P (01:10:51): AUGH
rkaveney2 (01:11:03): She swears she is not who they think she is, but a passing stripper
rkaveney2 (01:11:11): She looks just like the missing girl
rkaveney2 (01:11:33): She keeps swearing that they need to keep looking
rkaveney2 (01:12:04): The feds read a story the missing girl wrote about a passing stripper and do DNA tests - she is identical and they reckon it is PTSD fake identity
P (01:12:26): Twiiiiiins
rkaveney2 (01:12:42): Actually, she is the identical twin of a baby father bought from the crack whore who was having twins in the same ward.
rkaveney2 (01:13:02): And she was not kidnapped by the serial killer - her amputations are TWIN STIGMATA
P (01:15:17): ... wut
rkaveney2 (01:15:28): I know, right
rkaveney2 (01:15:53): So we have Lindsey Lohan with an artificial hand, a missing leg and on crutches FIGHTING CRIME
P (01:16:13): Mostly when you add "fighting crime" to something, it gets BETTER
P (01:16:20): In this case, no
rkaveney2 (01:16:24): With Julia Ormond wittering in thebackground
rkaveney2 (01:17:09): Turns out the serial killer is Mean Piano Teacher punishing smart girls who decide Chopin is Too Hard by taking away their capacity to make music which they have misused
P. (01:17:37): Oh ffs
rkaveney2 (01:17:43): He also has a vast collection of stained glass and artificial legs in his basement for reasons that escaped me because I kept being distracted.
rkaveney2 (01:18:15): There is a whole set of people on the interweb who think the movie is much maligned and that in fact it is a brilliant portrayal of someone's dying dream
rkaveney2 (01:18:31): Were the film not so crappy, this might almost be plausible.
rkaveney2 (01:19:01): Lilo plays the only stripper who never takes off her underwear
rkaveney2 (01:19:21): And looks amazingly healthy for someone reared by a crack whore

It has even taken away the memory of Hugh Grant as Chopin in Impromptu which bored me in the earlier part of the evening and the new ep of Heroes which is amazingly cracktastic.

Are people bored with Bindel yet? Or shall I unlock the private post in which I copy our correspondence? Or is that unethical?

I can't be bothered to make it a poll.

Later The consensus - which tallies with my considered sense of things - is that I should reserve the correspondence until a moment when JB makes public this or other private correspondence as she almost inevitably will. I don't think that the betrayal argument holds much water given that neither she, nor I, are precisely private figures, but nonetheless decorum should operate, even in the face of unpleasant idiocy.

Comments

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

I am already bored with Bindel, and have been since she came to my attention. It follows that I have no concern whether her correspondence is exposed or not, save that I would hope you have a clear and well-argued motivation for revealing things which anyone - even she - would reasonably consider to be private.

Bindel's sole redeeming feature is that her shrill illiberality provide us all with opportunities to poke fun at The Grauniad, a paper that has sometimes forgotten what it means to be liberal and deserves, perhaps, more pointed barbs than mere mockery.

[deborah_c]

Not bored, although somewhat disbelieving of her disconnect from reality...

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

OK, I know this was not your intention, but you make the movie sound FANTASTIC.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Do you really want to sit through a movie where you'll be watching a scene where Lohan's character gets the skin ripped off her swollen fingers in graphic detail?

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

OK, she _didn't mention that icky part!_ Because, no. No, I don't.

[crazycrone.livejournal.com]

Yes, the vast collection of stained glass and artificial legs;that's a winner.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Impromptu could have been so good. Stellar cast (well, except Hugh Grant in the world's worst wig), great subject matter, but the director wanted to make George Sand into a sexually frigid ballbuster. Hint: Do not make films (write books, whatever) about people you despise.

I still like it for Judy Davis, who is splendid.

[cherylmmorgan.livejournal.com]

I find it best not to engage with people whose standard mode of debate is to portray themselves as a victim. Anything you say or do can be twisted.

[cleverthylacine]

Agreed. Post whatever you want, but goodness, I'd never heard of JB until you posted about her and I was happy in my ignorance!

[cherylmmorgan.livejournal.com]

Well, that wasn't quite what I meant. I'm happy to see Roz mention JB, and I do so myself, because The Guardian ought to be called out for publishing her hate speech, and Stonewall really ought to know better. Direct engagement with JB, however, is liable to give her yet another chance to whine about how she is being bullied by the vast, evil, world-dominating tranny conspiracy.

[rozk.livejournal.com]

You know, I am almost considering ordering the volcano, the white Persian, the black helicopters, the black thigh boots, the mirror-shades and the rest of it. There actually needs to be a vast, evil, world-dominating trans conspiracy, if only just to really really annoy Bindel.

[cherylmmorgan.livejournal.com]

If I had a little more time and artistic talent I would have already created a Cafe Press shop for the Cat Fanciers Against Bindel campaign. Adding some International Trans Conspiracy stuff would seem appropriate, especially as many of the best evil masterminds are cat fanciers too. Graphic designer needed.

[cleverthylacine]

There actually needs to be a vast, evil, world-dominating trans conspiracy, if only just to really really annoy Bindel.

That would be AWESOME, Roz. :)

If there were a vast world-dominating conspiracy of transpeople (the evil part is all a matter of perspective anyway) the world would be SO much more fabulous.

(This kind of thing would make me laugh if it didn't hurt so many people. Whenever people go on about the Jewish conspiracy and all that, I always want to ask them where's all MY money and power? I mean seriously, if WE rule the world I wouldn't have a $20 copay on the meds I need and have to ask for time off two weeks in advance and all for less than $40K/year, in San Francisco where you can't get lunch for under $10 except at McD's or the company caf.)

[finopalomino.livejournal.com]

Mocktopussy. (Gets coat.)

[cleverthylacine]

Fair enough; one can probably say that I needed to know, since I care a great deal about trans rights. But I don't think Roz needs to torture herself much further!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Much as I'd love to see the correspondence, I think you'd be in severe danger of giving her the chance to look a betrayed victim. She is never slow to seize such chances...

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Surely in due course she will make an inaccurate and slanted paraphrase of it in some public forum, at which point revealing the correspondence to put the record straight will be the proper thing to do, without there being any possibility of her portraying it as a breach of confidence?

[cleverthylacine]

I have always liked the way you think. But especially now.

Totentanz

[(Anonymous)]

ROTFL thanks Roz i totally needed this laugh today, the best film and the best conversation ever <3

Disjunctive thinking

[dmsherwood53.livejournal.com]

The terrifying thing is, I don't even think she is mad; her views and those of her school of 'radfems' are such that they make people act as if they were crazy.

Well yeah when you views are enuf non compossibe with actuality you enter a crazy Zen-like state of negative hyper-reality. See Dawkins on the religious sort. Arguement just bounce off you. In a sick way i envy people like that.

Re: Disjunctive thinking

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

The sense of inner certainty must be nice in a way, but I can never help feeling that people like this are actually fuelled by vast swathes of fundamental doubt and are over compensating. Perhaps that's unfair.

Re: Disjunctive thinking

[cleverthylacine]

...if you act like you're crazy, and you think like you're crazy, and your behaviour causes as much trouble as if you were crazy... how exactly are you not nuts?

I mean, okay, we don't have a diagnosis for this.

But honestly I think this kind of thing is like a dangerous mental disease that spreads and spreads.

Re: Disjunctive thinking

[dmsherwood53.livejournal.com]

...if you act like you're crazy, and you think like you're crazy, and your behaviour causes as much trouble as if you were crazy... how exactly are you not nuts?


Well if you've got a council of cCardinals to back you up ....

[slightlyfoxed.livejournal.com]

Fantastic review. TWIN STIGMATA = WIN STIGMATA.

punishing smart girls who decide Chopin is Too Hard by taking away their capacity to make music

And in this light I understand (with obvious reservations) the hand amputation, but what's with the legs? Must they never be allowed to use the wah-wah pedal again?

Ms Bindel

[(Anonymous)]

Re your question - your posts etc have brought JB into my life (as a non-Guradian reader I was blissfully unaware of her existence).

The sooner we can move as close to a restoration of that happy state of ignorance the better,

Graham

Ms Bindel

[(Anonymous)]

Re your question - your posts etc have brought JB into my life (as a non-Guardian reader I was blissfully unaware of her existence).

The sooner we can move as close to a restoration of that happy state of ignorance the better,

Graham

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

I'm not bored with Bindel, but I continue to wonder whether carrying on the engagement with her is worthwhile. The harm she does needs to be ameliorated, yes. But are you really ameliorating it, or are you just feeding the troll so that she has the added strength to do more harm?

[azalaea.livejournal.com]

Hello it's me, er, your writer friend with long hair who was complaining to you recently over the phone about the difficulties of chaining (imaginary!) people up just so.

This is the useful community (http://community.livejournal.com/little_details/) I was talking about.