Julie Bindel's podcasts and writing

This week I'm speaking with Ray Blanchard, a psychologist, sexologist, who coined the term autogynephilia to describe those men that identify as women, often transitioning to live as women, who get a sexual excitement from imagining themselves as women.

And of course, this has got him into trouble from trans extremists.

When he praised a book The Man Who Would Be Queen by Michael Bailey he got into even more trouble.

Ray is fascinating because he also has a lot to say about whether or not being same-sex attracted is immutable, and also about various paraphilias or kinks as they are often referred to.

I visited Ray Blanchard at his home in Toronto, not that far away from Kenneth Zucker's home, who I had interviewed the week before.

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Kenneth Zucker during his time at the GIC

Dr Ken Zucker has an impressive CV. The editor of the prestigious journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, he took a leading role helping devise diagnostic and treatment guidelines for gender dysphoric individuals, and headed the group which developed the DSM-5’s criteria for its “gender dysphoria” entry.

Zucker also helped write the “standards of care” guidelines for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which is a textbook relied upon by clinicians who treat gender-dysphoric patients and those presenting as transgender.

Why, then, was he sacked from GIC (part of The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in 2015, and eventually awarded a massive payout following a case he took against his former employer? I visited Zucker at his home in Toronto to find out, and to talk about whether his views on gender had changed since he has been hit with a whole heap of slurs and accusations of ‘transphobia’ and bigotry. Have a listen and find out the whole story, straight from Zucker.

“CAMH apologizes without reservation to Dr. Zucker for the flaws in the process that led to errors in the report not being discovered and has entered into a settlement with Dr. Zucker that includes a financial payment to him.”

The apology, abridged

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Britney Spears in 2007

Paris Hilton with activist Caroline Cole at a press conference outside the US Capitol Building on April 27, 2023 in Washington, DC. Cole a survivor of abuse while a teenager in a congregate care facility, joined lawmakers to introduce the bill "Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act"

Chyna, September 28, 2000 at the World Wrestling Federation in New York City

Janet Jackson during MTV VMA 2000 Stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City

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In early 2022 Sibyl was working for Cornerstones Literary Consultancy as one of their ‘Core Editors’. She had been working with them without issue for about a year. Then, in May, odd things started to happen. Management told her without warning that the client she was working for no longer required her services. About a week later she noticed she had been removed from the Editors’ page on the Cornerstones website. When Sibyl enquired about this, she was told that it was ‘unlikely’ that more projects would be fed her way.

Confused and distressed, Sibyl filed a Subject Access Request which revealed that a member of staff at Cornerstones took objection to the gender critical views she had expressed in her Twitter account (i.e. her belief that sex is immutable and determined from conception). Cornerstones proceeded to immediately halt any work she was doing for them by lying to both her and their client, and then effectively terminated Sibyl.

Have a listen to find out what happened next.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit juliebindel.substack.com/subscribe

Mo Lea, senior lecturer in Art and former course leader at Masters degree

The Long Shadow, written by George Kay, and based on Michael Bilton’s book Wicked Beyond Belief, is a seven-part ITV drama based on the police hunt for a sadistic necrophiliac who terrorised women in the north of England throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. With the consultation and blessing of the families of his victims, the drama lays bare the violent misogyny and prejudicial policing that came to characterise the hunt for the so-called Yorkshire Ripper. I talk to Mo about how she survived a near-fatal attack by Sutcliffe in 1980.

Mo Lea was an art student in the city when she became a target for the serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe.

Mo, who had moved to Leeds from Liverpool, was out with friends in a pub in the Chapeltown area of the city, planning her 21st birthday.

It was October 25, 1980, and the friends went their separate ways just after 10pm, as Mo decided to walk through the university campus to catch the bus. A man approached behind her, hit the back of her head with a hammer and attacked with a screwdriver. Her life was saved by a passing couple who heard her screams.

She was assaulted so violently that her parents failed to recognise her in the hospital, her jaw broken, her face bloodied and bruised.

At the time, Sutcliffe had murdered 12 women and left another seven for dead.

Several months later, while recuperating at home in Liverpool, she recognised Sutcliffe on the TV as the man that attacked her.

'When you have had trauma like that, it gives you an edge,' she told me. 'If you've been close to death, you feel you've been granted this freedom to live. It has compelled me to be successful in my career.'

Mo’s book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Facing-Yorkshire-Ripper-Art-Survival/dp/1526777576

Her website: https://www.molea.art/

Peter Sutcliffe, drawn by Mo Lea

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Jalna Hanmer at the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, March 4–8, 1976 in Brussels. The event was created with the intention to "make public the full range of crimes, both violently brutal and subtly discriminatory, committed against women of all cultures."

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit juliebindel.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit juliebindel.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit juliebindel.substack.com/subscribe

Sophie Ottoway

IN 1986, Sophie Ottaway was born with a very rare condition which required immediate surgery.

Cloacal exstrophy happens when the organs in the abdomen do not form correctly in the womb, resulting in babies born with organs such as the bladder or intestines outside the body.

Doctors had to operate to save her life.

Sophie was actually a boy, with a tiny, damaged penis but healthy testes.

But doctors advised Sophie’s parents that their baby’s male ­genitalia should be removed to avoid further complications.

The baby had to be registered by the following day, which meant they had to decide whether to tick male or female on the form.

Sophie’s parents Karen and John followed the surgeons’ advice.

In this episode we talk about her life, how she discovered the truth. We also discuss puberty blockers, gender ideology, and how to keep kids safe from unnecessary medical interventions.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit juliebindel.substack.com/subscribe

Rosie Duffield

We talk the mess of the Labour Party; feminism and male violence; men being plonkers generally; and the dudebros on the Left (as opposed to the sexist trad men on the Right). Oh, and we mentioned the Russell Brand scandal:

An unnamed misogynist somewhere or other

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