Tim Stone & the 'gender critical position'

[Cheeetar]

In the comments section to this article about transphobic pundit Helen Lewis being removed from Watch Dogs: Legion, Tim Stone (or somebody claiming to be Tim Stone) claims that he wishes the site would show more respect to the ‘gender critical position’ in the trans rights ‘debate’.

This is very interesting! I wonder if Rock Paper Shotgun would also invite contributions from writers who wish that people would show more respect to the ‘racial science position’ in the black lives matter ‘debate’.

[Cheeetar]

Fun thing I missed, he refers to being trans as a ‘life choice’. Pretty bigoted thing to say.

[Sarfrin]

That’s what really sealed it for me. Very revealing.

ETA I wouldn’t like to be Graham right now.

[Xelias]

Very much “Yikes” comments from Tim Stone (and honestly : Most of that comment section)

It really sucks that as soon as trans identities are brought up, some shitty people start going off, completely misinformed while Transphobes start arguing against people’s right to exist.

But heh, he got ousted quickly so at least there’s that.

[polygroom]

Maybe I’m missing something here but how a trans person lives their life is a life choice?

Like I’ve known a few men who did not choose to undergo hormone therapy and some who did. Those would be life choices, no?

[Cheeetar]

Being trans isn’t a life choice, in the same way that a person being cis isn’t a life choice. A trans person can ‘choose’ to be in the closet, but that does not mean that being trans is a choice that people make.

If you’re talking about how a trans person may choose to transition (e.g. with hormone therapy or not) that’s completely irrelevant to the discussion.

[alms]

IOW life choices is code for “there can truly be no such thing as a woman person inside a male-born body”, as it construes that a M-to-F trans is actually a man that is posturing, which is a superficially more civil take on O RLY my gender is attack helicopter. One “chooses to be”, rather than just be, a woman. It’s an effective way to marginalize trans-genderism and paint it as lunacy.

Of course, they will deny this, and claim that’s just facts, right.

[moth_bones]

I’ve complimented his writing, commented on articles and contributed a book choice to the FP library. I feel a little sad. No matter how many times we explain transition is real and vital people so many people - especially in the media - just dismiss it. I don’t know him so I won’t say anything else about him, but things like this happen a lot and it’s disappointing.

[BillButNotBen]

I get the impression that his comments were misinformed rather than either badly intentioned or transphobic. It is easy to read a couple of persuasive articles on one side of an issue and jump in with both feet in your mouth before realising there is more to it than you thought. I know I have done the same, and probably will do again.

On the plus(-ish) side, pretty much all the comments on the post seemed to be on the trans rights side. (Unless there was a mass deleting of comments before I got there).

[Sarfrin]

On the plus(-ish) side, pretty much all the comments on the post seemed to be on the trans rights side

Plus a few of those ‘cancel culture’ ones that seems to pop up whenever a right wing talking point is disagreed with.

[alms]

I get the impression that his comments were misinformed rather than either badly intentioned or transphobic. It is easy to read a couple of persuasive articles on one side of an issue and jump in with both feet in your mouth before realising there is more to it than you thought. I know I have done the same, and probably will do again.

Not that I have any say in this matter, however, I’d be generally supportive of the idea that people can and do make mistakes and should be given a second chance.

OTOH I can’t honestly wrap my mind around the notion that his call for RPS to revise their stance on trans-exclusionary feminism can be seen as non-transphobic.

It may well be dressed in a way that can fool the casual observer, but that’s entirely the point of these things.

They are designed to trick uninformed people into making snap, intuition-based decisions on complicated issues.

By that token, I can see myself drifting towards the idea that anybody who actively proposes, rather than simply react to, certain views, can hardly do it by mistake. So I’ll stop here.

[disconnect]

https://twitter.com/rockpapershot/status/1326211540689821698

Trans rights are human rights.

We strive to create an inclusive space for all people. Earlier this week, a freelancer used the RPS comments section to express views that failed in that goal.

We will no longer be working with this freelancer or publishing their column.

[alms]

Thanks disconnect.

Inevitable as this may seem now, it is another serious blow to the quality of writing on RPS.

While I was only interested in the simulation side of the Flare Path, this feels to me like they just jettisoned the last piece of RPS’s identity.

I’m not saying this lightly, and don’t intend to diminish in any way the work of the good content producers that might still be part of RPS, however, Tim Stone will be very, very hard to replace. It just doesn’t feel like there’s anything left that made RPS what it was.

[Sarfrin]

I didn’t read his articles so it doesn’t have the same resonance for me. Although I broadly agree with you about RPS’s identity changing we still have Alice 0.

ETA I appreciate Graham taking a stand on the principle. He’ll inevitably cop a load of flak for it.

[Risingson]

But those comments were made to his colleagues. Who he knows very much. And has been working with them for years. It is not only being transphobic, but having zero respect about who he works with.

Hi, I am still surviving, love you all.

[alms]

Tim Stone wrote about very niche genres, I’m not going to mince words here. Not just his style, but this too will make him hard to replace, would be my highly uneducated guess.

In fact, I can’t help but wonder if they will even want to - RPS today seems a different kind of site, one that’s no longer very interested in the fringes of gaming. We’ve all heard the Graham singing his ‘getting on with the times’ tune, haven’t we? Wargames and bus and train sims might not be exactly what the cool kids play on Twitch.

Anyway, Tim’s was the last voice that I can personally identify as the old guard. No matter how big her role in recent years, Alice is a relatively recent addition and part of the less luminous stretch of RPS.

It’s also exceedingly sad to see him go this way, as many will likely be so disappointed, that they might stop following him altogether.

There is truly no win whatsoever here /shakes head

[Sarfrin]

Not just his style, but this too will make him hard to replace, would be my highly uneducated guess.

In fact, I can’t help but wonder if they will even want to

I suspect you’re right.

[sonson]

The integrity of them making and standing for decisions like this in a manner which is clear and without compromise is the one thing which remains I would argue. It’s a very important thing though.

Videogames have been overtaken by the metastasis of hyper capitalism, the rise of the right wing and their stoking culture wars, and the general expansion of the medium’s popularity and cultural monopoly. RPS cant ever be what it was in many senses anymore for that reason. An RPS could not come into being in this era.

The only thing which can remain in this era, must remain in fact, is the essential decency of the enterprise. And for that reason I think this decision demonstrates its legacy in a far greater sense than anything else on the site in the past few years actually.

[alms]

the essential decency of the enterprise

Sin being booted was handwaved away with COVID related drops in ad spending. I don’t know what the numbers for RPS look like, of course, but the sources all around the web do not show that ad spending plummeted.

[sonson]

I suppose I meant within editorial control, I guess. I cant comment on the reality of what happened with Sin, the numbers or politics behind it etc. But in these instances where most others would fly under the parapet or offer something vague, trite or “both sides” they act with integrity.

Although on this subject another thing which remains from the old days is that nearly all the voices on the site, staff and contributors alike, are white.

Given their resources as powerful a voice as they have, their attempts at recruitment of black or POC staff is a fucking joke. There’s no argument o be had here. There are no shortage of voices who fit the bill. They simply dont do enough or care enough to extend their reach, betraying the privileged notion that everyone has access to the same opportunities, so that in the event people don’t come forward, it’s just because they arent interested. You come to us, you do the work, rather than “we’ll use our privelege to lay the way for you and offset the disadvantages and obstacles you unjustly face getting to those opportunitues”. Really poor.

The old cadre of very well meaning but nonetheless problematic white priveleged folks is a real issue.