You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist 179. Hounded: Jenny Lindsay Speaks Out About the Women Who Have Been Harmed in the Gender Wars
Scottish poet and writer Jenny Lindsay's artistic career was derailed when she spoke out against the violent tactics used by gender identity activists. Today, Jenny is the author of "Hounded: Women, Harms and the Gender Wars," and her story illustrates what she calls the "secondary harms" of gender ideology - the ripple effects that occur when competent voices are silenced through systematic harassment campaigns.
We explore how Jenny went from being "one of Scotland's leading performance poets" to being completely ostracized from the Scottish arts scene, not for discussing gender issues directly, but simply for defending women's right to meet and discuss proposed legal changes. Her experience reveals the parasitic nature of this ideology as it hollows out liberal institutions from within.
Jenny breaks down what she identifies as the three core beliefs that get women labeled as "TERFs": that women are a materially definable category, that we have rights based on this reality, and that we deserve freedom of speech on matters affecting us. We discuss the psychological tactics of this movement, the economic warfare against dissenting voices, and why competent women across fields are being systematically targeted. This conversation examines not just what we're losing when reality becomes negotiable, but what happens to a society that rewards ideological conformity over truth-telling and competence.
Jenny Lindsay is a writer, poet and essayist based in Scotland. She has a weekly column in The Scotsman and writes for numerous publications including The Spectator, The Daily Mail, and The Times. Her debut book Hounded: Women, Harms and the Gender Wars was published to great acclaim by Polity in 2024, being described as 'one of the most important political books ever to have been written about Scottish culture and politics,' by The Herald, and 'one of the definitive chronicles of these times,' by author JK Rowling. A former poetry performer and live literature programmer, she gained several accolades in the arts prior to her own 'hounding' over gender identity issues in Scotland, including a John Byrne award for Critical Thinking for her film-poem The Imagined We in early 2020, and a Creative Edinburgh Award for Leadership in 2017.
Get Jenny's book on Amazon
Read Jenny's Substack, The Schism Ring
00:00 Core Beliefs and the Hounding Phenomenon
06:49 The Existential Question of Gender Identity
12:53 Understanding Core Beliefs and Their Implications
18:07 The Parasitic Nature of Ideologies
24:44 The Sociopathic Dynamics of Hounding
32:44 The High Road vs. The Low Road
41:33 The Personal Toll of Ideological Conflicts
45:54 The Edinburgh Arts Scene and Its Challenges
52:56 Cultural and Economic Impacts of Activism
01:01:24 The Intersection of Gender and Racial Dialogues
01:09:20 Hope Amidst Ongoing Struggles
01:19:28 Navigating the Future of Discourse
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Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.
Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.
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