UK Supreme Court: Women Are Born That Way

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom yesterday ruled unanimously that biological sex is the determining principle in the Equality Act 2010.  Lord Hodge, Deputy President of the court, read out the ruling to a packed chamber:

The Court made a very thorough review of all the applicable laws in its carefully reasoned 88-page ruling, which you can read here if you have a couple of hours to spare.  Or you can read a much shorter W\ikipedia summary here.  I am no lawyer, but despite some banner headlines in the world's press, it seems to me that the Court has confined its ruling to the interpretation of the law as it stands right now, and has not set a sweeping change in stone. 

But what do I know.  This ruling will have far-reaching effects in British law.  However, my fellow Americans should understand that Britain has no written constitution as we do; instead, the fundamental legal principle over there is parliamentary supremacy - meaning, Parliament can pass any law it wants to, on any subject, at any time.  However, in actual practice, British lawmakers are effectively restrained by custom, tradition, political opposition, and public opinion.  

(The King is technically part of Parliament, but he has no say-so.  Contrary to what you may think, he does not run the government; the government runs him. He pretty much has to do whatever the Prime Mininster "advises.")

The Guardian provides an explainer of today's ruling here.

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Guest Post: Women Scorned

A guest post kindly contributed by my truckbuddy Tim:

Hi, my name is Tim, and as you will see from my spelling, I started out life in the UK. However, I now reside in Spain, so my stiff upper lip has been given an anarchistic slant from too much Sun and Sangria! I have been asked by our Head Trucker to write a guest post here at Blue Truck, Red State, so here’s hoping I’m equal to the task.

Russ and I have been discussing offline the subject of Universal Truths. Now your Head Trucker was approaching this subject with lofty ideals and good intent. These were going to be the fundamental truths, not limited by time or geography, that come with age and wisdom and would explain the mysteries of life. Well, we might achieve that eventually, but I hope it can be an amusing, if slightly less reverent, journey we take in getting there.

The idea is to propose a Universal Truth, illustrated with examples, on Thursday’s blog, that you take into the long weekend, to test and discuss with your family and friends, the results of which you then comment back to us. So, the first Universal Truth, and it’s a good one, is: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”

Where did that come from? Well now the science part: The full quotation is, “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” It comes from William Congreve’s tragic drama The Mourning Bride, Act III Scene 2, written in 1697. It means a woman will make someone suffer if they reject or deride her.

And our first example is Herodias who famously used her dancing daughter Salome to obtain the head of John the Baptist after he publicly criticised her marriage to King Herod. After that everyone thought the wedding was a great idea!

Next we have Queen Elizabeth the First, working out her frustration at her unconsummated love affair with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and his secret marriage to one of Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting, Lettice Knollys, who was banned from ever appearing before the Queen again; and Robert got at least one stupendous tongue-lashing from his offended monarch. As she said, “Who’s Queen?”

Moving on in time, the life-long bitter feud between Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later HM the Queen Mother), and Wallis Simpson, over who was to blame for the abdication of the Duke of Windsor (briefly Edward VIII), which lasted for years.

Crossing the pond to America, we find Elin Nordegren getting her own back husband, Tiger Woods, who had been potting other holes in one. Whether she really hit him and his car with a nine iron we may never know, but the divorce settlement cost him $100 million, and shareholders billions in lost sponsorship franchise.

There are many more stories, some painful, some funny, and some quite tragic: Lorena vs. Wayne, Hillary vs. Bill, Di vs. Chas, Carol and Stacey vs. Tim (sorry, sorry, sorry....). And it’s not just a man vs. woman thing. From my own experience, if my mother thought she had been slighted by another woman, they would thereafter be referred to as “That woman” or “That female”! Men somehow seem to get over these things more easily and without bearing long lasting grudges, so is it a feminine trait, what do you think?

Blue Truck readers are invited to respond in the comments section.

Are Women People?

Given Republican men's new-found and gleeful obsession with slandering and subjugating women - who, it seems, should once again be kept barefoot and pregnant, and perhaps shackled to the kitchen stove - that will probably be in Santorum's next speech - a strange thought just occurred to me: 

Is it possible - is it really possible that this election won't be centered around the awesome, abominable wickedness of teh gayz?  For the first time since I don't know when?

Is it true that female is the new gay?

Is a pair of X chromosomes really just a birth defect?

Read these articles and draw your own conclusions, pardners:

Time magazine:  Subject for Debate:  Are Women People?

Also:  Men Have Sex Too

New York Times:  Who Decided That This Election Should Be About Sex?


Photo: Honk to Wounded Bird.

What She's Really Like

One of Sullivan's readers explains why not nearly as many women like Palin as the men do:

Sarah Palin is the peppy cheerleader in high school all the boys thought was so sweet but the girls knew was really a vicious shrew. She's the new girl in the office who wears tight shirts and three-inch heels, is super-friendly to her male superiors, ignores the other women, and gets promoted sooner than her more capable and hard working peers. She's the outgoing PTA mom all of the other women are scared to cross because they will find themselves put on the worst committees. Only a woman knows how to give another woman a sweet smile and at the same time cut her down to size with an artfully crafted "compliment" without male observers having a clue about what just happened. It's like a dog whistle.

Um . . . ya know guys, I clued in on every single bit of that the very first time I saw the bitch.  

Does that make me a woman too?