Imagine if I made a vlog or podcast calling a woman ugly. I wouldn’t, because it would be nasty, bullying, and beneath basic decency. I’d almost certainly be cancelled, swiftly, publicly, and humiliatingly.
Yet apparently, there’s a protected space where this kind of personal, vicious insult is not only tolerated but celebrated when it comes from a woman interviewing a man who identifies as a woman.
This week, Alastair Campbell’s daughter, Grace, interviewed a trans woman on her podcast. Together, they repeatedly mocked and derided women with gender-critical views, women like me, as “ugly”, “freaks” with “the worst hair and the worst clothes” and “not aspirational in any way”. Grace added that she “wouldn’t want to be in a room with them”.
These aren’t fringe activists. This is mainstream media territory, from a high-profile family. And the casual cruelty wasn’t hidden; it was the tone of the entire segment.
I hold what is now repeatedly affirmed as a protected belief under UK law: that there are only two sexes, that sex is immutable and cannot be changed by clothing, hormones, or surgery.
This isn’t hatred or a phobia - it’s basic biology. As a doctor, I was taught that sex is determined by genetics, males have a Y chromosome expressed in nearly every cell of the body, produce small gametes (sperm), and females produce large gametes (ova).
None of this can be altered. The UK Supreme Court has now confirmed this reality in its recent ruling on the definition of sex under the Equality Act: sex means biological sex.
Gender-critical women (often lazily labelled “TERFs”; Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists) simply believe that women and girls deserve single-sex spaces, sports, and protections based on that immutable biological reality. For daring to say so, we’re branded ugly, hateful, and unfeminine.
JK Rowling, who has shown extraordinary courage on this issue, called out the hypocrisy directly. When Alastair Campbell accused her of being “chicken” for declining his podcast, she replied that she had no interest in boosting the viewing figures of “a pair of exceptionally arrogant men whose understanding of this issue drips with classism and misogyny”.
She pointed out that if he truly wanted a serious debate, he should interview For Women Scotland, the group that just secured the Supreme Court victory and are the leading voice on the legal side of this fight.She didn’t stop there. Rowling added: “But perhaps your charming daughter has adequately represented the entire Campbell family’s view, by describing them as ‘ugly’ women, with whom she wouldn’t ‘want to be in a room’?”
Grace Campbell and her father embody old-fashioned misogyny in progressive drag - Renee Hoenderkamp
|Getty Images
The double standard is glaring. The same circles that scream “punch a TERF”, carry “kill TERFs” signs at protests, dox women, issue death threats, and violently disrupt “Let Women Speak” events suddenly discover free speech when it’s their side calling biological women ugly, unfeminine, and freakish.
The term “TERF” itself has become a slur loaded with contempt — a shortcut to dehumanise any woman who prioritises sex-based rights.
This isn’t feminism. It’s old-fashioned misogyny in progressive drag. For centuries, powerful men told women to shut up and know their place. Now some women, and some men who identify as women, have enthusiastically joined in.
The targets are the same: women who refuse to surrender hard-won rights to privacy, safety, fairness in sport, and the simple acknowledgement of biological reality.
Well done to JK Rowling for reading the evidence, listening to the science (her “Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling” podcast remains one of the most thoughtful explorations of the issue), and refusing to be intimidated by death threats, doxxing, or threats to her family.
Well done to For Women Scotland for their determined legal fight that reached the Supreme Court.
And well done to every woman, and every decent man, who continues to stand up and say: no. Women’s rights are not bigotry. Sex is real. Single-sex spaces matter. Fairness matters. Courage matters.
I’m not a radical feminist. I’m a woman, a mother, a doctor, a partner, and someone who believes in evidence over ideology. This isn’t about hating anyone. It’s about refusing to let reality be rewritten at the expense of women and girls.
The backlash is loud precisely because the truth is simple and stubborn. Are you with us?