# Meghan Murphy

Meghan Emily Murphy (born 1978) is a Canadian writer, journalist, and founder of Feminist Current, a feminist website and podcast. Her writing, speeches, and talks have criticized third-wave feminism, male feminists, the sex industry, exploitation of women in mass media, censorship, and gender identity legislation. She is based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

## Quotes
### 2014–2019

* There is, in fact, no place in the world that has managed to make prostitution safe for women, despite efforts to regulate the industry and even to form unions of sorts. Under legalised regimes, trafficking and an illegal industry thrive.
** "Prostitution is more than a labour rights issue", Al Jazeera (7 August 2014)
* The Canadian Human Rights Act protects women because as a society, we understand that women face discrimination based on their biological sex. But our ability to organize on behalf of women's liberation and to maintain women-only space is threatened by legislation that protects people based on "gender identity" and "gender expression." How can we argue for women's rights, based on the understanding that women are oppressed specifically due to their biological sex, if we simultaneously say that sex doesn't matter, but that "gender identity" and "gender expression" do?
** "Why a women-only spa in Toronto should not change its policy to accept trans women", CBC News (21 June 2017)
* What women experience as intimidating, many men read as harmless, not least in part because women are socialised to avoid conflict and respond politely, even when offended or uncomfortable.
* The truth is that, in all likelihood, most men – if not all men – have engaged in behaviour that was inappropriate, made a woman feel uncomfortable, or was even abusive. This is the lesson we should have learned from #MeToo: that the problem of male entitlement and misogynist attitudes towards women is a social one, not a personal one, and certainly not one that will be resolved by more men insisting they are feminists.
** "The problem with male feminists", Al Jazeera (14 July 2018)
* Some of these [beauticians] were women working out of their homes and their names were published in the papers, but [Yaniv's] anonymity was protected.
* I have received countless violent threats on Twitter and I don’t think they’ve banned any of them. My tweets were not violent. I think someone at Twitter wanted to get rid of me — I was one of the most well-known women talking about this, and I wasn’t apologetic. It is scary a corporation [can] start determining what we’re allowed to talk about.
** As cited by Rosamund Urwin "Fur flies over 'Brazilian' wax for trans woman Jessica Yaniv", The Sunday Times (19 May 2019)
** Jessica Simpson (also known as Jessica Yaniv) had litigated against Canadian beauticians for their refusal to wax her (male) genitals. In November 2018, Murphy was banned from Twitter for life (later rescinded) for using the 'him' pronoun.
* Women's rights exist because women are born female, not because they identify with femininity, because they wear dresses, because they wear make-up. There is an understanding in law that women face oppression and discrimination because they are born female. I think we do need to protect everyone from being discriminated against, but we don't need to say that trans-identifying males are literally female to protect them from discrimination.
** From a Good Morning Scotland (BBC Radio Scotland), as cited in "Twitter-ban feminist defends transgender views ahead of Holyrood meeting", BBC News (22 May 2019)
** Murphy had been invited to visit the Scottish parliament by (then) MSP Joan McAlpine. See Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.
* Over a year after a man then-named Jonathan Yaniv filed multiple complaints against British Columbia estheticians who declined to wax his balls, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ruled against the now-named 'Jessica.'
* What has been revealed since, many times over, is that no one but Yaniv is, in these particular circumstances, guilty of harassment. Indeed, it is the women he attempted to extort money from, by abusing the tribunal system and human rights law, who have felt afraid, bullied, and preyed upon by a man claiming to be a woman.
** "Yaniv’s case is lost…now can we discuss the problems with gender identity ideology?", The Spectator (USA, 23 October 2019)
** Wikipedia's article on the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal contains a section on Yaniv v. Various Waxing Salons.
* A woman is a female. That's it. And if you are born male there is no way to become female. It's simply not biologically possible. [...] And beyond that, why would a male ever NEED to 'become female'? I mean, by all means, be yourself, dress how you like, express yourself as you wish, in ways that make you feel good and authentic. Push back against gender stereotypes. But why that would demand one is literally the opposite sex, I do not know. 'Woman' is not simply a set of stereotypes, an outfit, a feeling. There is nothing wrong with being male or being a male who rejects masculinity. But it is ridiculous to say that if you reject gender stereotypes you are literally no longer male.
** From an email interview, as cited in "Meghan Murphy, the woman behind trans wars breaking out at the public library", National Post (28 October 2019)
* Under current trans activist doctrine we're not allowed to exclude a man from a woman's space if he says that he's female and I find that quite dangerous and troubling.
** "Meghan Murphy: Canadian feminist's trans talk sparks uproar", BBC News (30 October 2019)
** Toronto Public Library had refused to cancel a talk delivered by Meghan Murphy on "gender identity and society, the law and women."

### 2021–present

* [M]ales who wish to identify as women will be offered additional protections under the law; but those born female will not benefit in the same way. Of course, trans-identified people should be protected from abuse and discrimination. But why not women too? Does the SNP think the minority of individuals who choose to identify as transgender are much more at risk than women and girls? Women suffer disproportionally as victims of rape, domestic abuse, FGM, child marriage, and femicide around the world, yet in Scotland this seems to count for little.
** "Feminists should fear the SNP's hate crime bill", The Spectator (19 March 2021)
** On what became the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.
* Canada has managed to cultivate a culture that is simultaneously self-hating and self-righteous. We have no pride in being Canadian. Yet we are confident we are better than everyone else.
** "Justin Trudeau isn’t the progressive leader he thinks he is", The Spectator (10 July 2021)