Magdalen Berns, 1983-2019, fighter for women’s liberation

Statement by the Redline blog collective

At Redline we are very saddened to hear of the death of Magdalen Berns who passed away on the morning of Friday, September 13 (British time).

Magdalen was a great fighter for the rights of women in general and lesbian women in particular, a defender of science and rationalism and someone who hated social injustice and had an anti-capitalist consciousness.  She also hated fakery and hypocrisy – and was a staunch opponent of these across the left.

In particular she devoted much of her energy in her last few years to exposing the attempts of super-entitled and misogynistic heterosexual males to claim to be women – and even lesbians – and try to invade women-only, including lesbian-only, spaces.

She made a series of videos that were as witty and entertaining as they were educational and incisive.  With her messy hair and cutting wit, she had a style all her own.

She didn’t suffer fools, fakes and pretenders at all, especially ridiculous self-obsessed and attention-seeking males pretending to be women and trying to define actual women, both gay and straight, out of existence.  To  those supporters of trans ideology and postmodern gender theory who objected to her straightforward no-nonsense approach, she had the refreshing attitude of “I’d rather be rude than a fucking liar”.

She was a scathing critic of postmodernism in its various forms, including gender studies courses: “No-one takes those courses seriously!” she would scoff.  She was especially good at taking the piss out of the most blatantly absurd of transgender claims, while much of the left was falling like skittles before the blitzkrieg of transgender theory and practice.

She was very clear that being diplomatic with the misogynists is utterly pointless – they aren’t interested in compromise, they want to roll right over women’s rights, including lesbian rights.  You have to fight the New Misogynists.  Whether it’s on the issue of lesbian erasure, the “cotton ceiling”, medical experimentation on children, or the defence of hard-won women-only spaces.

A fine example of how she blasted away the bullshit: “To identify womanhood as femininity is about as sexist as you can get. Woman is defined as an adult human female. Female is defined by her reproductive sex organs. If you accept the mantra ‘transwomen are women’, lesbianism doesn’t exist. If you’re born with a penis and balls, you’re male – you don’t get assigned reproductive organs. Males are defined by their biological sex organs; likewise, homosexuals are attracted to individuals of the same sex. Lesbians don’t have penises.”

As  one of the Redline blog collective commented upon hearing of her death: “Her videos have probably had a very large international impact. There’s a very no-nonsense, working class element which cuts through the bourgeois pomo bullshit.”

While chunks of the left ditched science in favour of po-mo gender theory, Magdalen was a blunt defender of biological science.  As she would put it, for instance, “There is no such thing as a lesbian with a penis.”  Indeed, she had a strong background in science, having studied engineering and then physics as a mature student at Edinburgh University; she graduated in 2016.

For her staunch politics, she was vilified, threatened with violence regularly and also violently attacked.  Most of the self-identified far left simply turned a blind eye to attacks and threats directed at her – just as they have in the case of numerous assaults on women, especially lesbians, by transgender (ie biological male) thugs.

She was more than able for the thuggery of trans activists, being gutsy in spirit and also having been a boxer.  In 2010 she had won the Haringey Boxing Cup and, after moving to Scotland, she was a member of that country’s first female boxing squad.  In 2011 she won the British Universities Boxing Championship.  A Boxing Scotland statement after her death recorded, “Magdalen was a pioneer for both women’s boxing and university boxing in Scotland. . .”

Tragically, a tumour developed in Magdalen’s brain and, despite the best efforts of doctors, the outcome was her death on the morning of Friday, September 13th (British time).  She passed away peacefully surrounded by family and love.

As is so often the case with fine people, her death came way too soon.  But she leaves behind a powerful example of integrity, honesty and fighting spirit.  And a substantial body of work in her videos.

She was not a Marxist, although some of her video content shows she had a strong class awareness. Moreover, she had been active with the Socialist Labour Party, a left split from Labour led by militant miners’ leader Arthur Scargill.  And her brand of radical feminism certainly had much more in common with genuine Marxism than the New Misogynist faux-Marxists that have taken up gender identity ideology-mythology.

Magdalen has inspired us in New Zealand as she has inspired so many around the world. The fight for women’s liberation will go on, and we are much stronger because of her. 

Check out Magdalen’s youtube channel here

A few of our favorites: