Thoughts on Tickle v Giggle Day 2

I sat through proceedings today in the Tickle v Giggle case. If you don’t know what that is, Roxanne Tickle (a man) is suing a woman named Sall Grover and her company for access to a female-only app called Giggle.

Sall Grover gave evidence in the 1st half of the day. The afternoon session was taken up by counsel for the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) explaining why they believe sex is not a biological term. Of course, they do not explain what new word we are to start using to describe sex.

The case against Sall seems to boil down in so many ways to whether Sall was unkind. There was a lot of questioning about the sale of these candles by a supporter of Sall, and how hurt Tickle must be by this.

There was direct questioning of Sall about whether she has knowledge of Tickle’s genital surgery. Counsel for Tickle insisted that Sall call Tickle a woman.

Sall’s Money

The counsel for Tickle spent a long time talking about Sall’s impolite tweets and about Tickle’s feelings. She also spent a long time questioning Sall about finances. Sall’s friends and family loaned her the money to develop the Giggle app. It took approximately a year and almost $400k to get off the ground. A further $100k was raised in loans to do additional work on the app.

Tickle, knowing that he is a male and not eligible for membership, created an account, then after a period of 2 months tried to log on and found he had been blocked. He did not move on, find another app, spend time with friends, do some yoga and find resilience. Instead he sent Sall a relentless series of cheery emails requesting her attention and support.

Then he decided to sue. He is seeking aggravated damages.

It has been 2 years since Tickle brought his suit. In that time, Sall has been smeared as a bigot. Her business has been ruined (there is no app right now). She has no stream of revenue. Sall’s fundraising activity goes toward a $500k lawsuit that she expects to eat up further years of her life. Every move she makes, every word she utters, is coloured by the lawsuit.

Tickle’s Feelings

Sall recently went to the UK to get publicity, support and raise money for her lawsuit. Counsel for Tickle stated that Sall’s international discussions of the case that Tickle has brought has widened the audience who know about the lawsuit (and thus widened the pool of people who see his behaviour as unreasonable) resulting in Tickle being seen in a negative light by a broad audience.

Tickle heard Sall being questioned about her tweets, her “liking” tweets, and her describing her own experience of this horror show. Tickle listened as Sall described how she felt ‘frightened’ by his cheery emails demanding access to her female-only app. Tickle heard Sall’s refusal to call him a woman, despite knowing that the ordeal would be over if she did so.

The questioning tended to Sall’s impoliteness, to Tickle’s hurt feelings.

Tickle left the court crying. Snivelling, red-faced while he holds the future of one young woman (and all us Australian women) hostage.