We are no longer entitled to privacy, dignity or safety

I care because the sex based protections afforded to me and my daughter by law are being destroyed and that we are no longer entitled to privacy, dignity or safety.

It’s also a sexist stereotype to ” live as a woman”. I don’t wear makeup or dress in especially feminine clothing. Does that mean I am less of a woman even though I bore children?

I have written to my local theatre about them changing some of their female toilets to accept men without consulting their customers. They replied that it was down to their diversity committee and they would not reconsider.

I live in Scotland and got in touch with an educational provider of resources for schools in Scotland regarding relationships etc to enquire about a video they linked to on their website. It was very one-sided about a boy becoming transgender but disregarded how this impacted on girls. They replied that they decided to remove the video; not because of my reasoning but because they realised that the material contained sexist stereotypes that they were uncomfortable with.

I wrote to a castle in Aberdeenshire about their mixed sex toilets. On entering I assumed that they were self-contained and I think the large bearded tourist in front of me was as uncomfortable as I was. I wrote to the castle’s representative and asked why they had chosen to do this. The reply was that the men’s used to be separate but the building became unsafe and they had limited space and planning permission. When I wrote back to explain why mixed sex toilets we’re bad for women and girls ( I cited voyeurism and privacy) they ignored me.

I have written to some MPs and MSPS with mixed results and some patronising comments.

I have delivered some leaflets for For Women Scotland. I do not know if there was anything positive from this but I felt better at doing something albeit anonymously.

If I do anything, it’s usually as a private communication with a company or politician.

I don’t feel confident or comfortable doing it in a more public forum. I did it once on Facebook and received some negative feedback in the form of cartoons. I gleaned from one cartoon from someone who I regarded as a close childhood friend that I was “an asshole”.

Tombs of Atuan, Mother of school age children