Author: bomp123

Categories
Students

I am afraid of my hardly won rights being taken away from me

As a woman, I am afraid of my hardly won rights being taken away from me. I also think vulnerable women will seriously be harmed by this ideology which will ultimately do nothing but to enforce gender stereotypes.

I have written on social media about this subject and started supporting feminist organisations trying to protect women and girl’s sex based rights.

I lost friends. I am scared of future job opportunities being denied to me.

N, I am a 24 year old feminist and socialist woman doing a master’s degree in international law

Categories
Students

I care because they lie

I care for two reasons, one is emotional and the other factual. I care because women’s rights are constantly challenged. And I care because they lie. No, it is not true that transwomen are female. It has nothing to do with being kind or understanding or I don’t know what else. It’s not true. And I won’t lie just to make them happy while they eat away at my rights as a woman and a febfem.

I have become more and more vocal about these issues, trying to care less and less about any backlash I may receive

Tension with my transgender friend. Depending when we talk, she agrees with me or buries her head in the sand. I don’t wan’t to hurt her so I don’t push as hard as I would online, but it’s so frustrating to see her get so close to being gender critical and then go back to being buried deep in gender theory.

Alicia, International law and Human rights postgraduate student

Categories
Healthcare Students

Most of the people I talk to about trans activism just can’t fathom that some people genuinely believe that transwomen are women

I care because the end result of gender ideology will hurt women by depriving them of any word to describe themselves, of the right to self-organise and gather without the presence of men, and of the right to decide who’s allowed to touch them and see them naked.

I also care because I’m deeply concerned about the fact that a tiny minority of activists who hold incredibly fringe views could so easily manage to garner enormous support within academia and political parties in a very short time.

To me the ideas that sex is a colonial construct, that people like Danielle Muscato can be legally female or that some men bare children sound absolutely ridiculous and surreal, and I’m very worried that so many people in high places have decided to comply with them with no hesitation whatsoever.

I’ve talked about this to virtually every person I know in my life (and some of them have talked about it to their own acquaintances afterwards), I’ve shared my thoughts on Twitter, I’ve also written some sort of paper that sums up the issue with a lot of references that I usually send to people who express an interest in the subject, and I’ve tried to get in touch with people who have a little bit more influence to try and open their eyes on this particular topic.

On Twitter I got the usual vitriol from TRAs on some occasions. In real life however, I’ve never been subjected to any form of abuse because of my take on this issue. I don’t run in progressive circles, I don’t know anyone remotely woke, none of my friends and relatives would dispute the fact that only women have periods. I woke up to this insanity very recently, precisely because I hadn’t been exposed to it at all prior to my year abroad in Vancouver. However, even if my views are largely shared within my circle, I don’t always manage to make people realise that something bad is going on.

Most of the people I talk to about trans activism just can’t fathom that some people genuinely believe that transwomen are women and that sex is a spectrum, and they simply think I’m paranoid and exaggerating and it’s only a few weirdos on the Internet that have no influence in real life.

L. R. Richard, 21-year-old female student from France

Categories
Lesbians Students

I don’t have an ounce of hate in my heart

I’m a disabled homosexual woman. Those aspects of myself contribute to my oppression and it hurts me personally to ignore these aspects.

I have started blogs and social media accounts, reached out to local radfem groups, and I have discussed it with people in my personal life

I have lost many friends and loved ones. I have been called hateful when I don’t have an ounce of hate in my heart. I have been isolated and vilified for speaking up about my issues as a female.

Genevieve, 18 yr old disabled lesbian feminist,Canada

Categories
Students

They could have been perfectly happy

I care because there will be a LOAD of young adults in the coming months and years who have been told such appalling falsehoods about the reality of their gender/sex that they’ve gone and had irreversible, experimental surgeries and procedures, when they could have been perfectly happy had they not been encouraged to go that route. I think many may, as a result, feel awful about themselves and likely suicidal when they finally “wake up”.

I have discussed with close friends and started liking and sharing articles/media on the Internet.

I’ve been ignored by friends because they don’t want to get into it.

A, Uni, Canada

Categories
Media and Arts

I feel that I should be able to ask for female providers

I care because I am a woman. If I ever am in a compromising situation, I feel that I should be able to ask for female providers and that it shouldn’t be considered transphobic to do so. I also know that it’s important to fight for rights regarding my biology, because that’s the basis for sexism

I have shared on social media. I have also talked to friends. Thankfully my close friends are in agreement with me. However, if I speak out to a wider circle, I will lose friends.

I am very afraid, because I see “no TERFs” in advertising for women’s rights marches and know they mean people like me. I know I’m not welcome in society. And as a heterosexual white woman, the view is that I’m privileged. However, I suffer through sexism all the same.

Sydney, Female musician, Canada

Categories
Students

I respect and care about trans people on an individual and political level, will fight for their right to exist

I care because the ideology sustaining a movement be logical for it to produce real change. The identitary narrative doesn’t present a realistic analysis of the world we live in, erases women’s experiences with gender and impacts the building of a serious women rights movement. I believe that it is harmful for both women and trans people as a group.

I respect and care about trans people on an individual and political level, will fight for their right to exist, be respected, protected and have rights side by side, but reserve myself the right to disagree politically on an analysis that is as central to their existence as it is to mine, and consequently disengage from actions backed up from such analysis.

Particularly on the gender conceptualisation, besides running a small blog that translates feminist readings into my native language, I have been occasionally vocal about it on the internet, mostly in discussions on forums or with a few posts in my personal social media. In real life, I discuss this matter only with people who approach me asking questions on my views, usually close friends.

I have felt the backlash online, such as being labeled as transphobic simply for asking questions such as “what is a woman?” or “what is gender?”, before even stating my position.

Mostly, I’ve felt that liberal feminists on my personal circles, who despite being extremely privileged and more than able to do so have never picked up a feminist book to read, not even on identitary politics, have been reactive to statements as simple as “I do not agree with identitary politics “, even though apparently they have no depth into this discussion, which is frankly quite sad.

minni , woman, feminist, critical thinker, Brasil

Categories
Students

I have been a life long feminist.

I care because I have been a life long feminist.

I have shared and discussed my views in gender critical feminist groups.

I have seen other women get threatened with rape or violence.

Juana, bisexual feminist, Argentina

Categories
Lesbians Students

I’m tired of being told to sleep with men and accept “girldick”

I care because I’ve watched my mentally ill friends be neutered and abused by a system that does not care for them. I care because as a lesbian, I’m tired of being told to sleep with men and accept “girldick” and being called a bigot for refusing. I care because the sex responsible for 98% of sexual assaults and violent crimes does not belong in private spaces with women and because the imperative should not be on women to figure out if they’re even allowed to be worried for their safety for fear of being harassed or silenced.

I’ve written emails to larger companies who use terms such as “uterus haver” and “people with periods”. I’ve also raised awareness in my personal life and drawn other women’s attention to how close we are to losing our sex based protections.

I’ve lost friends.

Liz, College-aged lesbian and radical feminist, USA

Categories
Others

Being a woman is not a choice

Since I hit about fifteen years old, I have experienced sexual harassment on a regular basis – and worse, on occasion. I have been reminded to be quiet and still and more lady-like since before I started kindergarten. I have been pressured into wearing makeup and shaving because our society teaches women to be unsatisfied with our natural bodies.

All over the world and throughout history, the same things and much worse have happened to billions of women. Rape, beatings, menstrual huts, female genital mutilation, breast ironing, all of it – it is not done to women because we ‘identify’ as women, but because we have female bodies.

Being a woman is not a choice. I didn’t choose to be this; to endure the things that have happened to me. It is simply my material reality.

As women, we experience oppression on the basis of sex, not gender. That is why I care that sex continues to exist as a legal and social category, and that women continue to have single-sex spaces.

I haven’t done as much as I want to. I’ve gotten involved in online feminist communities using anonymous social media accounts. Mostly, I’ve been educating myself, but I have also posted about my opinions. I’ve also talked about some of these things with people in real life, but I have been very careful with whom I talk to. In the future I hope to get more involved and speak out more.

I have received a number of threats and misogynistic insults to my anonymous feminist accounts – but that’s why I’ve stayed anonymous. I know that if I speak about what I believe under my real name, I will face immediate social and professional consequences. I’m not at a place in my career where I feel secure enough in to take that risk, so I plan to remain anonymous for the time being.

Cass, a young woman who firmly believes in critical thinking, USA