Author: bomp123

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Academics and researchers

They even started to tell me that my personal experience (frustration as a woman in tech) is not representative

As a female educator in technology I am very aware of the challenges girls/women confront on a daily basis, and really appreciate the awards/support some organisations provide to give girls recognition in this area. However, it is frustrating to see some times those opportunities have been giving to transwomen.

I have discussed with friends.

I feel some of my friends do not agree with my views and they even started to tell me that my personal experience (frustration as a woman in tech) is not representative. I was very shocked. I will never discuss this online as I am very scared – my workplace is very left leaning so I won’t even dare to talk about it at all at work. This is very worrying that I cannot even discuss this openly. Thanks for providing this platform!

GirlinTech, Female educator in tech , Sorry but no…

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Academics and researchers

As a young child, I was told that I could not participate in the sports that I loved because they were ‘not for girls’

I can’t begin to do justice to the importance of feminism and womanhood in my life. As a young child, I was told that I could not participate in the sports that I loved because they were ‘not for girls’. I have been overjoyed to see the strides made by women’s sport in the past 25 years, and that – on the whole – there are far more opportunities for girls to participate in sport than when I was growing up.

It breaks my heart to see these strides undermined simply to appease a small group of biological males who seek to ‘affirm their self-appointed gender’ by taking the hard-earned place of women in sport. I am devastated that women’s sporting history is being rewritten by people like Lauren Hubbard and Rachel McKinnon.

Girls and women are subject to all manner of abuse – mostly at the hands of men – and they fully deserve (and need) single-sex spaces in which to thrive and feel safe. Every woman knows what it is to feel unsafe and vulnerable, and no-one has the right to dismiss our concerns.

The idea that biological males can simply announce themselves female and enter women’s safe spaces is obscene. I have never felt more strongly about anything in my life.

It is a topic that I discuss with my partner and trusted friends on a daily basis. While I have engaged with some of the public debates on Twitter, I don’t feel that what I do is enough. I am in the difficult position of knowing that if I speak up, I will most likely lose my job – a prospect that I cannot afford to risk at the minute.

My work colleagues have extremely strong views on the ‘transgender’ issue, and regularly use offensive terms such as ‘TERF’ to publicly bully those with genuine concerns into silence. While I have never directly received such abuse, I know that if I were to be more vocal, I would be their next target.

K

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Academics and researchers

I’m a 22 year old going into the tech industry, I can’t speak, the vitriol is suffocating and terrifying

I’m a woman in computer science. In school I was bullied for taking maths subjects and had to suffer silently as teachers and pupils alike bullied me. I now see women who faced these same experiences, lose female centred opportunities to people who got to experience this as male, and therefore faced none of it.

The trans movement damages the reputation of women in spaces where we’re already desperately trying to quash stereotypes by suggesting that all it takes to be a woman is to wear a dress and makeup, which is NOT what makes me female.

Please help me, please help us, the trans movement is terrifying, I’m terrified. I’m sorry for not speaking out, but you see the backlash.

I don’t know what I can do without risking my career. I’m watching the rights of women be eradicated by identity politics.

I can see Olympics in the future with only trans or male athletes, the misogynistic structures of the past awarding women’s awards to men who don’t know what it’s like to fight for your place in society your whole life, but just get to put on a dress and then claim the whole lived experience of a woman.

It’s not acceptable for white people to identify as black, and then claim the lived experiences of people of color. For all the same reasons men cannot become women and then truly know what it is to grow up and live as a woman.

Please, for my daughters in the future, who currently have no future, fight this to the end.

I’m sorry, I’m a 22 year old going into the tech industry, I can’t speak, the vitriol is suffocating and terrifying. But I know my silence is a problem and I’m sorry, I’m just too scared of losing my entire future.

E

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Academics and researchers

You don’t need to say anything more than ‘transwomen are not literally the same as women’ to be considered guilty

I a woman and a mother of girls. I thought feminism was making progress, that their life would be better than mine and mine better than my mother and grandmothers.

I see that my right to define myself and my right to say why I feel kinship with other women can be shouted down as hate speech, and so I have therefore no right to define myself. So feminism is as likely to go backwards as forward.

I’ve written to my MP and complained to IPSO. I have spoken to friends. I have spoken to my girls. I have written a couple of blog posts and was going to give a paper.

I have set up a module that will deal with feminism. That has, weirdly enough, reconfirmed my commitment to feminism and made me more active.

But I am worried about my job, and the negative consequences. I know from colleagues that this is very real and you don’t need to say anything more than ‘transwomen are not literally the same as women’ to be considered guilty. And it is targeted: some colleagues who are not considered ‘terfs’ get to joke about it; others have every word monitored (by students, by the way).

I am relatively new to this debate and am expecting a complaint to happen, as my students are now aware of my views.

M

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Academics and researchers

I am a competitive rower and I am concerned about possible future changes that would remove the level playing field for women in sport

This matters to me because I am a competitive rower and I am concerned about possible future changes that would remove the level playing field for women in sport. I have seen the physiological advantages of males over females in my sport and want to make sure women retain the right to compete against women.

I have begun speaking to friends about the issues surrounding transgender rights and activism, and the implications for women’s sport and women’s spaces in society.

However due to my field of work (academia) I am too scared of the professional implications to speak out more publicly.

R, Researcher

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Academics and researchers

Women fought for sex-based rights for good reasons

I care because women fought for sex-based rights for good reasons.  I feel strongly that the degree of vitriol, diminishing of voice and violence and is frightening. And I want to stand up to it.  But I am scared.  And then cross with myself for being scared.

I have spoken out on Twitter in support of key figures and ideas I believe in (e.g the protection of single-sex spaces; the ‘right’ (!) to talk about our experience as a sex class)

On Wednesday 10th June 2020 I tweeted in support of JK Rowling and was absolutely TAKEN DOWN (called a cunt; had obscene content posted on my feed; told to shut up and sit down TERF etc.). I am yet to see whether my employer wades in against me.  Watch this space!

B K Long

Categories
Academics and researchers

I saw a TRA threaten a 15 year old girl with rape & choking her with his ‘girl-dick’ because she said girls don’t have a penis

I care because my daughter is a butch lesbian & I saw a TRA (trans rights activist) threaten a 15 year old girl with rape & choking her with his ‘girl-dick’ because she said girls don’t have a penis. I don’t want my daughter, that 15 year old or any other woman or girl to be forced or coerced to accept penis or be threatened with rape.

I care also as the victim of rape, both as a child and adult. I know abusive men when I see them & they want easy access to women & girls.

I started to tweet under my own name & was quietly warned by a friend at work to be careful. I was all of a sudden required to attend diversity training in person, not the usual online kind.

I questioned why sex was absent from the protected characteristics & stated why it was important. The equality lead assured us sex & gender were the same thing and they ‘just want to pee.’

I opened an anonymous twitter account and shut my own down so I can continue to tweet but I have to be careful still. I attended WPUK (Woman’s Place UK) Conference in London & heard you (among others) speak. I completed the GRA (Gender Recognition Act) consultation response. I speak 1-2-1 with other women at work about the issues to sow the seeds & raise awareness. I cross out any survey ‘gender option and hand-write SEX-FEMALE. I financially supported your claim (and will continue to) FairCop, Safe Schools Alliance (thank God for them!) and others.

I had to close my professional account. I was made to attend two equality training sessions within a few weeks, probably because I spoke out at the first & this was followed by an online diversity module 80% of which related to trans issues & which couldn’t be passed unless you answered with gender ID language (calling a trans identified man a woman for example.)

My workload & responsibilities have been doubled, making research & writing impossible & most of my targets also impossible without working a 60-80 week. I know they want me out & I’m looking but its almost impossible with this workload.

Students have nominated me for awards but these were not even put forward for consideration until a savvy student noticed & complained.

Needless to say, only that nomination went through. It is now untenable & I’m so grateful we are working remotely.

Anonymous Academic

Categories
Academics and researchers Healthcare

I am concerned about the erosion of women’s rights to single sex spaces

I am concerned about the erosion of women’s rights to single sex spaces, and about gender non-conforming children and young people being directed to hormones and surgery.

I have expressed gender critical views on social media and discussed the issue with friends and family.

I was anonymously reported to my employer for alleged transphobia.

Kate, Adult human female

Categories
Academics and researchers

I am being given labels which I don’t want to use

It’s important to me because as a female I feel as if I’m being erased. I am being given labels which I don’t want to use (such as cis), my identity as I know it is being forced to become something else.

I now have to tell people my pronouns, I am female, you can see it. I don’t need to tell it to you. I’m not invisible. I am also an Asian person, I can’t change the way I look and neither can I change the way that I look female. (This is not to say that a person cannot change to being trans) – but being female is an innate quality of me. Don’t take it away from me by making me use other descriptors.

I’ve talked about it to colleagues. I’m too scared to do it publicly. There will be a backlash. I see how other people are treated for talking up. By talking up it suggests that you’re transphobic (I can’t say whether I am or not because I grew up in a system and a community where LGBT was not accepted. I’ve tried to be inclusive and be aware of my innate bias)

I’m cautious. If I speak up, I probably would be shunned from my networks and disciplined within my workplace.

Eggy, A person who believes in women’s rights

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Academics and researchers

A post-hysterectomy woman who doesn’t feel excluded by the word ‘woman’…so stop using me in your facile arguments

I’m a woman of the adult human female kind, a survivor of male sexual abuse from a line of survivors of male sexual abuse with friends who’ve experienced male sexual abuse and colleagues who’ve experienced male sexual abuse.

Single sex spaces and sex based rights and protections make our lives outside of our homes possible. And because gender is absolute nonsense – regressive, patriarchal nonsense. They think I’m a TERF? I think they’re a narrow-minded bigot from the 1950s.

I have started a huge row with a colleague (male) who shouted at me that I was a disgusting person for suggesting trans women are not women.

We are both criminologists. Criminologists. I cannot stress that enough.

Yeah, see the above. I yelled back twice as loud but frankly it scared the shit out of me that an intelligent colleague with a professional interest in, y’know, intelligent, nuanced analysis and good science, could behave toward me in that way and seem to think it justified. It has kept me (professionally) quiet.

The Mo, A post-hysterectomy woman who doesn’t feel excluded by the word ‘woman’, or discussions of menstruation; so stop using me in your facile arguments, you TRA morons – I’m a woman, an adult human female!