Category: Others

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Others

I fear that woman will be driven from public life

This matters to me as I feel that women’s rights are being attacked and set back decades. Woman have our own services for our privacy, dignity and safety and I worry that these are being threatened with removal. I care because I fear that woman will be driven from public life, our health and well-being will be affected. I know that predatory men will take full advantage of easy access into women’s safe spaces and assaults will increase.

I have raised my voice on Twitter albeit with an anonymous account. I have shared articles and supported others who speak out with positive comments and thanks. I have questioned companies and organisations about their use of dehumanising language eg menstruators, womxn. I have submitted responses to the UK and Scottish GRA proposals.

I have had some negative comments from strangers on Twitter.

Mary, accountant, mother, owned by cats

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You cannot feel what it is like to be a woman

This issue is important to my heart because I value my human right to safety as a woman. Moreover, a woman who has been assaulted by males throughout my short life, I recognise the importance of distinguishing between sex (reality) and gender (stereotypes). You cannot feel what it is like to be a woman. If you were born male, you cannot understand the attacks made against you on a daily basis by everyone in your life, and you cannot empathise genuinely with the suffering of women the world over. I won’t be silenced.

I have devoted my social media accounts to amplifying women and lesbian voices against the tsunami of false information, men deciding what women are, and bile spewed against women like JKR, who is an honourable and admirable representative for women who have suffered at the hands of men.

I’ve been banned from countless groups and communities and added to several lists of public enemies belonging to those groups admins. I have received death and rape threats, as have every other woman I know who has spoken their mind on this matter.

Vi, An unsilenced woman, womensrightspls

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This proposed legislation leaves women vulnerable to males

This matters to me as a concerned woman, a mum of amazing daughters, an abuse survivor. This proposed legislation leaves women vulnerable to males seeking to use legislative changes to enter women’s safe spaces

I’ve written to MP, MSP, donated to fundraisers.

Izzi

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I respect and support trans women but their experience is different to mine

I’m a 52 year old menopausal woman.  I’ve experienced my life as a woman.  I’ve had to look after myself, deal with sexual harassment, painful periods, pregnancy, childbirth, an equal pay claim and a lifetime of navigating everything from overt to subtle sexism.  I respect and support trans women but their experience is different to mine.  They have experienced a different perspective. 

I don’t discount anyone’s experience but I want my experience as an adult human female to be valid and separate.  It cannot be right that trans women can compete against women in sport.   Please can we have diversity of perspective on this topic?

I’ve been moderately active on Twitter.  I’ve supported financially where possible.  I’ve talked to people – debated.  I’ve tried to support women and trans women where I can.

Not experienced consequences so far…. but I’m worried

Jo C, Adult Human Female

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I am concerned about the impact on female sports

I am concerned about the impact on female sports and female only areas.

Retweeted, liked tweets.

Patrick

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Others

Self ID creates a huge hole in norms of day to day safeguarding

So many reasons. I care VERY MUCH that women’s voices seem to be repeatedly and routinely ignored, disparaged and attacked. I firmly believe that no child is born into the wrong body. I have gay siblings and the idea that they are somehow fundamentally ‘wrong’ strikes me as deeply and distressingly homophobic, and that this opens the door to a warped form of conversion therapy.

I do not think it is possible to change sex, and that one of the worst aspects of this is the potential for exploitation  – financial or emotional/psychological/sexual – of troubled individuals (plus it allows for such horrors as forced sex change /conversion therapy such as is seen in Iran). I think that sexual predators DO go to great lengths to access potential victims and that self ID creates a huge hole in what have been up to now socially accepted norms of day to day safeguarding for women and girls in certain contexts – I believe that both men and women should be able to access single sex spaces and to know that those spaces will be single sex.

It is simply not bigotry to express concerns for the safety of women and girls. It is not hate to state that sex exists and that women and girls are subject to discrimination (at best) BECAUSE THEY ARE FEMALE.

I have done mainly social media, and that mainly (but not entirely) anonymously.

Not experienced consequences on a significant scale – but my partner has struggled with my interest in speaking out about this issue.

Milly

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I feel that the rights of women and girls are being compromised

This is an important issue to me because I feel that the rights of women and girls are being compromised, eg no-platforming of academics, girls being told they have to accept male bodied trans girls into their spaces

I have completed various online petitions/actions, eg GRA, I have emailed my MP to voice my concerns over changes to language, I have joined several like minded groups on social media for support, and shared lots of information, to raise awareness to friends, eg pictures of males competing unfairly with female athletes

I have been ‘ganged up’ on and shouted down when I have tried to defend or make a point in groups on Facebook, eg The Labour Party Forum. I have been called a bigot and TERF purely for not agreeing that trans women are women,

ElleWoman:adult human female

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As a teenager, I told my friends to consider me a boy in a girl’s body

As someone who survived girlhood and has been forced to face the reality of my life head-on to try to heal from it, I now understand how much of the violence and disadvantages I suffered in my life as a result of people recognizing me as female and treating me according to their ideas of how a female person should be treated.

As a teenager, I told my friends to consider me a boy in a girl’s body because I knew I couldn’t live up to the stereotypes of womanhood, and I could not identify with the restrictions others placed on my freedom, intellect, physical ability, and more. If I had been raised believing that I could truly turn into a man, I would have taken that escape from the oppressiveness of my female reality.

I had to do this alone. I had no support from my family (my first and main source of patriarchal abuse), my friends (who dismissed my trauma symptoms as “girl drama”), or my professional colleagues in a male-dominated field (who simply assumed I was bad at my job and not worth training).

No girl should have to accept being treated as subhuman by the society she lives in; no girl should have to recover from abuse alone; no girl should be forced to violate her own sense of integrity by being pressured to believe that men can be women in any way.

Bellona, Former ‘boy in a girl’s body’, USA

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I have used ladies loos in pubs to get away from pushy or aggressive men

The safety of women and girls matter to me. In the past I have used ladies loos in pubs to get away from pushy or aggressive men.

I have spoken to friends in real life, on social media, and donated to issues I care about.

People have been unfriendly on social media, and in real life.

KP, IT since 90s, Mum of 3 and Bereaved mother of 1, USA

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It erases reality and our capacity to name it

I care, because it affects women. It erases hard won rights. It erases reality and our capacity to name it.

I have participated in online discussions, so not much of a real life activist. Yet.

BC, Spain