Tag: feminism

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Healthcare Others

That much of this bile comes from people I’m usually politically aligned with saddens me

I’ve had a long-standing interest in women’s rights because my mother was a staunch advocate for women and active locally in helping those in difficulty. I saw a lot of this while growing up and it had a profound influence on me. To see women now being dismissed as hateful bigots for wanting to protect their hard-won rights and protections is deeply troubling to me and that much of this bile comes from people I’m usually politically aligned with saddens me.

I discuss it with friends and family and I post on social media but aside from that I haven’t attended and organised meetings or anything of that nature.

One of the perks of being entirely unsuccessful career-wise is that nobody where I work could care less about my opinions.

I’ve had a frank discussion with one of my very dearest female friends whose stepson is now identifying as a woman. I was nervous about talking this through with her but in the end she was very receptive to what I said and we remain friends.

A scared feminist mother, I care because the fight for women’s rights has been brutal and hard and we are not there yet. The GRA / Trans movement is stripping away what we have fought for. We need safe spaces for women, and we need to acknowledge that sex is a protected characteristic. I am terrified for all women in hospitals, prisons, shelters, public toilets etc who may find themselves next to a biological man – regardless of whether that man is predatory. I’m scared for my children, and all the children out there being told that because they don’t like pink and barbies maybe they are actually a boy, and perhaps they would like hormone suppressants? Fuck.

Unfortunately I have done nothing… I have only spoken with my mum and sister about this. And please know, I have spent my adult life being vocal on important and challenging topics, attending rallies, encouraging education and conversation. But this feels different. I feel in danger to speak up due to how toxic the conversation is, how easily people are fired and targeted personally. Just walking past the protesters at the 2020 women’s place uk conference with my baby in a sling was terrifying. I’ve never felt that rage before from people with opposing views.

MT

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Parent

I find that ‘I’m on the wrong side of history’ by believing that sex exists (always) and matters (sometimes)

I’m a feminist. I abhor sex sterotyping. I abhor bullying of those that trangress the boundaries of gender. I take pains to raise my boy without the constraints of sex-based expectations. Yet I find that ‘I’m on the wrong side of history’ by believing that sex exists (always) and matters (sometimes). I see young men and women seeking medical transition as the only way out of the narrow pathways that a patriarchal society offers. I see them accepting stereotypes and doing violence to their own bodies. I don’t want this for any person.

Feminism gave me a way to understand the world and challenge what was wrong in it and a way to learn about my sex and ultimately accept it. I was lucky.

I finally had a conversation with my child’s headteacher (after seeing that a reference to ‘gender identity’ had been made in a letter to parents). I followed this up with a letter explaining my concerns plus materials from TransgenderTrend. I’ve also started talking to another concerned parent (after delicately talking around the issue for a while).

On the work front, I backed up a colleague when he was challenged for changing a reference to ‘Gender. Male/Female’ in a paper to ‘Sex. Male/Female’. Long, painful conversations with younger colleagues ensued.

(Their view being: it’s icky, offensive and potentially transphobic to mention sex.) The matter has never been resolved.

Sharing gender critical thoughts with family and friends led to allegations of siding with transphobes and being backward thinking. Ultimately a friendship was almost lost. At work, I feel I’ve effectively outed myself as someone who might not be trusted to ‘care’ about trans people. (On the contrary, I care deeply about those who don’t fit into stereotypical gender categories: I just don’t want them to harm their bodies. And I want us all to focus our energy on introducing male-bodied people to their feminine sides.)

Kate

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Private sector

I was interviewed by my employer’s HR department after a colleague reported me to them for breaching social media policy

I care because we fought for women’s rights for too long to simply give them up to any man who says he’s a woman.  Womanhood is not a costume, it’s a biological state, and we would be wrong if we ignored that reality.

I have shared posts on Facebook, I have tweeted, I have attended feminist events, I have spoken out to friends and colleagues in real life. I have contributed to fund raisers and emailed parliamentary candidates. I still don’t feel as though I have done enough.

I was interviewed by my employer’s HR department after a colleague (I cannot say friend) reported me to them for breaching social media policy. My crime was to share a Standing For Women post on facebook and have a constructive discussion about it. My employer took no action, but it was not a fun experience, and this has prevented me from being as vocal as I would like to be. I am not proud of myself for that.

A, Barnsley feminist

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Healthcare Parent

I see parents pushing it on their children

This concerns me because I see parents pushing it on their children. I have a daughter. I don’t want women oppressed even more because of men’s feelings.

Pam, GC feminist

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Private sector

At my London workplace the only accessible toilets for staff from other offices or visitors have been purposely made unisex

As a mum and a female at work I am concerned that we’re being duped into accepting delusion under the guise of D&I and equality. I see SLTs in schools and at work promoting and liking political groups that undermine the reality of sex. Eg: at my London workplace the only accessible toilets for staff from other offices or visitors have been purposely made unisex.

As somebody who whilst at the same company has experienced multiple miscarriages including an ectopic and an unpleasant experience of unwanted advances from a male (who eventually got moved on) I continue to protest against being confined to only using the unisex toilets when single sex toilets do exist.

I know there are others that are too afraid to speak up…it  has been confirmed I am not the only one raising this. The D&I director refuses to take responsibility though it was her that directed this arrangement. D&I initiatives are LGBT++++++ heavy. Webinars refer to TERFs “a minority of radical feminists that attempt to prevent all women from spaces”. I don’t want my daughter to grow up feeling she is not entitled to privacy.

As above I have raised the LGBT++++ webinar in a feedback survey. I continue to raise the unisex toilets issue and refuse to use them when visiting. I share what is most likely deemed as controversial posts on LinkedIn (including yours!).

Yes, I can detect that I’m an irritation to the D&I director. Some colleagues I have spoken to about unisex toilets shrug it off as trivial with the ‘well I don’t mind/sometimes the women’s toilets are in an awful state’.

Shuv

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Healthcare Others

I’ve been watching this assault on women and lesbians developing for years

This matters to me because I’m a lesbian and as a lesbian I increasingly feel that I’m being erased. Back in 2003-06 I was actively involved in Stonewall in my region. I was on the regional committee, which was headed by a lesbian. Also on the committee was a self-declared non-binary man who was studying Gender Studies at a local university and a transwoman. Although nothing had been said publicly Stonewall had already brought Transgenderism under its now-infamous umbrella. When I questioned this and pointed out that transactivism and lesbians were not a good fit, and when I asked what a straight self-declared non-binary man was doing at Stonewall meetings, it became clear that I was no longer welcome on the committee. I and another lesbian who also spoke up were treated with disapproval.

Our words were secretly recorded by the non-binary Gender Studies student and later included in a pro-trans lecture he gave in which we were quoted and cited as ‘the problem’.

I’ve been trying to warn lesbians for years that Stonewall and Pride don’t represent lesbians and until recently no one’s wanted to believe me.

I’ve been watching this assault on women and lesbians developing for years and very few people have believed me until recently.

I’ve been actively resisting by speaking about it within women’s and lesbian circles. I’ve been blocked and defriended by lots of people. People used to roll their eyes but with the help of material from Woman’s Place UKTransgender Trend and so on I’ve been able to debunk a lot of the nonsense.

I engage with my woke local council, though the fact that I’m an older lesbian means I’m talked down and over by the woke mothers of transgender children.

I continue to hold strictly female events and groups, albeit publicised carefully and not publicly, and to correct anyone who tells me it’s not legal.

I’ve spoken up in a theatre and cafes where the only loos have been unisex and asked loudly why this is so, and what are women who don’t want to find themselves in a cubicle next to a man to do, and occasionally other women have joined in. No one likes unisex loos.

I’ve attended a couple of Woman’s Place meetings, raised issues with my local council and other councils (notably Leeds), stickered with Woman: adult human female and taken part in  some direct action. Was due to go to FILIA this year before Covid-19.

I’ve sent a load of people to Mumsnet’s Feminism Chat and they’ve spread the word in turn.

I’ve lost friends. People think I’m a transgender bore and have refused to believe that the very definition of woman is under threat.

I’ve become very aware of ageism and have been astonished at the way I’ve been put down particularly by younger feminists.

I’ve never thought of myself as particularly clever or rational but I’m really very frightened by the speed and stealth with which people have been duped into believing something that, once you.  start to ask a few basic questions, falls apart,

I’ve felt isolated at times and wondered whether it’s me that’s mad. I look at Canada and Ireland and the state of academia and despair. I think there is good reason to be very scared, particularly if you’re a lesbian. It’s shocking how complacent everyone has been in enabling Trans ideology to go untested and unquestioned.

Perhaps the most negative thing of all is realising how easily seduced by dangerous ideas people are. I never used to understand how the nazis could have attracted so many people. Now I see  how easy it is to persuade apparently clever, influential people that black is white, male is female and it’s reasonable for a judge to tell a woman to call the man in the dock opposite ‘he/ him’ on pain of imprisonment. That judge should have been disciplined.

I’ve been a Guardian reader and a Labour voter my entire life and now feel disenfranchised because I can’t vote for Labour or the Lib Dems because of their mindless adoption of TWAW politics. It’s really unsettling.

And finally, I have lost trust in those who are supposed to be brighter and more powerful and informed than me. So many MPs and councils and doctors and judges and teachers and university lecturers have just lapped this gender crap up without question. Including women and lesbians! So many people who turn out to be deeply, blindly misogynistic and homophobic. That’s the really frightening thing. That’s what gives me nightmares.

Susannah, adult human female

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Private sector

I have also read, and read, and learned and learned

Being female is a material reality in this world and women and girls across the world are disadvantaged (at best) and murdered (at worst) because of it. We as people, and our organisations and governments must not be allowed to lose sight of this truth.

I have joined a local feminist group (gathered via Mumsnet). I have written to and have visited my MP. I have written to newspapers, attended WPUK and other meetings, donated to crowdfunders. I discuss this in depth (and completely uncompromisingly) on another small forum where facts can be stated quite openly.

I have also read, and read, and learned and learned.

I am a freelance IT worker mainly for companies too small for Stonewall to bother with, but did once have a conversation with a (junior) member of staff at a client about my list of browser bookmarks in a screenshot I had sent. It was in one sense entirely unproblematic – the person in question agrees with me and that was partly how he had recognised the bookmarks list (!) – but we agreed I had better move them to a more discreet location in a separate folder as not everyone in the company would be OK with it.

Jenny S, Adult human female

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Parent

Men didn’t want to be women when women had nothing for themselves

This matters to me because it feels like only yesterday to me that some of the freedoms we enjoyed for a while were won. I don’t think it right that hard won rights are being taken away by men. Men didn’t want to be women when women had nothing for themselves. It is just misogyny plain and simple and it makes me very angry.

I have written to my MP, with no success at all. Just got the TWAW (transwomen are women) reply. I speak up at work and have not been reprimanded yet. I speak up at home but my daughter is very woke and we disagree on this. She is very much TWAW, her only wobble was learning about Yaniv and she went off self I-d for a while, but after more training at work she is back on the TWAW bandwagon.

I have had arguments with my daughter. My sister also believes TWAW. They both work in education and have had the training. At work there have been no consequences up to now. But I always stay respectful and everyone knows I am a fair person.

I support LFC (and Maya), It feels like the erasure of something so obvious, so based in fact and science, that I am concerned we as a people are being gaslighted.

I write on twitter.

Janice V, Feminist and gender critic

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Media and Arts

I am a female political cartoonist ‘cancelled’ by UK left wing paper the Morning Star

I care because I am a female  political cartoonist ‘cancelled’ by UK left wing paper the Morning Star in Feb 2020, after they published a cartoon by me about the GRA, then caved in to TRA and union pressure and apologised.  Since then my reputation has been trashed around the world and many people probably now think of me as ‘ that transphobic’ cartoonist’.

They did not communicate with me about their actions, just dropped me after 5 years of being a regular correspondent,  someone who they described in 2015 as their ‘star cartoonist’.

I have joined the Free Speech Union, joined spinster.xyz, and made contact with feminist journalists. I have written to MPs. I have publicised feminist websites and organisations to my friends.

I was threatened with expulsion from my union, and jumped before I was pushed so as not to embroiled my fellow union reps in an investigation which could easily become public and cause them damage. My friend and her 17 year old daughter were so abused on twitter, merely for being professionally linked to me, that they have had to come off twitter for good.

Stella, Cartoonist and book illustrator from Bristol, UK

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Media and Arts

Not one moment of my life has ever been “cis”

As a rape victim and domestic abuse survivor, I know too well the visceral reality of existing in a female body. Erasing womanhood as the unique experience, both painful and joyful, that it is only deepens misogyny and endangers our rights and safety. In the US, women still don’t have constitutional equality! Sex-based rights are specific, distinct and sacrosanct.

Men who grow up with male privilege will never know what it is to be a woman. They have their own struggles. We have ours. If you don’t think abusive men will take advantage of trans self ID laws, then you truly erase women’s lived experiences and oppression.

Even without the opportunists, women shouldn’t have to justify why we deserve our OWN rights and spaces. You would never demand a PoC justify their need for race based rights or race based organizations.

I have been vocal on social media and with friends. In public conversations I object to being called cis or being forced to declare my pronouns. Cis implies a privilege women cannot experience. Cis erases the struggle women face to rebel against and defy gender stereotypes, roles, and behavior. Not one moment of my life has ever been “cis.”

I have been harassed online, usually by liberal men. Most recently, a progressive male spent the night berating me online, mansplaining womanhood to me, calling me a bad feminist, and telling me that female oppression didn’t matter compared to trans males’ feelings.

More frighteningly though, I have had professional contacts in the political world sever ties and support for me over my objection to trans athletes in women’s sports. This not only bullied and silenced me amongst work colleagues, but it also means I lost out on work recommendations from them when I was looking for a job.

María, Indigenous American, asylum immigrant, mixed race female, rape victim, US