Tag: work

Categories
Academics and researchers

I don’t hate trans people at all, and don’t want them to be discriminated against

I care about this issue because even though I am very sympathetic to the persecution and harassment that trans people experience I am concerned about the loss of speech and legal categories to advocate for the distinctive issues women face. The confusion of sex and gender reinforces the idea that being a woman “means” something culturally specific that can be “acquired”.

I am really afraid of speaking out publicly on social media platforms and at work. I have had conversations with friends and family, but want to learn how to be more open about my views. The problem is that even someone as nuanced and sensitive as JK Rowling gets lambasted on social media, and I don’t want to be misinterpreted as a “trans-hater”. I don’t hate trans people at all, and don’t want them to be discriminated against. I just feel angry that their care and protection comes at the expense of women – and also clear logic and biological facts!

I haven’t been brave enough yet. I want to try harder!

JF

Categories
Others

I believe women are being bullied and silenced

I care about the physical safety and dignity of women and girls and I think this is jeopardised by self ID and I think it is wrong that we are  being asked to take this risk to appease trans women.  Single sex spaces should be preserved. 

I care about fairness for women in all fields and consider that women and girls face a loss of opportunity in sports and perhaps at work and in education if their places are being taken by males who identify as women.

I am worried that health issues arising from biological sex ie pregnancy and birth, ante and post natal depression, menopause etc may be impacted when male bodied people identifying as women access services designed for females. I believe women are being bullied and silenced, and asked to “be kind” at best. This is unfair. It is important that we are allowed to defend our sex-based rights. Without a recognition of our biology we may lose these rights which is what concerns me most of all.

At the moment not a great deal but I have talked to family and friends and I have started to make my views known on social media. It feels dangerous.

I have been criticized in twitter. A follower of mine whose son is a trans man said something very unpleasant about how I should worry that my husband was raping my daughters if I was so concerned about sharing bathrooms with men.

LAK, For women and  girls

Categories
Academics and researchers Healthcare

I have an abhorrence of totalitarian belief systems and dogma

Because I am a feminist and have an abhorrence of totalitarian belief systems and dogma.  I felt I could not stand by in silence while other women were bullied and persecuted simply for stating facts and for refusing to sign up to an ideological system. I am also deeply troubled by the developmental harms and confusion being caused to children, especially gender non-conforming children, by the way this ideology has infiltrated schools and other educational spaces.   

I have been a signatory to several letters in the mainstream press. I have taken motions to my union at local and national level. I have organized a major feminist conference at my university. I have co-authored a blog on an educational website. I have written to my MP. I have submitted responses to government consultations. I have written letters to university vice-chancellors, editors and other senior academics to protest the treatment of feminist scholars within their institutions. 

I have spoken to the staff and headteacher at the school where I am a governor about their PSHE resources. I have attended several demonstrations and events by WPUK. I  was a founding signatory of the Labour Women’s Declaration. I have shared resources, material and opinions with women in my academic and social networks. I have written to the organizers of an event where a feminist was attacked for distributing material.  I have co-authored pieces in the press. I have used feminist materials in my teaching.  I have joined a local activists’ network …..   

I have been asked to step down from an international editorial board because of my feminist views (after publishing a piece on academic freedom on sex and gender).

SeveraI people in my academic network, some of whom were close friends, no longer speak to me.   I am no longer welcome in some of these network events.

I have had student activists post my name on lists of dangerous “TERFS”, calling on all trans students to avoid my classes because they are unsafe.  I have had defamatory posters, showing my photo and calling me a fascist, displayed on the walls of my workplace. I have been referred to on social media as a bigot and a transphobe – although I am not even on social media myself (partly because I do not have the stomach for all the bullying).   I have been named in defamatory articles by student journalists.   I have been insulted by fellow activists in my union branch.

J, University lecturer

Categories
Academics and researchers

I am surrounded by intelligent, well meaning work colleagues, but reading their social media posts makes me question their critical thinking

This matters to me because I have a young child, I see that the teachers, politicians, union reps, work colleagues they have to deal with in future may well be pushing gender ideology.

As an academic I am surrounded by intelligent, well meaning work colleagues, but reading their social media posts makes me question their critical thinking. Their social media post that a man can mestruate for example; how can they peddle this rubbish?

My most reccent lived experience  – I opened the door to leave a cubicle in a ladies toilet and a man was facing me. We were alone & I was terrified. I had no idea why he was there. Fortunately, he left, but other women have had worse things happen to them when confronted by a man in an enclosed space. The idea that I would be in the wrong for complaining about him being there is a threat to all women’s safety

I have joined a feminist alternative to Twitter.

Kathie W

Categories
Academics and researchers

It feels as if all of my struggles for equality have been thrown in the bin

I have been a feminist for forty years. I have had to share a work bathroom with a trans person who is a stereotype of femininity and gets lauded by colleagues for their stiletto shoes and fishnet tights and mini skirt. It feels as if all of my struggles for equality have been thrown in the bin. I care about the safety of women and girls in sport, prison, school, the toilets . . .

I have engaged lightly on social media, I have spoken fully with friends and have attended women’s meetings behind closed doors.

I know one of my colleagues (a ‘trans-ally’) is aware of my views and I’m sure has been responsible for tearing down flyers I have put up outside my office (from Women’s groups such as WPUK) and replacing them with trans flag flyers.

TREA, Lecturer

Categories
Academics and researchers trans familiy

My brother wants to transition to be my sister. In the beginning we were all supportive

This matters to me because my brother wants to transition to be my sister.  In the beginning we were all supportive – even my elderly parents . This period lasted two years and then as we began to learn more and question (especially me about women’s rights) my sibling grew aggressive.

Our refusal as a family to be bullied into thinking and accepting his normality without question led to huge rows and now he does not speak to us. 

Worse, he has given very personal information about me to my ex husband (my marriage was one of coercive control) and he is using this to destroy me financially and professionally (I’m an academic).

I joined Groups on Facebook & Twitter and tried to educate myself in the issues.

Financially and as a family – My work is at risk from being named.

NS, Academic and feminist

Categories
Academics and researchers

Women can never fully escape the consequences of their reproductive role

This matters to me because after embracing feminist beliefs for my entire adult life I have now accepted that women can never fully escape the consequences of their reproductive role. This does not make women inherently weak or vulnerable (far from it), but in patriarchal societies it does create periods of economic dependency (on individual men or women or on the state, in which patriarchal concepts of citizenship are deeply embedded) and has longer-term consequences for how women are positioned in the labour market and treated in society.

It is not possible to fully escape biological reality. However, what feminism can do-and has done-is to ameliorate as far as possible the social, economic, political and legal consequences of this through legislation (women’s rights/women’s human rights) and by working to change socially and culturally embedded ideas about gender and gender roles. 

Transgender ideology, and self-ID specifically, puts all these gain in jeopardy. On an intellectual level, I understand Butler’s (et al) purpose -and intent-in arguing that sex is a social construct.

However, a wishful idealism that denies material reality is doomed to fail. The political project is thus naive, yet jeopardises all the concrete gains made by feminists over decades of struggle.

In so far as it challenges all boundaries, it can also enable bad actors that pose a risk to vulnerable groups.

I work in a university, most closely with feminist colleagues sympathetic to Queer Theory. I am generally supportive of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion agenda. However, I have spoken out publicly (email, meetings) about the dangers of this agenda being  hijacked and I have publicly spoken out against no platforming.

Interestingly, some Queer Theory/feminist colleagues have told me privately that they agree with me, so too a Non Binary colleague who now believes that no platforming is not the way to resolve this conflict. That’s good enough for me.

If we can have public debate, free from intimidation, I believe gender critical feminists will prevail and we can then move on to a constructive discussion on how to tackle the discrimination faced by trans people, without sacrificing women’s sex-based rights.

I have outed myself twice on Twitter (were I am not anonymous), with no serious consequences for me,  but I generally do not engage on Twitter on this or any other matter. Anonymity removes accountability for comments posted and the growing factionalism and polarisation squeezes out moderate voices.

I accept that engagement on social media was necessary when MSM (Mainstream Media) and politicians wouldn’t touch the issue and I admire the courage of those who have spoken out at great cost to themselves during this time. However, I fear the debate on Twitter is now so toxic that it is better to utilize other spaces and possibilities for discussion, more of which are opening up as the tide turns in the favour of gender criticals (in the UK at least).

I resigned from the Labour Party over the Woman’s Place debacle. I have written to the Labour Party about the issue. I have supported numerous crowd funders.

Any backlash was likely to come from trans and non binary colleagues and students, but it hasn’t happened (yet) and, as above, some colleagues have told me privately they agree with me. One non binary student approached me after a lecture and complained about my “cis language.” I invited them to talk to me later when we had more time to discuss their concerns. I feared an official complaint was in the offing, but I never heard from them again.

That said, I do not feel that I can be completely honest about my views. To the extent that I actively self-police, I acknowledge that there is still a problem and we have some way to go. We all need to engage with our colleagues respectfully and with civility, but it is necessary to air important matters in ways that do not obfuscate the issues. This is not happening in my institution or indeed across my wider feminist network. Instead, both sides are dealing with the conflict by not confronting it.

I am also experiencing this on a personal level. I know my daughter agrees with me on certain issues-e.g. that trans participation with decimate women’s sport and that bad actors will exploit self-ID in ways that put women at risk. However, she lives in one of the Wokiest cities in the UK where most of her friends and much of her social support comes from her LGBT network. We have discussed in the past, but recently she has asked me not to talk to her about this (a way of not confronting her own feelings, I think) and so we don’t, even as we are very close and can talk openly about just about any other subject.

Annys, Academic

Categories
Academics and researchers Healthcare

I see children in my city being encouraged to take life altering decisions at too young an age

I care because firstly I can’t lie and collude with the idea that sex can be changed, either medically or by declaration. I care because gender ideology reinforces rather than challenges the concept of sex-appropriate behaviour and I’ve personally fought against this my whole life.

I care because I see children in my city being encouraged to take life altering decisions at too young an age (thanks Allsorts…) and this is cruel. I care because until 6 I thought you could choose to change sex at 10 yrs old, I was a tomboy and feel these days I’d be at risk of being transed or forced to over-think it. It’s cruel.

I also object to the obliteration of the  understanding that being female is a material reality that carries with it the baggage of a history of discrimination. Being female is an axis of oppression that’s nonsensical to ignore.

I care lastly because I have daughters, aunts, a mother, cousins and friends who have all experienced both subtle and profound discrimination on the basis of their female sex. Sex matters.

I have tentatively broached with a sympathetic friend. When I first was aware of the Hyde Park Corner incident I mentioned it in the pub assuming people would see it as nonsense. The people there were self-declared ex-Terfs who told me how they’d seen the light. It was surprising and put me on the back foot.

I have spoken up at work about using sex rather than gender in our surveys – small act, but I work in Higher Education where gender ideology is being forced into every part of the organisation.

I have engaged on social media (including with my MP Caroline Lucas), as an anonymous, attended conferences, donated to crowdfunders. I haven’t done enough. My daughter is very scared of me raising any issue with the school, or speaking out. She is gender critical but also scared of speaking out. The school still have sexist practices that reinforce sex-based stereotypes,  but does nothing about these, while pushing gender ideology.

I have had no negative consequences but that’s because I’m careful to maintain anonymity. I also haven’t spoken out enough.

Maggie, Woman in the street

Categories
Academics and researchers Healthcare

This movement has truly shown that women are at the bottom of the pile

I care because the pro-gender lobby is hugely sexist, and aims to trample women’s rights – our rights to safe, female-only spaces, our rights to self-definition and even discussion of female reality and biology. I care because of the huge safeguarding concerns for women in vulnerable situations e.g. prison and hospital, and also the danger to children’s health and wellbeing.

It is cruel that gay, autistic, gnc etc children are being taught they are in “the wrong body” and must undergo a lifetime of medical alterations by adults who seem to gave forgotten their own childhood. I care because this movement has truly shown that women are at the bottom of the pile, considered less important than male feelings.

I have spoken with family about this, who said they wouldn’t have been aware otherwise. I have posted gender critical (but fairly mainstream, approachable) articles on social media for friends and coworkers to see (and had a few surprise “likes”).

I responded to the Scottish GRA. I researched gender ideology and the many areas of concern, and wrote a well-sourced email to my MP (Labour MP Cat “3 homes” Smith – useless, says transwomen are women, believes I am wrong and didn’t care about any of the quoted articles or stats in my letter).

I also wrote to Labour leadership and deputy candidates (apparently Kier’s team had nothing to say about women’s rights or protecting Equality Act 2010, but promise to protect non-binary people in whatever that means). I wrote to Tory women’s minister and got a better response from the GEO (that the Equality Act 2010 was safe, women’s rights matter).

I donate regularly to causes such as lawsuits, campaign groups. I vocally opposed my employer (a uni) changing ladies and gents toilets to unisex by virtue of simply changing the sign.

Our male union rep (Unite) said he wasn’t fussed and it was more important that non-binary and trans people don’t feel like “the odd one out” by using the other, single uni unisex toilet already available in the same corridor. Women’s safety didnt matter.

Thankfully more powerful women than me pushed back and the sign was quietly changed back.

I have had very uncomfortable arguments with colleagues and union reps and received very dismissive replies from politicians. Mostly it is just stressful because I have anxiety anyway. I am afraid of speaking out and losing my job at a uni that works closely with Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence. I am more afraid, however, of not standing up to bullies.

G

Categories
Education

FGM abuse happens to girls based on their sex

Trans people need to be safe, but they need to recognise that some people will take advantage and abuse the system to harm vulnerable women. I am a woman and I can see others being silenced for wanting to talk about being a biological woman, by men. This should not be happening.

I have argued that female genital mutilation (FGM) should not be renamed due to transphobia. Girls are abused based on their sex and we need to make sure that others know this and don’t invalidate the traumatic experiences girls and women deal with by changing the language or comparing FGM to trans surgery.

I have been called a terf, been told I need to be slapped by a cock, slapped by a lady dick, told to choke on girl dick, called a transphobe for wanting to keep vulnerable women safe,  called a stupid bitch

I have had family members inboxed, had emails sent to my work (I oversee all the emails though so was able to delete and remove all traces of employment from social media) for suggesting that men want to silence women .

Sarah