What fresh hell is this

[Dorothy Parker]

Stephen Fry - Stonewall "nonsensical"

Jolly good, Stephen old chap. Hurry up before the golden bridge crumbles into the sea of fucking perimenopausal rage and the rising tsunami of scandal over children being sterilised and mutilated.

Women do not owe you anything

Remember when black people during the West African slave trade complained that their white slave masters wouldn't have sex with them?

Remember during the Holocaust when Jewish people bemoaned the fact that Nazis wouldn't sleep with them?

Remember how, during the early days of European contact in North America, First Nations people were upset that they couldn't engage in shmexy time with the Europeans taking their land?

I don't.

Oppressed groups don't complain when their oppressors don't want to have sex with them. If anything, they want them to stop having sex with (raping) them.

Disney pulls transgender character from Pixar series

The problem (from Disney's perspective) is that trans ideology is the same regressive sexism that they realized doesn't sell any more.

Disney has made buckets of money by pivoting away from the "girl is when pretty and helpless and exist for boys" mentality. They also have leaned hard into the "coming of age" framework, using different characters and settings to explore aspects of what it means to grow up and define oneself as an individual.

Trans ideology can't handle either of those frameworks. Not only is it based entirely on sex role stereotypes, but much of trans ideology is about retreating to a more childlike and simplified role. (Note how many 30 and 40 year olds refer to themselves as "trans girls" and "trans boys".)

There's no way to make an on-brand Disney story about a kid who is different from his peers and so everyone says "Yeah, you're right to hate yourself because it's not okay for boys to have a personality like yours, but if you change enough things about yourself then you can be happy one day!"

Can we ban transinvestigating threads on here?

I don't like such threads, but sadly as long as we have the ridiculous concept that womanhood is a mental state found in male bodies, women will be second guessing each other because we know too bloody well that whatever gender a man feels he has, his male body confers physical and social advantages women don't get.

It's fucking tragic, just the latest one more of the myriad ways surviving patriarchy forces women to distrust each other.

It's also fucking tragic that Apple's concern for the distress of women of the female type begins and ends with what Apple can leverage to benefit women of the male type. While having your physical appearance dissected is undoubtably nasty, it's no more distressing than the injustices and indignities trans ideology forces onto women individually and as a social group, a distress about which Apple Pie has unfathomably not just remained silent about but actively promotes.

I’ve never known a group of people so obsessed with another group as mumsnetters are with transgender people.
I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of you have never met a trans person in your life and the actually have on impact at all on your day to day life.
It’s very keyboard warrior.
And I know you are going to say but toilets but sport etc. But honestly other than boxing or rugby where people could get hurt (and my worry is both for women competing with trans women and transmen competing with men) I don’t think it’s the day to day issue you think it is.

I've never known such a profound lack of awareness around an important issue that affects so many areas of safeguarding being disguised as "shut up you meanies" as we see in modern day transactivists as they wave their infantile flags and their plushie shark toys and their creepy sloths and their little badges. "Nothing to see here! Unicorn joy!!!!"

Thank goodness the grown ups are talking here.

Matt Walsh thinks gender ideology has now been defeated in the USA - is he right?

However, I also see a greater willingness to listen and think critically from my predominantly left-leaning friends and family IRL too. Their natural inclination is still to be kind to "a marginalised minority" but I completely understand that - that's a core value of being left-leaning. So it just seems to take a bit longer for logic and reason to float to the top. It's frustrating that it's faster with right-leaning people but it is what it is.

The willingness to listen and think critically is much stronger from the right (in my experience).

What I'm mostly seeing from the left is a STRONG cognitive dissonance because they cannot countenance that the 'good guys' as they see themselves, called this wrong. They are very resistant to ceding their sense of themselves as morally superior.

So right now, they're trying to bat away, belittle, minimise the logical arguments. Because they know they can't counter them honestly and they aren't ready to admit that.

The BBC strikes again...

I appreciate the BBC because I struggle to understand any issues (like diabetes or Morris dancing) if it isn't explained within the context of drag.

I'm not entirely sold on climate change yet, because I haven't been told about the impact that it has on drag queens (although I know there is an impact on transgender sex workers).

The Democrats Need an Honest Conversation on Gender Identity

I am of the opinion that badly worded opinions are worth listening to work out if they have merit and can be reworded. It's the substance of the point not the presentation.

Again this is effectively all about spin.

It's about learning to recognise a good argument badly made and a bad argument well made.

Trapped in the Trans world

If you work in an environment where 95% of the workforce believe in the existence of god and finish every other sentence with "thank god" or "god willing" or whatever other utterance affirms their opinion that god exists, should you be forced to do the same or get burned at the stake for being a heretic?

Essentially that is baked into "being kind" and using preferred pronouns when you don't believe in gender identity.

This is why so many women voted Trump

Names and pronouns interest me a lot - my son is demanding that I use his new "feminine" name (I find that very difficult indeed but am prepared to use it in some circumstances) and she/her when talking about him. I refuse to change my pronouns that I use to refer to him, for various reasons.

Firstly, they are my pronouns, not his (or "hers"). They are my words with which I try to communicate my thoughts. I strongly object to controlled speech, especially when it comes with a threat, the threat of estrangement if I refuse to have my language coerced.

Secondly, the cognitive dissonance of calling my son "she" is enormous and very painful. It is unthinkable for me to deny that I have a son. I have loved my son since the moment of his birth. He is not my daughter. And trying to communicate while constantly policing my pronouns ends up with me being incoherent. and distressed.

Thirdly, I don't think it's in his best interests to feed his muddled thinking about sex and gender. He can wear a dress if he wants - he's adult and able to make such decisions. But he seems to be mixed up about the implications of liking stereotypically "feminine" things. Feeling more in line with "feminine" values does not make him any less of a man; finding some of the societal expectations placed on men uncomfortable does not make him a woman. And he is naive about the impact of cross sex hormones; he appears to think that feminising his body will make him more comfortable with his gentle nature, and also that any doctor prescribing oestrogen will be completely clear about any side effects. If he uses cross-sex hormones and that doesn't sort out his confusion over his "gender", what's next? Breast implants? Castration and penile inversion to produce a non-functioning mockery of a vagina, with complete loss of fertility and normal sexual function? Lifelong self-inflicted medical problems.

Fourthly, I am not prepared to deliberately and repeatedly lie in order to make other people, especially my son, comfortable.

When it comes down to it, the language we use matters. It reinforces or questions the assumptions of people who hear it. I believe my duty to my son is to be honest with him, in as gentle a way as I can. Activists tell him that I am being hateful and unloving. I can only hope that at some point he remembers that his family, while imperfect, have always loved him and done our best for him. In the meantime, we are estranged and saddened, because society has told us we must accept nonsense as reality and be kind at the expense of truth.

Imane Khelif medical report reported in Reduxx

Disorders like 5ARD are complex and don't lend themselves to soundbites. For people who aren't interested or find it all a bit confusing it's much easier to shut the conversation down with "can't we just be kiiiind??"

So yeah it turns out it wasn't...
The nasty terfs
Racist white women and their oppressive femininity standards
Evil JKR
The healthy mountain air in Algeria
The fact that she just trains harder and is better than y'all whiney women
A Russian conspiracy

It was just another cheating male

Robert Jenrick on women's rights

You know how sometimes you are weighed down like the proverbial camel?

and then a little ridiculous mote of straw of no weight whatsoever comes floating down

you watch fascinated as it twirls around and you think ‘oop, hope that’s not coming my direction’

and it’s just so utterly ridiculous that your knees do a wobble as you try not to start laughing

because you have that on-the-verge-of-demented feeling that you won’t be able to stop

That.

interestingly tho I have begun to feel that breaking into hysterical laughter at every stupid utterance might actually be the appropriate response

BUPA being ridiculous avoiding the word woman

I don't think it is really about inclusiveness or people not being left out, because the word "women" is already inclusive of all people who experience the menopause.

The reason language is being changed in this way is because a small group of people started to claim that because they don't identify as X (despite objectively fulfilling all the relevant criteria for being considered X), the word X doesn't include them (even though it is only their definition of the word X that doesn't include them, everyone else's definition does include them). Having then deliberately self excluded from the X category, they are now demanding that we come up with other words for X and use them so that they can be included...

In supporting the obfuscation of clear language you are putting other people at risk. People who have English as a second language, individuals with poor literacy, and those with learning difficulties all need information that’s accessible. Clear, plain language is vital. Contorting medical language to assuage the feelings of a tiny minority actively jeopardises the health and well being of vulnerable groups.

Christ, this is tiresome.

Women ARE the only ones to go through menopause. Women = females. Including women who imagine they are men or use the nonsensical term "non binary" because they imagine that not fitting some backward sexist's ideas of female stereotypes makes them somehow "not a woman"

If you are pregnant, you are as binary and female as the rest of us as far as your sex is concerned. You are a woman, whether the ideology that seems to posit that only walking Barbie dolls are allowed to call themselves women "permits" you to call yourself that or not. It's backwards, misogynist, rubbish. Literally everyone will know you are a woman.

And we don't accept the sexist ideology that "woman" means "aligns with regressive sex stereotypes". You're talking to feminists here. It doesn't matter how "non-feminine" you think you are, since that's not what "being a woman" is, you are still a woman. And so are we. Do you actually think that old school feminists are known for their adherence to regressive sex stereotypes aka gender?

Jesus, the ignorance. Non-binary is meaningless drivel. MOST of us here would be "non-binary" by your definition.

We're not. We're women. All of us. The only people who aren't are the ones born with penises who are appropriating the term like the sexist men they are.

Women with alopecia harassed in woman's toilets at airport

I'd rather have to tell an aggressive woman that I wasn't a man than have an aggressive man trying to tell me that he was a woman.

People are confused. At one time it was perfectly clear what a woman was, and that it had nothing whatsoever to do with hair. Or clothes. Or feelings. Or behaviour. Or whether it was your preference. You were a woman because of your biology and we all knew where we stood. Yes, the odd error may occur when people made assumptions and didn't look closely, but all easily resolved. Unfortunately we are now encouraged to accept that being a woman is an identity open to all and that we should look for other means to tell if someone has assumed this identity, including their pronouns, name, behaviour and physical presentation. The latter giving rise to much confusion. As how does one 'present' as a woman if not through demonstrations of stereotypical femininity? It's not GC people who have caused this confusion, it's the shifting of the goal posts to define 'woman' based on factors other than biology that has resulted in the doubts in peoples minds about whether a person who doesn't present as a stereotypical woman is a woman.

Releasing crickets at a gay rights conference

They were protested against due to being GC

Not being gay

pretty simple

They were protested against for being openly and unrepentantly gay, instead of keeping quiet and letting people assume they might be open to opposite-sex relationships too.

This is the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" of our time. The "I don't mind what they do in private, but why do they have to rub it in our faces". The "maybe you just need a good d1ck" brand of homophobia, repackaged to make it look "progressive".

How do you support other siblings when a teen decides they are trans

[I feel grief] when I look at old photos because my child has rewritten their past. I have spent months now searching for signs of a child having been born into the wrong body but there is nothing. We have asked family friends and school friends’ parents if they have seen anything but they haven’t. Our psychiatrist, who diagnosed autism and PTSD does not believe they are trans. However, my child has self diagnosed. How have we come to a point where it is possible for a young person with autism and trauma to be able to self diagnose and be only able to access medical care which is either affirmative or critical. Where is the holistic care for this group of vulnerable young adults and their families? Some of the siblings in these situations will also be teenagers building their own sense of self in a time of increased and sustained stress and anxiety in the family home. They must also be at risk of poor mental health in the same way that a sibling of someone with anorexia is affected. Although I would argue that it is worse for the sibling of a ROGD youth* because it is not considered an illness and consequently there is no treatment plan.
We all know that the digital footprint of this cohort is toxic but by the time we came to this realisation our children were already young adults There was nothing we could do about it, particularly if they had already left the family home to go to uni.

Please note, I distinguish between rapid onset gender dysphoria and early childhood gender dysphoria and I believe both groups should be treated very differently.

I think that it is a crying shame that many psychologists have distanced themselves from gender, although I fully understand why they would as to do any exploration is considered transphobic. As parents, we have to be the adults in the room but we need help with this.

4th Plinth

trans is so fashionable among arty types that anything with trans stuck on it goes straight to top of the queue. Quite literally - if you work in the arts there are endless grants and opportunities for ‘LGBTQ+” people and calls for submission on that theme - and all you have to do to get them is say you’re trans or your work is about trans and you’re in. It’s dishonest and attracts grifters. But worse than that, the sacred caste element means that no “trans” creator or work can be criticised and all judgement goes out the window. That’s bad for all the other artists who actually have something to say/offer but aren’t flavour of the month.

secondly there is nothing trans about this artwork. You look at it, you are not moved to think about gender at all. It’s biology, that’s all you can see, and the only reason it’s supposed to have something to say about transness is because the artist told us so. As PPs have said it’s unsuitable for a high plinth because it’s detailed and to see the faces properly you’d have to be up close. It’s only there because someone pasted “trans” onto a very basic, uninteresting idea.

I’m GC too (for want of a better term - I’m not actually opposed to all gender expression) but I am interested in art and I can imagine a trans artist making work that actually explored gender, identity and what being trans is like - and a trans person could be a great artist - I’m sure there are people doing powerful and interesting work. But because all judgement has been suspended and anything trans is automatically fabulous, what actually ends up being platformed has no quality control- it can be bland, incompetent or worse pornographic as has happened in scotland, it all gets a pass.

As for the casually passing fetish gear guy - it’s just taken as the norm now that there’s some link between genderism and fetishism/bondage gear/drag wear - why? Pics like this and the caption pretending this is just some random passer-by reinforce it. But feeling like you are or want to be the opposite sex to what you are, is a separate thing from sexuality supposedly - so we’re often told. What is the article trying to say? That mr fetish gear is the intended audience? It’s all so confused.

I assumed it was a member of parliament who just happened to be passing by when the photographer was lurking.