Article from the rather excellent Julie Bindel in response to the supposedly Women's March in London!
JULIE BINDEL
21 JANUARY 2019 • 5:11PM
Not all menstruators are women? This madness has to stop
"Some years ago, I wrote about a store called Transformations in London, where men who wished to dress as women could shop. Not only were there corsets, wigs and ball gowns on display, but also pills that promised to ‘produce the symptoms of pre-menstrual tension’.
The idea that anyone would want to feel depressed, bloated and sore flummoxed me at first, until I realised that the pills would merely act as a placebo in order to add a little frisson to the experience of cross-dressing. How long ago this seems.
Today, we are told "men have periods, too” and “not all menstruators are women”. Take Kenny, a transgender man, chosen to front the I’m On campaign by period subscription box company Pink Parcel last year, which aimed to destigmatise menstruation.
Kenny had not had a period for seven years, as a result of taking testosterone – the primary sex hormone in men. Kenny says he felt ‘shame and embarrassment’ at having periods while living as a man, so why have him front an anti-stigma campaign?
Having a trans man head up any campaign about menstruation is akin to having a gay man who has “chosen” to go straight being a front for an education campaign about homophobia.
The latest madness comes in the shape of a new campaign that names those that have periods as “menstruators”.
A tweet by Women’s March London, the annual protest that took place last weekend, claims that: “As a trans inclusive and intersectional group we try to use inclusive language when talking about issues of biology. This guide from @PeriodPositive explains why we chose to use the word ‘menstruator’… about the tampon tax.”
A flowchart (guffaw) from the ‘Queeriods Campaign’ by the Centre for Sexual Pleasure and Health (CSPH), says that its aim is to educate people on, ‘How to include menstruators of all genders’.
According to campaign group Period Positive, “Not all women menstruate, and not all menstruators are women”. It sounds like a woke parody from Private Eye, but unfortunately it is only too real.
The transgender extremists and their supporters peddle some barmy views: that men can get pregnant, for example, and that boys can get periods. We women are told to use certain terms to describe our bodies, such as ”chest feeding”, and ”front hole”, so as not to exclude or offend transgender people.
There is even a view that transgender women (biological men) should be able to breastfeed babies, and a call to refer to pregnant women as “pregnant people”.
Women’s hard-won rights are being eroded by sexist men telling us they understand what it is to be women - and a number of young feminists are swallowing it.
As someone who has long been a target of vicious bullying from the trans lobby, I understand only too well why some young feminists are too scared to challenge this Orwellian madness.
I stand firm in my view that the extreme end of transgender ideology is pure misogyny, promoted for the benefit of men. And I have been accused of ‘hate crime’, 'bigotry' and no-platformed from a number of universities and other public venues by the blue-fringed student brigade.
At the same time, I receive emails and private messages every week from female students and other young women, telling me that they agree with me.
These young women need our help. Women is not an offensive term. We should NEVER be reduced to a bodily function.
Men do not get periods, and neither do trans women. Shouldn’t this be bleeding obvious?"