Sick of everything being about identity

Surely no one is this dumb?

I've seen three episodes and one and a half were about gender identity. I thought it would be more about the experience of being a woman in your 50s. It's so serious, too. It doesn't ring true.

Really not. I don't give a flying fuck what anyone wants to call themselves it has absolutely no impact on my life at all. I really cannot fathom the transphobia that's on that board

I read through the people standing for student rep positions at uni this year and most of the bios were just a list of labels and identities instead of anything about their values or their experience or their plans or the kind of person they are.

YANBU, I miss class based politics that was actually grounded in material reality and real problems.

I’m sorry you felt this to be unkind, it was not my intention. I am actually very much pro the majority mumsnet stance on trans issues, I was intending to be objective with my examples, but I can see how it came across as critical and was not the best example to use.

I watch NHK World Japan just to escape it atm.

Like the "British" listed in the OP as one of the many identities they are sick of 😂

i mean...... this is a real issue lol, the unequal impact is pretty well documented

the effects of climate change will be felt mostly by people of colour. The causes of climate change have historically come from countries who wont feel the worst of the impact. its really not a controversial statement

What I hated hearing once is a "young labour activist" saying "climate justice is racial justice" like climate change is inherently racist

It’s a fad OP. People will move onto something else eventually.

What is the common good? We can't agree. Dire straits.

Here we go. Non binary is a made up identity, surely you could have thought that one up yourself or at least had the theory of mind to imagine that was an example to which I was referring.

Real ones are the ones we are born into. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascribed_status you might find this helpful. The real ones are those we don't have control over. I suppose there is a grey area beyond that, which extends to silly extremes

I need to buy a jumper a UNISEX jumper why is identity even a question? It was name address nationality for some reason gender identity I thought I had clicked on an advert 😅

I think this is a very unkind post, albeit that that may have been unintended. The trans debate has taken over everything else for mumsnetters whose children and families have been destroyed by gender ideology, and thank god mumsnet has remained one of the few places on the internet where they can discuss this openly, share experiences and get support. If other women/mothers who have not been directly affected have joined in with those discussions enthusiastically, then that's a good thing, unless you think people who have really, really suffered from this toxic phenomenon ought to stay in the shadows and keep their sorrows to themselves.

Bad symptom of the current obsession with navel gazing individualism.
What happened to caring about a community or concern for the common good?

I’m going to guess OP works at a university or a school.

I take your points but can’t fully agree. It is all a muddling issue, however I feel that the trans issue is a valid example of how identity politics has massively skewed people’s (especially old school lefties) perceptions of what is most important to the most vulnerable in our society.

The trans issue is a capitalist issue. Businesses don’t want to be told they need to spend money to build a third space.

I guess I’d disagree a bit with the last one. The collective identities that people choose to form an allegiance with are often more personal and therefore create smaller groups. So yes, people can feel they are a part of something, but it is because it related specifically to them, such as in your example. It is therefore more about the individual than a collective care for others, who may have difference experiences.

Fully agree with your point on virtue signalling. I don’t think this is specific to the leftie elite however.

Who chose to move to and live in the UK!

No, he is a conveniently amorphous, non-identifying creature from the mountains. 😀

I don’t identify as female. I am female.
I don’t identify as white. I am white.
I don’t identify as heterosexual. I am heterosexual.

i don’t know where it has come from, this idea that just saying ‘I identify as …XYZ’ means I should be treated as if I actually am XYZ. Is it something that has come out of post-modernism, a belief that there is no objective reality - only our perceptions of reality? And now perceptions seem to be as significant as material reality?

You are close to understanding, but I think the "trans" issue is clouding your line of thinking.

I believe it is promoted by the populist media and politicians as a shift away from community and towards the individual.
Agree.

A good example is how the trans debate has taken over everything else for some mumsnetters.
No, this is a very bad example. The concern of many women on MN is to protect their rights as females, not to signal their identity or individuality as women.

Identity politics began as a tool for liberation but has been taken over by the elite.
Specifically, the elite left - so they can be "the good people" and virtue-signal about protecting minorities whilst still keeping taxes low.

It now often emphasises individual recognition over collective struggle
Usually the opposite: those who claim a special "identity" like to join a collective struggle for rights and recognition (a very valid thing to do if they have been denied rights historically).
The collective struggle that has been abandoned is class-based justice for workers and the poor.

for example, mumsetters who would choose a right wing representative as the party ‘protects women’ despite the party not protecting the poorest, when its women who suffer the most in poverty.
As above, this is a poor example. Your thinking is muddled. It is necessary to be able to define what a woman is before looking at how many women are in poverty, so the priority has to be protecting the legal status "woman".

Capitalism benefits by commodifying identity and turning it into a personal brand.
Agree.

This shift towards the focus of the individual fragments solidarity and weakens movements aimed at systemic change.
Agree. But as I said above, many people who have an "identity" do so for political purposes, to increase solidarity and effect systemic change.
e.g. identifying as disabled.

Meanwhile the US right wing is keeoing things simple by simply deporting all " foreigners".

I doubt the OP means this as a thread about wealth distribution though.

This.
The left wing has abandoned a traditional focus on wealth re-distribution and economic justice, in favour of identity politics.
This is especially true for the Democrats in the USA.
They keep banging on about identity because it means they can still be "the good people" whilst hanging on to their wealth and keeping taxes low.

Still applies
at least in my life