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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Please could we have a trans issues sub board in feminism?

93 replies

DeviTheGaelet · 25/02/2017 21:55

The feminism chat board is getting overrun by trans threads at the moment and becoming the de facto trans board as a result.
I understand people want to discuss this and also that some people want to be able to hide it, but there is a lot more to feminism than trans issues.
If we had a sub board then feminism chat could go back to being, you know, feminism chat.
What do you think?

OP posts:
DioneTheDiabolist · 27/02/2017 14:31

Please, please, please please do it MNHQ. Pretty please. I'll send you Gin.

BarrackerBarma · 27/02/2017 13:59

I wouldn't want this.

The general principle of sub boards seems to be for people who WANT to discuss something to easily find a critical mass of other people who are invested in the same subject. Like style and beauty or knitting.

It isn't to produce a ghetto where people are encouraged NOT to discuss the topic everywhere else.

If the posters who care about the topic and want to discuss it aren't asking for an enclave, it's not on to shove them into one.

I understand being tired of the issue. I have to take breaks from it periodically because it's so frigging upsetting.

But there's a big difference from a single interest group wanting their own space, and advocating that people's opinions should be ghettoed so that people can avoid encountering them.

peukpokicuzo · 27/02/2017 11:45

No this shouldn't be a separate board. Trans issues aren't a side issue that are only for the interested. If the concept of being a woman is either erased completely or redefined as a person who is subservient, nurturing, giggly and fixated on pinkness regardless of genitalia then the whole of the progress feminism has made in the past 200 years all comes crashing down. I am not at all sure what a feminism that doesn't want to think about such issues would be like but it doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

KateMumsnet · 27/02/2017 10:31

Hi all

This isn't something that we're planning at the moment, but - as ever - if there's a strong consensus that it would be a positive move , then we'll revisit.

Thanks

MNHQ

FlaviaAlbia · 27/02/2017 10:25

No, I don't think this is a good idea. If people want to start or engage with other threads then they can just bypass the trans ones. There's already so many sub forums that are never used.

Also, the recent thread in AIBU about a 4yo reached a lot of people who wouldn't venture onto the feminism boards or a trans board and were horrified at the tack the school and parents of the child in question were taking. It's an issue that will probably happen more and more since the number of children referred to gender clinics has increased massively, so parents will want to discuss it. Especially since it's reinforcing gender stereotypes when the children have come away thinking pink + doll = girl and blue + cars = boy.

Aside from all this, a trans topic will be a beacon for trolls and goady fuckers.

NotCitrus · 27/02/2017 09:31

It's not a bad idea. Failing that a way to block trans threads that deny the fact that trans people exist, especially as you can't hide threads in AIBU any more.

Gender is a real internal thing for at least a substantial minority of people. Some of those are trans. There are a few outspoken trans idiots, some who engage in thought experiments (like the question of whether lesbians are transphobic if they don't fancy trans women with penises, which some on MN take as trans 'movement' gospel but would be the first to defend say Dworkin's 'all heterosexual sex is rape' as a provocative thought experiment )

Yes there's some questions to ponder say about safety in women's prisons if trans women are a major group among violent women prisoners, and many other things, but so many MN threads forget there are real people diagnosed with a real dysphoria and as a group, whose suicide rate plummets when transition is enabled. Sex and gender are one heck of a lot more complicated than "there are two sexes and gender is only a social construct " and it shouldn't be people ignorant of that making policy.

I've given up reporting trans threads that (almost immediately ) cross the line from debate into pure ideological anti-trans rhetoric.

No, I'm not trans and have no internal gender, but several of my friends and many acquaintances are and/or do. And the lab next to mine where I did my PhD worked on establishment of sex - There's at least 15 sexes in mice.

Rozdeek · 27/02/2017 07:45

No this would not be ok. Transactivism is a HUGE threat to the rights of women - it needs to remain firmly in the spotlight. We SHOULD be talking about it all the time.

NormaStanleyFletcher · 27/02/2017 07:26

Please don't make a separate board.

Trans activism is a valid topic for debate on the feminism board (and elsewhere)

DeviTheGaelet · 26/02/2017 21:58

Thanks Fliss

OP posts:
FlissMumsnet · 26/02/2017 21:30

We can't make any promises but we will, of course, pass this idea on to the MN big cheese. Smile

DeviTheGaelet · 26/02/2017 18:05

Yeah you may be right lass
Never mind. I would flounce but I cba

OP posts:
LassWiTheDelicateAir · 26/02/2017 17:03

You will likely end up with another section on FWR which nobody posts on. These are on 2 of the sub forums - as you can see the interest was underwhelming.

Daughter started working as a lap dancer HELP | Mumsnet Discussion
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/feminist_support/2848663-Daughter-started-working-as-a-lap-dancer-HELP

FGM | Mumsnet Discussion
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/feminist_activism/2835232-fgm

daimbar · 26/02/2017 07:00

Good idea OP

Lessthanaballpark · 26/02/2017 06:57

I agree. It's interesting to discuss of course and means a lot for feminism but it has taken over.

DeviTheGaelet · 26/02/2017 06:48

whispered That's fair enough which is why I want a sub board on FWR.
I don't know where to put threads about other feminism, it just falls off the board very quickly atm.
Looks like I'm in the minority here though so I'll shut up Grin

OP posts:
WhisperedLoudest · 25/02/2017 22:02

I think there's a lot of feminists who don't understand how you can be a feminist if you're prepared to throw women under the bus.

Threads relating to the same are part and parcel of FWR

DeviTheGaelet · 25/02/2017 21:59

I know
I'm not trying to stop people discussing it, it's just turning the feminism board into something else and it's making me a bit sad as I love FWR

OP posts:
OurBlanche · 25/02/2017 21:56

Can of worms...

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