What is going on with the Feminist Library in London?

YY I was looking at (a different?) thread on here and after a bit of a lightening bolt moment on another thread as to why I (and apparently oodles of other women) have a total failure to understand the whole internal gender thing, is because I am what is called in modern parlance "agender".

Well that's all fine and AOK. I think it means I'm not a woman now though? Which is a bit odd. Am I still female? I don't think so?

I think the problem that has been hit is that actually ^loads of people are not "cis" and so the only way you can tell what someone is, is to first explain what it's all about, and then ask them what their internal ID is. The assumption seems to be that most people who are not trans, are cis. Turns out they aren't. So then the whole "who's more privileged than who" competition falls flat on it's arse. Turns out there are hardly any actual women anyway. (I have no idea about men, this is going by a great big thread on MN where the vast majority of respondents said they had no internal feeling of being female. Or male).

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Don't know where that gets us. What I do know is that I need a name for the people around the world who are born with cunts and the people around the world who are born with cocks so I can say who is doing what to who, who is not getting educated where, who is being married off at 10 and so on and so forth.

At this point I don't care what the name is. They can have "women" and "female" and "girl", looks like they are a fairly small number of people anyway and you won't know who they are until you ask them (you can't tell by looking). The group with vaginas and that could be called Bibbles. Or Spreeks. Or, I don't know, Cunts (we're used to that anyway). Or Non-People (to reflect the global situation).

Whole thing is fucking idiotic.

Countess as I understand it, E- T- is no longer an admin of the FB group, making that the shortest administration since Lady Jane Grey.

The one who is now trying to deal with concepts she clearly knows nothing about is someone else. I shan't name her because I suspect that in a few years she will look back at this and cringe.

According to the baffling array of genders I can now choose from, I'm probably "agender" but since that doesn't stop people from treating me like a woman, i.e. inferior, I've chosen "feminist" as an identity instead.

Is she the admin of the library or just an admin of the Facebook group?

I usually try to stay out of the whole trans thing as I feel it's one big derailing of feminism, but I'm just rapidly losing patience in the face of this blatant homophobia, misogyny and attack on women in radical feminism. Sigh.

I agree with you there NiNo. I think this kind of stuff probably puts some people against all trans people, when the truth is not all trans people think this way. Many have total respect for women and feminsim and wouldn't dream of saying a lesbian should have to sleep with anyone they weren't attracted to. It's sad that they probably get caught up in all this. Equally sad for any lesbian who thinks there is something wrong with her for feeling how she feels. I wonder if there is any pressure on gay men to sleep with transmen. I doubt there is.

"transgender
adjective
denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender"

You're right Chunky, it makes pretty much everyone trans. And someone who may conform to all conventional notions of the gender relating to their sex will be trans in different parts of the world where the conventions differ...

Ohh, hang on! From that ask.fm page:

a genderqueer/fluid/flux person whose ID is mostly neither male nor female at all

Hooray! I'm genderqueer! Now I can call anyone who disagrees with me transphobic and cissexist. Sorted.

Isabelle wow! What an answer that is!

You’re allowed to have preferences about what sex acts you want to indulge in and which ones you don’t

Why thank you! So generous.

but don't conflate that with attraction.

I'd imagine not wanting a penis anywhere near you would preclude quite a lot of sex acts involving male-bodied people.

I'm sure you personally aren't violently transmisogynistic, but the same things that lead you to ask these questions are the things that lead to trans women's deaths.

Yup. All those lesbians not wanting to have sex with men means trans people die. The meanies!

I usually try to stay out of the whole trans thing as I feel it's one big derailing of feminism, but I'm just rapidly losing patience in the face of this blatant homophobia, misogyny and attack on women in radical feminism. Sigh.

I've been reading this thread and am now utterly befuddled. I cannot get my head around how Emrys Travis can call themself (?) trans. Is it because s/he doesn't identify with being female gender whilst also not identifying as being male gendered? So the conclusion that s/he has come to is that s/he is trans, rather than concluding that gender as a concept is incorrect?

As for the statement from the admin of the library... I'm amazed that they are happy to shut down all discussion about gender like this. I don't believe in gender, in that I don't think that there are any brain differences between men and women. I am quite happy with the idea that biology makes you male or female, and what you "present" as to the world is entirely a social construct. So, as a result of this, the Feminist Library doesn't want to have any interaction with me! Sod that.

transgender
adjective
denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender.

Straight from the mouth of Google

You don't even need to identify as trans - in fact, by the general definition, the vast majority of people are trans - I don't know anyone who 'unambiguously conforms to conventional notions of male or female'

Biologically a woman, wanders around every day not being worried about people thinking I'm a woman (because, you know, I am), but don't have a gender identity of 'woman' - I don't have a gender identity at all according to the definitions available, therefore, I'm trans or gender queer or some other pointless label.

Oh hey, me too. Does this mean we can all be trans if we just identify as trans, without any need for all that unnecessary transitioning business? Cool.

I read this ask fm page a couple of days ago. It seems it's run by Travis - it's referenced in the Get Real article NiNo linked above. A lesbian is asking if she is transphobic because she is attracted to female bodies (and not transwomen), and is being told that she is transphobic for this!

I think this is the 'cotton ceiling' thing I've read about. I don't know if Travis wrote that answer (dont really understand ask.fm) but they say in the article that you can ask questions there.

That manifesta uses the term 'radical feminist' twice. Either Travis didn't read it or they don't know what radical feminism is or means.

Oh, and I believe they're trans as in they're genderqueer, as in they get to call all us other people cis and transphobic with impunity.

She's perhaps trans in the same way that technically I am.

Biologically a woman, wanders around every day not being worried about people thinking I'm a woman (because, you know, I am), but don't have a gender identity of 'woman' - I don't have a gender identity at all according to the definitions available, therefore, I'm trans or gender queer or some other pointless label.

Personally, I prefer just 'woman'

Some of these young libfems LOVE being thought police, don't they? It's a bit funny cos the Feminist Library manifesta says 'The Feminist Library wants to be a force for good, a living breathing space with a growing collection of work that reflects the diversity of the movement we serve.'
here
Are we sure it's the same Feminist Library?!

Excluded if you think your biology makes you a woman or female -

WTF

What planet am I on?

Have I understood this properly? Travis was "assigned female at birth" and presents as female. In what way is she trans then?

Travis describes themselves as 'afab', so female, but I have now seen prefers 'they/them' as pronouns. 'Non-binary' seems to me to involve creative hair dye colours, green lipstick and wearing denim dungarees. But I've only had a quick squizz at their (publically available) FB profile so what do I know?

Bye bye, Feminist Library.
Way to alienate most of your supporters.

Yet another example of deciding what gender you are/want to be while trying to hang on to male privilege by attempting to exclude women.

I never even knew there was a feminist library. Such a shame I'd now be excluded from it!

Emrys Travis seems to be fresh out of university, identifying as trans (or non-binary?), and writing for/co-editing Get Real magazine where she argues she can call all 'cis' people transphobic and it's not an insult.

This is what the new admin says:

If the people staffing it etc have decided to go down a certain route - and quite extreme if talking about the menopause is banned (I haven't seen that thread obviously) - then aren't they going to want to get rid of most of the books?

Most books about feminism talk about our bodies don't they. If that needs to go then what is left?

I went to have a look as I'm a bit nosy and it seems to be a closed group now.

Is this a privately run resource or a charity or what is it, who decides the look n feel of it?