Activism Around Last Week's Trans Violence?

There's a hilarious ongoing twitter convo where someone reckons you should respect someones pronouns even if they rape you because their identify is fact.

The sperm and ovum is great.

These are great!

What about...
Sperm and ovum having a chat.
Ovum: I really feel like a sperm, you know? I'm a sperm trapped inside an egg.
Sperm: that's cool with me bro.
Sperm holds up tiny placard saying "trans sperm are sperm!"
Ovum: hey, you hear something?
Millions of sperm descend, entirely covering ovum.

Tag line: Biology matters.

Or other way around...

Oh I like that @FactsAreNotMean!

I like what you are saying.

Another option...

Maybe a cartoon of protesters holding signs "transwomen are women", "Kill all terfs" and two folk walking past talking

"I don't know why anyone has a problem with folk being trans, it's so bigoted"
"you know that most of the folk who object don't have an issue with people living how they want to, they just want to keep women safe and make sure we don't end up with a world that's even more sexist"
"How do you mean?"
"There's a few things that worry me. Girls and woman have fought for a long time to be allowed to do things which aren't typically "girly", and now you've got people coming along and saying that a boy who wants to wear dresses and play with dolls must actually be a girl. That's just reinforcing the idea that girls and boys should do different things"
"I suppose, but what about people who are born in the wrong body?"
"ah come on, you're an atheist! You don't believe in souls, or god, how could you be born in the wrong body!"
"Fair point! but why are you worried about safety?"
"Because the government wants rules that says you can self identify. Basically, if you say "I feel like a woman" then you'll be able to access all of the places that are only for women - changing rooms, women's refuges, hospital wards. Remember when you were stuck in hospital with your broken knee and the nurses ignored your ward all night? Imagine how unsafe you'd have felt if there was a man in there"
"I wouldn't want to share with a man. But wouldn't they have had surgery to, you know, make them a woman?"
"nope, a very small percentage actually have treatment"
"you're kidding? I thought that's what trans meant, that you'd had a sex change?
"No, most don't, and some even insist that their penis is female"
"wtf! I mean, how, just, eh!!!"
"Really. All they will have to do is say they're a woman and they'll be able to come in to female spaces like prisons, refuges, hospital wards... That's all they'll have to do - no hormones, no treatment, no dressing like a woman"
"That's crazy"
"It's a problem for sport too."
"Sport? You mean I could end up competing against blokes?"
"It's already happening. There are already fully grown men competing in women's sports"
"that's dangerous, and unfair! They're bigger, faster, their bodies are different. What the heck is the point in me competing and training if a guy can say he's a woman and..."
"exactly"
"so what's this terf thing?"
"it's a made up label. Stands for trans exclusionary radical feminist. Apparently I'm one - even though I don't care how people dress, act, who they love, what they call themselves, I'm a terf because I don't agree that a man is a woman just because he says so."
"Guess I'm a TERF then"

I like that.

Is there an organisation similar to Stonewall specifically campaigning for women?

I've been having a look. Does anyone know anything about these two?

End Violence Against Women
www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/

Rights of Women
rightsofwomen.org.uk/

Sorry I should indicate that's supposed to be two people talking to each other

I was thinking just one of those conversation cartoons.

'Hey how come you're following some TERF scum on twitter now, I didn't think you were like that!'

'TERF is a nasty slur that people use to shut down a debate about gender'

'Well what's the debate? People have the right to be whoever they want to be and it's disgusting to want to stop people from existing and expressing themselves they way they want, that's like a nazi'

'Well gender critical doesn't mean you want to stop people from doing what they want, in fact it's in favour of that. We believe that gender is a social construct that harms people and work to rid the world of gender stereotypes so people can just be who they are'

'Like non binary?'

'No not like non binary because non binary implies there's a set personality traits for men and women in the first place that you can switch from. We don't believe that what's between your legs comes with a personality, we are just people.'

'Well I still don't see what it has to do with you, why can't you just let people live their lives'

'We'd love to but when people say 'I like wearing dresses so I'm a women' that reinforces the idea that what makes someone a woman is wearing nice dresses, it doesn't break down the gender stereotypes it builds them up and that's harmful to everybody.'

'So you don't think there's any difference between men and women?'

'No we do think there are differences but that is comes from biology and not culture. We have differences in our bodies, and women are often oppressed because of these biological traits and we need exclusively female spaces to talk about these things'

'Like what?'

'Giving birth to a baby for example, only biologically females bodies are able to give birth and it's important that we are allowed to talk about our experiences as women.'

'So how can I tell the difference between what's been socially constructed and what's biological'

'Well social constructs are things that change due to time or geography, and innate biology is things that don't.
Imagine you've been born on a desert island the things you'd keep like having a period or the ability to get pregnant is innate biology, and all the stuff you'd lose like wearing a skirt is a social construct.'

'What about intersex people?'

'There are people born intersex but the number is very small and just because they exist does not stop male and female bodies existing. Some people are born with one leg but humans still have two legs'

'So you don't want to stop transexual people presenting as they wish?'

'God no; we don't care. Wear what you want, sleep with whichever consenting adult you want, call yourself what you want, but allow women to have spaces where they can talk to only other biologically female women about things that only affect biologically female bodies'

'Well what about the support that transexuals need?'

'we are 100% behind transsexuals getting support for their experiences, we think they should have the same rights as everyone else and access to facilities that support them, we just don't think that should come at the detriment to women's spaces'

'Hmmm why is everyone shouting punch a terf on twitter then? you must be hiding something'

'Nope.'

Cross posted there with lots of folk!

What about somehow highlighting the belief based nature of this (the gender atheist analogy chimes with me) as an awful lot of the people who are so convinced of this argument would be the first to argue against enforced religious belief.

That might make a good cartoon actually

Mine too Sweetgrapes.

Lemonjello...rough thoughts from me:
-the whole "born in the wrong body" concept; I don't believe you have an independent soul, I'm not religious, your brain doesn't exist outside of the body so how can it land in the wrong body IYSWIM? So maybe something around that?
-Gender roles; something showing the statue of David doing lots of things that would be stereotypically female, but still being a man? Almost like a comic strip of David's day?

Or what about parallel universe cartoons showing the different outcomes for a child told that gender's bollocks versus one told they're the wrong sex? So maybe start out with a cartoon of a young girl in a dress, playing with cars and dolls and a caption like "Alexa doesn't care that you think cars are for boys, she's just having fun".
Then each version shows a version of the conversation where Alexa says she likes playing with cars and wearing trousers like the boys, one responds with "maybe you're really a boy" and the other gives a "gender rules suck, do what you love" conversation and then follow through to see the different outcomes for "alex" vs "alexa" perhaps?

Or a series of stories about girls who didn't like being girls for whatever reason but are now successful and still non confirmist in whatever way (you could consider looks, sexuality, jobs etc) but point out that in all of these cases she's still female?

It makes a nice gentle counter to the 'punch a terf/no debate' hate being spouted.

Its just we still retain honesty for the purposes of data collection and purposes where it matters such as sport, health and vulnerable situations.

That should be our rallying cry to those we need to persuade. It expresses it perfectly.

Am also thinking about the official position of stonewall on all these threats of violence and actual violence. They are one of the organisations supporting my workplace to be more inclusive.

Anyone good at drawing cartoons?

Not promising artistic genius but can have a go! Any ideas for what would be good? Am thinking something with vitruvian man maybe??? Or the statue of David??

I think that's very important YetAnotherSpartacus. The WEP, for example, are a gigantic disappointment as they seem to be thoroughly wedded to trans ideals. But how are organisations like the charming edinburgh action for trans health group, who posted so many vile comments encouraging violence, funded? That needs to be looked at. Are these groups publically funded? If so, who can we write to in order to object that funding is being used to promote violence against women.

Sadly I think that's true. I'm just fed up of seeing claims that terfs support trans genocide. So they give is a name, define an ideology they believe we have, then call us genocide based on....nothing. someone earlier was highlighting the work of the creator of terfism and I felt like yelling there's no such thing. But I'm not a feminist theorist so I don't want to get in to a pissing match about what a 20 year old book might say.

Is there an organisation similar to Stonewall specifically campaigning for women? (I think I know the answer, am clutching at straws... and hoping one of you brave souls will undertake to create one and make it a huge success before the TRA bandwagon rolls much further... you know, since the WEP was such a let down...)

(Should I add a ?)

Facts: "When they shout about people who are violent against trans people they're looking in the wrong place."

And they know that, don't you think? They don't hate feminists because we're anti-trans. They hate us because we're feminists.

Useless at drawing but I think you're right - we need to be clear about what we have an issue with.

The irony is that in many ways the TERFs they label us are probably very untransphobic. Personally I don't give a rats ass what you wear, what your name is, if you're a guy with a full face of make up. I have no prejudice against you. I don't deny you any human rights. I don't deny you the right to work, to live, to love, to be educated. I only object where you are trying to take rights and protection away from women. That is all.

When they shout about people who are violent against trans people they're looking in the wrong place.

I think there's a real misunderstanding of what gender critical means or what the belief is. I think lots of people just think we hate transsexuals and just think they shouldn't be allowed to exist.
I wonder if there's a good and clear info graph about how we don't care what they wear or why they call themselves and actually we'd fight alongside with them for their right to do that, we just don't believe that wearing a dress = woman.
Anyone good at drawing cartoons?

To add to NYConcreteJungle, you can also use a free VPN when you are using twitter etc which will disguise your location.

Speaking of gender identity, has anyone read the stonewall definition of trans? It includes genderless, agender, Gender-fluid, Non-binary, Gender-variant, and bi-gender. By that definition I think everyone on these threads could define themselves as trans. Maybe we should all join Stonewall!