The "Transwomen are women" thing

The fact that there is such a mantra, to be repeated by rote and never questioned, just setves to highlight that this is a belief system. It is a religion relying on blind faith.

I do not blindly parrot the tenets of other religions, so why should I pay any heed to this one?

Trans Identifying Males.

They do not deserve the moniker 'woman'; the term 'transwoman' is inaccurate and misleading.

ACRONYM, courtesy of Babs...
(Actively considering reassignment or not yet made-your-mind-up)

See I have no issue with "trans women are women". I am happy for them to make the change, I am happy to use the preferred she, her etc.

I do object when a trans woman goes into a role designated for women. The reason is that a newly self identidied trans woman can have no idea of the issues women face in a daily basis ....issues they have faced all their lives.

If a trans woman has lived as a women for 20+ years and truly experienced the inequalities I am less concerned. That said....a trans woman can never know what it means to give birth, be a mother, experience all the inequalities of being a mother etc.

Yes it's all very odd. I believe that roughly 8% of the UK population has any awareness that trans is even a thing. My highly intelligent, political sister didn't know about it until I told her last month.

My theory is that transactivists and their allies think that the population is divided like this:

Trans and allies: 80%
TERFs: 20%

When in actual population terms, it's more like

Trans and allies : 4%
TERFs: 4%
People with literally no opinion: 40%
People who think the word for a TIM is 'tranny' and laugh at the concept: 52%

If anyone can prove broadly otherwise, I'd love to see it. Bearing in mind the Sun and the Daily Mail outsell the 'liberal' press by ten to one.

SomeOldFogey

It might be better to arrange an appointment with your MP.

Anecdotally, I have heard that a meeting can change minds. It seems as though they sometimes don't answer the letter themselves, as it goes through an assistant first.

A young, right-on assistant...

How is eating food working class? What were they eating, free school meals?

DM - deluded males

Or MLAW
Men living as women

Wtf is working class food? My mum loved her caviar, truffles and lobster - should she have stuck to spam fritters and liver and onions? Gruel?

I like the term MPTBW
Men pretending to be women
Or FI
Female impersonators

The problem when speaking to well meaning supporters of "transwomen are women" is that most people have the mental image of the nice colleague or neighbour who is a man "living as" a woman" just going about their business. It's not as though anti trans lobby feminists are looking to rip the skirt off these people and shout "aha!" Or chase them out of the ladies with burning torches.
Women have ALWAYS shown courtesy to transsexuals. Men, not so much. (Understatement of the century ).
For a lot of people, the image of the tragic transwoman, born in the wrong body, at risk of suicide is a powerful one (and for a lot of transwomen it's accurate).
But since most unnaceptance and abuse comes from men, not women, why are we the ones who are expected to take responsibility for their place at the table, at the expense of our own?
Another comment I read ( from a man) scoffed at the very idea that any man would falsely identify as a woman to get a place on an all female short list. He said let's deal with that if and when it happens (you hysterical harpies).
Well, alright for him to take that risk, eh? What are men conceding? ?

I refuse to define my sex/gender in relation to a teensy minority of men - who use stereotypical male methods of crow barring, their way in, bullying and closing down womens voices to get what they (think they) want.

I went out with a boy when I was 17 who was an anarchist and a punk, amongst other things. He ghosted me and never spoke to me again after he'd had sex with me. I was a bit naive and should have avoided him like the plague.

20 years on, he's on Twitter. He has 2 kids but isn't with either of their mothers. He is full-on Bromentum and keeps banging on about how trans women are women, and gender critical feminists are TERFs.

I actually think he despises women. He pretends to respect them, but he prioritises his Momentum credentials above treating women like human beings.

Then they get to uni and they daren't say A WORD.

They can't can they. These people hold their future career prospects (same goes for all of us actually) in their hands, at a time when earning power is down, life expenses are up and security is non existent.

The only way anyone can believe this stuff is real is if they've never had to face hard reality themselves, born rich and advantaged with security blankets a-plenty. Then they dare to sit there and pass judgement on the rest of us.

I may be feeling more than usually grumpy today.

All men understand that transwomen are men. All of them know this.
I think that's true, yes. But I looked at a Twatter thread linked to on here (I NEVER look at politics on Twitter, just use it for work) and most of the people saying "transwomen are women" were men.
It feels like a lot of gleeful misogyny to me. Lefty men can appear all right on and down with the kids while at the same time fucking over women. Win win for them.
Anyway, I totally get your point OP, and I think the best thing is to just ignore the mantra and point out the ways in which women are disadvantaged by their SEX.
One young woman on Twitter actually said " what lived experiences do cis women reallyhave that folder from those of transwomen?" Well, listing them all is a start I guess.

I'm sorry, no amount of surgery and medication can change a man into a woman. They are TIMs not trans-women or self-identifying women or any other type of woman.

Why should we have to pretend? Pretending makes them think they have won.

And another thing, I'm sick and bloody tired of being labelled a bigot, transphobe, etc for not recognising TIMs as female. They are males who think they are women, that does not automatically make them so because they say so. Bollocks.

Can the government not just take this bill by the horns and tell them to suck it the f**k up, already? Instead of a GRC, intensive MH support is needed here. It is ludicrous that this little charade is still being played to spare the feelings of a few, while ruining the identity of half the population.

Trust me, I get it. Feel like banging my head against the wall some days, but then I remember that if I kill too many brain cells their idiotic arguments might start sounding reasonable to me.

(Snark is one coping mechanism.)

If it's any help then my son, 16, in sixth form has said that the only sensible solution to it is separate facilities for trans people. That way women get to have their safe spaces - he's adamant that women should have spaces that protect them from violent men.