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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism - College Project

118 replies

roisinjf · 15/03/2018 10:36

Hello everyone!

I'm a college student in need of some responses to a survey I am doing for a report about Feminism and current attitudes towards it, including the influence of media and celebrity culture. It would be a great help if you could please answer it for me, here's the link:

www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GX3WNNH

Thank you all.

OP posts:
April229 · 17/03/2018 07:52

Wow there is a lot of criticism and one upmanship here, can’t anyone be nice and just help out? College research is about someone trying to learn, this tread is just full of hostility- how unwelcoming.

Elendon · 16/03/2018 19:25

By your premise this is a self selecting survey. It would be called out redundant if ever a meta analytic survey was requested.

EasterRobin · 16/03/2018 19:03

Hi OP. Your gender question did jar a bit but I've answered your survey anyway. I don't think this was the right part of the site for you - unless you are looking for feminists? It sounds like you are actually after more mixed opinions so I'd suggest you hit the report button next to your original post and ask Mumsnet to move your post to _Chat instead if you want a wider range of views.

You've posted in a predominantly body positive part of the site, where people mostly believe that your body is fine for you regardless of whether you like knitting/unicorns/make-up or science/sports/money, and regardless of whether you have a male or female body.

Unfortunately, you start your survey signalling to a bunch of strangers that some people's bodies are such a bad fit for their personalities, you literally don't believe they are women.

TERFragetteCity · 16/03/2018 12:06

Barracker - yes exactly.

Flamingowings · 16/03/2018 11:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thebewilderness · 16/03/2018 02:23

So, you are doing a report on Feminism and current attitudes toward it based on a survey asking women on the Feminist chat questions they cannot answer.

Somerville · 16/03/2018 00:39

Sorry, OP. I too would have liked to help, but couldn't get past the first question. It's one, of course, that I see in other places lately, but when it's on a paper form I can cross out gender and correct it to sex.

BarrackerBarmer · 16/03/2018 00:17

The problem is that the OP, for all she has good intentions, has probably never considered the impact of forcing women into a gender box when what they should be answering is a question about their sex.

It's such a loaded question that any answer will be a bad fit for many feminists.

It's the classic "have you stopped beating your wife, yes or no?" trap

I do sympathise with a newbie wandering in to a place of ideas they may not have considered before, but to post asking for respondents to a survey, and then when people explain why the survey is loaded from the start in such a way as to be impossible to truthfully complete, a more gracious response might have been to stick around and understand why, possibly learn how not to exclude your target market, rather than ignore and instruct us not to bother if we don't want to.

The point is that many of us would in fact like to help, but CANNOT truthfully answer questions that are restricted to gender this way.

Vegetarians: what is your favourite meat:
Lamb
Chicken
Other

Fine, don't answer if you don't want to, but I'm trying to be inclusive of meat eaters here in my study on vegetarianism.

LabourLostMe · 16/03/2018 00:14

I have not read the thread but given that you have posted on a MN feminist chat I assume you have had many responses similar to mine already.

I cannot answer your survey due to the expectation that your survey expects any respondent to identify with a gender. Which most people do not. In those terms it is very exclusionary.

I'm interested to know what your teacher assumed of MN when they apparently suggested you post on here (huffy middle class women perhaps?)

LibertyBlue · 15/03/2018 23:20

Take care if yourself Roisin - don’t let the posts here upset you. Good luck with your project- I’ve done your survey. Looks like you entered the lions den without realising. Flowers FWIW I think you’ve handled yourself exceptionally well in your replies here and shown maturity for someone I’m guessing is quite young.

Although I understand and appreciate a lot of opinions expressed on this thread, the OP is a college student so I think posters could have gone a bit easier on her. Lots of posters here should be a bit kinder imo. If you want people to understand your point of view and come along with you, then you need to be a bit gentler.

KateAdiesEarrings · 15/03/2018 22:46

I thought it may be a media/celeb perspective. Perhaps it would have been beneficial to have 3 studies because there are different waves of feminism and the media portrays and reacts to them differently.
For example, advertising loves the type of feminism that says posing naked is empowering. It's not as keen on the type of feminism that challenges advertising's focus on the male gaze.
Advertising adores the misunderstood view of intersectionality that supports putting transwomen in adverts for women's products or fronting traditionally female campaigns. Radical feminism challenges that position.
Pro-sex work feminists get lauded by lots of the media. Feminists that support the nordic model get no-platformed and receive death threats.
One ten question survey can't begin to tease out those contradictions.

Waddlelikeapenguin · 15/03/2018 22:39

OP
As MsMcWoodle asks above (the link is to the map) please will you have a look at this petition & sign if you wish to? Thanks.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/214118

Stick around & read the things these awesome women write on here there is so much to learn Flowers & dont be afraid to open a biology book, humans are male or female it is not possible to change sex

ALittleBitOfButter · 15/03/2018 22:21

So do you think vaginas and reproductive rights are a feminist issue?

Triliteration · 15/03/2018 22:10

I ... was recommended to share it here by my lecturer.

I am fascinated by this lecturer roisin! Did he/she know what he/she was sending you into I wonder???

First time I came in here, I was also eaten alive, basically because I had no perspective on what was being said and those who post regularly are very well educated on these topics. I have a much better handle on it now and as someone who studied things like anatomy, physiology and genetics at university, I agree that there is no sense in which a man can actually become a woman, nor is there any scientific evidence that indicates transwomen’s brains are female, despite the claims of some transactivists.

Sadly I too am gender critical, so stuck at the first question. Hope you get your pass, even if your survey is exclusive of radical feminists.

jedenfalls · 15/03/2018 21:39

Ps. If you want more than 10 free questions then esurv.org is a better bet.

newtlover · 15/03/2018 21:15

Roisin, you would have saved yourself a lot of bother and got more responses if your first question had been
are you
male
female
other
But, we have provided you with a LOT of material even if it's not what you expected.

FWIW I'm and ANCIENT feminist and feminist themed clothing, to me, would be DMs and dungarees and/or self made, so not a great commercial prospect.

PositivelyPERF · 15/03/2018 21:06

Take no notice OP; they are mostly bonkers!

Oh totally bonkers. Why, they even believe biology matters! 😲 😒

OCSockOrphanage · 15/03/2018 20:40

Take no notice OP; they are mostly bonkers!

MsMcWoodle · 15/03/2018 19:14

Op - can you sign this petition?
petitionmap.unboxedconsulting.com/?petition=214118
Thanks

TERFragetteCity · 15/03/2018 18:58

for the record I’m feminist, dress like a bloke, do a stereotypical blokes job and have short hair. Im Straight, with young kids and a bad attitude.

Me too without the kids.

Gendering as a male in life, doesn't stop the bloodflow does it? Weird that.

Flamingowings · 15/03/2018 18:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thebewilderness · 15/03/2018 18:52

Feminism is the political movement for the liberation of women. Intersectionality is a method of analyzing how race, sex, and class, combine to affect black women.
The words matter and you do not appear to know what the words you are using mean. I assume your instructors are responsible for your ignorance, though I must say that in this day and age there is very little excuse for it.

jedenfalls · 15/03/2018 18:47

Well. This is turning into comedy gold.

Fucking LOVE ‚‘studentsplained‘

And no, I won’t be filling it in either.

for the record I’m feminist, dress like a bloke, do a stereotypical blokes job and have short hair. Im Straight, with young kids and a bad attitude.

God knows what I self identify as other than ‚‘tired‘

InLoveWithDavidTennant · 15/03/2018 18:29

I believe that trans women are women and that feminist issues are their issues - that’s my opinion. As feminists we should recognise that they will have female struggles as well as those that the trans community or general LGBTQ+ community has.

They absolutely DO NOT, in any way shape or form, have female struggles! Transwomen are male. They will always be male no matter what they do or do not do to thier bodies.

You say you support the LGB community but what about your support for lesbians? You know, the female ones without a penis... being FORCED and COERCED into having sex with someone with a penis because if they say no or say they're not interested then they are transphobic and a bigot.

SomeDyke · 15/03/2018 18:12

I couldn't answer the questionaire either, because I objected to the first question and refused to tick 'other'.............

Which means your sample specifically excludes a significant proportion of feminists and supporters. Means you will possibly get answers that you agree with though, but that isn't what is supposed to happen.

As regards wording, given current news etc, someone would have to be pretty dim to not realise that the whole gender/sex thing is contentious. Hence your tutors should know better, and have opted for/discussed a form of wording that allows answers from both camps, either those with a gender and/or a gender identity, and those of us with just a sex. As I pointed out BTW to my own uni ethics committee, that just asking about gender will get you a grossly skewed sample at the moment. Which is bad science.