Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

"Cis allies" being asked to provide "protection"

256 replies

OlennasWimple · 22/04/2018 01:33

Can we talk about something that seems to be happening a lot at the moment: "cis allies" (note the " " ) are being asked to, in essence, prove their ally credentials but also take the risk and do the hard work apparently in order to protect transwomen (in particular) and transmen from attacks by terfs.

Just in the last week or so, there has been the video of the protestors on the stairs at the Jam Jar venue, which Bristol Sisters has claimed are "cis allies". There was a call out for "cis allies" to escort trans people home at night because they were scared that the terfs were in town and thus trans people were at risk of violent attack. The Free the She Wolf campaign explicitly asked for "cis allies" to attend the protest outside court in order to provide a human shield to protect the trans protesters who were going to be there.

And it's not just in person that "cis allies" are expected to get involved. When I posted the NUS slide presentation on "How to deal with terfs", one of the authors tweeted something along the lines of "Urgh, can a cis ally sort this out", and lo and behold a few new posters popped onto the thread to object to it, and of course MsIntern tweeted that she would get some of her MNHQ pals to take it down. (The slides also contain the suggestion that delegates "put yourself in between trans people and the TERFS")

What is going on here? How is the narrative growing that trans people are a) at significant risk of physical harm from terfs whilst also b) being significantly weaker than "cis allies" so they need their protection? Why are so many people apparently so keen to do this - to prove their woke credentials? Because they are hanging onto the coat tails of an exciting new movement and want to remain part of the gang? Why are so many of them women, when surely if you were looking for bouncers and security guards to keep you safe, you would want big burly men? (Pesky biology meaning that they are stronger than terfs)

Is this a new phenomenon? Have straight women always been asked to sacrifice themselves to the cause for no reward? Or is this just the TRA equivalent of making the sandwiches and putting away the chairs at the end of the meeting?

Confused
OP posts:
exLtEveDallas · 22/04/2018 07:11

DARVO:
Deny
Attack
Reverse the Victim and Offender

RogerAllamsFangirl · 22/04/2018 07:06

I can never remember DARVO. Would one of you be kind enough please?

BrashCandicoot · 22/04/2018 07:04

RedToothbrush Yes, that’s a very important distinction which could probably do with repeating more often.

RedToothBrush · 22/04/2018 06:55

Also TRAs are a distinct group. Not all people in the trans community are TRAs. It is important to understand this and how the beef is with TRA tactics and behaviour and not with trans people as a whole.

Whyarealltheusernamestaken · 22/04/2018 04:03

Many thanks @koyaanisqatsi

thecraftyfox · 22/04/2018 04:03

Cis isn't an acronym, it's used to by trans rights activists (TRAs) to label actual natal women as a subcategory of women. The TRAs will claim it simply is the opposite of trans, but as they also claim is means somebody comfortable with their assigned gender and many women (especially feminists) are not then we reject the term and point out we are not a type/variety of woman but that woman is an adult himan female and we don't need modifiers or prefixes.

NUS national union of students. They had a conference very recently and one session was on how to deal with TERFs (aka any woman who knows that women don't have penises and that only women can gestate babies).

MRA is men's rights activist. The kind of man who thinks women have too much equality now and that man can't grope their female colleagues/hit their wives/abandon their kids any more due to the pc brigade.

TRA trans rights activists. The transpeople and their allies who will claim misgendering is violence whilst advocating punching women in the face for attending a meeting on women's rights.

koyaanisqatsi · 22/04/2018 03:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

koyaanisqatsi · 22/04/2018 03:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Whyarealltheusernamestaken · 22/04/2018 03:43

Sorry am I rude for asking what CIS, NUS, MRA, TRA means? I want to support but sometimes it’s a foreign language

LightofaSilveryMoon · 22/04/2018 03:32

So: Sun headline: MASKED BLOKES SCARED OF WOMEN!!!

Battleax · 22/04/2018 03:29

I.e “blah de blah type radical feminists are attacking people” just doesn’t sound believable.

By using “TERF” they obscure the meaning.

Battleax · 22/04/2018 03:28

We need to be pushing back hard against the use of “TERF” if they had to say it in full, it would sound as ridiculous as it is.

thebewilderness · 22/04/2018 03:09

It doesn't have to be true. It doesn't matter if it is true or not. It's out there.
The goal is to get the story of how afraid transgender people are of "TERFS" out into the daily chat. Remember that saying:
A lie can make it around the world before the truth gets its shoes on.

Battleax · 22/04/2018 03:02

What are these dangerously violent feminists all supposedly using as weapons? Bookmarks? Crochet hooks? Laser pointers? That’s about all you’d get if I dredged up a local feminist death posse.

Honestly, I’m over saying “it would be hilarious if...”; It’s just hilarious. Who really believes this stuff?

PollyGasson24 · 22/04/2018 02:54

So what they're really asking is that woman protect men from potential male violence. Sickening.
Anyone else despair that men will ever sort out the problems they actually create themselves? Whether men identifying as men /women/ something else.

WillowWept · 22/04/2018 02:09

Who do they think is going to be doing the attacking? It's not women. I cannot think of a single example of any woman attacking trans activists.

So what they're really asking is that woman protect men from potential male violence. Sickening.

I attended the women's place meeting in London. Coldest day of year. Suspended transport due to show and the people freezing cold and risking their safety to protest? Young women Sad

UpstartCrow · 22/04/2018 02:06

OlennasWimple
they aren't hiding behind big strong men, they want to hide behind me

Yes, they are acting out a reverse, a parody. Its supposed to be a lesson in 'equality'.
So they hide behind women, and ask for women to escort them safely home because they are scared of gender critical women.

thebewilderness · 22/04/2018 02:05

The purpose of raising the trans umbrella in 2005 was to include so many people that they would be the majority so that majority could rule.

Original poster
OlennasWimple · 22/04/2018 02:04

Whyare - which acronyms? Smile

thebewilderness - maybe we should say that we're prepared to share public toilets with any transwoman who changes the loo roll, wipes up the mess around the basin and tells the manager that there's a broken lock and a blockage that need looking at?

OP posts:
thebewilderness · 22/04/2018 02:03

There is the assumption that people will recognize a "cis" person when they see one.
1, these transgender identified males have no right to impose gender on anyone according to their own lights.
2, I suspect it is part of the effort to normalize the gender distinction that replaces the sex distinction.

Whyarealltheusernamestaken · 22/04/2018 02:01

Sorry and no disrespect but I don’t know what these acronyms mean. If this is meant for the general public maybe assume we are all ignorant (but caring) and want to help :)

Original poster
OlennasWimple · 22/04/2018 02:01

Upstart - yes, that makes sense. (Well, it doesn't because it's all bonkers) But they aren't hiding behind big strong men, they want to hide behind me Confused

Red - yes, swelling the ranks is a classic technique, isn't it. Even if they are ranks of masked eejits

HopScotchy - I'm thinking of other SJW type campaigns, and maybe I'm wrong, but I don't recall women being expected to be on the front line in place of men? It was men like Swampy who were chaining themselves to trees or boarding boats or sabotaging hunts. Women were and are certainly involved - three of the six Greenpeace activists who boarded the Shell oil platform in 2015 were female, and I know various women from back in the day who were actively involved in stuff that would scare the hell out of the average TRA. But this was women campaigning alongside men, not doing it for them while the men sit behind a computer screen and wiffle about how words are literal violence

OP posts:
thebewilderness · 22/04/2018 01:59

In reality it is DARVO. Adult males insisting they are afraid of women and girls assaulting them.

thebewilderness · 22/04/2018 01:58

Part of the argument transgender identified males make about restroom access is that women should act as human shields for them.

LightofaSilveryMoon · 22/04/2018 01:49

And to avoid ambiguity, I mean that some MRAs always pose themselves as the victim, always.