How is this anything to do with furthering women's rights?

OP I agree with you. I said on another thread recently that the radical feminists on here have the option of sticking to their hard line attitudes, preaching to each other or as you suggest, concentrate on the important issues.

Recently we have seen Martina Navratilova, Sharron Davies and Piers Morgan addressing trans issues in a moderate, concise, clear and easy to understand way. I expect large swathes of the general public who have little or no interest in feminism or trans issues looked at what they said and thought- "yes that makes sense".

This demonstration to the casual observer (which is the majority of the public) just looks bonkers.

And if this is the "telling feminists they are feministing wrong" - I couldn't care less about telling feminists how to practice their beliefs but most people are not feminists. That particular accusation, tbh when used, comes across to me as nothing more than an attempt to shut up a poster expressing a view which departs from the concensus.

If preaching to a small choir of like minded women is what radical feminists want, then carry on with this sort of stuff. If what radical feminists want is the general public to get involved, this sort of demonstration isn't it.

God yes. You haven't really lived unless you've had a misunderstanding and pile on on MN and lived to tell the tale. I was once thought to be a creepy period troll for over sharing about my daughter's mirth over her mooncup (which she had suggested I share).

Anne Ryzlo is a woman who has devoted her life to women's rights, a prison officer with decades of first hand experience of the sort of shitty circumstances that land women in prison and the vulnerabilities of those women, a lesbian, a feminist, and a life-long labour activist. She was hounded out of her position as a constituency women's officer by an extreme transactivist.

NB getting your arse handed to you on a plate on your first thread is a MN rite of passage. This is probably a better way to get it out of the way than the way I did, which was to ask for breast feeding support and have some snooty cow say "you could have advance-searched the answer to that..." when actually I was really struggling with PND (and a baby with low birth weight and a tongue tie, and low milk supply due to PCOS).

Yes, i umderstand your discomfort - but I still think this is part and parcel of the bigger picture. Without wanting to sound patronizing, how long have you been reading around this? The transwidows thread mentioned upthread is a real eye opener to exactly what kind of behaviour is intertwined with this whole issue, and while we can certainly feel sad that someone is unhappy, there are often consequences to people pursuing their own happiness in terms of personal relationships, or impact on wider society.

A man wearing skimpies will hopefully not have any direct impact on me. But the promotion of the ideas behind him feeling validated as a woman from wearing that kind of coded clothing is a part of the cascade of beliefs that have led to the current situation.

Yeah right, go tell Anne Ryzlo she just needs to show more compassion.

Have you any idea what she has been through?

I doubt it.

No, is that a problem? I didn't realise this was a local board for local people, I thought it was a forum on a popular parenting website where women discuss feminism and related issues

I was merely commenting on the fact that you aren’t aware of the posting guidelines. Making posts that aren’t in accordance with the guidelines will get you banned.

Then I gave you a link to the guidelines. I was actually trying to be helpful but I’m starting to wish I just said ODFOD instead.

Congratulations on the pregnancy sparrow!

I sort of wish I knew some people who tow the trans ideology line so I could actually cross examine ask them about it without them being able to use their usual smoke and mirrors tactics and hide behind “bigot” etc.

I too am very sympathetic to those with gender dysphoria - total myth that being gender critical means you hate trans people or are trying to erase them. Please stick around - I also don’t agree with some of the posters on here about trans issues, we aren’t all of one mind; the debate is robust but you can speak freely!

Have a look at the trans widows thread sparrow if you have some sympathy looking for a home.

Sparrow I wouldn't disagree in the slightest. I think compassion is important. It's just that in a priority list, my compassion will be focused on women and girls primarily, and if something will be detrimental to them, that will affect my actions.

Different women approach this differently- we all have our hot buttons, and personalities that gel better with some things than others. I am sometimes a street activist, sometimes a letter writer or researcher or analyst, sometimes a cup of tea maker and a hug giver.

But all of it is motivated by women's liberation - I centre women. I have compassion for others, for sure. But my energies are very female focused.

Nothing wrong with satirising men who are actively taking the piss out of us, then using the fact that they perform caricatures of women, as an excuse to invade our privacy, ignore our right to consent. Imagine performing blackface then whining about your hurt little fee-fees when you're satirised in return, by the people you're mocking. Oh no, we must never mock the men who mock us, even as they sabotage our basic rights. They might have a tiny sad.

Sparrow, trust me, here, if you use the word woman, most of us will assume you mean women, not male bodied people who believe themselves to be women.

It is only among a tiny minority of people that the phrase "transwomen are women" is taken to be literal truth. For the vast majority of people it is at best a polite fiction, and more often likely to lead to a facial expression which looks either like or like .

Most of us view "transwomen are women" as akin to "and now the bread and wine turns into the body and blood of Christ": a statement of religious belief which only a tiny handful of true believers actually accept.

It's getting more and more male centred!

Trans identifying males are not included in the word woman.