(Sky News now) Stella Creasy is coming up against the biological basis of sexism

When I worry that I’m a transphobic bigot (which I do occasionally), things like this remind me that there’s stuff that men will never experience because of the way their bodies work, and it’s reasonable to expect some accommodations for that

Yes I was thinking about that earlier (not worrying being a transphobic bigot!) as I was reading a thread with a long list of menopause symptoms, headaches, brain fog, dizziness, heavy bleeding, heart palpitations, sweats etc. etc. that we have 16+ years of child rearing, then finally our kids get to a stage of not needing us so much or at least being able to leave them alone overnight, so we think that we can focus on our careers a bit more, and then bam, all these symptoms arrive that fuck that idea up, whilst men just merrily carry on as normal. Yet it somehow seems taboo to talk about it.

Yes I am finding it tiresome when female MPs who pretend they don't know what a women is when it's other women who are primarily impacted (eg vulnerable, working-class women and girls), then make very clear that they know exactly what a woman is when they want legislative changes that helps them.

That said, I am delighted for Stella for her happy news, and I hope all goes smoothly for her. It sounds like she's had a tough time of it; female biology can be so cruel.

Swinson Sodding autocorrect

She should campaign for TW to take all female roles then maternity is no longer a problem

I must admit to having a similar lack of sympathy for Jo Swindon complaining about Torres not honouring the pairing system for votes when she was pregnant.

I wish them nothing but safe pregnancies but acknowledging female biological differences when it comes to their self interest then returning to the TWAW mantra afterwards makes me rage

I'm a bit curious about how the idea of a maternity leave would work for an MP. It does seem a little more complicated than in other job situations, not quite like your doctor bringing in a locum, since her constituents would not have voted for that person.

Jacinda Ardern took 6 weeks maternity leave as PM in New Zealand. Canadian MPs get maternity leave. Various EU countries offer MPs maternity leave. Different rules in different countries, but it's possible.

She should campaign for TW to take all female roles then maternity is no longer a problem

I wonder if she will get shit from the TRAs and how she will enjoy having her biology and its problems deemed transphobic

Hopefully!

The average age when a woman has her first child is increasing. And by the time that many women now get around to having children many are settled into careers. I don't think you are ever prepared for the huge change that having a child brings with it. Many seem to think they can just go back to their old life, but with a child in tow.

We all know this is not the case. And nothing can prepare you for the profound change in emotions, feelings and ones sense of priorities in life. And many women would actually rather stay at home and be with their child for the first early years. Many won't be able to afford to, though.

The Guardian, in particular, has annoyed the hell out of me for years - because it has been obsessed with these sorts of issues; as if nobody had ever experienced or spoken about them before. I think many of these women, journalists included, may also be those who unquestioningly accept the TWAW mantra, pretty much without question.

We are women because we are in a female body. The biological functions of the female body have implications for our participation in society; and on the way we are viewed and treated.

That said, of course I agree with her about female biology and the problems it causes us to face in the workplace.

Yes, she was happy to say women, women, women throughout the interviews she's been doing this morning. Not 'pregnant people'. Because she bloody well knows women are the type of people who get pregnant.

I wonder if she will get shit from the TRAs and how she will enjoy having her biology and its problems deemed transphobic.

*Stella benefit from a women only shortlist, only to then promote the idea that males who identify as women should be allowed into women only shortlists.

That isn't "challenging patriarchy" it's pulling the ladder up from underneath you.

She doesn't deserve to be discriminated against be ause of her female biology. No female does.
Stella doesn't believe that 'woman' means person with female biology. She thinks it means something else (something she can't define). Therefore according to Stella, women's rights don't exist.

That's what we're pissed off about.

She's pregnant. Maybe she'll realise now*

Hear hear. Very well said.

Sex based discrimination gonna sex based discriminate...

Well I thought that she wrote a fantastic article. Given her experience with infertility, I suspect that she knows exactly how much women are discriminated against at a biological level. There's no need to be so dismissive of her views on the basis of her only now announcing her pregnancy.

Trans issues aren't the only issues feminists face today and it doesn't take pregnancy and child rearing to see what those issues are. Or are you judging her based on her fertility?

Stella also came to a webchat hereabouts, promoting her legislation amendment that would make misogyny a hate category but a category that would include males (presumably on the basis of the self-ID she supports).

Can't pick and choose, Stella.

Surely talking about her pregnancy/fertility is a display of cis privilege and an act of literal violence against trans women.

I'm a bit curious about how the idea of a maternity leave would work for an MP. It does seem a little more complicated than in other job situations, not quite like your doctor bringing in a locum, since her constituents would not have voted for that person.

Ah, so Stella has joined the class of uterus-havers who gestate? Welcome Stella.
I genuinely wish you the best of luck.

And we'll see you here on the boards when you want to discuss your unmentionable reproductive biology in factual terms, and we'll commiserate with you that your gestational status has impacted you, your body, and your career, inexplicably, so very differently from the other women. The penisey type, I mean.

But don't worry, your legacy means that plenty of women will follow in your political footsteps, taking up those female places on the shortlists.
I'll bet you anything maternity rights prove to be less of an issue for them too.

What's interesting is that she told us, specifically, that biology ks definitely NOT the basis of women's oppression.

Do you have a link or a screenshot for that?

She's more than happy to legislate to remove legal identity and protections from women, and more than happy to pour scorn and contempt on any woman who objects. Yet, she apparently considers HER biological womanhood, her maternity as deserving of an appropriate policy response.

Quite.

I was surprised to see this article in The Guardian.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/17/pregnant-mp-maternity-leave-equality-stella-creasy

She was talking about pregnancy and how it affects women MPs. Didn't even mention that of course men and nonbinaryfolx can get pregnant. And how it is much worse for them blah blah blah.

The genderists will not be happy about that.

Stella, I'm all right Jack, Creasy is now realising that women, i.e. adult human females, now need help when on possible maternity leave, and I hope, with all my heart, that she gets her much longed for baby.

However her description of her early miscarriages are awful. Why didn't she seek help immediately and felt the need to continue working? I would have been horrified as one of her constituents to learn that she had done this.

Congrats to Stella, genuinely pleased for her that she’s going to be a mother

Good luck with all the stuff she’s about to experience that only happens to women. If she’s got any sense it will be quite an eye opener

When I worry that I’m a transphobic bigot (which I do occasionally), things like this remind me that there’s stuff that men will never experience because of the way their bodies work, and it’s reasonable to expect some accommodations for that

^benefitted