What broader issues has the trans (lack of) debate opened your eyes to?

But facts or coming to conclusions aren't really part of the picture in many cases - it's all about accepting the proposed view that the school wants the kids to come to and teaching is very directly to that end.

That's not my experience of KS3 & 4 right now, I have to say. There is a lot of respect for LGBT expression, but when it comes to the classroom there is an emphasis on critical thinking.

I wouldn't blame the teachers and teaching if they are being given guidance by central government and the CPS telling them how they MUST handle trans politics.

I work with young people. I agree with you. I also think that social media is lagely to blame tbf.

I agree as well, as someone in education. I think it goes beyond the media however. Education has been rethought and is being delivered in an entirely different way. It's belongs entirely to the logic of identity politics for one thing. But facts or coming to conclusions aren't really part of the picture in many cases - it's all about accepting the proposed view that the school wants the kids to come to and teaching is very directly to that end.

i think thats bang on Bling my DH is exacty like that, in fact thinking about it, all the men I know are like that. They are the default human, the world is designed around them and they dont see it or realise how immensly privilaged they are.

They dont actively hate women at all, they just dont realise how everything from the langauage we use to the phones we carry start with them at this defualt user. its just invisible to them.

They also dont know what its like to be smaller and weaker than half the human race. Even thugh my DH and I both 'know' he's far more likely to be attacked by a man than I am, hes never changed his behaviour because it's not been ingrained into him to do so from a young age

so i dont think its hatred from most men (Obvs though some really dislike women) its just utter self centred oblivious privilege

I think the trans issue is about subordinating the concerns of women and girls to the desire of natal males to take a battering ram to our spaces. There is also the expectation that the only appropriate female response to this dismantling of women's exclusive spaces is enthusiastic support. The sense of entitlement is so explicit.

That people really think that women are sort of broken men.

Yes, I'm reminded of the "eggshell skulls" comment.

Lots of people have commented deep seated hatred for women.

I see it differently. What I've really noticed is how men are centred in EVERYTHING and the resulting privilege that comes with this. And when they aren't, many react badly and aggressively.

And the trans "debate" which really, is about MEN wanting to be able to do or be or portray themselves however they want and for WOMEN to move out of their way in order to achieve this, is just the most blatant version of this. DH is always confused about why it's transwomen that everyone is up in arms about and not transmen. And I have to remind him every time that it's because men aren't scared of transmen. If a transman enters their spaces, it's the transman who is at risk.

DH is 100% a feminist ally. But so many of these issues have to be explained carefully and repeatedly to him because they're simply not instinctive for him. He's so used to being the default "person" and his "rights" being inviolate that he has to really stop and think every time. And what has scared me time and time again are all the other "nice" white men who don't want to think about this or can't because they don't even realise how very very centred and privileged they are.

Yy to the NSPCC issue. Their capture and then their reaction to criticism of rubberman made it clear these people are in no way fit to protect children. The fact that it has been barely reported makes it even worse.

Shame on all involved - rubberman himself but also all the execs around him, the trustees and advisers, the journalists who knew but didn’t report on it, the BBC, as ever, and of course Owen Jones and all his creepy followers for slinging mud at those who were standing up for children’s right to decency.

As Nauticant has already said, for me it's about freedom of speech and how this is under sustained attack. I also agree about the importance of media plurality and diversity. The tactics used to enforce a rigid, insular good think conformity are to immediately accuse people of hate speech/bigotry. This has been applied to people for voting Brexit, Conservative. It has been applied to left wing feminists like Germaine Greer. It is being wielded like a club to prevent discussion. It's sinister. And it goes hand in glove with an Orwellian deconstruction of the meaning of words. The 21st century Newspeak dictionary is being compiled by authoritarians who claim to be progressive. They are zealots.

Lots of great comments on this thread, but this one has particularly made me think

That people really think that women are sort of broken men.

I have seen for quite some time that some men really do hate women, but thinking about it, I would say that a lot more men are harbouring the broken man theory. To an extent, I would even include my DH in this. They don't see us as women, they see us as failed males.

Which brings me to the excellent points about safeguarding. The most vulnerable in society are usually those who are furthest from "successful male", so they don't matter.

The wanking rubber man at the NSPCC was just so shocking. It will be a cold day in hell before I donate any money to that bunch.

It's the whole virtue signalling language of woke 'Diversity & Inclusion', and 'being your true self' and 'bringing your whole self to work'.....gosh....I hate woke speak.

When you have people attempting to argue that it should be OK to act out your kinks at your workplace, which is a child protection charity then the shark has been not so much jumped as pirouetted around.

YY

Rubber wanksuit man at the NSPCC and the attempts to dismiss complaints about his behavior pretty much summed up all my misgivings about the gradual creep of the idea that kinks and sexual interests in general are so important and that being able to express them at all times is so vital that literally nothing else matters. When you have people attempting to argue that it should be OK to act out your kinks at your workplace, which is a child protection charity then the shark has been not so much jumped as pirouetted around.

Queer theory thinks that boundaries are bad in any context, and that idea is causing all kinds of harm.

Particularly the NSPCC - they're more than 'just' a charity.

When I think of how the NSPCC and Barnardo's have bought into this, my blood runs cold. These are people whose job it is to put children's interests first, to protect children's safety above everything else, and yet they have blithely adopted the very policies most likely to put children at risk. I can't get my head around it.

Plenty of fine posts here, real food for thought.

One of my biggest eye openers has been the power of corporations to influence charities, academia and public institutions. I was always wary of this but am beginning to see the details of exactly how well placed donations corrupt these elements of liberal society and I intend to learn more.

In particular, I have seen how Big Pharma pushes its products and now research more about any drug that I am recommended. I know there are limitations to this, I am never going to be a doctor and don't want to become an anti-vax type loon nor the sort of patient who harasses medical staff with information recently grabbed from the net but picking a good book or two on the matter in hand always proves dividends and means I am better placed to make informed decisions when consulting with my doctor.

How we are expected to hand over money to charities that are lobby groups and kids in school are bullied into baking bloody cookies and buying plastic tat every year for the honour.

How corrupt charities can be, looking at you Stonewall. In fact, most organisations are prone to corruption without integrity.
How language has been corrupted.
How postmodernism is detached from reality and truth, it seems to build on words upon words upon word salads that seem logical, but is full of hidden logical fallacies that are not easy to unpick.
How proned to brainwashing most people are.
How little critical , independent thinking there is out there.
How some have cotton onto the cloak of victimhood, to use it for attention seeking and neferious agendas.
How we need to anchor thinking in truth, reality and integrity.

I did tell you not to! It's horrible, like despair for the future of humanity horrible. I ran across it via Tumblr, had never heard of it and then within a few months suddenly it was everywhere.

(To be fair Tumblr is a mess in general.)

I find it incredible how easily we seem to have slipped back into sex stereotypes. Like PPs, I thought the 60s and 70s started a major change in the role of women and, while progress is too fucking slow, the days of little girls playing with Barbie and toy kitchens and growing up to be housewives vs little boys playing with Lego and guns and growing up to have careers were long behind us. Now those stereotypes seem to form a branch of medicine.

I'd say there's an above average overlap, ime.

don't know how to describe the sort of behavior that's flourished due to the mainstreaming of porn in terms of people oversharing and trying to push their fetishes in entirely inappropriate contexts. Sexual incontinence? I'm not arguing for a return to never talking about sex, but surely there's a balance that can be struck between that and posting about your fetish 50 times a day on Tumblr or Twitter, with photos, and then getting into screaming arguments with anyone who's all "um, this is a book group and we were talking about Mansfield Park?" because how dare those people try to shame you (by politely requesting that you cease the kinkspamming).

This description is perfect and kinkspamming is a very useful phrase!