Mermaids response to JK Rowling

Starts of so nicely I thought it would be a very fair and balanced article and in part it is trying.... good on them for that.

However they say:

"It’s worth remembering that surgical regret is proportionately very low amongst gender affirmation outpatients and research suggesting otherwise has been broadly disproven."

But earlier they use a study "Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden" on another point ... this study 'suggests' surgical regret to me, or at least shows surgery leads to worse mental health outcomes (which should be regreted):

"Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group."

The comment that references this article (which they suggest has been disproven) says: "This research shows that trans women are no more a threat to women than other cisgender women." No it doesn't. They link to an article that actually says transwomen retain the crime rate of men. I'm assuming men are more of a threat to women than women statistically (please correct me if i'm wrong). The study says:

"Second, regarding any crime, male-to-females had a significantly increased risk for crime compared to female controls (aHR 6.6; 95% CI 4.1–10.8) but not compared to males (aHR 0.8; 95% CI 0.5–1.2). This indicates that they retained a male pattern regarding criminality."

Let's be clear that criminals (male or female, trans or non-trans) are the exception, not the rule and it may well be that transwomen are discriminated in the courts. I don't think trans men / women are generally anything but kind decent people who have genuine grievances. It's just a shame Mermaids use "evidence" that fundementally disagrees with their own points.

I'm with JKR. I have some minor criticisms of some of her comments but she's not the pope - she's had way too much grief and over-analysis over her essay, which to me is more about derogatory uses of 'TERF' and the curtailment of open debate.

^No. The result of reclaiming 'bitch' back in the seventies is that it now is considered neutral, inasmuch as using female as a slur can ever be, and is viewed as a mild insult.
The 'C' word is rarely used and carries a great deal of hate weight.^

Thank you, Bewilderness! I thought it was bad there.

@ArcheryAnnie

The trick is to have us do the hard part. We select all the phrases we know don't hold water so Ava can respond by spreading more mistruths while fully embracing victimhood and seeking further oppression.

Genius really.

What other lies were allegedly told and I can respond to each.

This would be a more impressive offer if Ava had actually responded to all the previous posts pointing out the easily-debunked factual errors.

The wisdom depends on the nature of the drink.

Personally I've yet to find an upper limit to how many pints I can put away with no ill effects (except on the loo roll stash). But that's pints of tea. If we're talking the perfumed piss of the devil gin then my limit's a gnome's thimble.

I'll make enough for everyone! I just think that a drinking game would be unwise what with Covid making it hard to go to emergency right now.

I might have to nick some of your popcorn, Kittens, just to keep my hands busy and stop me getting stuck into the argy-bargy.

It'll be popcorn for me, because I failed female socialization and find the frustration as it sinks in that women really aren't ever going to do what we're told sinks in funny.

The c word is a fighting word here.

Am I right in thinking it's often used as a synonym for "bitch" or TERF there? It's fairly gender neutral, as the kids say, here.

Wine rather than tea, I think! And some blood pressure tablets maybe don't mix those

You know a couple of years ago when some of us warned that the narc rage was going to explode when the public pushback against TRA overreach began? Better settle in and get yourself a cup of tea and some biscuits, cause Ava won't be the last.

Surely it is clear, looking across LGBT+ organisations and taking a cursory glance at the response to your blog that the overwhelming majority of young people and LGB people support trans rights

While it is true that the vast majority of people support transgenderists having the same rights as all people should have, there are very few who agree that Lesbians and Gays must transition to gain them, or that transgender males, transwomen, should have the right to displace women and girls in the public sphere.

It's not exactly a fluff and kittens word here either, Bewilderness!

I have mixed feelings about it, but if individual women want to reclaim the word that's fine by me. I don't half take umbrage when men use it as an insult though.

Do you really think transgender people stick out like a sore thumb? Do you not think that maybe a lot, not all nor does it matter but a lot just blend in?

Yanno that thing women sometimes do where they spin on their heel and walk out of the loo they just entered. They didn't suddenly remember something they had forgotten. They noticed something.

Sorry if that's not clear from the quote but the half wits at mermaids say in that piece that the explosion of gender dysphoria is due to the ending of the Victorian Era. Fucking unbelievable. Well it's not really, based on the evidence of Green's own words.

Every time Green tries to claim the moral upper hand I have to bite back the urge to say "remember how you transitioned your child for wanting to play with 'girl' toys?"

the social ice age that was the bridled, hypocritical and corseted Victorian age

So Susie and Mermaids think this is happening in the 2010s? There knowledge of historical feminism is piss poor. Victoria died 120 years ago and women's fashion in the flapper 1920s was distinctly corset less. The reality is that the corset has made a massive comeback this century with hideous bodycon dresses, music industry females trussed up like chickens in weird bondage like kit and the repulsive Kardashians advertising waist training corsets. Ramming this porn wear down girls throats had to have an impact didn't it? And don't get me started on the cared for children being recruited by the transing organisations supported by public money in every town. Grim.

None of the papers referenced are this year, all at least two years old. What a relief the government has woken up to this.

I can't see it, but sorry if this has already been posted. Someone's documented the changes between mermaids first published version and the next one.

twitter.com/zeno001/status/1271793620300058625?s=21

The Bayswater article is really interesting, I’d be interested to know why Noah was sent for puberty suppression when it seems that there were other factors that were clearly influencing her desire not to be female. Surely it would make much more sense for those issues to be explored in counselling, even changing schools possibly, before going down a transitioning pathway. If that were my daughter I’d be very unhappy with the way it was handled.

The great thing about the identity exploration we did back in the day was that hair can be re-dyed, piercings can be taken out, hair grows back if you decide you don't like the style you got, clothes that no longer suit can be discarded. The effects of artificial hormones are not so easy to discard, and there's no replacing body parts that have been surgically removed.

Mermaids say "but surely it’s a good thing to allow young people to explore their identities?"

Indeed - I was a teenager in the 70s, it was mostly all we did and it never involved irrevocably changing your body and rendering it infertile and incapable of orgasm.

Teenagers in the 80s had Boy George, Marilyn and Annie Lennox, for example, to make it very clear that you could look however you liked. Nobody suggested it might be a good thing to try and change your body permanently to be a facsimile of the opposite sex.

Being gay has never been easy, but in the 80s we began to understand that sexuality wasn't a thing you 'opted into' and gradually, more and more lesbians and gay men were able to come out to family, friends and the workplace. Clubs and pubs where lesbians and gay men could relax became more common.

Now? Lesbians in particular are being driven back 'underground' and their spaces are either being colonised by males claiming they're lesbians or closed completely because they're not allowed' to keep males out.

Mermaids have no clue how this movement they've embedded themselves into is doing the opposite of letting children and young people "explore" identities - it's forcing them to pick one.

And yes it raises a good point: Mermaids say "but surely it’s a good thing to allow young people to explore their identities?" yet they push children into irreversible treatment which would stop any others 'being explored'.