Will it ever get better?

Thank you Toseland - I'd missed this thread on MN. Makes me aware of the need for multiple backups.

We've lost the screenshots with GC going down
That was here somewhere...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3952655-Sly-edit-on-BBC-article#prettyPhoto

I so needed to read this thread. I'm relatively new on the scene, though a lifelong feminist. Took me a while to wake up to what was going on. Have been feeling very despondent these last few weeks. Had to get off FB because my woke peers were driving me insane with all their TWAW crap, but Twitter is such a cesspit of self-righteous viciousness that it's exhausting. I'm on there, fighting the good fight, a foot soldier for JKR, but I take my hat off to all of you who've done this for years. I've barely survived two weeks.

Anyway, it's good to hear from people with a longer perspective on this that the situation is not as bad as I sometimes fear.

Bloody hell

We've lost the screenshots with GC going down but essentially BBC claimed that gays and lesbians who won’t have straight sex with trans are bigots, then backed off after it kicked off. Deleted the tweets pretty sharpish.

They lost at the BBC over corrective rape this weekend.

I missed this. Could someone enlighten me?

I saw this about the reddit bans and it feels very true - we've lost a battle but we're winning the war.

Today they went after a bunch of soft targets because they’ve lost the battles that matter.

They’ve lost against FGM in the US.

They’ve lost against fairness for women athletes in Connecticut.

They’ve lost a chance to change the GRA in Scotland.

They’ve lost in the new guidance at NHS.

They’ve lost the narrative at Tavistock, which is pulling the sheet off the groomers and child predators among them, which is basically all of them because you can’t swing a dead cat in queer theory without hitting a pedophile.

They lost at the BBC over corrective rape this weekend.

And they’ve scored an own goal by loosing their psychopaths on a beloved children’s author in front of people who aren’t members of their cult.

So, the bullies did what bullies always do when they lose, they came home and kicked the dog.

Never forget that we’re up against viscous idiots who get off on hurting people and claiming it’s for justice. They can’t help themselves. They’re not happy if they’re not fucking someone up who can’t fight back.

Stupid and sadistic people are their own worst enemy, and all we need to do is to keep them talking.

Is there any chance we could start a petition and share the shit out of it, in order to force the issue to be debated in Parliament?

The pure venom of the trans movement now is probably a strong sign of how backed into a corner they feel. It's so easy to find trans voices that support women, and understand biology. The "vocal minority" are worried, very worried. They've overextended. We can settle things down if we persevere.

Says the eternal optimist!

But it won't work for everyone. There will always be a hard core of us who reject it because it is entirely irrational. All the women who are capable of thinking critically and are not easily cowed will fight against this. That gives me hope.

Agreed. I also think we're evolutionarily hardwired to instantly recognise males and females - not only humans either, there are lots of stories of dogs and horses that can instantly tell males from females whatever their attire. I don't think it's that easy to override hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. The shape of men is different to women, the hip to shoulder ratio, the smell. A million tiny things that no amount of plastic surgery or makeup or dresses can overcome.

I think the TRAs/ MRAs can scare people into parroting TWAW or 2+2=5 or whatever, but they can't make people really believe it.

But with most organisations and institutions behaving as though self-id is legal (and to be fair, it practically is if gender reassignment is the protected characteristic without ever having to take a step to 'reassign') that is when I feel most hopeless.

I am scared of being hounded out of my job if I am too vocal. I have begun following a lot more gender critical posters on twitter and liking stuff as a form of support. But then I was told that my likes could be seen. And it has frightened me. And there must be millions like me.

This thing is like an oil tanker. Until the mainstream media including television are prepared to have a proper debate, not one that just latches on to soundbites and the words 'controversial' and 'compromise', then I don't see how we get it in to the mainstream in all its glory with all the issues covered not just the 'look over there' toilet one.

That is why I believe that the GRA needs to be repealed. There is no need for it. It creates legal falsehoods that conflict with other legislation. I wish Liz Truss would be brave enough to moot this.

And I am so fucking bored of the word gender. I am not interested in anyones fucking gender or the feelings in their head. It doesn't fucking exist and yet we are contorting ourselves out of all reality and biology to accommodate it.

OP, just one more thought: we are not easily defeated.

The TRAs are using all sorts of tactics to persuade people that TWAW are women and to let them into our spaces. But the trouble with TWAW is that it's a faith position: there is absolutely no way of rationally arguing that it is possible to change sex. Tactics of urging women to be kind and tolerant, or telling them they're on the wrong side of history, or that they're bigoted, or even threatening them with violence, will work with some women. But it won't work for everyone. There will always be a hard core of us who reject it because it is entirely irrational. All the women who are capable of thinking critically and are not easily cowed will fight against this. That gives me hope.

I've made the most of toddler naps recently and watched:
Missrepresentation (Netflix UK)
and
She's Beautiful When She's Angry (Amazon prime) although hopefully it's available somewhere else for those boycotting Amazon!
The beginning of SBWSA touches on how you can never take your foot off the pedal, when you think you have your rights settled there will be someone trying to take them away.

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." Alice Walker.

We will persist!

What this reminds me of is some stories I can think of where one really dogged whistleblower plugs away at righting an injustice and everyone tells them they're wrong or they're stupid and then suddenly one person takes them seriously and the whole landscape changes, and then there's an inquiry and loads of press coverage and everyone says "how could this be allowed to happen?" There are multiple examples, but one is when the Guardian (ironically) started publishing stories about phone hacking and other newspapers poured scorn on them. It took years before the tide suddenly changed and then the News of the World closed down, there were criminal charges etc.

Another obvious example is the years it took to do anything about the paedophile grooming gangs. Again, people looked away and pretended it wasn't happening. There are several other cases of atrociously poor care in hospitals where it's taken one determined campaigner to achieve change, usually after several years of abuse from official bodies.

So I think this is going to be a bit like that. We have to keep plugging away. Our real problem is the degree of institutional capture - when the police, the judiciary, the NHS, the third sector, schools and universities have all been captured, you know you have a fight on your hands. The one thing we do have on our side is that the public, for the most part, agree with us - once they become aware of what's going on. Most of them aren't aware, of course. So our job is to make them aware.

From the article: "the more open conversations on the topic are to be welcomed"

I really reject the use of 'cis'. I am a woman. That is it.

I started to donate monthly to Lumos, JKR's charity. I'll back her any way I can. I've never signed up monthly to a charity, just donated as and when I could but I feel that hers is worthy even if it's a small amount.

jodi piccoult- todays disappointment.

I’ve just clicked onto the article and the authors are Owl and Fox Fisher - the 2 authors who resigned from JK Rowling’s agency over the latter’s tweet.

They really are making the most of their moment. I never heard of either of them until they announced their resignation. And all this attention comes on the back of the far more popular JK Rowling.

Will their works be still read and cherished in 20 years?

I just spotted this article
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jun/30/it-takes-away-the-stigma-five-of-the-best-cartoons-with-transgender-characters

I am not CIS
I am female.
Interesting that they are not allowing comments on such a nasty piece

hashtag be kind

There are many instances throughout history where harm was done by people who thought they were being kind or righteous.

This is one.

What a very uplifting thread. Thank you all. I needed to read this. It really has been a brutal few weeks. I agree that the tide seems to be turning and I feel more hopeful than I did a few months ago. I know that most people see through all the nonsense, but I'm also concerned about the tyranny of 'hashtag be kind',which seems to be a new form of 'calm down, dear'. I still cant quite get my head around the denial of biology, the revision of reality, the celebration of stupidity, and the refusal to do the most basic thinking. Its downright frightening

I think you are all fabulous, strong women. I know there have been a few setbacks over the past few weeks, but there has also been a huge spotlight shone on this by JKR.
I am new to this, but Im doing everything I can, I've written letters to everyone in positions of power, I've joined Twitter, I've spoken to everyone I've seen in RL about it, and I had cause to put it on my child's class whatsapp, I didn't get any responses but it's out there and maybe a couple will actually read the links I sent and take it on board, I've donated to a few grassroots organizations, and I'm boycotting any shops that are throwing us under the bus.
If anyone has any other useful ideas I can do to help I'm happy to have them.
I have my family's full support and I'm not scared to put my views out there for everyone to see.

But all of this is down to you wonderful women on here what have been fighting for our rights. So thank you to all of you

As a 30 year old now, a few years ago I was definitely in the "be kind" area. While I maybe didn't think TWAW my only exposure to the issue was news stories of fully medically transitioned TW being attacked in men's prisons in the US. And yes I did go, "That's awful they should be in the women's prisons, they should be treated as women, crazy how backwards some places still are!"

But that feels like it was before woman was verboten, and men who had done nothing to change their appearance or physicality were regardless claiming womanhood and victim status from us oppressive women.

The more the latter behaviour gets broadcast the more reasonable people say "Hold on, this doesn't feel right" and then they are forced to confront all their assumptions, as I was, and realise that actually womanhood isn't up for debate. I'm sure that as this gets more press coverage and millenial woman start hitting the biological wall in life that is childbearing there will be more people waking up to this issue.
It takes time, but as a recent joiner I genuinely think we are moving in the right direction.

Yes it feels bleak, but if I look back to what my grandmother faced 50 years ago this is easy. She had no right to her own bank account, couldn't get any credit, could be fired for being married and paid less literally just for being a woman.

Just the financial changes alone give us an incredible amount of power to affect change. Yes CJ were wankers with Allison's crowd funder but almost entirely women raised £60k in a day even with the hurdles they threw in our path. They may be defunding rape crisis centres and DV refuges that maintain single sex spaces but we can fund them ourselves.

Even if they shut down all online discussion spaces, women have found each other in real life before to affect massive change and we can do so again. The Internet is a massive enabler but without it we can still attend local MP surgeries, write letters to councils and parliament and campaign for our rights to be upheld. They want us to feel alone, because they are scared of what will happen when we realise how many of us there are and what we can do.