University 'feminist' discussion group

They are feminists, but they are inclusive, which doesn't satisfy your narrow view of the world. If you can't tolerate their views, then best to stay away. If you want a more open minded discussion then you're free to attend.

any exclusionary behaviour towards LGBTQIA+' will not be tolerated

It's like in The Walking Dead. These people have been bitten already, there's nothing you can do. Save your strength for another fight.

This is one of the things that upsets me about university capture. That young people cannot find a safe place to discuss ideas, which is what university is for. Perhaps the only thing it is for, given that study can be completed quietly on one's own. Having said that this group sounds well and truly captured and I anticipate you will be on the receiving end of some poor behaviour if you even question gently. So I don't think I would recommend playing dumb etc. I would try to somehow puts some feelers out for like minds to at least have some back-up before I spoke. I might also put a few of Posie's stickers in the women's loos :) Good luck OP.

I’d give it a miss. It isn’t as advertised.

Oh dear. Part of me would want to get in there and put the feminist side of the story. Or ask questions they can never answer, such as "With self-ID, what stops a rapist from following a woman into the women's loo/refuge/shelter saying he's a woman?" or "With self-ID, how can you tell which athletes are genuine transwomen and which are just pretending to be, in order to win women's medals?".

But I'm sorry to say most of me just looks at the agenda and thinks life is too short to bother with this.

And then I feel guilty because I'm leaving other women to do all the work.

I would be declining and letting them know that a feminist group providing pre reading written by man about who he thinks is a suitable feminist doesn't sound at all inspiring.

I’m sorry OP, I think if they get an inkling that you are GC you’ll be out on your ovaries!

I’d like to think I’d channel my inner Magdalen in this situation. In reality it depends on you as a person, what you’d feel happy doing and whether you could live with the consequences surrounded by the woke bros.

I like PPs idea of bringing sex segregated data along....can’t argue with scientific data can they?

They are so scared, aren't they, that somebody might turn up and say the unsayable. But by now these preemptive bannings of challenging views have become ritualistic and boring, so maybe the participants are all secretly waiting for someone to transgress?

I don't know how much power you have or what you have to lose at this fine educational establishment, OP, but I'd be tempted to sit there, listen for a while, say something devastating (maybe along the lines of aren't they bored with the discourse policing and do they really believe that trans rights are the priority for feminism?) and then leave.

Or maybe bring in sex-disaggregated data which is quite important in the covid context.

Sometimes I wonder if these pocket authoritarians are just trying to see what they can get away with, and it gives them a little thrill. Obviously if it's a reading group they can read what they want but it is very much against the spirit of a university to be so one-sided. Maybe just don't go, don't reward them with attention.

It's not worth going is it? Can you feed back that whilst you're interested in the trans perspective you thought this was the feminist group and are thus puzzled at the blending of the two distinct issues. Does the LGBTQIA-fairy dust- and-unicorns group devote its sessions to women's issues in a reciprocal fashion??

Can you play dumb and just ask lots of very innocent questions? Say that you've heard a very "TERFy" argument but you're not sure how to respond and can they help you?

It sounds like they have no interest in debate and that is very disappointing. I wouldn't waste my time going.

In fact, it frames the people arguing against self-ID as anti-feminist, with a clear implication that anyone who rejects self-ID (whether because they don't believe TWAW or simply because they think it makes it too easy for male abusers to, you know, abuse) cannot be a feminist.

Men who think they may decide what is or isn't feminist are about as misogynist as it's possible to be.

Sounds like your uni group is highly privileged and anti-women. I'd probably be thinking about that a lot while sitting there listening to them describe the ways to centre men and ignore the needs of vulnerable women.

Given that this discussion group aren't going to discuss ( dictionary def: a conversation or debate about a specific topic ) but merely be an echo chamber of set ideas, I don't think I'd bother attending.