Q&A thread for New Posters

But I don't see long hair on men as a gender marker either. Lots of men in the 70s and 80s had long hair. When did long hair on men become a sign of anything other than that they like having long hair?

Do gender critical transpeople exist and post here?

Recipes. Why so many on this board? There's a weird thing about Weetabix too. What's the story?

What's with the boycotts? Why do MN FWR users take against some brands? Why do people post about "potato" on boycott threads?

Is JK Rowling transphobic?

Maybe when consumerism took off massively? And retailers realised they could sell parents two of everything, instead of one. One pink, one blue. And 'gender' became marketable.

Do all trans people believe they are actually the opposite sex after hormones and surgery and thus should be treated exactly the same as people of the opposite sex?

I seem to recall it used to be one of the criteria for medical changes that the person understood they can't actually change sex. Presumably that has changed?

Thanks for answering these questions, I feel I understand the debates a lot better now

They are cementing them. If a man feels a certain way, he must be a woman. Which means that women, all of them, feel a certain way, or dress a certain way or behave a certain way or think in a certain way.

It's cementing gender stereotypes.

You think like that?? You must be a woman!

And when you realise that gender stereotypes are designed to keep women as lesser than, suppprt humans, the misogyny leaps off the page.

Some people, including psychologist Diane Ehrensaft, think that children can be trans, including even babies who can't yet speak!

“I have a colleague who is transgender.” Ehrensaft tells her audience at an education event in Santa Cruz. “There is a video of him as a toddler- he was assigned female at birth- tearing barrettes out of then-her hair. And throwing them on the ground. And sobbing. That’s a gender message… they can show you what they want to play with… this child wore the little onesies with snap-ups between the legs and at age one this child would unsnap them to make a dress and have the dress flow… this was a child who was assigned male… that’s a pre-verbal communication.”

twitter.com/LilyLilyMaynard/status/1312474230299086848

More about Ehrensaft here:
4thwavenow.com/2016/09/29/gender-affirmative-therapist-baby-who-hates-barrettes-trans-boy-questioning-sterilization-of-11-year-olds-same-as-denying-cancer-treatment/

And more about so-called trans kids here:
lilymaynard.com/born-in-the-wrong-body-thats-not-what-we-meant/

Obviously, to anyone sane, the notion of 'trans children' is all based on stereotypes.

Both these websites have lots of other articles which might answer some of your questions.

This is a strange accusation that is frequently made but has no basis in fact, and is potentially an example of DARVO tactics (where a perpetrator turns an accusation against them into an accusation against their victim).

Radical and/or gender critical feminists believe that women are oppressed on the basis of their biological sex, and that sex-based stereotypes are to be challenged. Saying that your sex determines your behaviour - e.g. you are male so you like playing with trucks - would be a bad thing. Sex-based stereotypes are used to hurt both men and women - e.g. expecting men to never show their feelings or to be aggressive, expecting women to be always putting others before themselves. (Sometimes people who are gender-critical will focus on how these stereotypes hurt both sexes, other times they will focus on women only, as the disadvantaged group in this hierarchical system.)

Radical and/or gender critical feminists do not believe that anyone's behaviour in society is determined by their biological sex with the exception of their physical capabilities when it comes to reproducing. This follows the standard meaning of 'sex' when it comes to categorising all living things.

Trans rights activism, a movement which does not include all transgender individuals, believes that your gender - the set of sex-based stereotypes linked to you - is more important than your sex, so that a child who likes playing with trucks is a boy because they are doing 'what boys do'. Sometimes the idea of an innate, biological 'gender identity' is suggested as a basis for this way of categorising people, but this does not relate to anything measurable and is not consistent with demands that someone's gender identity never be measured or assessed or questioned in any way.

If you think your under 5 child could be trans then you could buy them one of these:

It seems that this is a growing group or that at least they are now speaking out.

Why do I see many more lesbians being gender critical than gay men?

www.detransadv.com/

we know that in the UK, GIDS do not follow up people who simply stop coming to them so of course there's no way to properly quantify it because the information isnt recorded

Is it true that some toddlers and preschoolers are identified by their parents as trans?

I thought you had to be an adult or at least have reached puberty to be trans.

How would you know your kid is trans?

In my experience little kids barely know what men and women are. Mine went through a phase of thinking anyone with long hair must be a woman, even Bill Bailey with his little pony tail!!!

Thinking of a comparison with gayness, surely people do not usually accept for certain that they are homosexual until they are well through puberty. How come people think trans becomes clearer sooner?

GC women believe that gender are the stereotypes associated with biological sex e.g. boys like football, getting muddy, wear trousers and have short hair: girls like pink, sparkles, have long hair and like dolls

there is no way to describe what gender identity is without regressing to gender stereotypes around clothing, presentation and feelings

GC women believe that you can have a buzz cut, wear trousers, be a welder and it makes you no less a woman than someone with long hair, high heels and lipstick because woman isnt a feeling but a biological reality. Similarly a man who likes wearing dresses and make up is just as much a man who wears trousers, short hair and likes drinking beer and watching football.

Tinycake for a good discussion on sex and gender and also biological differences for those with medical conditions see Fair Play for Women.
fairplayforwomen.com/resources/sex-vs-gender/

fairplayforwomen.com/chromosomes-biological-sex-gender/#multiples

I hear that hardly anyone changes their minds after gender transition and this is evidence that gender identity is a real solid stable thing. Is that true?

I keep seeing the Twitter people saying that radical feminists and gender critical women are bio essentialists who want men and women to be 1950s stereotypes based on their birth sex, whereas trans allies want people to break out of those stereotypes. Is this a correct characterisation of gender critical views?