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Original poster

I’m still stewing

56 replies

MordenLarch · 15/09/2021 22:32

Longish one - apologies in advance.

So several months ago we had an (online only due to restrictions at the time) event at work.

There were talks about women in the field I’m in. After the talks there was an online ‘board’ where we were invited to add the names of women we find inspiring and why.

Lots of people wrote their female family members and inspirational female public figures.

I wrote a variety of women I find inspirational and reasons why. I then wrote JK Rowling for standing up for women’s rights. I then thought ‘fuck it’ and put Kathleen Stock, Allison Bailey and Helen Joyce etc.

I thought no more about it, but then saw later that my JK Rowling had been removed (along with a JK that had been added by someone else). Helen Joyce etc weren’t removed presumably because no one knew who they were.

Even though there was nothing even vaguely contentious I’d written, i heard later that my comments on the board were deleted as they were a “transphobic dog whistle” and potentially very offensive etc etc / unsafe space etc

Apparently JK Rowling was permissible on the board only as long as her writing was referenced. Some of the organisers’ suggested inspirational women pictured on the board included the one off Orange Is The New Black and Munroe Bergdorf. I find that offensive as the latter has said some very objectionable things about gay people on the past (and the rest, which is an obvious point about womanhood I probably can’t say here).

Anyway, we will soon have a staff survey coming up where I can probably mention how ridiculous this whole thing is and how I find it sexist, offensive, 1984-esque etc. Should I bother, or let it go? With this and several other things I feel like I’m up against an impermeable wall of guano at the moment

OP posts:
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StealthPolarBear · 18/09/2021 20:55

beguilingeyes my mistake sorry. If she really wants to use the term I suppose she can be a cis-woman.

Serenissima21 · 18/09/2021 17:58

What was the point of the exercise if they were going to censor the answers? Idiots.

ThinkWittyThoughts · 18/09/2021 17:52

Well, I'm intrigued. Have the other women nominated been vetted for the acceptability of their views? All those inspirational mothers - do they all believe TWAW?

And claiming your being inspired by an incredible woman, JK Rowling is a dog whistle for transphobia feels like a a slur on both her and your reputations. Do they believe you are transphobic? If not, why remove your post. If so, why the fuck haven't HR had a word?

Dartfordwarblerautumn · 18/09/2021 17:01

@Gottalife

Such a shame. I mean you could have had chosen real heros like Ellen MacArthur, Amy Johnson or Marie Curie. Instead you got all political and may have given yourself a negative reputation.
JkR is doing a good job with her media presence and fame in reminding us why women’s rights are so important. Marie curie was actively discriminated during her career on bias of her sex .She only got her professorship that she should have been given years before when her husband died. She was then derided, shamed and ostracised because she had a relationship with a married man (I believe he had separated from his wife), and she was punished in her career for that. The man in that relationship career was unaffected. Amy Johnson is an interesting one- she was the president of womens engineering society amongst other things - she couldn’t join the general society or become a chartered engineer as she wasn’t a man. So, whilst these women on your list deserve acknowledgment, so does JKR o4 anyone els3 reminding the public why we don’t want to turn the clock back to the times that these women you admire were living in when their achievements were do underrated and under valued for so long in their lifetimes.
NewlyGranny · 18/09/2021 15:30

I love that women in politics are fine as inspiration only if they're long-dead. 🙄

beguilingeyes · 18/09/2021 11:51

@StealthPolarBear she's not woman, she's a 'person who menstruates' :(

Phobiaphobic · 18/09/2021 11:13

@MatildaIThink

The who trans thing has got hugely out of hand. Yes they are people and yes they should be treated humanely, I do not think anyone would dispute that. We do however have a situation where now it seems some deranged form of political correctness now imagines it has precedence over actual scientific fact and that anyone that agrees with the facts, rather than someone else's feelings is some kind of "phobic".
Yep.
StealthPolarBear · 17/09/2021 08:26

Op you're a woman. Be kind and silence your actual opinions. Back in your kitchen.

Speakingofdinosaurs · 17/09/2021 08:23

Gosh I do find this all quite scary - all this worry (fear?), angst, ‘should we really say this’, ‘can we talk about this’.
I can’t quite believe that we, as women, literally have to consider whether we will damage ourselves if we talk about anything to do with women’s rights.
I have decided to start talking about this to people around me, otherwise the fear will lead us down a path that is unthinkable.

Onlinedilema · 17/09/2021 08:19

As an aside if we examined inspirational men by the same token then you can forget ever having the likes of Mohammad Ali, Winston Churchill, Malcolm X etc etc on any list but no this doesn’t happen does it?

Onlinedilema · 17/09/2021 08:17

Definitely mention it op.

MistandMud · 17/09/2021 08:14

Munroe Bergdorf is a sight more controversial than JKR, I’d say.

Plus, you know, male. Not something women can aspire to.

Warmduscher · 17/09/2021 08:11

@Gottalife

Such a shame. I mean you could have had chosen real heros like Ellen MacArthur, Amy Johnson or Marie Curie. Instead you got all political and may have given yourself a negative reputation.
Surely the OP would have chosen those women had she found them inspiring? Instead, she answered the question and named women she personally found inspiring.

If the question was “pick your top three from this list of inspiring women” you might have a point.

But the question allowed people to make their own choices. Which the OP did.

MatildaIThink · 17/09/2021 08:02

The who trans thing has got hugely out of hand. Yes they are people and yes they should be treated humanely, I do not think anyone would dispute that. We do however have a situation where now it seems some deranged form of political correctness now imagines it has precedence over actual scientific fact and that anyone that agrees with the facts, rather than someone else's feelings is some kind of "phobic".

KittenKong · 17/09/2021 07:58

But even if you show all these things,you will still get ‘oh but Hitler was a dog lover/vegetarian/was good to his mum’. It’s just exhausting arguing with such idiocy.

Deliriumoftheendless · 17/09/2021 07:55

@Gottalife

Such a shame. I mean you could have had chosen real heros like Ellen MacArthur, Amy Johnson or Marie Curie. Instead you got all political and may have given yourself a negative reputation.
JK Rowling has a charity that supports women and girls so I would’ve thought that makes her a contender for the list.
KittenKong · 17/09/2021 07:37

I would complain. I would ask who asked / demanded the name be removed and their reasons. I would say this this is misogyny and an attack on women and your thinking / opinions. It makes you feed unsafe at work (use their own wording) as women’s rights are being ignored and pushed back in the name of ‘gender’.

ANewCreation · 16/09/2021 12:41

"Lumos was founded by J K Rowling to illuminate a path for children living in harmful orphanages and other institutions, to a brighter future. By tackling the causes of family separation – poverty, abuse, domestic violence and disability discrimination - children can be united with loving families where they can thrive and be supported to reach their full potential."

www.wearelumos.org/

How is this not inspirational as well as beneficial to women's and children's rights?

I make a donation every year on JKR's birthday - what to give the (nearly) billionaire who has everything...

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 16/09/2021 12:34

I wonder what would have happened if you'd added Margaret Thatcher. You could hardly have a more political and divisive figure, but there are still plenty of people who think of her as inspirational.

How very, very dispiriting all this stuff is.

FlyingOink · 16/09/2021 12:23

I hope someone suggested the Virgin Mary. She's long dead and never said anything ever. She'd be perfect for your company, OP. Not sure if she would count as too political though? /s

Original poster
MordenLarch · 16/09/2021 12:23

[quote Chloemol]@PlanDeRaccordement

So basically I read your post as you can only find woman inspiring who are dead and gone, or living but not involved in any current fight for woman’s rights

In my opinion you are wrong,[/quote]
Exactly. And given that of all the women I added, only JKR was removed. Not much of a “dog whistle”. I also added music figures and others.

I didn’t even mention the trans issue - I simply said women’s rights. She’s funded rape crisis centres and more.

Only being able to say the “right” kind of women are inspirational is sexist and idiotic.

So should we examine the political beliefs of all the women on the board and expunge those found unworthy? And who decides anyway?

It’s not like I added Myra Hindley, Rose West and Eva Braun. And if I did, so what? (although that might be a handy flag for the police)

OP posts:
FlyingOink · 16/09/2021 12:21

mired in current and ongoing political controversy and law suits

And if you use this as a guide, you would have to exclude Malala too.

So basically it has to be a long-dead woman who nobody can disagree with. I guess if she's dead, she's silent, right?

happydappy2 · 16/09/2021 12:21

Always question how JKR is transphobic, never sen any coherent answer to the question, as she isn’t

FlyingOink · 16/09/2021 12:17

the SAHM who wrote children’s books and made a bunch of money
I don't think you can get much more dismissive than this, impressive.

Chloemol · 16/09/2021 12:17

@PlanDeRaccordement

So basically I read your post as you can only find woman inspiring who are dead and gone, or living but not involved in any current fight for woman’s rights

In my opinion you are wrong,