Old straight men and genderism

That was the 70s and I suspect a lot of my age group imagine MfF trans are all like April or Jan Morris. Very feminine lads who have had surgery to remove their sex organs , feeling they are trapped in the wrong body.

April Ashley and Jan Morris are two very different cases. Ashley transitioned young, and married a man. Morris transitioned in middle age whilst married to a woman and having fathered 5 children.

Old straight man here. I recall an Evening Standard news vendor when the April Ashley case was on shouting ' Is 'e a man or isn't 'e ? Read all ababht it!'

That was the 70s and I suspect a lot of my age group imagine MfF trans are all like April or Jan Morris. Very feminine lads who have had surgery to remove their sex organs , feeling they are trapped in the wrong body.

Most have no idea about Self ID , even here in Ireland where it is law. We grew up in the 60s when it was all sexual revolution , getting shot of religion and ' freedom of the individual '

I recently peaked a fellow coffin dodger by showing him a photo of that man playing Ladies Gaelic Football. No amount of argument will work because of this internalised image of a lonely and vulnerable victim of fate. But a picture is worth a thousand words.

Maybe they believe in live and let live

Nope. That would require symmetry. Both sides get on with their life and don't mess with the others.

In this set-up, the men get to "live" and the women get to "let live".

Adding to what I said earlier, I think there's a difference between accepting trans people and subscribing to gender ideology. I had an interesting chat with a 70ish year old male friend recently about a transwoman of our acquaintance who transitioned late in life and is so obviously a transwoman. She had a complete personality change from very gruff, miserable and almost a bit scary, to being gregarious, joyous and friendly. Everyone, as far a I know is very much, live and let live. HOWEVER, no one actually thinks she is literally a woman or even worries about consistently using the correct pronouns. I doubt most are aware of 'gender ideology ' and the way Stonewall want to replace biology with gender in law or the implications. It's simply not on their radar.

Femininity in men has never been accepted... this is another variation on the same. They think of them as 'not men'. There are two categories of people: 1. men (conform to masculinity) 2. not men

They hate women.

I think for some the idea of a man getting rid of his penis is something so awful they just can’t contemplate so they feel sorry for them (setting aside that most men don’t get rid of their penis). I think David Aaronovitch alluded to something like this in his review of either Kathleen Stock or Helen Joyce’s book.

But also the reasons above - it doesn’t impact on them, feminine men make them uncomfortable, they may be into cross-dressing or that kind of porn, or trying to compensate for previous political incorrectness (using the t word etc).

Maybe they believe in live and let live

I think this is it.

My lovely dad has a transgender MTF friend. He says he thinks of her as a woman - what’s the issue? And I’m very sympathetic to this because it’s basically how I felt about it, live and let live, doing no harm, we’re all just individuals etc. And I still feel like that on a 1-1 basis.

But societally it’s become a problem. Reporting in places like The Times has definitely helped my dad to think differently around the issues for younger people.

Because it doesn't impact on them. Because they just see it as a chap who wants to wear dresses and think, 'whatever floats your boat'. Because they're not really engaging in any deeper understanding. Because they want to show that they're not your typical grumpy old man.

They like to keep women in line and genderism is one way of being misogynistic whilst looking like you are sticking up for poor oppressed minorities.

They strongly buy into masculine stereotypes - if you deviate a little bit you can't be man, ergo you're a woman.