Online talk Thurs 25 April 2024: "Deconstructing transphobia" - Dr Natacha Kennedy

I wrote so many notes from the talk, I would like to pass on some more.

What’s wrong with trans women getting pregnant? This [will?] be possible in a few years.) Treatment is almost the same as cis women trying to get pregnant. It’s fascism.

Suffragettes were a lot more violent. We [trans people] are described as being violent but we are probably the most peaceful movement.

In the Media section of the talk N said there’s a systematic exclusion of trans people from mainstream media. They are only reported when big events like the Cass report or Brianna Ghey happen.

In the Keira Bell case, the first conviction was widely reported. The second case, resulting in an acquittal, was rarely reported, eg by The Guardian.

Audio: There were 18 anti-trans articles each day. There weren’t even
18 pro-trans articles in the whole year.

Screen:
Media Propaganda - Systemic exclusion

• In 2023 there were 18 anti-trans articles/broadcast segments in mainstream media per day. (Davies 2024)
• That is approx. 6500 over the year
• Almost none written or produced/directed by trans/GD people
• Often no trans/GD person was included, no input or opinion was sought

Apologies for the minor derail, but vis-a-vis the mention on page 1, I’ve noticed on Twitter that, as women are rising up against men in their spaces, an increasing number of men are claiming to be intersex. They never use the term DSD and it’s usually one so rare that it’s hard to find info. There was even a grifter who had been on a TV program about intersex people, but it was obvious he was lying, because the story he was telling didn’t fit the condition he was pretending to have. So they’re not just stealing from women. These grifters will take from anyone. There are times when I feel I really despise some of these men and their lies.

Not the brightest pixie in the forest then.

Natacha said Natacha was misgendered in a shop, something which happens “very very rarely”. N (reluctantly, but it’s conveniently situated) went back to the shop at another time. N heard two ‘cis’ ( pronounced ‘cizz’) women who were called “Sir” by the shopkeeper so N realised N hadn’t been misgendered after all.

This anecdote was straight after the break, but I must have missed the context as I couldn’t work out why it was relevant to the lecture at all.

I watched all of it, but I can’t listen and write at the same time.

Here are a few bits I wrote down.

In the section on the Cass report Natacha said “I’ve read pretty much all of it.”

Why not all if you’re going to lecture about it?

Natacha also said, “Most trans children are not questioning. They know they are trans.”

Maybe it is a royal we, Flaky.
Perhaps Natacha identifies as the Queen/King of … I dunno … reason?

After ten-odd years of listening to TA dribble there's nothing there that I need to hear but sunlight etc I suppose...

Kennedy, along with Roz Kaveney of "great hairy prong" fame , was a Guardian favourite back in the day.

For those who fancy a wee walk down memory lane and an eye watering opening discussion of the ins and outs of the ladydique, here's a thread for you...you can thank me later.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3383565-A-transwomans-penis-is-not-a-male-penis

This bit made me 😂

https://twitter.com/LouiBaxter/status/1783527913033257406

Crikey that was illuminating. I managed to watch the last half hour + questions. Should have called the talk DARVO and Lies. Honestly these people are completely off their rockers.

Apparently “GCAs” are ideological cultists who are almost entirely funded by the far right and who want to remove trans rights and eradicate them from society.

I wouldn’t have minded but Natacha’s lecturing erm style was erm atrocious. How can erm a lecturer and erm someone who erm has achieved so erm much in academia be so erm incapable of stringing erm a sentence together?

The event is happening now. Is anyone watching?

YY @FlakyPoet

It really wouldn’t surprise me. Even calling it ‘The Feminist and Gender Equality Network’ has the smirk of duper’s delight about it. Say any old shit but put the word ‘feminist’ at the front and you can get away with it.

Crankywiddershins · Today 14:09

^I think ... Ms Kennedy is trolling us with the unusual spelling of their first name. It's an anagram of "ha an act"

Oh, very good!

I think Mr Ms Kennedy is trolling us with the unusual spelling of their first name. It's an anagram of "ha an act"

fromthegecko · Today 11:13

if he's really 'intersex' (meaning a dsd I assume), then given it's obvious from his face that he is an XY individual who's had working gonads at some point, where's the misassignment? (He's wearing a dress so his story only makes sense if he was AMAB.)

No, them is bull-shitting.

I realise by now you think I'm disingenuous or naive, but I do have a question - does this narrative of trans = DSD have legs, and is it on the up (or old-fashioned/dying out)?

I recall from these threads that the Tavistock stopped bothering to test its patients, because DSDs were no more, or possibly less prevalent in people presenting themselves a trans, compared to the general population

Yes @nauticant . I have been into an online rabbit-hole where a man was claiming that taking female sex hormones was making his penis start to naturally invert and was on the way to becoming a vagina.

Some of these things should remain private fantasies inside an individual’s head and certainly shouldn’t be spoken out load without someone saying <<cough<bullshit >cough>> at the very least.

if he's really 'intersex' (meaning a dsd I assume), then given it's obvious from his face that he is an XY individual who's had working gonads at some point, where's the misassignment? (He's wearing a dress so his story only makes sense if he was AMAB.)

My assumption is that "I discovered that I was intersex" means that he discovered that there was this thing called "intersex" and decided to identify into that, maybe in the sense of having an "intersex of the brain" pseudo condition.

The numbers are tiny so there's little data (only one trans (FtM) CAIS individual that I know of, which must be tricky given they are androgen insensitive). In practice people with complex DSDs get to choose their sex (and appropriate treatment, if it's the opposite of their gonadal or genital sex), and they can correct their birth certificate in the UK, which is different from getting a GRC. So dysphoria doesn't arise.

What does this mean?

I have been brought up in a sex assigned to me by medical professionals. Always knowing I was different, yet never knowing why I did my best to fit in. I spent my first 40 years trying to understand my assigned sex and how that matched with my inner sex identity that I could not express. It was not until I accessed my university library when I returned to University that I investigated by medical background.
This changed my life. I discovered that I was intersex. My life suddenly made sense. What I was feeling through my childhood and throughout my life now had become clear. It was actually natural. This discovery enabled me to make sense of my life and the biology and medical issues I had, but I then faced a new set of challenges in a world not ready for diversity, especially sex diversity.

if he's really 'intersex' (meaning a dsd I assume), then given it's obvious from his face that he is an XY individual who's had working gonads at some point, where's the misassignment? (He's wearing a dress so his story only makes sense if he was AMAB.)

Now I'm all in favour of people with complex DSDs making their own minds up about what sex they are, and his biology and medical issues are clearly none of my business, but, really, this just doesn't hang together.

I realise by now you think I'm disingenuous or naive, but I do have a question - does this narrative of trans = DSD have legs, and is it on the up (or old-fashioned/dying out)? Because a standard protocol for DSDs is gonadectomy and cross-sex hormones before puberty starts and I should think they'd be delighted with that (also less health-damaging than puberty blockers).

It’s amazing that fantasists have managed to gain credibility. There was that whole con where people lie and say that a paper was ‘peer reviewed’ and it would get swallowed whole without question which was exposed by the grievance studies affair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_studies_affair

Kennedy was quite happy to pretend Kennedy was two separate people when publishing made up fantasy. Who knows how that wasn’t the end of Kennedy’s career?

Imnobody4 · Yesterday 17:41

Late in the pre-birth process, the fetus recognizes cues of acceptability within society of what it means to be their gender [51,52]. After birth and by the age of 5 years, a child recognizes their gender; however, the child also recognizes the what gender recognition is acceptable or needs to be concealed/suppressed within the social setting and expects them to be.

Crikey, how can these people write such utter drivel and keep a straight face?

Interesting synopsis - wide areas of interest.

https://rogenasterling.wordpress.com/about/

Author of above quote, Rogena Stirling.

It is embarrassing that anyone would write that, let alone quote it or publish it.

Fuck sake.

*Edited to clarify I mean N, not the OP!