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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Do you talk about this stuff in your "real" life?

119 replies

DungareesAndTrombones · 04/08/2024 11:20

Just pondering after having a disagreement with a distant friend on social media about the boxing debacle, where she and lots of her mates disagree with my view that the most important thing should be protecting women...

Do you talk about this stuff in your real life? I do to close friends but I would never share anything on my own social media, and I've said a couple of things at work but pretty sure I would get the sack if I said my actual views. I've got a younger team member who hates JKR with a passion and I spend time biting my tongue when she speaks about her.

Why does it feel so worrying for me being GC to speak out but other people who think TWAW are free to plaster it everywhere?

OP posts:
UtopiaPlanitia · 04/08/2024 23:45

dementedpixie · 04/08/2024 11:56

I can't even discuss it in my house as dd is very TWAW and even dh thinks I'm being over dramatic about it

💐

BlessedKali · 04/08/2024 23:21

Yes I do, initially some friends listened to me with a raised eyebrow but over time they have peaked themselves. I will happily debate someone on social media and I don't have anything to lose.

I have recently started a course in counselling/psychotherapy and have considered what impact being open with my views might have for this course. I made a plan what to do if I was asked for my pronouns on the course (I will not concede to this ideology - with a therapy client I would handle it carefully, as an adult attending a course I stand by my sex realist belief WORIAD)

For the course I just got clear in my mind what response I would have if I was threatened in anyway - if they tried to make me comply or threatened to throw me off. I would just very calmly state that my belief is a WORIAD as per the Forstater case, and I will take legal action if they try to discriminate me for it. No fucking about.

StiffyByngsDogBartholomew · 04/08/2024 22:54

DD14 is fiercely GC and has even fallen out with friends at school over her refusal to conform to the current teenage opinions.

CautiousLurker · 04/08/2024 22:47

Wish I had people i could talk about it to - DH won’t because of our teen (tho he agrees with me), friends have drifted because of our teen; friends and immediate family are in the be kind camp and the latter are stunned when I fell out with them over the olympic boxing thing (I really have had enough and am livid they cannot see the damage it does to girls - and one girl in particular); in laws simply don’t understand any of it… I long for a few friends to chat with about stuff generally and not have to censor myself over this stuff because its everywhere. I live in a town with an arts uni so tall skinny lads dressed in minidresses and bad makeup walk past me in groups all the time.

Branleuse · 04/08/2024 21:19

Yes i do talk about it. Im diplomatic though if necessary

Lentilweaver · 04/08/2024 21:17

Never, and certainly never on social media. Only with my DH who is pretty much GC. I would be cancelled by most of my triends and certainly my workplace.

Form1ess · 04/08/2024 21:16

Yes I talk about it openly at work, spent Friday explaining DSDs. Although there's no doubt about my views I try to keep things factual so if someone complained about me to HR I could defend myself!

bilgewater · 04/08/2024 21:10

Until fairly recently, only with DH. In fact he was the one to raise it with me when the absurdity of gay women being expected to sleep with biological men emerged. DD was very captured as a young teenager but has been able to discuss it more maturely since she left her single sex 'Stonewall Champion' school. It helped that all the transboys and NB persons in her year had long grown out of it by Y13.

I have one or two close friends who are absolutely on the same page, thank goodness. And several recent experiences where women I know less well have tentatively broached it with me in social or professional situations, and it's been a great moment of relief and recognition. It's probably telling that most of them work in health, education, academia or related fields, and all are over 40.

I used to keep very quiet at work, but I broke cover earlier this year - too outing to give the details but it involved refusing to collect data on 'gender identity' for 2 year olds. It helps that I am at an age and stage where I can give up work if I need/want to. I used to think no-one in my team got the issues at all, despite working in a supposedly evidence-based profession requiring post-grad qualifications (and carrying significant safeguarding responsibilities). But they're mostly younger women with several decades of working life ahead of them, and it's probably easier to stick their pronouns on their signatures and avoid rocking the boat.

RainintheDesert · 04/08/2024 20:44

At work it's verboten, though if a colleague brings it up, I'll go along with it.

My mum understands, but my daughter doesn't agree with me, very TWAW etc. My friends and I don't really talk about it.

My main outlet for chatting about this is on Twix.

Justcallmebebes · 04/08/2024 20:40

I'm pretty vocal with family and friends but not at work because my workplace has drank the coolaid big time but there have been a couple of occasions at work where there's been eyerolls between colleagues, as a sort of silent solidarity at the bat shit craziness

PermanentTemporary · 04/08/2024 20:09

A little bit with dp, in the most neutral way I can manage. He's civil service so i want him to understand A lot with my sister. And a bit with my fathers in law.

Otherwise basically never unless the person brings it up, in which case I will listen and if appropriate respond to whatever they say in the gentlest but most reality-adjacent way I can manage. But I'm careful; talking to a dear friend who's distressed because her partner is transitioning and asking for an open relationship, all I want to do is support her. Likewise if friends' children are transitioning - fundamentally it's not about me. It adds to my world view but right then, they don't need to hear me banging on.

coldandheat · 04/08/2024 19:59

Yes I do. If it comes up in conversation, including if a friend or acquaintance makes a negative comment about sex-realist women. I’ve only ever had one person not start to modify or change their position as a result of these conversations.

shoveldirt · 04/08/2024 19:50

Yes but Dh thinks I've been radicalised by the far right! It makes me so sad. Obviously I'm just sex on legs for him (or lack of these days 😆)

elgreco · 04/08/2024 19:46

Yes, with family, friends and work

Leafstamp · 04/08/2024 19:39

Yes I do, including at work, have peaked my boss and most colleagues.

I think family members are sick of me talking about it tbh.

Fenlandia · 04/08/2024 19:33

I am hesitant because I move in circles in which people just parrot all the catechisms. But I have had some breakthroughs too. There are far more people out there who don't believe men magically turn into women, but we don't live in a landscape where it can be spoken about in a normal way. No other issue in my world is as verboten as this one.

Tootingbec · 04/08/2024 19:31

To my DH and a couple of close friends I rant away happily - although even my DH is a bit too much “be kind” sometimes - but as soon as something pops up in sport/prisons etc he does come back in line because he does engage his brain when it matters.

At work I am very very careful and keep to facts where possible. I work in a field that does need to be looking at DE&I issues with clients so I do maintain a “neutral” stance on lots of inclusion issues even though I have LOTS of personal views.

I did push back once on an internal webinar run by a US colleague who kept talking about “cis women”. Told him I found the use of the word cis offensive as I wasn’t a sub category of my own sex class. Got quite a few off line thank yous from other female colleagues. Never put my pronouns on signatures etc and I hope the other women in my DEI area who also don’t have pronouns in their signatures/Teams name may also be GC (or just don’t know how to change the default signatures 🤣)

Once made the mistake of having a slightly drunken argument with a gay colleague about drag queens. Managed to hold myself back before we fell out as we are good work friends.

Shortshriftandlethal · 04/08/2024 19:21

RandySavage · 04/08/2024 12:04

A man from work - who is actually a really decent guy in every other respect - posted yesterday about how 'all the TERFs' are going crazy'.
I considered replying, or maybe saying something at work, but have not so far. I work closely with him, and don't need any extra tension, so I'll stay quiet.

I wish he'd thought of doing the same.

The under cover woman haters and dismissers are all showing their faces now......and there are plenty of them. Often they are Left identified or traditional Socialists. Certainly in my circles...because that is the 'circle' I happen to be around most of the time.

Shortshriftandlethal · 04/08/2024 19:19

Yes, I do - becaue 'real life' is all there is.

I also post about in the one other forum I post on......regardless of attempts at cancellation and censure.

Daffydaff · 04/08/2024 19:12

I just posted this morning on this very thing! I started questioning the TWAW mantra a few years back by opening up to a few friends and got blocked by them, so I retreated, until the other day I felt brave enough to say something to a different friend, but the same thing happened. Like a lot of you, I'm basically self censoring from now on, and hoping that when this all comes out in the wash (I can only hope) then I can reconnect in a more meaningful way than how I feel I can now. I don't need to agree with everything my friends believe, but the fact that they would label me so carelessly has left me so fed up.

heathspeedwell · 04/08/2024 18:13

Very fortunate that my DH and most of my friends are gender critical.

I have relatives in the US who work in academia so they parrot TWAW but it's obvious that they haven't given much thought to the ideology.

LunaNorth · 04/08/2024 18:12

Yep, and nobody ever disagrees with me. It’s heartening.

DuesToTheDirt · 04/08/2024 18:07

To a couple of close friends yes. With some friends and family I actively avoid discussing it.

Plasmodesmata · 04/08/2024 18:02

Haven't for ages as teenagers very TWAW.
However, the boxing thing is making offspring 1 think a bit and we had a good discussion about it yesterday.

FinallyHere · 04/08/2024 17:42

Stonewall are still a big presence at work, there are vanishingly few people with whom I can be open. DH was captured for a brief, lots of TWAW from on his hobby circle

Just along. Fe questions sorted him out and we now both jut keep quiet on many occasions.

sigh.

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