Women with alopecia harassed in woman's toilets at airport

@TofuTart - we aren't 'policing and scrutinising women's appearances', implying we're critiquing, judging and ranking in a way a man might; we're clocking men in female spaces.

Nice twisty use of words there, but we see you. Literally.

I'm calling bollocks on this. Great, big, swinging, male bollocks.

When I had very short hair and wore a massive puffer jacket I was challenged in the women's toilets many times, but only ever from behind. The moment I turned around or spoke, the woman challenging me recognised that I was a woman and apologised. Never any screaming or accusations from either of us.

Similarly when I was addressed as 'Sir' - again, only ever from behind.

I do not believe that a female person with alopecia would not be recognised as a woman by another woman.

If it happened, I have no idea why GC women are somehow to blame for someone either being a bit mad or being on high alert to danger due to the actions and behaviours of males.

If you look at how bald or shaved head women present in public like Jada Pinkett-Smith or Sinead, they deliberately wear lashes and make-up and enhance their other features, they don't go out with no-make up on with a pair of joggers, do they? I don't think looking at their ultra cultivated young or surgically enhanced faces tells us much about what it's like to live with alopecia in the everyday.

Whereas I disagree. In what way does saying 'no' to the concept that human beings can change sex, thus permitting predatory men into female spaces - HARM women? All women?

I will say tho that I have spotted many more men in female spaces now I am so much more aware that they might be there.

Gender critical people don’t give a toss about how women dress. That’s the point. It’s not how you dress or how you look or how feminine you try to appear that make you female.
The only scrutinising is being aware men are dressing up as women, thinking this makes them women, and trying to come into women’s places. Any problems arising from this is the fault of the men coming into women’s places, not that of the women worried about that happening.

I completely agree with this.

I understand why we're automatically suspicious when we read these stories, but this is a woman who has long been accused, by transactivists, of being trans simply because her alopecia means she doesn't conform with their expectations of feminity.

Then she was slammed by transactivists for saying than males don't belong in women's sport.

And now transactivists are telling her she got what she deserved because she didn't lap up their fake allyship and spout only 'acceptable' beliefs.

I think she's been dropkicked enough, and doesn't need us adding to it.

Thinking back even a decade or so this wasn't an issue, people wouldn't assume someone who didn't fit societal norms had changed sex or was trying to access inappropriate toilets. The whole trans 'movement' has perpetuated gender stereotypes and regressed us back to well a woman with short hair must actually be a man. That's what is more harmful to women. It sounds like you would find it preferable that no one questions men entering womens spaces in case this (probably made up) scenario plays out; one of which wouldn't have happened anyway if it weren't for this movement.

I agree.

how nice to live in a world where men never cause you a problem

What absolute nonsense that this is anything to do with gender critical women. GCs understand that women can look any way at all and are still women.

It is TRAs that believe that femininity comes from long hair and dresses. HTH

Yep. And as well as Sinead Karen Gillian shaved her hair off for a role. https://www.instagram.com/karengillan/p/Cn3XmvWr9WM/?hl=en-gb

and lest we forget Jada Pinkett-Smith who had the same condition.

Bald women look nothing like bald men - there is a bit more to it than just a hair cut\shave

In fact, sorry to triple post but @Christinapple as someone with alopecia I find it really offensive that you rope in this medical condition in order to have a go at women who oppose the transactivist agenda. I guess it is a much milder version of the fury that people with DSDs have when their conditions are exploited in this way

Well yes.

In the struggle for rights it is pretty common for the opressed group to feel their oppressors made them take action.

You can appropriate feminism all you like but it doesn't magically make males zero threat to women in single sex spaces.

Transwomen pose the same risk as any other male. Safeguarding is not personal.

It seems incredibly important to you and the OP to convince people that human sex is practically irrelevant. You first, guys. Convince males (of any or no gender id) to quit the rape, murder, harassment and employment discrimination of women THEN come back to women with your ideas.

Not all people look overtly feminine, anything from short hair to no hair to certain builds, to masculine clothing, can all cause mix-ups. People don't have very long to evaluate, they just glance and make assumptions, so I can entirely see how this has happened. If you were a bald woman and don't then wear make-up or overtly feminine clothing.

I think it's wrong to say this can never happen and that women's builds and jawlines are so very different you can tell at a glance, for most yes, but for others no.

Horrible thing to happen, my child was mistaken for a boy when she cut her hair short aged 12 and was shouted at in the street for wearing a skirt.

Saying 'it can never happen' doesn't mean it didn't happen!

We know what women of all sorts look like. It is a skill honed over thousands of generations to keep women and girls safe. You can try to disrupt or override that instinct but I have doubts that is possible, perhaps it's innate?

Someone on this thread who is gender critical has said it has happened to them in the past.
I assume you think they're lying too?

Tofutart how privileged of you. As a PP has said. What has this got to do with GC women? All seems very disingenuous by the OP whose agenda is known to anyone familiar with these boards.

And yes indeed to those of you who have said that a bald women looks nothing like a bald man. It is a very different presentation from male pattern baldness or a 'skinhead' haircut. When I have been misgendered it has been because of not very stylish hat wearing

This exactly

No, all women as all women.
As in women born female.
I agree with the op that it hurts us.
So called gender criticals with their policing and scrutinising women's appearances are far more of a concern to me than people who are trans.

Hhhmmm. The difference between males, however they ID, and females, is clear. Also females are - and this is one of the problems with our rights being stepped in - very unlikely to be rude even to a trans identified male. We are socialised and scared into putting up with things we shouldn't put up with.
All in all, I think this is highly unlikely to be true.

Eh? Your op is backwards.

Men barging in to women's spaces, resulting in women being on high alert at all times, is the cause of this.

It isn't the fault of 'gender critical' women. It is the fault of all the men who have entered women's spaces and corroded their confidence that those spaces will be genuinely single sex.

Also, I am GC and have alopecia too. Because it often involves hat wearing, short hair styles, or just general lack of confidence in presenting a 'curated appearance', it has from time to time led to me being mistaken for a man. I've also been mistaken for a man once in a toilet - decades ago, unrelated to alopecia or to the current gender politics

It is awful and humiliating but it is just a feature of the condition (or of having a rather ungendered appearance). I don't think it is very credible to hammer it into another opportunity to have a go at women who don't believe you can change sex.