Secret signals

I was recently in a little town in Yorkshire where there was a feminist/LGBT bookshop displaying both the pride flag and the suffragette flag everywhere. I have to admit I was confused about whether they are team TRA or secretly team TERF.

I find that saying you have "strong views on women's rights" or that you enjoy the Cormoran Strikes series tends to bring fellow TERFs out of the woodwork.

Commenters are, shall we say, less than impressed over council workers being paid to talk about putting their dog in a dress to discuss what gender fluidity means, rather than emptying bins and fixing potholes.

Well, after Lizzy's triumph (I met her before the settlement and donated to her crowdfunder) I don't imagine you'll have any trouble at work saying what she said. If someone harasses you for that, they won't have a leg to stand on.

I’m too old to care, in fact I say bring it on. Every day I wear a suffragette lanyard. What could be more “woke” than votes for women. Thanks to DEI their policy is promotion of women so HR can’t argue with that. Ironically I’m on the DEI, recommended by a senior gay man! I’m a well known gay rights supporter and feminist. Last couple of years DEI has gone full trans rights. So it was my job to inform my department that pronouns in emails was “recommended”. I outstandingly did my best and sent a list of the most crazy pronouns “to help” colleagues understand and choose. Not one uses pronouns!!

Last year there was a meeting about men could be women. I wrote comments along the lines of you can’t change sex. To show others they can be brave too. To let others know they don’t have to pretend to believe nonsense. My lanyard has a small message on it, some notice it. I have a very subtle pin too that says Terf on it. Last year I brought up the photo of Isla in his pink leggings, very helpful. I’ve had to sit thru discussion in the canteen about how people believe men can be women, so I point out that biology is real, but I do it very carefully. One of the DEI policies is about “belief” so they can’t get me on that.

i’ve come to realise that DEI is all lies actually. Those promoting it are doing it not because they believe in it, but because it’s official policy and they don’t want to be seen not to believe in a lot of it. For expediency they will fake it.

Apologies if my post is a little bit cryptic, don’t want to out myself. I’ve great support from colleagues who get it. We secretly make jokes. Fantastically one guy announced to us all by email that henceforth he was no longer Barry but Barbella (obviously I’ve not used the actual words) he even shockingly mentioned growing breasts, that email didn’t go down well, lol. But he didn’t give a dam. One senior manager confessed to me he didn’t believe it either because he knew fairly well I am a Terf, where I am they do not know what a Terf is. (Not UK) but one gay young colleague knew, and called me one. I confirmed it, coward that he was he told me he wouldn’t debate it, so I realised he too didn’t believe. Another one debated me once on it, he was full of be nice crap, told me there was no physical difference if men competed in women’s sports. Idiot. Wonder what he thinks now after the Olympics boxing. I didn’t even bother to bring that up with him.

Thinking of The sing TERFing in the streets.

If you hum it I’ll sing it!

@teentantrums it actually started with an incident involving someone's "gender fluid" dog. You couldn't make this shit up.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13855513/Lesbian-social-worker-discrimination-tribunal-gender-fluid.html

apologies for the Daily Fail link but it does cover the issue which is more than the Guardian did. The bit about the dog would be funny if it was in a novel but in real life it's scary.

https://www.dinnyhall.com/signature-medium-hoops-29885
I have these and the matching necklace. On sale at the moment !

Thankyou everyone for the links and suggestions

@Pluvia do those people know they are heroes and zeroes? Not seen that before and it was quite an interesting read but I couldn't work out if it had all been done at the year end or month by month as the year progressed?
Apologies if I missed anywhere explaining that, I did look again but got distracted

I have THE scarf, and dinosaur studs.

@ILoveAnnaQuay That is awful! I am sorry but I cannot believe that anyone was "shaking in disbelief" to hear that sex exists and men are not women. Chancers.

Possibly outing myself here, but this is one of my colleagues. Or rather, very sadly, my ex colleague. Which is why we rely on secret symbols at work.

https://www.mysocialworknews.com/article/council-pays-gbp-54-000-in-compensation-to-social-worker-over-gender-critical-views

That is lovely.

Then please be thankful for all the women who have put themselves on the line and donate some money to the crowdfunders for those who are getting us all out of this situation by taking their employers/ professional bodies etc on. Hooray for Jo Phoenix, yesterday declared Hero of the Year by Academics for Freedom of Speech.

www.afaf.org.uk/heroes-and-zeros/#:~:text=Our%20Hero%20for%20January%202024,of%20her%20gender%2Dcritical%20beliefs.

My husband bought me this:

www.dinnyhall.com/suffragette-three-stone-scoop-necklace

And in a captured organisation, HR might be 'smart' enough to realise that sacking a middleaged woman for being a Terf could potentially cause them issues, but deciding not to make her contract permanent or 'The needs of the organisation have changed and your role is no longer required' would be a way to get rid of an entirely innocent party without ever mentioning that it's actually due to a TRA spotting something on Mumsnet that's described as a Secret Signal on her desk or person.

I take your point that most people might not want to risk it, but it's still covered under the Equality Act in the same way other protected characteristics are. It's possible to "not extend contracts" because of other PCs too. And it's exactly what happened to Maya.

https://lamenagerie.co/products/dinosaur-silver-origami-necklace

I have this

I have one of Jess De Wahl’s little uterus & fallopian tubes badges and it’s so cute (and well made).

If I buy all the Terfy pins and badges that I like then I may as well give in and buy a black bomber jacket to go full throttle into reliving the fashion of the 80s (for covering bomber jackets in badges). It would be very retro at my age lol

AstonsGerbil · Today 11:52

Can anyone remember the name of the artist that made jewellery in shape of fallopian tubes? Sounds odd but it was beautifully made.

Beaten to it, but Jess de Wahl. I bought my daughter a patch to sew and Jess included a postcard in the box - both my wife and daughter thought it was a sheep!

That was Jess De Wahl, @AstonsGerbil . I've got one of those lovely little items, it's currently gracing my favourite jacket along with one of her 'Heretic' embroidered patches. She is primarily a textile artist, and you might remember her as the woman whose work was removed (temporarily, she sued and won - yay!) from the V and A shop on account of her horrifying GC views. I absolutely love her stuff.

I’m due a few treats. I don’t really have anywhere to wear them, but I do like knowing I have them.

Yes, I've heard of them. I'm also aware of employment law.

But that's the point - I have, but that doesn't mean somebody else has, so could be singled out by a particularly militant individual as committing literal violence against them for having a Harry Potter keyring, a couple of plastic dinosaurs or wearing a purple dress and a green jumper.

And in a captured organisation, HR might be 'smart' enough to realise that sacking a middleaged woman for being a Terf could potentially cause them issues, but deciding not to make her contract permanent or 'The needs of the organisation have changed and your role is no longer required' would be a way to get rid of an entirely innocent party without ever mentioning that it's actually due to a TRA spotting something on Mumsnet that's described as a Secret Signal on her desk or person.

Have you heard of the Forstater judgment that declared GC views to be worthy of respect in a democratic society? That's why. You can't fire someone because they hold GC views/ beliefs. And if you say that they can't display any indication of their beliefs then every cross and other religious symbol and every flag would also have to go.