Women's rights general conversations - Thread 10

Seems very lenient anyway but just on the legal side, IIRC "making" an image doesn't have to mean being involved in its creation. Downloading a copy can be classed as "making" a new version of the image, as distinct from "production." At least that is my non-lawyerly understanding of it from some previous case or another where the leniency sounded crazy.

'Making' doesn't mean 'creating' in the sense you're probably thinking. It covers copying forwarding and simply downloading. It can be essentially the same as the old charge of posessing, but digital.

Still a ridiculously trivial sentence. 'Building Choices' programme? Because it was obviously just a poor choice that got him into this. 🙄

Here's a cheery tale of local justice, just down the road from me

A gym owner from Leigh has walked free from court after possessing hundreds of images of child sexual abuse including many showing the rape or sexual torture of young girls.
Bodybuilder Santo O’Brien, 36, pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children, which fell across categories A, B and C
He also admitted possessing 32 extreme pornographic images involving an animal, which showed humans engaging in sexual intercourse with a number of animals including a dog, horse and a pig.
He was given a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, during a hearing at Bolton Crown Court.
O’Brien must complete the 26-day Building Choices programme
To complete 15 days of rehabilitation activities
To complete 150 hours of unpaid work
He must register with the police as a convicted sex offender for 10 years.
He was told to pay £1,200 prosecution costs and a £156 surcharge.
O'Brien owns the 'Santo's Health & Fitness' gym in Greenfold Way, Leigh

This from the local paper, it did happen. But not just possessing, 'making' too? And he's not in prison? Someone commented on SM that doubtless he'd be paid a visit by Tommy Robinson fans. Which sounds likely, not that that makes things any better, of course. I know there’s a prison over-crowding crisis, but an adult is badly need to make some sensible decisions about who should be in prison and who shouldn't.

@Pibs101, glad you realised. It's interesting how many people have clear memories of what peaked them. For me it was when the then leader of the Lib Dems, Jo Swinson, thought that shouting 'TWAW!' would make her PM. At that point I realised that all these weirdos were actually serious and I was so outraged I almost had a nervous breakdown in reaction. Never looked back

I was watching a video of a YouTuber whose content I liked at the time. He started talking about how it was perfectly acceptable for trans women to be in women’s shelters. He said if any woman doesn’t want them there then there is ‘something wrong with them’ and they need therapy. I just got so enraged watching this man blame women. I had a friend who experienced dv and marital rape and she went to a women’s shelter in the 70’s. I was so disgusted by him and this started me down a rabbit hole of looking at what gender critical people were saying. Discovering that what they said seemed reasonable and slowly moving to a position of being fully gender critical.

What snapped you out of it?

I feel the need to confess that until early 2023 I was fully twaw. This wouldn’t be too bad except I was insufferable about it. I’d regularly pontificate to my Mum about how non binary was valid, that you absolutely are the gender that you say you are. That trans women should of course be allowed in women’s toilets. I was a bore and a twat. I don’t even have the excuse of youth as in January 2023 I would have been 48. I am embarrassed and ashamed of myself.

The short version is "Entitled American incomer¹ to tiny Scottish island sues community groups² because they won't allow an unregistered (reputedly aggressive) 'emotional support ' dog into the cafe".

¹ Celebrity adjacent.

² Sued the wrong group the first time; wrongly targeted group incurred significant costs to get it dropped.

Yes, Scotland.

Is that a UK story? I haven’t seen reports.

Yeah I read a bit of that yesterday.The woman is obviously unhinged and massively entitled. And that's about it, really.

I'm wondering what my Local Authority are up to. I just filled in their standard application form and the DEI section had this doozy

Gender
(Optional)

Choices are as follows

Man
Woman
Intersex
Non-binary
Prefer not to say
Prefer to use your own term

To me that's a complete mess. Are they asking about sex or gender feelings, or kind of both at once in some kind of poorly laid out cluster of nonsense?

I kind of lean towards the lattermost of those.

blimey!

Wasn’t sure where to post this - I work for a very large local authority and on a large staff call the lead for DEI has just said “sex and gender are different - sex is binary, gender is how you identify yourself”. I could have fallen over!

Didn't know where to put this, but did anyone see this Guardian piece about the FSU?

www.theguardian.com/media/2026/aug/18/toby-young-free-speech-union-60000-gbp?CMP=fb_gu#Echobox=1787062830

I happened across this in the Guardian the other day

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/16/women-routine-womb-examinations-hysteroscopies-pain-nhs

I don't know if they copied this Times article

https://www.skipthepaywall.com/read?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetimes.com%2Fuk%2Fhealthcare%2Farticle%2Fpain-women-womb-procedure-trauma-hfmnjgz56

and stripped out the MN references or if they happened on the subject independently or were lobbied by one of the other organisations/women involved.

I didn't want to start a thread because it might trigger someone who's been through this or terrify a woman who's facing it. This Facebook thread is enraging and heartbreaking

https://www.facebook.com/WomensRightsNetwork/posts/pain-is-not-a-womans-lotits-clear-that-many-women-are-experiencing-horrendous-pa/1016573447773157/

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this is just to get this off my chest, I'm probably being petty,

There are other small signs of progress. The British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy has recently appointed a female president – the first in decades – consultant gynaecologist Rebecca Mallick. This month, Mallick and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) president Dr Alison Wright met with members of HA. “Alison and I were shocked and have a lot of things to think about,” says Mallick. At present, RCOG guidelines state that outpatient hysteroscopy patients should be fully informed about the procedure first, and “made aware” that there are other settings and pain relief offerings, including a general anaesthetic or intravenous sedation. “We could do a deep dive into why best practice isn’t always happening,” says Mallick. “We’ve got half a million people on the gynae waiting list, so clinics want to see as many people as possible. Are we giving enough time to talk through all the options or just trying to firefight numbers? We need to look at how we can support hysteroscopists to offer all types of analgesic. We also need to advocate for more funding and resources so we can tackle the backlog and improve care.”

Rebecca Mallick might be the first female president but she seems to have trouble using the word 'women'. The guidelines thought (linked in the original article) do remember who they're for. I hope Mallick does succeed in her stated aim and goes beyond just looking to actually do something. Even if her language gets my back up.

However, if she volunteered to service the men, it might stop them coming in the first place.

Edwina Currie thinks brothels should be set up to 'service' the hundreds of young, single men who are set to be housed near some English villages.

https://www.westernstandard.news/international/watch-former-uk-minister-suggests-brothel-needed-near-village-housing-1250-asylum-seekers/75934

There was an article by Julie Bindel in the Telegraph but I couldn't get it to archive.

I'm...words fail me. I suspect she doesn't anticipate volunteering to work there herself or getting her daughter a position where she'll be bought and fucked by hundreds of strangers.

Very fresh faced, isn't he!

That's quite a sketch. Thanks for sharing it!

Check out the amazingly young Bill Murray!

Is that from the 1980s?

No way would this be made today. Imagine the reaction.

I came across this ancient SNL sketch yesterday, that I'd never see before. As I remarked, the liberal US audience who laughed then aren't laughing now. Couldn't see that sketch happening now.

www.facebook.com/reel/1786381176111565