Women's rights general conversations - Thread 10

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.

What snapped you out of it?

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.

@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

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.

'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. 🙄

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.