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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Memories of the last few years of madness

334 replies

SuperSleepyBaby · 20/04/2025 13:12

There have been so many issues over the last few years with trans rights clashing with women’s rights… its been fascinating, in a bad way.

some that come to mind:

A man photographed breastfeeding a newborn in a bus - and being used by the BBC to represent mothers for a story

A man running a rape crisis centre while saying he’s a women and telling women users of the service to ‘reframe their trauma’

a man saying he’s a women and being appointed to head a charity for endometriosis.

Male police officers who say they are women being allowed to strip search women.

What else…

OP posts:
Thread gallery
41
SuperSleepyBaby · 21/04/2025 18:11

Rachel Levine
Sam Brinton
Sarah McBride

OP posts:
Boiledbeetle · 21/04/2025 16:41

One of the most defining moments of madness in all of this for me gave me both a “What the fuck! You all have lost your minds?” moment and a “Oh my god women are bloody amazing!” moment within seconds of each other.

22nd December 2022 when members of the Scottish Parliament voted to PASS the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill by 86 votes to 39 was probably one of the ultimate lows of the past few years and I was enraged that the Scottish Parliament had totally and utterly fucked women over

Luckily one of the women sat in the viewing gallery at Holyrood was just as enraged as I was, as immediately after the passing of the GRR (Scotland) Bill in Holyrood, Elaine Miller, a pelvic physiotherapist, and occasional wearer of a very fetching vulva costume, stood up in the public gallery and shouted:

“If this Parliament will not respect the rights of women, then you have no decency. And if you will not be decent towards women who are being raped right now in jails that you’re in charge of, if you will not be decent, then I will be indecent. Get it right up yers. You TERRIBLE TERRIBLE people.”

And as she started to shout “then I will be indecent…” she raised her skirt and, thanks to an MSP with a phone on record, the world got a fantastic view of a fun fur merkin stuck to the front of her tights.

Youtube Video of said moment here:

And a beetle’s poetic re-telling of the moment below:

THE MERKIN LADY

It was a bleak day in December when the Bill from hell was passed.
We’d all sat and listened to the most egregious lies rehashed.
Knowing that the politicians had been whipped to vote,
was doomed to be the only thing to cling on to whilst we coped.
Then the voting was all over, and the proclamation read.
The women of the country felt they might as well be dead.
Our rights had just been decimated to placate the whims of men,
Nic knew what she had bloody done, but she didn’t want to ken.

Then, like an angel from above, the heroine of this piece
floated from the sky, on clouds of silk and fluffy geese.
She floated through the air, like a sky nymph wrapped in love,
surrounded on her journey by a pitying of turtle doves.
They gently placed her…

What do you mean it didn’t happen quite like this?
This is my re-telling of that moment of historic bliss.
Can’t I have my fantasy of how it all played out?
Shit! Imagine if the history books believed me without doubt!
OK! Ignore that bit. Scrub from ‘Then like an angel from above’.
So back on with the true version of my historic merkin love…

After the Bill was passed, and in a fit of pique,
Elaine Miller, she decided, that she just had to speak.
And as she finished speaking, she lifted up her skirt,
and the merkin of this tale proved to be an extrovert.
It flashed itself to Parliament, and to a recording phone.
Then, it hit the world stage, and now it sits upon its throne.

A piece of women’s history was sealed in that moment.
A highlight in the misery. A most wonderful bestowment
to those who’ll pass the story on to future generations.
“The Merkin Lady raised her skirt, to save you from privations.
She stood up for her rights, and what she knew to be so true,
to make the world a better place for every one of you.”

And so now the Merkin Lady holds a spot within my heart.
She makes a smile appear, for what she did was like fine art.

Screams

“I LOVE YOU ELAINE!”

(The stalker vibes emanating off me are purely coincidental. Honest!)

Boiledbeetle

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/AsJyEiQlEkU?si=2lezOPiMQzOYc0hr

AliasGrace47 · 21/04/2025 12:49

TheCatsTongue · 21/04/2025 11:35

The madness doesn't end, on the BBC and ITV today the obituaries for the Pope mention his stance on trans rights.

Is there any news article that somehow doesn't have to revolve around trans?

I'm so sad about the Pope. He was just getting better, or so I thought. He was excellent imo in pushing for more inclusion of women & a softer stance on gay people while announcing gender ideology to be 'demonic'.

TheLongRider · 21/04/2025 12:40

On the good side, there are some great articles that exposed the madness. "Pronouns are Rohypnol" by Barra Kerr from 2019 on the Fair Play for Women website. Also one that I can't find that memorably described the struggle against "Be kind" and the "What is a woman" shite with the exhortation to "Pullllll!" the meanings of words to their rightful place as evidenced in the SC judgment. If anyone can find the second article I'd be grateful.

TheCatsTongue · 21/04/2025 12:06

Yes, it reminds me at the start of the Ukraine war and there was a lot of articles about the impact on trans women in Ukraine.

Strangely enough in a country where all fighting-age men weren't allowed to leave and had to join the army a lot of men started identifying as trans women. Yet no one could understand why...

Gettingbysomehow · 21/04/2025 12:06

Heylo · 21/04/2025 10:53

If you can find it pls post it here so we can a mass report him to the authorities in his country - at least here in the UK that’s technically a hate crime.

what an animal bringing someone with a disability into it.

I know it's absolutely disgusting. I'll try and find it.

Szygy · 21/04/2025 11:58

TheCatsTongue · 21/04/2025 11:35

The madness doesn't end, on the BBC and ITV today the obituaries for the Pope mention his stance on trans rights.

Is there any news article that somehow doesn't have to revolve around trans?

I expect the drag queens will be along soon to pay a special tribute.

ETA x-posted with WaitWhat!

SingleAHF · 21/04/2025 11:57

myplace · 20/04/2025 15:27

18 yr old Lilly MadDugan hounding a lesbian out of her role as Labour Women’s Officer so he could do it having been a ‘woman’ for all of ten minutes.

Then being outed as a bog standard, predatory bloke.

Sorry you have misremembered some details. His name was Lily Madigan and he was 19. He put in a complaint against the women's officer for Bexhill, claiming that she was transphobic, then subsequently stood in the Rochester area which is many miles away from Bexhill.

SuperSleepyBaby · 21/04/2025 11:54

Rosie Duffield and her issues with labour.

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Waitwhat23 · 21/04/2025 11:40

I can't bear to look but given their past track record, one can only assume that the BBC have published an interview with a drag queen regarding the Pope's death.

TheCatsTongue · 21/04/2025 11:35

The madness doesn't end, on the BBC and ITV today the obituaries for the Pope mention his stance on trans rights.

Is there any news article that somehow doesn't have to revolve around trans?

FeelingLessTired · 21/04/2025 11:32

This may have been mentioned, but the IOC Thomas Bach saying this in regards to the boxers Khelif and Lin

''What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman. There I can only invite them to come up with a scientific-based, new definition of who is a woman and how can somebody being born, raised, competed and having a passport as a woman cannot be considered a woman.''

If only we could have some scientific-based definition of what makes a woman. Chromosomes don't cut it anymore. 🙄

Meanacademic · 21/04/2025 11:29

Academics would deserve their own WTF thread … apart from the aforementioned Alice Roberts, some prominent TRAs on social media include Sally Hines, Allison Phipps, Charlotte Lydia Riley, Priyamvada Gopal (fond of putting college porters in their place) and many others who policed Twitter to make sure that their fellow academics stayed in line.

I remember that time when Holly Lawford-Smith published her book on gender-critical feminism with Oxford University Press and some credentialed numpties popped up to say they would no longer publish with or review for OUP: archive.is/2023.05.12-205742/www.thetimes.co.uk/article/826fcd46-f0ce-11ed-bdc8-c06a4e8c18d7?shareToken=c77226a5bc7471965f49ba62fdaa54e6

They’re now all licking their wounds on Blue Sky …

Namechangechanged · 21/04/2025 11:20

All the authors who write books for children with titles like:

My Dad is my Mum
Mummy, what’s my gender?
The Usborne lift-the-flap guide to Pride!
Topsy and Tim visit the library for the Drag Queen show

Or anime-style didactics aimed at YA about

Chloe looked in horror in the mirror at her growing breasts. She googled puberty blockers and howled in rage at her Mum saying no! If only she’d been allowed to become the boy she knew she really was [subtext: parents who parent are the enemy]

So many of them everywhere once you start looking 🤮

lifeturnsonadime · 21/04/2025 11:16

Alex Drummond's work on widening the bandwith of what it is to be a woman.

lifeturnsonadime · 21/04/2025 11:12

All of the authors who claim not to know what a woman is despite writing books that make it crystal clear that they do, and who derided JKR for speaking the truth.

Notably -

Stephen King
Margaret Atwood
Philip Pulman

Heylo · 21/04/2025 10:53

Gettingbysomehow · 20/04/2025 20:16

On tiktok today, downs syndrome women aren't women because they have an extra chromosome.....daft ranting from a transwoman getting muddled by science.

If you can find it pls post it here so we can a mass report him to the authorities in his country - at least here in the UK that’s technically a hate crime.

what an animal bringing someone with a disability into it.

SunnieShine · 21/04/2025 10:28

myplace · 20/04/2025 15:28

Pippa Bunce and a top 100 influential women in finance. But only two days a week as he was Philip the rest of the time.

Omg, I was thinking about that the other day. Could it be more idiotic?

SecretFerret · 21/04/2025 10:24

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 21/04/2025 10:02

I don't think she could claim to be a consultant. She was looking after the IT in a branch of Citizens' Advice. I have always assumed her IT expertise was at the level of knowing how to unjam the printer and do the daily back ups.

Perhaps she identified as one and that was good enough?

popefully · 21/04/2025 10:21

I occasionally remember the Family Sex Show and its huge red flags, and insistence that only bigots would find anything to criticise. It's been strangely quiet since - I know there were people who raised concerns.

popefully · 21/04/2025 10:19

My mistake! IT Manager. Just goes to show that even if you have a small amount of experience with something, it in no way qualifies you to be in a position of serious responsibility...

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 21/04/2025 10:02

popefully · 21/04/2025 09:17

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g oh yes, I'd forgotten Helen Islan of Mermaids attempting to sue a transwoman for being transphobic. Totally batshit organisation.

And when Mermaids was found to have stored a bunch of highly sensitive emails of their gender-questioning child clients - names, diagnoses, treatments - in a publicly accessible place online. The Times came across them when googling the charity number.

Susie Green, IT consultant.

I don't think she could claim to be a consultant. She was looking after the IT in a branch of Citizens' Advice. I have always assumed her IT expertise was at the level of knowing how to unjam the printer and do the daily back ups.

Theeyeballsinthesky · 21/04/2025 09:57

Oh yes the absolutely appalling behaviour of Joanne harris as chair of the society of authors

Waitwhat23 · 21/04/2025 09:55

The utter hounding of Rachel Rooney, Magi Gibson and Jenny Lindsay (among many others) by people in the publishing world with a particular mention of the rabidly vitriolic Society of Authors and Clara Vulliamy -

https://unherd.com/2021/12/inside-the-trans-publishing-purge/

Inside the trans publishing purge

Children's authors are silenced for telling the truth

http://unherd.com/2021/12/inside-the-trans-publishing-purge/