Trans sibling in law

Now I know you’re trolling or you’re a man. What a ridiculous load of old bollocks. I wish I’d known I had a choice about bearing the children, because had I known that, my husband would definitely have had the second. Is Reddit broken or something?

One obvious example: if you have had a baby and were granted paid maternity leave from.your job, you have benefited from a social and legal accommodation made specifically for women on account of their biology. Even if this hasn't happened to you personally, there are thousands to whom it has.

Some medical treatments and services are only needed by women, but society still provides them. Should it not?

Have you never, ever, felt unsafe in the presence of a man and felt you needed to get away to a place where he couldn't follow you? Perhaps you have been fortunate in this respect. Many of us haven't.

I dislike the word "privilege" because nowadays it is frequently abused as a gotcha. But you don't have to be privileged in a socioeconomic sense to have been lucky in avoiding unpleasant experiences which have happened to other women, or to have lived a life where you haven't needed things that some other women need.

She clearly identifies as one because she made a huge deal out of her qualification in this area.

I think the rest of us have managed to see straight through that.

I said disadvantaged, not victimised.

And "nobody forces us to have children"?

WOW.

Yes, I am going to use the "P-word" now. (Privileged.) Because only a woman who has grown up in a developed country, where contraception is freely available and abortions are legal up to 24 weeks, where marital rape is a crime, and where the birth rate has until now remained high enough that the government doesn't need to think about restricting women's choice not to have children, could possibly think that.

Billions of women worldwide today, and close to 100% of women throughout human history up until the mid 20th century, have had little or no choice about whether they have children or not.

And should the birth rate plummet to significantly below replacement levels, we can't guarantee that we wouldn't start to see explicitly pro-natalist policies in countries like the UK at some point in the future.

I'm not sure having a gender studies degree qualifies one as an intellectual.

Have I been lied to by feminists? I was promised that if we conquered patriarchy then period cramps would be abolished.

So you are going to dismiss my book recommendations?

Good. You illustrate the point about intellectuals so far up their own arse they can't see the blindingly obvious in life. Because they don't want to.

You're very lucky thay you've never been "victimised by biology".

And yes, having children and taking mat leave can be a choice. But ultimately men can have consequence free sex. Women can't always. Men can chose not to use protection anf walk away from any resulting child. Women can't. Yes they can chose an abortion. But they might need time off work for it. Or counselling. It's not the same.

Like I said, you're lucky you've never been affected by any of that.

I'm 5'2"

The way I've been spoken to in the past due to my sex and stature has utterly shocked 6'2" DH.

My mere height is an issue related to biology.

I don't have to get onto my reproductive organs to be a verbal punching bag for the insecure dickheads of this world.

I got IDed until I was 35. Not because I have staggering youthful looks, but because I'm regarded much easier to challenge than a hulking great 17 year old rugby playing lad.

So what OTHER features do all women, and no men, have in common?

Read - you have an opinion that differs to mine, so I’m going to be personally offended by that.

I don’t feel victimised by biology, no. As far as you know, science works, men/the patriarchy aren’t responsible for period cramps - are they?

Nobody forces us to have children and take maternity leave, that’s the benefit of choice.

I'm finding your utterly patronising condescending bollocks rude. And disrespectful.

This

Snigger!

Seriously.

Being lectured to buy someone who isn't with it on what is supposed to be their specialist subject and they come out with the ignorance displayed on this thread is astonishing.

Perhaps you don't.

But can't you see that perhaps other women do?

Like for example, a woman escaping a domestic violence situation might need a place away from men to feel safe and to heal?

A sick or disabled woman who needs intimate care might need that to come from a woman?

A woman who's been raped might need a counsellor/therapy group that is solely female?

Why wouldn't you facilitate these women getting what they need?

Don’t. Speak. To. Me. Like. That.

There’s no wonder the rest of us don’t want to associate with your subsection of feminism when it’s so frankly rude.

Preferably not one by Judith Butler.

Go. And. Read. A. Book.

The above mentioned two are a good start.

I think a better example is how things like body armour is designed for male bodies so it's problematic when it comes to female police officers. Also see other things, particularly safety features Or medicine.

Gender neutral isn't gender neutral. It's default human aka men.

As a woman who is 5'2" tall I have issues with all manner of different things being designed for 'default human' rather than consideration for women. I am small for a woman but well within the range of 'normal'.

There's a whole book dedicated to this subject. It's called 'Invisible Women' by Caroline Criado Perez. It's so popular it's sold over a million copies and is highly recommended by a number of award winning authors and is a Sunday Times Best Seller. It's quoted in the Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman, which is also another exceptionally regarded book. It was in Matthew Syed's Top Five book recommendations for 2019.

It should be the top of the list on any Gender Studies reading list. It seems somehow it's passed our resident 'gender expert' by. How strange.

Instead we are being told utter utter bollocks on this thread by someone who claims to be well read and educated.

I truly despair some days.

Really? You've never felt even the smallest bit disadvantaged by, for example, having really bad period cramps on a day when you need to be super productive at work, or getting caught short when your period arrives unexpectedly and you don't have any sanpro with you, or having to be the one primarily responsible for preventing pregnancy in all your sexual relationships with a man, or (the big one) having to take time out of your career to have a baby?

Or even stuff unrelated to your reproductive system, like my female colleague who sprained an ankle on a site visit recently because her feet are size five and they didn't have any boots smaller than a size nine.

Could it be gendered conditioning that discourages some women from expecting the world to accommodate them?

That it’s not a concern about restricting women to their body parts, but a concern about taking up space?

Being a female is not the same as being disabled, surely.

I don’t personally limited by the fact I happen to have female biology, and don’t feel I need any specific accommodations for that. Certainly not in the same way as being disabled would require adjustments and necessary accommodations.

You’ll notice before the “privileged” pile on starts, which it will, that I said personally.

I still don't get why acknowledging female biology and the fact that it requires certain accommodations (especially in a world where the default assumptions for physical infrastructure and social arrangements are male-orientated), is "reducing women to their biology".

An analogy: if I was unable to walk, I would find it helpful if society recognised the existence of people with disabilities, and my existence as such a person, and helped me to obtain a wheelchair, and provided ramps and lifts in buildings etc. so that people in my position could go about their business with a degree of independence.

I would not find it helpful if they pretended I was "just the same as them" to the extent that any acknowledgement of my difficulties in negotiating a world set up for ablebodied people was shut down and no accommodations like ramps and lifts were made. Nor would it be helpful if, when disabled people banded together to campaign for the accommodations they needed, they were told that they shouldn't consider themselves as having anything in common because "it reduces you to nothing but your disability".

Yes. Consider yourself educated.

See I'd definitely pass that gender studies course.