Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions
OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Thread gallery
5
TheRedCyclist · 06/06/2026 18:14

It's simple really

Guardian gets it right
SingleSexSpacesInSchools · 05/06/2026 09:32

Grammarnut · 04/06/2026 23:20

Reform is a definite threat. Repeal of the EA2010 would remove protection from pregnant women in employment, gay men and Lesbians, women across the board, disabled people - the lot. Reform are relying on most people not knowing what the EA2010 does and believing that it is a restraint upon business and freedom - when certainly it is the former (that's the point) but it supports the latter. Do not vote Reform (they are gunning to privatise the NHS on the US model as well).

Actually on the Dutch model, and The Netherlands has one of the very best health service in the world, I'd certainly vote for that. The NHS is dysfunctional, the way it is managed and incentivised leads to worse outcomes than we could have with a very different approach.

Bit of info on how the Dutch do it -

The Dutch system combines universal healthcare with regulated competition, rather than requiring the state to own and manage most healthcare services directly. Everyone must purchase a standard insurance policy from a competing insurer, but the government defines the essential care that every policy must cover. Insurers must accept every applicant regardless of age, health or medical history, and receive additional risk-adjusted funding for patients who are likely to require more expensive care. Low-income households receive financial support, children are covered without premiums, and everyone retains access to the same core package. People who want additional services or greater flexibility can pay for supplementary insurance.

Unlike the NHS, where patients are often tied to their local provider and poorly managed organisations can continue receiving public funding despite long waits or poor service, Dutch insurers contract with independent hospitals and clinics and negotiate over price, capacity and quality. Patients can choose between insurers and providers, while insurers can direct business away from inefficient or consistently poor-performing services. This does not magically eliminate mismanagement, but it makes it harder for dysfunction to continue without financial consequences and gives successful providers an incentive to expand.

The result is a system that maintains almost universal access while generally delivering greater patient choice and better access than the UK. OECD figures show that the Netherlands performs above the OECD average on nine out of ten measures of access and quality, compared with six out of ten for the UK. Only 0.6% of Dutch people reported unmet healthcare needs, compared with 4.5% in the UK, while satisfaction with the availability of quality healthcare was 83% in the Netherlands and 61% in the UK. Dutch mortality following heart attacks and strokes was also substantially lower. These differences cannot be attributed solely to competition, particularly because the Netherlands spends more on healthcare, but they demonstrate that universal coverage does not require an NHS-style state monopoly.

ScrollingLeaves · 04/06/2026 23:48

What a well thought out and fair article, thank you.

Grammarnut · 04/06/2026 23:20

SomersetBrie · 01/06/2026 14:07

Wow, I am shocked.

I read it quickly but am I right in thinking that this line
So far, Reform UK is the only party with a plan to repeal the Equality Act.

means that Reform are more of a threat to single spaces than how the law is looking at the moment?

Reform is a definite threat. Repeal of the EA2010 would remove protection from pregnant women in employment, gay men and Lesbians, women across the board, disabled people - the lot. Reform are relying on most people not knowing what the EA2010 does and believing that it is a restraint upon business and freedom - when certainly it is the former (that's the point) but it supports the latter. Do not vote Reform (they are gunning to privatise the NHS on the US model as well).

ItsCoolForCats · 02/06/2026 09:00

🎯

GallantKumquat · 02/06/2026 08:35

KnottyAuty · 01/06/2026 14:08

Whaaat? Did something weird happen over half term thats caused a paradigm shift?

It's Rustin who has always (or at least for a long time) been GC. The Guardian has not always been friendly to GCs (for example Suzanne Moore) but they they've never been banned outright.

MyDogClive · 01/06/2026 20:00

KnottyAuty · 01/06/2026 14:08

Whaaat? Did something weird happen over half term thats caused a paradigm shift?

Let’s hope that the folk in charge haven’t just decided to extend their holiday.

Guardian gets it right
flyingbuttress43 · 01/06/2026 19:40

Ereshkigalangcleg · 01/06/2026 18:09

Reddit is Mansplain Central.

It sure is. But not everywhere. I belong to a motor racing sub (a majority male sub) and even though they know I am one of those weird creatures i.e. a woman, I am treated as if I am normal and I've never had any sexist or misogynistic remarks. So it is possible to treat us as human and not mansplain.

OpheliaWitchoftheWoods · 01/06/2026 19:25

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

ItsCoolForCats · 01/06/2026 19:11

SingleSexSpacesInSchools · 01/06/2026 16:58

this is a very good point. No debate leaves you entirely defenceless

I on the other hand, after 2 years of this have a pretty good argument for every point TRAs have

Doesn't it make you despair though when you hear the absolute worst and most predictable of TRA arguments being repeated by politicians?

Ereshkigalangcleg · 01/06/2026 18:09

flyingbuttress43 · 01/06/2026 16:53

I read the Reddit responses and left wondering what planet do these bat-shit crazy fantasists live on? What would deter them from busting women's spaces? Maybe a notice on women's loos saying "please leave your penis at the door before entering" as a reminder they are men.

Sorry, it's so absurd it's now laughable.. What is it with Reddit and trans muppets? They swarm all over that place like ants. I never try to debate with them because I would get an immediate ban from the gate-keepers...which of course is what they rely on as they are so vulnerable dontcha know.

Reddit is Mansplain Central.

DierdreDaphne · 01/06/2026 17:57

unwashedanddazed · 01/06/2026 14:23

Blood libel, and on the first day of PRIDE! Oh my the wailing is loud today.

The wailing is indeed loud. The effort to actually point out what might be untrue in the article, inaudible, however.

Bluesky is extraordinarily intolerant on this issue (see also when the bat signal re James Murray arrived this morning). No attempt to engage with the arguments, just "despicable" "hateful bigot" etc repeated ad nauseam. SO sure of the eightness of their position. Idiots.

Pinana · 01/06/2026 17:47

lanadelgrey · 01/06/2026 14:05

Susanna Rustin has written from sex realist point of view before and spoken at WPUK and FiLiA events

Yes, I heard Susanna Rustin speak at Filia last year, she's excellent. Thanks for sharing this great, clear article.

Floisme · 01/06/2026 17:20

Not suprised it’s written by Susanna Rustin. I bet she’s had to push hard to get that published so thank you to her if by any chance she’s reading

WallaceinAnderland · 01/06/2026 17:18

Usually avoid it but I'll give them a click for this.

BridgetPhillipsonIsACowardlyJobsworth · 01/06/2026 17:15

RoyalCorgi · 01/06/2026 17:05

Susanna Rustin has published a few gc articles in the Guardian previously. So it's not hugely surprising. Amongst the ocean of transactivist garbage, they occasionally display their famed even-handedness by generously allowing Susanna to write a sensible piece.

Lots of other posters expressed surprise as well. Some pointed out that the author is GC. That's all good.

My point was that the Guardian has not exactly been a bastion of truth and unbiased journalism of late, and most people seem to have understood my post to be about that. Honestly, it's nothing personal against Susanna Rustin. I wasn't even thinking about her when I posted one line about the Guardian.

IwantToRetire · 01/06/2026 17:09

I imagine they published it because at the end it asks for responses to it. So just shit stirring.

Except I now see she is "Social affairs leader writer for the Guardian"!

In which case why is so much of the Guardian coverage anti GC perspective.

Will wait to see if this is the start of the tide turning, or just a token.

Edited to add: I know see that the segment is called Opinion: Transgender. So presumably a response to the recent emotive Guardian article about TW facing segregation!!

RoyalCorgi · 01/06/2026 17:05

BridgetPhillipsonIsACowardlyJobsworth · 01/06/2026 16:52

I don't see that there's anything unfair here. I was referring to the Guardian's relentless attempts to obscure, twist, and generally mangle everything related to our fight for women's rights into "trans are the most hated and delicate minority ever in the history of the world. Ever." Now that we are "allowed" to talk about reality again, the Guardian publishes this.

I was surprised that the article was published, even more so that (as far as I know) it hasn't been retracted. And so soon after the guidance was published. And even then, one previous poster has noted that the Guardian will "both sides" it in the coming days with an article from a different viewpoint. Fair enough. Different viewpoints are what the Guardian should have been publishing all this time.

I don't know Susanna Rustin personally. I said nothing about her. I was noting that it was the Guardian publishing the article, as were other posters. I don't think "fair" comes into it, really.

Susanna Rustin has published a few gc articles in the Guardian previously. So it's not hugely surprising. Amongst the ocean of transactivist garbage, they occasionally display their famed even-handedness by generously allowing Susanna to write a sensible piece.

KilkennyCats · 01/06/2026 17:03

They’ll probably retract it tomorrow with a fulsome apology to those offended by realism.

SingleSexSpacesInSchools · 01/06/2026 16:58

SqueakyDinosaur · 01/06/2026 16:56

And this is why they are losing ground, because "no debate" not only doesn't work, but leaves you less capable of arguing logically when it's necessary. I do feel the GC side has really done a LOT more homework on this, which is partly why its arguments stack up (the other reason is that they're TRUE).

this is a very good point. No debate leaves you entirely defenceless

I on the other hand, after 2 years of this have a pretty good argument for every point TRAs have

SqueakyDinosaur · 01/06/2026 16:56

flyingbuttress43 · 01/06/2026 16:53

I read the Reddit responses and left wondering what planet do these bat-shit crazy fantasists live on? What would deter them from busting women's spaces? Maybe a notice on women's loos saying "please leave your penis at the door before entering" as a reminder they are men.

Sorry, it's so absurd it's now laughable.. What is it with Reddit and trans muppets? They swarm all over that place like ants. I never try to debate with them because I would get an immediate ban from the gate-keepers...which of course is what they rely on as they are so vulnerable dontcha know.

And this is why they are losing ground, because "no debate" not only doesn't work, but leaves you less capable of arguing logically when it's necessary. I do feel the GC side has really done a LOT more homework on this, which is partly why its arguments stack up (the other reason is that they're TRUE).

flyingbuttress43 · 01/06/2026 16:53

GrimDamnFanjo · 01/06/2026 14:35

I tried to read one of the responses and their arguments make no sense at all.

I read the Reddit responses and left wondering what planet do these bat-shit crazy fantasists live on? What would deter them from busting women's spaces? Maybe a notice on women's loos saying "please leave your penis at the door before entering" as a reminder they are men.

Sorry, it's so absurd it's now laughable.. What is it with Reddit and trans muppets? They swarm all over that place like ants. I never try to debate with them because I would get an immediate ban from the gate-keepers...which of course is what they rely on as they are so vulnerable dontcha know.

BridgetPhillipsonIsACowardlyJobsworth · 01/06/2026 16:52

OttersOnAPlane · 01/06/2026 16:29

That's very unfair.

Susanna Rustin has been GC from the very beginning and has written in support of women's rights for years.

It can't have been easy staying and fighting the good fight with Owen Jones and the TRA lot on staff.

I don't see that there's anything unfair here. I was referring to the Guardian's relentless attempts to obscure, twist, and generally mangle everything related to our fight for women's rights into "trans are the most hated and delicate minority ever in the history of the world. Ever." Now that we are "allowed" to talk about reality again, the Guardian publishes this.

I was surprised that the article was published, even more so that (as far as I know) it hasn't been retracted. And so soon after the guidance was published. And even then, one previous poster has noted that the Guardian will "both sides" it in the coming days with an article from a different viewpoint. Fair enough. Different viewpoints are what the Guardian should have been publishing all this time.

I don't know Susanna Rustin personally. I said nothing about her. I was noting that it was the Guardian publishing the article, as were other posters. I don't think "fair" comes into it, really.

Swipe left for the next trending thread