UK radical feminists; what to do?

Oh I got you quoted a misogynist as a joke! Was your entire post meant to be satire?

FFS it was a joke!

Saying that men rarely have any unique insights on women's lived experiences and feminist goals isn't the same as women's intellect and capacity being dismissed by misogynists 🤨.Most women would know this. Most good men do too. But good to see gender roles are still firmly followed on here if the men cry sad when they don't feel validated enough and women who seek male approval will strawman in their defense.

Notice how quickly the 'men don't offer unique insights into female experiences' to 'we must defend men's intellectual capacity because they might feel sad' happens

I'm very much loving a bunch of women discussing very seriously whether men can have rational options and produce new insights 😂it's like a reverse of all those Enlightment fellas considering whether the female mind can ever truly attain the heights of the male.

To paraphrase Samuel (Samantha) Johnson...

"Ma'am, a man's feminism is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

(This is a joke, I don't actually think it!)

I think this is complex. Arguably countries that are more relaxed about nudity and topless sunbathing etc are that way precisely because they don't sexualise it so much, at least in certain context. They may also be relaxed about sex but that's a separate thing.

I'd add Italy, Spain, France etc to the list of 'being more relaxed about nudity' but would agree that Eastern Europe is generally less so. And places like China, South Korea etc are similarly opposed. Japan is relaxed in some ways about sex (in other ways not) but not about toplessness on beaches etc.

And it's important to note Germany wasn't always this way. I think 19th century Germany was quite often thought of as repressively conservative.

You might have made some good points about British prudishness about bodies and bodily functions

Nope. Not conceding that one either. Scandinavia and broadly Germanic Europe may be quite free & easy on the old sex and nudity front, but a lot of Europe is much less so.

The Czech Republic is way more sexist than the UK. It is difficult to break free and imagine saying no to men, but can be done.

Surge in gender violence reports in Czechia signals both progress and pain

However, social attitudes toward gender-based violence in Czechia remain a challenge, with surveys showing higher tolerance and victim-blaming compared to other EU countries.
https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/reported-rapes-evictions-for-domestic-violence-on-rise-in-czechia

No... It's a photo of a man wearing a kilt and flashing his bum. It's very classy, it's in black and white!

I mean you can do anything in a kilt.

So there was a question earlier today in one of my groups about TERFs in the UK, why are they so strong there, etc. Let me elaborate on something.

There is something special in mainstream British feminism that is quite different from European feminism(s), but since the English speaking internet concerns mostly the Anglosphere and not Europe, due to us having separate, isolated debates in each country/language, you won't likely ever hear how the UK is substantially different.
It is important to understand the logic of British feminism. Unlike European feminism, which is mostly inclusive and focused on stuff like equal pay, care, safe design of public space and general equity, in the UK it was always about "separate but equal".

British centres of power were always men-only, and many British feminists didn't react the way European women did (aka pushed their way into male spaces, so that these became co-ed spaces), but created their own, separate spaces, which they then aggressively policed the same way British men did with theirs. Add some Victorian prudishness and bioessentialism, that was abandoned in Europe after WWII for obvious reasons, but not in the UK, and voilà, here come British second-wave radfems and the TERFs.

I am from the Czech Republic where I currently live; I lived in Norway, Poland and the Netherlands, I speak fluently multiple European languages and understand few others; I don't say that to brag, but to show my ability to do the comparative analysis, since I study the topic closely.

Out of EU member states, only in Bulgaria and Hungary are trans rights worse than in the UK at the moment, with Hungary being expected to get substantially better soon, and in neither of those two countries are trans people, and especially trans women, as demonised as in the UK.

In all EU member states transphobia comes exclusively from far right places; it is unheard of that liberals or anyone non-far right would say what is absolutely the mainstream in the UK, including Hungary and Bulgaria.
If you are saying the stuff JKR is saying, you are 100 % aligned with far right politics.

We had an attempt by a group of our far right senators to enact a bill proposal similar to what is in the UK, but the proposal was killed within a week before it could have been even voted upon in the Chamber of Deputies. Just for instance.
Scandinavian feminism is focused mostly on fair share of care and chores, German feminism focuses mostly on equal pay, Kita for everyone and the like, Polish feminism is mostly about access to abortion, Czech feminism is mostly about equal pay and safety from domestic violence - I could go on, but all in all, men are welcome to participate and the goal is to create equity for everyone, regardless of their gender. Together.
We don't get British obsession with separate spaces for women, women here are absolutely fine with the way things are, mostly because cultures in the Continent are far less prudish and overall we treat men and women as one people rather than different species.

Moreover, because of civil law rather than common law, we have different approach to legal texts and their interpretations; this makes it different too.
Not just regarding trans rights, but also regarding women's rights, I am often amazed by how much backward the UK is in so many ways compared to the EU (again, including places like Hungary, this needs to be stressed). I often see women in English-speaking debates saying things like "ugh, men" on things that actually concern problems that are specifically British and that stem mostly from both societies' tendency to separate already boys from girls, treating them differently and sexualising women in contexts we don't really see as sexual at all.

We can't really get this across the Channel, because we just don't have the power to do so. For instance Czech debate on feminism is quite isolated; it's interesting, but no more than 15 million people would ever be able to participate in it (CZ/SK) due to the language barrier, the same goes for Scandinavia (17 million), Benelux (28 million), Poland (38 million), or even DACH (95 million). It is nothing compared to half a billion people of the US, UK, CA, AU, NZ and IE that are giving tone to the worldwide debate in English.

So, if you are a British trans woman, you would do yourself a great favour if you moved to mainland Europe. You will be welcomed and cherished (for the most part).

i do hope that is not the picture i think you may be referring to on deck chairs……….😂

One of the joys of going to the loo at mine is the photo above the loo roll.

ETA seems mnhq are being prudish.

Well we can always whip out a kilt photo or two, and slaver over some manly man in it, if one is so inclined😁

and needs must……

Love the plumbers skirt but what I really want is a Rothenberger Ropump Super Plus. The beast of plungers. Alas, the days of sinks being blocked up are far and few between so the cost can’t be justified.

Utility Kilts exist and are cut for the male body.

Utility Kilts exist and are cut for the male body.

You really really need a proper plumber’s skirt like this