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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

UK radical feminists; what to do?

879 replies

RealRoseCritic · 29/07/2026 15:19

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).

OP posts:
Thread gallery
19
NotAtMyAge · 29/07/2026 17:39

MashaPav · 29/07/2026 16:50

The thing is with “TERFs” is that they aren’t actually feminists. They like to think they are but they are actually feminist identifying transphobes. They’ve appropriated feminism and the women’s rights movement into their anti trans idealogy which is funded by the far right and ironically male dominated organisations such as Christian funds.

Edited

Yawn! Were you trying to see how many thought-terminating TRA cliches you could get in one short paragraph? 😉

Feminism is a political movement by females which centres the needs and concerns of females. That means it includes trans-identified females, but not trans-identified males. As for funding, my bank account would look a bit healthier if we were receiving external funding instead of repeatedly having to draw on our own resources to fund the court cases we keep winning.

DialSquare · 29/07/2026 17:39

Theeyeballsinthesky · 29/07/2026 17:31

I feel this calls for an @boiledbeetle style illustration 😁

I was just about to say the same thing!

GreyskySexRealistsky · 29/07/2026 17:42

helderste · 29/07/2026 16:25

OP is only proposing that trans women will be cherished. There’s no mention of how trans men will be welcomed.

Yeah, I noticed that. I guess we all did. This is the third? fourth? thread of recent days to speak about trans people as if they are only males.

These posters just can't help the sexist bullshit and they don't even notice they're doing it.

Igneococcus · 29/07/2026 17:43

DialSquare · 29/07/2026 17:39

I was just about to say the same thing!

I hope there will be an interpretive dance.

NotAtMyAge · 29/07/2026 17:43

MashaPav · 29/07/2026 16:55

I’m sorry but Germany is 100% better than the UK. They understand human rights unlike the UK.

Nonsense. Any country which allows a man to simply declare a change of gender and change his documentation, thus gaining access to all women's spaces and services, is very much worse for women's human rights.

FlirtsWithRhinos · 29/07/2026 17:45

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

DialSquare · 29/07/2026 17:45

Igneococcus · 29/07/2026 17:43

I hope there will be an interpretive dance.

You’re spoiling us now.

GreyskySexRealistsky · 29/07/2026 17:46

Igneococcus · 29/07/2026 17:43

I hope there will be an interpretive dance.

😂

Can't wait!

helderste · 29/07/2026 17:49

GreyskySexRealistsky · 29/07/2026 17:42

Yeah, I noticed that. I guess we all did. This is the third? fourth? thread of recent days to speak about trans people as if they are only males.

These posters just can't help the sexist bullshit and they don't even notice they're doing it.

Women, including trans men, only exist for these MRAs insofar as they can be useful for men. They can’t conceive of us as full human beings.

BernardBlacksMolluscs · 29/07/2026 17:52

OP never returned to explain why men in frocks are particularly targets for cherishing in Europe then?

shame, I was hoping for some clarification there

GreyskySexRealistsky · 29/07/2026 17:52

"TERFs in the UK, why are they so strong there"

💪sounds like a compliment to me!

icingonmycupcake · 29/07/2026 17:54

Aw geez. We've just been schooled. I feel so embarrassed.

We've not been doing feminism the correct way ladies.

We were supposed to be lickspittles for men who cosplay being women.

Had we only known. 🙄

FlirtsWithRhinos · 29/07/2026 17:55

NotAtMyAge · 29/07/2026 17:39

Yawn! Were you trying to see how many thought-terminating TRA cliches you could get in one short paragraph? 😉

Feminism is a political movement by females which centres the needs and concerns of females. That means it includes trans-identified females, but not trans-identified males. As for funding, my bank account would look a bit healthier if we were receiving external funding instead of repeatedly having to draw on our own resources to fund the court cases we keep winning.

Oh he is precious isn't he?

Apparently now Feminism was always really about anyone who fancies wearing a dress. It's just that these weird TERFs started turning up a few years ago trying to make it about female people! Female people! Can you imagine?!?

You know what? I don't care.

I care about female people.

I care about our history and our right to keep our own name, about the abuses and exploitations and just simple margialisation far too many of us have faced and continue to face simply because we are born female in a world where male people still have the power and set the rules.

If the word for someone who cares about Female people is Feminist, I am a Feminist.

If the word for someone who cares about Female people is TERF then I am a TERF.

If the word for someone who cares about Female people is ghjfkefgjs then I am a ghjfkefgjs

And if a word for someone who cares about Female people does not even exist because these nasty little neo sexist genderists think we are worth so little that we do not deserve one, I am fucking inventing it and carrying on anyway.

Because my care follows the people, not whatever someone's biased neo-sexist political dictionary happens to say Feminism is today.

helderste · 29/07/2026 17:55

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

It must be tricky sometimes to keep all your socks tidy. I couldn’t be bothered, I’ve never been very domesticated.

FlirtsWithRhinos · 29/07/2026 18:10

helderste · 29/07/2026 17:55

It must be tricky sometimes to keep all your socks tidy. I couldn’t be bothered, I’ve never been very domesticated.

I assume the ones who care enough just have multiple browser sessions running. Or these days, just set up some agents.

Pobably I should do the same...

Let's face it, all TERFBot needs to do is post "Yeah, but female people still exist and our bodies still have consequences, so why is it so important to trans rights not only that trans people do have legal and social recognition and the right to speak on their own behalf about what they need and why, but that female people must not? Why is it so important not just to be named and seen, but to use our name, to take our name away and insist we are not seen?" after every TRA post.

Apparently it's TRA kryponite because not one has ever been able to give a straight answer.

If they ever manage it I would release TERFBot 2.0, but I'm not holding my breath!

Imdunfer · 29/07/2026 18:12

MashaPav · 29/07/2026 17:06

I’m sorry reality is a bit confusing for you then. Do carry on in your anti trans idealogy chamber.

Oh lord you've no idea who you are trying to insult here, have you? I have as many complaints about my attitudes from sex realists on this forum as I do from people like you. You'll need to try harder than that for an insult.

Helleofabore · 29/07/2026 18:22

How utterly brilliant !

UK wims.... we are all just far right, says yet another new poster...

Gosh, it is like ground hog day.

I have not read the thread, but apparently, this OP comes from a very tolerant country. And UK feminists have been doing it all wrong since WWII. Are prudes. And... wait for it... apparently 'bioessentialist'.

What I really enjoyed was the break down on the focuses of feminists on other countries as if that was supposed to shame feminists in the UK where feminists have many different focuses. It is actually like the OP nearly understands that UK feminists will have multiple focuses ... but then just believes that they should focus on what the OP believes is the important stuff... without quite grasping that maybe those feminists groups with a narrow focus are actually letting female people down.

And UK feminists are not narrowly focused. They have a wide focus of many issues, including the very many issues where male inclusion has a detrimental impact on female people.

And then they also almost get it the perhaps language barriers isolate some feminists and that some feminists in specific countries don't speak up because of laws and harm that they might experience (such as French feminists) but then just lapses into ... you are all so so bigoted in the UK and feminists in Europe are not....

The dissonance in reading that OP was like whiplash.

Helleofabore · 29/07/2026 18:26

Imdunfer · 29/07/2026 18:12

Oh lord you've no idea who you are trying to insult here, have you? I have as many complaints about my attitudes from sex realists on this forum as I do from people like you. You'll need to try harder than that for an insult.

I cannot be arsed.

EmpressDomesticatednottamed · 29/07/2026 18:26

Oh nuts, I'll have to reopen the eyeball retrieval clinic and offer whiplash treatment as well now.

Btw, did someone upthread accuse JKR of bribing a court?
Because that seems to me to be very unwise.

GreyskySexRealistsky · 29/07/2026 18:27

EmpressDomesticatednottamed · 29/07/2026 15:52

If you are saying the stuff JKR is saying, you are 100 % aligned with far right politics.

No.
And there is your problem, how to deal with the dissonance of women from the left saying and doing things you don't like, you have to try and put us in the far right box because we don't align with or accept your definitions and you have nothing else.
Not our problem.

Great post that bears repeating.

They really do have nothing else. Lazy effort IMO.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 29/07/2026 18:29

That poster has some of the most low effort 2018 takes on the board.

Helleofabore · 29/07/2026 18:31

Helleofabore · 29/07/2026 18:26

I cannot be arsed.

Oh no... sorry Imdunfer. That was for @FlirtsWithRhinos

Mind you, I agree with your post!

BridgetYourFortyDaysAreUp · 29/07/2026 18:31

FlirtsWithRhinos · 29/07/2026 18:10

I assume the ones who care enough just have multiple browser sessions running. Or these days, just set up some agents.

Pobably I should do the same...

Let's face it, all TERFBot needs to do is post "Yeah, but female people still exist and our bodies still have consequences, so why is it so important to trans rights not only that trans people do have legal and social recognition and the right to speak on their own behalf about what they need and why, but that female people must not? Why is it so important not just to be named and seen, but to use our name, to take our name away and insist we are not seen?" after every TRA post.

Apparently it's TRA kryponite because not one has ever been able to give a straight answer.

If they ever manage it I would release TERFBot 2.0, but I'm not holding my breath!

TERFBot 2.0

Keep that under your hat for now, Flirts! You never know when we might need it!

Boiledbeetle · 29/07/2026 18:31

If you are saying the stuff JKR is saying, you are 100 % aligned with far right politics.

Card carrying member of the Labour party here who is in complete agreement with JKR.

So it's actually the other way round: Some people who support far right politics are in alignment with members of the UK Labour party when it comes to what JKR is saying.

EmpressDomesticatednottamed · 29/07/2026 18:33

GreyskySexRealistsky · 29/07/2026 18:27

Great post that bears repeating.

They really do have nothing else. Lazy effort IMO.

Why thank you kindly🙂

I now find myself vaguely wondering what the answer to "what to do?" is.
I do hope it doesn't involve peeing on the floor.