Wonderful Bodies Connected Communities

Indeed. Women who have undergone breast surgery/removal due to traumatic history, and men who have other reasons for focussing on breast growth or lack thereof.

And my cynicism here comes from exactly what Arabella says - why is this simply not for everyone with unusual/surgery affected bodies if that is the actual focus and purpose and it is something positive in this way?

Why is it so very specifically the two very labelled groups, with those labels being so important?

It sounds in implication as if the women with breast surgeries are required for those with trans identities who may or may not wish to engage in surgery. It specifically states 'cis women' with breast surgery 'brought together' with people with trans identities.

The next obvious question would be why.

Workshop 'will bring together cis women who have undergone breast surgery (due to cancer, or other health reasons) and trans and non-binary individuals (including those who do or do not undertake gender-affirming surgeries or hormone therapy)'

Those 'individuals' could be anyone. Any bloke with a creative gender identity.

Which, okay, fine. It's mixed sex. But it's presented in a misleading way.

Why not say it's for everyone?

My concern is if a woman assumes it's all female, and goes along and there's a bloke there, will she feel comfortable? Will she feel able to leave?

Well, we don't know. It could be anyone.

The workshop will be facilitated by a three-person team. One of us is trans, two of us are cis women who have had mastectomies.

Two women. One person who we are only told is 'trans'.

Thanks for the info, I did assume the 'trans' was a woman who had had her breast removed, the fact that it might be a man makes it even more revolting, more fool any woman who goes to this. All the sympathy for the 2 'cis' women has now disappeared.

So, yes, it's voluntary, but why is the information so coy? Why no mention of the 'trans' facilitator's sex? Consent is only consent when its informed.

My suggestion would be that if the 'trans' facilitator is a male, who is participating because his hormone treatment didn't go according to plan, this should be made very clear. It's presented as if it's a workshop for women, and the assumption from posters on here is that the 'trans' presenter is female who has had her breasts removed. It's quite possible it's a man.

A woman who has been through a traumatic experience deserves to be given clear, factual information so she can decide if she wants to attend.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, I do think it is a bit daft, and possibly an example of forced teaming between fundamentally different bodily challenges. And, coming from the parasitised Feminist Library it does seem reasonable to think of it as possibly co-opting a specifically female challenge (mastectomy) to perform certain male bodily preoccupations.

But on the other hand, it is completely voluntary for all participants, and perhaps the women, as well as the men, feel some benefit from a joint exploration of different barriers to bodily self-acceptance. Yes, it all sounds a bit silly, but if the participants find it helpful, is there any harm? I guess I just don't feel very comfortable with mocking other people's choices. People do all sorts of things that others find daft.

This same workshop ran last year.

forum.breastcancernow.org/t/transgender-cis-women-mastectomy-sharing/137693

'The workshop will be facilitated by a three-person team. One of us is trans, two of us are cis women who have had mastectomies.'

Is the 'trans' facilitator the man referred to in the post above?

https://forum.breastcancernow.org/t/commonalities-with-trans-non-binary-people/142231

'After diagnosis with DCIS, a mastectomy, and becoming a uniboober, I met up with a trans friend who also turned out to be a uniboober. They were taking hormones hoping to grow two breasts, but unexpectedly, just one grew. We helped each other feel good about our atypical bodies.
Although having cancer is completely different from being trans, we found we had a few things in common. For example, our bodies don’t fit with ideas about what is ‘normal’ for our gender. Cancer reducing and gender affirming interventions sometimes involve similar surgeries or hormone treatments. We are all trying work with health care systems that don’t always meet our needs. etc. And of course some people with breast cancer are trans/non-binary.'

archive.ph/ebDD8

A disgusting forced teaming.
If the 2 'cis' women who have lost their breast because of a killer disease think they have something in common with a 'trans' who's presumably chosen to have her tits chopped off because she mistakenly thinks it will make her a man, then they're pathetic.
Perhaps they're attempting to deal with the trauma of a very frightening situation, if so it's a maladaptive coping mechanism.

The more the activists try to make the logical end points of trans ideology normalized and force team it with women who genuinely have had life changing experiences requiring procedures like mastectomies etc, the more they in fact show up how far out of the scope of anything that could be called normal trans ideology is.
To think that you can put a woman who's had to lose her breasts for necessary reasons next to a woman who's chosen to lose her breasts because she's been told that's consistent with a fantasy, and consider the situations as equivalent, is barking mad.
Then again, trans ideology and the belief that gender temperament trumps biological sex <is> barking mad.

And potentially a third group: males who feel that their sadness about having flat chests is in some way equivalent to the sadness felt by women who have flat chests due to cancer surgery.

This workshop is a sick concept. It’s basically using women as support humans and validation props . Not just any women, either. The organisers should be ashamed of themselves.

I’m in

Yes, I will

But there is a difference. Those women voluntarily removed their breasts. Breast cancer survivors did not. And I don’t think that’s the audience the event is for.

Yes, thats why I said detransitioned women, the ones who regret their mastectomies after the fact.

'Nowt so queer as Queer folk.

I think it might be more than insensitive. It would probably be horribly offensive to the cancer survivors. Can you imagine going there and being around people who actively want to remove the body parts you have just lost?

It might be useful for detransitioned women who had mastectomies and now regret it. I don’t know if it would be insensitive to cancer survivors to share the experience though, it seems like two distinct groups.