Who else would really appreciate a polite discussion of gender issues and the concerns of women at the jess Philips webchat on Monday?

[StealthPolarBear]

I posted on the webchat thread:
Since the questions have already been asked I am not allowed to repeat similar but I want on record that self ID, its potential abuse, protection of vulnerable young people from those who promote transition which can sometimes include puberty blockers, the protection of natal women's rights and the importance of teaching biological facts in schools are big concerns to me.

MNHQ have said they don't want any more comments or questions about gender issues on the Web chat thread which I can understand. However what I do want to make clear is the number of people who may share some or all of my concerns. Otherwise any questions about gender issues are of an equal weight to all others and in fact others, which can be repeated in a different form, may seem to gain more weight.

Excellent post pencils.

Well yes of course. Who wouldn't want a polite and courteous discussion of issues of pressing importance to many of us (& 51% of the population whether they know or care)? The only people I could think of would be people trying to stifle free speech. Who would support that?

I would very much like a discussion about these issues, as someone else who left the Labour Party, after many years of support and activism, due to their attitudes towards
women (and Jews). I'll post my question that has been allowed through.

This has really angered me, I've been deleted on a web chat before for asking David Cameron if he minded that so many people on MN thought he was a cunt, and I can understand that deletion but this blanket ban on a range of subjects with the common denominator being women is a really bad look for MNHQ and actually very disappointing.

PS I never got an answer to my question so I concluded that David Cameron didn't actually mind that much, as he continued to be one.

Forgot the bloody question/comment off the web chat thread, didn't i?!

I'm that posts on that thread are being removed instead of staying up with a deletion message, as is usual.

I think it's actually worse to remove them totally as it seems MN are really trying to deny/minimise the extent of women's concerns on something that covers a wide range of areas that impact hugely on women.

Jess Philips can I ask how you feel about the principles in general of NoDebate and de platforming etc of people? This is a topic currently in the news and this week you said "questions are fine" in an interview. Your comment was in response to the interviewer saying "questions are fine, concerns are prejudiced". Do you agree that concerns are always prejudiced and shouldn't be raised, or do you believe that concerns should always be expressed, especially if large numbers of a particular group (eg women) share these concerns?

It would be preferable for MNHQ to delete questions they deem superfluous but put ‘Duplicate question about single sex spaces/definition of word woman’ etc in the deletion message.
Obviously, it would be more honest to just keep all questions. Jess Phillips isn’t going to be inundated with questions anyway, is she? Perfectly manageable for her, or media staff, to overlook any they don’t want to answer.

+1 from me too, I am honestly shocked by MNHQ’s actions today, it really does seem ‘not in the spirit’!

I definitely want Jess to answer Tinsel’s question on behalf of trans widows, Jess made the comments about the spousal veto being awful, women directly affected by that deserve to be part of the conversation. It’s not like we’re randomly asking anyone these questions, Jess has been working on this issue, part of the select committee etc. I’m a new labour member joined after the election, at the moment all the candidates are doing for me is pushing themselves down my priority list, I’m going to end up voting for least-worst, which is awful.

I had a question I wanted to ask her as a fellow Brummie completely unrelated to this topic but I'm not going to post it after reading this thread. I don't want to contribute to silencing genuine concerns by participating in the thread with a questions when other legitimate questions about a certain topic are being removed without deletion messages.

Whats more important than the vanishing rights of one sex class, and the safeguarding that will vanish along with them?

Me.

I thought I wasn’t involved, or that the issues were blown out of proportion.

But once this is in your child’s school, and directly members of your family, and in your work guidelines, and your university students’ accommodation, and even your blinking blood donor forms where the wrong answers could worsen safety controls... you realise how much of life is genuinely affected by sexnotgender, and that you are being asked to lie about it.

Me too - and thank you for starting the thread, @StealthPolarBear.

Adding my voice. I want to hear her define what a woman is, and give her backing to women only spaces. Not holding my breath

I would very much like to see her answer those questions as well.

I think MNHQs action is disgraceful. This is Twitter style behaviour - deboosting certain voices whilst appearing to be an open forum for discussion. It’s the silencing of women on a site for women. Shameful.

Re the FWR borg collective question, we know from past web chats that our monitors have posed web chat questions in bad faith.

If ‘we’ are only allowed 1 unanimous question, do we also have to vote a spokesperson so MNHQ know it’s an actual agreed-with-everyone question?

Which then begs the question who the ‘everyone’ is.

Maybe they’d be better off grouping the questions under headings, not deleting anything, and then letting the guest answer as they will.

It's a whitewash

Me too. It's a hugely important topic to parents, to children, to lesbians & bisexuals, to teachers, doctors, researchers, vulnerable women, etc. If politicians can't talk about a topic openly, in public, with clear language and definitions, it's a sign that something is going very wrong.

I’m with you

Yes me too

If politicians can't talk about a topic openly, in public, with clear language and definitions, it's a sign that something is going very wrong.

Thats the exact argument that is being made. And by stopping that discussion all it does is make people who think this, reinforce the idea that there is something to hide and there is a cover up / problem.

That means they are more likely to fail to let it drop. Not when whats at stake relates to their own well being and their children's in many cases.

I agree. These are such important questions, my question would be “ why are questions being removed from this webchat?”
I’ve scrolled through pages of questions before and the guest always manages to pick out only the questions they want to answer. And I agree the removal is sinister.
And Tinsel’s question should definitely stand, it’s about her life.

I'd also like to see Jess answer some or at least one of the many pertinent questions relating to women's rights. Oh and disappointed at the Mumsnet deletions too..Once again women told to stfu about issues that affect them. Quelle surprise.

Copying over my post on the spousal veto thread.

I reported MichaelMumsnet's post on the webchat thread with this comment:

"I am concerned that a question by TinselAngel was deleted. Her question relates directly to Jess Phillips saying that it is 'awful' that a woman is allowed to choose to end her marriage before the nature of that marriage is fundamentally changed by her husband gaining legal recognition as a woman. As TinselAngel pointed out, Jess Phillips says that she supports women who have suffered domestic abuse and she should be aware of the potential for abuse in such circumstances. Jess Phillips is actively campaigning to take rights away from women in these circumstances. She should be made fully aware about what she is doing and held to account."

I've just had a reply:

There are good reasons why we have guidelines around follow up posts and not repeating the same question over and over, or allowing the discussion to be hijacked by a single issue.

First, it turns off other Mumsnet users from participating - meaning that the webchat as a whole stops representing our users in the round. (We've received plenty of representation from other Mumsnet users on this point in the past year or so and we know this is why many of them have stopped engaging with webchats.)

Secondly we're finding it increasingly hard to tempt politicians onto Mumsnet because of fears they'll simply be harangued about this single issue and shouted at for not providing the desired response - which ultimately means no one will get to ask any of these important questions to our policy makers.

Could you imagine the comments being deleted for duplication if they were about, say, Brexit?
This isn't a side issue. In the election just past it is what decided my vote. I doubt I'm alone in that.

they'll simply be harangued about this single issue

If only there was a simple way they could clear it up then.

What a puzzler.

Yes. I had my question deleted on the last web chat with no trace or comment. It is dishonest. MN should be supporting women who care about women's rights and safeguarding of children. Colluding with silencing women is very disappointing.