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AIBU?

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Original poster

To wonder why transgender issues have been so prominent here recently.

35 replies

FithColumnist · 18/11/2015 22:55

Just that, really. It seems like you can't turn your head here without running into a thread banging on about trans women or being offended at being called cis or a terf. Where's it all come from so suddenly? (I am aware that by posting this thread I am adding to the issue.)

OP posts:
Senpai · 18/11/2015 23:39

I hide them, so I wouldn't notice. Grin

I just can't muster the energy to care anymore, and I see no point in having them clog the forum threads.

reni2 · 18/11/2015 23:41

You are adding to the issue indeed, OP. I say this as someone who does usually comment on those threads. Never been on one quite so early, but I am a night owl.

annandale · 18/11/2015 23:42

There are fashions in ideas.

m1nniedriver · 18/11/2015 23:45

It's a pike of utter bollocks and a reason for people to get 'oh so offended' but quite amusing Grin

m1nniedriver · 18/11/2015 23:45

pile

SeparatedByMotorways · 18/11/2015 23:51

In another of those threads I've just attempted to suggest that there's no point getting worked up over semantics, only to receive a baffling response about abortion on demand and sexual assault in prisons. When they spiral into such a confusing mess is it any wonder that they keep cropping up? I suspect that new threads get started because existing ones become too hard to follow, and then that makes it look like a hot topic which probably leads to further threads...

m1nniedriver · 19/11/2015 00:02

I do think the issue of the man wanting to go to the female prison provoked quite a response Hmm

RealityCheque · 19/11/2015 00:03

It's the latest bandwagon for do-gooders. Last month it was refugees. Next month it will be something else.

Complete horseshit.

FurryDogMother · 19/11/2015 00:06

What the 'eck is a terf?

reni2 · 19/11/2015 00:07

Trans exclusionary radical feminist

reni2 · 19/11/2015 00:08

An insult hurled at women who do not agree trans women are in fact women or at women who wish to exclude trans women from women-only events or spaces.

OddSocksHighHeels · 19/11/2015 00:18

There have been some high profile stories recently: the prison one, Caitlyn Jenner and Jack Monroe. People seem to have gone waaaay overboard from what I've seen.

Kittlekattle · 19/11/2015 00:30

A number of high profile celebrities and some recent activism plus the potential impact of a current parlimentary enquiry into transgender equality. Mumsnet is one of the few places where you can have a more thoughtful conversation about whether some aspects of transactivism might have a negative impact on womens rights without being deleted for transphobia on one extreme or without a lot of Daily Mail type comments chipping in with genuinely unpleasant transphobia.

At the same time the huge proliferation of threads is striking and I do still wonder a bit why now.

CaoNiMao · 19/11/2015 01:19

What I find more troubling than the prevalence of transgender threads is the flippancy of many posters surrounding the issue. Nobody seems to care; many are even dismissive. Why? This is a very real issue that is eroding women's rights. Why the apathy? This stuff matters.

Maryz · 19/11/2015 01:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OddSocksHighHeels · 19/11/2015 01:34

Cao some of us don't think that trans issues are eroding women's rights. I know many normal trans people and they just want to live their lives like the rest of us. I also now, through a support group I attend, know a fair few non-binary people. The issue is far more complex than most realise IMO. Without meeting them and hearing their stories I would have never understood non-binary at all.

VashtaNerada · 19/11/2015 02:28

Totally agree OddSocks. The panic on MN about these transwomen who are supposedly stopping women's rights and turning up in our changing rooms just to molest us is a bit like the panic around paedophiles in the nineties. The trans people I know are all nice and normal, and not at all like this scary image perpetuated on MN. This thread will soon be overrun by people claiming to have had their eyes opened to the terrible danger that is the trans movement soon, but I won't be around for that

Enjolrass · 19/11/2015 06:36

It's just the 'in thing'. Due to Caitlin Jenner, Jack Monroe and the teams woman being transferred to a prison.

Personally I don't comment in them as I am not sure where I stand. I think people should be able to do and dress how they want.

But the case of the trans woman (who still has her penis) being transferred to a women's prison has really bothered me and I don't think it's ok. Add on top of that, that she is actually not in with the general population 'for her own safety' anyway and I don't see why they didn't just do that in a men s prison.

I not happy about it. She still has a penis and no intention of having it removed as that's how she earns money. Therefore she isn't a woman.

Enjolrass · 19/11/2015 06:38

Oh and I still struggle with understanding 'I feel like woman' as I don't know what it feels like to be a woman.

Nor does any woman I know. We feel like people. Individuals. I do wonder if the men transition are just putting women in a box and assuming they know what women feel like. It does feel like men deciding what it is to be a woman.

ThenLaterWhenItGotDark · 19/11/2015 06:49
  1. It's trendy
  2. There is, and has been for years, a lot of me-railing going on on the part of some posters. We wouldn't even fucking know if a poster was trans or not unless that poster insisted on shoehorning it into every single bleeding thread.
  3. There seems to be some sort of woolly over-liberalism on the part of HQ regarding the matter. If a trans poster feels offended, then they are in the right and the HQ hammer comes beating down. If a trans poster offends then we excuse it on the basis that they are a trans poster.
Which is bloody offensive for both sides if you think about it.

It's actually led me, certainly this week, to spend a lot less time on here than I would normally.

ShortcutButton · 19/11/2015 06:51

The conflict of trans rights and women's rights have been discussed on the feminist boards for years. I think it is spilling into chat, because laws have changed and the 'fears' are being realised more and more

I.e. men being housed in women's prisons, pubescent girls forced to share communal changing rooms with men, men competing as women in women's sports against women including boxing etc, feminist events cancelled for excluding men, inability for women to specify that they want women HCP only

Darrowisred · 19/11/2015 06:56

Because women's rights are being trampled on to accommodate the rights of trans women, and people are gradually waking up to that.

ShortcutButton · 19/11/2015 06:57

Those are all examples of what is happening BTW, not theoretical

If you could be bothered to read a current thread; OPs 17 year old daughter is receiving death threats from members of her LGBT group for daring to challenge use of the word 'cis' in their literature

Darrowisred · 19/11/2015 07:32

We have found ourselves in the frightening situation where a man can dress as a woman because he says he feels like a woman and gain admittance to previously safe, women and girls only spaces. And if you DARE protest you are a transphobe and a bigot and you are shouted down.

Shakirasma · 19/11/2015 07:42

I think people are just beginning to realise the implications of implementing trans rights and are worried that its being done without proper thought and consideration for the rights of women.

Would anyone want this individual sharing the women's changing room with their daughters?
theukdatabase.com/2015/05/28/nicola-gordon-cope-atherstone/