...to be literally speechless after reading this?

[CSLewis]

https://apple.news/AxiPl_cmVRTeudBZ6Kc4mRg

eh> what are you on about tabby?

For some young women, single-sex accommodation is the only option acceptable to them (or their parents). Changing the rules to allow men who identify as women in to the college removes those young women's ability to access the whole university.

Conversely, men who identify as women can access the vast majority of colleges in the university.

If you're balancing up who is most disadvantaged by this change, clearly its the women. I think the only men who lose out are those who want to be at a (previously) women-only college because that validates their gender identity in a way which merely living as / presenting as a woman doesn't do, or doesn't do as strongly.

The debate on where there should be single-sex colleges at all is interesting, and I'd like to see the research / stats on whether it broadens access, whether women tend to do better etc. But this seems to me to be a different issue.

Is it just me that is shocked to discover that Claudia Winkleman went to Cambridge? She's extremely successful, I'm just surprised it's in the light entertainment field rather than inspiring women on a more cerebral level.

I think Claudia standing round in pretty ball gowns and compering the leaderboard is rather a wasted opportunity.

Aside from the arguments for and against single-sex establishments, surely where they exist, they should only admit people who are the relevant sex. Women-only spaces should be penis-free, just as men-only spaces should be vagina-free.

Girton is mixed now

Women choose women-only colleges for a lot of different reasons. Being able to be safe in your own room at night (or at least being able to identify a predator when you see him in the corridor) is just one of them.

Male students, however they identify and however they dress, have free access to the vast majority of all colleges already. But that's not enough for some of them - they want access to them all, even when that means some women will probably - for various reasons - not then be able to go to college at all.

I dont think thats shocking at all, she seems an intelligent woman, what the big deal that she appears in a nice frock?

In case anyone was wondering, this is New Hall, but they whored themselves out in 2008 for £30 million to rename themselves after some bloke. (Steve Edwards)

So it's already a lot of fucking shit.

I'm surprised that anyone would be aghast that women-only colleges (within collegiate universities) exist. I don't understand why that would be a problem. Surely only someone being deliberately naive or obtuse would think that men, on a societal level, would be disadvantaged by this?

That article raises a couple of other questions:

1. is Germaine right when she says the following:

"If [Murray Edwards] really don’t believe that gender is binary, then they really shouldn’t be a single sex college. Their position is ridiculous. The only sane thing for them to do is to cease discriminating on the basis of assigned gender of any kind."

And 2), what are the chances that a women-only Cambridge college would have a woman called B. Stocking as it's President?? Surely that's a stage name?!

I told DH this would happen and he didn't believe me. Well now it has.

Tsk at the Telegraph for referring to Sue Perkins, Claudia Winkelman and Tilda Swinton as "alumni" though - how ironic.

I think that the reason women’s colleges still exist (at least in part) is that the proportion of women in Cambridge is less than 50% (I’m thinking of undergrad, but probably across the board).

Do you mean because alumni is male plural?

I don't think this is on at all. As others have said, this is some men's way of demanding access to all the colleges meaning that some women may not be allowed to feel comfortable enough to study at all.

And this whole " there isn't an all men's one" thing has to be seen in the context of men's huge advantages in society as a whole.

Has any women yet tried saying they identify as a man and applying to become a Catholic priest?

Ok, so women trapped in mens bodies because of some appalling genetic catastrophe, that have to fight for every breathing day of their lives because they arent as they appear, that have the guts to stand up and say sod this appendage that i hate and my body that isnt as it should be, that have the guts to stand up in this, still far too judgemental society, and say "despite my appearance I am a woman", they cant go to the educational establishment of their choice?. This isnt about sex or sexuality its about gender. And yes there may be some women that have issues with this decision, appalled as the OP and many of you are, but they have the rights of choice that many transgendered individuals are denied.

Its amazing how backward our so called fore-thinking society is.

Fair play to Cambridge colleges i say

@AmaraSas there is no such thing as a woman trapped in a man's body. There are men who have gender dysphoria (which would be more accurately described as sex dysphoria) which can lead to feelings of distress and make the sufferer believe they are meant to be the opposite sex. However we are not literally women stuck in men's bodies. We are men with gender dysphoria.

From what I understand, they aren't accepting transwomen into the college, they're accepting men who identity as women in which is not necessarily the same thing. Lots of transwomen don't actually identify as women, myself included. So hypothetically speaking, I could apply for a place in a women only college but because I identify as a transwoman and not a woman I would be turned away. However a man could rock up after me and say "I identify as a woman" and he would be accepted.

You can't be a woman in any other way but appearance either. The only way to be a woman is biology.

*every other way.

I am curious though @AmaraSas about what rights and rights of choice women have that I don't.

Someone born with XX chromosomes is not more privileged than someone with XY chromosomes even if the XY person does have gender dysphoria.

It's shameful and disgraceful.

Also why is it the body that is wrong and needs to be fixed? Why don't we try fixing the mind first and try to make the person accept the body as it is? Why don't we keep physical transitioning as a last resort when all other options have failed...you know just like what we used to do before this madness started?

We don't tell people with anorexia that they are fat and that their body is wrong. We don't give them diet pills and encourage them to go to weight watchers meetings. So why do we tell people with gender dysphoria that they must transition?

IAmEatingACurry us folk with XY chromosomes aren't disadvantaged at university,

Okay then. I'm glad we agree

Why should women have the choice of women only colleges or mixed colleges but the men have only mixed colleges? I don't think the women have got much to moan about.

If that was the issue at hand, the solution would be to create mens only colleges, surely? But it's a spectacular tangent anyway.

If men feel they're being discriminated agaist by single-sex colleges why don't they set up their own?

@Tabbymumz men have been identifying as women for centuries - what? I have no idea what this means. I don't IDENTIFY as a woman, I just am one!

The day a girl identifying as a boy is let into Eton is the day this is ok. See you in never gonna happen years.

The self-ID bit is good. People shouldn't have to jump through hoops to be recognised as their gender anymore than people should have to provide evidence beyond their word that they are a heterosexual or a
homosexual or bisexual.

Whether this college should discriminate based on gender or sex is another consideration. I've a feeling that the justifications for having discrimination at all, will lend themselves more to sex discrimination than gender discrimination.

Women can have female spaces until men wearing dresses decide that they can't anymore. I wonder if men who "self identify" as women understand how horrific this is.

It's been going on for decades, probably for centuries, without people being horrified. The reality is that transwomen have been quietly and harmlessly getting on with using places like women's' toilets and changing rooms all that time without anyone even being aware of it.

If men feel they're being discriminated agaist by single-sex colleges why don't they set up their own?

Why assume that this is the motivation? Isn't the point that, as things stand, at Cambridge women have a wider choice of colleges to apply to than men do?