US erasing Women - Janice Turner

[feelingquitehopeful]

It was totally shocking to me this week as a supporter of the Democrats to see Biden choosing his moment carefully on day one to wipe out women's and girl's rights in the states in one fail swoop. There was no discussion, no consultation. No warning. Just like that he removed centuries of our rights as women.

He will now go down in history as the first President that abolished womenhood and Motherhood and women's rights. I am astonished and horrified and reeling actually, even this morning. I have had a few days to process the shock, but no, I am still reeling.

It is now punishable to describe a woman as a mother for instance, or to stop a man/boy with a penis showering with your pre teen daughter at school.
Prisons can no longer keep women safe, they will now lock up male rapists (Identifying as women, which anyone can now do no questions asked) with trapped female prisoners in cells. Can you imagine being in that position? The horror of being trapped in that situation, as survivor this actually keeps me awake at night.

Men can use lavatories, locker rooms and showers with young girls. It is ILLEGAL to now stop them. It is also illegal to stop a man competing in women's sports, making women's and girls sports now obsolete. What girl is going to outrun a biological male?

We have literally, as a sex been erased completely from the legal framework and with it all of our protections thanks to Biden. Men can still be men, because that doesn't offend anyone apparently - they will not be called 'testicle havers' or 'ejaculators' it will only be women subjected to this. So that says a lot of modern equality and where we are with it today in the US.

Women have been reduced to 'Menstruators' and the highly offensive 'black birthing bodies' if you are describing a mother from the BAME community. That is what we must all be called now.

That is the new healing landscape Biden describes as he cuts out the rights of half the nation.

Janice Turner as always is an absolute legend, and her excellent article 'War of words risks wiping women from our Language' in the Times this morning is outstanding, and covers the grave situation we ALL now face. For anyone thinking it could never happen here, think again.

Read it for yourself:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/war-of-words-risks-wiping-women-from-our-language-djhp2mwjg

And there’s no way out once it’s done.

It's depressing how so few women seem to understand this. Once biological sex and the language to describe it are erased we won't even have the words to argue our case. This will not be the same as previous generations who campaigned for women's rights, they at least had words to describe their lived experience.

And yet.....

I agree there will be no push back.

...because we must be kind.

Not all men are rapists

But all rapists are men

It goes a step further than that. After it’s done there’s no need to gas light us into being kind. There’s no need for them to get us to do anything anymore, whether coercion or negotiation or manipulation or threats or appeals to sex role stereotype socialisation or whatever. Once this is done there is simply no ‘us’ anymore. We will be bodies cut off from our voice because words have no meaning if we can’t use them to identify what is and what isn’t, to use them to speak the truth. It truly makes us all objects completely within their world, the real world of laws and power and rights, while we can’t have any world as we can’t gain any strength or support from each other if we can’t use language to identify our shared experience. We will get what they grant us only, in isolation from each other in any way that counts.

It’s how prisons control pow. Deny them the strength and comfort of shared identity and shared language for their shared experience. When pow have this shared identity they can do incredible things against even horrific regimes- see nelson Mandela or the Russian Jews who banded together to fight back against nazis- but take this away and there’s no need of cells or chains to gain complete control and submission.

The political motivators of this erosion of womanhood have literally just picked up high school level psych texts and reversed what’s taught about minority change wit regards to how pow fight back. And it’s going to be all the more effective because they don’t use prisons and chains, we can’t fight something that’s not there, we can’t identify something we can’t name, and we can’t know we have shared experience if we don’t have the language to share it.

Actually squeaky that is extremely chilling to read, and not remotely inaccurate. If anyone, anywhere had the slightest doubt about what this signifies then they just need to read your posts.

I also question how many transwomen are supportive of this? How many actually want to see this happen to women? Yes this might be a hardcore few, but many are kind and wonderful human beings that will feel significantly uncomfortable with this latest development in their name.

We differ though squeaky in the sense that I do not think all is lost. He is ultimately one very elderly man whom seemingly does or does not know what he has signed US up to. We need to see this for what it is, a war being waged against us, our war being waged against our small little daughters. It is not a fight we can afford to lose.

So buckle up, because I will not be silenced, and I won't stop until this has been reversed. So lets keep going - is this the legacy our generation will hand to our children? No way in hell.

Suzanne Moore has written a very good article in the Telegraph today outlining all this. I’m pleasantly surprised to see the broadsheets finally taking this on.

Telegraph are definitely going to run with this. I am heartened seriously by the mainstream support in this country. I actually could cry with relief. The US may have a blackout, but we are still here and we can still stand up for what is right.

I also question how many transwomen are supportive of this? How many actually want to see this happen to women? Yes this might be a hardcore few, but many are kind and wonderful human beings that will feel significantly uncomfortable with this latest development in their name.
This.
I wonder what Rachel Levine thinks about it
Richard Levine qualified as a doctor and fathered two kids.
Rachel has kept Richard's medical accreditations and hopefully a good understanding of biology.

Feeling that took me several attempts at reading to see that not remotely inaccurate means accurate.... v sick dog and zero sleep (although clearly he knows what a woman is because he came and curled up on my tummy the minute my period started).

I agree we need to fight. But it needs done now. Because once the law changes we can’t fight in any effective way. Every time we form a group to discuss women’s rights we’d have to let men in, every time we tried to organise men would be there to add their women’s voice and so on. We would be left trying to do so underground, and gaining traction and numbers and funds required to fight anything politically requires being seen. Any of the petitions or funding campaigns and so on won’t be legal once self id is in. We would be prosecuted for them and end up in prison with transwomen. No doubt in with the rapists just to teach us. And our children will have been taught that sex is make believe and we all know the reality that no matter what we teach at home sex role stereotype socialisation is a hugely powerful influence, this would be no different.

It needs done now, because there’s no fight to be had once the laws changed. It’s not one that will ever change back.

@listeningquiety

Well that just absolutely isn't true.

[quote letsghostdance]@listeningquiety

Well that just absolutely isn't true.[/quote]
Which part isn't true?

@HmmSureJan

Obviously the part that all rapists are men. Because that obviously isn't true and minimises the experiences of people raped by women.

Oh I thought you were referring to the post about Dr Levine.

Legally in the U.K. rape is a crime of forced penile penetration. So a crime committed solely by males.

Women commit can sexual assault, which is punishable by equal sentences. Although sex crime stats show something like 96-98% of all sex crimes are committed by men.

Women can not commit rape in the Uk

Rape is when a person intentionally penetrates another's vagina, anus or mouth with a penis, without the other person's consent. Assault by penetration is when a person penetrates another person's vagina or anus with any part of the body other than a penis, or by using an object, without the person's consent

Phew, I did not think I'd posted an untruth

And please don’t start the ‘what about women sex offenders’ rhetoric.

My mother facilitated my csa by repeated men she brought into my life. She knowingly handed me over freely, profited, watch it, covered it up, gas light the fuck out of me.

There are some very very predatory women out there sure, and I’ve had plenty of issues left over by what she did, but I know women in single sex spaces don’t pose a risk to me, men do as they commit the vast majority of sex crimes and have much stronger body type than mine. Telling the truth about this doesn’t invalidate my experience of being victimised by my mother.

Don’t co-opt my experience of csa at the hands of my mother and many men to push nonsense designed to silence women telling the truth. It’s fucking offensive.

@Motherdare

Suzanne Moore has written a very good article in the Telegraph today outlining all this. I’m pleasantly surprised to see the broadsheets finally taking this on.

Is there any way of sharing this without breaching copyright - like share tokens in the Times?

Well what a shock - not! Joe Biden is not the savior of the county the left thought he was. Whilst I am extremely disappointed to see this happening, I am not in the least bit surprised.

@ListeningQuietly

I also question how many transwomen are supportive of this? How many actually want to see this happen to women? Yes this might be a hardcore few, but many are kind and wonderful human beings that will feel significantly uncomfortable with this latest development in their name. This. I wonder what Rachel Levine thinks about it Richard Levine qualified as a doctor and fathered two kids. Rachel has kept Richard's medical accreditations and hopefully a good understanding of biology.

I know a few transsexual women who are furious about the whole thing, and have been for some time. One commented about Rachel Levine's appointment (RL is pro puberty blockers for children) that it was like "putting the fox in charge of the hen house".

This is all too 1984 for me now, stop world I want to get off.

@ClangingChimesofDoom

Do you think when you make insane statements like all bame mothers must be called "black birthing bodies" you alienate any part of your message that had any sense?

It IS an insane statement but it wasn't made up the the OP. I don't have a source but I'm sure it was said by some organisation on twitter or similar.

It was in the article.

A female health charity speaks of “black birthing bodies”, a term for BAME women so dehumanising it evokes the word “breeders” used of fertile female slaves.

@ListeningQuietly

I also question how many transwomen are supportive of this? How many actually want to see this happen to women? Yes this might be a hardcore few, but many are kind and wonderful human beings that will feel significantly uncomfortable with this latest development in their name. This. I wonder what Rachel Levine thinks about it Richard Levine qualified as a doctor and fathered two kids. Rachel has kept Richard's medical accreditations and hopefully a good understanding of biology.

Then, taken to tbe logical conclusion, if there's no definition of women, there's no definition of men, trans women or trans men.

So no women, no transwomen, so how can you identify with something that doesn't exist? Every trans woman should be even more outraged because the category of gender they want to identify as would be non-existent.

Maybe there is the starting point.

(And if gender doesn't exist, or can be changed at will, can I have my marks back for getting the German language der/die/das rules wrong in my A-Level?)

Every cell in every body either has a Y Chromosome or it does not.

How people choose to act and dress and behave is their own business

so long as they do not harm others by doing so

If you read that article, which many of the groups spoken to are also linked to the American far right groups, then I can see why you’re confused.

If you read the actual orders and see the groups worked with you’ll see it’s not as awful and dramatic as that link makes out. At all. The executive order is available online and I’d suggest reading that first. No where in that order is the phrase ‘menstruators' or 'black birthing bodies’ used.

Maybe look at how the National Women’s Law Center views it, they see it as a positive and removing the discrimination Trump put in place. It also states they want to work on all people being able to access health care - no matter their gender, why is that an issue.

I will not be dragged into a discussion/argument about this but really think reading the actual legal article on the White House website is important.