Men in Comedy and Transgender People

[TroglodytesTroglodytes]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66534454

Just been reading about Graham Linehan getting cancelled due to his opinions in the trans debate. At work, I listen to podcasts everyday day and a lot of these are UK or USA comedy podcast. It strikes me that so many of these comedians have an almost obsessive interest in the subject and bring it into every interview. I enjoy listening to these and I love GL’s work like Father Ted. I just don’t understand why these (mostly men) see it as such a main issue and keep going on about it. IRL I see the odd trans person and there are a couple of non-binary students that are at my children’s school. I may have had a discussion with people about trans a few times in the past five years. In my experience people have a passing interest but the experience of the people on these podcasts suggests that it is the most important issue. AIBU to think that most people are not bothered if a man wants to be known as she/her and transition? I just wonder why people like GL want to hold this particular issue up as a beacon for free speech.

As an trans people have been accessing bathrooms, refuges, hospital wards, sports on a case by case basis etc for years and years without issue.

No they most certainly have not! Please stop lying!

What Graham is obsessively doing is painting trans people as dangerous, lecherous, pedophiles.

Many of them are. And statistically at a far higher level than natal men. It's due to the Autogynephilia. https://fairplayforwomen.com/criminality/
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/18973/pdf/

He's not trying to raise the voices of women. He's not tweeting about period poverty, or the dangers of porn, or self esteem issues in girls, or celebrating women's achievement in sport etc, or any issues that really are affecting women and girls.

Yes he is, by defending our rights. But it suits you to manipulate, distort and re-write the narrative.

He's picked on a group of people and stirred up hatred against them.

The only group that hatred is being stirred up against, are natal women. To the extent women are being bashed, punched and threatened with rape. No one is doing this against transpeople, the most holiest, sacred and powerful of all groups.

Tweets about trans people, per se? OR, were they about women and our rights and spaces being erased.

For a start we didn't have women's spaces forever- we could be legally raped by our husbands till not long ago.

Please don't equate this with gay people. That is such a disingenuous argument. Gay people were not trying to take away the human rights of other people.

It's all very well going on about 'women's spaces'... which again have been used by trans women forever and a day

Yet again, NO they have NOT! Please stop lying. Just.... stop. Please. It's simply not true. And you know it.

There has not been a sudden invasion or uptick in crime in those countries since then.

Actually there has. And it's been reported. You simply haven't been paying attention. Probably deliberately.

I'm a woman and I do consent to trans women in women's spaces.

Well it's YOU, that's the minority. 97% of transwomen retain their penis and testicles. That's what this is about. Males and male genitals in our spaces. And I, DO NOT CONSENT, and you don't have the right to speak for me or any other woman. Poll after poll after poll shows that when asked, the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of women say that these spaces should stay single sex spaced. 96% in one poll. Only 4% (and this was a legitimage YouGov poll) say transwomen should be in womens spaces. So believe it, YOU are the teeny tiny minority. Almost no one agrees with you that a person with a cock and balls should be in women and girls sacred safe single sex spaces.

It's pure moral panic.

Everything you don't want to face or admit to yourself that is happening is 'moral panic', @Ladybrrrd , isn't it. It's easier for you to invalidate, dismiss and deny, than face reality. People said Priests abusing children was just 'moral panic' too....

Its the fact that you'd refuse to call a TW and a natal woman being together a lesbian relationship.

Words have meanings. A bloke with a cock and balls being with a woman, is NOT a 'lesbian' relationship. And you are showing your deep-seated homophobia by saying it is. Your own bigotry and denial of the reality of lesbians is on display. You want to believe that you and your fellow ever-decreasing minority are the moral and good ones, you're not. Your bigotry and homophobia is clear for all to see. A lesbian is not someone that fucks cocks. Ok? Is there something you don't understand about that, and is there a reason why you need to show such hatred and homophobia that you deny what lesbians are?

OP, I'd imagine you know the backstory but just in case you don't, the comedian
Graham Linehan initially got involved with this debate because of a 2008 episode of the IT crowd, when Douglas Reynholm dates his soul mate April. She told him she used to be a man but he misheard and thought she said she used to be from Iran. When he finds out the truth at the end of the episode, he dumps her, saying ‘It’s not you, it’s me. No actually, it’s not me, it is you’, and they end up punching each other.

Linehan got a lot of flak for it later and he also became way too embroiled in spats on Twitter at all hours of the day (says someone who's on Mumsnet at stupid o'clock) rather than just not engaging with his critics. His brother-in-law Peter Serafinowicz and other comedians were concerned that he was becoming obsessive on social media. Even his wiki calls him an anti-transgender activist (when at one point, I would have thought he was an anti-trans rights-activists activist).

He is not wrong that it has cost him his job and his marriage. He was married to Helen for 16 years and they had two kids together but - and I don't know - I would imagine the lack of financial stability, death threats/doxxing they had, police visits and legal threats put too much stress on them but he did say he'd become "consumed" by the debate.

I can't empathise with that last point tbf, because if any of us were on here complaining our partners wouldn't get off Twitter, lots would say LTB. I don't think many men would have made transgenderism and women's rights the hill they'd die on, and certainly not if they weren't comfortable (don't misunderstand me, I admire J K Rowling for not standing down but she is in a position where she's financially untouchable). If any of us had been put in Helen's position, I'm not sure we'd feel great at how much of a feminist our spouse was. I can never decide if he was spectacularly brave or utterly selfish, given they had two children who'd have been impacted.

@Swansandcustard Evidence show that transwomen commit offences at a much higher rate than natal men: https://fairplayforwomen.com/criminality/
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/18973/pdf/ 

We HAVE to discriminate by gender (I presume you mean sex), for the protection of women.

If you truly think men are not a threat to women, WHY do we have 'male' and 'female' only spaces then? Why are women raped? Why does Domestic Violence exist? Why are 3 women per week killed by men, if men are not a risk?

@Longagonow96 See, this is where you are getting it wrong. It's not about 'transphobia'. Or trans people. It's about MEN. Men in womens spaces. It's MENphobia. If we were transphobic, then how about you have the decency and courage to explain why we have no problem with trans men (females) in our spaces? Huh? Explain that.

Are we then, only 50% transphobic, because we are fine with trans men but not trans women?

Or, is it simply possible that the phobia is MALE BODIES in womens spaces? No, it's easier to have a shallow, closed mind and not use critical thinking. Just follow the cult mindset.

It's not just about predators and crime though is it?
It's about our privacy and dignity, why can't we have that?
I have a male GP, he's great which is why I chose to have him as my GP, I completely trust him in that context.
I would not want him to do a smear, or any type of intimate care, because he's male.
Why aren't people getting this?

@Longagonow96 I think, as usual, you have it completely backwards here. A couple of trans women have said their wait for their CHOICE to take HRT is "like cancer". They were comparing their situation to a child with leukaemia. They dared to say their their situation, was as bad as a child needing chemotherapy! Fucking lowlife self-serving arseholes to insinuate that a child with leukaemia is 'the same' as their 'need' for HRT. Fucking ARSEHOLES!!* *How dare they?!??! How DARE they compare their choices to a CHILD DYING WITH CANCER! This shows how self-absorbed and lacking in self-awareness they are!😡😡

We've had womens spaces for many decades now. Many decades.

I have the right to disagree with anyone’s opinion.
I do not have the right to prevent them voicing their opinion.

That's fucking awful, I know a couple of lovely women, MNers back in the day who lost their daughters to cancer, and TW comparing themselves to that of my friends is disgusting, not surprising though.

He, like JK Rowling, is not anti trans, he is pro women having male free safe spaces, cloakrooms, hospital wards, prisons, rape crisis centres, domestic violence centres etc and women's sports being free of men. The vast majority of transwomen are quietly getting on with their lives, but a minority of the 0.5% trans population are rabidly offensive and outrageously complaining about any gender critical person. I'm with Lord Robert Winston, who states that you cannot change your sex, it is in every cell of your body. 80% of transwomen retain full male genitalia, so no, I don't want them in my changing rooms, wards, prisons etc. Women have to stand up for themselves and their daughters. Allowing men to self identify as a woman is totally unacceptable, they need a medical diagnosis, hormone treatment and full surgery before they can claim to be a transwoman. Linehan is brave, as is Sharron Davies and JK Rowling, all of whom get vilified for protecting women.

Almost like.They have no interest in the harm caused by straight men.

You do realise many "trans women" are heterosexual males?

Not forever which was the claim

Graham Linehan's Wiki page is full of lies, written by TRAs and locked for editing. He can't do anything about it.
If you read his substack or watch his videos you get a much more accurate portrayal of his views.

On Mumsnet it is most definitely a subject of obsession.

The clue's in the name. Mumsnet is predominantly used by mums. It seems logical then that the issues discussed will very often centre on issues affecting the mums (women) and those to whom they are mums (children). These are the two groups overwhelmingly impacted by gender ideology.

The clue's in the name. Mumsnet is predominantly used by mums. It seems logical then that the issues discussed will very often centre on issues affecting the mums (women) and those to whom they are mums (children). These are the two groups overwhelmingly impacted by gender ideology.

Exactly. This is a female dominated site focussing on the physical biological reality of being a woman. The majority of women have been pregnant or are adoptive mothers, or step mothers to their partner's children. The vast majority of women have had periods at one time or another and will later go through the menopause.

Stephanie heyden was not charged with child abuse a few days ago. Heyden was convicted after a guilty plea of child abuse in or around 1999 when he went by the name of Antony haliday (sp) I will link to the thread with all the information

Thread link with relevant information
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4874598-stephanie-hayden-sexually-assaulted-child-was-registered-sex-offender?latest=1

Its the fact that you'd refuse to call a TW and a natal woman being together a lesbian relationship.

How on earth can a heterosexual relationship be described as "lesbian"?

Its the fact that you'd refuse to call a TW and a natal woman being together a lesbian relationship.

Well, obviously.