Accusing women of being men

[poppyzbrite4]

Brigette Macron has just been awarded compensation after a rumour that she's a man went viral. Michelle Obama has also been accused of being a man as has Jacinda Ahern.

Why are famous women being accused of being men?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brigitte-macron-false-transgender-claims-france-b2611899.html

I've seen women accused of being men on here several times for dressing not feminine enough, dressing too feminine, being too tall, not being curvy enough. There was a very unpleasant period where several women just trying to have a S&B thread were hounded and accused of being men.

My memory of her on spitting image was hitting everyone with her handbag.

Of course it's many years ago and I may be mistaken

Living in a former pit village in the 80s, I heard many many insults for her, but never accusing her off being a man

This is not new, Elizabeth I was accused of being a man.

As well as the excellent points raised so far, I also think that for some male people who identify as not being men, those who accuse women of being men do it to also attempt to make their own claim to be women more believable. If they can convince people that these women are male people who identify as women, then that is an another important addition to the transgender community.

Considering they have misused James Barry and other women who had to pretend to be men to have the freedom to do male exclusive work, this isn’t too hard to understand. If it the only people they convince is themselves and other people vulnerable to philosophically led - materially false facts.

Some of those male people, such as India Willoughby, do it because it is supposedly insulting and is retribution for women correctly sexing Willoughby. What those particular attempts do though is make the accuser (often abuser) look very much like they need some intensive mental health support.

It's a way of reminding women to know their place and its predicated on the belief that women value mens approval. In a man's mind the worst thing you can suggest about a woman is that she unfeminine.

Because fuckwits abound?

I was just about to say the same thing.

I remember very clearly her being called masculine and saying ‘she acts like a man’.

Two women recently told me my son was far too old to come into the ladies. She was in fact my 11 yr dd who doesn't look girly but is 100% a girl. Didn't even say sorry.

I just looked her up and she's wearing men's suits and smoking cigars. I vividly remember her wearing men's briefs on one episode. She was definitely portrayed as masculine (and terrifying).

But that's very different to being accused of actually being a man, like the politicians in the op

I guess that accusing someone of acting like a man has now progressed into making baseless accusations of being one

Strong, intelligent and articulate women must be brought down.

You can't possibly be brilliant if you're a woman so you must be a man.
You aren't all dolled up like women should be so you must be a man.
You aren't submissive like women should be so you must be a man.

It's just hating women for not taking any crap, basically.

Amal Clooney is similarly accused. It's a conspiracy theory about a trans agenda to replace women. Obviously they pick on the women with stronger, slightly more masculine features, but all crazy nonsense.

It's the new insult to bring women down.

All the doctored photos of Michelle are actually scary, this is why the advancement of tech and AI terrifys me. Anyone can manipulate pictures, videos and even voices to create any narrative they want.

Regarding Lady Gaga, her response to that question was brilliant and she ran with it, telling other interviewers she was artificial 😂

https://youtube.com/shorts/S6n3pDF41QE?si=Us1nxzSI__OC0IQZ

I think the Michelle Obama thing is largely rooted in racism. Those who are most loud about it seem to use certain animals to describe her too. It's really gross & not a new thing to link black women with being masculine. There is some truth in the argument against sex-testing in sports disproportionately affecting black women - but again it's due to others bias & bigotry.

I just think this stuff is bonkers. There's no way a person in the public eye could totally hide they were a different gender in this day and age.

Very good point. Haven't the Williams sisters also had similar accusations?

It is common on MN too. Lots of times I see posters accusing other posters of being male if they express views different to theirs.

In parts: to undermine contemporary women as credible and revisionist misogyny when trans labels are applied to historical figures

I used to lurk on a male-dominated forum where many posters referred to Michelle Obama as a bloke. I think the majority didn't really believe it, but just enjoyed the chance to mock a successful popular black woman. Michelle is tall for a woman, and alot of short men are insecure of course.

I was always fascinated by the logistics of it. I mean, an ordinary couple in 1960s working class Chicago have a baby boy and randomly decide to pretend he's a girl and go through all the effort to laboriously conceal the sex throughout childhood, magically succeeding when puberty hits. WHY????

On a positive note, I'm a non gender conforming lesbian. I work in secondary schools, when I first started work in the 1990s I had remarks by kids about being a man. (Not very many and children all appropriately punished) Reading this thread made me realise kids havnt done that for years. Clearly younger generations mostly are more open minded. On the whole. Obviously stupid comes in all ages!

I was going to say the sane thing - talk, strong, articulate black women have been accused of being men forever.

It was one of the sticking points with Caster Semenya - that people were being racist and applying white, western standards of appearance to African women.

Because that was true about many women of African heritage, Semenya used it to obfuscate the genetic reality and claim racism and sexism (rather than it calling out sex based advantages, which is what it actually was.)

Referring to 1980s career women in ‘power suits’, they tended to be called ball breakers rather than masculine. But again, that their power and authority came from being like a man or destroying men.

Patriarchal bullshit, the lot of it.

I think that’s different - either talking over women or having a more masculine style of communication
(I’m told I have the latter, but as I’m told that by the people I gave birth to I’m pretty sure I’m still female…)

The problem I remember in the workplace was that you had to 'act like a man' to get any respect. I remember these poor women in the city who had to take clients to strip clubs and drink all night to get contracts and keep them happy.

Because you have women on this website to who are fucking obsessed about trans people. I see them commenting on twitter claiming they can tell if somebody is A woman or a trans woman which is absolute fucking bollocks.
IM not gonna mince my words. I am a woman not trans yet. I am five foot ten At school I had sized 10 feet. The premise that women have to go by a certain beauty standard of being petite, etcetera. Or being so scared of men or even anything p*** me right off? Because it's part of the patriarchy. However, so many gender critical women seem to Adhere to the stereotypes, and this is the problem. And then you have men and women now claiming people like Michelle Obama is a man and it doesn't help when you Ve got done Trump talking about immigrants, eating cats and dogs. Well, he's also talked about. That is well because some people believe in stupid conspiracy theories