I'm Jack Monroe. Ask me anything.

[MxJackMonroe]

Hi Mumsnet.

It seems every time I am in the news, a MN thread about all things transgender crops up. I didn't see the last one (yesterday?) as I don't come on here very often these days - people who eavesdrop etc etc. I was cooking in a tent in a muddy field all day, having a ball, not googling myself on the internet!

The thread was deleted - which was nothing to do with me, nor my lawyer. The day I call him about a MN thread is the day I pack everything in for good. So far only the Mail and Hopkins have had legal action taken against them, and both for quite serious statements. I'm not rich enough nor quite bothered enough to call him every time someone says mean words on the internets.

ANYWAY. Threads about me tend to get deleted. So here's a new one. Because there are clearly some questions that keep coming up, criticisms that I could answer, speculation I could clarify and untruths that could do with correction.

So I'm taking questions. I'm an adult and I take an awful lot of criticism and unkindness online, on the chin. I am pretty mentally stable right now, and feel this could be a constructive discussion.

In order to stop this descending into pandemonium, using general 'chair' rules, to start with I'll take one question from each user - if it's quiet and everything gets answered, feel free to add follow up questions.

It doesn't have to be about boobs, dresses, hormones. Literally ask me anything.

MN - please don't delete this thread. I think people have valid things to say and I'm here with my big girl/boy pants on to hear them.

Over to you.

I am still unsure how someone who doesn't believe in gender can be diagnosed as transgender. Surely one contradicts the other.

If you believe in gender, then you can be transgender.

I can see how someone who has issues with their body and feels it's wrong can be diagnosed as being transsexual - and need / want HRT and possibly surgery.

"I've not come across this but in an ideal world wouldn't we just ask someone how to record their gender? Kind of like asking for a title at the bank etc (although in an ideal world I would abolish sodding titles too, my marital status has no bearing on the ads I should get on online shopping websites)."

Now I hate being asked my gender, especially if they don't ask my sex too, if I have an 'other' box I would put 'critical female' or just 'critical' if I could give my sex. I think it is important to record sex (and ethnicity and disability) as it is only through recording our biology we can see if our society discriminates on its basis but the socially expected behaviour of a person is not relevant to that.

Sorry Iggi, hadn't refreshed since popping out to buy so didn't see your post above prior to mine vis some serious Jack lusting

My own view is you're right, thread IS to answer some of those questions on deleted thread (& for life of me have NO clue why whole thread was deleted as opposed to standard practice of deleting posts:/) but my take on it is that Jack DOES intend to - as best as any one individual can - answer those questions.

If I thought tricky questions were being ducked or OP was cherry-picking I'd be first in line to call that out, but that really does not seem to be reality here, hence flagging that Jack had been clear would answer but unable to do so given realities of life on the go with a small child in tow! I would genuinely be amazed if Jack does not answer those questions (again, as best as any one person is able to) and I'm glad there haven't been any answers that lacked critical thinking. So I suspect your your point vis the raison d'etre of this is valid but it's simply a question of time which seems pretty valid to me.

TBH, I'm just appreciative that Jack is bothering to do this at all bearing in mind is no obligation at all to do so. As someone who used to be in media eye a tiny bit and having seen some fucking horrendous things written about me (from my name to my appearance to my weight FFS), I'm not sure I'd have bothered if brutally honest.

Not yet AnyFucker - you?

The trouble with the 'non-binary' label, I think, is that the human brain fundamentally functions at a binary level. We process everything through a series of either/or options, refining and refining the selection until it's narrow enough to suit our purposes at the time; and articulating that process necessarily produces labels (for example: 'I need to sit down. Is this thing in front of me a chair, or not a chair?' Or, 'I see a chair in that shop window. Is it a chair that might suit the decor of my house, or not?' 'So, I've bought a new chair. Was it the right decision, or not?')

Identifying as 'non-binary' implies that human beings are divided into those who are 'non-binary', and those who are not. Which is, erm, a binary model.

And that's why identifying as 'non-binary' - as opposed to rejecting gender as a concept more generally - is potentially so problematic. Because it forces a new level of labels on everyone, and particularly on a category of humans, women, who are still in the process of unpicking millennia of prejudice and injustice based on a label linked to their basic biology.

I have a lot of time for you, Jack, for what it's worth. I've cheered your contributions to political debate, appreciated your recipes, and generally admire your approach to life. But I wish, so fervently, that 'gender doesn't exist', rather than 'I am non-binary' were the message you might choose to promote when the media insist on trying to find out whether you are a girl or a boy...

Hello Jack.

Sorry if I've missed this.
I have nothing to ask on the whole trans thing people can do whatever makes them long as they aren't harming anyone else in my book
I just wanted to know about your next cooking adventure and why did you and lovely Allegra split up? You always looked so happy together!

I have lost count of the amount of times I have said "gender isnt real" "gender is a prison" "gender is a social construct" "gender roles are harmful" in interviews and It. Never. Gets. Printed.

I have lost count of the amount of times I have said "gender isnt real" "gender is a prison" "gender is a social construct" "gender roles are harmful" in interviews

So how can you be transgender if gender isn't real?

HermioneWeasley Mon 25-Jul-16 20:54:45

stoic are you actually trying to get picked up on this thread?

No, but having just re-read my post can see why it looks like that!

See??! That's what happens when you post in haste - it can say something completely different to what you intended to say!

Was actually intended to be that question at end of post - IE how many of us do or have found ourselves uber attracted to someone else when, in theory, they are not 'of' the group we identify as being attracted to normally and what does that mean for our 'normal' gender identification? I repeat, genuine question. But fucking mortified vis how that post reads and if could edit it I would!

So how can you be transgender if gender isn't real?

Well as much as I'd love to abolish gender roles and norms and structures before my next load of testosterone, I can't.

That's really telling and disturbing (about what they print).

Well as much as I'd love to abolish gender roles and norms and structures before my next load of testosterone, I can't

Maybe you're transsexual instead?

What's the difference between transsexual and and transgender?

That's why I asked if you were pissed, stoic

That post was a trifle disinhibited

It made my night AF.

I nearly inhaled wine up my nose

What's the difference between transsexual and and transgender

As far as I am aware, transsexual is about the body being wrong and transgender is about gender perception? Behaviour etc

I've been reading from the beginning and asked one of the questions lost in the initial deluge concerning the fact that legal self-identification impacts on our ability to record, measure and address sex-based discrimination and if you have any ideas on how that can be tackled in a way that safeguards women's rights? I'm not demanding an answer as I appreciate there are many questions here.

However, reading your posts, I'm interested in the idea that testosterone is helping you to feel more 'yourself' than ADs did (sorry I know I'm paraphrasing) but I just wanted to ask is that what transitioning means to you? So, in a way, is it an ongoing treatment that you feel combats a hormone imbalance?

And if that is the case, are you concerned about the lack of research in this area? One of the worries I have for friends who are trans is that the medical research does not seem that robust for what has become such a widely-accepted treatment pattern.

The rest of us nearly took our handbags off the dance floor and left you to it. ...

Hello Jack.

Sorry if I've missed this.
I have nothing to ask on the whole trans thing people can do whatever makes them long as they aren't harming anyone else in my book
I just wanted to know about your next cooking adventure and why did you and lovely Allegra split up? You always looked so happy together!

Well as much as I'd love to abolish gender roles and norms and structures before my next load of testosterone, I can't.

So instead you choose to prop it up by claiming you're not a woman because of....feelings...dress sense...sexuality?

The really sad part, Jack, from my perspective (and I appreciate that I am so far outside your life as to be irrelevant, really) is that because 'I am non-binary' has news value that 'gender is a prison' doesn't - and therefore gives you a chance of being more accurately presented in the media, because you are correct of course, in that the former will be printed and the latter won't - in a sense, your right to identify as you choose is being unwittingly purchased at the price of others' ability to do the same thing.

I am not, please understand, saying that is your fault.

However, reading your posts, I'm interested in the idea that testosterone is helping you to feel more 'yourself' than ADs did (sorry I know I'm paraphrasing) but I just wanted to ask is that what transitioning means to you

I think that's true for a lot of trans people who do take HRT - it does have a positive effect on how they feel about themselves. I do wonder if this is evidence of a biological cause? (which does not have anything to do with gender but more an internal sense of how they feel)

So, in a way, is it an ongoing treatment that you feel combats a hormone imbalance?

YES!

transsexual & transgender are different things?
Lesbian is a dirty word?
Bi- means 50% of each (that is only possible meaning ever ever?)

When the words splinter into a thousand different meanings that folk can't agree on, there is no point in any of the words.

So, in a way, is it an ongoing treatment that you feel combats a hormone imbalance

yes

So something biologically not right and the HRT has helped solve it. Which is more towards transsexualism?