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Original poster

I'm Jack Monroe. Ask me anything.

1000 replies

MxJackMonroe · 25/07/2016 12:37

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.

OP posts:
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8
sorenofthejnaii · 25/07/2016 23:11

We'd be stupid and dangerously naive to not at least consider the possibility that tw commit violent/sexual crimes at the same rates as men

Oh consider - that's a big difference from the blanket and often repeated assertion that it is a fact.

sorenofthejnaii · 25/07/2016 23:12

If you google the study you will find that what I am saying is in fact correct

Your analysis of the crimes committed and why is absent. Just headline data.

Still, I suppose it suits the agenda.

LadyStoicIsBack · 25/07/2016 23:12

Coconutty With all due respect, you can't tell Jack (or anyone) what their reality is like or 'correct' them vis their own reality. I too had to have Google Alert given so much crap was being printed about me and trust me, no-one would do it if it wasn't ness. Ditto, sincerely doubt Jack is lying vis 27 Google Alerts just this morning. Ergo, can see no validity in your post but can see a truckload of nasty PA. HTH? And you're welcome Smile

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

What 'they' print is more often than not often total bollocks or a MASSIVE exaggeration on one small thing you said. I'm now at a point where I believe very little of what I read (even if it's attributed, as I know it will have been taken out of context - witness Jack's comment re 'liking masculine men' in context of a discussion vis specific politician admiration, but then comment lifted but NOT the context).

E.G. I once gave an interview for a piece for a Sunday paper's magazine in which was asked about a previous medical condition I had (one that had chronic pain with it). As wanted to help raise awareness & to help prompt better diagnosis, I responded openly and at length with an expansive answer which gave them tonnes of copy to choose from, within which was I made one tiny throwaway comment along lines of that I well understood why, if people were not diagnosed/cured, they ended up killing themselves (had been directly asked a Q vis suicide rates in that population and it was in response to that).

Cue one Sunday about 4-5 weeks down the line a double spread piece in said mag with banner header of 'Lady Stoic suicidal' Angry Then cue a shitload of concerned calls & texts from friends who 'knew it to be true' as it was 'in the paper'. Miles worse though was explaining it to DC (aged 9-16 at the time), ALL of whom had to go to school the next day and face questions vis their Mama being 'suicidal' when it was UTTER bollocks and had been horrendously misquoted and out of context.

Another example and another Google alert (from a Scandinavian news outlet with a piece on upcoming telly that week) - alert had, erm, alerted me to fact that in some Scandinavian country where the series I was presenting had been sold to, the word 'slut' appeared in the native tongue's description of series. To head it off at the pass, I lightheartedly posted that my being a slut had been 'found in translation' and thought no more of it. Two days later, another Google Alert had me reading a piece in a UK red top about my 'describing herself as a slut'.

Truly, quite literally you cannot believe a word of what you read. Sad but true (& intensely rage inducing if you are the butt of it).

doing · 25/07/2016 23:12

For me it's not about being assaulted in a changing room or toilet by a tw. It's the very fact of their being allowed there at all, and what that says about my status as a woman.

venusinscorpio · 25/07/2016 23:13

Still, I suppose it suits the agenda

How about your agenda?

sorenofthejnaii · 25/07/2016 23:14

And Julia Long used that survey in her interview with Jack.

I hope that next time, that can be challenged.

It's just another way of reinforcing prejudices.

doing · 25/07/2016 23:15

Stoic I am desperately trying to guess your identity Smile

Are you blond?

venusinscorpio · 25/07/2016 23:15

It's the very fact of their being allowed there at all, and what that says about my status as a woman.

This.

sorenofthejnaii · 25/07/2016 23:15

How about your agenda

What - to stop people causing damage to a group by using misleading statistics?

I think that's a good thing to do. It's a great way of 'othering' a group, isn't it?

SirVixofVixHall · 25/07/2016 23:15

All women have testosterone, but it drops as creep into peri-menopause, and varies with each individual. Many women would feel more lively, have more oomph and a higher sex drive if they took testosterone, it has that impact generally . There was a recent article about this actually, in the Sunday Times maybe? Feeling good on certain hormones isn't proof of being trans as a pp seemed to state. Lots of menopausal women on bio-identical hormones will also be given some testosterone as it improves mood and energy.

MsKite · 25/07/2016 23:16

Why don't you read the study before commenting on it? Or you might come across as not really knowing what you're talking about. Just saying.

sorenofthejnaii · 25/07/2016 23:17

Why don't you read the study before commenting on it? Or you might come across as not really knowing what you're talking about. Just saying

I have read it in great detail. You can't answer my questions because the study does not tell you the answers.

MephistoMarley · 25/07/2016 23:18

LadyStoic who are you?! Grin

MsKite · 25/07/2016 23:20

Bollocks

ethelb · 25/07/2016 23:20

Jack the issue is that when women point out that men have claimed they are trans to be violent towards women they are branded a Terfs.

I do appreciate you are not a transwoman and are actually quite separate to that debate, but can you see how much people claiming to talk for all trans people, in an often quite misogynistic way, have coloured the whole debate in a way that makes it quite hard to engage with positively?

ColdAndGloomy · 25/07/2016 23:21

Hi Jack,

I'm late to the party here but can I pick up on the posts from earlier about always taking your son to the ladies. You said
It's what he asks for. He is 6 years old and I'm not sure about sending him into a room full of grown men with their dicks out quite just yet. I don't know what the right age for that even is.
Surely you aren't saying that no young children should ever go to mens toilets? If my son is out with his dad he will obviously go to the mens. So why shouldn't you take your son to the mens if you are presenting as male?

I know this isn't the most important point of the thread but it just seems like one of the strangest things you've said, and easiest to pick up on. Will leave the 'what is a woman' q to others, but will be interested when you come back with a response!

doing · 25/07/2016 23:22

I really hope Jack comes back.

I'm off to bedski

NeedAnotherGlass · 25/07/2016 23:22

I have found your responses very interesting so thank you for starting the thread.
I do still think there needs to be places that are female only, but maybe the solution is to have gender neutral spaces for people who are non-binary.
I also have massive concerns about transgender mtf taking part in sport.

sorenofthejnaii · 25/07/2016 23:22

Bollocks

Well, your answer just reinforces that you have an agenda.

So does the survey tell you

a) What violent crimes were committed?
b) Were the violent crimes similar to those carried out by men - or was there a difference?

The answer BTW is no.

FloraFox · 25/07/2016 23:22

soren where is your evidence that transwomen do not commit crimes at the same rate as men?

In any event, men will soon be able to freely access women's spaces, trans or not. You don't seem to care about the danger that presents to women.

EDisFunny · 25/07/2016 23:22

What are your thoughts on MTT competing in women's sports (e.g. In the Olympics or sports team)? Are there instances where you think biological sex matters?

sorenofthejnaii · 25/07/2016 23:26

where is your evidence that transwomen do not commit crimes at the same rate as men

That survey has not been carried out.
You are assuming they do - because you assume there is no biological cause and that transwomen are exactly the same as men.

You could ask if all men are equally violent - or is there some differences between the men who are violent and those who aren't.

sorenofthejnaii · 25/07/2016 23:30

where is your evidence that transwomen do not commit crimes at the same rate as men

Crime rates differ between men. Certain groups are more likely to commit crimes than others.

midcenturymodern · 25/07/2016 23:32

A sign on a door with a little skirt on is not a deterrent to a sexual predator

Maybe not but the legal protections that women used to have to sex segregated spaces was something. Not anymore though, because of feelz. Words have meanings. Women has a definition and it isn't 'anyone who feels like it'. Yeah, I know, 'who am I to define woman....'

It's the very fact of their being allowed there at all, and what that says about my status as a woman

^This. In spades. We've spent centuries fighting for a room of our own only to have sex-segregated exchanged for gender-segragated and we've lost the whole damn lot, all backed up by people who claim gender is bullshit. Back to square 1 and it's 'progressive'. You can't object without being a bigoted terf or a pearl clutching prude who will be laughingly asked ' what do you think is going to happen? What do you think you are going to see?' Like it's some fucking lark. Who cares in the most vulnerable women are put at risk in prison and hospital and rape crisis. What do you think you are going to see?^'. To quote someone who I can't remember 'What a bunch of privileged, decadent fucks we have become'.

I don't want to have to identify out of womanhood to be treated as a person. I want the definition of person to be expended to include women. We're back to those pesky definitions again though. And another problem, if women can't be defined, how do you identify in or out?

venusinscorpio · 25/07/2016 23:34

In any event, men will soon be able to freely access women's spaces, trans or not. You don't seem to care about the danger that presents to women.

What do you think about Flora's point, soren?

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