Are women in Scotland aware of how bad things have got?

[Leafstamp]

I hang out on the Feminism board a lot, and I know not all MNetters care for that section. Which is fine. But I am continually appalled at how bad things are for women in Scotland - compared to England.

For example, this, from Feminism thread:

www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/01/the-thought-police-are-here/

To briefly summarise:

• Mridul was born male

• Mridul is legally male with no GRC

• Mridul is the CEO of Edinburgh Rape crisis

• Mridul claims women who want female only rape crisis services are bigoted and should 'reframe their trauma'

• The CEO of a domestic violence charity Nicola Murray stopped referring women to Mridul's rape crisis service due to Mridul's misogyny

• Mridul reported Nicola Murray to the police for committing a hate crime

• The police actually visited Nicola Murray to question her thinking

Please can any not-particularly-feminist women share how you feel about this?

And in terms of the huge numbers of (girls especially) who are questioning their gender, there is a bizarre lack of curiosity to investigate why there has been such a rise. Even the suggestion that it might have something to do with social contagion, or peer pressure is immediately shouted down as transphobic.

@Waitwhat23

And in terms of the huge numbers of (girls especially) who are questioning their gender, there is a bizarre lack of curiosity to investigate why there has been such a rise. Even the suggestion that it might have something to do with social contagion, or peer pressure is immediately shouted down as transphobic.

Yes this, 100%. One non binary and two trans children in my friend's DC's primary class in p6, for example, all girls. And yet it seems to be considered transphobic to ask why this is - what's behind this.

Glad to see this thread staying in Scotsnet - I think it's important women in Scotland understand how bad things have become under the SNP.

Just my 2p worth.... yes it bothers me. My views are pretty much what JK Rowling said - that everyone should be free to be themselves without discrimination or criticism, but that people should be able to do that without impinging on the rights of another group.

DH has a co-worker who is trans. Refers to herself as a "transsexual" not transgender, has been through many many painful operations over the last 20 years and who was trans before being trans was fashionable. She is a lovely person and I would have no issues with her being in the same bathroom as me.

However, the new legislation brought in by Scotland doesn't require any of those painful operations, it just needs someone to declare that they are a man/woman. And women just have to accept that, because questioning why someone is waving their willy about in the ladies' changing room is transphobic. We're no longer allowed to question why a fully intact male is doing our smear test when we have asked for a woman. We are supposed to be accepting of breastfeeding mothers being called chestfeeders or the word "woman" being erased from NHS websites.

I don't "hate" trans people or wish any harm on them, precisely the opposite. But the answer to protecting the rights of trans people shouldn't be eroding the rights of women.

I mentioned earlier about people now being categorised as Men and Non-Men. This is what I was talking about.
Funnily enough it's always women that lose out.

Blatant sex discrimination and failure to provide single sex facilities in Costa Edinburgh

mobile.twitter.com/NeepsnTatties/status/1490245010591207429

That's totally batshit. 🤦🏻‍♀️ someone at costa is about to get their arse handed to them I'd imagine.

I really hope Costa get a lot of heat for that. It's such sexism. I am not near that branch but tempted to go in there and complain.

@DomesticatedZombie

Children are being taught that they can change sex, that there are more than two sexes and that sex is a spectrum.

This is all based on the conflation and confusion of the terms 'sex' and 'gender'. The law in Scotland uses the two terms interchangeably. Of course they have completely different and distinct meanings.

I expect the GRA reform to be pushed through in the very near future. Scotland then risks being taken to court by Westminster for undermining the Equality Act.

If you are concerned about these issues it is a good time to write to your MP and MSPs. Before the issue is forced through.

The Scottish Government are very well aware of the difference in meaning between Sex and Gender - they are taking advantage of this to confuse the public and get their changes through.

This also seems relevant to the thread, in Aberdeen.
A group of women raising awareness, and of course up pop the men to try and bully them.

Can you post that link again scianel? I can't click through on it for some reason.

This might be easier @Rheopecticfluid

twitter.com/ChrisFalconer16/status/1490254372743401475

I can't do the fancy links

That’s why I’m a bit scared to get involved. I’m so impressed with these women @Scianel

Maybe it’s time I woman up and get out there.

As it so rightly says, biology is not hate.

Thanks ElephantOfRisk

Brave women, well done!

Wifies winna wheesht!

The Scottish Government are very well aware of the difference in meaning between Sex and Gender - they are taking advantage of this to confuse the public and get their changes through.

Yes, for sure. I am unsure whether this is attributable to malice or just stupidity - either way the SNP are allowing themselves to be used as enablers for/by some very dangerous elements.

There was a debate in the Scottish Parliament about allowing women who had been raped to ask to be examined by a female medical examiner. The SNP and Greens (I think Labour too?) wanted the provision to say that they could ask for a specific gender. It was pointed out to them that the provision should specify sex, not gender. They then argued that sex and gender mean the same thing so it was fine to use the word gender. The counter argument was that if they believed that sex and gender mean the same thing then there was no reason for them to refuse to use the word sex. They continued to refuse to use the word sex. They knew exactly what they were doing - get the legislation through, and then, when women who have just been raped find out that asking for a woman includes asking for a trans woman (most likely an intact male) to carry out a very intimate examination - it's too late.

That was a very rare case in which the SNP, but not the Scottish Greens, eventually backed down, because their behaviour was starting to gain publicity and to cause them political problems. The Greens continued to fight tooth and nail to put some future trans woman medical examiner's affirmation as a woman before the feelings of women who have literally just been raped, ask for a woman medical examiner and are told that they are getting one.

'Wadhwa claimed in the podcast that those worried about policy at local centres should “reach out to them and ask those questions”. Yet, what happens when the women are told that they cannot be guaranteed female support? In advance of the Forensic Medical Services (FMS) Bill debate and Johann Lamont’s amendment to ensure that survivors could request the sex of the examiner, Mandy Rhodes of Holyrood Magazinewrote“Last night I spent an hour on the phone with a heartbroken mother of a girl who was raped by a number of teenage boys and who did not get the support she needed because she was told that a woman counsellor could not be guaranteed. She developed PTSD.” As one woman who attended a meeting with the CEO of RCSwrote: “We reached out to be told that TW are not only women, but female too. The damage that meeting caused us. For so very long. The woman who should have helped us rode all over us. For men. And a fucked up belief in queer theory. What utter bastards. The lot of them.” Why is it so difficult in services that,accordingto Wadhwa, were “set up with the blood, sweat, and tears of women” and whose “workforce is reserved for women only” to guarantee that a female will be a counsellor if needed?

The reaction of the service to the FMS Bill amendment explained much. The amendment was so small, yet so significant. It was born from the single most important request of the survivors, that they be allowed to request (in the understanding that it might not be guaranteed) the sex of a medical examiner. Surely, we thought, this was such an easy but important way to grant survivors a measure of autonomy and a reassertion of control over their bodies? The reaction of RCS was to fight it. Theyclaimedit was irrelevant, that no examiners were trans so it was immaterial, that it would never be an issue, that more important things were at stake. Perhaps. But if so irrelevant, why not concede a small but vital piece of reassurance? Because, of course, it wasn’t. Because to campaigners like Wadhwa this was, again, a denial of womanhood of those who chose to self-identify into it. Wadhwa’s reaction to the passing of the amendment was to leave the SNP and join Patrick Harvie’s Scottish Greens, a party who – with the honourable exception of Andy Wighman – hadrefusedto sign motions condemning violence against women.'

From this piece - forwomen.scot/10/08/2021/the-real-crisis-at-rape-crisis-scotland/

It's really depressing reading the PP saying they don't give a shit about what's happening in women's prisons and then reading about the female prisoner being raped.
It's a thing to see in our local papers now male bodied sexual predators having fairly recently identify as women. Their aims and motives appear not be questioned and they get put in women's jails. Convicted male bodied sexual predators.
That doesn't give me confidence that any women or girl questioning the behavior of a male bodied person in a single sex space is going to get anywhere when the authorities don't even question convicted sex offenders' motives and use of the current law.

Just an aside when I recently saw these old postcards of a woman with her tongue nailed to a post (Glasgow's Women's Library) I was shocked and reminded as they put it "how society has attempted to subdue and silence women" museumcrush.org/the-vicious-postcard-war-behind-the-fight-for-womens-suffrage/

Wow, those postcards are really quite something aren't they. It doesn't feel as though much has changed.

The women in Aberdeen yesterday were brilliant! We held their own in spite of the twats with their nonsense. We will be having stands all over Scotland again soon, we need to inform as many people as we can about what’s going on in our country. If our rights are lost we won’t get them back and that is a chilling thought.

@Rhannion well done to you and I'll keep an eye out for future stalls. Looks like your incel visitors showed themselves up nicely

Rhannion, really well done, and I hope you're all okay. It's always a good idea to film anyone who tries to threaten or intimidate you.

[quote visitingagain]**@Rheopecticfluid* @Rhannion* absolutely no to third spaces. I don't believe trans women are a threat to women because they are (legally) women.
Please don't lump me in with all this safe spaces garbage. If you mean woman's refuges, where are abused trans women meant to go.
As for swimming pools and toilets and prisons, I couldn't give a shit, that's a non issue. You want to remove the status quo and repress people please go ahead, but don't dress it up as feminism and don't put it in my name.
The threat to women is from male violence. That is the threat.
Some sad TRAs shouting on a protest do not make them all deviants.
I don't condone threats of violence and that wasn't my intention, merely to give some context.
But feeling that they should be eradicated by feminists who they have always considered allies, must cause anger. [/quote]
You ask me where abused trans women are meant to do. Two answers to that question, 1 start their own centres as women had to do 2 I’m sure any rape crisis organization offers services for them to use at appropriate times and in an appropriate way.

I note that it’s only trans women you are mentioning, so I suppose we can draw our own conclusions from that visitingagain. Trans men are not on your radar are they?