Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

And so it begins: Transwoman is running for women's officer of NUS

999 replies

PosieReturningParker · 19/02/2016 15:52

Some of her aims:

Gender neutral sex ed
Women in leadership making room for transwomen (because you know how many women are in leadership roles)
BUS accepting transwomen to compete as women in sports

OP posts:
Thread gallery
10
VincentVanLowe · 21/02/2016 21:54

I don't think it's been tested legally? Not to be paranoid, but it seems like lots of orgs are either collaborators happily pushing this propaganda ('everyday feminism' etc) or are just shit scared of these guys (mumsnet?). The idea of them being powerless is hilarious, women could only dream of having their influence.

RomiiRoo · 21/02/2016 22:01

Lots of good posts, thank you.

I am just browsing the NUS Women's section. The Lead Campaign is against violence and the objectification of women. The Women's campaign also seeks to support student parents. The main NUS history page highlights the women's campaigns on access to abortion. All worthwhile stuff. I am looking at the mobile site, so there may be more. Worth asking the NUS if it really wants these issues, affecting half the student population, sidelined; when there is a already a forum for trans* campaigns.

But in part, the NUS, like MN, is hamstrung by the law, which recognises the right of men to identify as women (and vice versa) and not face discrimination.

However, the law also recognises that women should not be discriminated against. And any other groups. Censorship is discrimination, surely, when it denies one group a voice and impinges on their freedom of speech. Allowing biological men access to women's bathrooms discriminates against women's rights to privacy (what about Muslim women who want to sort their veil out in female space, that is before you get to sufferers of previous sexual trauma etc or the basic dignity of using same sex bathroom facilities).

Women fought for access to higher education; they were excluded partly because of fears intellectual endeavor would harm their reproductive function. Women also fought for equal representation, for a platform which is being eroded. These battles took place a good hundred years ago, as others have said. Women are now supposed to deny the existence of their ovaries; or be accused of being transphobic.

3point14159265359 · 21/02/2016 22:19

magical This is the thread where MN added transphobic language to their list of deletable offences:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/2123131-MNHQ-Mumsnet-and-transphobia-our-thoughts

RomiiRoo · 21/02/2016 22:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lemonsole · 21/02/2016 22:20

Their Twitter feed is exceptionally dull. Lots of excited disbelief at being fawned over, and dazzled by being on the NUS NEC.

Just about every tweet or retweet (and there aren't many) relates to trans and not women's rights.

This is not a natural nor an experienced student politician. If they are representative of them today, then the standard has plummeted since NUS was the cradle of most of the parliamentary Labour Party.

Not sure what I'm trying to say here - only that it seems that it's now more important to be Trans than it is to have any aptitude for the position to which you aspire. All challenges to the ideas in their manifesto have been deleted. Political debate is indeed dead.

RomiiRoo · 21/02/2016 22:21

And I should not read this thread before bed as it gives me the rage!

Lemonsole · 21/02/2016 22:24

Same here, Romi. Going back to work tomorrow will give me some space from it all. I've been raging to myself much of the week about how women are being systematically sidelined and silenced.

MagicalRealist · 21/02/2016 22:30

Thanks for the replies about the censorship thing.

I'm just confused as to why the trans narrative is accepted as fact everywhere online and why there seems to be such a uniform censorship policy with regards to misgendering or making a statement like "transwomen are men". As everyone has said, you're forbidden from saying this on MN and pretty much everywhere else. So I'd been wondering if it was an actual legal thing.

MagicalRealist · 21/02/2016 22:31

Oops didn't see last few replies before posting, sorry.

VincentVanLowe · 21/02/2016 22:32

"it seems that it's now more important to be Trans than it is to have any aptitude for the position to which you aspire."

It seems it's more important to be male and identify as trans than to have any aptitude, yes.

And if the position is outside of 'progressive' circles, then not much changes. Be male, identify as , no aptitude required. Speak lots but say nothing. Have vague policies, provide no evidence to back them up.

It is madness that anyone can look at this same old same old and declare it to be The First Ever anything!

ShortcutButton · 21/02/2016 23:12

How do you find people on twitter?

SirVixofVixHall · 21/02/2016 23:16

VincentVanLowe- re yr post at 21:02, those are my feelings too. Pretty much to the letter. A man with an amputated penis is not a woman, he is, as you say, in a subset of men. I agree with everything you've written wholeheartedly. (DH says the huge irony is that the entitled behaviour, the arrogance, the crushing of the needs of actual women, is all so glaringly male.)
And the no platforming thing is frightening. Germaine Greer ffs! Julie Bindell! Peter Tatchell! It is really alarming what is happening to free speech here. And on this thread.
Mumsnet towers- what is going on with all the deletions, could we have an explaination please?

WombOfOnesOwn · 21/02/2016 23:18

Since the rest of this individual's inane self-descriptor essentially translates to "disabled straight natal male," what exactly is the disability being referenced?

I'm going to just avoid pronouns for Anna (since calling Anna by a pronoun for female human beings is disrespectful to female human beings but apparently referring to Anna by a pronoun for male human beings is unconscionably disrespectful to Anna).

Since this appears to be the ONE place where this person has suffered an unavoidable loss of privilege, and since the disability in question is clearly some kind of "invisible" disability, I think people should know -- is it something that's actually diagnosed? Is it a mental disability? Emotional? Physical? For all that this descriptor is used in Anna's description of Anna's self, does Anna even care about disabled rights or mention them in Anna's campaign?

MagicalRealist · 21/02/2016 23:27

I found this page about online hate speech and the law in the UK
report-it.org.uk/reporting_internet_hate_crime

It says there's no specific law against inciting hatred towards transgender people but "The content of a website can also be illegal when it threatens or harasses a person or a group of people. If this is posted because of hostility based on race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender then we consider it to be a hate crime."

So perhaps it has effectively become illegal to call a transwoman "him" or to say that you do not accept that a man can become a woman.

horseygeorgie · 21/02/2016 23:31

completely agree with the vast majority on this thread. Wear what you want, identify as who you want, but however you may wish to be, someone who was born biologically a man will NEVER be the same as someone who was born biologically a girl.

I wouldn't dream of speaking and acting for the trans community and I refuse to accept a transwoman can speak fairly for women who are not trans.

RomiiRoo · 22/02/2016 06:45

Magical, interesting that the quote you cite does not list sex or gender, just other characteristics including trans*. So it is fine to co-opt women's identities, and deny women a platform to express their views on this; but illegal to even question the legitimacy of attacking women's sense of self, of denying their lived experience, and of fundamentally eroding their rights to free speech?

Why is there no category for harassing or threatening women?? Because this makes me feel threatened; it makes me feel like my lived experience doesn't matter; like I just need to shut up and finally cede yes, men do after all know best. Even about what it means to be a woman.

MrsJamin · 22/02/2016 06:47

shortcutbutton "her" twitter account is @AnnaCLee

ChewySofa · 22/02/2016 07:03

Gosh. Just watched that video. Painful. How can you have somebody speaking on behalf of a group of people who can't actually talk?

Been looking at MAGICAL's Report it site.

In a bit of the site "what is hate crime" I found this (My bolding)-

" All hate crimes and incidents should be reported, whether you have been a victim, a witness or you are reporting on behalf of someone else."

" These incidents may include verbal abuse, physical assault, domestic abuse, harassment and damage to property."

" If a person is bullied as a result of their disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity, this is also dealt with either as a hate crime or non-crime hate incident. Bullying could include name-calling, being spat at or kicked, or having your things taken or damaged."

So it seems that misgendering is a hate crime at the moment.

IndominusRex · 22/02/2016 07:35

It never fails to baffle me that hate crimes don't cover all the protected characteristics. Just think of the impact on public attitudes, conviction rates etc if rape was viewed legally as the hate crime that it is.

OhShutUpThomas · 22/02/2016 07:37

So misgendering is a hate crime.......but women are fair game?

Sounds about right.

IndominusRex · 22/02/2016 07:38

Instead of using a fucking pronoun.

ShortcutButton · 22/02/2016 08:00

Thanks jammin

I don't really get twitter. But I've just looked at her feed. Its very apolitical considering she is NUS? Also has a few items about trans issues/gender neutral toilets...but surprise surprise NOTHING about any women's issues. Which is to be expected

If Anna gets in, it will be a very sad and scarlet day. Who can vote?? Can we vote?

I want to plead with him, to step down

ShortcutButton · 22/02/2016 08:00

Misgendering is name calling though

ShortcutButton · 22/02/2016 08:04

Sorry, I meant misgendering isn't name calling

Snowshimmer · 22/02/2016 08:12

I don't think that calling someone male "he" is name calling. Nothing shameful about being male.
And wow you're right, the internet hate crime site says nothing about women Shock

Swipe left for the next trending thread