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

[PosieReturningParker]

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

Great post Vincent. I'm not a mum and I'm also aghast!

'We need to stop calling men women and she and pandering to people who disrespect and despise us. '

Very much agree. The pandering - I'm sick of all the pandering!

"anecdotally I and several other women and girls I know choose not to participate in both online and offline spaces which toe the trans line. We do not feel welcome or respected, so we don't waste our energy."

Not that I've been missed anywhere, but yes I've abandoned a few favourite online spaces for that reason. I would potentially do the same with offline spaces.

I'm not scared of most transwomen, just like I'm not scared of most men. The problem for me comes with not being able to assess the potential risk to me when I'm vulnerable in private or public spaces which also admit men and transwomen.

but if we are going to stand against the tide then we need to stand together and create some sort of support network or safety net for those women who are targeted by the wrath of these guys.

Hear hear

How could we go about gathering info into the impact of 'trans' centred policies on women and girls participation?

Like - okay so to be on topic, how could we gather info to understand what impact Anna Lee winning 'woman's officer' might have on current or potential students?

For example, what proportion of female students feel that they would be represented/alienated by Lee's election? What are female students reactions to Lee's manifesto goals? What do female students actually think about 'gender neutral' or 'males-who-identify-as-trans' inclusive toilets, sports, halls, and changing rooms? Does it/would it affect their participation or access?

Did Lee break any rules when they made that video misrepresenting themselves by using a cartoon girly character and manipulating their voice to sound feminine?

Can anyone find me that brilliant list of biological differences between men and women that someone on here compiled?? I need it as a response on the independent comments...difference in muscle:fat ratios etc

Just came across this video of Julie Binder speaking on many of the points made on these threads: brookestblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/sole-platforming-julie-bindel/#comments

Shortcut I think that list was on one of the Olympics threads, cut and pasted from a guardian comment?

Boys are born with 30% muscle. We must have something that makes our joints soft to accommodate a baby too. Our hyper thalamus (sp) is much bigger isn't it?

Bindel, sorry.

Shortcut - do you mean cote's post here at 20.02?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2558163-Continuation-thread-re-IOC-trans-policy-and-related-trans-issues

I did indeed Vincent
Brilliant work, thanks. Love ya
(How did you find it?????)

Knew it was on one of them, got lucky cos it was on the first page of the first one I checked ;)

It was a great post so it stuck in my mind.

On another forum there is more than one woman talking about how they've stopped swimming at the local YMCA, and withdrawn their membership because of the new shared toilet/changing rules.

I wonder if the YMCA stats are available - you'd have to look at womens' and family memberships and see if there's any change

It could be difficult to track changes because the "transwomen" will be registered as "female"

My local swimming pool has unisex changing facilities, but single sex toilets.

The changing facilities comprise lots of separate cubicles, with some additional family changing rooms. It works fine.

However, if it was just one big room with benches, that would be completely different. And if the toilets were all shared, that would be pretty horrible imo.

I just registered with the independent so I could like all of shortcutButton's posts! The registration process required me to select a gender (grrrr) but it was worth it to be able to "like" the posts.

I will be going back to uni this autumn. If Lee is elected I will be boycotting NUS and telling them so.

No I won't feel represented, no I wouldn't be happy with unisex toilets, especially as my lectures will be at night.

Fuck their 10% Topshop discount

Amazing post Vincent.

I heard an idea for a blog of screen shots and testimonials for this kind of deletion/silencing/exclusion. I'm not sure if it went anywhere, but it could be much like terfisaslur.com in format.

Penguin - that's a really good point and one that I am really concerned about. If TW commit crime at the same rate as men (and all the evidence suggests that they do), then that totally skews women's crime stats. There is a news article linked to in Posie's earlier post about a TW providing 'support' to young people transitioning who has been charged with rape and possession of child porn. That is recorded as a women committing that crime. Men commit crime at a much, much higher rate than women so this lumping in will have a huge impact on women's prison populations.

If students aren't concerned about that, how about universities that have special scholarships or prizes for women are going to be now effectively opening them up to men.

As a woman student, I'd have expected the women's officer to be concerned with the following issues: welfare, childcare, safe housing, contraception, freedom from harassment, equality of opportunity ...

Does Anna mention any of those things?

Also as we get older, we are often not just responsible for taking young girls, into loos and changing rooms, we are also often doing the same with elderly mothers. In old age some women are very vulnerable, and also may be unable to speak out, or uncomfortable doing so.

Yes the skewing of statistics is something that worries me too. I read that Anna Lee is a maths student so Anna Lee is already skewing the statistics for the number of women doing maths in higher education. If Anna Lee becomes a maths professor then it will skew the statistics for female maths professors!

Thanks for the support penguin

Bit of an aside, but I do wonder whether the label "terf" has such traction because it relates to "radical" feminism. I'm sure it isn't just "radical" feminists who hold the views expressed here, but using a slur that attributes those views only to radical feminists makes it seem like it is an extreme, fringe view. Also, radical feminism has a negative image amongst the general public, so it is easy for a lot of people to systematically dismiss a view described as "radical feminist". Many people who hold feminist views fall over themselves to distance themselves from the word. Whoever came up with "terf" knew this. It is infuriating.

I like the family changing ones (as long as they have enough big cubicles - changing me and two kids does involve a certain amount of nudity on my part whilst trying to control the kids) - my favourite local swimming pool has the changing totally shared, and right at the side of the pool, so there's no risk of ever being somewhere that anything untoward could happen.

It also has sex segregated toilets though.