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

freshwater

It's almost like Anna Lee is saying, "what will make actual women think I know what they have to put up with? I know, period day"

Give me fucking strength.

That's like a bunch of us celebrating national ballsack day or something.

Because we know all about what it's like to have a ballsack, don't we?

National Erectile Dysfunction day.

Yeah we totally know what it's like, so you should believe we're men.

I think some people have never understood the meaning of patronisation.

Knowing that this person celebrates National Period Day, whatever the heck that is, makes me feel more completely patronised than I have ever felt in my life.

National Ballsack Day 😂😂😂😂

Just to add, Anna's appearance is a factor that will influence many people, I suspect. However I know many women who do not appear or sound 'feminine'. That does not mean they aren't women and cannot speak on women's issues.

The more I have thought about all of this recently, the more I come to the conclusion that 'gender' is utter bollocks. It just does not exist, and is imposed upon us to the point where parents of toddlers start believing that their kid is 'trans' just because they don't mirror society's notion of what gender should look like. It's utter madness.

This is not a woman. Yes, not all women have periods, or ovaries, or experience rape or sexism or a million other things that are 'women's issues'. But this is just someone who is using their male privilege to shout down actual women and deny them the representation they need, distracting everyone with all this trans rights stuff and thus oppressing women even further. Awful.

^ yes roomba that's exactly it.
Anna isn't a woman, not because they look unconvincing in their womanface but because they just are not.

OhShutUpThomas Anna was 'living as a woman' - whatever that means - when I first met her 3 years ago. Not sure how long before that though.

bit.ly/1KYY4lR

Roomba makes a very good point there is an ethical implication about running for a post created to support one group and purposefully using that post to support another group to the detriment of your represented group which is what Anna is clearly doing.

I'm also amazed that with such poor presenting skills she managed to get any NUS position at all (was she the sole candidate?!) so I'm astounded she's going for a national post. It truly highlights the different expectations for men and women doesn't it?

I know plenty of women who look and dress like a man so I don't see why a trans woman can't look and dress like a man. . So theoretically there could be men who make no attempt to look or dress like a woman and just say that they're trans.

Anna's video was so bad I couldn't even watch all 60 seconds.

Anna may be a lovely person, but I can't see what's lovely about sticking your womanface on, deciding it makes you more an expert on womanhood than actual women, then deciding to use your platform (which a female would NEVER have been afforded if they were as apparently useless as this person is) to make it all about your pet project. It screams narcissism and fetishism to me.

Does anyone know how old Anna is?

Looks about 25 ish to me. I would forgive him quite a lot from the point of view of being young and naive, but I do wish he would stop it.

What I mean is I think his intentions may very well be good, but he is in way beyond his own understanding of what this does to women.

I don't think he's got the required insight to take this on.

As such I feel bad having a go at him, but I also think it's important he realises what a cock up this is. And hopefully learns from it.

See, I feel awful just typing these things, as I know Anna and other trans people, so I feel I am somehow belittling and insulting them. No doubt they would see what I am saying as dreadfully transphobic. I'm not trying to be anti-anyone, quite the opposite. But I am a feminist. So I will defend the rights of women not to have their voices silenced by people who, let's face it, have had all the advantages of a male upbringing, and now claim that not only are they also women, but they somehow know better than women who weren't born male - they are somehow even better at being women than actual women (who just don't have a clue and are just trying to exclude trans people)!

I think I may have just reached 'peak trans'...

"I can't see what's lovely about sticking your womanface on, deciding it makes you more an expert on womanhood than actual women, then deciding to use your platform (which a female would NEVER have been afforded if they were as apparently useless as this person is) to make it all about your pet project. It screams narcissism and fetishism to me."

All of this.

I mean it reminds me of my 17yo self going on a stop the war march in London.

I was enthusiastic and motivated. Politically I was very stupid though. I hadn't got a clue what it was really about.

It makes me ashamed now - and I was ashamed at the time because a member of the armed forces was on the train with a bunch of us, on the way home, and he said something pretty cutting, got up and left the carriage.

I don't think people who don't have the life experience to understand their cause ought to be leading it, even in their own circles. Or anyone else's cause for that matter.

You do realise on this thread we're saying 'actual women' so often we may as well say 'cis women'. Just saying.

And yes, using platform created for one minority to campaign for another is just plain wrong.

And yes, any actual woman standing for office, even for the NUS, would need to be a whole lot better, and better turned out, than Anna in her 60 second video.

I think Anna is 22/23ish? And honestly I don't think there is malicious intent in this, but Anna just does not have the insight to realise the wider implications if she is elected as Womens Officer. She clearly doesn't have much insight into current issues for women students at the uni, looking at her policies. Either that or she hasn't listened to what women need, or even asked...

"Women unite"
Well, at least this thing seems to unite the opinions of the women on this thread...

I'm speechless

Period Day YaYYY!!

I really need this - I'm post menopausal and really, really miss the 6 period days a month I had for 40 years - give or take the odd pregnancy.....

So Yayy, Yayy, Yayyy!

...........................all those lovely memories

Id like to tweet anna this thread. Does that make me a bitch?

I won't do it, I don't Twitter. But I'd like them to read it.

Thing is, we'd just be viewed as TERFs and the nuances of our opinions would not be examined at all. We'd be the horrible, transphobic, nasty, 'Haters' just trying to 'trigger' the trans community .

I think it would be construed as confrontational if we did that.

Surely we can discuss this public matter on here without actually shoving our opinions under their nose.