This is getting out of control - Ladyfest

[Chickpeasandpakchoi]

Has banned the use of the word 'clitoris' at its feminist festival as it it trans exclusionary.
www.feministcurrent.com/2016/06/03/german-ladyfest-clitoris-exclusionary/
I hope it is boycotted by women. How DARE they tell us we cannot celebrate and talk about our female anatomy?

Is that likely to become law? What can we do?

Peak trans is that a real thing

I think there has been a delay but normally enquiry recommendations are passed into law yes. Write to your MP is one thing you can do. Most people are not really aware of the implications - including MPs. Some have had success with this.

I'd of thought that it wasn't cool to admit to being a trans male...id of thought many males would find it threatening or poncy and give them a hiding..I hadn't thought by any stretch of the imagination that us Brits were a tolerant lot ....is all this mainly in other countries ?

Women with MRKH are born with ovaries.

Not all of them obviously. She has none.

She is currently looking at a surrogate with donated eggs

Don't they all have jobs to go to? They seriously expect to get taken seriously in a dress...with knickers underneath ...really ...in England????

NeedacleverNN apparently people with MRKH have ovaries ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/mayer-rokitansky-kuster-hauser-syndrome

Thats the other problem with the whole 'how you identify is the reality not whats between your legs brigade' - I cant identify out of being raped or discriminated against because Im pregnant. In other countries I couldnt identify out of FGM or being banned from school once my period started. Womens oppression is based in biology not 'feeling like a woman'.

My friend thinks I'm not very progressive....she might be right...I feel sad for the world I have brought children in to....if I was an old lady I'd feel glad to be leaving it soon.the world is topsy turvy...and very violent 😢

She must have something else aswell or prehaps I got it wrong

Either way she definitely has MRKH. I know that much

Yes it can be depressing. But my view is that feminism is a deeply hopeful ideology. If 50% of the population (women) can manage to be massively less violent than the other 50% currently are then so can the other 50%. How we get there is difficult obviously but at least it shows violence is not an inevitable part of the human condition.

As ''cis'' men identify as men, then I would assume not, in the same way that when interviewed in 2010 the organisers at the time said transmen were also not being invited to speak as it would go against their concept of ''girls to the front'' presumably as transmen also identify as men, despite many being anatomically female.
Their concept this year ''Be tender to all gender'' must have given a clue to the planned demographic.

Sorry, that was in response to singing earlier.

I am totally up for identifying as a man. Does that mean I'll get paid more and my boss will stop nicking my ideas and pretending he thought of them?

Does that mean that "cis" men can go to Ladyfest too then?*

Yes, they can.

I visited one Lady*fest, and have found the "cis" men to be rather nice and respectful, keeping in the background and let the women talk, while some of the trans"women" I spoke to tried to convinced me that there was such a thing as a female penis, and that "female anatomy" should not be used do describe, well, female anatomy.

I wonder how they say they were misquoted - so will they do the clitoris talk now, or do they just claim to have been misquoted about the "no one is allowed to say clitoris" thing?

Sometimes I think the solution is for us all to declare ourselves men. Just to see what happens!

Are you up for going to Lady*fest and claim male identity? If we can get a large enough group, I think it might be rather funny.
Of course, we'd not change anything about our appearance. Because hey, men can have long hair. And wear skirts and dresses. And so on and so forth.

Great post AuntDotsie

What would we do at Ladyfest with male identity vestal? I'm thinking doing it legally if they were to change the system would cause more havoc but Ladyfest might allow us to test the waters?!

I think a big group of very obviously female women who do nothing to appear masculine but insist that they are, might impress on some the fact that men like Danielle Muscato might exist.

I also admit I am an evil person and might quite enjoy people stumbling over their own words as they try to remember the correct pronouns.

Not yet decided whether I shouldn't pick one of this list of pronouns:

askanonbinary.tumblr.com/nature

But their translatability is not that good.

heh. I can just imagine all 5'1 of myself rocking up. Chubby with plenty of T&A, high voice and maternal air. Probably wearing a massive loose black skirt because of unpredictable flooding. I'm a man! Oh no you're not. Oh right you are, don't want to cause a fuss

empressofthevulvacupcakes - I'd always wondered about her username!

Not yet decided whether I shouldn't pick one of this list of pronouns

Have you seen the official Lady*Fest list of German non-binary pronouns? You can find it linked at the bottom of this page. Cos German grammar isn't complex enough!

Thanks AuntDotsie. Picking a pronoun from that list would probably be the least debatable.

On the other hand, female nonbinaries seem to be pretty common, not sure that would be as shocking as a group of women turning up claiming to be male. (For extra confusion, we could claim to be cismales, because our bodies are male, too. Because we say so.)

www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/06/glastonbury-2016-sisterhood-women-only-venue

The 2016 Glastonbury festival will feature its first ever women-only venue. Called The Sisterhood, it has been described by the organisers as a “revolutionary clubhouse” open to “all people who identify as women.”

The Sisterhood will be an “intersectional, queer, trans and disability-inclusive space” and will be staffed entirely by people who identify as female, from performers to security staff.

Presumably a bunch of blokes will just be able to rock up, say they identify as women and gain entry? My sister will be at Glasto, I'm going to ask her to investigate.

I know a few women who were excited at the idea of a women only area at Glasto who will now not be using it.

No matter what we're told, Glasto is a less and less safe place for women to be from when I worked there the first time to the last, there has been a definite change in focus and feel to it, so a female safe space would have been a great idea.

Shame it's not a female only space now, maybe some women could get together and do something for women, rather than for all-comers?