The Bluestocking is open for business

[PricklyBall]

I've scrolled back a few pages and I can't even find the last pub thread.

So I've taken the beer towels off the pumps, tapped a new barrel, polished the glasses, fed the goat and applied brasso to the patriarchy busting canon.

Come and join me - all tastes catered for - beer, gin, wine, cocktails, coffee and a nice cup of tea.

Pisses me off

This whole one gender neutral and one male loo

No pun intended

It is so annoying I scare myself

Erasure of women. Drip, drip, drip.

That's ones of the issues that everyone is plainly ignoring, it will always screw over women and never men. Nobody bats an eyelid at this nonsense, how has it come to be that just men need their own toilet now? It feels too early in the morning for all the rage I'm feeling!

Transwomen taking over women's spaces, telling us how to perform femininity (they do it better, natch), erasing women. Transmen, removing breasts and taking irreversible hormone treatments, a huge increase in dysphoric young women on recent years, erasing women.

Am I missing something? Are natal men experiencing their erasure at all?

I was thinking about Lass recently too. She is fav to have onside on threads about porn and prostitution. I do home she hasn't abandoned us!

I'm just catching up with what's happening

I have no way of knowing this for sure, but I think some of the Tweeps I follow, who used to talk about intersectional feminism a lot, have gone quiet because of all this.

in general I have quite a few Tweeps who have gone quiet on any serious topic and while I don't tweet heavy stuff myself, the timing of all this is interesting.

We have local elections in May and I'm debating sending an unsigned note to the Labour candidates stating my concerns. I don't feel safe giving them my address. How dreadful is that?

Has anyone seen this bollocks

unbound.com/books/trans-britain/

Joan of Arc trans my bloody arse.

I keep thinking I should change my name but I post on the Litter Tray and they know me as who I am and I have no imagination anyway and woe is me.

I do hope people don’t change names- I hate not being able to recognize people.

What do people think about voting Labour now? Is this issue big enough to stop you?

Bertrand "Is this issue big enough to stop you?"

Yes. I have other issues with Labour tbh but actually no politician cares about the things I care about!

so then we go to a level of "least worst option" and that would be Labour by a mile, but I'm not going to cast a vote for a party that endorses the idea of "woman as costume".

it may be the case that I don't vote in the local elections at all or vote for an independent.

I don't see how I can vote for anyone ATM. Even if I could get past the whole destroying-sex-based-protections thing I don't think I can vote for a party that applauds and facilitates the sterilisation and mutilation of children.

(Recent name-changer, sorry)

Tallulah, don't know which party you mean?

I also NC, makes sense in our strange world.

All of them.

I refer to 11-year-olds on state-sanctioned, state-funded puberty blockers. There's no evidence base suggesting that this is a sensible thing to do, it's very unlike the nhs to prescribe expensive lifelong interventions with life-limiting side effects on the basis of zero evidence, therefore the whole thing is politically motivated.

All the major political parties pay lip service to this process and the narratives that motivate it. All are clamping down on dissent.

Hello, sisters!

In RL I am drinking a can of Aldi lager but in here it has miraculously transformed into a pint of posh craft IPA. Splendid!

I need a drink after seeing the Jeremy Corbyn for PM facebook page is celebrating JC’s assertion that “Transwomen are WOMEN!!!” and therefore giving his backing to self-ID.

Actually, he didn’t say that. I saw the interview. I guess the people behind the page are pushing him to take a side and it’s fairly obvious what side he’s going to take. It’s fucking depressing. I will still vote Labour because the Tories are just as bad on the transmadness and a hell of a lot worse on just about everything else.

In response to some earlier comments, I do wish there could be a separate space for the Trans stuff under Feminism because I find it so upsetting and exhausting and sometimes I don’t want to have to think about it. Not that many topics in Feminism are particularly upbeat!

Drinking again.
If this nonsense carries on I'm going to have a serious addiction

But as Guardian pointed out earlier , there is an increased sense of solidarity as women start uniting against the misogynists. And that fund raiser keeps increasing with lots of men contributing as well.

Cheers.

I think it might stop me voting for them. I didn't think there was any single issue that would do that

What about you Bertrand? I generally think you speak wisdom. Talk me down?

The trans thing is pretty dreary, although maybe less so than being sealioned by mras on threads about VAWG.

Still, Spring is coming, the ft can be arsed to investigate rich male sexual entitlement and people are starting to yesdebate. Things could be a lot worse. Cheers

YY rowdy to the feeling of solidarity. I have gone a bit bonkers on facebook, be-friending almost anyone who expresses a gender-critical view on a thread I read and seeking out people on The List to befriend. It’s not going to change the world, but it makes me feel a bit less alone - and it’s nice to see the names and faces of real women (and transwomen - I’m no bigot!) rather than just anonymous usernames.

I'm so bored of the trans stuff. Want to talk about other feminism but the board is just awash and too fast moving. I might need to take a break til it calms down

And as mentioned upthread, other aspects of feminism get invaded by MRA trolls - see for e.g. the sexual violence thread. I totally understand the need for a break - I'm painfully aware of the fact that I need to go and read nice gentle whodunnits, drink tea and recharge. It's finding the self-discpline to do it.

Talking of whodunnits, I found a promising looking one in a second hand shop today - Jazz Files, by Fiona Veitch Smith. Set in the 1920s. I'm guessing people on here will have read some of her stuff (seems to be a series with the same woman journalist Poppy Denby).

I know what you mean, Quentin. Today I considered posting about this article about the porn industry but (a) it may have already have been posted and I missed it and (b) no-one would see it even if I did post it because of all the trans threads.

I know what you mean Quentin, it's tough.
At least we have the pub? Maybe the next pub thread could have a no trans discussion rule? A safe space, if you will...?
Not to stifle debate, but just because the debate (between us, obv #nodebate from the TRAs) is already everywhere

Hairy ""nice gentle whodunnits"

This reminds me of my colleagues talking about "cosy murder stories" and telling me I've missed a whole genre.

I was saying how excellent the film "The Limehouse Golem" is, someone asked "is it cosy murder?"

I said "no, definitely not, but actually - what on earth is cosy murder?!"

He replied "you know, when you can make a cup of tea and check your messages and all you miss is a game of bowls on the village green".