Hampstead Heath Women's Pond

[Gacapa]

Hampstead Heath ladies say swimming pond is not gender fluid

dailym.ai/2El0eLA

Here we go...

[ForalltheSaints]

Lots of talk of comparing the women's only pool to a men's only golf club

Not the same- there is a men's pool and a mixed pool at Hampstead. You don't change into a costume on a golf club either.

[BrightonBeachLady]

Do Muslim women use the pool? I'm wondering if this will result in a lawsuit.

[Hidingtonothing]

It ought to Brighton, that's the thing, extending these rights to TIM's effectively excludes other (much larger) minority groups from those activities/services which are currently single sex. It's astounding that this point is being ignored by those supporting the changes.

[mirialis]

Lots of talk of comparing the women's only pool to a men's only golf club

Not the same- there is a men's pool and a mixed pool at Hampstead. You don't change into a costume on a golf club either

The problem with men's only golf clubs was that there was no equivalent space for women AND the major factor being that a lot of business and networking was being conducted in the clubhouse/on the course, from which female colleagues were being excluded - same thing as "client jollies" to strip clubs and the like.

As far as I'm aware, I have never heard women complaining about men-only gyms, men-only bars, men-only saunas etc. But the majority of men do not and would not use these facilities and so have little interest in guarding them, hence feeling free to call women bigots if they want women-only spaces.

[BatShite]

Surely trans-identifying people of either sex could use the mixed pool if they just want to swim, and no one would think anything of it? The fact that they're insisting on using the women's pool suggests it's more about making a point and forcing their way into yet another female space. What a shame.

Indeed. Its about eroding female only spaces, nothing more.

[guardianfree]

There are some very gender critical points that have been made below the line on this article. Apart from the normal inappropriate / unkind comments which plague all btl comments, there are an awful lot of evident 'peak transing' points being made.

[UrsulaPandress]

I almost wish I hadn't already peak transed.

[UpABitLate]

Oh FFS I have been waiting til my DDs are big enough to go the the ladies pond -

There is something quite special about going to the very few places where it's women / girls only,

Of course this is why it needs to be stopped.

[UpABitLate]

Just looking at the comments on the standard and had a proper lol at this:

"Never mind, if they don't want trans girls like me in the women's pool I'll just hop into the men's to frolic practically naked with their husbands and boyfriends. I'm sure they won't mind. x (*Jeez...transphobes don't really think beyond the box, do they?)"

Erm... I'm not sure that most of the swimmers at the men's pond are all that interested in women?

The het men are in the mixed pond where OH LOOK there are females too...

And what is this idea that women "frolic practically naked" when they go swimming? That is a fetishised idea if ever I heard one...

Actually that explains the keenness to get into the ladies ponds - they probably imagine it's all girl on girl sexy action time. Why would they imagine that? A combination of experience of the gents pond and porn I suppose.

[frogsoup]

Also the idea that our husbands would be interested in frolicking with a mtf transsexual with a penis wearing a bikini The level of self regard in that assumption is quite something.

[SophoclesTheFox]

The phrase "trans girls" just sets my teeth on edge. I don't know what's more offensive: that the "their husbands" being frolicked around by the "trans girls" in this can't tell the difference between a male and a female, that they can't see a person in a swimsuit without wanting to sex on them, or that they're paedophiles interested in "girls".

And this is the "progressive" position

I don't want this person in my sex segregated spaces. They have some really weird ideas about what happens in them. Pornified, like you say upabitlate.

[UpABitLate]

It's OK Datun

That poster has no idea what on earth this is about,

"Have tremendous sympathy but having special swimming pools for women who have been abused takes things a little bit far!"

They think it's about a woman only swimming pool somewhere when in fact it's about a woman only outdoor swimming pond, where there is also a mixed pond and a mens pond.

[Ereshkigal]

The phrase "trans girls" just sets my teeth on edge.

I bet he's 54 and bald.

[Ereshkigal]

This is how the TG groups have made such progress so quickly. Funded by the government and promoting their own versions of the law and ideas - and it's being accepted as fact by employers / organisations.

Exactly this.

[UpABitLate]

"The phrase "trans girls" just sets my teeth on edge.

I bet he's 54 and bald."

YY

[Datun]

UpABitLate

It's OK Datun

That poster has no idea what on earth this is about,

Yes. But it should be a condition that at least a little thought goes into a post.

It never ceases to amaze me how some posters turn logic on its head over women's issues.

[Micaela64]

I was speaking to my DH about this earlier and he laughed and said it was women's karma for taking away male only spaces such as the scouts and working men's clubs.

[UpABitLate]

Women didn't "take away" the scouts. They opened up to girls as they were struggling. It was their choice.

I don't know so much about working mens clubs.

[Hidingtonothing]

Mixed sex scouts and WMC don't throw up issues around privacy and personal safety in the same way as the women's pool (and toilets, changing rooms, hospital wards and refuges) though do they? It's an illogical comparison.

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

As far as I'm aware, I have never heard women complaining about men-only gyms, men-only bars, men-only saunas etc. But the majority of men do not and would not use these facilities and so have little interest in guarding them, hence feeling free to call women bigots if they want women-only spaces

The sauna at my mixed pool is effectively men only because women know that entering it risks being hit on and chatted up. The nearest mixed gym to where I live is effectively men only because it is minimally staffed and 24/7 and also in a fairly isolated area. Women don't go there because its not safe.

[mirialis]

Women always had access to WMC - they were not "male-only" spaces. There was a change when they were granted full membership rights but they were not "male-only" spaces.

[ForalltheSaints]

The majority of men probably do not go to men only saunas and indeed the men's pool at Hampstead, because of the behaviour or possible behaviour of some men. I walk past the nearest 24/7 gym on my way to the local supermarket and have yet to see a woman enter or leave it.

[CertainHalfDesertedStreets]

I think working men's clubs of the kind my family used when I was growing up struggled a little to exclude women during events like the miner's strike when women were expected to support their families and communities with things like soup kitchens in those very clubs.

Then after stuff like that was over the men would say ' Oh you're not allowed in t'back room' and the women would say 'I was last week when I was cooking for 100' and the men conceded that that was a very fucking good point.

So really fuck all like this.

Will your husband still be laughing when women and girls are being assaulted and harassed in the spaces that they have been forced to accept men in?

[CertainHalfDesertedStreets]

What behaviour of men is keeping men away from the men's pond? My dh pops in occasionally and has never had any negative feedback.