This is what Helen from Mermaids writes about MN feminist posters

[AssignedPuuurfectAtBirth]

"If you’re a Mum and on mn that often to have time to engage with ‘feminist’ forums, you’re more likely to be a ‘stay at home mum’. These are bored middle-class women putting their privileged Uni-educated thoughts to oppressing a small, vulnerable, oppressed sector of society"

Nice bit of sexism going on there

twitter.com/mimmymum/status/967731110322036736

"if it’s a quote, you use quotation marks you ding bat."

LOL. Indeed Dick

I only managed to get 3 mins into that TED talk and I had to turn it off.

“Waffle waffle, bit of innuendo, waffle waffle, how can anyone one possibly tell if I’m a man or a women - it’s so mysterious, waffle waffle, more innuendo, conflation of sex and gender, waffle waffle”.

I occasionally buy the odd Cottage Pie from Marks and Spencers. Does that make me middle class?

No hun. It's a well known fact that M and S only exists to keep the riff raff out of Waitrose

I only managed to get 3 mins into that TED talk and I had to turn it off.

Waffle waffle, bit of innuendo, waffle waffle, how can anyone one possibly tell if I’m a man or a women - it’s so mysterious, waffle waffle, more innuendo, conflation of sex and gender, waffle waffle”.

I watched it, with as open a mind as I could, and I'm totally with you on it. There were some bits that really annoyed me too. And the same bullshit junk science that all TRAs push uncritically.

Uneducated working class, working mum sticking my oar in here to say fuck you Mermaids, I wouldn't let you within ten feet of my daughters 👍

Given there is talk of social services getting involved where parents don't affirm gender identity, I must admit to alarm bells ringing here. Educated, middle class women are better placed to deal with social service involvement, and if it was a situation where Mermaids were involved, would stand a good chance being able to tell all concerned to fuck off successfully.

Why do Mermaids dislike middleclass educated mothers in particular?

Its something that does make me uncomfortable.

" there is talk of social services getting involved where parents don't affirm gender identity,"

this already happened to someone I know of. The child was taken into foster care until mother "came round" to the fact that he was a girl...
and no I did not make that up, it wouldn't be possible.

That is horrific DullAndOld. Was that recent?
I would have hoped after the Re J (a minor) judgment in 2016, Social Services would know better than listen to unprofessional lobby groups such as Mermaids.

Why have social services not been involved when parents have taken their child abroad to be castrated, or have given cross sex hormones to a 15 year old?

Mermaids' advice and behaviour increasingly seems to go counter to established expertise from the Tavistock GIDS and the NHS on this matter, and they seem to be doing and advocating irreversible damage to children,

yes very recently, within the last year or so anyway.

That's terrible. I am planning to retrain as a social worker, and wonder what sorts of minefields I'll be stepping into.

No hun. It's a well known fact that M and S only exists to keep the riff raff out of Waitrose grin

its funny cos its true

At some stage, this will be shown up for the massive child abuse scandal that it is, but how many children will have been irreversibly harmed and sterilised by the time that happens?

"or have given cross sex hormones to a 15 year old? "
Thanks for that link Flaps...........and thank goodness that that 'Doctor' is being investigated. I mean, cross-sex hormones 'only' supposed to be at 16, and 'only' when they are sure -- then they stop taking them after 3 months and decide they are non-binary? Okay, I can understand an adult female taking T for a while, deciding they weren't really a lesbian, stopping after a while because they have decided that the changes that have happened are enough for now..........they are an adult, hence have the right to make their own mistakes and discoveries.

But a child who sounds severly dysmorphic -- the only message I'm getting out of that story is in terms of treating that dysmorphia, it isn't working! And we won't be able to find out what does work if all we get from Mermaids is the blockers then hormones, transition ASAP. Although perhaps an incresing number of those transitioning to non-binary will just confuse the issue so much....................Since the standard trans narrative of laydeebrain or blue-boy-brain doesn't work any longer when non-binary comes in.

Dull and old. How old was the child?

@dullandold

How old was the child? Were any lobbying orgs involved,

Brilliant. Our faint drum is obviously getting louder.

I think a big part of the problem with Mermaids is that's it's own vast echo chamber.

It's run by people who have a huge amount of skin in the game wrt to "proving" that transition is the only legitimate response to a child questioning their gender. Their CEO took her child abroad for surgery at 16 I believe.

As such they surround themselves with "experts" who validate that approach (and I would expect make a good living living from doing so).

They have to support the brain/body theory or for many people associated with Mermaid the alternative is a very stark admission they they've (certainly in some cases and possibly in others) been complicit in setting their children and those of other parents up for a lifetime of medical intervention and health problems.

That's the best case scenario, for children who remain bought into their transition. For those that later desist, god knows what the outcome will be.

It's appalling that an organisation that's so transparently prejudiced towards an approach that's not backed by proper research (and utterly rejects new legitimate research that undermines its claims/statistics/ethos) has the profile it does.

Thankfully more and more people are beginning to see Mermaids for exactly what they are. I don't think it's going to be too long before there is litigation to sort this out and I see that being the demise of those people.

Am I the only one who thinks of zoolander? IT'S MERMAN, MERMAAAN.

They don’t like educated women in particular as they can point out the glaring inconsistencies in their arguments.
She’s calling MN radical when their leader took her son to Thailand to be castrated?
Wow. Well clearly their cafe is rattled so that’s good.

*cage obviously
Dread to think what a Mermaids cafe would be like though.

grin its funny cos its true

Ah, well, I'm clearly riff raff then, because I live for those little layered microwave pots of julienned vegetables. I've tried to do the same, it seems simple, but they're never as good.

seafood

I think about the merman in cabin in the woods ...scary!!

Am I the only one who thinks of zoolander? IT'S MERMAN, MERMAAAN.

Here's something odd, I was in Rome a couple of weekends ago, and the Mermen on the fountain I was looking at had 2 tails.

Then I remembered the Starbucks mermaid has 2 tails.

What's with that then? Why do some have 2, but most now-adays have 1?

swivel

I do love me some marks and spencer

I tell myself its because the waitrose is just too far away