Man Friday hits the news!

[NotAWhacktivist]

This doesn't seem to have been posted yet. Hats off to this women (she has posted here about her efforts)

Topless swimmer wades into trans row
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/9a8e437c-2a35-11e8-8cd0-05c64066237c

Next target the all-male clubs:

Women are often unwelcome and in at least three well-known clubs they are barred from admission. One of them is Brooks’s. Another is David Cameron’s former club, of which his father was chairman, White’s, where Prince Charles held his stag night before his marriage to Diana.
But the third is perhaps the most curious of them all, raising questions about the clubs’ crossover into public life. The little-known Beefsteak Club, located in Irving Street in Leicester Square, is fiercely men-only.

Also

Garrick Club
Travellers Club
Pratt’s, an all-male dining club
Muirfield Golf Club male-only
Bullington Club at Oxford University, a notorious men-only club, members Cameron and Boris Johnson

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/25/men-only-clubs-and-menace-how-the-establishment-maintains-male-power
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/25/men-only-clubs-and-menace-how-the-establishment-maintains-male-power

This is the link to the petition. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/214118

Amy you rock!

Useful link to thread about #manfriday if you want to participate.

Amy and Hannah, you are my heroes. Thank you.

Really impressed she did this.

Just wondering about the whole topless thing and what would happen if she wondered around an average town centre on a hot summer's day? O imagine based on comments you see about breastfeeding in public that a good section of society would be offended, but could the police actually do anything if she claimed to self identify as man? It seems public nudity being legal depends on intention to offend so she could have as a defence she is simply doing what all men do all the time and noone accuses them of setting out to offend and the fact she has breasts is irrelevant as we all know biology means nothing

As predicted, the mail comments completely miss the point. I just had to sign up to respond to some dude saying that by doing this, other women wouldn't thank them when women's spaces became gender neutral.

Which is, of course, the whole bloody point. That that is exactly the effect, and by doing this, these absolute legends are raising awareness that it is already the case that these spaces are sex-neutral (in effect if not in name) - Assuming by gender neutral he actually meant sex-neutral, since female only spaces are already gender neutral...

Well done ladies or whatever you are identifying as today. And to Hannahs husband too. An amazing, selfless thing to do for womankind.
The Mail comments are depressing - couldn't we register and comment ourselves. Explain rather than retaliate? Sadly most Mail readers are quite thick and if we can win them over.......

I just read the same commentswivel, people really don't get it still do the
Just amazing Amy and Hannah, I'm in total awe!

I don't think Comments are switched on in the Times, otherwise I'd link the petition.

Gold stars Amy and Hannah!

I just read the same commentswivel, people really don't get it still do they

no.. and they're taking their time moderating responses it seems...

The Mail readers’ comments are so dense. They have completely missed the point, knee-jerkingly thinking they must disagree because feminist .

I've only seen the first handful of comments under the Mail article. Calling them "cruel and nasty"... missing the point.

Comment "I'm just confused" for some reason making me giggle... Yep. Just wait until self-ID comes in we'll all be regularly confused!

I’m a bit gutted to be missed out of The Times article seeing as I spent half my afternoon talking to them but the MoS have managed to use one of my better points I’m not bothering to read the comments as we all know what lurks in the bottom half of the internet.

I wore a rash vest as I didn’t feel comfortable going topless like Amy did and we kinda tag teamed the swim (entirely accidentally). So I swam for a bit and when Amy arrived I had got out already. Nobody challenged me apart from the woman on the desk pointing out it was a men only swim and when I said I was a man she said ok. Lots of the men, whilst not saying anything did look uncomfortable and I spoke to a few afterwards and they were a bit confused and it had clearly discombobulated a few of them. I do feel bad about that, because the swim England guidance isn’t their fault, but we have to bother men in order to be heard ourselves.

Really this isn’t about me - I’m just hanging on to the coat tails of the brilliant Amy who came up with this, took action and then posted about it on here. She’s a true hero for this cause, and absolutely brilliant for joining the dots and organising a simple process that can grow.

Please join in #ManFriday if you can, just in a small way. Walk in straight lines, use men’s loos and changing rooms, take up space and manspread, tell random men on the street to “smile, love”, manspread, mansplain, hepeat etc.

Now to face my mother who will see me being both brave and a bit of a wuss in her Sunday paper

And predictably some of the comments will be meanies because it takes the mickey out of poor suffering suicidal trans people ..... no, this takes the mickey out of self ID under which any chancer can do anything and is a really stupid idea.

Well done Amy! Following her on Twitter

Super brave ladies, but a couple of points / qu’s:

1. Why was there a men only swim session anyway?

1. Re men’s clubs (Garrick etc): I think there was an intention to ban them when the Equalities Act was being drafted, but it was pointed out all the WI’s would have to admit men under the same rules. As much as I’m not a fan of either, if it’s a private club it’s not really anyone else’s business

Well done! Even if TRA's say it proves they're justified using women's spaces it's going to get the men sitting up and paying more attention.

Most men have never had to think about it because they've never had their spaces invaded. Golf clubs, men's nights, wherever else us women aren't allowed to go. Maybe it will get them to sit up and pay more attention.

Full text of Times article - ref www.reddit.com/r/GenderCritical/comments/858r4h/topless_swimmer_wades_into_trans_row/

Male swimmers at a south London leisure centre were startled last week when a topless woman in a pink floral swimming cap jumped into the pool at a men-only session and swam a couple of lengths.

It turned out to be part of a campaign against proposed legislation that would allow men and women to choose their own gender.

Campaigners concerned that proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act will allow predatory men to masquerade as females in order to abuse women have come up with a novel tactic. They are pretending to be men to illustrate the problems inherent in transgender legislation.

Amy Desir, 30, a mother of two, went for a topless swim with another female activist at a men-only session at the Dulwich leisure centre.

The protest is part of a nationwide campaign to encourage women to “self-identify” as men every Friday. The campaign, revealed on the web forum Mumsnet, is called Man Friday.

Well done. Wish I had the guts.

I knew there’d be a thread :)

I came looking as I’ve just read the article in the DM and had to comment because nearly every comment is from someone who has missed the point. Not surprised though as the article seems to not make it clear why this action was taken.

Do very proud for you both

Thank you very much

Can we leaflet? It’s fantastic that you have raised awareness and got everyone talking but if we break ranks as you both did can we hand out info about why and we’re doing to help people understand?

I’m going to comment on the fail.
In the words of Ricky ‘ I should just leave it.’

I love this so much! I wish I had the balls (ahem) to do this.

I covered the changing room with leaflets as I left and handed them out to anyone I spoke to on the night. Explaining that they could ask to keep the areas single sex. Most of the younger men said they weren’t bothered so I asked if they would be bothered by a man changing next to their sister/mum/girlfriend. You really have to lead people through why self ID is a bad thing.

I was chewed out by a friend for doing this asking if any men were self identifying as women and going to women only swims and that I was a bully for doing it. I suspect their phone is still hot from the flurry of links I sent over.

The modern day suffragettes