Are you scared?

[Jeanhatchet]

I. Am. Terrified.

The pace and scale of the attack on women and specifically feminists is like nothing I have seen in my lifetime.

Women are being arrested for speaking about being female. Women are insulted with derogatory terms for using words referring to their own bodies and the functions of those bodies. Suspended from their own political parties. Hounded from their jobs. Thrown out of their online spaces and denounced as bigots. Prevented from meeting to speak together. Prevented from hiring spaces to speak to each other. Being forced to say things that aren't provably true and that they really don't believe. Called terms that make them unsure of themselves. Gaslighted into accepting those terms. Made to feel guilty for wanting space where they feel safe and that has always been theirs and protected legally. Feeling uncomfortable for wanting to assert their legal rights. Feeling uncomfortable for saying no to male bodied people. Feeling uncomfortable for being lesbian and wanting only female partners. Feeling unsure if they can speak because they are terrified of upsetting a body of people who seem to have more power in every area of their lives even though those people are a tiny tiny minority.

As I just said elsewhere.... some women can take the temperature of the social/political/cultural water and feel their feet getting hot. I hope other women can feel this happening before women as a sex class is boiled alive. It is already uncomfortably hot for women speaking out. We are risking an awful lot.

I continue speaking out. I will be speaking at events wherever I'm invited about what is happening. Am I scared? Damn right I'm scared. Speaking about my body and beliefs about that body has become a revolutionary act.

Rather than ask if I'm scared that women are under such an organised, aggressive and escalating programme of attack I ask this of women who aren't scared .....why aren't you?

I doubt the average transitioned woman with breasts, (surgically constructed) vagina and female hormones circulating would identify as any type of man.

And yet those things don’t make you female. So they are a man, with artificially enhanced breasts, artificial (not female by the way, just a pattern that attempts to mimic) and an artificially created approximation of a vagina. Which isn’t really like one at all.

My friend has just had a double mastectomy, severe hormone treatment and a full hysterectomy for two types of BC diagnosed concurrently.

And yet she still identifies as a woman. She’s finding the effects of the surgery hard but to say that she’s now a man because her hormones are awry, she’s got no boobs or female reproductive organs is grossly insulting to her. She’s a woman. Always been a woman, always will be a woman.

Another woman who is frightened and horrified at how easy it is for men to appropriate womanhood. To reduce us to their offensive stereotypes and to create a culture of total control (don't mention your biology as it offends us).

Like everyone else I despair at the silence of politicians. I am heartened by the words and actions of the many brave women that I see trying to tackle an oppressive and intolerant movement with insight, knowledge and wit.

SMG: No that's not what I said. I said There are many women who accept trans women as women

yeah, what Prachet said. But I would like to add - even the women going on with the delusion, and getting smaller and smaller in number. More women are waking up to being GC.

A year or two ago, on a facebook group, I had one woman really hammering me on a thread, with all the usual T rhetoric. About four months later, she sent a message APOLOGISING.

SMG, your numbers are shrinking. GC numbers are rising. The tide has turned. As as many of your number used to say something like 'you won't be on the right side of history' - I beg to differ. The shift has started, and only SMG and a handful of others will be left standing supporting these males.

The wider context is being discussed. Having felt very scared/ bloody terrified a couple of months ago, I have some hope now but there is a great deal to understand and unpick.

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/10/the-gender-recognition-act-is-controversial-can-a-path-to-common-ground-be-found

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/05/why-are-some-mps-trying-to-shut-down-the-transgender-debate/

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sam-gyimah-crackdown-on-students-silencing-free-speech-x28jx85fc

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/29/violent-misogyny-not-confined-to-internet-incels

www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2018/04/madness-our-gender-debate-where-feminists-defend-slapping-60-year-old?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Yes it is scary. When change of gender isn't legally recognised until a GRC is obtained but people in positions of power are acting as if self-ID is already law and organisations act on it also. When people with large followings retweet inflammatory claims without checking the story first, further whipping up hate and not caring about the consequences. When speech is shut down, people are threatened and their employment/membership is affected. I hope more people become aware before the law is changed.

Another woman who is frightened and horrified at how easy it is for men to appropriate womanhood. To reduce us to their offensive stereotypes and to create a culture of total control (don't mention your biology as it offends us)

I'm not frightened so much as ANGRY.

I've written about it here - under various names - I have to keep name-changing because of this - that I was doxxed and my use of TWitter as a gender-critical feminist used to make a complaint to my employer which included the demand that if I "stood by my views" I should be sacked.

So I'm angry & frightened. I can't afford to lose my job.

And you know what? It's turning me against normal ordinary transwomen who just want to get on with their lives.

I work with someone who's what we might go back to calling transexual. She's not a woman as I or any other borm woman is - but she's not a man.

Why do transwomen want pretend that they're women? They're not women, they're transwomen.

But - radical feminist that I am (since I was about 12), - I really don't want to say that transwomen are men - they're transwomen, not men or women. Maybe we nee a third category?

I have had my first conversations with people about this in the last couple of weeks. I'm feeling braver. Everyone I've spoken too has voiced their surprise and concern

I've had a number of conversations and all (both sexes) have voiced their surprise and concerns, whilst also resolutely wanting to ensure that people who are transgender have full protection from the bigotry that does exist. Most have no idea how far forward things have already moved.