Channel 4's Genderquake Debate is heavily criticised/ boycotted(?) by prominent transgender activists & allies .

[R0wantrees]

Transgender campaigners and organisations have released an open letter to Channel 4 criticising Genderquake, a season of programmes touted as an exploration of the gender debate, as "counterproductive".
Signees are particularly concerned about Genderquake: The Debate, a studio discussion hosted by Cathy Newman that promises to look at what gender means in 2018. It will discuss topics including: 'what defines our gender identity', 'how that affects our rights', 'should it be easier to change gender' and 'does gender matter'.

The letter, published by indy100 in full below, argues that the debate will give legitimacy to transphobia, prejudice and the notion that trans identities are up for discussion. This concern is presumably stoked by the presence of Australian-born academic and writer Germaine Greer on the panel, who has previously said transgender women "can't be women". continues...

"The letter is published in full below and has been signed by dozens of prominent transgender and non-binary activists and campaigners - and allies - alike, including Fox Fisher, Owl, Stephanie Hirst, Juno Roche, Travis Alabanza, Kate Llewellyn, Jack Monroe and India Willoughby."

www.indy100.com/article/genderquake-the-debate-transphobia-channel-4-open-letter-campaigners-germaine-greer-8341481

Seriously - outside of the Twitter bubble, the number of people who think it is unreasonable to say you're not a woman you have a penis is miniscule. It doesn't really matter whether you agree or not, the vast majority of Britons do not think you should be thrown out of a TV debate audience for saying that.

LangCleg I agree - twitter is a completely different universe. As I have learnt from my profession, you tend to only hear from people who object rather than support when it is something so mundane.

Add reddit to that whole other universe too. There's only one subreddit where we can discuss this safely without being verbally attacked and shut down. All the other feminism subs are for discussing choosey choice liberal feminism only.

outside of the Twitter bubble

I think there is also the 'Westminster bubble' to consider as it seems particularly influenced by both Twitter and some lobby groups.

I'd add - and the sooner the general public click on that that vast majority of transwomen do have a penis and have no intention of losing it, the more similar heckling there will be.

Article from iNews, including quote from Olivia.

"Green Party suspends former candidate who shouted “transphobic abuse” during Channel 4’s Genderquake"

Also a member of Mayday4Women Palmer told i: “I was invited by ITN as a representative of Mayday4Women. We are well known for our uncompromising position that Transwomen are Men. All the participants on the sofas had been invited, many were told they would have an opportunity to speak.” “The audience were encouraged to be lively and vocal so when Munroe Bergdorf decided to mansplain feminism I had no hesitation in pointing out that he is a man. Munroe encouraged masked men to storm a feminist event in Bristol recently. It was incredibly hypocritical to ask for a woman to be removed from an event simply for disagreeing with him.”

inews.co.uk/news/politics/trans-women-genderquake-greens/

As an upside, this has drawn my attention to MayDay4Women (was vaguely aware of them on Twitter but didn’t really know what they did), they recently handed out leaflets at a football match, that’s the kind of activism I can get behind, so I’ve contacted them to ask how one gets involved

They've just set up a new website and mailing list.

www.mayday4women.com/

It's good that the Green Party have made an unambiguous statement that there is no place in the party for transphobia and that trans men are men and trans women are women.

Now if only JC would do that re. antisemitism for the Labour party..

Thanks for linking to the www.mayday4women.com/, Ereshkigal

Many of the comments in that NYT article are encouraging, despite NYC's batshit misgendering laws. Do most NYC residents actually know about it? I can't imagine so

Trans men ARE men. They are men who are transgender, they are trans-identified men.

Trans women ARE women. They are women who are transgender, they are trans-identified women.

R0wantrees wow that Independent article is very one sided isn't it? ( and written by a woman ). It was so helpful hearing from the pp who were actually there to put it in context, I hope someone writes to them to complain!

Destinysdaughter
Olivia Hersham comment on Twitter, "If anyone fancies judging me by something other than a couple of inaudible comments on TV. I have a blog.""
twitter.com/Olivia4Hersham/status/994494942415335424

Link to blog mentioned:
perspicats.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/gender-a-feminist-environmentalist-critique/

This is even worse

The tweet above also serves as a signpost to areas on Twitter where 'tranny' is used primarily for a type of porn (without the level of condemnation for transphobia that MN has received).

If you search on twitter with this term you will see a great deal of explicit videos.

Destiny's daughter: they seem to dislike the high ground, huh

Then there’s Sarah Ditum, your best mate’s mum who won’t sign the consent forms for the school trip. She hates FUN. I don’t. I’m the girl with the short skirt and too much makeup on hiding behind the bike shed with a bong, a packet of Superking Menthols and Liam from 6th Form

Re: this Paris Lees quote, 'your best mate's mum' probably knows it's her job to warn you that the consequence of 'having fun' with Liam from 6th form could be pregnancy. You therefore need to talk about contraception, even if that means you don't sound 'fun', and you may need access to an abortion - good luck if you are in NI.

If you decide to have the baby, there is nothing to stop Liam from buggering off, and you may struggle to continue with your education and this may affect your financial independence. At best this is likely to mean that you won't earn as much money as your male peers. At worst, this may make it difficult to leave an abusive relationship.

There are structural reasons for inequality. You can't identify them if you just pretend everyone is the same.

I don't care about 'femininity'. Anybody can be feminine. Please, men, take the femininity and the caring responsibilities, and have all the short skirts and make-up. They aren't mine, and frankly it's time you had your turn.

I just can't change the consequences of having female biology.

I also believe that for all of the deserved criticism of the GenderQuake Debate, it has in the fall-out demonstrated a great deal about the wider issues.

Please twitter, invent a magic 'reveal' button where you press the icon of a stunning Barbie blonde and see a real time video feed of Comic Book Guy at his keyboard. Or a computer screen for the bots.

Indeed. And that person who wrote that tweet will face no consequences for it at all. Why isn't that 'hate speech'?

Yes but can you imagine if you actually knew them or worked with them?

Why isn't that 'hate speech'?
... because sexism and misogyny is not recognised. This is why, in my opinion, we need Women's & Equalities to be able to consider the specific issues that women face separately from the specific issues that people who are transgender face.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3244321-Sophie-Walker-WEP-It-s-time-to-make-the-Women-and-Equalities-brief-a-proper-Cabinet-job

I said - probably several pages back - that I wasn't impressed by the heckling and I have to say I did have my head in my heads at the time. But this thread has made me think again. You're right - angry women always get this reaction.

Further data analysis of GenderQuake Debate by GenderCriticalDad (Twitter account)

"So I put on my other hat as the bloke that hashes figures into some sort of sense for management to make some sense of. I copied Gabcsikas data into a new spreadsheet, available here and did a bit of faffing around in a sad spreadsheet nerd sort of way."

Data analysis here:
gendercriticaldad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/genderquake-debate-boys-will-be-boys.html

concludes:
"We can see that the transmen hardly get a word in and don't interrupt. They behave as if they don't really have a right to exist. When they do talk they get interrupted more often while they are talking.
Women get to talk half as much as men, and get interrupted twice as often as men, and three times as long being interrupted while they are speaking.
Men dominate, whatever their gender identity. Transition does not change behaviour or how people treat you."