Guess how I got suspended from the Labour Party?

[IAmDavidLewis]

Well, one of the weirdest days in my life concluded with me receiving a letter informing me of my immediate suspension from the Labour Party. They believe I may have breached the rules by subverting the intention of All Women Shortlists, Women’s Officers or minimum quotas for women. Unfortunately, this does mean that my political ambitions are on hold for a while. I shall of course be continuing to self-identify as a woman every Wednesday, as that is my gender identity...

I have to say a huge thanks to @namechangeah for all her help, guidance and, more importantly, proof-reading! I wouldn’t have gotten to this point without it. I’d also like to thank everyone for their support today. I hope this has helped a bit.

And the Telegraph called me an “activist”! Achievement unlocked

Women aren't defined by biology, oh the irony flying high over their heads. 'Don't define women by their bits, define them by liking pink instead'. Being female IS just about your dna and genitals though, that is all there is to it, there is no fancy feeling or thought or sexual orientation. It's not reductionist to call a kettle a kettle. Your genes don't define what you as an individual but they do define your species/sex.

I think it all went to shit to put politely as soon as gender got made into a big deal, it should be irrelevant to day to day life and how people live, if you want to identify as something fine but it shouldn't be the state's job to validate your experiences.

I'd love to see a woman, a female, run for a woman's officer position and then publicly declare that she does NOT self ID as a woman

With you on that WeeBisom

We don't have magical machines that can test the validity and strength of feelings.

Exactly. And once we start codifying beliefs in law we go down a very dark path

@merrymouse Who knows why QE1 never married, but I suspect part of the reason was that marriage meant forming an alliance and a man becoming King.

The role of a Queen was to produce an heir, and not many options to redefine yourself except to be a virgin.

Fast forward to now, and we have women told they "can't have it all" and must choose between motherhood and career or else be substandard at both. We have maternity discrimination and a sex pay gap that affects mothers but not fathers. Same shit, different century.

Elizabeth I's cousin Mary Queen Of Scots was abducted and raped. A woman can be literal royalty and a man can still rape her.

Did they wear pink mammoth fur?

I do love you, Truscum! I'll be laughing at that one all day!

I've never been to my local labour meeting before, wish I could go and watch the fall out tonight.
Good work David .

"Elizabeth I's cousin Mary Queen Of Scots was abducted and raped. A woman can be literal royalty and a man can still rape her."

I possibly meant "actual royalty". I mean not figurative royalty like "Madonna is the queen of pop", but proper royalty by the dictionary meaning of the word, a member of a monarchy's ruling family.

We don't have magical machines that can test the validity and strength of feelings.

I've just got a great idea for a start up business …;)

& then there is the practice of 'virginity testing' (only for females).

How many times is Owen Jones going to make the exact same tweet?

@R0wantrees I think the point that Jane Fae made about how women had different life experiences and one couldn't for example compare the lived experience of a 'poor' woman to the Queen may actually illustrate the opposite. That in respect to being a girl and woman, biology is the shared experience regardless of wealth, occupation etc.

The Queen is also a woman and mother.

YY. The Queen has had two children, so she has the experience of childbirth in common with every other mother on this planet. The Queen has had to navigate menstruation whilst living under the public gaze. Can you imagine if she'd had a leak and had blood go through her skirt during a public engagement? She has that experience of menstruation in common with almost all other females. The Queen will have grown up as a girl and expected breast growth and menstruation like all other women. Even girls with CAIS expect menstruation, it then doesn't arrive.

Lauren Rosewarne, a senior political science lecturer at the University of Melbourne interviewed about 'virginity testing'. Practice strongly associated in the past with royal marriages:

www.whimn.com.au/talk/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-humiliating-practice-of-virginity-testing/news-story/7244fcae5ce065c76c8306bd9a31467c

"Such ceremonies date back as far back as the Middle Ages, she says. Previously, when the eldest son was the family's heir, it was also justified as a way of guaranteeing paternity."
"The "blood ceremonies" are still being practised now in many cultures around the world."
"In all of these cultures, there is no ritual to test the groom's virginity."

bd67th
Also menopause and carrying the risk of female specific diseases eg Gyny cancers.

The queen didn’t have two kids, she had four

Thank you, David, for taking a stand. If you know more men like you who will take a stand, we could use all the help we can get. Thank you.

Discussion of David's suspension and implications etc by James Kirkup:
(extract)
"In short, Labour policy’s and the suspension of David Lewis opens up a conversation that involves asking fundamental questions about how an approach based on the principle of self-identified gender can actually be made to work in practice. This case has also proved that policies devised with the very best of intentions can run into trouble if they are not properly debated and considered first.

A proper debate about self-ID would surely consider the possibility of the sort of abuse David Lewis stands accused of. If anyone who says they are a woman must be accepted as a woman, what’s to stop men with bad intent obtaining the legal status of a woman for malign purposes?"
blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/05/the-catch-22-of-labours-gender-policy/

Well, haven’t Labour made themselves look like twats. Glad I cancelled my membership really.

*Seafoodeatit

Women aren't defined by biology, oh the irony flying high over their heads. 'Don't define women by their bits, define them by liking pink instead'. Being female IS just about your dna and genitals though, that is all there is to it, there is no fancy feeling or thought or sexual orientation. It's not reductionist to call a kettle a kettle. Your genes don't define what you as an individual but they do define your species/sex.

I think it all went to shit to put politely as soon as gender got made into a big deal, it should be irrelevant to day to day life and how people live, if you want to identify as something fine but it shouldn't be the state's job to validate your experiences.*

^Well bloody said.

Another fine piece by James Kirkup - and I don't think he sounds like a "failing philosophy undergraduate" at all!

But I think he's being a bit optimistic in hoping people will think before they tweet and avoid swearing and abuse ...

@IAmDavidLewis - why aren't you allowed to do this....? www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/23/fluid-gender-policeman/

Just wanted to say thank you David Lewis. I am sure you have woken many people up by standing and being accepted for election.

Queen Elizabeth I was much criticised for showing favourites with males. When it is kings prominent families would throw their daughters in the kings' way.

Had she married she would expect to at least partially give up the throne to him. There were massive negotiations when her sister, Mary, married the king of Spain, in order for her to keep it.

Lady Jane Gray was heir to the throne after Edward (very complicated period legally as people had been disinheruted. It should actually have been her mother but...). So Lady Jane was married off with the expectation that her husband would rule, thereby getting the support to launch the bid for the throne. I'm pleased to say she buggered that up nicely.

Victoria allowed Albert to rule at home because he found it so difficult having to obey publically and be ruled by a woman. She was courted by politicians who used her femininity (and age!) by flirting shamelessly.

Elizabeth ii would not be queen if she had a younger male sibling. There had to be major law change in order for Charlotte to be ahead in the succession than Louis.

Ladies can not usually inherit a title. (This still counts even if people are trans - male born would still inherit and Female born would not, even if they present male).

A poor woman still has plenty in common with the queen.

Yes, biology is a great leveller. The social construct of class has to bow before biology. So I don’t see why the social construct of gender should be any different.

Look at the way pregnancy and birth stories bring together women across the divides of race, religion or nationality.

Gender only exists because of biology. Mostly because of the way societies have been shaped by men being utterly crap at having babies, plus them tending to be bigger and more aggressive.

shaped by men being utterly crap at having babies

Also throughout most of history women couldn't stop having babies.

Both my Grandmother and Grandfather came from families of 7+ children.