Turns out Hampstead swimming ponds are single SEX after all ...

[PencilsInSpace]

... at least the men's pond is

Well done to the fabulous #ManFriday gents for exposing this rank hypocricy! Splendid work, chaps

Was Jane in the studio or in the phone? I'd have been tempted to make a comment along lines of 'are you quite alright? Your breathing is terribly heavy!'

A Heavy Breather? (Childish snigger)

MunchausensLovelyHorse I’m so glad you commented. I’ve been thinking lots about the MNer who came up with our name and feeling grateful for their stroke of genius Sorry to hear about all your surgery: ouch! Much love and many thanks from me.

I was asked if I wanted to do the interview by phone but I helpfully pointed out that the local BBC studio is only 5 minutes from my workplace, so they booked me in

Great move.

I was hoping up and down yelling 'bunce bunce bunce' when the nice set up was given enough about IDing on different days.

You gave a brilliant interview Amy, well done! Rational, calm, to the point. Really great stuff. I'm so pleased to see this appearing in the mainstream media now. The tide is definitely starting to turn.

One small point of interest from Jane was that it sounded like Jane conceded that an approach to prison safety might still be up for debate. New for a TRA isn't it? Though it was followed up with the reminder that as they're all criminals anyway... (Add own interpretation here) Hmmm

For those who missed it, here's today's PM. Amy comes on around twenty minutes in. Well done Eddie Mair / PM for running the story and interview.

Very well done for highlighting this important issue

Oh man i need to register.

Amy, i was so thrilled as I was driving along to suddenly hear you on the radio. I think you did amazingly - considering so many people who usually appear are media-trained to an inch of their lives. You were calm, stated the case, and I'm sure there were many people sitting by their radios punching the air for you!

You and Hannah and all the other women who have gone public on this are amazing. And your's and Hannah's acknowledgement of all the people who can't go public right now for so many reasons was very much appreciated.

And also raising a glass as usual for all the other contributors to these pages, and other places, who have been telling us about these issues for years before we understood. Your contributions are as important and crucial as #ManFriday's. As I know they'd acknowledge too.

You're all too numerous to mention - those who are still here and those who have left. But you know who you are.

for MunchausensLovelyHorse and hurrah for your inspired suggestion!

Amy - you were fab.

MunchausensLovelyHorse thank you for giving us the seed that has grown into ManFriday.

I’m sorry to hear you’ve not been well. Please rest up and look after yourself. As a fellow wombless woman I understand your frustration when that argument is wheeled out, and am also going to sternly tell you that recovery is slow so don’t push yourself too hard.

MunchausensLovelyHorse

@faithseed: Look, I get it. It's really really hard to claim your oppressed as a white middle class woman living in England in 2018

I was sexually assaulted at age nine and face routine sexual harassment on the streets. I've been in an abusive relationship with a man who raped me whilst I was sleeping, I woke up to find him mid-act. I live with physical injury and psychological damage even now. So you can take that statement that I'm not oppressed back.

As was discussed in another thread, even HM The Queen underwent the hazard of childbirth twice and had to navigate menstruation, with its cramps and risk of leaking whilst living a very public life. Being royalty doesn't immunise a woman to rape either: Mary Queen of Scots was abducted and raped. The idea that some females aren't subjected to sex class oppression because they happen to have wealth is completely ridiculous. Wealth might mitigate that sex class oppression, but it doesn't and cannot eliminate it.

and without seeing yourself as a victim, feminism doesn't have a lot to offer.

The aspects of feminism that appeal to me the most are the bits that let me use my privilege to help other women. Donating to Abortion Support Network so that Irish, Manx, and Channel Islander women can come to the UK for abortions, writing to public officials to lobby for women's facilities to be kept open, going to SlutWalk and TBTN to fight for our bodies to be respected: those are the bits I love. I would have gotten involved in feminism even if I had not been sexually assaulted because of abuse suffered by members of my family. Feminism has a lot to offer, even for relatively-privileged women like me.

Thank you, everyone. I'm doing really well, now.

I think the point that SwearyG and I have made about post-hysterectomy women not wanting to have their specifically female experience hijacked by TRAs (the 'not all women have wombs' mantra) is really important; and I'm thinking about this a lot - in terms of (a) perhaps going public, and (b) coming up with a campaign that makes the point well.

bd67th and MunchausensLovelyHorse

and without seeing yourself as a victim, feminism doesn't have a lot to offer.

I wonder sometimes if they realize how dangerous maintaining that precarious level of cognitive dissonance can be to their health.

and without seeing yourself as a victim, feminism doesn't have a lot to offer.

Victim? Rather rich coming from the TRA lot, who are professional victims.

Feminism is a broad church. It unites women in multiple positive ways. It empowers women in many ways - from theoretical analysis that opens your eyes to inequality to practical hands on help in real life.
It unites women regardless of race, colour, religion, class or background.

I find it has a lot to offer me. But of course I understand it doesn’t have much to offer someone who isn’t a woman, because feminism centres women.,

MunchausensLovelyHorse
Do hope that your recovery is going ok & another voice encouraging you not to rush it!

Please let me know if you have any thoughts about sharing a clear message.

I've listened to two prominent TRAs assert on TV (Victoria Derbyshire & GenderQuake) that transwomen are women in the same way those who have had hysterectomies are still women. In neither case was this challenged by the interviewers.
My radical hysterectomy was a medical necessity due to a cancer diagnosis and I know many other younger women who have had the same. It's not something to appropriate.

bd67th

Agree with everything you say except Slutwalk. I really fucking hate that concept. I hate the word and hate 'identifing' with it.

MunchausensLovelyHorse

Well done for such an amazing idea. So sorry about your illness. It really is despicable that TRAs use this to justify their flawed ideology

Thank you so much to everyone.

Yes, it's now 'hands off my hysterectomy' time. (But that needs finessing!!)

In the meantime, Amy, Sweary and the team are just wonderful - I'm really very privileged to have seen this campaign evolve, and so articulately and for all the right reasons.

As another sans-womb who has been driven to the point of actual tears by her experience being co-opted to serve a gotcha in a argument by manipulative idiots ("hah! if a woman has a uterus, then what do you call a woman without a uterus, eh? eh? EH? are you saying they're not a woman?? Hah!") I am in on anything that highlights how totally despicable and unacceptable it is to draw a parallel between a woman with no uterus and a man. It's unforgivably shitty, given that it is 100% certain that she doesn't have a uterus because of issues that exclusively affect women and that a male could not possibly experience

Also, bought a t-shirt and will wear it with pride over my manly breasts on Fridays.

Can I steal that as a hashtag, MunchausensLovelyHorse?

#handsoffmyhysterectomy would be good as a response every time a TRA comes up with this nonsense.