I am S p a r t a c u s

[PermissionToSpeakSir]

I am a woman.

I was a girl.

I am an adult human female.

Something a man can never be.

I am a woman.

People refer to me has her and she.

Sometimes said with deep contempt and misogyny.

I am a woman.

Something a male will never be.

I have a vagina and uterus.

I menstruate and have given birth.

I am a mother.

Something a male will never be.

I have been insulted, assaulted, belittled, dismissed, held back, intimidated, stereotyped, terrorised, mocked, shamed, humiliated because I am a woman.

Something a male can never be.

I feel insulted, appropriated, offended, anxious, tense, depressed, hurt and under siege, when a male claims to be a woman or anyone says a male can be female.

It is not civil or respectful to treat me this way.

I am a woman.

I am Spartacus.

Tess - it is harassing and goady behaviour to repeatedly @ users who have asked you not to. This is against site rules and doing it 3 times on FWR in a six week period will get you a ban. Please desist.

@Pratchett

Perhaps you could definitely it for me?

Antonym cannot become synonym.

They literally can.

literally
adverb
1 in a literal manner or sense; exactly."the driver took it literally when asked to go straight over the roundabout
2 informal used for emphasis while not being literally true."I have received literally thousands of letters"

Well, in this case it's childish and irritating but we can generally spot whether a statement is exactly true or hyperbole (or in some cases of reported 'literal violence' an untruth). A matter for Pedants' corner but not much serious effect on real life.

Redefining 'woman' or 'female' as their opposites can't be taken so lightly. Do that and you also render terms such as women's rights' or 'feminism' which depend on their definitions becoming undefined. This is simply not on. The words pertaining to one protected class (female sex) cannot be allowed to be redefined by members of a different class. It would be an act of completely unacceptable appropriation with significant consequences to the detriment of women.

GhostTess, you are posting on Mumsnet, and the I'm Spartacus threads means standing up and saying factual, scientific truths. Men cannot be women.

MNetters a few years ago all stood in solidarity, to say those words, in support of a woman banned for saying them. As we are doing now.

I stand with The Uterati, and any other gc MNetter who has been banned for telling the truth.

You may have seen that I have asked you to stop @ing me. Perhaps you didn't. If you did, it's rather obnoxious that you continue to do so.

And GhostTess - please don't @ me. I don't need an e-mail telling me you've responded - I'm on the thread. I can read my own username.

Sex class is determined by physical characteristics. If a woman is born with no uterus or ovaries she would lack some of those characteristics as defined by you. And hence by your definition would not be a woman.

She's still female. Because female is a sex class.

Do you think all infertile people are a third sex class?

You don't know? This explains a lot.

Role: the part your sex plays in the human reproductive process. There are two roles, because sex is binary.
Ability: well, the ability to fulfil that role, the individual ability to get pregnant or impregnate.

Have added a cute pic to cheer us all up while we chat!

It's an invasion of our boundaries to not respect a polite request to desist from doing that, a minor one yes, but quite telling.

Is this the ghost of fmsfms, what all the logical phallusy splattering?

@ErrolTheDragon

I hasn't thought of that, as I said I'm not a linguist so I didn't realise an antonyms could become a synonym.

Thanks for showing me that.

Ooooohhhhhhh 💡

He is very cute Pratchet. Or should I say they. Wouldn't want to assume the pinniped's gender!

Hi Ereshkigal, sorry I must have missed it. I'll stop @ in you and ToToToe

Isn't they a love? Whiskers like that before I die are on my bucket list.

Hi Pratchett,

The issue is not that I don't understand the words, the issue is how is sex class determined? If not physical characteristics please define this.

Also people are @ing me so I started again. Sorry again if you found that impolite.

Can't believe how stupid they think women are. Surprises me every time.

Does anyone know how to tell the difference between a seal and a sea lion?

Mansplainers are so fucking boring.

Agreed.

Whiskers like that before I die are on my bucket list.

I'd have whiskers like that if I didn't keep on top of the moustache--tweezing.

Again, my advice is not to engage.

Ask them, not. That is the Only Possible Way.

Honestly, it's amazing that humans were able to invent any sort of classification system at all, never mind have success in farming

Is there a point to this poster? Do they genuinely think that a few arsey posts from them and we will roll over and have out tummies tickled. Dear oh dear.

Does anyone know how to tell the difference between a seal and a sea lion?

I do! Sea lions have visible ears while seals have little holes.

I didn't but I see tiny ears

It's Certain Half Deserted Streets. It's T S Eliot - from The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock.

I can cope with some people getting it wrong. But not you.

Just a taste - for those who need more poetry in their lives.

"Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table;

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

The muttering retreats

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

Streets that follow like a tedious argument

Of insidious intent

To lead you to an overwhelming question ...

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,

Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,

Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,

And seeing that it was a soft October night,

Curled once about the house, and fell asleep."