How stressed are you about the loss of female-only spaces?

[DoctorW]

How stressed are you that the UK Govt may legalise self-declaration of sex, enabling any man to become legally female and gain access to female-only spaces such as refuges, sports, awards, jobs (e.g. performing smear tests), dormitories and lesbian groups?

We want to find out how big this issue is so we are running a poll to get a snapshot. This link takes you directly there. Please vote and share the link with friends so we can get as many participants as possible.

twitter.com/fairplaywomen/status/1010959564701880321

I’m decidedly unhappy about the prospect of not being able to challenge an obvious male in a female space as they might be trans.

There was an event I heard about on fb. A music festival. Female only. Except if you self IDd as a woman.

The comments were full of outraged men that women dared to have an event that didn’t include them saying they would self ID as women to get in to “show us”.

Yeah it’s not going to be a problem at all.

Put me down for angry please and sad a) that this is actually happening it's like the emperor's new clothes but so much worse and b) that so few people are aware it is happening. Frightening, what are we allowing to happen, a minority is dictating policy.

Not stressed. Interested in seeing how this will develop and what sort of classifications would replace it to ensure equality/parity /safety for anyone not born male.

I’m stressed by it because there are loads of other causes I would rather be thinking about and arguing about than the very obvious need for sex-based distinctions in many areas of life, particularly from the perspective of women. As everyone knows, women are systematically disadvantaged and abused on the basis of our sex.

Other than that though I am outraged and offended at the presumptions made around those who want everyone to accommodate the TRA agenda. I’m furious at what that agenda means that women and girls should have to put up with, removing choices from us and manipulating and seeking to control girl’s and women’s langauge- including within OUR spaces which were always intended to be single sex. For good reason.

I am angry that the whole aim of this agenda is personal validation for some men. I’m often shocked at the lengths they will go to (including in posting on here) but I probably shouldn’t be, by now.

there are loads of other causes I would rather be thinking about and arguing about than the very obvious need for sex-based distinctions in many areas of life

I agree

This ^^

I am angry that so many organisations have already got rid of single sex facilities, services and competitions without consulting on it or assessing the options and risks.

My local leisure centre now has only a unisex changing area. DC can change and swim unaccompanied from age 8, if they can swim 25m. The toilets are currently single sex.

Transwomen with unfair biological advantages are winning womens sports, and potentially associated US college scholarships.

But perhaps my arse is so firmly wedged on the fence because all this hysteria is not a reality for me

Perhaps your arse is wedged on the fence because you don't really give much of a fuck about other women and girls (who cares what they feel eh as long as your friends validate their personal feelings) and haven't bothered to inform yourself about the very evident misogyny in the transactivism movement? Times have changed.

And "hysteria"?

Other than that though I am outraged and offended at the presumptions made around those who want everyone to accommodate the TRA agenda. I’m furious at what that agenda means that women and girls should have to put up with, removing choices from us and manipulating and seeking to control girl’s and women’s langauge- including within OUR spaces which were always intended to be single sex. For good reason.

Me too.

I’m stressed at work - there are now 2 young men who came out as trans, both of who are now using the Womens’ loos , there are only 8 actual Women in the workforce (tech related) out of 50, the Ladies is up 3 flights of stairs within the offices, these lads walk right past the Gents ( which has more cubicles) downstairs, the loos they used for 3+ years and use the Ladies which only has 2 cubicles, one of them has taken pouty selfies in them and put them on his not so secret twitter 🙄 The blokes just think it’s all very amusing, especially some of the outfits, which none of the Female staff would ever wear.

And I am both stressed and more angry than I've ever been about anything in my life. Especially when I read dismissive posts like Randomname's. You do not speak for me. You don't have the right to give consent on my behalf for male people to violate my boundaries and privacy and dignity. You don't have the right to put other women at more risk than they would otherwise be in just because you're so achingly woke.

Any perverts using spaces for dubious purposes will be prosecuted as they are already.

But they're not prosecuted, are they? If every pervert were prosecuted, convicted and sentenced appropriately, I'd be a lot less concerned. But the vast majority of men who commit acts of sexual intimidation and sexual violence get away with it. So I'm not persuaded by arguments that laws against sexual violence are any kind of protection.

I'm stressed, angry and feel sometimes like I'm screaming into the void. Women's voices rising up against this encroachment on our safe spaces are the only thing that give me hope and comfort

Any perverts using spaces for dubious purposes will be prosecuted as they are already.

Not good enough, even if they were.

You don’t safeguard by picking up the perpetrators after a crime has been committed

You do it by setting up the system to reduce the possibility of it happening in the first place.

Very angry

Any perverts using spaces for dubious purposes will be prosecuted as they are already.

Well that’s not much comfort to me if ive been a victim already. I’d rather they were denied the opportunity in the first place.

I’m really angry about the fact that every time I see a positive campaign in favour of women ( e.g. promoting girls into sport, women’s marches etc) I find myself thinking there is another thing that will get taken over. We can have nothing positive for ourselves anymore. It’s partly the loss of the funding, protected places, awards and scholarships to transwomen and partly the constant irritation that they expect to be centered in our initiatives.

Any perverts using spaces for dubious purposes will be prosecuted as they are already.

Picking out one or two easy prosecutions, after the case is not really a lot of use really, at all.

Random for you to equate men who are appropriating women and then enter women's private spaces, KNOWING there will be women and girls there who feel scared at their presence, with black people is absolutely risible! You appear to be racist.

YY Bowl both approaches are essential to get right. That’s not been achieved yet. TRA narcissistic validation requirements being imposed on the whole population and doing away with sex based protections and single-sex spaces and services make sex crimes more likely by not only letting any wolf so chooses to put on sheeps clothing (OK wolf- if that’s how you express yourself), but then doing away with the sheeps’ pen and having only pens for wolves and sheep housed together.

Or use the fox and the hen house analogy. Whatever works.

We don’t treat animals this way because we accept the reality of their biology and their evidenced behaviours as a class: of foxes, wolves, sheep, or hens.

Why should girls and women human females accept less protection.
Honestly if this was a religious movement everyone would laugh and tell the zealots for it to fuck off because what they are selling is dangerous nonsense.

use the Ladies which only has 2 cubicles, one of them has taken pouty selfies in them

You would think that people would find it inappropriate to take photos in work place toilets and post them online.

Concerned and fucking furious. Also angry about the mix of naivety and 'don't give a shit 'cos it wont affect me' people.

Crikey - there are rules against taking selfies in my local mixed-sex gym to protect privacy of other users, yet some people think it’s acceptable to use a camera in the women’s toilet at work?

Surprised that’s not resulted in a disciplinary.

I am pretty worried, to be honest. As someone who is blind, so can’t see what’s happening around me, anyone could be around and I wouldn’t know who they were unless they spoke. I have also been raped in the past, and sexually assaulted on several occasions, so I’m sure anyone with an ounce of empathy would understand why I’d find this unnerving.
Quite honestly if I had to go into public toilets on my own and I thought there might be male bodied people in there, I wouldn’t go, or if I had to, I’d feel very vulnerable. If it was a place where I had to remove my clothes I certainly wouldn’t go at all.
To those people on here who couldn’t give much of a shit about this, it seems your objection to using spaces of your natal sex may produce some of the same anxieties, but without the added compounded anxiety of not being able to see what’s happening around you, so I’m sure you should be able to empathise.
If the problem is male violence, go talk to the men. Do not compromise the safety, dignity and peace of mind of women like me.
If you think your feelings matter more, well that tells us everything we need to know about you.

I am stressed because of my young daughters.

I have one who is a teen who will simply not go to the loo, for smear tests & bra fittings if she thinks she will encounter male bodies.

When I have mentioned this to people they have asked “what’s wrong with her” as though 13 year olds ought to have been de-sensitised to the sight of penis.