Gender Critical 'Lurkers'

[BadasIwannaB]

I’ve been reading the Gender Critical threads on Mumsnet for a few months now and I’m ‘delurking’ to say THANK YOU! To all the intelligent, articulate gender critical feminists here - you are my absolute heroes, and you’re really giving me hope!

I’ve thought for a long time that many aspects of the supposedly right-on rhetoric about gender is deeply misogynist, and I was unsettled and annoyed at how much pressure there is on women not to challenge it, and how much supposed ‘feminists’ enforce that pressure. But for a long time I felt like I must be the only person who thought this, because I wasn’t seeing anyone speaking out, and on the v few occasions where I mentioned any of this to friends, it didn’t go down well. So it’s been hugely inspiring and reassuring to see that there’s this growing community here standing up for women against the bullshit. I’ve literally been reading the discussions here every day for the last few months, and it cheers me up so much! I’ve become such a fan of so many of you: LangCleg, Datun, Bowlofbabelfish, Ereshkigal, Angry Attack Kittens, I could go on and on…

So I started wondering, how many people like me are there reading these threads and cheering silently from the sidelines? I’m hoping there are lots of us. I think it’s easy to think we’re a tiny minority because of all the fear surrounding joining the discussion, but maybe if we all delurked we’d see that that’s not the case.

So any other lurkers wanna delurk?

Wow.

There are so many of us!

(Waves at lurkers)

All of us regulars are going to get the banhammer eventually, given the way things are going. I wonder if those wielding it realize how many more are waiting in the wings to take over when we're gone.

It's a fools errand trying to silence this many women.

Yes Datun and others - keep talking to us!

Another humble Lurky McLurkerson here!
I’ve spoken to a few previously unaware friends about this topic and they’ve been super receptive, but still a bit wary of posting anything on SM.
I’m so grateful to all the posters on here for opening my eyes to this.

I lurk. I'm too thick to do anything else. Thank you feminist posters

I do talk about this stuff IRL, but my chosen media of complex analogies and frantic hand waving don’t work so well in a written context.

What a brilliant thread.

Thank you lurkers!

I’m a lurker. Have never posted on this board but have learned such a lot and have also shared what I’ve learned with several interested others.

I lurk. And nod vehemently.

Another lurker and very rare poster. I have been reading MN and particularly FWR for years and am in awe of the regular GC feminist posters. I cannot discuss this issue in RL for a number of reasons (mainly because we have a trans member of the wider family and I don’t want my true feeling to hurt). But I am here every day cheering you all on and also following GC feminists on Twitter and some groups on FB. Thank you all so much!

Also lurking and learning over here

I've been lurking on the feminist chat topic for a while now. Before this, I had no idea about the threat to women's rights.
Some of the threads on here led me to A Woman's Place on Twitter and FB.
With the help of this topic I have managed to steer my daughter towards GC feminism.
So thank you to all the contributors who have opened my eyes to the impact that self I'd will have on single sex spaces.

Yeah, I try not to get too over involved in political debates and controversial posts so I'm pretty much a lurker here too. Been on MN over a decade. GC forever.

I'm another Lurker.

Am so thankful for the posters who take the time and effort to carry on posting with such knowledge, resilience and humour.

Thanks so much

Hello from another lurker. In real life I'm a fair bit braver and I talk about my feminism with family and friends in a pretty passionate way! Thank you to all the smart women on the feminist boards who have taught me so much.

Another lurker de-lurking. I've been on mumsnet (posting occasionally elsewhere) since I was pregnant with my now 13 yr old Dd, but only found my way here this year when I was trying to make sense of a news report about Madigan and labour's AWS. I'm really impressed and inspired by what I read here, have also managed to turn dd gender critical and am taking baby steps at discussing it more widely (but my social circle is pretty 'woke' and includes a (lovely) trans acquaintance who I would hate to upset.)

womansplaceuk.org

Womans Place UK have 5 demands:
Respectful and evidence-based discussion about the impact of the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act to be allowed to take place and for women’s voices to be heard.

The principle of women-only spaces to be upheld – and where necessary extended.

A review of how the exemptions in the Equality Act which allow or single sex services or requirements that only a woman can apply for a job (such as in a domestic violence refuge) are being applied in practice.

Government to consult with women’s organisations on how self-declaration would impact on women-only services and spaces.

Government to consult on how self-declaration will impact upon data gathering – such as crime, employment, pay and health statistics – and monitoring of sex-based discrimination such as the gender pay gap.

All of the speeches made at WPUK meetings are available to watch via the website.

A lurker here who sometimes comments.

You regular posters are awesome. We lurkers are watching the shit being thrown at you by goady fuckers that you flick away with such grace.

and sometimes we like the cake recipes

Lurker here.

IRL I speak about a fraction of what you guys have taught me and have opened the eyes of others but I don't know nearly enough on the subject to speak on the same level as others on the threads.

Maybe when I'm reading a post I'll give a so you know I'm listening, learning and on your side

I lurk regularly, and have only posted a handful of times - as many of my fellow lurkers have said, I feel the regulars say it all so well that I have nothing much of value to add, but i learn from you all the time.

This is particularly valuable to me as I'm surrounded by libfems IRL so I can feel quite isolated, but I've managed to peaktrans my sister

I post occasionally, lurk often...

We're going to need our wits about us so maybe instead of ? And there's another thing to be annoyed about...

This is a Debbie Hayton's article (see also her speeches given at WPUK meetings):
'A Plea To Trans Activists: We Can Protect Trans Rights Without Denying Biology'

(extract)
"Muddled thinking about sex and gender, and what it means to be male or female, also threatens the credibility of transsexual people who transition to escape the chronic and debilitating effects of gender dysphoria. I know that struggle first hand. I can recount the standard trans narrative of discomfort with my sex from a very early age. Throughout childhood I yearned to be female but concrete reality displaced my wishful thinking, and instead I grew into a man who married and had a family.

I graduated in physics and became a high school teacher. When gender dysphoria finally overwhelmed me, my goal was to carry on teaching and stay out of the newspapers. That strategy was partly successful: I still work in the same school, but my desire for obscurity has been obliterated. I was never exposed by a hostile press, as even the most antagonistic journalist would struggle to spin much from my unremarkable transition. I outed myself when I started to challenge postmodern thinking that suggests our sex depends not on our chromosomes, but what is in our heads; something that is not based in facts and evidence but in feelings and opinions; something that has established the mantra transwomen are women.... "(continues)

quillette.com/2018/03/30/plea-trans-activists-can-protect-trans-rights-without-denying-biology/

I’m a near-daily lurker. I’ve thought about posting many times; I suppose the reason I don’t is that I don’t always agree with what’s been said - but what’s been said does always make me think. And I’m still here, I still keep coming back to read and think more so I suppose I’m more invested than I tell myself I am.