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?

Another delurking.

This thread is really heartening. It's great so many of us are starting to talk to people IRL, which can be hard at first.

I also wanted to say what prawn said. I see no lack of intelligence or articulacy here. Please join us in a chat

I'm a lurking male, son, brother, husband and father of daughters.

I have learned so much from reading this forum. But it's so very difficult to talk about in real life. Even my wife thinks that I'm a total nutter when I talk to her about it.

Please don't give up or be forced out!

De-lurking here!
Thanks to all the wonderful, outspoken take-no-shit women here who've made me feel I'm not alone in my thinking.

What a thread.

Thanks for lurking, but do please start posting even if it is a very simple 'I agree with Nick' as the very act of posting will help you move from lurking to forming your own way of phrasing your arguments.

In turn this will help the next tranche of lurkers...we all learn so much from each other and once you start engaging...new and interesting ways of looking at things are often discovered.

I'm a lurker/intermittent poster but frequent namechanger. I have been reading these boards for years. I'm an instinctive feminist but not a terribly learned one and these boards have filled out all sorts of gaps in my thinking. Everyone always makes so much sense .

all round

Another grateful lurker

Another regular lurker here (though I've been compelled to delurk a few times in recent days), adding my thanks and praise to those knowledgable and articulate regular posters from whom I've learned so much.

I’m a lurker but a busy one - I don’t tend to have time to read the whole of a thread to the end,let alone post on it. But I read and I agree.

Lurking and learning - thank you

Finding my voice, but have been practising IRL on my DH and friends who will listen.

Women are awesome, but I’m nearly 50 and only really felt that since finding this board. Now is the first time I have truely felt part of a tribe.

Sitting and listening to all the wise, strong, voices here is so comforting - thank you

I am also delurking and want to offer support.

I feel that opinion can be changed and would like to point to the following debate, IQ2 Debate: Society Must Recognise Trans People's Gender Identities, with the Prof Bronwyn Winter being one of the speakers opposing the proposition. At the start the opposition have only have 4% of the vote with the affirmative having 74% and 20% undecided but by the end undecideds were 9%, the percentage for the motion had dropped to 65% and there was an increase by 20% for the against motion bringing it to 24%. I know that the affirmative won but what must give hope is the 20% that swung to the opposition. It is also worth bearing in mind that this debate was held in Sydney during the Mardi Garia festival.

This whole discussion/debate needs to be brought on into the public and the main stream so opinions can be changed with the reality of the facts.

I'm definitely more Lurkacus than Spartacus.

Lovely to hear from all the others: greetings lurkers!

I'm a lurk Dr on FWR.

I'm constantly overawed at the level of knowledge and debate.

Thank you to those who's coat I'm not fit to hold

I'm a lurker not a lurk Dr

Doctorate in lurking!

De lurking today. I came to mumsnet two years ago through AIBU and discovered feminism chat via a trans thread. Two years ago I was utterly unaware of the threat to women’s rights, logical thinking, biological understanding and freedom of speech from trans ideology. I have learnt so much from these threads and have so much respect for the knowledge, patience, articulacy and wit of the posters on here. In real life I am speaking out and have found in most cases that people have no idea what’s happening and are shocked and horrified, or are secretly GC and so relieved that I am too so they can say what they really think. I am keeping a log of the powerful arguments and data so I can talk knowledgably to people. I have become a twitter warrior for GC common sense and my family is completely in agreement including my two twenty something daughters who are gently challenging their “woke” friends. They can’t believe how many intelligent friends throw their common sense and powers of reason out of the window on trans issues.

I have also had my eyes opened as to how totally male centric this world is and how many men but also women dislike women who speak out and don’t do “nice”. Munsnet feminist chat has changed me and changed my life. Thank you all so much.

I unlurked for the first time a couple of days ago, having read these GC threads for years. I read pretty much everything new on Feminism Chat, particularly now that there are moves afoot to change the law to erase female biological sex from the framework. Thanks to the women who have so clearly articulated their criticisms here, I have begun to discuss the issues with friends in real life. The humour here is also a sanity-saver.

I, too, am Lurkakus! Keep on keeping on.

I am a semi-lurker, Masters level rather than Doctorate.
Thank you to all the regular contributors, I have learnt so much from you all. My house is in ruins, as I constantly have my tablet in my hand waiting for the next wonderful enlightening post.
I have managed to Peak Trans a few friends, but I have to be very careful due to work. My 2 DC, both gently indoctrinated to be good lefties, think I have lost my mind. They have gone through the university system, where they have had Gender fed to them on a plate for three meals a day. I knew my son would be a lost cause, but I am most sad that my daughter just simply cannot see that this is rowing back the rights that I thought were hers to have forever.

Waves

Lurking like a lurker on lurk day.

DH lurks on here too. We're vocal in rl however.

I’m a lurker.

I mainly lurk on this board, but have learnt so much from all of you. I have had conversations with female friends and tried to explain what is happening - they seem confused but interested and I hope I've encouraged them to go and find out more. A FB group I'm on asked for school resources about trans - almost every link was Mermaids which really annoyed me, so I posted a link to Transgender Trend and asked that they allow me to post it to provide a more balanced view. Surprisingly there was little backlash! I hope this means that people are starting to understand.

I lurked MN for a long time, often spending more time in FWR.

I starting posting here a few months ago, and remember it felt scary at first, but very quickly realised how much generosity, insight, strength, support, wit and good sense there is here.

Yesterday I took a deep breath and started an AIBU thread, I felt a bit apprehensive but am so glad that I did.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3290927-AIBU-to-say-that-I-am-a-woman-not-a-non-man-non-trans-woman-or-cis-women

I lurk. Rarely post as bizarrely I have to stop and think to post, whereas lurking can be done while doing other stuff.

But thank you, I've learnt so much, and I'll going you don't all go underground