Can we talk about the mental impact of being told the definition of woman is changing?

[UglyCathKidstonBag]

I’d like to hear specifically from women who feel their mental health has been in any way impacted by being told the definition of “woman” has or will change so that it either excludes them or includes men. Has anyone felt their mental health has been impacted by the “erasure” of woman.

I have long term therapy as part of treatment for PTSD and GAD both of which are centred around abuse from various men in my life. I had been able to control both to a manageable state thanks to this treatment until the past 3-6 months.
I am now unable to use places such as gyms, swimming pools, changing rooms and similar settings because of my fear of being in intimate spaces with unknown male bodied people. This is now starting to have a knock on impact for my work.

I have been losing sleep my anxiety is extreme.

I guess what I find hard to read in this thread is how these issues have so badly affected some women the hysteria created by anti trans advocates has affected the mental health of so many. I understand people here will object to my words, however the reality is that transgender men and women have been in society for a very long time and the Equality Act 2010 gave anyone in the process of transitioning a protected status and access to spaces according to their gender. And there have been no problems. You will all have been in these spaces with trans women and not noticed. So I would have to say that the Anti Trans Advocates have actively harmed women by their insistence that trans women are a problem.. I am deeply sadden by what has happened.

Right. Today's brigade are bringing us faux-concern, everyone. Be sure to note the invisible as they acknowledge your mental distress and tell you it's all the fault of the nasty women talking.

Go away Vicky. This is a thread for women to talk about how the misogyny of transactivism makes them feel. How it feels to be bullied and coercively controlled. How it feels to know that as a woman no one gives a fuck about you or your feelings, as they scramble over you to pander to the every whim of abusive males. You have nothing to add.

vickyjgo

transgender men and women have been in society for a very long time and the Equality Act 2010 gave anyone in the process of transitioning a protected status and access to spaces according to their gender. And there have been no problems. You will all have been in these spaces with trans women and not noticed.

Have you really not paid attention to the fact that the proposed changes to the act will allow anyone - without the need for any medical gatekeeping - to claim they're a woman and access any and all women's spaces? Or are you just peddling the 'nothing to fear' lie we keep getting sold?

At present, the numbers concerned are (a) very small and (b) limited in the main to transwomen with genuine dysphoria.

Our concern (and again, I'm asking you to pay attention) is that there are several hundred thousand people with a range of conditions and/or fetishes AND men who are simply predatory and they can all enter safe spaces with no challenge possible if the changes to the GRA happen.

But I'll take you up on your "And there have been no problems" claim. Here's one:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-44877856

You will all have been in these spaces with trans women and not noticed.

I see the delusion is strong with this one.

Re: the comments about Twitter and social media.

Guardian had a piece that briefly includes Lanier's advice that social media should be avoided (and personal accounts deleted) because, fundamentally, they are mass-behaviour-modification technologies.

cui bono? If you haven’t read Jaron Lanier’s short but brilliant book Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, I can only recommend. For technological idiots like me...far from toiling in the furtherances of whichever noble cause they think they are, those who feed the internet outrage machine are under an illusion.

[We] are nothing more than busy data ants, who in reality – BIG REVEAL – work for the likes of Facebook and Google. These are mass-behaviour-modification machines that thrive off discord and – without wishing to downgrade anyone’s genuinely impassioned and sincerely held beliefs – it really doesn’t matter what sort. Everyone’s participation, on whichever side, hastens the dystopia. Your causes, my causes, everyone’s causes are essentially meaningless – they are plot devices. And the plot is the mass, unprecedented manipulation of human behaviour and its subsequent exploitation for money. Everyone works for the machine, which doesn’t think that fat-shaming matters, or paedophilia matters, or black lives matter, or you matter. For a honeymoon period, it may feel as if that is a price worth paying if you are furthering a cause in which you believe – but, as Lanier shows, this always turns out to be a mirage.

I think this also affords some explanation as to why women's accounts on social media (and places like Mumsnet) are curated more aggressively as many aggressors feel entitled to criticise and modify women's behaviour.

It's always 'hysteria', isn't it? You'd think they would try to cover their tracks and use another, any other, word.

The best thing all of us could do would be to find supportive networks which don't feed into our insecurities and feed our fears.

The best thing all of us could do would be to find supportive networks which don't feed into our insecurities and feed our fears.

How does that work, then? I want a "supportive network" wherein the women understand my fears - does that mean a sort of FWR where we answer every new thread with "Oh well, never mind - here are some kittens?"

It's always 'hysteria', isn't it? You'd think they would try to cover their tracks and use another, any other, word.

I know, right?

Silly women, getting all flustered by willies. Have a prosecco, get your nails done, gossip with your girlfriends and relax.

Fuck's sake.

The best thing you gobby women could do is find a quiet, private supportive network and stop making such a fuss about all this, leaving the public spaces for all the nice people who want to keep you down.

ahh, the best thing we could do is leave Mumsnet you mean vickyjgo

Gotcha

jesus you people are transparent as fucking window panes

it's like watching toddlers trying to outwit Mum

The best thing all of us could do would be to find supportive networks which don't feed into our insecurities and feed our fears.

Yeah? Care to wander over to relationships and tell the women who are suffering financial and emotional abuse from their partners that they should not worry about those 'fears' and 'insecurities' and instead head over to Style and Beauty and source a nice new pinny and lippy to make her man happy.

Read this board and perhaps extend your empathy to women, rather than speaking for men

It's always 'hysteria', isn't it? You'd think they would try to cover their tracks and use another, any other, word.

They can't bear not to say it. They love saying it so much.

vickyjgo

You said "and there have been no problems". I showed you that this is not true.

Have you changed your view on that at all, or doesn't it matter to you if there's collateral damage?

That is the lie you have been sold by the Anti Trans brigade who are selling you a lie which in turn is affecting your mental health. The proposal is to streamline getting a birth certificate change and has no impact on sex specific spaces. These sex specific places are already open to trans women since the Equality Act 2010.. please for the sake of your mental health get some perspective from outside of this forum.

Why would we want more men to be able to get female birth certificates?

I just think it is sad that trans women represent no risk to anyone and have not presented a risk for 8 years since the Equality Act. AS a coach I would advise getting some time away with supportive people who do not prey on your fears.

This isn't just about the GRA. It's about the misogyny.

They represent exactly as much risk as any other male.

vickyjgo

Ah is this the topic of choice for the Followers of Genderism and trans-extremists to attack women today?
How lovely, faux concern!

I'm getting tired with typing this but...

... really? DARVO DARVO DARVO. Can't someone please play a new tune? This one is so overdone.

mmm, yes vickyjgo, but the proposed reforms to the GRA will fundamentally change the definition of 'Transwoman' (or broaden it's etymology if you will).

They'll broaden the etymology of transwoman all the way out to 'any man'.

so yanno - a bit different.

That is the lie you have been sold by the Anti Trans brigade who are selling you a lie which in turn is affecting your mental health. The proposal is to streamline getting a birth certificate change and has no impact on sex specific spaces. These sex specific places are already open to trans women since the Equality Act 2010.. please for the sake of your mental health get some perspective from outside of this forum.

You see, the "lie" you're selling is that there will be no more men trying to get into women's and girls' safe spaces, etc after the introduction of self-id than there are now.

Are you not hearing that (a) many more will self-id and (b) others will use the fact that self-id means the person need not look remotely 'female' to enter women's spaces, etc?

For the sake of every woman and girl you know - wake up.