Using women as human shields

[UglyCathKidstonBag]

My workplace is having an interesting week. A woman on the day shift (who I only meet at handover) seems to be an ardent GC-er and is peak transing people left right and centre.

It seems yesterday she mentioned women being used as “human shields” which drew a few raised eyebrows and it couldn’t be discussed further due to a work situation.
We picked up some of the discussion on our shift, including demands for cis allies to create barriers at protests or events and even the fact that forcing spaces to become unisex uses women as a human shield.

I thought it would be useful to have a thread documenting when this happens because it is quite extraordinary to ask an adult human female to protect a trans woman from a adult human male.

If anyone has any links to articles/social media posts/threads about this specifically happening then please share them here as this seems to be a cause for concern for many outside or new to the debate.

I’ve seen requests for it happen (calls to allies to protest outside women’s meetings) and virtually too - as in, Transwoman TRA makes inflammatory post, gets called out by GC fem or average man and then calls to followers to defend the inflammatory post, rather than back it up themselves.

When Tara wolf was in court for assaulting Maria this was doing the rounds on social media and requests allies especially women attend to protect transfeminine (So biologically male) protesters.

Thank you both!
Yes, I have recollection of “cis woman” being asked to sort out online arguments. I must see if I can find links to the specific instances.

Sarah I hadn’t seen that, it is outrageous! Thank you.

Be interesting to explore the psychology behind asking for specifically women to act as shields.
Obviously, asking men would be more obvious if they genuinely felt under physical threat. Specifying women is a political statement, isn't it?
It's a validation and a 'fuck you' at the same time, really. I suppose in debate terms, it's akin to the tediously predictable "Most feminists agree TWAW, so you must be wrong if you don't".
So yes, human shields in the sense that they are a protection, not against violence, but as a propaganda tool. Like a human flag. Not all that different to simply decorative.

mobile.twitter.com/belum_cari/status/962115699740168192

This is the Twitter thread where the full leaflet can be found. Tara was also supported by sisters uncut who claim to be feminists who campaign around domestic violence (while supporting a perpetrator of VAWG).

It's a validation and a 'fuck you' at the same time

Exactly. If I recall in the incident where maria was assualted one of the female trans allies ended up getting a smack from her own side for trying to calm the situation down.

Wasn't there calls for 'c*s' allies to chaperone trembling 'tfolk' in Bristol? The day of the masked stairwell incident?

Also I don't know if this is relevant to this thread - but this is an MRA tactic. Have you noticed that the pimps, punters, club owners that 'benefit' from the sex industry are without fail represented by women? Also they use disabled people as human shields too as representation for all the nasty punters.

FloralBunting

I agree with you, it is a propaganda tool. “Well these nice women are on our side”.

You see, I'm very familiar with all this from the perspective of being persuaded into something oppressive by the presence of women who were happy to act as recruiters and poster girls for the oppressive group.

I know the use of pejoratives is limited in helpfulness, but these are exactly the kind of women who are termed 'handmaidens'. For left leaning people they are usually 'cool girls', too. And this is why they are called out - because they are being used, knowingly or not, as leverage to strip other women of their rights.

Is it simply because people are less likely to attack a woman and women are naturally better at deflecting and calming down situations.

Essentially women are being used because they are better at being calm and "nice" than transwomen are. The nature of their birth sex means they are more likely to take a violent approach towards people who don't agree with them. Natal women are less likely to do so and will calm them down.

it's like Natal women are there to set the example about how to behave...

Anyone remember the woman dressed as catwoman to help F4J?

They are:

Human shields
Confidence tricksters
A disguise
Handmaids
Masochists
Expendable resources
Tools
Etc

Who men could not erode women's rights to increase their own penis rights without.

Win win win for penis.
Lose lose lose for vag.

Yes. And the argument that making toilets unisex is ok because someone is ‘less likely’ to be attacked is also using women as human shields.

For the picket line stuff, it’s visual. It’s a very visceral image if you have a bunch of men physically facing down a bunch of women. If you swap the men for the women, it changes the entire tone of it - now it’s ‘just a catfight.’

It’s an effective tactic.

I don't know if there was a concerted effort or not, but at the Oxford WP meeting it certainly seemed to me that many/most of the protesters were young "c*s" women. I admit I rushed past them as I was feeling fairly intimidated (although it was not like the Bristol meeting, thank goodness) so I might not be right, but I definitely got the impression that alot of them were young women. It surprised me a bit at the time, I hadn't heard of the human shield thing then.

Also has anyone noticed the age gap? Feminist groups being led by males approx 10 years older or more?

The human shield is always best young, pretty and female. Great PR.

I think it is because older women often think 'the bastards were using me' but the young ones are still naive enough to believe they are so super pretty, speshal, cleva, great to be around that the blokes want them there - and other women aren't 'chosen' because they are 'ugly' and 'jealous'. Bunch of turkeys taking 'you'd look good with cranberry sauce' as a compliment.

If you put out a call for men to turn out and help, how many would actually show up? Giving provision of service and labour to causes that matter to them is a woman thing, (witness Labour having lost vast amounts of envelope stuffers and back room people when they started losing women voters) and being vulnerable to co-dependency and approval seeking from people with penises due to their own issues with self esteem and internalised sexism is also a women thing. Men wouldn't do it.

TRA ideology is based on the premise that women are lesser beings, whose feelings are invalid, whose safety is unimportant, whose views should be prescribed and punished for non compliance, and that they owe transwomen for being born with 'privilege'.

Also interesting to look at some of the sociological discussions around the dynamics of abusers, MRAs, incels etc who are low status in the male pecking order and have suffered for it due to toxic masculinity, yet believe that they have superiority and power over women, who are still lower in status. So exploiting power and superiority over women and commanding them feels like a right. See Lundy Bancroft for a lot of interesting discussion on entitlement beliefs found amongst men who seriously and serially abuse women. Many expect a woman to subject herself to and accept conditions they would consider totally unacceptable for themselves.

This is so interesting everyone, thank you. So many different avenues for me to explore.

I’m particularly interested in the idea that people campaign for TW inclusion in female sex segregated spaces because they wouldn’t be safe around men. Women are also obviously unsafe around men hence campaigning for these spaces (rape crisis centres and domestic violence refuges for instance). Self ID allows any man into these spaces, therefore making them unisex which to me is putting women at risk and using them as a human shield.

Your day shift colleague sounds marvellous, btw. We could all do with a few lessons from her on how to effectively talk about this topic in the real world!

Knicknack, I've stolen this paragraph and plan to tweet it, if that's ok:

TRA ideology is based on the premise that women are lesser beings, whose feelings are invalid, whose safety is unimportant, whose views should be prescribed and punished for non compliance, and that they owe transwomen for being born with 'privilege'.

I'm talking about it more. So is eldest DS at school. People, even most young people, are quick to recognise the emperor's lack of clothes when someone mentions it.

I'm not strident at all. I don't say much. My goodness ordinary people are quick to peak trans.

If you spend a lot of time on twitter I think the world can seem more scary for the GC than it really is.

I've peak transed my family, bit by bit. Was amazed to discover that DB1 - who has zero interest in any sort of politics but is mad on sport - not only knew that the Canadian women's cycling champion was male but knew their name. He is appalled about women's sports (he coaches) and both DBs agreed that anyone male bodied should use male facilities. They were very blunt about it, using the words creeps and perverts.

Prawn please use anything at all that is useful.

Your day shift colleague sounds marvellous, btw. We could all do with a few lessons from her on how to effectively talk about this topic in the real world!

She is a force to be reckoned with and I’m sad I don’t get to work with her directly very often. She is also incredibly understanding that many of our colleagues (me included) feel unable to speak about this outside friends because we could lose our jobs.

Thanks, Knicknack.

Wasn't there calls for 'c*s' allies to chaperone trembling 'tfolk' in Bristol? The day of the masked stairwell incident?

Yes there were.