BACP Gender,Sexual, and Relationship Diversity by Dr Meg-John Barker

[R0wantrees]

Good Practice Guide, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
(extract)
2.6 Gender identity: woman
Definitions
"Whether trans or cisgender, intersex or not, many people identify as
women. However, what this means varies a great deal depending on their other intersecting attributes. It is important not to assume, for example, that being a woman necessarily involves being able to bear children, or having XX sex chromosomes, or breasts. Being a woman in a British cultural context often means adhering to social norms of femininity, such as being nurturing, caring, social, emotional, vulnerable, and concerned with appearance.
However, of course, not all women adhere to all these things. For example some neurodiverse women (on the autistic/aspergic/ADHD spectrums) may struggle to express emotions, or with social situations. In some northern working-class contexts femininity is associated with strength and aggression. As always an intersectional understanding is vital and we need to be mindful that what is culturally regarded as the epitome of femininity is white, middle class, youthful, non-disabled, heterosexual, cisgender, and thin. This strongly shapes all women’s experiences of womanhood.
Common concerns
While gender may not always be relevant to a woman’s presenting issues, mental health struggles are often gendered. Women have such high rates of body image issues that this has been labelled ‘normative discontent’.
It has been related to both narrow ideals of feminine beauty, and the
contradictory pressures on women today to conform to stereotypical
femininity and to be independent and successful. Food and body
can represent one potential area of control in an uncontrollable and
contradictory world. Women are more likely than men to be diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and many other emotional disorders. This has been linked to the way women’s identities are often bound up with other people, for example, rates of depression often peak for mothers when children leave home. Therapy with women may well involve exploring their relationships with others, and with being desirable, pleasing and/or approved of" (continues)

My understanding is that the majority of counsellors in the UK are BACP accredited. There is a great deal in this document to consider.

The author is the partner of Edward Lord who identifies as non-binary see recent threads:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3323475-Surprise-The-Masons-now-welcome-Transwomen-but-not-women
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3317922-City-of-London-Corporation-consultation-is-out-this-covers-Hampstead-Ponds
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3316098-Childrens-Convenor-Elected-Councillor-calls-women-cunts-on-Twitter-rants

Language is used here not to communicate but to obscure- as Shakespeare said “it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

This, and everything Oscarino said.

You know that scene in 4 weddings where Simon Callow muses that marriage is basically a contrived reason to give people with nothing interesting to say to one another something to talk about?

These genderists seem to have filled a vacuum of personality with the most nonsensical and boring speciousness. Is this just so that they have something to talk about? It's so dreadfully boring, though.

#Northernwomenarerealwomen

But where does the North start? Watford Gap? Birmingham? Sheffield? It's so hard to know what's right these days, don't want to offend anyone.

Oh dear, this looks like it was written by a person who is so submerged in their own wokeness and privilege that they are literally chatting bubbles.
Reductive stereotyping much, and that northern working class thing is just plain offensive.

And yeah, where does the north start? I come from the West Midlands. To someone where I live now that counts as northern, but ask someone from Manchester and they probably say I’m southern. Maybe it’s a matter of internal feelings?

These genderists seem to have filled a vacuum of personality with the most nonsensical and boring speciousness. Is this just so that they have something to talk about? It's so dreadfully boring, though.

Indeed.

I suppose I should feel relieved.

After all, with my love of football, the outdoors, science, lack of interest in make-up, clothes etc., I could have spent years, years, I tell you, thinking I was doing womaning wrong.

Thank fuck for woke psychologists who are able to tell me it's because I is northern, innit?

There may also be non-consensual deception

😂

Oh dear. I am really culturally confused now.

I was observed Caribbean at birth, due to the vagaries of geography. Unfortunately my wretched parents then assigned me northern, despite me spitting out my dummy and doing a dirty protest.

I now identify as Eastern, of the Anglian gender.

Over here us mawthers like to consensually make the tea in our negligees while waiting for our non-monogamous husbands to get back from the pub.

We northerners call them non consensual deceptors cheating fuckers

We northerners call them non consensual deceptors cheating fuckers

Oi oi

I can't be the only one wondering what consensual deception looks like? It's not deception if you've consented to it, is it!

Haven’t read the document, just this thread, but curious...

Do they go on to describe men/male in a similar way or is it just women/female that they are screwing up?

Where is the definition from this person of working class and northern?

assigned northern at birth

I'm having that on a t-shirt.

There may also be non-consensual deception and invasion of privacy on the part of a partner who has ‘discovered’ another’s infidelity.

This is false equivalency victim blaming in action. No, reading text messages between your ‘non consensually non-monogamous’ partner and their girlfriend is not just as bad as being a cheating fuckwit. And why is ‘discovered’ in inverted commas? The implication that they weren’t being cheated on because they ‘must have known’.

I can imagine the damage that would be done to a cheated on partner who was subjected to this sort of ‘counseling’. It’s easy to see where Meg-John’s sympathy lies

This is a deeply unpleasant person and I can only hope their contact with people outside their little non-binary woke bubble is extremely limited

Indeed. I feel like it should be called:
How to use queer theory to say that nothing is actually real, pretend you're the most enlightened and oppressed person in the world, AND excuse ALL your behaviour. Don't worry about it. Anyone who disagrees with us is a hateful bigot.

Oh and for rosablue, this is how they describe men:

Whether trans or cisgender, intersex or not, many people identify as men. However, what this means varies a great deal depending on their other intersecting attributes. It is important not to assume, for example, that being a man necessarily involves having a penis or being physically strong. Being a man in a British cultural context often means adhering to social norms of masculinity, such as being competitive, ambitious, independent, rational, tough, sexual, confident, dominant, taking risks, and caring about their work.
However, of course, not all men adhere to all these things. For example some men take on major child-rearing roles in the family or enter caring professions. Some young men adopt an ongoing lad or ‘man-child’ identity and may remain averse to work or responsibility, and dependent on others financially. Many men in urban subcultures spend a lot of time and care on their appearance, through clothing, make-up, exercise regimes, tattoos and/or piercings. As always an intersectional understanding is vital and we need to be mindful that what is culturally regarded as the epitome of masculinity is white, middle class, non-disabled, heterosexual, cisgender, and physically fit. This strongly shapes men’s experiences of manhood.

Given that northern women get a pass on being performatively feminine because them's a bit common, Ee by gum is perhaps the next password for GC women who meet in real life?

Or maybe

's black over our Bill's mother's'

Too right silentcrow - I want one of those t shirts too!

"Assigned northern at birth"

My family would probably want to add "transitioned into a bloody southener"

Do you think they actually believe their own bullshit?

I might just start a charity.

Action for Northern Health.

We can lobby to;
Be allowed to change our birth certificates to show we were born in more affluent counties.

Demand voice coaching so we are softer spoken and pronounce our words so that Alexa and Siri can understand us.

Have anger management on the NHS so we are less hard and aggressive.

#assignednorthernatbirth

I also want a t-shirt!

From the descriptions, I am most definately a man. Is it non-consensual deception if I don't tell my DP he is now actually gay?

Is it possible to self identify as Northern if you are sweary or are otherwise marooned in polite Southerness forever?

If so I am fucking Northern and none of you fuckers can say I'm not.

North starts in Hampshire

My family would probably want to add "transitioned into a bloody southener"

Not, softy southerner nor nesh southerner?

Action for Northern Health.

All Northerners to be paid at the Southern market salary for their job

I'm in Australia; I'm so southern they named a hemisphere after me.

Still get angry and sweary though, and not much into the feminine stereotypes - could I be the exception that proves the rule?

Gender critical writing is lucid - the writer knows what they want to say and the aim is to communicate to the reader. Even when the ideas are complex it is possible to put the work in and understand what is being said.

When I read things like this by Meg-John Barker and other queer or trans theorists (or even commentators on twitter) I cannot get a secure mental footing. Definitions are either not given or they shift and change within the same paragraph or even the same sentence, trains of thought are impossible to follow or lead nowhere and arguments often just come down to “believe what I say because I am saying it.”

YY, Oscarino! The total lack of logic or cohesion in trans ideology is one of the things that drives me nuts. It just doesn't make sense and they don't appear to notice.