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

This is the biggest pile of steaming horseshit I have ever read.

I started crying at Alice’s post and am struggling to regain control of my bodily functions.

It’s said everyone has a “tell”, and in this article it’s the northern bit that gives

social norms of masculinity, such as being competitive, ambitious, independent, rational, tough, sexual, confident, dominant, taking risks, and caring about their work.

Hmm. Let me see how I fit: not competitive or ambitious (might be if I weren't autistic; just coping day-to-day without any kind of support is pretty much all that I can do), definitely independent. Rational? Yep. Sexual? Not sure what that means. Confident? At work, yes. I know my stuff. Dominant? Depends on the context. Taking risks? Oh, yes. Caring out their work? Yes. Me again.

According to the author, I am more male than female.

(Adjusts vulva.)

To summarise.

Of course many people have relationships that are as close and/or valued as romantic relationships, e.g. relationships with family, friends, colleagues or work partners, companion animals, etc. However, they may struggle to nd ways for these relationships to be recognised by others, and by wider society

I'm pretty sure that people's relationships with family and friends are generally recognised by wider society hmm

We're here, we make no sense, get used to it

You see this condition a lot in sportsmen/ women. They get assigned south African, Australian, Canadian etc at birth but their innate desire for awful weather and warm beer means they have to play rugby, cricket, tennis etc for England, Scotland, GB. They get loads of trans xenophobia from comments in daily mail and even the Guardian.

I really hope stonewall and Dr haddock get onto it soon.

If you could educate yourselves beyond your high school ‘Geography 101’ and accept the consensus among modern cartographers that latitude and longitude are an ever shifting constellation and people are wherever they identify as being.

I’d tell you to read a book or remind you that google is your friend but I just can’t even with the ignorance and hatred of us northerners with a southern history.

What is troubling to me is this Meg-John Barker person person doesn’t just offer individual ‘therapy’ they also are involved in the production of teaching modules on the main psychology and counselling courses at the Open University. I have a family member who is currently taking a psychology degree with the OU and it is Meg-John that has written all the chapters in the course books on gender, which from what I have seen are a total nightmare. Meg also supervises ‘doctoral counselling psychology students at City University in London’, I dread to think how many students are having to read that crap, it is like indoctrination.

www.open.ac.uk/people/mjb2276

Oh dear Meg-John. Another psychologist or psychotherapist to ass to my spreadsheet of people with a fatal lack of logical reasoning ability

add. Although ass would work too

(Adjusts vulva)

Meg-John also does a series of podcasts with Justin about sex and gender:
megjohnandjustin.com/category/sex/

Crikey! Lord and Barker must be the dinner party guests from Hell.

Although there is something astonishing in that a middle aged couple in a heterosexual relationship where he's an actual flipping Mason and she seems to believe in 1950s concepts of femininity (and northern stereotypes out of 1960s kitchen sink dramas) have managed to persuade themselves and others that they are the most progressive, wokey wokey, transgressive social norm busters.

Meg-John Barker has written a lot about BDSM, kink etc

"Longer Biography
Meg-John Barker is the author of a number of popular books on sex, gender, and relationships, including Queer: A Graphic History (with Julia Scheele), How To Understand Your Gender (with Alex Iantaffi), Enjoy Sex (How, When, and IF You Want To) (with Justin Hancock), Rewriting the Rules, The Psychology of Sex, and The Secrets of Enduring Love (with Jacqui Gabb). They have also written numerous books, articles, chapters, and reports for scholars and counsellors, drawing on their own research and therapeutic practice. In particular they have focused their academic-activist work on the topics of bisexuality, open non-monogamy, sadomasochism, non-binary gender, and Buddhist mindfulness. Barker is currently a senior lecturer in psychology at the Open University. They co-founded the journal Psychology & Sexuality and the activist-research organisation BiUK, through which they published The Bisexuality Report. They have advised many organisations, therapeutic bodies, and governmental departments on matters relating to gender, sexual, and relationship diversity (GSRD) . They are also involved in facilitating many public events on sexuality and relationships, including Sense about Sex and Critical Sexology. They blog and podcast about all these topics on rewriting-the-rules.com and megjohnandjustin.com. Twitter: @megjohnbarker."

www.rewriting-the-rules.com/about-me/

Adjusts vulva

snigger

Meg-John also does a series of podcasts with Justin

They have made a podcast about the GRA and the London pride protest, interestingly Meg says on this podcast there shouldn’t be any debate about the GRA, and is a fan of the hashtag no debate twitter campaign.

megjohnandjustin.com/gender/trans-and-gra/

I think their partner Edward Lord takes a similar position.

Meg-John Barker has written a lot about BDSM

reading that guidance certainly felt like an act of masochism

After what you've said about Meg-John's enthusiasm for BDSM, I'm not sure I want to think about the "similar position" either of them might adopt...

Sorry, that was low and juvenile, etc etc. I really dislike people who bang on about their 'kink' it's so dull and usually done to prove they have a sex life to those who might otherwise doubt it.

let's take a peek at the definition of 'man'

competitive, ambitious, independent,
rational, tough, sexual, confident, dominant, taking risks, and caring about their work

I'd say all of those apply to me apart from 'sexual' (my orientation is 'tired').

Meg-John has some very peculiar ideas don't they (and that sentence reads like pidgeon english thanks to adhering to approved pronouns).

What a load of badly written mumbo jumbo..I love how they completely disregard biological sex and that 99.7% of the population don't have a gender identity. I love how they are trying to impose a gender identity on everyone else by naming it cis or saying it matches to sex. Well if biological sex doesn't count for anything how can we have cis or trans ?

igneococcus

Respect for that joke

Alicethroughtheblackmirror

I had realised the wording of that might need some consideration but had already pressed post. Apologies!

R0wantrees

No, I think it was perfect. It enabled me to sum up exactly how I feel about the pair of them!

Barker's entire thing as a counseller is about sex and how BDSM etc is entirely normal and good. And about relations between submissives and dom etc etc.

I just wonder why some people have such an obsession with this kind of stuff as to make their whole life about it. It seems completely unhealthy and unbalanced. But I am highly dubious about most counsellors.

And I whilst I can see that humans have the propensity to delve into darker stuff for various reasons, I just don't know how any anyone can justify thinking that it is not just harmless to enjoy violence and humilation and to give out violence and humilation, but also 'good' and positive. Yes lets all practise these behaviours and I'm sure the world will become a better place - epecially for women... FFS.

Agendas. And these are the public faces.