'Transwoman' blazes a trail across British Columbia to force salons to give 'Brazillian' wax, filing human rights complaints against 15 separate salons

[CaitlynsCat]

nationalpost.com/news/canada/not-for-men-sorry-transgender-woman-files-human-rights-complaint-after-being-denied-brazilian-wax

The facts appear to be:

• the complainant is accused of harassing salon workers
• the complainant is anonymous even while those at the salon are not
• the complainant used a male name but claimed to have 'transitioned', whatever the fuck that means
• the service is described as a 'Manzillian', presumably this means cock & balls, though this is not clear

Obviously in addition to the right of salon workers not to be forced to wax cocks, they would likely not be trained in dick waxing, as it's a completely different procedure

What words could the salon use to advertise the treatments they offer?

I don't think they could even use vulva because some male transpeople use the term, and some female transpeople don't like to use the word to describe their bodies but will be distressed if they feel excluded.

I can't believe that someone refusing to wax a pair of balls has become a human rights issue.

If I was waxing his balls, I would make sure it hurt so much he didn't ask again.

I think that there is an assumption that transpeople are distressed about their sex, therefore would not place themselves into situations where their bodies are exposed as the sex that they are. So they wouldn't seek intimate treatments like this or be naked where other people can see them.

This is very clearly a false assumption.

TELI would be all over this here, if GRA reform goes through. They are set up to look for possible litigation opportunities.

I filled out the GRC consultation before I landed here at MN and before the excellent advice from various organisations. But this was something I kept coming back to in my answers - small businesses, charities, local authorities and schools will be absolutely hounded by lawsuits in the manner of the Christian Legal Centre. They rarely if ever win, but the press coverage is huge and always detrimental to those on the receiving end in terms of publicity.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a connection somewhere, given certain religious groups would rather have trans children than homosexual children, and CLC have brought at least one homophobic case.

Surely the point is not to ensure that transwomen can get their genitalia safely waxed. After all, plenty places do offer this service. The point is to ensure, out of a sort of insane jealousy, that women are denied the intimacy of the female-only salon.

I've only ever had nails done but in that short half hour one has very female conversations about very female things and it's generally accompanied by hoots of laughter and a fair bit of eye rolling about men.

This litigant just wants that stopped because they can't be a part of that, not ever. They can't have it, so no one can. They don't care about hairy balls at all.

This is very clearly a false assumption

It is. Some are, some aren't. They're the ones wanting to get their cocks out everywhere.

I agree Charlie. It's often a very female space.

So I don't even know our local manicurist that well but we discussed HRT and menopause, hopeless partners, trans a little bit, family troubles, female cancers and kids. I barely know her (I mean she is totally totally great and funny). The intimacy of the salon, its a real thing!

This litigant just wants that stopped because they can't be a part of that, not ever. They can't have it, so no one can. They don't care about hairy balls at all.

Yep. I was just emailing to and fro with DH about this thread and he said the same. Also, I keep coming back to Lawrence's Shame and Narcissistic Rage. Moreover, it's a pointless endeavour. What will happen when all the women have departed - the quiet and vulnerable ones to their homes; the uppity ones all doing Man Friday and going in with the sane men just to avoid them? They'll be left to each other. And they will find that most unsatisfactory.

In many countries, car insurance claims are ludicrous as they're regarded with such suspicion.

The UK has a particular reputation for holiday claims insurance.

Given that the gravy train for both of the above seems to be coming off the rails I'm sure there are a fair number of companies looking for another profitable area to exploit.

When the accessibility laws changed, there was a slew of suits when particular well-known litigants would visit a town and go into every shop in an afternoon (or, fail to access them and record the incident) and file suits afterwards.

It won't be people who are not acting in good faith asking for services like a Brazilian, oh no. Who would possibly think that?

I think it’s telling that the second individual mentioned in the article could have waited for a trained member of staff to wax their cock and balls, but wanted a Muslim woman to be forced to do it Yes, my thought also.

Left wing victim top trumps: trans or Muslim for the win? (From that article)

"In May, it was reported that a transgender woman was seeking $50,000 after being denied service at Mad Wax, a body hair removal business in Windsor, Ont. Jason Carruthers, Mad Wax’s president, told the Windsor Star at the time that the only employee working that day was a Muslim woman who refrains from physical contact with men outside family. And the only staff member who did male waxing was on sick leave."

I was just emailing to and fro with DH about this thread and he said the same.

My DH has pointed this out before, that men are aware that women have a rapport with each other that men are inherently excluded from and that they're often jealous and resentful about it. He thinks it's partly because most of them spent some time in spaces where it was happening as small children, and some of them never reach the stage of maturity where they come to terms with the fact that past a certain age they just aren't welcome in those spaces any more.

There was a similar case in Melbourne a couple of years ago. Karen someone who worked at La Trobe and flashed themselves to an unsuspecting worker at a women only salon in Brunswick. Rowan? There was a long thread about it on AIBU.

I think also it is the camaraderie of the oppressed. For example, black women are discriminated against terribly, in the hierarchy of oppression they are treated worse by far than white women. ( So, I am white.) The rapport and understanding black women have because of this can never include white women because while we can sympathise, acknowledge and fight together, that particular thing is not happening to us. It doesn't mean that we are being excluded, it just means we cannot pretend to suffer that sort of discrimination. But who would even dream of complaining that the rapport is therefore a 'privilege' or exclusive, and needed to be torn down?

Note: I'm not trying to suggest that women, white women, black women, have some kind of hive mind. It's just a mutual, unspoken understanding that lots of us have about things that happen to us because we are what we are.

Ps I only thought about this recently when reading pieces by black feminists, I am not inventing a sort of mystique.

This is on a par with the Vancouver rape refuge being sued and relentlessly targeted, the lesbian vegan restaurant hounded, the sweet shop targeted where a woman merely put a poster advertising a rape refuge in the window, the online 'first bra' service for teenage girls being accused of discrimination, Vancouver women's library, Salford working women's resource, Michfest, etc. The list is endless.

The ideology is a woman hating, industrial strength magnet.

I don't understand how people can be so blind to have made these laws in the first place.

One assumes they must be men, who have no effing clue.

But I certainly have absolutely no hesitation in condemning them outright as either incompetent or misogynistic.

My contempt is boundless, to be honest.

Found it! This is wot peaked me. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2691219-to-think-this-is-sexual-harassment-not-an-equal-opportunities-issue

It hurts … if everywhere I go, I get shut down for who I am

Get over it kid. I'm excluded from loads of things because of who I am and what my body is like. The masons, elite sports, oxbridge (not smart enough innit).

It's just life

Have there been the the same number of male services targeted by transmen?

I'm not aware of any, but it could be that there are fewer male only spaces. Or when they exist they aren't there for safety and are more likely to include females when asked?

Off-topic but wtf is the deal with "front hole"? (Which I hadnt cone across prior to this thread.) Your urethra is further forward than your vagina Even if for some bizarre reason we did need to dispense with the word "vagina", this would be a wildly inaccurate and confusing alternative.
On-topic, yes to PPs who mention the intimacy of the female space. That is absolutely the issue at stake here.

Off-topic but wtf is the deal with "front hole"?

It bothers me for a variety of reasons, the lack of biological knowledge being one.

The coyness being another.

Yes, it does seem that this is people taking the opportunity to humiliate women rather than any equal rights issue.

Perhaps we should look for a suitable phrase for this sort of thing.

Vexatious litigation is a very useful term.

Could we have
Vexatious entitlement?

In this case it might be vexatious trans entitlement.

Get over it kid. I'm excluded from loads of things because of who I am and what my body is like. The masons, elite sports, oxbridge (not smart enough innit).

Just because I'm a shortarse nobody ever offered me a job as a catwalk model or a professional basketball player. Exclusionary bastards!

This is deliberate harassment and a narcissistic power play.
I am so sick of women being abused for pointing out the insanity of it all.