The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy have come up with. Definition of "woman"....

[BertrandRussell]

...and I have very rarely been so angry.

One is not born, but rather becomes, a Northerner.

Oh god, once again I just don't know what I am anymore - a white heterosexual southern woman, overweight, like my job, neurotypical. What on earth does that make me? Maybe I need counselling to find out?

Trans Cumbrian.

Boggling at the idea of a midwife looking at the genitals of a newborn and stroking her chin as she discerns if the length of the clitoris qualifies the child as a woman, or if she will have to call it a penis until the child grows up enough to discern the gentle, caring traits that could confirm if the child is female.

If they're in the south, obviously the rules of biology are different further north than Oxford.

I give but a shiny shite for their list of stereotypes. But to say babies are sexed at birth “depending on the length of their clitoris/penis” is so breathtakingly absurdly WRONG WRONG WRONG that ...

Does Meg-John think the midwife has a special genital ruler or something?

Ok, i’ve had a go at writing a definition of my own.
A teapot
Commonly round,, short and stout, but can vary in shape and size. Usually has a handle on one side and a spout on the other, and is hollow in the middle with an open top covered by a lid, which can be hinged or fully removable,. Design, Quality and construction material can vary according to the social context of the item, frequency of usage and social status of the owner. One might expect to find a high quality ceramic pot, with hand painted decorations, such as periwinkles, in the home of an upper middle class personN, or a lower status person who wishes to create a favourable impression. A working class person of advancing years might typically own a cheaper, lower quality ceramic pot with a floral or chintz design, whereas younger working class people tend to own functional, unadorned items. In some lower quality establishments, such as cheap cafes and motorway service stations, it’s common to encounter a low quality stainless steel vessel, this item is most commonly recognisable by its hinged, leaky lid. These items can also be used for purely decorative purposes, such as a highly intricate pot, painted by a well-known artist, placed on a dresser as a standalone feature, an old chipped pot containing flowers placed on the windowsill, or a novelty pot depicting a penis and testicles denoting the variety and virility of the human race, placed on a shelf next to a collection of Toby jugs and usually purchased at the seaside. It’s important to remember that what a teapot is depends on the context, situation and location at which it is found.

It's probably a little weird that I decided not to try and measure the length of my clitoris today on the basis that I'm on my period. I'm not sure I can explain my rationale for that thought process other than my brain being slightly fried by reading too many TRA absurdities recently.

They're on a hiding to nothing with the definition question, it's just to confudfle the public, enrage us and deflect and detract. Even if they ever did come up with one, you'd still need new definitions for the people that produce motile gametes and the people who gestate.

Transgender people literally prove there's no such thing as a male or female brain. They disprove the theory themselves.

By existing, I mean. By being gender non conforming.

What a convoluted mess of twattery - just so as to avoid using the most obvious definition of what a woman is.

So I don't need breasts or to have given birth but I do need to be vulnerable, social and concerned about appearance...well that's me out then. Excuse me while I start researching the correct male definition so I can fit in somewhere....

Excellent HotRocker.

That's exactly it.

One is not born, but rather becomes, a Northerner.

Oh dear...I was born up north of northern parents, but they committed literal violence by raising me in Essex. I've since returned north but my vowels have been permanently shortened. DH is a natal southerner, he attempts to transition by saying 'ee by gum' and I think he knows what a ginnel is, but he's never going to pass.

In some northern working class contexts femininity is associated with strength and aggression

It, what, what, wait what ?????

In some northern working class contexts femininity is associated with strength and aggression

Northern woman: By 'eck, our Albert, if tha dunt get thy whippets out o' t' coil 'oil, I'll tan thy 'ide wi' me clog...

But to say babies are sexed at birth “depending on the length of their clitoris/penis” is so breathtakingly absurdly WRONG WRONG WRONG

I keep going back to this and it's so astonishingly WRONG" - factually INCORRECT* - that it should disbar the author from ever going near a human being in professional context until she's completed and taken GCSE biology.

I think that the person who wrote that risible 'definition' must have got their views on northern women from watching Last of the Summer Wine.

They got it from the same place they go the idea that doctors measure the clitoris at birth and consult a chart to see if it's long enough to decide that the baby is a boy until further notice.

I mean, it laughable, but then you realize that what's meant to be a reputable professional organization published this giant pile of festering bullshit and suddenly it's not so funny any more.

(Oops, there I go being all Northern and unladylike.)

When DS was born I don’t remember a ruler or a tape measure, I’ll have to ask my mum about my birth., although I think penises and clitorises have significant geographical and situational differences, so I doubt a tape measure is necessary. Also what kind of pervert is interested in the size of a baby girls clitoris? No, don’t answer…

Some questions.

Who wrote this shite?
Did they receive public funds to do so?
What's this with northerners? Northern to where? Because the whole of the UK is northern to me so .....
Did some posh tosh from whereevershire write this racist nonsensical piece?

And having seen the definition of man I don't know where to place myself on their highly accurate spectrum

Psychiatry has for a century, been trying to get people to see it as "respectable" scientific medicine.

Just blown all its work in one fell swoop.

It pisses me off so much, that even as psychologists, they cannot and do not distinguish between what people are, and what restrictive stereotypes our sociocultural context expects of us, and tries to force onto us. It is correct to identify these stereotypes as present in our culture, but ALLwomen struggle against some, or all, of these at various points during our lives. They also completely miss how our surrounding social world responds differently to woomen and men respectively,when we show e.g. assertiveness. I am in psychology, and I am horrified that this lot have thrown structural analyses of power structures to the wind, and replaced it with intra-individual identification. They also under- emphasise the coerciveness of socialisation. It is perfectly true, that a lot of women are socialised into being accommodating of men, and putting men’s needs first, but that shit is something feminists (not the fun kind) have been calling out for decades, if not centuries. To call it identification is betrayal.
As is the attempt to remove the possibility of analysis of social structures around women as a CLASS.

Who wrote this shite?

The BACP Best practice guide which contains the definition in OP was written by Dr Meg-John Barker

Blog:
(extract)
"When referring to me it’s great if you can use the name ‘Meg-John’. I’m also happy for people to use ‘MJ’ for short.

My pronoun is they, them, their, so I’d prefer that you said ‘they are the author of Rewriting the Rules’, for example, rather than ‘she/he is the author of Rewriting the Rules’. You can see more examples of how ‘they’ can be used in the biographies above, and you can find out more about the singular they pronoun for non-binary people here.

I’d like to be referred to in non-binary gender terms, for example saying ‘we’ve got all women and non-binary speakers tonight’ (rather than ‘all women’); saying ‘Meg-John is a person who has done…’; calling me ‘mate’ or ‘friend’ rather than ‘madam’, ‘sir’ or ‘miss’; referring to a group I’m in as ‘folks’ or ‘guys’ rather than ‘girls’ or ‘ladies’, or introducing an event with ‘friends and colleagues’ rather than ‘ladies and gentlemen’."

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

OU profile:
(extract)
"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)"
www.open.ac.uk/people/mjb2276

Wiki
(extract)
"Meg-John Barker (born 23 June 1974) is an author, speaker, consultant, and activist-academic. They have written a number of anti self-help books on the topics of relationships, sex, and gender, as well as the popular comic book Queer: A Graphic History, and the book The Psychology of Sex. They are the writer of the relationships book and blog Rewriting the Rules, and they have a podcast with sex educator Justin Hancock.

Barker is currently a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Open University in the United Kingdom with a focus on psychotherapy. Barker holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Nottingham, and is also a UKCP accredited psychotherapist specializing in sex therapy and relationship counseling.

Barker has written and/or edited some of the first academic collections on open non-monogamy, bisexuality, non-binary gender and BDSM. They were editor of the journal Psychology & Sexuality from 2010 to 2017, and lead author of The Bisexuality Report and the BACP document on Gender, Sexual, and Relationship Diversity." (continues)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg-John_Barker

The author is the partner of Edward Lord who also 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

Right, so a woman is someone who is correctly performing femininity according to the culture/social system that the individual is living in.

So much woke, so much progressive. I see a counsellor, how do I find out if she subscribes to this nonsense?

Also BACP.

Here's an example of BACP in action regards their own journal, "Therapy Today" who published a readers letter urging a cautious approach to trans children by Stephanie Davies Arai:

twitter.com/4th_WaveNow/status/969306014876078080?s=20

Here BACP grovel to Mermaids for printing the letter:

twitter.com/4th_WaveNow/status/969346059964157953?s=20

Shocking.

They got it from the same place they go the idea that doctors measure the clitoris at birth and consult a chart to see if it's long enough to decide that the baby is a boy until further notice.

Because the first thing any midwife does is shove her fingers between the labia of a newborn and have a fiddle about to ascertain clitoral length.