Women's mental health is being damaged by our forced extinction.

[Womantheonlykind]

I just watched the parliamentary debate.

I am sick of the manipulative fraud, the suicide myth (lie lie lie) and TRA mental health tropes being pushed as a reason to remove women's identity and legal rights. Why is no one quoting the NHS statement on this?

What about our mental health?

I am unable to see an unconflicted peaceful future with me in it at the moment. The more I hear from this debate and the more I see incredibly valid objection to the erasure of women's identity crushed under the heel of the "be nice or be punished" boot together with the dismissal of ongoing violence by men (often in the guise of women) as irrelevant the harder I find it to cope.

The reality of being forced by my government to be complicit to some fantasy that goes against every scientific fact in my head is damaging to my mental health. The instant dismissal of all truthful data collection fries my logic chip.

The way child abuse is being legitimised and has been rushpushed into government health, social and education policy in less than a decade WITH NO ETHICAL EXAMINATION OR STUDY gives me nightmares and makes me sick to my stomach on a daily basis.

I am so angry, so distraught, so appalled that the total class erasure of women is expected to continue unnoticed and unimpeded. I know we are all doing our bit, I feel it is too late, the rug has been pulled from under us.

For me personally this has absolutely devastated me, my world view and self view is irreparably damaged.

Oh no, she won't be going to Goldsmiths or going Gender studies. She knows my feelings on gender woo,heard about my battle with our TWAW spouting MP, so I'd be very surprised indeed if she was taken in by glittery pink unicorn nonsense.

HubertHerbert
I'm trying to study now and politics and sex and gender need to be discussed in groups and the cognitive dissonance is horrible. I feel so completely paranoid and humiliated. The obsessive checking over my language, the pointless ruminating keeping me awake.

How is this anything other than authoritarian control of thought and speech? I feel for you, Hub, I really do and I don't know where this is leading. I don't think the perpetrators of this nonsense do either. I say to them "be careful what you wish for, you just might get it".

I can’t though can I. But I just wish I could look in a crystal ball, five years into the future, and see if there’s been any resolution, any genuine change or support that hasn’t come at the cost of our rights, our safety or our sanity. Sorry for the rant. I’ll live to fight another day I think.

I want to have a crystal ball for that purpose. One part of me can't believe that we are going to see the end of feminism (of the kind which fights against sex-based oppression) or at least its considerable dilution and to see that this is achieved by the political left, not the political right. That part believes that the bubble will burst in perhaps another decade.

The other part of me tries to imagine what the future society with the gender ideology might look like. I think most feminist women would then identify as nonbinary, and though some men might identify that way, too my guess is that 'nonbinary' would just become another category meaning women, perhaps just more uppity ones.

So sad that this thread was started two years ago and so very little has changed for the better.

The reality of being forced by my government to be complicit to some fantasy that goes against every scientific fact in my head is damaging to my mental health. The instant dismissal of all truthful data collection fries my logic chip. The way child abuse is being legitimised ... gives me nightmares

I feel the same, Womantheonlykind. I just have to keep fighting, doing the little I can, in order to stop myself despairing. But I do see signs of hope now that I didn't see even a year ago. Please don't lose hope.

Its exhausting and draining.
Its upsetting and infuriating.
Its ANOTHER fight we have to do and this time we have to deal with handmaidens being 'kind' to the men who hate them.

But we have some amazing Shieldmaidens out there fighting publicly for us. Let's remember that. Let's remember that when it feels dark and terrible.
Lumos.

Me too. My gay son is a TRA, vocal and eloquent wokesperson at work getting his company lots of rainbow points. I love him dearly but on this one issue we can never speak again. So IRL I am gagged/have gagged myself because so far I have chosen my son over my principles, while I have no doubt that he will choose his principles over me because Mum's always going to be there in the end, isn't she.

I wonder where I went wrong. We were doing so well on women's rights too - until he had male friends who decided they were women, and women friends who decided they were men. I can totally understand him supporting them but he's gone full TWAW No Debate.

But in normal circs I'd be shooting my mouth off, the same way I do about politics generally. FTS.

I thought this video was pretty spot-on, despite it being American--
"Greg Lukianoff is a co-author of Coddling of the American Mind, and president of FIRE (www.thefire.org/).^ He discusses with Bret the current situation in the United States, how it relates to historical events, and what it might lead to."^

It is long, but you can skip to segments:

00:00 Introductions
01:26 Collapse of western civilization - why is western civilization collapsing?
06:00 The online environment is primary
11:25 Generations fighting over online rules
15:39 A new religion?
19:10 The Precautionary Principle
24:41 Is Twitter a view into the human unconscious?
26:13 Conspiracy Theories Vs Freedom of Speech
33:46 Solution to online problems
39:36 Why rational thinking is rare
43:49 US Founders
48:43 Theory of liberal science
52:43 Greg's experience of the Evergreen meltdown
01:01:22 The "Mighty Ira" documentary
01:03:25 Dysfunctional graduates destroying organizations
01:09:25 Wokeness Vs Cognitive behavioral therapy
01:17:33 Greg's prediction

Greg L. specifically brings up the mental health problems that are exploding over this, and it clearly makes him angry.

I censor my public voice because my niece is a transman.

It's horrible.

The no debate attitude is the worst. Shutting down the most well-spoken, informed and empathic people with aggressive namecalling. Young people are not learning how to handle disagreements and debate. It's dangerous.

I had a cry about all this yesterday, after reading more statistics about sexual violence inflicted on women and girls. I didn't realise how much it was affecting my mental health until then.
It's just tiring how no-one gives a shit. Violence is endemic, sex based pay discrimination is not going away, and all I see coming from organisations with regards to inclusivity is stating pronouns.
And yes totally agree with the comment that it feels like you know an awful secret that no one else does and you can't talk about it for fear of being labelled a bigot.
I have friends posting about what a transphobe JK Rowling is and I am afraid to say something and lose all my friends (because I'm sure the vocal ones will tell the others what an outrageous hateful person I am). But equally I'm not sure I can really call it friendship when I am self censoring something I consider so important.
Lockdown has been at least provided me with some distance from them, though unfortunately more time to read up on the issue.
My one respite is my family get it.
to those self censoring at home as well.

I share in the anxiety and the fury. I'm a second wave feminist, and after so many battles and achievements, I can't believe that in 2020 women are in this position. Like so many, I oscillate between hope and despair, but the cognitive dissonance of having to hide how I really feel has taken its toll on my wellbeing. I'm not sure I'll ever forgive them women supporting this insanity either.

So IRL I am gagged/have gagged myself

this

Only since lockdown have I been able to talk to my husband about it. Before that he was upset if I brought it up as he thought it was a fringe issue, now he sees that it has become even mainstream in the media he reads so he now understands.

My daughter however, I have to talk around the issues, I have to talk about her friends in convoluted 'theys' and a 'him' and be ever careful about the topics I talk about and how I discuss them. Even that is so very draining.

@TheChampagneGalop

The no debate attitude is the worst. Shutting down the most well-spoken, informed and empathic people with aggressive namecalling. Young people are not learning how to handle disagreements and debate. It's dangerous.

I've become very pleased that MN doesn't have a block option after all, after seeing how it has become normal on twitter to digitally stick your fingers in your ears every time someone argues something you can't counter.

Inflammatorywrit! - I wrote it and I was not inflamed one bit

Also that link looks fascinating and is my evening planned.

And re friends, intelligent women posting and talking about how they hate JK now, is so isolating.

This is the only place I can go to check I haven't lost my mind. Love to all of you.

Inflammatorywrit! -I wrote it and I was not inflamed one bit

Actually I may have to name change because the song goes through my head every time I am on MN... How about SvetlanaSucksLemons? Maybe not.

You have definitely not lost your mind Hubert.

I agree with you OP. I feel like this too. Sometimes I have to step back from it all because the anxiety is too much. I do write to my MP regularly, in particular I emailed her expressing my support for Liz Truss, and she replied saying she agreed with her.
It sometimes feels like such an exhausting battle. Then I think about the suffragettes and what they went through and know that we just have to keep on keeping on.

Just as an aside, Frances Crook is doing an interview with the Royal Society of Medicine tomorrow evening. Anybody can register to watch, it is free. She has retweeted Fair Play for Women among others, so I am looking forward to hearing her.
The weekly RSM online conversations are really interesting and worth watching. They have some really interesting guests.
They do ask for a small donation if you can afford it, but they are free.

Glad to see this thread back.

Me too. It definitely helps to know we're all in the same boat.

Agreed IwishNothingButTheBestForYou2

So many heartfelt comments on here. We must remember we're not alone. There has been a collective silencing of women and a deliberate targeting of children and young people which will take time to overcome. But the massive overreach - the abuse of language, gaslighting children in schools, sport, prisons and the rest mean that the excesses and abuses become more visible daily.
There is a veritable tsunami of women starting to speak out about this - none of us are alone

I’m very pleased the thread is reinstated. Hope there will be HQ clarification for future thread pulling decisions.
Link to thread about this thread being pulled and reinstated: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4056378--We-re-takin-it-down-now?msgid=101029331#101029331

This issue has definitely affected my anxiety levels and has for a few years now, I think that’s entirely understandable with any fundamental threat issue like this, unfortunately. I try to stop posting and reading when it gets too much. Talking IRL can be hard though, so..

Thanks for the RSM tip Porridge. Really interested to see those. Link here.

www.rsm.ac.uk/events/

Noting they have a GMC guest coming up too

I haven't contributed to this thread before, but I've read it and seen my own feelings and experience echoed by so many other posters, eloquently and movingly.

It's having to mind my language and hold my tongue in my own home (woke teens) and with friends (I work in the arts) that has contributed to the erosion of my mental health, as much as the drip drip wearing away of women's rights in plain sight. Without the wisdom, courage and common sense of posters here I don't know how I would cope.

I'm extremely relieved to see the thread reinstated.

I'm extremely relieved to see the thread reinstated Indeed, and thank you Womentheonlykind for this thread.

I'm glad this has been reinstated, there have been times I've felt overwhelmed by it all and if there wasn't so much at stake for women I'd be tempted to bury my head in the sand to stop myself worrying about it. It helps to know I'm not alone in the impact this is having on my mental health.

Fear over the impact of this on the life of my granddaughter if we don't succeed in protecting our rights and our words to describe ourselves literally keeps me awake at night and I'm exhausted.