Why are people so afraid?

[Yambabe]

Really brought home to me this week. After the Martina thing not just peaking me but sort of chucking me off a cliff I have posted a couple of things on FB.

Ended with pretty much a 3-way convo, me, late 40s recently transitioned transwoman, father of a young transman, with occasional input from father of a young transwoman and concerned mother of pre-teen asd daughter.

It stayed respectful. Ideas went back and forth. TW friend posted same old same old mermaids/stonewall stuff, in support of self-id and medication pathway for kids. I refuted with links and stats, and asked questions which were ignored. The 2 parents of trans said some really thought-provoking and mainly gc stuff.

Thing is, throughout the whole 3 days my inbox didn't stop pinging. People saying how much they agreed with me, but couldn't say so openly because of the impact it could have on their lives or jobs. People looking at what had happened to Glinner, and particularly Robert Webb, and backing off.

How the hell did it get like this? Maybe more importantly how the hell do we let them know it's ok to have an opinion and be able to state what it is?

I am old and unimportant in the grand scheme of things but I have kids, and grandkids. Neices and nephews. How do I help make the world safe for them again?

It clearly does happen to people who have said e.g. racist or homophobic things on social media,

It rarely happens to people who say misogynistic things does it, that's the hypocrisy. This is all about power, not morality or justice. Men have it and we don't.

It rarely happens to people who say misogynistic things does it, that's the hypocrisy. This is all about power, not morality or justice. Men have it and we don't.

Ain’t that the truth!

The problem is that transphobia is now very loosely defined and has become basically whatever TRAs find offensive, with no element of objectivity. The use of the word phobia means that it is viewed on a par to racism and homophobia, meaning that many employers will be tempted to treat it the same.

Obviously I recognise that there is such a thing as genuine transphobia, but now any mildly GC view is being lumped in with genuine hate towards trans people.

As for misogyny, plus ca change- nobody cares about it. Language of cis-privilege such as that perpetuated by Sally Hines and others means that women are now seen as some sort of privileged overlords. I saw a younger academic immediately denounce an article on male violence for being transphobic as it didn’t list transwomen killed in 2017. Turned out none were killed though....

Its no good banging on about it at work and losing your job, as you will then not be in a position to change things back to the way they should be before the virtue signalling nonsense took over.

A question to ask though is:
Where are the risk assessments and what are the mitigations being put into place to protect women and girls from this new X policy?

It’s not about talking about it at work. It is about being doxxed and then TRAs doing a pile on of complaints to your employer.

I saw a younger academic immediately denounce an article on male violence for being transphobic as it didn’t list transwomen killed in 2017. Turned out none were killed though....

FFS.

Agree, Dangernouse

Misogyny is apparently not seen as a reputational liability for organisations. Presumably as few people really care enough to boycott a company due to misogyny. Depressing.