Hi, I'm Liz the Glitch! Ask me anything.

[glitchliz]

The thread I wrote about attending Posie Parker's panel on gender identity and social media has attracted a lot of attention, and I thought it might be good to establish more of a dialogue. Ask me anything!

Also, to get this one out of the way: my babysitting rates are £15/hr, plus flights, and I'll provide a clean CRB check 😂

I don't think we should police thoughts, because that's nonsense. I think we should police actions.

What actions do you think should be policed?

I don't think we should police thoughts, because that's nonsense. I think we should police actions.

Ok, so essentially as long as people are forced to pay lip service to your belief system then you don’t care what they actually think.

Whilst man and male may be terms that you feel uncomfortable with, they are not pejorative. They are descriptive. And using them in an accurate manner is not an act of aggression - why should it be policed?

I’m not talking about deliberate baiting or harassment, just the accurate application of language (if you don’t think it’s accurate then you need to supply us with the definition you are using that includes actual characteristic, not circular language, but as you’ve dodged every request so far for that, I won’t hold my breath).

A woman is someone who identifies as a woman

I'd like to know if you think the same principle applies to other identity markers, for example, race. Can someone with white parents and grandparents artificially alter their skin colour and claim to be black because they feel an affinity with black culture?

Actually, I do identify as a zipzorp.

I know what it's like to have your identity stripped from you casually by strangers

You just said you were lucky because everybody refers to you in the manner in which you prefer - these two things can’t both be true.

If you're so confident that you're a woman then why do you and other transwomen need to 'perform' it so much.. in your appearance, makeup, lingerie.. why is it so sexualised?

A woman is someone who identifies as a woman

This isn't an answer and you know it. What is that person identifying as? Are they saying "I identify as a woman" because they have kidneys? Obviously not because having kidneys is a trait shared by both men and women. So what makes a woman different to a man? What is a woman???

What’s with the bat then? Why pose in your pants?

Why is it assumed that being pro-women = anti trans?

Liz, we've had loads of transwomen on here offering to answer any questions. And of course, they never do.

It's just one contradiction after another.

You say that no man would dress as a woman for nefarious purposes, but then say that all these transwomen on Reddit are lying, because there is no such thing as AGP.

You say you like people treating you as a woman. But no one is going to treat you as if you are going to get pregnant, need maternity leave, go through the menopause, or have a smear test.

All you want is the pronouns. Everyone knows you're trans, so all you are being perceived as is a person born male, insisting on female pronouns. Which you find 'euphoric'.

It's nothing like being a woman.

Still, I'm very glad you're here to explain. It's always useful to see it in black and white.

If this is a woman, what is the name for someone born of the sex class that gestate the young? Do they have a right to organise themselves as a distinct group away from the sex class who impregnate them, for issues that affect only them?

Well, women with uteruses and trans men/non-binary people who have them, or had them, can absolutely band together to argue for better protections around reproductive rights, period poverty, etc. I'm not going to name that group because I'm not in it. 'Woman' isn't an accurate descriptor for that, though, and you'd also find a lot of people who never had uteruses who'd join in that fight, too.

You can understand why the trans woman in the video reacted.

Can you understand why women need sex segregated space?

You just said you were lucky because everybody refers to you in the manner in which you prefer - these two things can’t both be true.

Not simultaneously, no. Earlier on in transition, I wasn't so lucky. Things are better now.

Hmm, Liz, perhaps it’s just my rampant paranoia, which you’ll have to forgive me for, as I went to convent school...

But i get the feeling that you’re not taking this seriously and for us, it’s taking up a lot of our lives.
And I just feel like you’re going to go scuttling back to your friends and yip yap about all our legitimate questions and fears.
‘Oh, those silly cis-women...what are they like?’

What message will you spread to your trans friends about us here on Mumsnet?
What have you learned from us?

I think you genuinely came on here just to be a GF, to be honest.

Woman' isn't an accurate descriptor for that,

Why? Science seems to think it is.

but then, it isn't socially expected or acceptable for women to be loud or aggressive

Oh come now! It isn’t socially acceptable for anyone to shout, swear, threaten violence and kick over property, it’s just that great hulking men can get away with it because people prefer to keep their teeth in their heads.

Are you actually advocating for women to become as violent as men because that’s “fair” then?!

A woman is someone who identifies as a woman - specifically, if you were to ask them the question 'are you a man, woman, neither, or both?' they'd answer 'woman' or 'both'.

Unless they are mute, or dead, or in a coma, or have special needs and can't articulate. Or a foetus. Then they're all men.

How do they know how to kill 126 million foetuses, if they couldn't ask them how they identified?

Has it ever crossed your mind that tacit acceptance from women (eg olitely treating you “as a woman”) is actually not because they truly think that you are but rather is a result of female socialisation and self preservation to put male feelings first, to be kind, to de-escalate emotionally charged situations, and most of all not to challenge male bodied people?

We have had a number of transwomen here over the years insisting that their perception of what women think of them is more valid than what actual women here are saying. I wondered if you though the same.

Woman' isn't an accurate descriptor for that, though

For the vast vast majority of people it is a perfectly accurate descriptor. Why should most of the world change their language and understanding of words to pander to your subjective identity?

In any case, I'm pretty sure I don't come across as an intimidating person likely to fly off the handle,

You were posing with a baseball bat marketed as being harm Women who are gender critical.

I personally read anyone posing online with weapons as a potential threat. Anyone posing with a weapon specifically for harming women, doubly so.

Police actions, you say?

That’s a very interesting statement. You’re saying that as long as you get the reaction you want, then everyone else’s feelings are unimportant. So if a young girl gives you your acceptance signals but is scared, or confused, so what?

That sounds horrible, why would they be scared or confused? In any case, you're misrepresenting what I said. I said that the difference between someone being accepting and someone not realizing I'm trans is a distinction without a difference, as far as my mental health is concerned, because we can't really know what someone else is thinking. If I was with someone who was scared or confused, I'd want to help them, because that's what decent people do? It's not connected to me being trans, unless you're suggesting that being around trans people is scary or confusing.

NeurotrashWarrior
But are you a cis or trans zipzorp??

Also would you like to see the dictionary definition of woman : adult human female changed? Do you think that definition is offensive? Because it directly conflicts with yours

Why should a male who identifies as a man and walks nude through a women’s changing room be prosecuted for the crime of exposure whilst a transwoman who has not had surgery and identifies as a woman and walks nude through a woman’s changing room is not committing a crime?

How exactly are the experiences of the girls and women in the changing room — the victims in the crime of exposure — objectively different?

Is it that you’d say the experiences of the girls and women are secondary to the experiences of the transwomen in question?

Is it that you’d suggest girls and women accustom themselves to experiencing what has long been considered criminal sexual assault if they’d like to use a changing room, for the comfort of transwomen?

Is there to be no place at all, on earth, other than the home, where females can find respite from the male gaze?

Is there to be no place on earth, none at all, other than in the home, where females can gather and speak amongst themselves, without the presence of males?

If so, how is that not taking from women something we fought for and built out of necessity, as an oppressed group?

Are females to be the ONLY marginalised group forbidden this respite and this gathering?

If so, how is it that females are to be forbidden this, because males demand entry, and that is NOT a replication of millennia-long male dominance over females?

And also I disagree that what's makes society is temporal, cultural and societal

We can tell whether someone is male or female in the vast majority of cases.. whatever they wear

Rapists don't mistake non women for women.. I wonder why