Deborah Frances-White and trans-women in sport

[RitaFairclough]

I think DFW is marvellous and I love the Guilty Feminist. But I just read her comment on Twitter about the sport debate and I am wondering how any feminist can really support that position.

I am too scaredy cat to comment on twitter because I use it for work stuff, but I would like to present the following scenarios...

You are a 12-year-old girl and you are really fast at running. You win medals and you dream of being at the Olympics one day. You can even beat the boys - for now. When you are 13, or 14, a trans-girl arrives in your races. She is much taller than you and she runs faster. She wins the medals, and the sponsorship. You know however hard you train you will never beat her. You give up running.

Or

You are a 12-year-old boy and you’re good at running. But by the time you’re 14, your times are slipping and you’re not winning any more. Your coach suggests you say you’re a girl and try your luck in those races. You’re not keen but your parents are pushy and your coach is too, and once you’ve done it once and won a medal easily you start to see the benefits...

I just can’t see any way in which girls or women don’t lose here.

She has accepted the premise of girl brain and magical thinking. All the rest of the illogic flows from there.

A boy who wants to be a girl is still Male.

Read the thread.Yay- i’m not!

If a boy is confused as to why people think he is a boy then he needs some solid adult support to help him understand that it is OK to reject the stereotypical male ideal and instead live his life in line with his own personality and preferences.

Or just, you know, look down?

I felt sorry for Deborah when she tried to talk about her infertility and other issues, but found it difficult to do that and remain inclusive. I pitied her because she's so desperate to please men, she couldn't put her needs first.

But now she is trying to shame girls into budging up for boys and men. She is trying to teach girls that boys feeling are more important than theirs. She's has a platform and advertises herself as a feminist. She's not someone to be pitied she is a disgrace.

I sat through a recording of it and it was excruciating. Different women falling over themselves to be woker than thou. In fact, I can’t even bear to tell you how shit it was. One comedian accused me of offensively assuming she was a lesbian because I answered “no” to her question “we’ve all had our bikini line waxed, right?”. Oh how everyone laughed at my justified humiliation

I totally lost it with the abortion episode the other week though which started off with a massive super-woke disclaimer. I literally cannot think of an issue which is less about identity and all about biology.

So true. This is one of many points where I find myself raging. The politics of abortion exists because it's women who need abortions, not men.

"If men got pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."

The American right attacks abortion and reproductive rights because of misogyny. Not because some "persons" get pregnant. 11 year old rape victims in Argentina are forced to give birth to their rapist's baby because of misogyny - you can bet your bottom dollar that if male Catholic priests could get pregnant, suddenly there would be as much sacred ink spilled in theological tracts in defence of the sad necessity that is abortion as are currently spilled in defence of the concept of the "just" war.

Abortion is a women's issue.

I used to like The Guilty Feminist but stopped listening to it a while ago when they had a trans person on (Avery something?) who kept joking about their dick. I think it was on that episode that Deborah said something along the lines of "I just think of transwomen as women".

I remember thinking "no you don't". I really don't think anyone genuinely thinks that. It was said it such a blithe 'this is the right way to think' way. I don't know it just really jarred with reality. I'm probably not explaining myself very well here..

Anyway, I was wondering when DFW would wade in on the trans debate. I was thinking that as she'd been quiet for so long that maybe she was actually GC. Alas not...

The comments under that tweet are good though!

What a load of steaming shite. I presume she's the Guilty Feminist because her priority is the menz?

'I am the only person in the world who doesn’t rate The Guilty Feminist.'

Nope, I'm totally with you. I find it smug, self satisfied crap, with precious little to do with actual feminism

I really wanted to like the guilty feminist but it was SO man pleasing it lost the point. And it was smug and unthinking, uncritical, super woke, so liberal their brains fell out. Shit podcast.

Someone saying "I believe in X" in order to make other people believe in X when the sayer themself doesn't actually believe it but will gain some advantage by saying it gives me the rage ApocalypseNowt.

There's something off-the-scale dishonest in doing that.

Yes, that's it nauticant! It felt horribly dishonest, all in one little throwaway comment. Blurgh.

I really like the guilty feminist but the cis-trans thing is winding me up. I was listening today about the abortion problem in Northern Ireland and they can't help adding things like " obviously this doesn't just affect women" great I thought, they realise that sometimes partners are involved and are also affected - then they go on to say that trans men and binary fluid people get pregnant too. Then later on they said something like women and other people who can get pregnant?. WTF.

Her "woke" attitude to trans women on the guilty feminist put me off- I gave up listening (loved most of it but the whole trans/woke stuff got really wearing).

'then they go on to say that trans men and binary fluid people get pregnant too. Then later on they said something like women and other people who can get pregnant?'

Well fuck that shit is all I have to say to that. They should be bloody ashamed of themselves

I don't know who this woman is or why she's guilty but she's not a feminist. A feminist doesn't prioritise boys' feelings over girls' reality, even if it is hypothetical.

Feminism is about prioritising women.

I feel sorry for her.

Ummm can someone check if 50:50 men & Trans identified men would be ok by her

mobile.twitter.com/5050Parliament/status/1103419232941998080

Her argument isn’t very intelligent at all. It’s emotional manipulation.

This.

It's funny sofie Hagen left because GF wasn't woke enough.
Avery Edison is so awful. Why are misogynists on the show about feminism?

I am the only person in the world who doesn’t rate The Guilty Feminist.

You're not.

Waddle

I imagine it would be, because she just "thinks of them as women".

DFW irritates me beyond belief. No idea why.
Sorry, Deborah

(While I’m about it, don’t find Where’s the F in News very funny either. Runs away fast)

I’m really getting a burr in my saddle around women demanding the rights women fought for while they deny their own womanhood and in doing so place women in the position of oppressors of men whenever we stand for women.

Fuck that regressive, misogynist shit