Mandu Reid is the new leader of the WEP

[Gone2far]

Excuse me if this has been covered already.
link article in the Observer (surprise!) covers what she sees as the future for the party, but never once mentions trans issues. Does anyone else find this a bit odd?
Are we supposed to be so excited that she's not White and Middle Class that we forget the whole trans thing.
And why didn't the journalist ask about it. Sorry, no, I forgot, it's the Observer.

Note which comments she responded to and which she ignored on this thread

twitter.com/ManduReid/status/1122166323197480961

Yes. She's obviously only going to connect with fangirls

I wouldn't hold out much hope, she hasn't bothered answering "the" question

www.twitter.com/mandureid

What’s this Women’s Brain Project she responded to?

The Women's Brain project are sound.
They are about the importance of SEX based medicine and research - understanding how the SEXes are prone to different diseases and respond to different medicines.
Unfortunately they occasionally conflate the words sex and gender, BUT they do appear to understand clearly the difference.

I follow them on twitter and sometimes retweet with a (pedantic) correction and they are often very open and happy to be corrected on terms.

They posted a great article recently about how societal sex-based roles and expectations alter the brain and have epigenetic effects. Unfortunately whoever wrote the header did a dreadful job of it and called it Gender identity leaves imprint on human brains

When in fact the entire article is demonstrating nothing of the sort:
Society’s expectations about gender roles alter the human brain at the cellular level, according to a paper published by a group of neuroscience researchers at Georgia State University.

Though the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are often used interchangeably by the average person, for neuroscientists, they mean different things, Forger said.

“Sex is based on biological factors such as sex chromosomes and gonads [reproductive organs],” she said, “whereas gender has a social component and involves expectations and behaviors based on an individual’s perceived sex.”

If she's ignoring it, that would suggest that she's gender critical. Surely if she believes TWAW, she would just say so and collect the woke cookies?

To be fair to Mandu Reid most people use the terms sex and gender interchangeably and have done for many years.

The posts on her twitter look like a bit of a pile on to me and I am not entirely surprised that she has not responded to posts as they could very easily be experienced as aggressive.

I do not know Mandu Reid personally but I can imagine how many women would feel quite anxious by the posts, not so much re questioning the use of the word gender rathe than sex but by the rapid number of posts that are far from friendly.

I get a bit weary of all the disapproval of 'white middle class women' though. Like we should hide away if we're white and not dare to have any opinions. Whose votes will she be relying on?

She has taken over leadership of a party which has been torn apart by its stance that gender is more important than sex. They investigated and sacked Heather B.E. for speaking about concerns transitioning children. They have as part of their manifesto that anyone can choose their sex or gender. The sex v gender debate has been with them since their inception and they've been part of it.

There is ZERO chance that she has stepped into this position unaware of this history. She knows.

It is obvious from her own words she thinks she can just ignore the issue, which suggests she's even more misguided than Sophie was.

More of the same.

What disapproval?

Surely oppressed groups are allowed to call out more privileged groups on their privilege from time to time?

Anyone who aspires to be an ally to oppressed groups accepts being prepared to examine their privilege as part and parcel of being an ally and a caring person, surely?

Apologies if I missed some serious disapproval somewhere.

The only reference to "white" I found on the twitter thread was from an alt-right troll account

She's ignoring the "what is a woman" questions on that thread. It's beyond bizarre - such an own goal.

.
They could have called themselves anything they fancied. Why even bother to call themselves the Women's Equality Party if they're not bothered to stick up for us cunty types?

They are about the importance of SEX based medicine and research

Thank feck for that. I worried it might be about pink brains and blue brains.

hood - just because I'm not entirely sure I understood you: is your position that transpeople are more oppressed than women?

I literally just had a WEP person at my door canvassing.

She was a medical doctor. Her views:

• sex is not binary (she referenced intersex for this position). People can change sex.

• when I said that its a disorder for people to want to chop off healthy body parts she said well people want to chop off their arms. I said indeed - that is what I also call a disorder. Her response was that it was terrible to say that someone in that position has a disorder (i.e. I was being mean)

• she would not let men into a woman's refugee. So I asked what about a man who identifies as a woman. Her brain exploded.

• we should be aiming for a gender free society. I said that sounds cracking - but women will still be vulnerable because of their biology if there are not interventions to protect them BASED ON THEIR SEX.

• men who identify as women should be included in WEP because they then become vulnerable to rape. (i.e. they are not vulnerable to rape when they are men but become vulnerable to rape because of presenting as feminine. i.e. women are not vulnerable to rape because of biology but because of feminine presentation).

• I was using pesky Western logic and being closed whereas she was being open so we had to end the conversation there.

Basically - her position was that I was not being nice. I made it clear that of course I recognised that (actual) transgender people have their own terrible struggles to which I am very sympathetic, but I didn't think xys should be in an organisation for xx. She still thought I was being mean.

She was a perfectly pleasant woman who I have no doubt just wants everyone to be happy. And was most put out that I didn't want to just be nice to everyone.

God FFS that is really depressing.

FFS that’s a really depressing interaction!

In the Observer article, Mandu uses “gender equality” not “sex equality”. While I know lots of people conflate sex and gender (“gender pay gap”, anyone?), the leader of the WEP really should know better.

I’m not hopeful.

It really was depressing.

What got me the most was at the end when she went on about me being so "closed". So dismissive of really obvious women's rights issues.

I now wish I asked her:

• if I had my liver tested (or something medical) would she test for appropriate levels for a male or female

• in her genderless world - what happens to lesbians? i.e. absolutely lets get rid of a gendered world - but there will still be same SEX attraction won't there.

I'm soooooooooo disappointed about the WEP.

The reference to whiteness was in The Guardian headline We’re not just for middle class white women rather than in the Twitter thread, hoodathunkit.

Am I right in reading your post as referring to the privileges of race and class enjoyed by white middle class women, rather than any sort of reference to trans ideology?

I assume she knows the issue and is either GC or doesn't want it to be an issue.

However. I am getting annoyed with women like Mandu (and a few other prominent feminists) who I perceive to be acting like they are getting annoyed with women constantly making this point. Like they are bored of it and they want us to shut up and be nice.

It's fucking important. And we won't shut up until it's resolved.

Hoodathunkit, surely the reason for a women's party is so that women of all kinds can work together to advance the rights of women? Once someone singles me out in any way I'd just slope off elsewhere. She's a politician, she needs to know how people react to being pointed ar as the undesirables. That may not be what she meant, but I see constant nastiness directed at 'old white feminists' whose day has passed. Parties that go out of their way to point out a party is so inclusive that it's slightly annoyed with the people who will be its main voters won't ever get my vote. She should be courting all women, not brandishing her woke credentials.

Mandu is not GC

There are GC women within the WEP still but they are not liked and are not given positions of responsibility

The WEP is very trans inclusive but is avoiding the publicity that goes with defending this and will not enter into any debates with GC feminists at all.

It’s a lost cause.

The WEP is now totally meaningless. They had an exciting USP - the first political party specifically aimed at women - and then they blew it by adding "Ah, but when we say women we don't actually mean women, just anyone who claims to be one."

I think the upcoming Labour case will force all political parties to declare their stance in this issue. And I can't fucking wait.

Outanabout

I get a bit weary of all the disapproval of 'white middle class women' though. Like we should hide away if we're white and not dare to have any opinions. Whose votes will she be relying on?

The WEP always looked like a pointless vanity project from Sandi Toksvig. I was never their target audience but I agree I'm pretty bored by the notion that white, middle, class women need to apologise for their existence.

@ orchid

You misunderstand me

I have so much personal experience of lesbians, especially those who are neuro-atypical, being groomed into identifying as trans that I cannot even begin to answer your question.

Those women and girls are definitely oppressed, they identify as trans, they are oppressed as women but also as a subcategory of women who have experienced brainwashing and grooming. They want to "pass" as male but they don't (obviously I may have met FtM people and not known if they passed as male).

I do not consider these people to be my adversary any more than I consider some well-meaning brainwashed person in a cult to be my enemy. I generally reserve my battles for the brainwashers, not the brainwashed.

As for transwomen, all I can say is that over the course of my life, as a supporter of what used to be called LGB rights, I have been on friendly terms with countless butch (and not so butch) lesbians who nowadays would possibly ID as trans. Also with several transsexual men and post op (top and bottom) MtF transwomen who were sex workers.

I generally got on well with everyone and obviously transsexuals who do not "pass" as women experience violence and I know several people this happened to. I hate violence towards anyone. So obviously there is oppression, hatred and the risk of violence for some people who ID as transwomen.

However, and I hope this answers your question, at least to some degree, one of the many things that "peak transed" me was seeing a video of a transsexual with a male body aggressively telling a woman to "mind your privilege".