Digital Spy forums, silencing women

[womenspeakout]

Yesterday there was a debate on the DS forums about a women's only pool allowing men who identified as women to use it or not.

I said that self ID was open to abuse and men who dress as women and say they ID as women are not women. They are clearly different and women's spaces need to be for women.

I've been banned. I was messaged with a threat saying and 'Trans women are women' and clearly there is no room for any debate at all and women just have to accept this and say nothing.

My reaction was the most liked, had the most support, especially from other women. The ones from someone who is trans and saying it doesn't matter, hardly any, maybe one or two likes.
So all women are being silenced for the extreme minority.

It feels we are always silenced when expressing valid opinions. It feels like 1984, if you don't say the right thing you're wiped out.

I just don't know what we are supposed to do? Women have to be quiet while spaces for us are infiltrated by people who are men. They were men the morning they woke up and decided all of a sudden they want to be known as a woman.

Many others have been banned or reprimanded for saying similar things.

It's so ridiculous, I feel so incensed by it, not for not being able to use the forum, but by not being able to even debate gender/sex. By being silenced to told to tow the party line.

It's been like that for a long time. Every trans thread gets memory holed no matter how newsworthy.

I don't post there but I did used to read it occasionally. Recalling my last visit there the quality of discussion has plummeted the depths on many subjects it appears.

I used to post on DS a lot before I found MN about 9 years ago. I still lurk sometimes but they appear to not allow many discussions on trans issues. I've seen a few, including in discussions on sports and there is a lot of support for the GC positions so it's strange that they are taking such a censorious stance. In general the site has gone quite downhill, not as active and poor level of debate. It is also too male dominated for my liking, I only really use it now for the Strictly spoilers!

I only use it for SCD and a couple of other things. I just noticed that and posted on it.

I do find it very male dominated though, as you said.

I just can't understand why it's so anti women have their voice heard.

I don't know how the community modding system works at DS but there is a high chance it has been gamed like most of Reddit, Wikipedia etc...

Queer theory zealots with a lot of time on their hands have been steadily working for a number of years to colonise moderator positions all over the internet therefore controlling the narrative.

There are two of three trans posters on DS that seem to rule all discussions with an iron fist. I used to be there regularly but don't bother any more. When I do pop over for a look it seems very quiet now.

Yes, it's been a forbidden topic for some time. There are a very small amount of impressive posters who understand women's rights issues, but it's mostly MRA/gamer free rein and as such I stopped posting a long time ago. You've only got to look at their LGBTQ+ selection to see the editorial stance is very heavily weighted on the TWAW totalitarian stance.

It's not just male dominated, there are some woke handmaidens there as well. No loss though, it's a boring and slow moving forum now, can guarantee the same trivial threads about boring non topics will still be on the front page of GD in three or four days time. A few years ago it was such an interesting and vibrant forum.

You have to take this offline and speak to women in person. They can't stop that. In the queue at the post office? Tell the woman next to you. In a public loo, leave a Fair Play for Women leaflet stuck on the back of the door of the cubicle. Wear an Adult Human Female T-shirt, write or visit your MP, councillor etc. Getting offline is as important as being online.

You have to take this offline and speak to women in person. They can't stop that. In the queue at the post office? Tell the woman next to you. In a public loo, leave a Fair Play for Women leaflet stuck on the back of the door of the cubicle. Wear an Adult Human Female T-shirt, write or visit your MP, councillor etc. Getting offline is as important as being online.

I hear you. It's a bit awkward to just chat to people in a queue though, and tell them about women vs trans women or those who just self ID!

It just feels so strange that you cannot say anything online in most places. Twitter will block you too.
Mumsnet seems to be one of the few places where you can actually say what you feel and women can keep their voices.

The more you do it, the easier it gets.

Honestly, the AWA push to silence women online is one the stupidest tactics they could have employed. It wasn't until I kept bumping up against brick walls when saying perfectly reasonable things online that I began to be properly engaged with real world activism, and despite the delusions of the Twitter mob, the real world is where everyone lives.

There's a jokey slogan that began as an accusation - 'Radicalized by Mumsnet'. Its funny, but it's not true. I became the take-no-shit RadFem I am because of all the sites on the internet that just kept illustrating how much they despise women. Anti-Woman Activism radicalised me.

Yeh I know it can be strange, but if you have a few things you can say that helps & base it on women's rights. Fair Play For Women website & leaflets are helpful. I also give out the FPFW leaflets to women & know other women who do that too.

Digital Spy has been very one-sided on a lot of topics for a long time. It's why I and lots of other users left. It doesn't surprise me at all that they are on the TRA train. A mod sending you a message saying "TWAW" is beyond the bloody pale!

A mod sending you a message saying "TWAW" is beyond the bloody pale!

Yes, that's what I thought too!

I’ve just tried to find the thread I think they’ve deleted it

A mod sending you a message saying "TWAW" is beyond the bloody pale

Yes it’s such abusive gaslighting. Of course they bloody aren’t.

Digital Spy is a has been forum, going the way of myspace.

Hithere yeah they have. That usually happens with threads on this subject on there once people start disagreeing. That's why the whole forum is filled up with trivial meaningless shite and hardly anyone ever bothers to post now.

I actually know someone who was banned from Digital Spy for saying that women are discriminated against and oppressed because of their biology.

Meanwhile blatant sexist and homophobic posts are allowed to stand...

There is also a certain trans poster who acts like a twat constantly and is a blatant mysognist. Of course they get away with it though.

*misogynist.

Yes, the thread was deleted.

In terms of being "radicalised by the real world" and the actions of AWA in particular, it's hard to top that AWA who said that pussy hats at the women's march in Washington were trans-exclusionary.

At a protest against a president elect who'd boasted of grabbing women by the pussy. Who has since packed the Supreme Court with judges opposed to abortion (Gorsuch presided over the infamous Hobby Lobby case in a lower court, as for Kavanaugh, well I suspect if I posted what I really thought of him I would get deleted). In a time when half a dozen plus states have passed abortion de facto or de jure banning abortion, to see what happens when it gets to SCOTUS.