Can we stop being obedient soon, or will this coercion continue for evermore?

[theOtherPamAyres]

I know that Mumsnet moderators are hot on keeping respectful debate and for that reason does not allow misgendering, certain terms, and the like. It's their site and they make the rules and I respect that. This topic isn't about Mumsnet, it's about the growing confidence of feminists to refuse to use the terms and language of gender.

Karen Ingala Smith, speaking to the Womens Select Committee, showed how it could be done. As a result of the clarity of her language, she was able to cut through the nonsense and make her points forcefully. In contrast, Janet from Womens Aid, with her convoluted language about gender, sounded confused and muddle-headed.

When we are forced to use words like 'transwoman' and 'she' - for fear of prosecution, civil actions, job losses, imprisonment for contempt of court, exclusion, abuse and physical assaults - we have helped to normalise transgenderism. In effect, we are saying that a man can be a woman.

I believe that we can no longer support Trans Rights by default, by caving in and going with the flow. At some stage we have to assert the right to use our own terms - because we can't wait for legal precedents and government reviews. The more refusniks and recusants there are, the more confidence will grow.

What tips and tricks of language did you start using when you could no longer kowtow to the demand for obedience?
How did you write or speak about people/men/women who identify as trans? (Did you see what I did there?)

MN, without the deletion and ban I would never have known of Barracker's spot on analogy. What an own goal for the men's demands dictators.

I hope this thread remains bumped, to illustrate the case in point.

A one week suspension is still too much, it's utter bullshit.

It's bad enough having to keep to these coercive rules, but itis increasing like abusive behaviour to change the rules without warning and then punish us for breaking them

This. How can you arbitrarily hand out suspensions for posts that do not breach guidelines?

but it is increasingly like abusive behaviour to change the rules without warning and then punish us for breaking them.

Agreed. The moderation isn’t consistent at all so it’s hard to stay within the rules if they keep changing.

I hope MNHQ come and explain here. While they can technically do whatever they wish, it wouldn’t be wise given the popularity of this board and how it helps this site attract advertisers.

Attempts to silence
Women who think for themselves
Only amplify

Those women’s voices.
Angry men await in vain
Our acquiescence.

Talking

but it is increasingly like abusive behaviour to change the rules without warning and then punish us for breaking them.

Agreed. The moderation isn’t consistent at all so it’s hard to stay within the rules if they keep changing. I hope MNHQ come and explain here.

When I asked yesterday, I got the response (posted up thread) saying We're resolving this off the boards and won't be able to come and update on the thread as this concerns an individual user.

So, I'm not hopeful we'll get a reply. Maybe we'll get updated talk guidelines at the least tho

It's bad enough having to keep to these coercive rules, but itis increasing like abusive behaviour to change the rules without warning and then punish us for breaking them

I thought I'd be less furious after a night to sleep on it but I'm not; I'm more furious.

MNHQ: why is the weekend mod team seemingly operating to different standards to that in the week? Why are users being suspended and/or banned for posts that don't break the guidelines?

Me as well Lang

It’s different at weekend

How are we meant to know.

Is it a guess rules at the weekend ?

I am assuming, if moderators are to be consistent, that if b’s post was ‘not in the spirit of mn’ all of us saying we agree with the analogy are similarly, and actively, posting contrary to ‘the spirit of Mn’ ? Is there to be a mass suspension of women for these thoughts ? Is asking the question contravening the distillery rules?

Still looks like mods making up new rules as they go along to me.

How the fuck are people supposed to know what the rules are? The statement of moderation is pinned at the top of the Feminist board. WHERE DOES IT SAY DON'T MENTION DRUGS? *@MNHQ would you please explain why a poster was banned for mentioning a drug.
Barracker didn't correct sex anybody, I'm not calling it misgendering any more. Why has barracker been banned for a week for comparing the use of pronouns to a drug. Did it get a bit to close to the truth for a trigger happy mod?

Yy Lang.

I find what I find to be incorrect use of pronouns to be like a little death of my sanity and reason. Almost like an attempted murder of my reason ! As a criminal barrister that’s the analogy which springs to my mind when thinking about this issue.

If it’s any consolation, I’m sure collective our anger at Barracker’s suspension pails into insignificance, compared to the fury of the men or their maidens, that reported her. I’m sure they were having a lovely old circle jerk, when they thought they’d taken one of us down.

The more they lash out at us, the more it’s talked about throughout the internet. Ah dear, did it kinda backfire? What a pity. There there.

Our collective anger

Absolutepower, using the term correct-sexing instead of misgendering is a great idea, positive language. I'm on board!

Correct sexing, yes. After all gender is an artificial construct - everyone is "misgendered" really.

I find what I find to be incorrect use of pronouns to be like a little death of my sanity and reason.

Absolutely Heron. One of my colleagues has done the whole "my pronouns are... here's a link explaining why" thing in her autosignature. I had a look at the link. It had a fucking table of all the made up bollocks pronouns like xie, er (makes me think of Les Dawson talking about "'er indoors"), fuck knows what. My eyes rolled so hard they almost bounced across the office floor like sodding marbles. And this woman is intelligent, very intelligent, and a scientist (absolutely at the top of her field, international reputation). Did she not, at any point in this process, look at the link and think "but hang on a moment... this is bollocks."

Thanks for posting the link @CodenameVillanelle

And what she wrote was truly truly brain changing for me

Without this fuss I probably would have forgotten again but now, it's lodged in my brain

Me too.

Many of us autistic posters raised this when the new TransModRules came in.

Thinking of children I work with, who have autism and at a level where communication can be significantly impaired, the whole pronoun thing is ableist. In fact, for some children, truly correct pronouns - correct sexing! - are an actual SALT target that is worked on, commented on, assessed. This is never mentioned in any of the stupid training guidelines.

Just woke up to learn of the fantastic article, brilliant work barracker! This will go global.

it is increasingly like abusive behaviour to change the rules without warning and then punish us for breaking them

This

I was also unsurprised to see the message from Barracker saying that she had not been contacted. That was also my experience

When MNHQ banned Stephanie Hayden, a male who never engaged with the site in good faith and spent their time here goading other users while mocking the site on Twitter, they sent a carefully worded email to explain what was going on

But for women who have posted here for years, created huge volumes of content for free which has driven traffic to the site, always engaged in good faith with other site users and MNHQ? When they are summarily banned-Nothing

I really think MNHQ should think about the sexism and lack of respect for their users that is shown by this behaviour

Has MN started employing Twitter-trained moderators?

Always worth restating, we are not having it. We never were. Everything M/TRAs have achieved by way of money, propaganda, stealth and dishonesty we can undo, given time. And we will. Because it's the right thing to do. Because we would go to great lengths to protect our children from their terrible, selfish, stupid, misogynistic ideas. And because we value ourselves enough to know when to resist.

This ^

MNHQ - I hope you are reconsidering your recent decision about Barracker. I stand with everyone else who has posted to say they support her reinstatement. Dick move, quite literally.