we had quietly accepted old school transsexuals using women's spaces (though many choose not to) and not see them as perverts/fetishists for living the way they want.
I know it's meant well but I wish this myth would hurry up and die.
'we' in this context doesn't mean 'we'.
I didn't.
Every little girl who ever encountered an adult man in a toilet or changing room didn't.
No woman or girl ever really thought, yup, I'm totally fine with that big man in here with me.
They would turn tail.
Or hide in a locked cubicle until he left.
Or run home to tell mum.
Or freeze.
Or pretend as best they could.
But silence has never been a good indicator of enthusiastic consent. It's more often and indication of discomfort and fear.
It has NEVER been ok to have men in women's and girls 'spaces.
If some resilient, grown women were ever ok with it, good for them.
But there's not a single man I'm ok with getting undressed in a room with my 11 year old, whether 'oldschool', TrueTrans, GRC certificated, surgically modified, hormonally altered or other.
It's a trope to suggest it was accepted by women and girls once upon a time. I don't think it ever was. I think it's something women repeat because it makes them look more reasonable, as if they aren't rejecting all men, just the new baddies.
The truth is, we've always had boundaries, and it's never been ok for men to cross them.
We've just gradually learned how to say no loud enough for them to hear.