Jaw on the Floor - when did YOU peak?

[WomanBornNotWorn]

Can you pinpoint your peak start moment? When you went - Huh? What ... ?

I started my ascent to the peaks sometime last summer over on Twitter when I started noticing #stickerwoman conversations featuring a photo of a cute little flowery pink .... cock and balls ... labelled 'women don't have penises'.

Well obviousl - what??

There's ... an actual conversation going on? Huh??

And that's where it started for me.

It's starting to feel almost like being part of a fandom, the most gripping drama out there, with an astonishing cast, complicated plots and gobsmacking themes. I HAVE to keep checking in with Woman's Place meeting news, @goinglikeelsie's heroic coverage, the latest Riley Dennis aaarrrrggg-inducing offering, Glinner ... I'm addicted.

But the difference between this and Game of Thrones is it's REAL. The implications for women and children including young boys is seismic.

So when did you first go - 'Huh?? ..... '

When we were still together and I had some kind of disagreement with my ex where I said something about how he was acting like a man and he stormed out the room saying "you do realise I don't identify as a man?"

That was so ridiculous I realised the whole thing was bollocks. As we split up, I independently reached most of the same conclusions as radical feminists do but didn't know anybody else thought the same.

I then somehow came across Rebecca Riley Cooper on Twitter, and the rest is history!

About 13 years ago. I mean a already knew trans weren't women but I thought the battle had been won for feminists. Then I saw women were being silenced online and i realized shit was getting serious.

Then I thought oh ffs am I going to have to be a feminist because I really don't have time for this shit.

I opened a trans critical, radfem blog and then went into a group blog with another 10 radical feminists. Shut down my own blog eventually because of the constant rape threats and doxx threats. The group blog is still open if anyone is interested. Sheila Jeffrey's made a guest post on there.

Come back on here 10 years later and see the trans battle appears to have been won but like MaeWest1890 says, consciousness levels are still very low. Women can't seem to get that when you generalize about men as a class, the retort of "not all men" is an anti feminist argument, there's just no class analysis.

So I'm really and truly wondering why women are trans critical, If you have no class analysis , how can you criticize trans women for entering women's bathrooms. Lack of class analysis means there's no reason to exclude them, I see women seem to have class analysis when it comes to trans issues only, but not when it comes to men? Im still trying to work it all out.

I used to work in a field that meant I was very aware of diversity issues, very involved in liberal feminism, and for a very long time thought everything was tickety-boo in the new, increasingly liberated, rainbow land. Much acceptance, Pride, acknowledgement of trans rights, etc, all jolly good and true and proper.

Then, around the time of 'pussy power' hats, etc, I have dim memories of an article talking about how, in the US, the word 'vagina' was considered transphobic; this was closely followed by Munroe Bergdorf's tweets about how pussy hats were 'exclusionary'.

twitter.com/munroebergdorf/status/954775972863193088?lang=en

Something jarred - how could women suddenly be told off for talking about our own bodies, when so much of my feminism had involved reclaiming them?

So I started questioning things.

Which I discovered was verboten.

That was that.

I've just remembered a friend (male) used to post social media links to Magdalen Burns' videos, which I couldn't disagree with but was too scared to agree with.

Can I also just clarify that I may or may not think all men. I've never said I think all men.

What I'm saying is when someone disregards class analysis on the basis of not all men, then that's an anti feminist argument.

I met a local transgender woman who was standing for NUS Women's Officer and thought wtf? Tbh what made me so baffled was that this person seemed to be pretty quiet and rather terrified about standing up in the limelight, but was being cheered on extremely loudly by several extremely 'feminist' women I've known for a long time who were running the campaign. And they were the ones screaming about intolerance, bigotry and TWAW. I couldn't understand quite why they were shouting down other women when they expressed concerns and supporting this person over candidates who were born female and thus surely had more understanding of women's issues? All the campaign points were about accepting trans people more, and I thought 'What about all the issues that affect all women? Have they been fully resolved then and there's nothing else for a women's officer to do?' And the other candidate was abusing women and blocking them for questioning the whole thing too!

Then I saw a thread on MN about it, became aware of other trans people taking over women's positions and spaces and haven't stopped peaking since.

I really wonder how much responsibility women should take for not peak transing sooner. I honestly believe women love a good pile on and hating on other women

Reading about the cotton ceiling. Same rapey “logic” incels use wrapped up in a sparkly rainbow package.

And then Caitlyn Jenner coming out, to universal praise; followed by Rachel Dolezal being outed, to universal condemnation. And I thought, these two concepts are the same. You can no more identify into a sex than you can identify into a race. If what Dolezal did was wrong and disrespectful, then transwomen saying they are literally female and exactly the same as women is also wrong and disrespectful. And I have never found anyone who could give a good explanation as to why transracial is bad, but the current transgender ideology is good.

I used to read the mostly bonkers but occasionally interesting site XOJane , and there was a lot of discussion, or rather whipping into line by the woke, of the pronoun situation. Then had an interesting but disturbing online conversation there with a young woman who was excited about a planned hysterectomy to validate her ( zir ?) non-binary identification ( not UK, not an NHS procedure ) There were several of us, kindly, trying to explain that that was a big procedure which could have further physical ramifications and not just a quick fix. She seemed to be in a weird bubble of encouragement from older activists which worried me.

That then linked on to reading what was happening in Canada, on Feminist Current, from where I saw references to here which surprised me as I had only dabbled in the ordinary parenting related parts of the site before. This board was, and is, a island of reason and rationality in what has been until now a sea of silence and silencing about the high speed push of the TRA agenda.

It was the skewed (non) consultation to the self ID amendment that peaked me and I am grateful to the informed and articulate women on here who are continuing to work so hard to protect the rest of us and our children - and to MNHQ for allowing this space when all around have been failing us.

I think I probably thought there weren't that many trans women and the couple I knew were youngish and seemed mentally and physically fragile so I was of the mind that it won't do any harm to call them she etc..

Then I started to pay more attention when trans women started to take places in female sports and Olympics peaked me.

Now I know about crime statistics, hospital wards, refuges, women only awards/ shortlists, the current abuse of human rights legislation in Canada and the silencing and harassment of GC women and there's no going back.

Incidentally, as one of the young trans women I knew has got older, I'd say they've become dangerous in a way I didn't forsee when I was validating their identity -offering to help get medication without parents knowledge and giving a script to young people to convince doctors they're trans rather than gender non conforming.

So I'm now of the pronouns are a slippery slope pov too.

Like JustTurtles the Rose McGowan incident caught my attention. Seeing a photo of a trans friendly organisations booth promoting puppies and lollies, gave me such a visceral reaction I could never in good conscience look away. This is said by someone who at 10 years old was lured by someone saying "Do you like puppies?" What once is seen cannot be unseen.

For me the tipping point was the 2017 Women's March, when feminists got called transphobic for wearing pussy hats- and they apologised! It was obvious then that women were being sidelined by their own movement, feminism, in favour of males.

I never believed twaw but was pretty much 'live and let live' until Caitlyn Jenner's Woman of the Year award and Germaine Greer's subsequent ostracism for pointing out that the Empress had no clothes.

It’s not a drama unfortunately it’s now a full-on culture war with very heavy human consequences for many individuals on all sides. Its a rollback of women’s and children’s rights that will impact everyone in society for generations- if it can even ever be reversed.

And this at a time when we have loads of other critically important basic social survival issues like climate change and massive social and financial inequality to sort out which needs everyone to work together and act cohesively as a society.

It’s just so fucking depressing to have to be arguing all the time just to keep the not-even-that-great position that women only have thanks to the dedication and pain of generations of women before us. I want women to be always confidently moving forwards- not having to cling on to what little we already have.

personally for me, my first peak was probably male-bodied people using my work toilets (with a ‘women’s toilets’ label on the door, normal old unadapted female toilets). That ‘budging up’ the employer expects of women and the double think required as an employee has been horrible and yet one more reinforcement of a highly sexist work culture.

But the ongoing peak machine for me is the understanding that relatively women and children are negatively affected by this whole agenda WAY more than men are.
So once you see that clearly, there’s no unseeing it, and there are massive red flags waving wildly all over the fucking shop.

Individual examples of this are

Women prisoners in the UK who right now this morning are locked up with male-bodied sex offenders in the female prison estate - an absolutely horrific situation which doesn’t even bear thinking about. Why the fuck is validating these men so much more important than women’s basic rights of privacy, safety, dignity? This is a national scandal.

Children and young people being given permanent medical hormonal or surgical transing in the absence of proper examination of the issues they are dealing with, when we know many will change their mind and be stuck with that radically changed body and a shitload of horrible side effects. When we know that they will lose their future fertility at an age when they have no concept of what that really means. When we know many if left alone would just grow up to be lesbian or gay young people. When we know many many more young women are seeking to transition. When we know about the mental health risks of free ubiquitous porn and social media pressure on young people.
The denial and othering of these kids in order to abandon normal safeguarding and normal clinical care standards in their ‘transition’ (to what end?) and to destroy their right to an open future is absolutely shocking. This is a national scandal.

Regulatory capture (see thread of that name) the frightening amount of core, national UK and international institutions who set the national agenda in multiple areas who are currently nailing their colours to the mast on this men’s rights agenda while thinking they are being so gloriously progressive- will we ever get these institutions back? Where does it leave women? Where are the powerful institutions that care about women as much as they care about men? A national scandal again.

Ugh I could go on and on.
But I’m very happy to have FWR to talk to about all this and it is a real joy to be in the company of the awesome women on here and learn from your posts. Also to see the amazing work that so many of you are doing, so thank you.

Less than a year ago. I had to Google "what is a terf'" as I had no idea.. Yes, I saw Dr Cristian lecturing a woman that term was not a slur and then making derogatory comments about terfs and had to google it. Thanks Chris!
Also the pile on when Germaine Greer and Jenny Murray spoke what I thought were obvious facts.
As someone who was a midwife for twenty years and is still working in a different area in the NHS, when I read the occasional article about trans men having babies I just thought, well that's one mentally ill person, poor baby but it doesn't affect wider society. After I followed a #peaktrans thread on twitter and found this place on Mumsnet I was well and truly disabused of that thought. It had all been going on while I was asleep! And I was utterly appalled and outraged to read what is happening to children and teens. I still can't get over that a secret corner of the NHS appears to have been operating their own little mass experiment on young people apparently completely unregulated, no obvious oversight. And the First Do No Harm principal thrown to the wind. Though I genuinely think GPs and the wider medical profession also had no idea but are waking up and asking questions now. I think GIDS is on borrowed time.
Also I realised I was rather proud to count myself a terf. I've never been radical about anything in my life. I take it as a compliment!

I can't remember exactly how, but I ended up on Gendertrender and read every single thing GallusMag had written. And all the comments. She had been working for a decade and it was amazing. I miss it.
I know she's got Gendertrending up but there was just so much lost.

that terf was not a slur. Editing fail.

This is what I thought...
TW are not women, but they had a type of mental dysphoria.
I had empathy

Then I saw India Willoughby on big brother.
To hear about the whole surgery thing.
I had empathy

To watch India Willoughby in action.
I saw male behaviour

Paris, Monroe, Rachel,
All of them
I see male behaviour

Around the same time I watched Susie Green on a Ted talk. I got to hear about Mermaids and their flippant disregard for children's health, long term fertility.
Mermaids had no medical training

And FTM Stephen Whittle's role in changing the word sex for gender
Unforgivable

I never believed anyone could change sex, but definitely have peaked. I had a lovely troubled transitioned female friend, so I tended towards protectiveness.

I remember stirrings of annoyance about Jenner suddenly being the “best woman evah!” as it seemed obvious there were women actually doing courageous and useful things.

But like others, I saw an AIBU thread about the “awful transphobia” over here and I came to see what you were all up to.

The appalling treatment of Anne Ruzylo was my first ever peak. I could instantly see the gaslighting behaviour and arrogance. And now, I see it everywhere there are anti-woman activists.

But the ongoing peak machine for me is the understanding that relatively women and children are negatively affected by this whole agenda WAY more than men are

The silent men.
They have no skin in the game.

Ages ago, when the army celebrated having the first woman on the front line (in Afghanistan I think). The "woman" was an ex-man.

I'm adding now that there is some debate about whether the account is real, sadly it's too easy to believe in the current climate.

Never bought into the notion that a man could become a woman by 'believing it', but the slow, under-the-radar creep of assimilation of politicians, public bodies, etc, (and the impending legislation) was brought to my attention by a Facebook feminist friend I've never met. She's American, lives in another EU country and I was startled (and a bi ashamed) to discover she knew far more about what was going down in my country than I did.

Getting up to speed involved a lot of reading and expostulations of "WTF?!" for me.