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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

What does it mean to live as a woman for a year?

140 replies

jewel1968 · 08/12/2019 10:26

If I understand things correctly if an individual wants to undergo gender reassignment now they are expected to live in the preferred gender for a year. So, if someone born male wants to reassign their gender they would be expected to live as a woman for a year. What does that actually mean? What would happen if they dressed in jeans and T-shirt and Doc Martens and sported a short haircut and didn't wear any makeup might they be challenged for not living as a woman? Who decides what it means to live as a woman?

OP posts:
PermanentTemporary · 08/12/2019 13:56

The materials I was given when starting to work with trans people were a few years old and stank so comprehensively of southern English sexism that my mental health came under genuine threat. I could not stand that I was being asked to perpetuate and eve stereotypes I had viscerally loathed all my life. Despite conforming to them myself - in the lovely TRA jargon, I look like a total Karen myself.

Tbh the entire trans theory is a mishmash of 50s, 60s and 70s junk overlain with neoliberalism and a sprinkle of queer theory. I actually blame Jeffery Eugenides for writing Middlesex.

AdultHumanWithOvaries · 08/12/2019 14:17

Can anyone tell me what benefit there is for a transwoman to change their sex on their birth certificate to 'female'?

I know previously that it was to allow a backdoor single sex marriage, but now, what is the point of it?

I can only draw the conclusion that the only reason is to obfuscate, confuse and mislead people into allowing people of the opposite sex into areas they wouldn't otherwise be allowed. The GRA should be scrapped.

There is no reason to record someone's gender. It's irrelevant. Unless someone can give me a coherant reason otherwise?

Datun · 08/12/2019 14:39

AdultHumanWithOvaries

It's about privacy, apparently.

So if your birth certificate now says you're a female, and you have the protected characteristic of that sex, and you look exactly like a woman, no one will ever know that you're trans or a former man.

It's kept private.

That's the theory, and, I believe, the basis on which it all pivoted.

But of course, in practice it is exceptionally rare for any man to actually look female, particularly in the flesh.

So the privacy aspect is a little moot.

Floisme · 08/12/2019 15:22

I don't know about Middlesex - possibly one of the most tedious books I've ever read and that's a crowded field - but I do kind of wonder if all those movies: Some Like it Hot, Tootsie, Mrs Doubtfire are partly to blame. They were fiction you people! Not for one second was Sugar taken in by Josephine and Daphne, or Julie by Dorothy. We were only laughing along because it was so ludicrous.

GeordieTerf · 08/12/2019 15:43

Part of the problem is that none of this nonsense can be stopped without the government admitting that they got this horribly wrong.

Melroses · 08/12/2019 16:12

It can only ever mean being an adult human female and living for a year.

Otherwise it is taking on the appearance of that woman who has been living for a year, ie in the style of a woman. What that is can vary according to each and every woman.

Part of the problem is that none of this nonsense can be stopped without the government admitting that they got this horribly wrong

They are good at reverse ferret on other issues. I am sure they can find a way out, if they try. But we have to make sure it is not at women's expense.

Floisme · 08/12/2019 16:26

If they wanted a way out, they could publish the results of last year's consultation - it's pretty clear it didn't go the way they expected - and mumble some platitude about the public not being ready for change.

DodoPatrol · 08/12/2019 16:34

Or announce loudly and proudly that as people are now ready for change, there is much less danger to transwomen in own-sex facilities? Surely that’s where they should be aiming.

It’s the pretence and squirming around to avoid ‘being hurtful’ that really bugs me.

Original poster
jewel1968 · 08/12/2019 16:43

I hear y'all.

OP posts:
AdultHumanWithOvaries · 08/12/2019 16:51

Datun

The problem I have with this whole thing is that it's a deception. A cover up of the truth. Sanctioned by the state. Forcing me to be an unwilling participant in someone else's therapy or fantasy. Right there is the reason they want it 'private'.

Fuck that.

GeordieTerf · 08/12/2019 17:06

It isn’t just the hurry feels though. It’s how the government and other orgs can reverse whilst saving face.

Datun · 08/12/2019 17:31

AdultHumanWithOvaries

I agree. It's as though 'the right to a private life' has been interpreted out of all recognition.

joolzfromyork · 08/12/2019 17:36

Hey Ho ...

Another 'Slap the Trannies' thread

(which even I appreciate can be fun, but don't you all get a little tired of repeating the same old jokes/ faux outrage/ deliberate misunderstandings etc ?)

The RLT (Real Life Test) serves a purpose.

When I did mine, I worked on a night shift in a factory.

The evening I walked into that factory knowing that everyone around me knew the one thing about myself that I had kept secret for most of my adult life was - frankly - terrifying.

But it had to be done ... not for the Doctors, nor the Gender Recognition Panel, nor the Gender Clinic I was attending at the time, nor the psycho therapist or anyone else you could think of ...

It was important for me.

Is this the right thing for me to do? should I make the 'LIFELONG' commitment to this change? Is it appropriate in terms of living a happy life?

Now, I figured out almost immediately that working all night and sleeping all day was an extremely easy way of passing through the RLT ... So I changed it

I got a job working Days (long hours) in Retail

That was hard, not least because Genetics have not been kind so to look at my face is to immediately understand my life history. But it had to be done ...

because RLT isn't some process to be cheated on, its a necessary process to be undertaken in order to understand ones own motivations before possibly (and not everyone continues the process) making permanent changes.

Now, we can all make (bad) jokes at the expense of the 'Local Tranny', and I wouldn't for a moment want to intrude on your fun ... so by all means Crack On with that ...

But people who engage in this process honestly and openly are not your enemies

They are people trying to make sense of their own lives

That's all ... and RLT (when undertaken honestly) helps with that

Now ... back to the jokes ... Smile

GeordieTerf · 08/12/2019 17:50

Hi Joolz Smile

Can you give me a specific example of how you lived as your preferred gender?

OldCrone · 08/12/2019 17:52

None of us think this is a joke joolz.

viques · 08/12/2019 18:01

joolz as others have said, it's not not a joke, try asking women athletes who have trained for years if they find it funny when an athlete who couldn't hack it one way sails past them to the finish line by utilising their superior lung capacity and muscle size .

Birdsfoottrefoil · 08/12/2019 18:02

While I would that agree more women than men work long hours in retail, I wouldn’t count that as ‘living as a woman’. The only way you can live as a woman is to be conceived female, grown up as a girl and then be an adult human female.

Joolz womanhood is not a joke, a fetish, a stereotype, dresses, make up, long hair, heels, specific names on a utility bill, a feeling, walking in through the door labelled ‘female’, or some kind of magical essence!

MIdgebabe · 08/12/2019 18:14

Can we look at this another way. Do you think you would be doing anything different today if you were a man not a woman ( or vice versa as appropriate )

Of those different things, if you can identify any ( I can't )

...are any not directly related to biology?
.. are any not directly related to a sterotype

popehilarious · 08/12/2019 18:23

I know trans women who say they are "read" differently (when out and about) as women. That would be interesting to compare. The thing is unless they pass well, are they being read as a woman or as trans?
To me, being "read" as a woman would seem to be the aim of "living as a woman" but when you unpack what that means it's incredibly unfair to people that will never pass, and relies entirely on appearance and reinforcing sexist stereotypes. Plus it depends on others' perceptions which one has little control over.

popehilarious · 08/12/2019 18:25

Sorry joolz hadn't seen your thread when I posted, so my post isn't in response to yours.

popehilarious · 08/12/2019 18:25

*post - not thread

ShesDressedInBlackAgain · 08/12/2019 18:39

Nowt faux about my outrage at having my sex appropriated and stereotyped because of someone else's MH issue I can assure you. Hmm

Dhalandchips · 08/12/2019 18:42

dressed in jeans and T-shirt and Doc Martens and sported a short haircut and didn't wear any makeup
Oh no, I'm a pretend woman!

testing987654321 · 08/12/2019 18:46

back to the jokes

I haven't read any jokes on here, what are you talking about?

ChattyLion · 08/12/2019 19:13

Great posts Red and Nonny.