Dystopian nightmare?

[PhilomenaRumple]

Hello

I hit peaktrans about a week ago. Since then I’ve not slept through the night.

Everywhere I look, I see women silenced (or keeping silent), cancelled and losing jobs. I see us being erased by ‘woke’ companies and employers. Not to mention the harm being done to the LGB’s and children.

I’ve lost two close friends today because I’ve seen it for what it is and didn’t keep quiet.

I keep feeling like this is some weird 1984/Gilead sh*t and this only the beginning.

Can anyone give me some perspective on how they feel about this long-term and what will ultimately happen? I’m frightened.

In sisterhood ❤️

[bluefishpot]

I'm new on here - only recently started finding out all about this stuff after seeing things on Twitter. I'm just gobsmacked that it's even happening, any of it - how can our reality be getting so distorted that we're told it's wrong to state facts?

I feel worried for my daughter - when I said I supported JKR's stance, she told me she was disappointed in me. I asked her why, and pointed out some of the consequences of self-ID, and she just didn't have any answers, and sloped off to her room. The next time I tried to bring the subject up, she quickly shut me down, saying there was no point in discussing it. It worries me that she's so willingly and compliantly giving away her own rights to safe spaces and sex-based equality.

I'm so glad this space is here to discuss the issues without fear of abuse or being shut down. I haven't been brave enough to say anything to other family or on social media, and I would worry about being let go from my job if I was openly known to be dubious about self-ID and the possible consequences.

[PhilomenaRumple]

They have taken over

[PhilomenaRumple]

Or DuckDuckGo?

[PhilomenaRumple]

If you type ‘Women murdered in 2020’ into Google, what results do you get?

[Ereshkigalangcleg]

It's seeping into my dreams!!

I had surgery last year and coming round from the general anaesthetic I thought that they had found out I didn't think TWAW and refused to treat me, and just sent me back out which would have pretty much meant certain death. Thankfully I was hallucinating

[AdultHumanFemale]

I hear you, OP. I started out as a staunch ally to my transitioning young niece, and hope to God that I have managed to atone for whatever damage Ì may have done in those early days, in the years since my experience with her ROGD ploughed me face first into peak trans.
I work in education and am taking every opportunity to call it as I see it, from a safeguarding, equalities and promoting the rights of women and girls angle, not to mention standing in solidarity with my science specialist colleagues.
Three good old male friends, one a psychotherapist who has been seeing referrals from the Tavi, another who manages a hospital trust and one who works in equalities for my LA are horrified at my position, and have exhausted themselves trying to make me 'more caring' as one called it.
I am heartened by the good humour, wit and sincerity with which the many women, whose tireless work on this issue I am eternally grateful for, go about their business on various platforms; this keeps me in good spirits. The other week, someone on Twitter congratulated Emma Watson on her performance in Little Menstruators, I'm still weeping.
This is a good thread, as it really is about the long game, with periodic 'shoulder to the door' moments; pace yourself, take your foot off the gas if you feel ground down and return renewed when you're fortified by the goodness, commitment and compassion this movement embodies.

[BlackForestCake]

In the long run reality will win out.

If celebrities say men are women, if the media say men are women, if political parties say men are women, even if the law says men are women — it still won't be true.

[Wondersense]

Yep. I'm scared we're walking into totalitarian future.

[Ginnyhip46]

Also we aren't alone! The most powerful writer who singlehandedly changed the face of the publishing industry, who tanks amongst C.S.Lewis and Tolkien is not only with us but our Shieldmaiden. If she can take it we can.

[FizzFan]

I peak transed a couple of years ago and was a lone voice amongst my friends for a long while, but I’m noticing the tide turning

[Ginnyhip46]

You aren't alone. I'm here with you in solidarity. So are many others. We cannot be brainwashed and many other women are waking up. Trust yourself.

[LockdownLump]

*all the time

[LockdownLump]

This OP resonated with me so much.

These issues are on my mind all the the.

I have deactivated Twitter, insta, Facebook.

It's seeping into my dreams!! 2 nights ago I dreamt I was in a female toilet in a shopping centre. There was one cubicle. There was a male toilet and no female toilet.

I was having a period and bled as I was on my period so heavily.

I was taking quite some time because I was washing my knickers and drying them under the dryer and making a makeshift pad out of toilet roll.

Ther was a self I'd male outside bashing and banging because I was taking ages. I heard a male voice and I told them to go use the male toilets.

The women outside were chastising me. Calling me a disgrace, a transphobe, all this shit.

It was a dream, but it was fucking horrible.

I empathise OP about how much it takes over your being, that the importance of it is uppermost.

[hellandhairnets]

All of it is so sinister and systematic.

It is systematic. This is what scares me too.

BUT they didn't bank on so much sunlight. They are definitely on the backfoot and are slipping up all over. The problem to me is that the reaction is too slow. It's so big—Goebbels' Big Lie style—that people just don't believe it's happening.

[PhilomenaRumple]

I sincerely hope other women wake up soon enough to outnumber these bastards.

All of it is so sinister and systematic. When this all falls down there are going to be some serious consequences

[JemimaShore]

Yes, it does feel like the beginning of The Handmaid's Tale. I just felt really sick to hear of another female author hounded out of her job for standing with JK Rowling.

BUT - reasons to be hopeful. We have JK Rowling on our side! And they can't cancel her

• GRA changes have been shelved now (apart from Scotland ) So no self-ID in law for now.

• Newsnight reporting on the harm cause by the Tavistock. Puberty blockers discussed on Women's Hour

• Women organising and finding each other on Twitter/ closed FB groups (they can't silence us all!

• Report published on the "Corrosive Impact of Transgender Ideology". I think this government will take notice of that.

• Two shopping centres converted toilets to gender-neutral - changes them back after complaints.

• The strength of feeling over Allison's crowd funder, the speed it met it's target!

• There are more of us out there than they think.

[PhilomenaRumple]

Hey everyone

I took all of your good advice and tried to sleep etc. I have been doing things for the cause the last few weeks and trying to be helpful!

However.... I’m shtting myself now.

Glinner banned from Twitter
Baroness Nichol removed from Booker prize (they’re complaining to HoL about her now)
Reddit Gender Critical closed
Allison Bailey completely fuced over on Crowd Justice
Horrop stalking
Google interfering in GRA
Facebook quietly changing their policies so if you deny existence of someone’s identity you fall foul of hate speech guidelines
Pride taken over by T’s


I mean... this feels like a rather large and planned conspiracy to me. It feels like the beginning of the Handmaid’s tale.

[wellbehavedwomen]

Yes, it's not easy. It was far easier to sail along believing feminism had won, women were liberated, and the rainbow sparkles were all about love and letting people live their best lives.

The process of discovering what was really going on was highly upsetting and discouraging.

This. I've always been on the left. I've always supported people in living and loving as seems best to them. I had no idea - it would never have crossed my mind - that what seemed lovely and inclusive and kind was actually the single most misogynistic fightback against women's rights in my lifetime.

It's hard. But women's rights have always been under attack. It was the direction this came from that was the shock to me. The betrayal of women, in the service of men, and the sheer scale of the hatred aimed at women who dared question it. All those gleeful leftie male feminists, finally able to attack, demean and mansplain women to their heart's content, and all while claiming it was to defend the most vulnerable women - the kind with penises.

It would be funny, if it weren't so awful.

[Divoc2020]

I think it's really important to start talking to friends, one-to-one, not on social media, if possible. Pick an element of it that will be of most interest to them.

I have a friend with younger children who I saw yesterday, so I mentioned the ASDA materials and asked if she was aware of them. She wasn't, but was appalled, and asked me to send her the link and we talked about the creep of gender identity propaganda in schools.

The thing is, she works in a role where she comes into contact with Equality and Diversity policies a lot in business, yet she actually seems like she doesn't really know about a lot of the real issues.

If you think about this in Covid19 terms we need to get the R rate for the transmission of information to well above 1 !

[Binterested]

Yes they are pushing this stuff in schools. Stonewall’s main job these days is to go into schools and tell girls that if they sometimes feel uncomfortable as a girl they must be a boy. But at least ten local authorities have recently withdrawn their trans guidance which basically tells girls to be quiet and accept boys in their changing rooms. This has happened because of our activism and crowdfunding and speaking out. We are bringing about a shift in the debate.

I totally get how you feel. It’s overwhelming. Some days I think about nothing else. I am so so angry. This is buzzing in my head all the time - when I’m at the supermarket or talking to a neighbour. My friends think I’m obsessed (I am ). But I think JKR peaked them too. It felt like a disaster at the time - all the hate she was getting. But everyone is now starting to see what’s been going on. My friends are starting to get angry.

I have to take a break now and again. It gets overwhelming and when it does I come off here and stop looking at Twitter. To be honest I’m happier when I don’t know what’s going on. But I’m always drawn back in because I can not tolerate a world where the word woman does not exist.

[twoHopes]

I hear you OP. I've been involved in this debate since 2018 and the thing that keeps me going is watching more and more women I know finally wake up to what's going on. It's a slow and painful process but it does feel like we're getting somewhere, especially with big names like JKR now speaking out.

When this whole pandemic malarky is over I'd definitely recommend going to one of the GC events. I had a memorable night getting drunk with Jean Hatchet and Karen Ingala Smith and Helen Staniland (who is hilarious) and it spurred me on in so many ways.

I try to find the positives in all this and my hope is that maybe this whole gender debate will introduce more women to "real" feminism and reignite the discussions we should have been having over the last 20 years around sex-based inequality.

[nonsenceagain]

I think a lot of us have been there OP. I remember talking about the possibility of men in women's sports years ago, and being shocked that some of my very clever and analytical friends didn't see the problem. It was a real moment.

My best friend is GC and I could not do without her. We can speak freely, go to feminist events together and look after each when things get tough. We're both radical feminists so speak within contexts that we both understand and agree on. Try to find at least one close friend you can be honest and yourself with. I honestly don't think I could do it without mine.

[rabbitwoman]

Also for me the game changer is the Newsnight report on the Tavistock Clinic. I have been very cautious of speaking up because of the threat of losing my job - I work in education, very low level, but we all have a responsibility to care for and protect children. I am doubly emboldened now, anything I say can be framed as a safeguarding concern.

(I say concern because it's more professional than terror, dread, fury and utter bewilderment that it was ever allowed to get this far....)

[nickEcave]

I peaked last year after the first newsnight piece on the Tavistock clinic. I'd been reading around it all for a year or so beforehand as I have 13 yr old non-gender-conforming DD. I became a feminist at 15 after reading "the womens room" but got complacent working public sector in my 20s. Thought the battles had been won! Having kids in my 30's and trying to maintain a career post 2008 recession well and truly cured me of that belief! I work in the university sector (non academic,) and have had to be careful who I come out to as GC. But OMFG once you really see the misogyny you can't unsee it and it colours everything. The covid crisis is pushing things back to the 1950s for millions of women - we've taken on the equivalent of millions of pounds of unpaid caring and education work in the past 6 months and there needs to be a reckoning.

[MujeresLibres]

I know where you're coming from OP
I find it overwhelming too and I'm a pessimist by nature which doesn't help

Things have changed so much just over the last year. The conversation is opening up.