Why is British media so transphobic?

[Bluebooby]

"The other path through which many British women have taken up a particularly transphobic ideology is, somewhat incongruently, the parenting website Mumsnet. The idea that a forum on which women talk about diaper rash would produce a wave of TERFs sounds a bit off, but in the U.K. this has reached the status of conventional wisdom."

How transphobic.

Couldnt they just have described the crowd here as dirty bottom cleaners talking about diaper rash.

Do Better.

In case it was unclear, as some of the replies suggest it was, "why is British media so transphobic" is the article title...not my question!

It was shared in a group I'm in, and I think it was done so as a reaction to my "transphobia" for defending JK Rowling from the accusation of transphobia.

As to why Britain? i wonder if its to do with the existence of FWR. There was already a place where women gathered to talk about their issues, so they had a head-start on spreading the word. A critical mass of stroppy women, already with a head of steam.

I'd love it if that were true. I hope it is. It sounds plausible.

They (group people) also shared an article in Time that refers to Mumsnetters doing genital inspections. I was upset yesterday at their nonchalant sexism, but today I'm finding it quite amusing and wondering if I should come out as a mumnsetter.

time.com/5865581/transphobia-terf-harm/?fbclid=IwAR08FSQomdppbePpH3vpedVfl1OfWQOJSaHEkT-KGmVk2OL_QSX89npSgjU

How is Time magazine publishing that pack of untruths and utter bollocks. It's just pandering

The main reason Americans (#notall) struggle with understanding UK politics and UK feminism is because we have established protections based on the 9 characteristics of the Equality Act that they don't have.

Sex as a characteristic has legal protection here as does gender reassignment.

So when transactivists attempt to make a land grab to remove sex as a protected category or to misrepresent current law so that the legal protections of sex are ignored of course this is going to create a huge resistance. The same would happen if activists tried to do this with the category of 'disability' for example.

Ah that makes sense Ova. Unfortunately thanks to stonewall etc more and more British people don't seem to realise exactly how our EA works.

I think they have sex protections in American law too, wasn't that what the recent case of the funeral director who wanted to wear dresses and full makeup to work all about?

I think it says more about the US that feminist voices are being silenced that it says about the UK where more leeway is permissable.

I hate the word diaper.

What Ova said.

I sincerely believe we need to keep repeating what the Protected Characteristics are.

Every.

Day.

In AIBU
In Chat
LGB Parenting
Pregnancy (for working parents)
And here.

Multicultural Parenting
And the Disability boards

[quote Bluebooby]They (group people) also shared an article in Time that refers to Mumsnetters doing genital inspections. I was upset yesterday at their nonchalant sexism, but today I'm finding it quite amusing and wondering if I should come out as a mumnsetter.

time.com/5865581/transphobia-terf-harm/?fbclid=IwAR08FSQomdppbePpH3vpedVfl1OfWQOJSaHEkT-KGmVk2OL_QSX89npSgjU[/quote]
They sound like a bunch of credulous numpties. 🙄 Are they friends? Colleagues? Now you’ve seen how pathetic their critical thinking skills are, is there any way you can quietly ghost them?

I think the uk , in no small part thanks to mumsnet and lots of clever mumsnetters, are just ahead in the arguments.
The UK is having debates that other countries have not got to yet. But they will.
Uk feminists are changing the debate in the rest of the world and women in other countries are watching and learning, hence the attacks.
TRA's also underestimate mumsnet of course, that has worked in the UK feminists favour as it gave time and space to gather and hone the arguments.
This underestimation is purely down to good old fashioned sexism.
Might actually be the only case where sexism has been a postive thing for womens rights

Why on earth would women care about women's rights and safeguarding? And the exclusion of vulnerable women? And the concept of everyone's rights being met by third way solutions instead of just hurling people under the bus? As if they had brains and the power of critical thought?

It's mad right. You'd think a bunch of mums would be mindlessly mummying the menz like good girls, and changing nappies.

There was a discussion about why the UK is leading the way on this in r/GC a while back. One theory was that it's because we live on a tiny island. No one is more than a days travel from anyone else in the UK. That makes it much much easier to organise than in the US or Canada. Realistically women in America will struggle to meet up if it means going to a different state, which means the size of the group they can get together in person is much smaller. But we can, with comparatively little effort, organise meeting and protests which hundreds or thousands of women can attend. Our biggest barrier is childcare commitments, not geography.

The idea that the British media is transphobic cracks me up. I read an article by a TRA last year which said that "TERFs" had the full support of all the media outlets and every political party, as well as billions in funding?! It was either the most brazen DARVO if all time, or the author was living on a different planet. Earlier this year a TRA reddit sub was full of people swearing not to vote in the last election as apparently every political party was transphobic and against them. 99% of the establishment as bending over backwards so far for these people that their heads are hitting the floor, whilst feminists have to beg and scrape to get a politician to listen for even 5 minutes. They have millions in government funding going to their campaigns whilst everything we do is crowd funded from an average donation of about £30,and half our bloody crowd funders get shut down! And yet they still seem to think that they're hard done by and that we have all this power. No mate, if we're doing better than you it's because even with all financial and government support you get, your arguments are still too batshit to convince most people.

Motherhood was the most radicalising thing to happen to me. I was previously ignorant to the impact of my biology on my life’a course and the minimal value ascribed to producing the next generation.

What they all just said.

Plus see also: South Korean Feminists.

They are rocking it hardcore

@Bluebooby

Why a forum predominantly dedicated to the results of one the most obvious biological distinctions between men and women would be full of people with a basic understanding of biology, I am not sure.

But is it true that the British are leading the way on this? I've heard it said before, but if so then why?

There was a piece of invective to this effect in the New York Times last year, entitled “ How British Feminism Became Anti-Trans“: www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/opinion/terf-trans-women-britain.html

@ByGrabtharsHammerWhatASavings

There was a discussion about why the UK is leading the way on this in r/GC a while back. One theory was that it's because we live on a tiny island. No one is more than a days travel from anyone else in the UK. That makes it much much easier to organise than in the US or Canada. Realistically women in America will struggle to meet up if it means going to a different state, which means the size of the group they can get together in person is much smaller. But we can, with comparatively little effort, organise meeting and protests which hundreds or thousands of women can attend. Our biggest barrier is childcare commitments, not geography.

The idea that the British media is transphobic cracks me up. I read an article by a TRA last year which said that "TERFs" had the full support of all the media outlets and every political party, as well as billions in funding?! It was either the most brazen DARVO if all time, or the author was living on a different planet. Earlier this year a TRA reddit sub was full of people swearing not to vote in the last election as apparently every political party was transphobic and against them. 99% of the establishment as bending over backwards so far for these people that their heads are hitting the floor, whilst feminists have to beg and scrape to get a politician to listen for even 5 minutes. They have millions in government funding going to their campaigns whilst everything we do is crowd funded from an average donation of about £30,and half our bloody crowd funders get shut down! And yet they still seem to think that they're hard done by and that we have all this power. No mate, if we're doing better than you it's because even with all financial and government support you get, your arguments are still too batshit to convince most people.

Yes that's an interesting point re. Geography. We are also wuite an interconnected country in that we can travel by train or car quite quickly.

I also think it is to do with population size. I.e we are a mid sized population, big enough to have a critical mass of women that can see the issues saying eh?! BUT not so large that there are too many other differences to overcome.
So maybe geography plus population size together

Very much so peadarm.

I do believe many people truly believe the myth that British women are 'English Rose, twee, Midsomer Murder country folk', Or 'Brits Abroad larger louts'. No inbetweens.

Mumsnet "should only be stuffed with women preoccupied with baybeeeez and prams and stuff."
Of course these are important to us (I personally favoured the Silver Cross style prams even on local buses and Primark/charity shops were a godsend when I had a mahooosive mortgage).

Many don't even realise there is a significant amount of Black and Asian women on Mumsnet.

Feminist Mumsnetters hail from all Brit and Irish Classes. An array of colours, shades and creeds.
Poor, rich and inbetween.

We have in common English as a written medium, access to the internet and the wish to see girls and women protected.

@PurpleHoodie

What they all just said.

Plus see also: South Korean Feminists.

They are rocking it hardcore

Where can I find out more about them? Any good articles or podcasts etc.

This was a good read: www.feministcurrent.com/2020/06/15/the-south-korean-womens-movement-we-are-not-flowers-we-are-a-fire/

The comments made about MN in all sorts of press and articles etc are always incredibly sexist.

Right back to the biscuit conversion where the trickier questions asked by women were ignored and the press said 'mn asked what's your favourite biscuit' (which is a joke question).

So many people think women and especially mothers are devoid of interest in anything outside shoes and babies. Even though everyone knows women who have many interests outside (or all well as) those things.

The sterotyping is so strong it overrides what people actually know to be true- cognitive dissonance again.

The UK may be liberal itself, but it's close to the sharp end of oppression of women, with honour killings and FGM, while at the same time there was the lack of abortion just over the water in Ireland in Northern Ireland. These islands know.