Action Aid - no such thing as a biological female

[Apileofballyhoo]

Has this been posted already? It's from an email they sent. I saw it on Twitter so I'll be back with links.

cheese, many thanks. Tweaked, amended and sent.

If I don't hear back I may have to assume that the answer is 'yes' and pull my support accordingly. Which will make me quite sad, actually: it's been a long time.

@DrDavidBanner

I'm just so bloody tired of all this. I wish they'd get their stories straight.

I mean what is the end game? It feels like they want to get rid of us completely, and then what?

Well if women don't exist, trans women won't either, surely? How can you 'feel' like a woman if we're not even real to begin with? Denying our existence is denying their own, by this logic.

I actually feel numb over all this. It doesn't feel real.

I actually feel numb over all this. It doesn't feel real.

Me too

I presume this is coming in response to questions or pressure.... how utterly narcissistic do you have to be to contact a charity helping girls and women in properly horrible situations and demand that the language used not only includes but centres privileged people who have the time, energy and internet access to have a 'gender identity'?

Is anyone allowed to identify as a Nigerian woman? Or a Vietnamese woman?
So, if an English former man decides he's now a woman, can he also transcend the nationality he was born into?
I would assume so, otherwise it makes no sense at all.
And if not, then why not?
Is there a reason that Mike Smith from Shrewsbury can't be validited as an Iranian woman, for example?
I think I might need to email my query to Action Aid. I want clarification.

Of all the charities. Why?

It's so much worse when an organisation you believe in let's down the people who need them most.

Michelle's post is what I want to say but better put. How much privilege do you have to have to look at the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world, and decide to penetrate their existence with your diversity stick?

Fay Ripley is on the front page of their website. I wonder if she agrees?

I have emailed Action Aid and asked if it is a hoax.

Given the quantity of tweets and emails they are receiving about this, I'd have expected a refutation by now if it were indeed a false story.

Watching and waiting.

Who are these women anD girls action aid are talking about

What I find especially silly and annoying is that nobody would object if they simply said that they were also helping transwomen. If they'd just written that transwomen were often vulnerable and needed their help as well women who would complain?

There is no need for them to write that we have to believe their ridiculous assertions, that women are undefinable and don't really exist, wokesplaining feminist principles to women.

I'd be happy to continue donating to a charity that helps women and transwomen. I will not donate to an organisation that instructs me what I should believe, and tells me it's unfeminist to have a different opinion.

Again, when I spoke to them today I was told it was a genuine statement and would be clarified on their website soon.

Oh FFS. This is insane. They should be ashamed of themselves.

There’ll be no charity left to donate to soon. More money in my pocket, but pity the poor women and girls whose lives will be even worse because of this inordinate self-indulgence by a bunch of silly-born bastards.

I am gutted about this. My mum sponsored children through ActionAid after me and my siblings came along, has continued for all of her grandchildren and I have made a monthly donation for over two decades.
They are SO GOOD on supporting women and really unashamedly prioritising that in their communications. I’ve made a point of explaining to my kids why this focus in their work is so important. To read that line is like a kick in the teeth.
I will wait until this is on their site but then will be emailing them, cancelling my direct debit, and diverting my money to a charity that still knows women and girls exist.
For shame, ActionAid.

Can I just - because this crops up ALL THE TIME but is never addressed - defining X and Y as anyone who identifies as X and Y is not a definition. It is not. All you have done is redefined the state of being something as "self-identifying as" that thing, but you have not at all addressed what you consider that thing to be.

The only response to "we define women as anyone who self-identifies as a woman" is to ask "self-identifies as a what?" What is this unnameable entity you are self-IDing as?

One of Actionaid's trustees is Helen Pankhurst, a women's rights campaigner and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst (suffragette). I wonder what she makes of this?

Another trustee is Joanna Maycock, who is Secretary General at European Women's Lobby. By the way, I'm not trying to make trouble for these trustees, just wondering if they are aware of this line from the charity?

One of Actionaid's trustees is Helen Pankhurst, a women's rights campaigner and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst (suffragette). I wonder what she makes of this

So many charities have now become big institutional behemoths, and one arm does not know what the other arm is doing. It is an industry. Look at what happened with Oxfam in recent times. Sexual exploitation of women and girls by outreach workers, as well as senior officials.

The only response to "we define women as anyone who self-identifies as a woman" is to ask "self-identifies as a what?" What is this unnameable entity you are self-IDing as?

Well yes what is this women thing you are self identify as

If self-defining of the body is a feminist right and the women and girls ‘self-define’ as women, it reads to me that they’ve agreed to their oppression.

It’s sod all to do with self-definition and everything to do with being defined by the patriarchy.

Actually, if there is indeed no such thing as a biologically male/female body, then it follows that a person's genitalia do not determine their sex - not gender, as they state.

These people can't even consistently apply their own logic to their reasoning.

I suppose the first step would be to ensure they are actually bound to UK law. If they are, then I suppose a second step would be to write to their legal team asking for clarification. And then take it from there.

As well as being registered in the UK they also do work in the UK, so they definitely are bound by UK law.

www.actionaid.org.uk/about-us/actionaids-work-in-the-uk

medium.com/@MForstater/action-aids-policy-goes-right-to-the-top-323e1b4ab38
From maya

Fuxake.

A reminder:
200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation.
In many settings women do 10 x unpaid care work as men
200 million women need but lack access to contraception
25 million unsafe abortions take place
130 million school-aged girls do not attend school
Thirty-five percent of women experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime
Action Aid’s response suggests these things don’t happen to women and girls on account of being born female, but because they self-determined into the class of people to whom these things happen (and could self determine out).
If you think perhaps this is the work of an under supervised social media assistant, an Action Aid internal policy document will quickly disabuse of that notion.
The idea that sex does not exist is embedded in ActionAidUK’s trans rights policy document, signed this off at the highest level and the senior leadership team has been trained on it.

From Maya’s piece above

If there is no such thing as a biologically female body, then there is no such thing as sex-based oppression. So old-fashioned feminism (which fought against sex-based oppression) was always unnecessary.

The reference to the discrimination nonbinaries and trans men experience is a direct refutation of that initial religious tenet of the movement. They are discriminated because of their female bodies, though a few male nonbinary people could also get some minor hassle for their presentation.