Author Naomi Wolf condemns UK's 'moral panic' on trans issues

[stumbledin]

Britain is in the grip of a “moral panic” about transgender issues, according to U.S. author Naomi Wolf, who said she was angry that trans women were being linked with predatory men having been a victim of rape herself. ...

“It’s always this mythology of a man dressed as a woman in ladies bathroom who’s going to rape a woman - which just doesn’t happen,” Wolf told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview, adding that women were far more at risk from men.

“Anyway there are already laws in place against you being molested by anyone in a bathroom.”

Wolf, 58, said every time she stood up for trans rights she was attacked online by “waves and waves of bots”.

And more like this at uk.reuters.com/article/britain-lgbt-history/interview-u-s-author-naomi-wolf-condemns-uks-moral-panic-on-trans-issues-idUSL8N2ID2IG

Just posting for information.

Not sure it is worth discussing, though needless to say she was an invited speaker at what should have been an event about Gay rights, but of course has been trans(formed) into a LGBTQ event.

Sigh.

Naomi Wolf - who wrote a 'book' that had to be pulped by the publisher because it was full of errors /untruths /mistakes. That Naomi Wolf?

Ok fine, lady has an rational opinion which reflects study carried out. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-018-0335-z

We good here now? :)

She's just searching for relevance, poor thing.

Well a moral panic is when the general public are persuaded of a danger that doesn't exist being widespread.
But in this case

1. we have ample evidence of real danger (see- many threads on this board)
2. the general public are unaware and/or confused about the danger.

So- not a moral panic then.

For the love of fuck how many times does it have to be said?

In a culture of 'self id' no bloke will have to 'dress as a woman' to go in the ladies bogs. All any man needs to say is 'I am a woman' and he has as much right to be there as anyone else, who is going to be able to challenge him? No dressing up required.

I wonder what Naomi Wolf thinks about males in women's refuges, prisons, sports?

Anyway there are already laws in place against you being molested by anyone in a bathroom

What.... specifically in bathrooms?

Theres an actual law which says you can’t be molested in a bathroom

In a way it is almost irrelevant who she is, what it relevant is that a supposedly respected group of Barristers have selected someone who thinks like this to be a speaker.

And she is happy as a supposed feminist (ie the women that men choose are rarely the women that women choose) to be used by the system to slag off other women.

We might say we know differently, but they are talking over us, and getting women to join in.

It’s always this mythology of a man dressed as a woman in ladies bathroom who’s going to rape a woman

She's clearly not been following what people in the U.K. have actually been talking about if she thinks it's 'always' that.... not sure it's ever that.
That sentence is ill-informed hyperbole.

@RufustheSniggeringReindeer

Anyway there are already laws in place against you being molested by anyone in a bathroom

What.... specifically in bathrooms?

Theres an actual law which says you can’t be molested in a bathroom

She is such a fraud, she just makes shit like this up all the time. If you call her on it she just ignores you and makes up something new. She's an embarrassment to academia.

Not bots, just women who think you're an idiotic sellout, Naomi. How very arrogant of her.

Because she is such a fabulous investigative reporter 😂 I still enjoy the memory of her interview on R4 when she was so spectacularly full of nonsense...

@Passmeabottlemrjones

For the love of fuck how many times does it have to be said?

In a culture of 'self id' no bloke will have to 'dress as a woman' to go in the ladies bogs. All any man needs to say is 'I am a woman' and he has as much right to be there as anyone else, who is going to be able to challenge him? No dressing up required.

I wonder what Naomi Wolf thinks about males in women's refuges, prisons, sports?

Ok if you’re gonna swear please get your facts straight.

Self ID literally only helps people to change their birth certificates. That's all it does.

Sooooo A man who just decides to "identify" as woman (but not dress up as you say) will not have a corresponding passport and drivers license - someone will freak (rightly so) call the police, and he’ll have no way to back it up that he actually identifies as a woman.

And before you say

Also any one right now, today can change their gender. Literally right now. www.gov.uk/change-name-driving-licence - you don’t need a gender certificate or medical diagnosis.

No man is abusing this, just like no one is abusing the self-ID laws in Ireland, because it’s been allowed already.

So PLEASE for the love of god - stop with this fearmongering and hurting trans people in the process.

Wrong Connie. Self ID doesn't have to be connected to any rules about birth certificates.

And - you're on Mumsnet - where women are allowed our own opinions and to swear - without permission. (faints)

'No man is abusing this' said no safeguarding expert ever.

Waves of bots on twitter, eh?

Has bot changed in meaning? Because I thought it meant an automated program, like the ones that post spam about earning thousands by working from home in facebook comments.

Bots are a useful cover when you don't want to admit real people disagree with you.

I've replied to Naomi numerous times on twitter. Definitely a real person.

It's very simple and straightforward. I don't give a damn what a man is wearing or what he believes about himself or identifies as. I do not want him in any women's single-sex space. He has no right to be there. His fantasies or wishful thinking or beliefs do not outweigh reality.

I should also add Naomi has a woefully poor understanding ofUK culture, history, laws and legal system.

Anyway there are already laws in place against you being molested by anyone in a bathroom

I mean, there are laws against rape and murder, but it doesn't stop people raping and murdering.

😂 at saying the accounts must be bots. Because no one could ever possibly disagree with her. Perish the thought.

No man is abusing this, just like no one is abusing the self-ID laws in Ireland

Don't be ridiculous.

No man is abusing this, just like no one is abusing the self-ID laws in Ireland

So these are genuine transwomen then? In that case, we're not 'fearmongering' about transwomen, since some of them are violent sex offenders.

www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/sex-offender-undergoing-male-female-16623261

www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/teenager-in-custody-charged-with-threats-to-kill-two-people-39562763.html

Self ID literally only helps people to change their birth certificates. That's all it does.

And do you think that change is of no consequence?

The change of the birth certificate changes the legally recognised sex of that person. So if that person is sent to prison, they will go to the prison which is appropriate for a person of that sex. Which is what has happened a few times now in Ireland, and because nobody actually bothered to think through a law like this, there are now rapists in women's prisons in Ireland. And the authorities don't seem to know how to solve this problem that they've created.

www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-stories/male-bodied-transgender-inmate-housed-with-women-prisoners/

Criminal defence lawyer Robert Purcell says that the Gender Recognition Act 2015 has placed the State in an impossible position with regard to transgender prisoners.

A man who just decides to "identify" as woman (but not dress up as you say) will not have a corresponding passport and drivers license - someone will freak (rightly so) call the police, and he’ll have no way to back it up that he actually identifies as a woman.

And the police will have no evidence to prove that he doesn't identify as a woman. Because we're always being told that everyone is who they say they are.

And this seems to contradict what you said in your previous sentence that he would be able to change his birth certificate. If he can do that under self ID he can change all his documents to female and he will be a woman for all legal purposes.

Do you not understand what self ID means? It means self ID. No proof of anything required, no "dressing up" (which sounds like stereotyping and quite sexist). Just make a declaration and sign on the dotted line. That's it. Man to woman in a few seconds.

Sounds like you need to 'educate yourself' a bit, Connie, because you sound more clueless than sensible at the moment.

You could start here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3348290-It-will-never-happen-resource-thread

And here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3145470-Break-it-down-for-me

Naomi Wolf is not well-known for her fact-checking abilities...