Irish readers - TheJournal.ie

[notyourhandmaid]

Their new columnist Aoife Martin posits a "if cis people didn’t exist for a week" scenario and talks about how hard it is going swimming as a trans person, with complete and utter ignorance about how much of this stuff applies to women.
www.thejournal.ie/readme/trans-woman-swimming-5336575-Jan2021/#comments

It's not the worst thing Martin has written, and certainly not the most misogynistic. But the absolute lack of solidarity with women, while insisting on being one, is telling. One does wonder when Martin was living as a man - for many decades - how many women felt uncomfortable by being watched and judged by them. There's no acknowledgement of how sports participation rates drop off for girls once puberty hits, or how shitty boys and men tend to be towards girls in general. There's no admission of past complicity, or having started understanding this after living as a woman.

Comments are currently disabled. Didn't happen for Irish women sharing their deeply personal abortion stories a couple of years back, for context. (Tends to happen for ongoing court cases and investigations.)

I read it. Self absorbed self agrandising crap

I’d not be giving them the clicks, they might decide its the sort of article readers want

@NorthernIrishFeminist

I’d not be giving them the clicks, they might decide its the sort of article readers want

They've taken Aoife on as a regular columnist, they've already decided.

www.thejournal.ie/contact/

Contact TheJournal here. Worth being very clear that the issue is not 'trans person having a voice', but 'trans person who is consistently both hateful and dismissive towards women being given a comments-disabled space for this'.

The same person who sneered at bereaved mothers for not wanting to be referred to as birthing people.

“But the absolute lack of solidarity with women, while insisting on being one, is telling.”

Nail on head, there. Applies to so many things around the issue.

@purplepizzabunny

The same person who sneered at bereaved mothers for not wanting to be referred to as birthing people.

This. To be given a comments disabled platform gives the impression that they know their views are both unpopular and indefensible. I wonder who decided to disable the comments I won't be giving then the clicks.

The same person who sneered at bereaved mothers for not wanting to be referred to as birthing people.

Utterly vile.

Their new columnist Aoife Martin posits a "if cis people didn’t exist for a week" scenario and talks about how hard it is going swimming as a trans person, with complete and utter ignorance about how much of this stuff applies to women

This stuff is co-opted from women. It's a favourite thing for transwomen do, to take the things that women and feminists say, swap the words around so that transwomen have been substituted for women, at the cost of it not making sense any more, and use it to start bemoaning the awfulness of being trans.

This particular fantasy is co-opted from women talking about what they would do if men were curfewed. Though notice that this delightful specimen of a human has changed the happy fantasy to "cis people" (by which they nearly always mean women, but they say "cis people" to not sound misogynistic) not existing.

Also note that women fantasise about a male-free world so that they're safe from being attacked. It's unclear what Aoife Martin's fear of "cis people" is but it's clearly not a fear of physical or sexual assault.

@BraveBananaBadge

*“But the absolute lack of solidarity with women, while insisting on being one, is telling.”*

Nail on head, there. Applies to so many things around the issue.

This is absolutely right. The trans people who take political positions on women’s committees and boards and Women’s Officer posts (and the utterly mind blowing one in place on the Women’s Network that informs policy for the Royal Obs/Gyn Society!!) often openly prioritise trans issues over women’s issues.

This has the double whammy of reducing women’s representation in public life (completely the opposite purpose of the reserved positions for women) and promoting trans issues at the cost of women’s rights. Quite unbelievable.

But the absolute lack of solidarity with women, while insisting on being one, is telling.

This. Apparent a lot at the moment in many situations. Words and actions don't match up, lots of talk about being othered while othering female type women. Really the whole 'if we could just put [female people] in a box for a week is nailing the feeling.

I sometimes think this is the root of some of the confusion female people have felt in the mixed messages, and it is getting more explicitly explained now. It's less 'want to be one of' than 'want to be instead of'.

Most people will read this and see it for what it is. I dont thing that person is doing thier cause any good, but my feeling is its more about the ego than helping even other trans people.

Also pretty sure that if swimming for trans people would be better, easier and more accessible if there were trans only sessions as this is saying - aren't pools willing if not downright glad to offer this? Its part of their core brief to ensure access, particularly of minority groups. There surely is no reason at all why not.

I don't even know where to start with this person but #@$ stalks the internet for mentions of $%#self for the purpose of causing pile-ons and threats so I will restrain myself from saying what I want to.

There's zero solidarity for all the other people who might feel self conscious in bathing costumes - disabled people, people who don't conform to beauty ideals especially women. Just utter self absorption. As a pp said, yes maybe it's good to get that into the mainstream sunlight and let people outside the Shrek's Swamp of Twitter make up their minds.

If cis peole didn't exist then there would be no such thing as transwomen.

Bump