My Name Is Anna. I've been called a terf - is the BBC starting to permit open discussion?

[nauticant]

On at 11 this morning (Monday) on Radio 4:

My Name Is Anna. I've been called a terf

My Name Is...Anna is branded a terf – a byword for transphobia. She rejects the label and goes in search of solutions to some of the thorny issues around trans inclusion.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s1rr

[DrBlackbird]

Thanks Cranberries I'll have a look too.

I'm feeling the same NeedToKnow with my teen DD. It feels like her generation are handing over their rights in a kind and generous gifting of good intentions without understanding the wider implications. The most successful campaign ever. Have to say that I was astounded to read that the majority of TW do not have surgery, which I had assumed would be the norm. My DD made the same assumptions. Have to say that these threads have opened my eyes.

[MichelleofzeResistance]

I'm pretty sure whoever called you a handmaiden didn't threaten to rape or murder you Laura. And that your views don't risk you being punched or kerb stomped, or arrested.

[ExhaustedFlamingo]

@OldCrone I don't disagree with any of the points you've made. I've probably just been a bit clumsy with how I'm expressing myself as I'm trying to do about five things and not paying enough attention! 😅

The point I was making about trans women being more vulnerable was more specifically that they're at risk of attack because of their trans status - because of all the reasons you describe.

The point about transmen not being attacked was meant that their trans presence isn't viewed with such offence by men. Anecdotally, and from all the research I've seen, there seems to be less objection to TM from bio men. They don't seem to view TM as an assault on their masculinity in the same way that they do with TW. But of course, that doesn't mean that TM aren't still vulnerable in all the other ways that a female-bodied person would be. I was literally just referring to the risk from a trans perspective. I completely accept the point you're making about TM still being as vulnerable as women because they are smaller, weaker etc. I appreciate my post probably seemed short-sighted in that regard so apologies for that. I think we actually share the same views, I just didn't explain myself properly or reference the wider issues, which I should have done.

[NeedToKnow101]

Everything that shines a light on the issue is being framed on MSM as Trans Rights, rather than women's rights. It's really damaging isn't it? And it is constant now. Women: STFU.

[doublehalo]

[quote NeedToKnow101]@DrBlackbird - yes my teen DS is full TWAW. Had a discussion about it recently, he really believes that the pro-women position is just transphobia. I discussed and sent him some links, and will continue to discuss, but it seems quite an entrenched teen position. I feel like he has been brainwashed. I'm dreading him going to university now in some ways. (See the treatment dished our to Raquel Rosario Sánchez at Bristol University by her fellow students). [/quote]
Does he realise he will be including them in his dating pool. The odd few who aren't lesbians that is.

[saynotofondant]

Re transwomen being more vulnerable -

Transmen have higher lifetime rates of sexual assault than transwomen. At least in the US.

Data from the 2015 US Transgender Survey:

58% NB AFABS, 51% transmen, 37% transwomen

It's figure 15.16, page 205. transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS-Full-Report-Dec17.pdf

[nauticant]

Trans men don’t seem to be subjected to the same levels of bullying and aggression.

I suspect they under-report even more than women who don't claim a tran identity.

[stumbledin]

Thank merrymouse

Obviously the mockumentary training session from 4 years ago has been a total sucess.

I dont know whether to laugh or cry.

There is no reality any more.

Social media content as the reference point for actual reporting means we can now all create our own reality.

But somehow women are still not able to define and control their reality. The have to live and subject themselves to other peoples.

[TitOfTheIceberg]

just because I’m firmly in the GC camp, I don’t lose sight of the fact that we need to make sure TW are safe and protected too.

Why is it women's responsibility to protect male bodied persons from male violence?

I don't see many TW advocating for an end to male violence on natal women. In fact on SM the trend seems to be quite the reverse; too many of them are happy to threaten it. So pardon me if I believe that it's up to men, however they choose to present, to sort out the issues relating to their sex in the same way women have had to over the decades. Happy to be an ally once they get some momentum going but not at the expense of women's rights, women's safety, women's dignity, women's privacy or women's spaces.

[CranberriesChoccyAgain]

Regarding male violence towards TW, I struggle to see how the TWAW mantra addresses that. Are we to believe that a violent man who would assault a TW wouldn't do so if we only repeated their mantra enough times. Is he somehow less likely to assault a woman than a man identifying as a woman? Why would this be so? Are GC feminists supposed to police male behaviour? Are violent men going to stop being violent on our say so?

Berating, assaulting, and threatening women who don't buy into the ideology is not about transgender safety concerns. It's about control of our language, our dignity, and our spaces.

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

And finally we're there - we have a TRA who has announced that "There is no such thing as a woman"
twitter.com/transwomyn/status/1360295188086816768

[DeaconBoo]

Looks sarky to me...