Well, that's us told

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

lux-magazine.com/article/the-road-to-terfdom/

This is an article about Mumsnet FWR boards. Author doesn't like us. Oh dear.

I can't be bothered reading past 'hysteria' in the opening paragraph.

An archive link if you want to avoid clicking through directly:

archive.fo/wip/La6fJ

That's a long article to say very little. Why do people think more is more? Brevity is your friend if your point is simple and valid.

Another day, another handmaiden shilling for dollars

I was confused to find that the protesters were often middle-aged, middle-class women, some of whom wore mysterious badges proclaiming they had been “Radicalised by Mumsnet.”

That damn radicalisation portal again 🤣

Thanks, @nauticant. I skimread it. Perhaps I missed a mention of safeguarding. I'm sure the constant attempts of well-informed FWR regulars to raise this important topic has not been ignored or forgotten.

I'm giving the whole thing a go. It's very amusing.

It's a lot of writing for something that she seems to think is self evidently a lot of fuzz about nothing.

So much of it reads as ham-fisted parody:

The more I learned about Mumsnet, the more the forum reminded me of my past reporting on the ways men are radicalized by the toxic online “manosphere,” where pick-up artists (PUAs) and men’s rights activists (MRAs) recruit followers by exploiting real fears (such as economic anxiety) and blaming marginalized outgroups (women, people of color, Jews) for societal failures.

Well, maybe if she could come and present some cogent arguments (as opposed to circular definitions and repetitive mantras), there would be less 'radicalisation' going on.

Lots of people have lurked on these boards and seen the arguments for themselves. The lack of a sensible response from the TRA perspective had a big impact on the formation of my views and I know I'm not alone.

It's telling that so many people monitor this board hoping to get posts deleted and threads shut down rather than coming and backing up their opinion with evidence from credible sources.

Starts with the usual attempt to write mothers off as empty-headed types not to be trusted with serious issues.

I was baffled to learn these feminists were finding each other on Mumsnet, a collection of message boards I’d previously turned to for advice on how to descale my dishwasher and associated with smug, bougie mums comparing high-end strollers and complaining about the neighbor’s dog eating their begonias.

"TERFs believe that women are defined by their biological differences from men. They want liberation from gender stereotypes, but don’t think it’s possible to be freed from biological sex, and argue the latter goal is not just naive but hurts efforts to combat sexual violence and discrimination. That was exactly the type of messaging I was regularly hearing in the U.K. media, which more frequently than not cast women’s rights and trans rights as diametrically opposed."

All sounds perfectly reasonable to me, except perhaps for the 'diametrically opposed' bit. Can't think what her problem is.

Is this person really a journalist? It doesn't sound at all like a balanced article (there's no attempt to critically evaluate why women have worries - its all just concluded as ridiculous) and there's a level of hyperbole which makes it hard to take seriously.

Two things in particular stood out to me (my bolds) -

'There are many theories as to why TERFism is more prevalent in the U.K. than in the U.S. Critics have cited everything from Britain’s imperialist history (the empire promoted laws criminalizing homosexuality and enforcing the gender binary) to the influence of the broader U.K. “skeptics” movement, which dogmatically opposes any claims based on faith or “anecdotal” evidence. '

She can't surely be saying that asking for evidence is a bad thing?

If left unchecked, the consequences of Mumsnet’s politics will continue beyond the defeat of the GRA reforms

This sounds almost like a threat - unchecked by who? Mumsnet? The Government? People who are against GC views? Is the author of this piece looking for restrictions to people voicing their opinions?

It isn't possible to be freed from biological sex.

That's exactly why we end up with descriptors such as 'everyone with a cervix' and 'menstruators'.

I’ll give her her due, it’s better written than the average article that takes this viewpoint.

I’m afraid that’s a bit of a backhanded compliment though, because that’s a very low benchmark.

Is there any hope for TERFs? wails Katie J. M. Baker of Buzz Feed News. The answer, she tells us, can be found in ContraPoints' ridiculous youtube video. This is really very funny.

Got bored

criticism of the National Health Service for stating that the needs of trans patients should be attended to

When did this happen?

I also LOATHE when people say (the equivalent of...) ‘posters say they are concerned about womens rights...but really they hate transpeoples very existence’

Far too long and poorly edited.

I was wondering if it was an article attempting to cash in on being a North American living in the UK and therefore able to report first-hand on the baffling phenomenon of gender critical feminists who want to preserve their sex-based rights. As I understand it, there are nothing like as extensive comparable rights in the US, so I suppose it must be hard for them to grasp.

Beware the begonias, the gardening gateway to terfism!

"Introducing Lux:

A new magazine of feminism for the masses
It’s sex, with class. "

If left unchecked, the consequences of Mumsnet’s politics will continue beyond the defeat of the GRA reforms

Star light, Star Bright
First Star I see tonight,
I wish she may,
I wish she might
Have the blight she wishes tonight

A safe place for terfs!

jay. zuss.

God that was so boring, I thought it was never going to end, bit I made it because I am a researcher and I do read both sides of the story.
What I love about this board is the intelligent women who contribute with actual research, not Fred Blogg's you tube channel!

There are many women's issues to focus on but non of them will mean shit if we cannot define what a woman is.

Just for reference I am a struggling single mum. My politics have always been left or liberal. I'm a survivor of domestic violence and abuse. I work in research. My children were over the age of 10 when I first came to Mumsnet. I came for the feminism board. I rarely look at the other boards, maybe AIBU just to see what goes on in other people's lives.

The central thesis that we’re all shut ins alienated from the world after having children is just weird.

It’s really not what happens at all, and given that I don’t have children, is patently not the only route here. I know I’m not alone in that.