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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Heads up: MNHQ planning to create a sex/gender topic separate from FWR.

389 replies

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 11/06/2021 12:28

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/4267223-Any-chance-of-a-review-of-the-FWR-moderation-rules-in-light-of-Maya-Forstaters-success-in-court-please?pg=1

We also think now might be the time to consider a reshuffle of the topics in the Feminism board. Feminism and feminist organising has always been a crucial part of Mumsnet and we want all Mumsnet users to feel they can use these boards to discuss the hundreds of ways in which sex - and gender roles - impact on women’s lives, irrespective of their views on sex and gender. So we’d like to introduce a separate topic for Sex and Gender issues and at the same time streamline some of the other topics under the FWR umbrella (some of which are rarely used).

As I said on the linked thread, I thought sex/gender was the basis of feminism and therefore a bit odd to split it off.

OP posts:
BreastedBoobilyToTheStairs · 11/06/2021 17:41

Saying 'But how can you discuss feminism without mentioning sex?' is disingenuous imo. Having a 'sex and gender' subsection would mean having a section specifically devoted to the debate over gender identity and biological sex, it wouldn't mean that referring to sex or anything pertaining to what sex you are would be verboten in the rest of the feminism section!

Say someone posts about violence against women. Or healthcare for women. Or women and poverty. Or sex work. All seriously important topics you'd expect feminists to engage with and which you'd expect to sit on the main board.

Posters that respond are either going to believe that transwomen should be included in the figures for that discussion, or that they shouldn't, depending on their views around sex and gender.

In order to get any semblance of a decent conversation going there needs to be some sort of baseline for what is being discussed otherwise people will be constantly talking at cross purposes. That's the bit that ends up turning into a sex and gender discussion and is why it seems like some posts get hijacked.

Sex and gender are entirely relevant because the statistics and the underlying complexities around the topic will be different depending on which cohort of people you're talking to/about, even though the post itself isn't actually about sex and gender. That's before we even think about getting into the complexities of the terminology used. You simply can't ignore something so pivotal to the discussion.

MsMarvellous · 11/06/2021 17:41

Surely feminism is fundamentally dependent on understanding what a woman is! I think this is a ridiculous idea. You cannot isolate a discussion that impacts feminism at its very basic level.

Floisme · 11/06/2021 17:44

As I've said, I've no issue with asking asking MNHQ to set up an additional board if FWR doesn't meet their needs. Make your arguments and, if HQ agree then crack on. My objection is to expecting this board to move over to make room: entitled behaviour.

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 11/06/2021 17:44

@esterwin

So cant we just talk about things like period poverty without getting into the transgender debate? It just feels like everything else is ignored.
Don't we normally have them? Perhaps typically in AIBU to be fair.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3801915-radio-dj-liz-kershaw-on-periodpoverty-ffs

Whatsnewpussyhat · 11/06/2021 17:46

@esterwin

So cant we just talk about things like period poverty without getting into the transgender debate? It just feels like everything else is ignored.
Yes, it would be lovely if we could talk about how period poverty affects women and girls without someone coming along to tell us that men have periods too....
PicsInRed · 11/06/2021 17:47

@TeenMinusTests

I think streamlining the other sub topics is sensible. I think having a separate Sex & Gender topic is daft. Male bodied people encroaching on women's spaces is about sex, not about gender.

They could perhaps have a Gender topic so maybe separate LBG and T boards. Then people who believe in a spectrum of genders can discuss them to their heart's content.

But leave feminism to be about issues impacting biological women?

This. A separate gender topic in the appropriate area, and permit the continued discussion of sex related issues in FWR.

We only just had the groundbreaking ruling around the right to an opinion on the immutibility of biological sex yesterday, what's with this timing MNHQ? This should be the legally safest time for the hosting of any such discussion to take place.

Viviennemary · 11/06/2021 17:49

I think it would be a good idea. Nearly every topic is about transgender transphobia and Stonewall shatever that is.

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 11/06/2021 17:50

One of the reasons I now post on FWR is because over the years, I have got sick of trying to have discussions about feminist issues elsewhere, because it always gets derailed by the trans debate.

Discussing male violence? Someone pipes up that transwomen have it worse and accuses you of cis privilege for discussing that men murder two women a week.

Discussing sexual harassment in public places? Someone pipes up and says the discussion is cisnormative and they (a transwoman) have never been harassed in a public place and they're a woman. They explain that the article has artificially inflated the figures of sexual harassment by excluding transwomen and I'm being trans-exclusionary.

That actually happened

If people want to centre the trans experience over all else, they have the entire rest of the internet to do it in. I have no objection to MN adding another board but we should not be expected to hand over this space to it.

Viviennemary · 11/06/2021 17:51

Sorry I do now know what Stonewall is. I thought it was just about trans issues.,

shesellsseacats · 11/06/2021 17:56

I've made a suggestion for a compromise to this here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4268307-Compromise-for-new-FWR-section-could-you-support-this

Imasoulman · 11/06/2021 18:00

I never suggested that you had, but I assure you it happens and I can't see how a different board would change that.

TedImgoingmad · 11/06/2021 18:01

@GrammarTeacher you said:

multiple threads on yesterday's judgement that missed the bit where the judge pointed out that harassment was still harassment

I did several times. Got told I wasn't a real feminist because I happened to disagree.

You haven't come back to me to tell me which threads, so I looked at the 2 main threads on Maya's case on FWR, and it is simply not true that this was missed. I didn't see your name appear on either of those threads, so maybe you missed the discussion. I didn't see anyone being told they are "not a real feminist."

On the longest thread about the case, called Maya's judgement Thursday 10th June 10.30am , harassment was indeed discussed.

At 10.48 - 18 minutes after the judgment was released - @CardinalLolzy summarised the judgment including the passages about the judgment not sanctioning harassment or taking away transpeople's protection against harassment.

A number of other posters discussed what might be harassment, both in Maya's case and in theory, and @ANewCreation posted another extract from the judgment relating to harassment, :

That is not to say, of course, that the Claimant can, as a result of her belief, disregard
the GRC; clearly, she cannot do so in circumstances where the acquired gender is legally relevant, e.g. in a claim of sex discrimination or harassment. Referring to a trans person by their pre-GRC gender in any of the settings in which the EqA applies could amount to harassment related to one or more protected characteristics; whether or not it does will depend, as in any claim of
harassment, on a careful assessment of all relevant factors, including whether the conduct was unwanted, the perception of the trans person concerned and whether it is reasonable for the impugned conduct to have the effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the trans person. A simple example of a situation where referring
to a trans person by their pre-GRC gender would probably not amount to harassment is where the trans person in question is happy to discuss their trans status or is sympathetic to or shares the Claimant’s gender-critical belief. The Tribunal itself acknowledged that “Many trans people are happy to discuss their trans status”, and had before it the uncontested evidence of Kristin Harrison, a gender-critical trans woman, who, presumably, would not have felt harassed by being referred to as a man in some circumstances. It is difficult, therefore, to understand the Tribunal’s conclusion that the Claimant’s belief “necessarily harms the rights of others through her refusal to accept the full effect of a GRC…”. Not only is this conclusion predicated on the incorrect assumption that the Claimant would always misgender trans persons, irrespective of the circumstances, and that the full effect of a GRC goes beyond legal purposes, but it also fails to recognise that whether there is harassment in a given situation is a highly fact-sensitive question.

At 15.59 @yourhairiswinterfire posted:

ItsAllGoingToBeFine
The sheer confusion is huge

It's deliberate. Before the case "Maya was harassing transpeople at work and her views are not worthy of respect" after the case "we never said that, and this case supports trans rights"

TRA: "x is always y you bigot"
GC: [unarguable proof that TRA is wrong]
TRA: we didn't mean it literally / we never said that / this is a win for X is always z.

It's bonkers, and so bloody predictable now.

On the old Maya thread, there were posters saying they hope she loses so she doesn't win the right to discriminate against/harass trans people at work.

Wouldn't have it when they were told that that wasn't at all what the case was about and no one would support that. We even linked to Ben Coopers specific examples during the appeal of the difference between holding a belief and using the belief to harass someone, to prove that the case wasn't asking for the right to do that, but nope, wouldn't have it.

Now the classic reverse ferret where they have to deny they ever said X, despite all the evidence that they did, all to convince themselves that the ''trfs'' lost.*

On the Victory for Maya! thread, most of the posts were not in discussion form, merely "Congrats!" type posts. However, @Zzelda (13.06), @notyours (13.11), @justanotherneighinparadise (13.15), @Ereshkigalangcleg (13.16), @jellybeansforbreakfast (13.24) all posted about the fact that the judgment did not give anyone a licence to harass trans people, and nor should it.

All those posters on FWR took their time to post, discuss, clarify and agree that, as you put it, harassment is still harassment.

Now, there was another thread on Maya's case, on AIBU, but as that board has nothing to do with FWR, you can't complain that the FWR board is "drowning out" other opinions because of things posted elsewhere. Is that where you were posting? I scrolled through that one too - including about 10 tedious pages about tampons - and your name doesn't appear there either. Nor is anyone called "not a real feminist", nor are any of the FWR regulars disrespectful, quite the opposite actually. All the insults are being slung from the opposite side. And yes, the issue of harassment came up, and yes, it was made clear that this case does not sanction harassment, and no GC poster has ever intimated that it does.

So where exactly were you posting?

Ultimately, it is really wrong and utterly disingenuous to say that something is being ignored or not discussed, when it in fact is extensively; it's an attempt to paint this board in a bad light using unfounded claims, and silence the voices on the FWR board, none of whom can or would stop you posting your viewpoints, opinions and facts if you wanted to.

Iwishihadariver · 11/06/2021 18:06

"Mumsnet itself is a feminist site simply by dint of women talking and helping each other deal with the stuff that crops up in women’s lives. You don’t need a soft, don’t scare the horses feminist discussion board because that’s already covered by the site as a whole. You need a this-isn’t-nice-but-it-hurts-us-and-it-needs-to-be-said feminist discussion board or it has no purpose."

THIS is it for me. I sometimes wince at some of the more forthright comments from posters here but I absolutely want to hear the unvarnished thoughts of these people. I would not spend any time on a libfem board. I want to be shocked to remind me of what's at stake for women.

LibertyMole · 11/06/2021 18:06

This is how we ended up with all these different feminist boards in the first place.

MN created feminist theory because the feminist posters were too radical, and they wanted them to post there.

The lib fems never actually showed up to use fwr chat, so the original feminists just moved back to the chat board.

I predict the same happening this time. The board should never have been split in the first place.

Waitwhat23 · 11/06/2021 18:11

@TedImgoingmad I'll be interested to see the response to your comprehensive post.

GurlwiththeCurl · 11/06/2021 18:12

I think that the feminist boards should stay as they are. This type of discussion comes up regularly in an attempt to shut discussion down.

Women will not shut up!

Iwishihadariver · 11/06/2021 18:14

@Iwishihadariver

"Mumsnet itself is a feminist site simply by dint of women talking and helping each other deal with the stuff that crops up in women’s lives. You don’t need a soft, don’t scare the horses feminist discussion board because that’s already covered by the site as a whole. You need a this-isn’t-nice-but-it-hurts-us-and-it-needs-to-be-said feminist discussion board or it has no purpose."

THIS is it for me. I sometimes wince at some of the more forthright comments from posters here but I absolutely want to hear the unvarnished thoughts of these people. I would not spend any time on a libfem board. I want to be shocked to remind me of what's at stake for women.

Quote used is from BlibbyBlobby. Sorry forget to use bold text & @ you in my determination to post !
JoodyBlue · 11/06/2021 18:32

The fact that there are a plethora of posts about women's sex based rights and the erosion of such in society and the difficulties in discussing this suggest that these ARE the issues of primary concern to feminists. These are your user base MNHQ. There is nothing to prevent post on all issues concerning feminism and women's rights. But we have to be able to define what we mean by a female and a woman. Otherwise it is all bobbins.

MoonlightApple · 11/06/2021 18:36

There are a lot of topics on FWR about sex vs gender because that’s what people here think is important. If we wanted to discuss sharing the bath water we’d go on women’s hour instead.

EdinburghFeminist · 11/06/2021 18:36

#WOMENWON’TWHEESHT!

TomatoesAreFruit · 11/06/2021 18:38

I would honestly love to see a genuine lib fem discusssion thread on mumsnet to have a good giggle.

Be kind
Be inclusive
Must do better
Must educate myself
Must recognise my position of privilege.

I don't always agree with it but I love the fury, intelligence, humour and forthrightness of the FWR board.

Furthermore, I believe I have faced barriers and discrimination because of my sex. I should be allowed to name and define my sex (not gender) on the feminism board.

I dislike a number of topics, baby names, trying to conceive, the dog house, threads about The Archers. But, I ignore them and move on with my day. Can I suggest that opponents to the FWR board either start their own libfem thread (so I can lurk and have a giggle) or just visit other parts of this huge discussion board.

Rant over. Time to post a wrong answer on the chat board.

Zeev · 11/06/2021 18:40

@EmpressWitchDoesntBurn

If there was a Sex & Gender discussion board, would it be bound by the current FWR moderation rules, *@JustineMumsnet*? Or would we be able to speak more freely?
An excellent question. Would we be allowed to talk amongst ourselves more freely? And if so, what would be done when the "monitors" inevitably followed us there and started reporting?
EndoplasmicReticulum · 11/06/2021 18:45

I imagine the plan will be - separate us off.

This means that lots of threads on the main board can be derailed with "this is in the wrong place".
Then, the separate board will be described as an "echo chamber" and shut down.
I'm getting more and more cross about this.
The question on site stuff originally asked was "in light of Maya yesterday, can we have a rethink on the moderation rules" and instead we got "we're going to split the board instead".

They won't get any more fivers out of me, that's for sure.

stumbledin · 11/06/2021 18:49

Sorry haven't had time to read all posts so far, and suspect I will just be repeating what others have already said.

to quote OP "to discuss the hundreds of ways in which sex - and gender roles - impact on women’s lives, irrespective of their views on sex and gender" as a suggestion just doesn't make sense. If you are discussing the hundred ways sex and gender impact on your life then how you view either of these will be reflected in what you want to say about that impact.

Are we able to have discussions on an issue where those with a different view on sex and gender can each comment and not have someone say in response but because I believe sex and gender mean that ... means what you have said make no sense.

So long as threads allow people to respond directly to previous posters this will always be an issue.

For this not to happen mumsnet would have to set up a different type of forum, where (for instance) a topic is announced, everyone who has a reponse sends them in by a fixed deadline, then mumsnet publishes them on a thread closed for responses.

And even if you someone created this artificial divide how would you stop the issue of sex and gender coming up?

And what I dont understand is that there are quite a few topics posted that aren't specifically about women as biological females, and quite honestly they get a very low response.

So either this means those who say they want other issues really dont, they just want to complain about others having different priorities to theirs, or they are telling mumsnet the mere existence of these threads on issues resulting from women being told their sex isn't real, is somehow so hostile and alienating, they cant even bring themselves to add comments to threads that aren't directly related to sex and gender.

What would this supposed "solution" solve?

And who is it that is asking for it. Has MNHQ provided any figures ie is this a request coming from over 50% of those using the FWR forum.

At the very least there should be a poll.

You would think mumsnet would be celebrating, having been mentioned as a source of support in the Maya case.

In a few years when all this push for self identity fades away and people return to their senses, MNHQ will be able to show that between 2014(?) and 202? they played a positively role in helping stop the erasure of women's sex based rights.

ThursdayWeld · 11/06/2021 19:06

Absolutely massively wrong move by Mumsnet. Someone really hasn't thought this through.