How to suss out other GC people in work

[JustcameoutGC]

I work in an organisation that is SWalled up the wazooo. I want to find other people in work who hold gender critical views, but not sure the best way to go about this. How do I do this safely? Thinking I might ask if they have any pets, like clownfish.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Here you go.

I’d wear a suffragette T-shirt or lanyard to work but my office is slap bang in the middle of baby-student land and I don’t want to be accused of outraging public decency or literal-actual-y’know-mass-murder.

I think I heard the Astra zeneca vaccine posed a slightly higher risk to women (Clot related) while the Pfizer vaccine posed a slightly higher risk to men (heart related). Maybe you could mention something about that and how interesting and amazing it is that women's and men's bodies respond differently to things like medicines and why it's important that medical research takes into account the differences between the sexes. See if their face lights up or they agree with some enthusiasm.

I think you will have to repeatedly use various opportunities to subtly indicate your stance and hope that some of your colleagues will take the hint and maybe start subtly indicating back that they are on board with what you are saying.

Could get a mug or notebook with the words "Courage calls to courage...." And see if anyone notices it.

I am waiting for my sex matters mug to arrive. It shall be deployed discretely during key meetings

Wonder if there's a non-binary trans person at your office who might be able to pick up on all these bat signals and then land themselves with a hefty payout for bullying, emotional turmoil and whatever else they can make stick.

I listened to a YouTube about an old murder case that was partly solved by DNA evidence. A tiny 25 year old saliva sample proved that the assailant was a woman. That brought me up short : you just can't escape the binary . Perhaps some of your colleagues are into CSI etc

@BelleClapper

In my experience, everybody is gender critical when you drill down.

I work with mainly students and young people (hospitality manager) and the only colleague who remotely believes any of the rubbish is my own son and he’s coming out of the fog.

It is quite literally an emperors new clothes situation where everyone thinks everyone else believes it so no one sticks their head above the parapet.

Depending on how brave you are/how safe your job is, just start the conversation.

Sure, Jan!

Wait until the Olympics. Then when there's a women's event with a male competing, pipe up with a faux-naïve "hang on..."

Enthuse about JK Rowling's books and if they don't retort that she's a hateful bigot you might be in luck

What on earth is a non-binary trans person?
I suppose I could be a trans woman? 🤔

Look for the horns and tail?

Talking about books is a good way in, especially something like Invisible Women, which in its self is not controversial, but can lead on to other conversations.

I'm still working from home and as my son has left home I took over his bedroom. We were all required to attend some LGBTQ++ training and I made sure that I stuck a poster up behind my head with the saying 'Eppur si muove' on it.

I'm a bit cowardly so it may have been a bit too subtle for some but I live in hope that when we get back to the office that I may find a few allies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_yet_it_moves

To be fair, most of the people I have actually had conversations in real life about this don't believe people can change sex. Because they know it's not possible.
Accepting people for who they are or choose to present is another matter.
Most people just haven't really thought about it very hard.
It seems to me that younger people see virtually no narrative on social media other than affirmation or the polar opposite. Older people tend to read/see material from different outlets and have a different lived experience.
I don't seek out to talk about this topic but it often comes up - I have a teen at home so many of my friends do too, this is affecting a lot of families.
At work my immediate colleagues and I have chatted about this and all broadly think the same. Work recently put of information about pronouns but adding them to your contact details is very much personal choice. I think that's fair.

I ordered myself a keepcup with custom green band, white lid and purple plug. Looks like the purple colour isn’t available any more but with the white and green combo, the “bubblegum” colour plug might work.
Or there are suffragette coasters / magnets on the radical teatowel company site.
Just my personal bat signal…

I was on a college course last year with young women (aged 17-20) & I was expecting them to be very progressive. Turns out I was the most progressive when it came to gender, sexuality etc (I'm in my 30s). They were very accepting but quite clear around the difference between gender/sex & men/woman. This was an education/childhood course, so it was quite encouraging.

I also visit a gay forum occasionally and the posters are mostly men (I believe). I've found the majority on there have GC views. Same on a forum for black women. It was on that site that I saw my first post about GC feminism.

My boyfriend's friends have also been a surprise. They're typically blokey blokes, and when I started talking about my concerns, they all mentioned women's rights and medicalising children as their main worries. I actually felt bad for assuming that they wouldn't be interested or well informed.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that we've been led to believe that only a small group of radical, mainly older feminists hold these views. This hasn't been my experience - especially in the real world. So, you may be surprised to find some unexpected support amongst your colleagues.

Get a standing for women tote bag. That'll do it

@NonnyMouse1337

I think I heard the Astra zeneca vaccine posed a slightly higher risk to women (Clot related) while the Pfizer vaccine posed a slightly higher risk to men (heart related). Maybe you could mention something about that and how interesting and amazing it is that women's and men's bodies respond differently to things like medicines and why it's important that medical research takes into account the differences between the sexes. See if their face lights up or they agree with some enthusiasm.

I think you will have to repeatedly use various opportunities to subtly indicate your stance and hope that some of your colleagues will take the hint and maybe start subtly indicating back that they are on board with what you are saying.

Could get a mug or notebook with the words "Courage calls to courage...." And see if anyone notices it.

You could then say you’ve been reading a fascinating book “Invisible Women” and talk about how male is the default and why and continue from there

I work for such an organisation too - they had SW folk in to present during diversity week while I was on mat leave. So far the only visible thing I've noticed is the disabled loos have been converted into inclusive/neutral/free for all loos which I don't really have an opinion on, but keeping an eye out for more changes! Hopefully the org are mindful their customer base is largely female!

Drop the Nordic Model into a casual conversation. Colleagues who have put time into critical thinking may well know what you are talking about.

@Abhannmor

I listened to a YouTube about an old murder case that was partly solved by DNA evidence. A tiny 25 year old saliva sample proved that the assailant was a woman. That brought me up short : you just can't escape the binary . Perhaps some of your colleagues are into CSI etc

So, when the police are looking for a murderer e.g. they may be looking for a man but what if that person has GRC and now identifies as female, all records changed, how on earth?????

@WookeyHole

I work for such an organisation too - they had SW folk in to present during diversity week while I was on mat leave. So far the only visible thing I've noticed is the disabled loos have been converted into inclusive/neutral/free for all loos which I don't really have an opinion on, but keeping an eye out for more changes! Hopefully the org are mindful their customer base is largely female!

Have you many disabled people at your work? That must affect them quite a bit if there are, but only one toilet?

Olympics or anything relevant in the news.

I took the direct approach when at work reading about the Fallon Fox match in the staff room during lunch. I passed the phone around the table. I had forgotten we were already an inclusive place with shared toilets in addition to sexed toilets, pronouns on emails, name changes and more. It brought everything out as all the inclusive stuff had been done without consultations. Apparently we had been asking for it all for decades.

@EyesOpening There are at least three disabled loos on each floor and they are fairly underused. They are individual loos rather than a room with cubicles IYSWIM so give more privacy to all parties.

Leave a newspaper lying around in a communal area, open at a particular page with a relevant news story.

I work for a similar organisation. We have a network for everything so I joined the womens network and listened VERY carefully to the language people were using. I identified a few who I thought might be more GC and invited them to a coffee over Teams on the pretext that I was trying to get better at networking via teams. They all accepted (individually) and I managed to focus the chat on issues relative to the womens network. I've now got 2 allies and am hoping for more