How can people think this is OK? I just don't get it!

[manatsu]

Man with a history of violence against women sadistically beats, rapes and murders a complete stranger. Once he's convicted, he suddenly realises he's trans. He gets put in a women's holding prison. Everyone pretends he's a woman just like the woman he murdered was and makes it their mission to defend him and get him to serve his sentence in a woman's prison.

No I won't refer to him with female pronouns. I'm incandescent with rage. I cannot believe how misogynistic this world is. Why????

<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.md/2021.09.16-144358/www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/09/16/a-nightmare-toronto-murder-ended-with-a-guilty-verdict-what-comes-next-highlights-one-of-the-most-difficult-questions-facing-canadas-prisons.html#selection-1417.233-1417.395" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">archive.md/2021.09.16-144358/www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/09/16/a-nightmare-toronto-murder-ended-with-a-guilty-verdict-what-comes-next-highlights-one-of-the-most-difficult-questions-facing-canadas-prisons.html#selection-1417.233-1417.395

Labour MP Lisa Nandy is actually on record saying she believes this kind of thing happening is OK.

Do we have any solid stats on male criminals identifying as women in countries/regions that allow them into female prisons?

@CreepingDeath

It's like some dystopian nightmare. Men will always get priority, even when they have shown their hatred and contempt for women.

The sad fact is that men don't care about this, because they don't have to care. They will never be the victims of this, so they can sleep easy. It is left for women to push back against this, and of course we are not listened to, because we are just a bunch of nagging feminists.

I can't believe that this is where we are. So many people just don't care, just turn away.

This is exactly how I feel. In a despairing mood today.

I wonder if a Trudeau loss would be the start of turning this around or if it's already beyond the party political level and the incoming Canadian government would make some non-committal statements but essentially leave things as they are.

Moreover I suspect an underlying current of vindictive "well they deserve what they get

It's not even underlying. I've told many people about this but two replies stick in my mind
'Huh so what it's just women in prison, I'll never be in that position and if they didnt do the crime then they too wouldn't be in prison'
This from a reasonably educated woman who simply cannot see that she would ever ever end up in prison.

And
'Men get raped in prison too'
Which apart from being a completely different dynamic doesn't mean we should all race to the bottom here.

@Franca123

I've been really shocked and disappointed by how little society cares about women in prison. I had no idea people had such little regard for them.

Not only that, but they must think that an appropriate 'punishment' for male sex offenders is to be put in a place where they will have a supply of victims to abuse to amuse themselves while serving their sentence.

It's not just the fact that they think women in prison should have the risk of rape as part of their sentence, but that they think rapists should be rewarded with a ready supply of victims instead of being punished.

As a Canadian, I think people are not protesting firstly because there is very, very little coverage in the nationwide press about this. It’s not going to be all over the CBC for example.

Secondly, our educational system trains us to go along with the majority, follow the rules, stay in your place, and don’t offend anyone. Heaven forbid we offend men by telling them they can’t go to women’s prisons.

There must be some powerful people behind this…..

"The criteria for the exception is also poorly defined, and the risk assessment is often based on speculation and stereotypes, she said, explaining that the result is some trans women languish in men’s prisons, where they are more likely to be subjected to violence and harassment from both inmates and guards."

So the common risk denominator for both women and transwomen is men. So how about we fucking deal with male violence in the prison estate rather than shifting that burden onto vulnerable women. FFS. It makes me absolutely rage. Systematic misogyny.

@Franca123

I've been really shocked and disappointed by how little society cares about women in prison. I had no idea people had such little regard for them.

I suppose the realisation is how little wider society cares about women in general, so women in prison is not that much of a surprise, unfortunately.

As far as I'm aware, the vast majority of women in prison are there for non violent reasons. That's not to say that women cannot be violent or shouldn't be punished for their crimes, but I would imagine the atmosphere in a women's prison is vastly different/ more relaxed etc.

That all changes as soon as you allow men into them, not to mention sexually violent men. It's disgraceful.

The atmosphere would change I agree, and top of that you're being gaslit. You'd have to sit there with a violent predatory man among you and pretend you agree it's a woman. It's the ultimate gotcha for misogynists to play on women.