Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Apparently female rape survivors 'need' mixed sex groups

282 replies

IamSarah · 16/04/2022 21:51

Honestly. This is what my local rape crisis centre wrote in a letter to the EHRC.

Apparently women who have been raped need to welcome trans women into the rape crisis groups as they provide amazing value and are 'needed'.

Of course they haven't actually asked female survivors. None of it is trauma informed. I've no idea what the motivation is but its dodgy as hell.

survivorsnetwork.org.uk/our-letter-to-the-equalities-and-human-rights-commission/

OP posts:
dropthevipers · 16/04/2022 21:57

Published in Brighton. Who'ed have thunk it?

VestofAbsurdity · 16/04/2022 21:58

Disgusting, utterly disgusting.

DrBlackbird · 16/04/2022 22:02

Hi @IamSarah I was thinking about you and the callous indifference shown to you and other female rape survivors by the rape relief centre you attended in light of the recent EHRC ruling. So no apology from them yet? Shocking. Perhaps they asked one traumatised woman if it was okay and decided that was sufficient ‘evidence’?

IamSarah · 16/04/2022 22:09

Nope no apology. I will be able to share more details about the legal challenge in the next couple of weeks.

OP posts:
DrBlackbird · 16/04/2022 22:11

They were dismayed to see that single sex spaces are legally allowed?! Just WTAF?

At least it’s clear from the signatures to the letter where single sex services will not be offered…

EmbarrassingHadrosaurus · 16/04/2022 22:12

Following on from Shonagh Dillon's PhD (available online and for free from her site) and the different responses she elicited relative to the SW survey, I, like you OP, would need 3rd party validation of any such claim.

PhD title: "‘#TERF/Bigot/Transphobe’ – ‘We found the witch, burn her!’" A contextual constructionist account of the silencing of feminist discourse on the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and the policy capture of transgender ideology, focusing on the potential impacts and consequences for female-only spaces for victims of male violence.

…

The second finding, the one that during the data collection period surprised me most, relates to the participants I interviewed that also took part in the Stonewall Research. This research undertook interviews with 15 professionals from 12 national umbrella bodies and frontline services in the MVAW sector: reporting gender reform would have no impact.

I interviewed a third of the same participants and my findings were quite different, you can go straight to chapter 6, (The Impact) p.201, if you want to skip to this part of my research, but for a sneak preview here are a few of the participant’s quotes:

shonaghdillon.co.uk/welcome-to-my-website/

mumsnet thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4287881-Congratulations-Shonagh-Dillon-for-Defending-Your-PhD-TERF-Bigot-Transphobe-We-found-the-witch-burn-her?msgid=108769551

ilovebencooper · 16/04/2022 22:13

Ugh

How utterly depressing

MattDamon · 16/04/2022 22:15

This is one of the most appalling things I've ever read.

SenseFromThoughtDivide · 16/04/2022 22:24

Interesting change of position, from TWAW to they add value

ldontWanna · 16/04/2022 22:28

They have no vacancies available atm but they are actively looking for trans people.

As part of this action, we particularly welcome applications from self-identifying women from communities that are currently underrepresented in our team and the sector more broadly, including those who are :
over 45 years old
disabled
from Black, Asian and marginalised ethnic communities
lesbian, bisexual and/or trans

I mean...

ResisterRex · 16/04/2022 22:31

This is appalling. The ultimate betrayal of the women's movement. I will be digging for you Sarah Thanks

FOJN · 16/04/2022 22:37

Who are these people and what the hell is wrong with them?

Gender based violence, FFS.

Shortpoet · 16/04/2022 22:41

Quick check is any digging needed? I’m in the mood for gardening.

puffyisgood · 16/04/2022 22:52

swive me, the author's interpretation of the word "need" there makes the trans lobby's interpretation of the word "woman" seem positively sensible.

Voice0fReason · 16/04/2022 22:53

It is utterly bizarre the complete disregard for women in a place where women should be the only priority.

IamSarah · 16/04/2022 22:55

@Shortpoet

Quick check is any digging needed? I’m in the mood for gardening.

Bless you. And potentially there may be some gardening needed. Sorry I can't say more just yet, but thank you so much.

OP posts:
GibbonsGoatsGibbons · 16/04/2022 22:56

"Add value"????
Does value=penises now?

It's so fucking sinister - out there in plain sight a man is worth more than any woman

NitroNine · 16/04/2022 22:58

I thought that Ilaria Michelis’ name looked familiar.

She wrote a truly execrable piece that was pushed on LSE socials at the start of the year about gender critical feminists being all about white victimhood.

She is happily trampling on the legacy of feminists from Fawcett to Greer at Newnham College - & her frankly fanatical devotion to the idea TWAW becomes all the more absurd when you read that linked biography. I worked in humanitarian response for ten years, focusing on preventing and providing services to survivors of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). I lived and worked in Uganda, Ethiopia, Iraq and Lebanon, and have supported programmes across the Middle East, Central and Eastern Africa, working with populations displaced by conflict. How then, exactly, did it elude you, that VAWG is about sex not gender? That there is no handy get-out clause?

The fact that she should be so well-informed & yet she STILL buys into the ultra-privileged genderist narrative? Horrendous. Utterly horrendous.

I’m so sorry they’re STILL insisting on this @IamSarah: if you feel able, I’m sure that the press would enjoy reminding them of your story.

(As a side note, I’m so SO fecking sick of ZOMG NOBODY SUFFERS LIKE TRANS PEOPLE. You mean the same group of people who say being told things they don’t like = literal violence are filling out surveys saying they have experienced ALL the discrimination?! I am shocked. Utterly shocked. I don’t doubt that some trans people do experience some discrimination; & that some trans people have been very badly discriminated against. But when TRAs have deliberately tried to elevate the rate of hate incidents recorded & deliberately misleading statistics get used over & over again, it’s impossible to trust even those drawn from government stats [due to issue with perceptions + way language has been abused]. The UK does have groups of genuinely vulnerable & marginalised people. Improving things for them would take a lot of resources though, so…)

Helleofabore · 16/04/2022 22:59

I am sorry S that they released this. I saw it on twitter and thought of you.

It felt like they had some pretty dodgy facts they were working with.

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 16/04/2022 23:00

I think this sums it all up

Saying that trans-identified males 'add amazing value' and are 'needed' in women's rape crisis services is like a paramedic hoping for a diverse range of victims in a road accident in order to make her job more intersectional. It's ghoulish.

twitter.com/helensaxby11/status/1515227088441257990?s=20&t=GE8oRHIQZJIhMFCu1qftBQ

IamSarah · 16/04/2022 23:14

[quote PurgatoryOfPotholes]I think this sums it all up

Saying that trans-identified males 'add amazing value' and are 'needed' in women's rape crisis services is like a paramedic hoping for a diverse range of victims in a road accident in order to make her job more intersectional. It's ghoulish.

twitter.com/helensaxby11/status/1515227088441257990?s=20&t=GE8oRHIQZJIhMFCu1qftBQ[/quote]
It does. Helen Saxby has written some brilliant Tweets about it all.

OP posts:
JellySaurus · 16/04/2022 23:17

Could someone please explain to me what value the presence of penis-havers will add to women who have been raped?

DomesticatedZombie · 16/04/2022 23:21

'amazing value'? JFC.

DomesticatedZombie · 16/04/2022 23:26

'We do not know of any service which runs groups based on the identity of the perpetrator and it is unhelpful to define service users according to the gender of the perpetrator. It is true that the majority of perpetrators are male, but we also know that as a society, we make it extremely difficult to speak out about crimes committed by female perpetrators so the true scale of these perpetrators is largely unknown.'

Doesn't this contradict many women whose experiences suggest there is a clearly stated need to talk about male violence?