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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

'GC is a slur"

107 replies

SaraNera · 12/05/2022 23:01

GC is a slur, we need to abandon it and call ourselves something that doesn't come off as critical and negative. I was thinking something like sex based rights SBR or pro womens rights PWR (PrO WomEs Rights = power = PoWeR).
Only issue is Maya getting GC specifically protected, so can it even be changed as GC has become tainted and not seen as progressive.
Something nice catchy and fresh.

OP posts:
SaraNera · 13/05/2022 02:26

riceandpeaze · 13/05/2022 00:49

New name needed, GC is sullied.

Exactly, GC is just associated with transphobia and everything vile. Need a rebranding so i can say I'm for women's rights without raised eyebrow reaction and awkward silence. GC slur is used to silence us.

OP posts:
DontLikeCrumpets · 13/05/2022 03:07

@SaraNera "How do i create a better image? Explaining women and men need single sex spaces while in a house with a male sitting next to me giving me the side eye and a teen sulking "leave them alone" like it goes in one ear and out the other."

Sit down with each seperately and say you want to understand their position and do so by just asking neutral questions.Don't offer rebuttals, just repeat what they say so they know you understand them. Ask questions like where they first heard about it.Who do they know that talk about this and what do they say.

DontLikeCrumpets · 13/05/2022 03:09

Meant to write "don't offer rebuttals".

Charley50 · 13/05/2022 03:18

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Tritewelshlady · 13/05/2022 03:31

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Why would you be trying to explain to her that her friends might be rapists?
People who label themselves trans are not rapists. Some men who have committed violent sexual crimes have used the trans umbrella to get themselves out of time served in a male prison.

Why can’t you explain that to her? Then explain biology to her.

Tritewelshlady · 13/05/2022 03:38

SaraNera · 13/05/2022 02:26

Exactly, GC is just associated with transphobia and everything vile. Need a rebranding so i can say I'm for women's rights without raised eyebrow reaction and awkward silence. GC slur is used to silence us.

You could say that you are NB instead. Your DD will see that a label is just a label then and doesn’t change anything about the person.

Maybe ask her if you should change your name to something more anime related instead?

hd3nn40 · 13/05/2022 04:02

WHAT IS GC!!

GAHgamel · 13/05/2022 04:06

I was gender critical before it had anything to do with the trans issue, so I'm not going to stop calling myself that just because a bunch of people don't understand what it means. I don't agree that you have to conform to a bunch of socially constructed behaviours and expectations simply as a result of being born a particular sex, and haven't done so since last century. I reject the more recent idea that these socially constructed behaviours and expectations are somehow more important than the biological reality that they are constructed upon, and that not conforming to those behaviours means you aren't actually the sex that you were born as. We have specific needs as a result of the nature of our bodies, and you can't just identify out of those.

Nellodee · 13/05/2022 06:30

I’d go with a don’t be silly. I fully support your friends wearing what they like, calling themselves what they like, living their life. Being gender critical means I don’t think any of that has naff all to do with what sex you are. I believe sex only matters in a very few situations and gender shouldn’t affect anything at all. What do you think gender should affect and why?

aweegc · 13/05/2022 07:50

You can call yourself - identify as - anything you want really. You don't have to call yourself GC if it doesn't work for you.

You could say that you are pro the rights of women and girls. Don't talk about trans issues, talk about women and girls - if that's what you feel is important (I'm guessing do, as you're here!). Focus on sex and just don't enter debates about gender because there's no point anyway: you will not convince your DD that the kids she knows and likes are in the same category as Karen White (due to self-ID), even though the ideology they follow puts them there.

It may be helpful re the hurt feelings to remember that the healthy physiological development of teens includes separation from the family unit and aligning with peers. And while that can involve rejecting home values, they do form a crucial part of the tapestry of her life. So there's no reason to hide your views, just don't push them on her and don't expect her to agree.

You can teach her though that she doesn't need to agree with you. She doesn't need to understand your lived experiences due to being a woman, but she does need to respect it and your right to view things differently and not resort to name calling. You do not support transphobia and will not tolerate it in your house. If she has NB/trans friends you will treat them with the same respect as anybody else. But you will not be pushed into lies: biological sex is a reality that (if not, why hasn't she identified out of monthly bleeding and cramps).

The saddest thing about all this - or one of the sad things - is that many of these girls are likely to change their minds once they're older. Believing that males who identify as females are some kind of eunuchs is a view that will undoubtedly be shattered in horrible ways that most women understand all too well. In away it's a good sign when our daughters are naive enough about the world to believe this nonsense because it means we've done a good job (and been lucky too) to be able to protect them from the reality of male violence until now.

aweegc · 13/05/2022 07:53

*That lump of text had lots of paragraphs!! Fed up with the site changes!!

WandaWomblesaurus · 13/05/2022 07:54

Woman is a slur now.

WarriorNewAgain · 13/05/2022 08:01

I dislike it as a label. It becomes a slur as you say, with no critical analysis. Sadly feminist is also seen like this - it's just misogyny.

It was a lovely mner who taught me about using "womens liberation movement" and womens lib instead.

Makes more sense and communicates the issues we are trying to communicate.

Fairislefandango · 13/05/2022 08:01

Changing the name is pointless. GC is only a 'slur' if used that way by the people who disagree with being gc. And those people will have no desire to use any new term you choose for it.

Changing the name will not make your dc change their mind about you being transphobic. They think gc beliefs are inherently transphobic. Calling it something else won't help.

MrsWooster · 13/05/2022 08:13

Just tell her you believe in and will always fight for Women’s Rights.

If she eyerolls and talks about twaw, just calmly say you don’t agree, that women and men are separate sexes and you don’t believe that their gender expression, whilst important to them, alters that basic fact.
Hopefully the idea that you are critical of gender might slide under her teen radar…

RufustheFloralmissingreindeer · 13/05/2022 08:15

hd3nn40 · 13/05/2022 04:02

WHAT IS GC!!

It means gender critical

it used to mean exactly that, you were critical of gender

now some people use it as short hand for ‘obviously hates transpeople and does not want them to exist’

PermanentTemporary · 13/05/2022 08:21

Of course you're not going to tell her her friends might be rapists. Are you? Is this real?

Listen to her. She might even persuade you. Would that be so frightening?

I know gender is pretty meaningless and at worst can be harmful but in fact I do think the fact that there are so many teens trying on the ideology is diluting it and hopefully dating it so it will pass. I'd just leave it alone and try to be positive about women's rights.

nauticant · 13/05/2022 08:22

GC is getting bad press because it is cutting through. It's not understood by the majority but it's sometimes surprising how widely it is known about.

So now a set of rational ideas has a name, the name and the related ideas are getting recognition, and many of the people coming to the name and the related ideas say "but of course that makes sense to me", and the proposal is that we must now abandon that "brand recognition", and end up with a set of competing names with people coming to this for the first time seeing arguments about names rather than substances. Right-oh.

picklemewalnuts · 13/05/2022 08:26

Maybe move it away from anything that affects her friends, and explicitly support her friends as the nice youngsters they almost certainly are. My issue isn't with any individuals, it's with use of language, safeguarding, stereotypes and just actual, you know, reality.

So lots of wondering and worrying- I wonder why so many girls feel like that now? I just worry whether there's a downside to having drug treatment or surgery on an essentially healthy body. I really worry about this business that boys who are effeminate must need to change their body to look more female. I wonder why boys like that aren't being supported to embrace themselves as flamboyant gay men?

And most of all, lots of worrying about the regressiveness of all the gendered attitudes in society as a whole (clothes, stereotypes etc). It's damaging for all of us, even disregarding the way it feeds the trans confusion of youngsters.

Far better to be seen as funny old fashioned mum who thinks manly men can wear eyeliner and frills and look great, like they did in the 70s and 80s.

Thumpsquids · 13/05/2022 08:26

'RA' - Reality Ambassador?
But in actuality, I am critical of gender, so being GC sits fine with me. I can also be other things, (affirming of reality, rationalist, skeptic) alongside.

Manicsfan · 13/05/2022 08:46

Say to your daughter its a damaging ideology, kids are being lied to, print out some stuff about the Lupron class action in America. And then say you are here to talk always but you won't be silenced by lies and nonsense. And leave it at that. You don't need to persuade her, and it's OK to disagree. Don't make it a big issue between you both.
I don't have a teenager, so that may feel wrong for you.

faggyhagger · 13/05/2022 08:48

nocoolnamesleft · 12/05/2022 23:05

I'm a biological realist.

Yes.

Beeday · 13/05/2022 08:55

I wouldn't bring up rapists etc, as true as the argument is it's too easily brushed aside by 'well not all transpeople are like that'. If she already has LGBTQ+ friends I'd focus on the things that affect everyone by losing sex based protections - namely sex attraction.

How does she feel that any gay/lesbian/bi (and hetero) classmates can no longer be same-sex (or opposite-sex) attracted because this is inherently transphobic?

axolotlfloof · 13/05/2022 08:55

I think we should own it.
However the most important element is women's rights and safety.
Does your daughter realise that it is most likely to be a middle aged man that she comes across in the women's toilets?

SheeshKebabb · 13/05/2022 09:05

faggyhagger · 13/05/2022 08:48

Yes.

I like this too, gender critical never seems to make much sense when I'm taking to people about this nonsense.