Women and girls' sex-based rights

[StephanieSuperpowers]

Well, here we are...

Good to see more lifeboat arrivals this evening and thanks to all MNers for the welcome you’ve given us. I wasn’t really planning to become “bignosebignose(bloke)” but couldn’t help feeling uneasy that there might be an assumption that the discussions here were generally among women unless otherwise stated and I didn’t want to risk upset. Happy to hear that I can just carry on as usual without needing to declare on an hourly basis where I currently find myself on my cishetmale-genderfluidtwospirit spectrum.

's OK BNBN, I made the same faux pas.

Hi - checking in for the first time from NZ - I've just finished reading Trans and it's opened my eyes to the debate and discourse around women only spaces. I'm here to learn more and understand what I can do to preserve these spaces for me, my daughter and those to follow.

I think people will find specific threads in areas of interest that they like - such as Gonners and the Archers thread. There are many, many sub-menus under the main ones when you click on 'Talk', and I like to click on 'active' to see what's happening all over the place. The infamous AIBU can be very judgy and contrary - seems to be where, if they're anywhere, the most goady, fighty and frankly daft types turn up, probably because it's the best known bit.

One thing newcomers will find different is that this is not a left-wing site in the same way as we're used to, and I'm often surprised by the out-of-touch middle-classness of some posters (like the ones who wonder how people can get by on less than 60k)

When those complacent posts are made there's usually a large wave of posters explaining that such views show that they're living in a different and privileged reality. In other words, it seems you've arrived in a much more diverse community than where you were previously.

Welcome. It sounds like you've escaped a hostage situation where, ultimately, by refusing to adequately demonstrate Stockholm Syndrome, it meant you had to be expelled. You have my sympathy.

There are more current affairs-style topics in ‘Other Stuff’. I can recommend OhYouBadBadKitten’s weather threads if we get advanced warning of adverse or unusually hot weather.

Lovely to see some old names I recognise from the other place (I broke with my name on the move here).

Hi Emma, it's quite a lot to get your head round, isn't it? I thought this article in today's Times was very good on the need for women's spaces. archive.ph/4YKi7

However, if you are looking for a general 'starting to get to grips with the topic' thread I should warn you that this may not be it (although I would be delighted if you'd stay and chat with us as well as exploring the wider board). Despite the rather generic title, this is mainly a group of posters who have just been booted off another talkboard - yesterday, so we're still regrouping and processing - and you might find the references to that a bit confusing.

@StephanieSuperpowers can you get the title amended, so we're clearer that this isn't a 'primer on the topic' thread?

I'm finding the tyranny of choice a bit overwhelming after the mere 2 feminism threads we were permitted at the old place. Wonderful in many ways, but perhaps loses a little bit of the cross-pollination of ideas when each article, news story, idea gets it's own space rather than being all piled in together to compare and contrast.

Its!!!

Argh! I really miss the edit button. Especially as my phone's latest update seems to have set the autocorrect to PowerCrazed mode.

Here you go and welcome @EmmaLucyNZ . This is a good thread to start you off when new here. Started in 2018 and added to over time.

And hi and welcome to all the refugees too!

Is there a link missing there, DameMaud? And if so, is it to the 'Break it down for me' thread? I found all sorts of useful stuff there, I think, in earlier lurking

Exactly this. I love vitality and variety of MN, but for a variety of reasons have less bandwidth and attention for these topics than I’d like to. I slightly fear that replicating the old format risks some duplication with other threads, and become a bit of a silo. I’m sure we’ll figure it out though.

Break it down for me

it seems you've arrived in a much more diverse community than where you were previously.

Indeed, yes, nauticant - not complaining

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3145470-Break-it-down-for-me

Oops! Thanks for the flag @BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn . It's late. I'm tired and a bit squiffy!

It's the CofE so it's a minority interest, but in what world is a sermon to churchgoers which compares Christ's wounds to vaginas NOT going to be offensive?

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/26/jesus-could-have-transgender-claims-cambridge-dean/

An unexpected addition to the list of 'things vaginas are not'.

waves Hi, I lurked in the shadows of the Other Place and of MN, but I'm a Twitterer if you look me up (why can't you use underscores in usernames here? It's very annoying).

Anyway, I was sad to see you moved on but proud of the stance you took - it's the same mentality I'm trying to instil in my staff network I'm building. Be always people of integrity and do the better thing - show we are not the demons they often paint us to be.

So I decided to come out of the shadows a bit and start engaging more - especially as who knows what will happen with Twitter. I know this might just be a lifeboat - if you sail off, take me with you?

That C of E article is quite something.

I had a peer back at the Other Place. I am not compelled to return. It is in full pitchfork mode, we have been called bigots and ignorant cunts.

I am also not sure how left leaning a site it when a lot of financially comfortable, mainly straight, gender conforming posters claim a thread about women's sex based rights was too triggering to read or even know exists.

Even those who express serious doubts about free speech implications are at pains to point out they never read the awful thread.

Ahh well water under the bridge now.

Hello [waves Refugees Welcome Here banner]

I’m sorry this has happened to you. It sounds fucking atrocious and genuinely upsetting. Something is rotten in that part of the left.

Did you all see the comments from the UN Special Rapporteur recently? Concern for sex-based rights is not bigotry.

If any of you are civil servants, you may be interested in the new Sex Equality and Equity Network.
seen-network.uk

It is in full pitchfork mode, we have been called bigots and ignorant cunts.

It's often wisely observed here on MN that many men really don't like it when women gather to talk about our needs and interests.

And when the mask slips you really see the misogyny and anger that was always seething just below the surface.

It's also often wisely observed here on MN that the worst examples are men who consider themselves wonderful lefty lovely types of superior intellect.

(Obviously NAMALT, as quite a few blokes from the Other Place have also found themselves exiled).

Not my Nigel!

I’m certainly considering leaving That Board permanently now. Without all you interesting people there, it won’t be worth posting on. I’ve been registered here for some time, but not posted. Is there an area similar to U.K. news?

And when the mask slips you really see the misogyny and anger that was always seething just below the surface.

I think also the point you've often made about good packages of beliefs vs bad packages of beliefs. This topic makes things complicated, and makes people feel bad, so it's easier if it goes away because women's needs and interests are a niche topic in their world. Plus what others have said about intersectionality and the impact on e.g. refuge services.

The final pitchforky post being a case in point, celebrating that the bigots and pointy elbowed centrists have fucked off, completely indifferent or perhaps unaware that at least two of us posted on a smaller leftwing offshoot of that place with him, his wife and other like-minded souls more than a decade ago. Oh well. The internet is a big place, and there is no need to engage with people who treat you with hostility and contempt. At least it isn't at work or somewhere where we really can't escape it.