Women's rights general conversations

[Kucingsparkles]

This is an experimental thread, all input much appreciated!

There is so much excellent information and so many active discussions on FWR that I wondered if it would be useful to have a thread to sort of "cross-fertilise" between them - airing little thoughts or vignettes that wouldn't themselves merit their own thread, to highlight other posts/threads of particular interest or to point to notable developments on fast-moving threads so that casual observers know where to look.

(For example, "the X thread has meandered onto a fascinating discussion of Y" or "Poster P's amazing analysis on thread Z might have relevance to the scenario in thread W" or even "Random bloke asked me to smile while I was choosing onions, grr"- that sort of thing).

Right, bring on the flames or flowers! <cowers>

I would LOVE to know more about the Filia conference - I've wanted to go for a couple of years but have had fairly horrible health issues. Is there a thread about it? If not, tell us here!

Caught up on the last couple of hours of posts, phew - this thread moves fast! 😅 Some really great posts raising so much to think about.

Surely this is missing something very.... obvious?

The interesting thing about women's anger is that men have no idea what it actually means. Men will get angry quite fast, but women will simmer for a long, long time and then it builds up to a head and then they'll explode. If enough women do that all at once, it'll be a massive shock for the men.

very.... obvious?

The ginormous elephant in the middle of the room, perhaps?

Yes it kind of reminds me about the Swiss women's strike where in masses women just stopped work and downed tools at home for equal pay.

I dream of the day we do something similar here.

Sorry forgot a link, just googled and took the first one which happened to be the Guardian.

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/14/swiss-women-strike-demand-equal-pay#:~:text=Hundreds%20of%20thousands%20of%20women,treat%20half%20its%20population%20unfairly.

Yes! I kept waiting for it.
Btw. Enjoying this thread so much!

My favourite line in that piece about the Swiss women's strike:

In Zurich, marchers pulled a giant pink clitoris through the city on a float.

That march in Switzerland sounds amazing!

By the way, this thread is great and works really well. It's lovely to see so many women womaning together.

The interesting thing about women's anger is that men have no idea what it actually means. Men will get angry quite fast, but women will simmer for a long, long time and then it builds up to a head and then they'll explode. If enough women do that all at once, it'll be a massive shock for the men.

I think - hope! - that's what's happening now. It does feel to me that the cauldron is bubbling and the bubbles are getting bigger and the lid is bouncing about and soon it won't be able to stay on any longer and will fly off as the bubbles burst and the kitchen is splashed with hot boiling fury and righteous rage.

Well this makes me fucking angry! Bumping this post as it shouldn't get lost. This is grooming children in plain sight. @QuickNameChangeAgain - has this been reported to the police, the Charity Commission if they're a charity or anyone else?

@MrsOvertonsWindow. Unfortunately, they are based in California but obviously have worldwide reach. Take a look at their Understanding Gender Identities page, which starts off okay and then they say:

It’s important to remember that these gender roles aren’t set in stone. Even though our society expects certain things when we identify as a man or a woman, we don’t have to follow them if they don’t fit who we are. In fact, gender and sex exist on a spectrum, meaning that there are a lot of different ways that people can express their gender identity or sex.
Transgender Identities
When we’re born, a doctor assigns us a sex. This has to do with our biology, chromosomes, and physical body. Male babies are generally assumed to be “men” and female babies are generally assumed to be “women.” Some people never question their assigned gender or sex, and choose to identify with what they were assigned at birth – that’s called being “cisgender.” But there are others who do question their gender or sex, and that’s completely normal and ok.

They say they have moderators and AI but as The Gays Against Groomers report shows, inappropriate content/contact is happening.

Good grief

Thank you QuickNameChangeAgain. I should have spotted that.

Linky:

www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/article/understanding-gender-identities/

When sleeping women wake,
Mountains move

Chinese proverb

Love that Chinese proverb @BoreOfWhabylon

We have two whole boards on MN, this one which is essentially the old FWR, plus another because we were mean or something, and other people wanted to discuss the really important feminist issues we don't. Or something.

In practice, feminism chat is little used,

Funny how patterns repeat. On the other forum it was 2 threads, not 2 boards, but otherwise very much the same.

Of course the site owner (and others) then complained that the not-fluffy feminism thread was focusing on non-fluffy feminism, instead of covering a wider (fluffier) range of issues.

I have now typed fluffy too many times, and it no longer looks like a word.

I was only vaguely aware of that Trevor project. Unsurprised to find it has similar issues to several similar organisations. I don't understand why more people can't see that 13-24 is a really problematic age range for any sort of group based around sexual issues. It seems to be a common choice, when it should be so obviously inappropriate.

Prostitution terminoloy - I can ever make up my mind on this one. 'Prostitute' - hsitorical baggage. Woman who works as .../...' - person first is good, but the 'work' part jars with me, too close to the 'sex work is work' arguments. 'Prostitutes women' - removes agency. There doesn't seem to be a right way to say it. Then again, perhaps there is no right way to say a wrong thing.

Invisible elephant in the woman's anger article? It must be a female elephant - too high pitched, so nobody can hear the trumpeting.

<Goes back to catch up on the other links>

That man last night. What a dick

A female friend once told me of the incredible and rather horrible things she'd been asked to do by male partners. I wondered that if that was what blokes in a consensual encounter would ask for, what the hell would they demand if they were paying?

In the anger article, one of thrbthinga I noted in the comparison with 2012 was the US women saying it is now more difficult to discuss consent with their partners. Porn related, presumably, as expectations based on that get more extreme and rigid?

I have now typed fluffy too many times, and it no longer looks like a word.

Off-topic, but this is known as jamais vu (the opposite sensation to déjà vu) - the weird sensation of eerie unfamiliarity with something that you know you have seen before many times. You can actually induce jamais vu by repeatedly writing out or even saying a familiar word, and eventually it starts to look/feel/sound “unreal.”

Thanks Arabella - interesting that in that tweet Douglas Murray says almost exactly what JK Rowling said. But seems to have got far fewer death threats.

Cyan, thank you for this:
"I have excused countless despicable behaviours to my own detriment (but never when those behaviours directed at other women, for some reason) because the man was ‘damaged’ or sad or lonely or had a difficult childhood or whatever else. Last year I decided to free myself of all that and finally come to my senses that I am not here to be an emotional support human for men and I am not responsible for their wellbeing nor their shitty behaviour."

Yes, me too re the first part, I haven't managed the 'freeing myself' part yet.