Secondary school (girls only) included a transwoman in their assembly on inspirational women

[Flippettyflip]

Le sigh. My daughter is 13 and her assembly this week had a game where they had to guess what woman the teacher was referring to from inspiring women from history or similar. She can't remember who the TW was, but sounds like maybe Caitlyn Jenner. Who "transitioned" age 65 and says Bruce still lives inside them www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/may/08/caitlyn-jenner-bruce-transitioning-kardashians-reality-tv-star

Regardless of who the TW was, and fortunately my kid is aware that woman is not a costume, I'd like to complain on 2 grounds:

1. Impartiality - it's not a fact that TW are women, it's the teachers opinion. They should not present it as fact and they need to be careful about balance on such a politically sensitive subject.

1. If the point was to provide inspiration to the girls, how does featuring a TW help? None of the girls can legitimately aspire to be a TW. Why try to teach them that "womanhood" is apparently about what you wear/look like or how you describe yourself?

Can you please help me word a response? I'll ask for a copy of the slides for a start.

A transman would have been more appropriate surely ?

You've clearly identified two good grounds for approaching the school. I'd say you'll be fine composing a short to the point email based on exactly what you've said already in your post. Don't overthink it.

@midgetastic well, at least they'd be female. I'm not sure promoting a transman who by definition has decided to try to reject being female would help either. How about some good old fashioned GNC women to demonstrate there's no "right" way to be a woman, you just need to be female? FFS.

Good luck - on international women's day my daughter's all girls school used Marsha P Johnson as an example of an inspirational woman...a self described gay man who did drag. I sent a very calm (for me!) Email questioning this and never received any reply . It's so frustrating how there are apparently never enough amazing women in history to use as examples for our girls - a man must always be included.

FFS no idea what you should say but you have my deepest sympathy trying to deal with it!

Well I think it could be interesting for them to think about why some people reject being female

And also it carries a message that once a female always a female no matter what your identity is or how important being female is to yiu

My dd’s all girls school refers to them all as “people” never girls anymore and “they” in messages from school, not she or her, and also has posters for Mermaids up in public areas. They also teach tenets of identity based politics in PHSE and there is no attempt whatsoever to teach a balanced perspective. I can’t rock the boat, it makes life difficult for dd. She knows it’s all nonsense though but sometimes I wonder if I should have just gone along with it all because I think it’s embedded into the future now and dd thinking critically about or rejecting it is only going to make her stand out amongst her peers who appear to have absorbed without question.

What is it that Caitlyn Jenner has done that makes Caitlyn inspirational? All of the sporting achievements were as a male, no?

Oh, here's one:

'In June 2016, Jenner became the first openly transgender person to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated'

Well, that's something to aim for.

Could the school really not find enough actual women for this event without having to bring in someone who spent the first 60 odd years of life as a man?
FFS!!! 😡

Jenner's an interesting character in some ways. Curious what the school finds inspirational about Jenner's views:

'In her reality show I Am Cait, Jenner said that although she does not support Donald Trump, she thinks he would be good for women's issues; she then stated she would never support Hillary Clinton'

'The hardest part about being a woman is figuring out what to wear.' - quote from Jenner

'In September 2021, Jenner supported the Texas Heartbeat Act which made all post-six-week abortions illegal'

'Jenner stated in an interview with TMZ that trans girls should not be allowed to compete in girls' sports at school'

This seems to be the "in" thing for independent girls schools. My old school is climbing its way up the Stonewall ladder and all the earnest alumni newsletters asking for cash come from a Person with Pronouns.

I'm waiting to see if they dare admit a transgirl. I don't see it going down well with the parents but what other endgame can there be?

I will be peeved if they do as my son is very much in touch with his feminine side and could have sat the entrance exam. I think he'd be very happy in a girls school but would be excluded on the basis of our family's non belief in gender ID.

Does the school have or accept and mtf trans pupils?

Jenner has shown some support for female sports which is good but didn’t Jenner get caught by his young daughters dressing in womens clothes sometime before Jenner made it public. I’m pretty sure they were quite distressed about it - understandably. The whole dad comes out as trans thing must be really difficult for children (and obviously wives too).

My nieces school had Eddie Izzard in to talk to them.

On Inspirational women?

Was Eddie in girl mode for the occasion? the least he could do tbh

What's the issue? Trans people exist?

No, that male people aren't "inspirational women". There are many inspirational women in the world through time, we don't need to include any males to make up the numbers.

The issue is that men are not women. Inspirational or otherwise.

Bloody hell ! This would be the Eddie Izzard who boasted of going into a Ladies loo and when challenged by “bullying” teenage girls , shouted at them ?

@Flippettyflip

I think you have the first draft of your email already:
Impartiality - it's not a fact that TW are women, it's the teachers opinion. They should not present it as fact and they need to be careful about balance on such a politically sensitive subject.

If the point was to provide inspiration to the girls, how does featuring a TW help? None of the girls can legitimately aspire to be a TW. Why try to teach them that "womanhood" is apparently about what you wear/look like or how you describe yourself?

You could leave it there but if you felt like it you could add that there are plenty of inspirational women to choose from, and that we keep erasing them so that each generation has to rediscover them. Teaching about them to young girls keeps the flame alive. There are also so many interesting debates that could follow from a talk/presentation by/about one of the Lionesses, Chimamanda Ngozie Adiche, Onjali Rauf, Sharron Davies, Martina Navratilova.... endless discussions to be had. There's someone for everyone, even without going back into history.

Good luck and well done for making the effort to challenge this.

So do women. And are best placed to be, to talk about being inspirational women.

Come on Marg you can do better than that.