Women's rights general conversations - Thread 3

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of Thread 2.

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 "Has anybody noticed this recurring theme that keeps coming up??" or even "Random bloke asked me to smile while I was choosing onions, grr"- that sort of thing).

Good sex education in schools would go a long way to help.

This sort of thing, perhaps?

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4586090-sex-work-is-rewarding-pupils-told-by-education-providers

This, allegedly, from the BISH website:

Our genitals are on a spectrum in terms of: how much erectile tissue sticks out (clitorises and dicks and inbetween); where the prostate is; where the wee hole is; whether the gonads are inside or outside; vagina size. Many people are in the middle of this spectrum with how their bodies are configured

I think there's a massive gulf between banning a book and promoting it.

Exactly. There's all kinds of books about everything. Many of them are shit. Many of them are full of lies. As a general principle, I'm not in favour of highlighting the shit&lies ones for special Awesome Awards.

Do you know what? I didn't think something would come up where my response would be "I swear I'll do time..." but if my child comes home from school and some nitwit has told them that, I swear I'll do time!!!

a spectrum in terms of: [...] where the prostate is

I trust we are all now planning an evening game of "Where's My Prostate?".

Yes, I certainly am. No idea where to start, none of the medical books are giving me any clues but you know, I'm sure I'll find it eventually. I think it may be a bum thing, which I tend to leave alone for the most part...

If you find one in good working order down the back of the sofa... 😀

Spectrum suggests it could be pretty much anywhere, so I'll start with the sofa and let you know.

Men do tend to be better at this game, so if they find theirs first they can get bonus points for measuring their vaginas.

Well, at least the website is accurately named

www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bish

From what I gathered reading that thread, the highlighted quotes were not actually from classroom sex educ material. Doesn't alter the fact that we've somehow let these dubious pressure groups into our schools. Where's the oversight? I suppose LEAs are pretty much neutered at the moment, that was the idea of the 'academies', wasn't it?

The fact that it wasn't in the material doesn't mean that it couldn't have come up verbally. To my mind, the people designing and delivering this sensitive information need to be completely clear about suitable material at all times.

I read some of the stuff on the website. One thing that jumps out is the strong reluctance to use the word 'women'. Or, indeed, 'men'. It's all "people with penises" and "people with vulvas". It's a tell, isn't it? Like "sex work is brilliant and rewarding".

@duc748 - I suppose LEAs are pretty much neutered at the moment

In the context of hunt-the-gonads, you might want to rephrase that. Yes, I know it is wrong and bad of me, but it's so difficult not to laugh ... while simultaneously being angry.

Heh! 😀

"whilst Rishi thinks there are two (and the Tory Government quietly changed the criteria in Jan to avoid this problem)"

I think I must have missed that- can you elaborate please?

Updated on the 25th Jan with no fanfare.

www.gov.uk/government/news/update-on-changes-to-transgender-prisoner-policy-framework#:~:text=On%20October%204%202022%20the,in%20the%20general%20women's%20estate.

Rishi thinks there are two genders and Nicola thinks there are three? Bless them! Even I know that there are as many "genders" - in any (non)sense of that word outside grammar - as words you can make up!

Well, I have just been asked for suggestions for an icebreaker exercise for a legal team's away day. What could possibly go wrong?

Sorry, that was meant to quote Binturong on prostate location...

I have just been asked for suggestions for an icebreaker exercise for a legal team's away day. What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing. Nothing at all. Prize for the most extreme end of the spectrum.

Gonners · Today 19:27

In the context of hunt-the-gonads...

Thanks. I've got Hunt The Gonads to the tune of Stop The Pigeon for tonight's earworm.

Icebreaker. Instead of "What's something interesting about you, blah, blah" type stuff that just makes people feel tense and dull if other people have exciting things to talk about and the only thing interesting about them is the way they fold their knickers when they're putting them away, go for something along the lines of "Tell us something really boring about yourself/tell us something that makes you happy even though other people might think it's dull." Basically, just let people be dull and take the pressure off them.

There's a thread about a woman whose husband has racked up quite a big Sky bill on porn and too many people are all about "Oh the porn wouldn't bother me but the money would". I mean, I get it, that's a lot of money to spend. If you're a disgusting person who doesn't care about what the porn industry does to people, the abuse, the trafficking, the everything vile about it, then you can get it for free, but to just not care about porn as though it's something just normal. Enough of that sort of shit. I was definitely less in the mood for reading women being so fine with porn because I listened to the latest Feminist Current podcast today which was about Only Fans in general and because of that about porn. I think a lot of people who are okay with porn haven't really seen much of it lately because the stuff that is getting the views these days is in no way something that anyone should be fine with.

My suggestion for an icebreaker is 'tell us the best or worse icebreaker idea you've come across'. If you do that, then you can finish up with hunt the gonads.

A long long time ago, I was busy being one of those post-feminist young women who was fine with porn, because hey look my lovely boyfriend uses porn and I'm all supportive and cool. I look back at myself in horror: he was a controlling abusive misogynistic bully and I was a doormat handmaiden who suppressed my instinctive understanding of right and wrong in order to please him because lurve.

I haven't thought about that period in my life for ages, but now that I'm thinking about it: Thank Fuck I Got Out.

Being in lurve really is a terrible state. So lovely, that day you wake up and know you're cured, and can focus on whether or not you actually like the bloke.