The effect of gender ideology on women's health, mental and physical

[pattihews]

Lots of the women I meet say things that indicate their mental and physical health is suffering because of gender ideology.

I know two mothers whose children are caught up in the ideology and threatening to transition and they are both on medication for depression and anxiety. One of them is also facing a marital breakdown because her husband can't deal with the daughter and has moved out.

I know someone who was forced out of a job as a result of expressing her GC beliefs and while all the horror of being bullied by colleagues was going on, developed heart problems — which she is sure were caused by a year of constant stress.

I can think of three people who have left jobs — one academic, one social worker, one in publishing — who quit because they felt the stress they were under was making them ill. All of them were surrounded by woke colleagues who denounced them for transphobia. Two of them were lesbians and felt that there was homophobia involved. In two cases HR was panic-stricken and didn't support them. They are all women who had never previously had any issues with colleagues or management and all are traumatised by what's happened.

Has gender ideology and everything that has resulted from it caused you mental or physical ill health?

Is there anyone researching this? What is this madness costing the country? I keep reading about the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have left the workforce. It's blamed on Covid, but how many of those who've quit workplaces are people who left because of the stress of being impelled to express beliefs they don't own?

In short: yes. Being bullied and ostracised, even at a low level, causes health issues.

I had semi-serious mental issues at one point, wasn’t able to sleep, suffering from intrusive thoughts, brain fog, low mood, sometimes despair because I couldn’t understand how anybody could believe in an obviously absurd ideology. Finding someone to talk to was crucial.

I doubt there is research on this (too controversial) but plenty of testimony online.

That said, now that I am out on the other side, I feel strong and secure in myself. Adversity can be quite character-building.

What is this madness costing the country?

Madness is le mot juste. I find it so profoundly unsettling to see what is so clearly a belief system like any other religion be forced upon everyone as if it had any evidence behind it or basis in fact or reason. It has none. And yet it's in schools, the judiciary, sports, the NHS, the press, everywhere. When it is a faith that makes no sense at all, whose tenets show obvious dangers to women and children, and to which the most dubious and awful people flock - not even hiding, but openly.

You grow up thinking that truth and scientific method are unassailable, and then this happens. I've just watched the ITV news, which described a "transgender woman rapist" who committed "her" crimes "when she was a man, before she became a woman." And all I could think was, STOP LYING. He is a man who has done what dangerous men have been doing since the dawn of humanity. He has not become a woman. No man can become a woman. He has changed his haircut. Why are news outlets required to lie in this way, simply because a rapist demands it? Why?

Personal experience only.

I found moving from "be kind you terfs, what's all the fuss over a vulnerable minority who just want to pee in peace" into "holy crap what the actual fuck" territory a very very difficult time.

I became somewhat obsessed with my smartphone, spent I don't know maybe a year completely obsessed with feminist blogs, feminist YouTubers, the MN feminist board, everything, getting so, so angry that women's voices have been so successfully repressed on the gender ideology issue.

Once I saw it as a penis people rights movement, I could no longer pretend gender ideology isn't patriarchy on steroids. I was so angry. Couldn't believe I was sucked in for so long. JKR helped tremendously through a mentally difficult time.

Thankfully I now breathe and step back! I'm so grateful to all the women on the frontline.

Yes I would agree with much of what has been said. Especially despair because I couldn’t understand how anybody could believe in an obviously absurd ideology. (thanks @TheirEminence ).

I made a career move because I couldn't deal with the cognitive dissonance in my workplace. I'm also struggling when I see "be kind" as a slogan everywhere because obviously the sloganeers are not thinking through kindness to vulnerable women and kids.

But I am really proud of myself for seeing it for what it is. For not kowtowing and for refusing to lie. Whichever of us knows how we will behave when cohersion calls. I am so grateful to be part of a collective of women who have stood up and said no. I like myself for that. I suspect I would be suffering more internally if I had not.

Many mothers I know struggling with the gender identities of their kids, one recently used the word grief. We need to keep fighting it and then get on to supporting the many kids in this generation who have been harmed by it.

I'm thinking that millions of women are suffering mental and physical distress and in some cases actual cost to the NHS, because of a toxic ideology — and we need to know the financial cost, because money talks.

Am I right in thinking that more women actually attempt sxxxcide than men but men are more successful in their attempts?

What I'm trying to say is that women are suffering in droves with bad mental health. I know personally that this current situation in Scotland has definitely negatively impacted my mental health. And I'm lucky because, thus far, my own kids completely reject the idea of gender identity and think it's complete nonsense. If I had a child who was buying in to it all, I don't know how I would cope. My heart goes out to any parent, guardian who is having to deal with this on that personal level.

I think one of the things that 'saves' women from matching the male suxxcide statistic is our ability to talk with and confide in each other. But the pernicious thing is that Gender ideology 'gags' us and makes us fearful to talk about it unless we know we are on safe ground. We're fearful of being ostracised by friends and work colleagues, or negatively impacting the lives of our children in school if we speak up about policies or question anything - I find that unbelievably stressful. And it's hidden from view. Some of us are quietly going mad because we feel so powerless.

I know a woman who’s severely struggling because her teenage son is bullying her. Him announcing that he’s trans is one aspect of this, as it enables him to deny her reality, police her speech, and constantly criticise her. She can’t even answer back without him triumphantly telling her that she’s transphobic and threatening that she’ll drive him to suicide.

She sought help and got put on drugs for her ‘depression’ 😐

So now she does whatever he says. He won’t even allow her to have a pet.

I think he needs to learn some respect for his mum personally. I have absolutely no doubt that this boy will be abusing women when he’s an adult.

You've been asked before don't use CIS.

We are women. Just women.

I feel the same every last drop of this topic is suffocating . every time I hear of another convicted rapist pretending to be a women my heart rate goes through the roof . I even noticed on occasion my DD who is 30 becoming little by little ever more compliant to it .She lives with her boyfriend they have been together since they were 17. was always a strong but a girly girl she has just lately had her hair cut really short . She works with the public and sometimes has misogynistic comments from from older blokes but when she had long hair had negative comments from trans girls She told me that she doesn't have to worry so much now as she looks like a guy from behind. Hearing her say this made me really sad . One minute she is so angry with the misogyny of men wanting live as women but the next she's defending someone's right to use pronouns. My DH said it's like an infection everywhere and he fears fro womens rights .

Nope not going anywhere

@CandlelightGlow you want a decent debate with us on here. Use our language and not one designed to antagonise the majority of posters

@Wiccan I can relate to a lot in your post; I am around your daughter's age and the "pariarchy on steroids" thing especially feels real. So many men in the world these days are so very angry at women and I don't even think they know why.

you know what cause a lot of women mental health problems having the word cis added to the description of us as women. And then being told to shut up about it when we complain.

We are women not ciswomen

Women have been silenced and isolated. Of course it will impact their health.

I've just had a bit of a lightbulb moment. I'm going to apply for a grant to set up and run a GC support group/ network for women who feel their physical or mental health is suffering. There's grant money around for health projects locally. If women's mental health can be helped by discussing their distress with other like-minded women that could be seen as beneficial, couldn't it?

That is so awful to read @Blube, your poor friend!

I can't bear, that even on a thread like this, where women feel shell-shocked by this totalitarian ideology, a poster would come on it and use an offensive term like cis. A made up term created to other non believers. A term known to offend the very women who respond to a thread like this.

We see you.

I just found out that my family who has a son caught up in this - the dad just had a heart attack. He's been drinking heavily during these years his son has been struggling and doctors said the drinking led to the heart attack. He's in his 40s. Son can't launch and mom is working herself to the bone to care for everyone, getting served abuse from son when she "misgenders" or isn't appropriately "supportive." I'm sure it's why she's missed out on some promotions at work as she's always been so talented and ambitious. She's had to give up her feminist projects she'd volunteered for for almost 20 years. It's a horrifically abusive and destructive ideology that destroys people's lives. They have lost friends and family from both sides of this debate (they get criticized for not being GC enough so it's their fault he's trans or they get criticized for not being all in affirming). Watching their family unfold but not being able to fix it or control it has made me obsessive in gathering data and working with anyone who will have me.

Also OP what I am worried about is what has always been my main concern, which is that predatory men clock on to the societal shift in attitudes towards womens' spaces and use it to capitalise on our vulnerability and exploit loopholes that have been rushed into place.

And again the Isla Bryson case does show that trying to make empirical statements about nuanced ideas don't work. You don't have to denounce the existence of all innocent trans people in order to point out that a literal rapist shouldn't be put into a prison with women, yet the conversation around gender ideology makes women like Nicola Sturgeon act like she must basically forsake women in order to defend trans women. The kind of logical dancing involved in trying to make inclusivity apply to every situation is ridiculous.

Isn't it and some posters wonder why they can't have a civil conversation with us.

It would help if they didn't insult us as they walked through the door before they've even got their coat off.

So true .

You're trying to derail this thread, Candlelight Glow. It's not about Isla Bryson or Scottish politics and there are two other threads currently running where you can post about that situation. This thread is about the mental and physical damage being caused to women by the ideology, not about specific instances like Bryson's. Many of us here are experts on this subject. We don't need to be reminded of the mental gymnastics involved in trying to live in GI.

Please think before posting. Please don't use 'cis', which is a word that has been offending FWR posters for years. Please don't attempt to derail.

I think its your ego that makes you think no one else is being 'honest'. Its pretty black and white for a lot of us.

Im not sure you can be a feminist and 'trans inclusive' - feminism centres women and women only. I think you confuse feminism with humanitarian - which a lot of 'trans exclusive' 'feminists' do.

And please dont call me cis I find it really offensive - I didnt ask for that label.