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?

Delphinium, I feel the same way about the women I'm watching deal with transing children. I don't know how they bear it. Their children are so angry and emotionally abusive. I don't have children and frankly watching what they're going through I'm glad. How they bear it I don't know.

I think this is such a good idea. I think there are many women out there who are terrified for their kids and for their own safety and are too scared to talk about it .

That's got to be awful to watch. The poor parents. They are younger than me. They shouldn't be so ill because of a ridiculous ideology that no-one can define

Absolutely and it is terrifying. Look what happens when women try to get together to just speak? Young angry men in balaclavas threatening women with violence.

The blatant misogyny is unbelievable.

That is heartbreaking to read @Delphinium20 - how helpless you must feel watching them implode. It's such a cruel movement.

You can see the effects on here that this has. There are days when something happens like decapitate Terfs. And the stress is palpable in people's posts.

I can't be the only one who reads something in the news or a thread appears with another new atrocity and I have to take a moment have a fag and a cuppa. Because some days this shit is just so relentless it's soul destroying.

As much as I believe women should fight to protect our rights I would be too petrified to attend a women's rights rally now 🥺

Isn't that shocking @Wiccan? I feel the same

@Boiledbeetle you are so right!
I cannot say I've been affected in real life, but what i read or see daily on social media, news, papers it's sometimes infuriating, frustrating and beyond any logic or common sense. The western world seems to have gone mental.

Now currently I'm annoyed enough to want to travel the country shouting out from rooftops. Alas the body is no longer willing, so i have to shout from here as there is no way i could defend myself like i use to be able to from being physically assaulted at a rally. Plus I need a sit down and a pee every five minutes

It's heartbreaking hearing the suffering because of this ideology ill health, broken relationships , violence lost careers.
I really believe that most parents that are supporting a trans child are only doing it because they fear they will eventually Lose their son /daughter .

Yes @Boiledbeetle I am currently thinking about leaving my job because of the bullying from the EDI lead and her right-on humanist buddy.

Yesterday's thread about those in open relationships really got me down. There were (mostly) men, presumably young men snarking aggressively at women on a website aimed primarily at mothers for pointing out the obvious safeguarding risks to children.

Sometimes I can hardly believe where we've got to.

write all the worst shit that happened to women through history down on a piece of paper and you suddenly see things that hasn't happened to us for years, decades, centuries are all back in the frame again as acceptable.

I would absolutely love a women's support group and I think mothers going through this w/ their kids desperately need one just for women, without a male parents. I say this w/ compassion for fathers, but I've watched marriages suffer from having a gender confused child, and a mom needs a space to talk w/out her spouse, even if he's supportive and loving. I suppose a lesbian mom might love a space separate from her wife, too, but what I'm getting at is women, especially those who feel like they are feminist or feminist leaning, are suffering from the misogyny of this ideology while being in the uniquely twisted position of finding a child with misogynistic and homophobic beliefs. A feminist mom has to grapple with her woman-centered ideals against her love for a son who is growing into a woman-caricature likely influenced by porn. Denial, guilt, depression, self-sabotage, abuse...these women suffer it all.

And even the women who don't have gender identified children, the ones portrayed here, are awash in the bullying, fear, pressure, social ostracization, loss of income, etc. and don't have a platform like MN or Twitter or a blog or a social group to share and get support.

Many women caught up like this often can't show up to the rallies or spend time contacting govt. reps (MPs), or even come here on anonymous spaces because they are in survival mode. They are truly alone. I wonder if it's a silent epidemic.

Coming onto a thread like this and using "cis" - the language of our opressors! - reminds me of a male dominance display.

Either from a man, or a woman who knows she shares the same fundamentalist religion as those in charge. Offering us the crumb of agreement that one especially bad rapist belongs in a male prison, like we are supposed to be grateful. A suggestion of an assumption that we are all much older, knowing the negative value our opressors place on that.

I am fearful wherever I find the language of this religion spoken. Most recently at my doctors surgery. It means my rights to see a female HCP can be overridden and also smeared as being transphobic. Getting a smear test was already difficult, due to trauma from encounters with men, this adds an unnecessary layer of difficulty and fear. My trauma reaction is generally to freeze. I can't even be sure I'd find a voice to say "no". I'm not yet old enough for mammograms but already fear how I will be able to ask for female staff without my fears being dismissed as bigotry.

I'm still in therapy for said trauma. I'd have finished years ago had the world not adopted this misogynist religion. The mass indifference to female suffering reminds me of the aftermath to my rape. Retraumatising. And fucking expensive at a time my career has already nosedived due to maternity and maternity discrimination.

Fuck I actually had a lump in my throat reading that , you got it in a nut shell .

I've been to several rallies and events and there's nothing to be scared of. Sometimes you just need to put your big girl pants on and get over yourselves. I urge you to do it and I'm not interested in hearing about why you're too nervous to do so. I'm one of those women who've been fighting this for years and I'm getting increasingly pissed off with the 'good for you, but me — too scary' responses. If you're not actively doing something to fight it, you're letting it happen.

Know that won't win me any fans but it must be 14 years now since the first trans woman turned up in a local women-only organisation and insisted on his right 'as a woman' to be there. I've been trying to raise awareness ever since and I've had enough of all the women complaining online and doing sod all. It's the people who do nothing and say nothing who have let this happen.

Also I took my eldest on all manner of protests. Now I'd like to attend feminist protests but I've a little one again and I don't actually think it would be safe.

Every time i see your name i want to ask is it still raining in Darlington, but that's not what you're name says!

Any chance you can start job searching in earnest. Then at least i f you walk you know what's out there.

As much as I agree sometimes women have to be stronger , some just cannot and are to damned broken and scared to go to a rally that may get violent .
I recent that you lay this at the door of people / women who did nothing who caused it . That is unfair and fucking insulting ! some women are fighting and protesting every day in their own lives in their own homes it's just not shown on the news !

I think I need to start looking earnestly @Boiledbeetle - it's such a shame, I'm good at my job and really enjoyed working there but, after Covid, half the team retired or moved on and the newer, mostly younger staff have bought with them the full bag of post modernist luxury beliefs.

My name is actually a song by Will Oldham!

@BoredOfThisMansWorld I'm not yet old enough for mammograms but already fear how I will be able to ask for female staff without my fears being dismissed as bigotry.

The paperwork that came with my first appointment letter for mine went to great lengths to tell me that it would be female only staff dealing with me. I'm tempted to ring and get them to define female

Either from a man, or a woman who knows she shares the same fundamentalist religion as those in charge. Offering us the crumb of agreement that one especially bad rapist belongs in a male prison, like we are supposed to be grateful. A suggestion of an assumption that we are all much older, knowing the negative value our opressors place on that

I don't want to engage with other posts because it's just full of personal attacks and is water off a duck's back to me, but I do want to address this because it's unfair and is unfair to yourself and other posters because it's very much a misrepresentation (not intentionally) of what I'm saying. I do not feel like I am more of value because I'm in my 20's and my relating to another poster was not supposed to be some stealth boast?

Also I don't use the word cis meant as an insult, I am part of a lot of communities where cis is commonly used and is not seen as an insult at all, I try to refrain from using it but sometimes I instinctively write it when referring to trans women and women. It's a simple slip up, there is no malice intended, I hear that it is considered as an offensive term and I do try to omit its use on this website.

Years ago I read an article in New Scientist called, I think, Landscape of Fear (anyone with a digital subscription can look it up).

In a wilderness area where animal populations were increasing beyond what the environment could sustain, predators had been introduced to protect the environment. The experiment worked, in that the prey populations (eg deer) were kept down to sustainable levels.

But researchers found that the level of stress hormones in the prey animals' blood had sky-rocketed. The animals were no longer contented but constantly nervous and on the lookout for predators.

The OP asked Has gender ideology and everything that has resulted from it caused you mental or physical ill health? and, answering for myself, I say yes.

As a survivor of rape and other male violence, I used to feel a pleasant sense of comfort and safety in women-only spaces, even simple everyday ones such as toilets. I now feel a state of nervous alertness knowing men may stroll in at any moment. If there's a man between me and the door I have to do breathing exercises to stay calm.

It makes no difference if a man doesn't intend violence but has just dropped in to wipe his feet on women's rights.

I get your frustration @pattihews - but I don't think that being dismissive of others fears is hugely helpful particularly on your thread about the MH impact of this pernicious ideology.

Many of us are doing what we can and have - and are - paying a heavy price for it, sometimes in our own homes, our workplaces, in our communities.

I don't need to put on my big girl pants, I wear them every single day. (God, I hate that patronising phrase!)

Walk a mile...etc etc