Cardiff Everywoman Festival is open to men...

[pattihews]

The Everywoman Festival seeks to empower and support women, and those assigned female at birth, on health topics that may be difficult or considered taboo to talk about.

The festival is open to anyone with an interest in womens health, irrespective of gender or sex. Whilst some of the workshops are looking at health issues for cis women and people assigned female at birth, there are workshops which are relevant for everyone.

What subjects are too taboo to be talked about openly any more, I wonder? Elaine Miller dresses up as a vagina to talk about sexual and continence issues. Davina McCall has tackled menopause. Will someone let me in on the womanly things that cannot be talked about?

This 'festival' is being sponsored by a group of private health care companies and legal firms. I wonder what they'll be trying to sell you?

The publicity for the event says:
Being a woman has a significant impact on health, as a result of both biological and gender-related differences.

I totally get that sex influences a great many things in life. As Professor Alice Sullivan said at this Welsh event, it's easier to list the things biological sex doesn't influence than list all the things it does:

But how does gender have an impact on health? I don't have a gender, just a sex, so it's all beyond me. Maybe performing sexy empowering dances in feminine high heels causes joint issues? Obviously if you decide you're in the wrong body you can do yourself irreparable damage by insisting on having cross-sex hormones and surgeries that can lead to all sorts of horrors.

I wouldn't be too hard on the organiser here, look at what happens when people say 'women'. They get shut down, harassed, doxxed, and in the end, everyone loses. At least this organiser is trying to pin down the whole thing to actual women.

Although the 'women and assigned female at birth' sentence did make me think 'men and women'...sometimes we are just going to have to assume that this is the double speak we have to end up with to get on with life at the moment. Or there will be NO bloody things left.

I don't think it does. I think it means women and transmen (also women). Where does it say those that 'identify' as women?
It is unnecessarily clunky language though.

I don't want to be hard on anyone trying to navigate the minefield of sex-specific health issues in the current genderwang climate.

But I do think it's important to note that many women will be confused, suspicious, and may self exclude from these events if they think they are going to include male-bodied people.

So if you're aiming to only include people who believe in gender, that's fine. But please be aware that this is alienating and excluding various groups, including women of some faiths, women with PTSD, gender critical women, perhaps women who don't have English as a first language, and others.

And yes, when I see pronouns, I swerve. Hard.

Pity, looks like some good events. And teh website is very pretty.

I mean maybe there is an argument that plastering pronouns over everything makes these events more appealing to younger women? Even when it's perfectly, blatantly obvious. But many of the topics are aimed at older women so where does that leave the organisers? But as soon as I see them I'm out. I have too many companies and offspring and events and opportunities demanding my cash as it is, it's helpful to have another filter/reason to automatically say no - something marketing departments need to start thinking about, esp with the cost of living rising.

Yes, like I said, if you want to appeal to a certain demographic, that's fine. But if your aim is to reach all women, then it's worth noting that pronouns are going to send a lot of us running for the hills. Let alone 'assigned at birth'.

Exactly. Not to mention attracting people for whom the event is not intended.

But we all know that babies aren’t assigned a sex at birth.

the sex is observed and scans when pregnant show what the sex is.

I hate this double speak

just be TRUTHFUL

The programme looks really good. It acknowledges how many poor health outcomes for females are due to our sex, and then goes & spoils it with all the 'assigned', pronouns etc crap.

What a shame.

I mean how many women are going to travel to Cardiff for the day to attend one seminar and one workshop?

One or two women do live in Cardiff, you know.

The Meet the Expert bit looks really good, a whole bunch of consultants in various specialties available for questions, the talks look great too - would people really prefer not to benefit from all that because it's open to everyone and there are too many pronouns on the website?

In fairness, the programme looks really great and as far as I can see the website uses 'women' and sometimes 'women and AFAB' throughout. I don't envy anyone trying to put on any kind of event at the moment, leave alone anything that is specifically about the biological reality of women's bodies while somehow having to avoid being condemned for the EVIL of acknowledging that sex is real. While 'women and AFAB' makes me roll my eyes, it's a whole lot better than 'people' or 'people with uteruses' or similar nonsense.

The pronouns in bios do just look completely stupid and offputting though - which is a shame. Presumably dozens of (obviously) women speakers and workshop leaders have had to declare themselves she/her because someone wants to be a they/them (while also describing themselves as a 'cool mum and wife'). FFS. Sounds like the last person I'd take advice from regarding 'self acceptance' frankly.

"The Everywoman Festival seeks to empower and support women, and those assigned female at birth"

Assigned female? WTH.

*would people really prefer not to benefit from all that because it's open to everyone and there are too many pronouns on the website?

Yes.

It does look good, really good. But as it is open to both sexes I’d worry the sessions will have AGPs in them using women’s stories for masturbation later.

which is why I wouldn’t go.

i hope you have locks on the sanitary bins, @Cornichiwa. You could advise menstruaters to sprinkle pads and tampons in chili powder before disposal.

Aw, come on, it's great to have an event focussed specifically on women's health.

And the front page of the website says 'everywoman... from periods to menopause' so they clearly actually do know what a woman is, they've just had to sprinkle it with a bit of genderwoo fairy dust to avoid getting cancelled.

If that's what it takes to be allowed to talk about female bodies in the current climate, who can blame them?

If you bend a bit you lose it all, though.

it’s not true rhat any of these issues affect male people.

there is no need fo include them in women’s health

I think it looks great - sorely needed, so I am grateful the PP and her fellow doctors and health professionals have made the effort to do this. I wish I could go but unfortunately will be at a uni open day with DD that day.

they've just had to sprinkle it with a bit of genderwoo fairy dust to avoid getting cancelled.

This genderwoo fairy dust is putting rapists in women's prisons and hospital wards.

It is harmful, actively harmful to the interests of women.

Yes, we risk being cancelled if we don't pay homage to the bullshit.

But capitulation will also, in the long run, cost us dear.

I mean, it's also quite possible the organisers are fully supportive of genderwoo fairy dust bullshit.

Yes, I’m familiar with the population of Cardiff. My point was about the pricing structure and financial viability - ie making the point that those two factors will have influenced the sponsorship model. The sponsorship model being the topic under discussion at the time when the thread started back in March. If the ticketing structure doesn’t attract attendees from outside the local area, that will limit sales and income to the local area. A local-only audience may be financially viable of course, but that depends on the nature and pricing of the event. And also on the weather on the day.

Back in March, it wasn’t clear whether the event had exclusive control of the whole site. It now appears from the website that you can access the festival site and some of the activities without having to sign up for a workshop and pay for a ticket. That will help the food vendors but possibly not the organisers.

Interestingly the organiser has now explained that to keep ticket prices low, they needed to secure £30k of sponsorship in advance. So that confirms what PPs were discussing back in March - ie it couldn’t be financially viable with that pricing structure. Hence the sponsorship which had caused PPs (the OP maybe) to feel suspicious.

Also interestingly the ticket price has increased by 50% since then. It’s now £15 for one ticket. The ticketing info I tracked down last time was £10.

One ticket still only gives you access to one workshop and one “seminar”. The “seminar” being a panel discussion on the outdoor main stage.

So in short the organisers seem to be adopting the Hay Festival model of payment for individual events. But many of the individual paid-for events won’t be likely to attract many ticket sales. (Eg one workshop is an opportunity to hear about a local sea swimming group. I mean, you could just ring them to ask about joining, surely?) Only one workshop is sold out. Unsurprisingly perhaps.

It’s a shame, parts of the programme look interesting, but I can’t see the ticketing structure being successful. There’s two workshops, max, that I would consider paying £15 to attend. But as they’ve got £30k sponsorship in advance, it might not matter if they don’t sell many tickets.

I think it's good to make the point that trans men and non-binary people are welcome, which presumably is what "assigned female at birth" is getting at, and the use of pronouns. Health inequality applies to them too.

Plus I think that making it available to everyone is good - the world would be a better place for women if men knew more about menopause, for example. I can't see why women shouldn't bring DPs who may want to gain understanding into whatever their health issue is.

‘Everywoman - from periods to menopause’ yet what about post menopausal women?

You are more at risk (health wise) due to the drop in female hormones etc. Greater risk of type II diabetes, osteoporosis, heart failure, cancer, changes to sex drive and so on, not to mention the mental and physical health of the older woman?

Surely if we are going to embrace all aspects of women’s health then we have to look at the positives and negatives of post menopausal lifestyles as well. How are the younger generations going to understand and plan for their needs etc if they think there is nothing relevant/of value for them after the menopause?

If the ticketing structure doesn’t attract attendees from outside the local area, that will limit sales and income to the local area. A local-only audience may be financially viable of course, but that depends on the nature and pricing of the event.

It's more likely to do with the venue I think - there are ~2M people living close to Cardiff but Insole Court, whilst lovely, is not very big. I think this event is more about trying to provide an important service rather than necessarily finding a model that is financially viable by itself.

I agree that the programme looks good (with the exception of the high heels nonsense) and there are several workshops that I would be interested in attending, however I would find £15 for 2 sessions too expensive- and I'd be very unlikely to travel more than say 30 mins to attend.
I get the feeling that most of the contributors have a genuine mission to empower women and improve our lives/health- I just find it a shame that its not easier and cheaper for them to talk to us. I'm not sure what the solution to that is as organising and promoting events is not really my field. Maybe bigger sponsors- Boots maybe? or any sanpro manufacturers?
the pronoun stuff seriously put me off but if the price and location were right I would overlook this as it seems most of the contributors are genuine experts who understand women's bodies and health needs.
I think digital access whether live or recordings may be a solution?