Trans rights activism, a GC male perspective

[RealityFan]

Hallo Mumsnet allies, from recently-joined new comrade in arms. And a male to boot.
I've been deliberating leaving some thoughts on the scarred landscape that is trans activism, from an XY perspective. I'm unsure of how much interest a guy's thoughts are here.
My opinions range from the autogynephile/porn "sharp end" of the phenomenon, through my views as a male non parent on the phenomenon amongst teens, through the threat to free speech/institutional capture area, segueing nicely into the Labour Party's position and what this means post-2024 GE.
I need to be frank in this discussion, and some of what I might say may rub some readers the wrong way, but it's my heartfelt analysis.
I'm seeing very little from GC men online, save for Graham Linehan, Malcolm Clark, Dennis Noel Kavanagh, Simon Edge, Colin Wright, Billboard Chris, Wesley Yang, Jon Pike.
My take is of someone who's really thought a lot about this subject, has really weighed up lots of factors, and has really come down on the GC side, indeed is working hard to reconcile very strong emotions on the subject.
I'll post my thoughts if that's wanted, let me know.

No thanks random man.

Hokay, good start.

well, it wasn't the massive wall of text i was expecting when i clicked the title
But I'll pass, thanks.

He's not. Well he is a man, but he's not completely random.

It was suggested on another thread by regular posters that he start a thread.

To be honest, I would welcome more men giving their opinions on this subject.
My DH thinks that a lot of what's happening is absolute madness and can't understand why it's allowed to continue. But, apart, from the few men you mention, most men see the madness but remain silent.

It's ok, this isn't a popularity poll. I'm just unsure whether a majority female forum is really that bothered about the male perspective. Nothing I'll say will make things more palatable. But I believe I "understand" the toxic male ethos that underscores the phenomenon better than women. All I want to do is shed some light on what it is, and where it's come from.

I do wonder if the events of the past week will mean we start to see more men begin to get their head round what's actually been happening whilst they've been also and start to find their balls.

Hey @RealityFan i was going to suggest you let it be known it was asked of you, so people don’t think “look a man has arrived to give his manly view”.

Well, the TRAs very much know where their balls are. And they want women to know too.

@RealityFan what do you find is the general opinion of your male friends about what's happening? Its it not paying attention as not affecting them, or failing to see and understand why women are so upset?

I'm interested in hearing more OP

I think it's a good thing to include men's views in the discussions about gender and trans issues. MN is a good place to express GC views without being shot down, though not always the best place to muse over compromises and sadly some posters in this board in particular can be anti men. But I'm up for discussion with men too personally.

I want to give people the background to this thread.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4772051-film-of-protest-outside-the-lesbian-project-meeting?page=10

Oooh!!!

If people don't want to hear a male view can't they just bugger off to another thread? There's not exactly a shortage of MN threads on gender issues right now.

It was too good to resist OP 😂

Maybe forget you're a man and just get to the point or join the other threads. There's quite a few men there - both good faith and bag faith actors.

I think you might have got a better initial response if you contributed on a thread about an existing topic, rather than doing the whole “Behold, a man has arrived…” thing. I can see that wasn’t the intention, and in reality that’s what you originally did, but I’d imagine you can see how you came across that way. Funnily enough, you don’t get a great reaction to that on the feminist boards!

OK OP, your OP is a bit of a wall of waffle for me but if you genuinely have thoughts on what makes men decide that it's OK to stomp all over women's boundaries, hide female oppression and make out that they're the vulnerable ones then I would be interested to hear.

Men split into three camps.
"Trans, fucking weirdos!"
"Not on my radar, not my problem"
"TWAW"...although this is an outlier, it's most represented on the activist left, the #BeKind fraternity, and a surprising number of neo liberal Rightist men, who believe gender is a commercial choice like any other, Tom Harwood the most prominent example.
And he seques into the Mary Harrington thesis of Transhumanism, where all considerations of sex work, surrogacy, gender choice, body modification, euthanasia, are woven into humans as ultimate consumers, not just choice of car or hair colour, but also body and gender modification.
"I think therefore I can be anyone I want to be".

Well, I'm taller, slimmer, with better dress sense. Other than that, yes...

Haha, ignore that!

It was suggested on another thread by regular posters that he start a thread.

should have led with that then? with a link to the other thread? I mean if he's been hanging around he must know that we are all over men coming in and telling us what we're doing wrong? (even if that's not what he's doing, that's what we get, walls and walls of text)

I wish more men were allies. Most of them don't give a stuff because it doesn't affect them really. Some men identifying as women and entering female spaces, sports, competitions, whatever leaves less 'weirdos' in theirs.

Many women on here are battle-worn and have been discussing this for years now.

We know the groups you speak of, because we have pretty much all come up against the types.

In my experience (because of the circles I mix in) most of the men I know are 'be kind. I support minority rights...' types who haven't actually considered women.

Disappointingly, I find, even when it is spelled out to them very clearly what the issues are, they still tend to want to cling to their SJW principals and don't see women as equally deserving. That's what has been sad for me. These 'right on' types were all claiming to be feminists about 25/30 years ago, but that's all old hat now.

Do you have any male perspectives we haven't come up against/ considered, do you think?

Yup.
OP - your OP wasn't very well written
We do get a lot of annoying "Behold! A Man Is Here" idiots on these boards.