Work Endometriosis awareness event, no 'cis gendered' males permitted

[Mustardandchickensandwiches]

Wtaf? So male bodied people can attend a female issue awareness event as long as the aren't 'cis' how does this make any sense?

Context is DH has had this invite through from his work place. Thought it would be good to attend as he is a manager and likes to understand as much as he can about different things people may be dealing with in life.

But he can't go, because he is 'cis'

This is discrimination surely?

And to be honest it does come across in the op that the issue is that your DH cannot attend ‘because he is cis.’ I mean that’s what you say in your own post. Nothing about men identifying as women to gain access, only your husband being denied access and feeling this is discriminatory.

Don’t expect men to have any empathy unless you discuss your private medical problems in front of them? That seems a bit odd. I’m sure her DH is an intelligent man who can have empathy even if he is not party to private women’s events.

And as I suggested, I’m sure he can contact the organisers to suggest an awareness session for male employees where they can be educated and develop empathy without women being used as teaching tools.

I would have thought the issues from the bullshit labeling going on would have been very obvious.

My husband is gender critical as am I, he in no way feels entitled to attend what could be intended to be a female only event.

However this is not how this thing is being advertised. It is advertised as an awareness event for all employees as long as your not 'cis' and male.

This is so weird. Women who know they have endo are already aware. So by excluding men, they are trying to raise awareness solely for people who might have endo but not know about it? Not to raise awareness for people who don’t have endo to understand better those who do, otherwise men would also be welcome.

tbh I’d be delighted to avoid any of these awareness talks. They are, without exception, insufferably boring. Just send me an email already.

They should have separate sessions for biological females and males.

Females can have more in depth stuff, and talk about their own situation.

Males can be given information on how it effect women, and talk about impact on their partners.

Split by sex.

I think it's so that trans men who this would also be relevant for feel they can attend. I wouldn't worry about it

I can understand your point. Why allow some males (non-binary and TW) but not others. I agree it should be divided by sex. Surely a female discussing endometriosis in front of their NB male boss could be an issue.

But transwomen are women, surely? That's what we're always being told.

The organisers have told the OP's husband that he can't attend because he is a cis male. so the implication is that anyone male who isn't cis (ie transwomen) can go. What an absolute mess.

OP, would your DH be prepared to self ID as a transwoman in order to call them out on this?

Their aims needs to be clear - if it's awareness raising, open it to all. If it's a support group or for info to help sufferers/potential sufferers, women only.

We used to say: Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Woman is anyone of the female sex. "Women only" would have sufficed to exclude her husband.
Cis gendered men excluded does mean transmen and transwomen included.

The policy would have to word it as cis women, non binary of the female sex and transmen if the assumptions of some on here are correct.

But knowing how invalidating it is for some to be excluded from anything to do with women to the point of faking periods, these assumptions may be incorrect.

Good intentions leading to some rather incoherent outcomes.

This perfectly highlights the problems with a minority trying to impose their new language (cis) on an unconsenting majority. Lack of clarity, confusion about intended audience and even sadly, suspicions about the motivation.
Once upon a time everyone would have understood the instruction "women only". With anyone breaching that outing themselves as a bit of a misogynist, bully or a creep.
Now women and girls repeatedly lose their rights to privacy and accurate sex based health information.

I agree with the OP that the whole thing is badly worded.

The aims are unclear. Is it a support session where people can discuss how this affects them and coping strategies for the workplace, or is it to raise understanding across the organisation of the condition and how best to support those who have it.

If they want female only the wording doesn't exclude males as long as they identify in some other way.

If it is just for those who have or think they may have the condition they should have aimed it this way.

'Do you have or think you might suffer from endomitosis? Come along to our support session on Wednesday. Hear from......'

While this is only a workplace event it highlights the issues of making word soup out of medical conditions of biological sex.

Is this our ‘wonderful’ NHS. Explains why they are so bad

Nope, not NHS. Big retail company.

Actually loads of women have Endo and don't know, it takes 7 years on average to get a diagnosis.
I think the Endo-friendly workplace scheme is to try and reduce the taboos about menstrual health and raise awareness, as well as providing accessible facilities for women with Endo etc- however the wording for the session is very garbled if, hopefully, well intentioned.

No, it's not. In the language of the pseudo-inclusivity folks, that would be phrased as "everybody assigned female at birth". The fact that it's instead addressed to everybody except "cis" men is deliberate and means they're leaving the event wide open to a very special sort of males. If I was suffering from endo quite frankly I'd rather have OP's husband - an openly sympathetic ally - attending than somebody who wants to pretend-play about sharing in a rather horrible medical condition that will never affect them.

It's like mental illness right, before when it was all hush hush it was like this mystery thing. Out in the open its totally different. What man would really want to go to such an event for 'fun'

I think the reasons will be two fold. 1. So that trans women don't complain about being excluded 2. to encourage trans men to attend.

On the basis that only "cis men" are excluded, the obvious implication is that trans women are welcome to attend if they wish, despite not being female.

I would ask the organisers why they have used the term CIS which was coined by a pedophile and isn't relevant.

Male/female is perfectly acceptable.

If is a female event then only females should attend, if it for anyone who feels like a woman, which would then include men. Can he feel like a woman for the day 🤷‍♀️

It's bloody ridiculous 🙄

And it would discrimination because of sex, not gender, as sex is the protected characteristic.

In which case this is one situation where the phrase, "women and any other people with a uterus" might be useful.

Or better still, "This event is for women, trans men or non binary people with a uterus."

No, like a previous poster suggested the reference to cis men is because trans men would be welcome. I don’t think it’s about trans women at all.

I don't like being reduced to a series of body parts but I think this is one situation where it may be appropriate to refer to "people with a uterus".

There’s no such thing as “cis”, it doesn’t exist. So your DH should ask if men are allowed to attend, and if they are, then he can go.

This.

"This event is open to anyone assigned female at birth" is so much clearer and more likely to get the appropriate attendees.