Women's rights general conversations - Thread 5

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of Thread 4.

There is so much excellent information and so many active discussions on FWR that I wondered if it would be useful to have a thread to sort of "cross-fertilise" between them - airing little thoughts or vignettes that wouldn't themselves merit their own thread, to highlight other posts/threads of particular interest or to point to notable developments on fast-moving threads so that casual observers know where to look.

(For example, "the X thread has meandered onto a fascinating discussion of Y" or "Poster P's amazing analysis on thread Z might have relevance to the scenario in thread W" or "Has anybody noticed this recurring theme that keeps coming up??" or even "Random bloke asked me to smile while I was choosing onions, grr"- that sort of thing).

Seems to be about several folders - looks as if they're considering a move away from discrete boards to more of a topic tagging system that would allow a single thread to appear in multiple topics.

Seems to be about several folders - looks as if they're considering a move away from discrete boards to more of a topic tagging system that would allow a single thread to appear in multiple topics.

Oh, thank you for the clarification!

How will that affect the naughty corner do you think?

I don't see why it shouldn't work just the same as all the others, a nice simple system of typing #aibu #chat #garden or #feminismandwomensrightsbywhichwemeanactualfemalewomennotthatwereerasingtheexistenceoftranspeoplesomeof whomareofcoursewomenjustnothemaleoneswedjustlikeatinycornerourselvesaswellifthatsnottoomuchtroublesorrythankyou tag depending where you want it to appear.

I dunno. I don't do all the others. :)

Over the last week, I've been applying for life insurance. In the last phone conversation, I was asked if I identify as female (in the context of health issues related to my sex). After a bemused silence from me, I answered 'I am female'.

It's absolutely inexplicable in that context in particular.

I've just been to Boots to pick up a prescription and bought some eyedrops. On the receipt there was a link to an online survey which I filled in so as to be able to say nice things about the staff at our local branch. "What is your gender?" featured, so under "Other" I wrote "SEX = female. I'd expect that to matter to a pharmacy".

I'm not going to win whatever the prize is, am !?

@Gonners why no! No you are not! Unless of course the only people who fill it in are other like-minded women!

On a completely different note whilst your here, and feel to decline if you wish, would you be interested in your rewriting of TS Eliot being in a book of poems?

Gonners · 06/06/2023 21:56
i I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear my corsets femininely rolled.

Shall I dye my hair bright pink? Do I dare to dress in peach?
I shall wear pink bikini, and sashay down the beach.
I have heard the mermaids chortling - how they screech!

@Boiledbeetle On a completely different note whilst your here, and feel to decline if you wish, would you be interested in your rewriting of TS Eliot being in a book of poems?

I very much enjoyed the last one and would be delighted, subject to line 5 being corrected to add the word "a" in front of "pink bikini", as in ... I shall wear a pink bikini, and sashay down the beach.

But I'm slightly concerned that the original is still in copyright, and the estate of the author is famously litigious. So maybe not worth the risk?

...and the estate of the author is famously litigious.

Even better! Be a cause célèbre! 😄

Excellent!

And

😁 I shall bear that in mind/look into it/probably cross my fingers and wing it😁

@Boiledbeetle I hereby withdraw my permission.

No problem. 🤗

The poster trying to derail the thread about the skirt-wearing person who wanted a key to the women's changing rooms at the swimming pool is versatile and persistent.

First they accused fellow posters of not being kind or balanced, then tried to get everyone to talk about access 'bathrooms' instead of swimmer's changing rooms (I don't know are they American or just using American language), then started whining that they were being called homophobic (they weren't, in that thread, though their back-to-the-80s language about the 'causes' of homosexuality on another thread were the wrost kind of time travel) and are still flapping around trying to personalise the discussion.

Very determined to stop the thread being about what it is actually about - I wonder what has got them so scared.

Two articles in the NS.

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2023/07/the-gender-binary-debate-jacqueline-rose

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2023/07/biological-sex-binary-debate-richard-dawkins

Both worth reading, though for different reasons.

I just had a cold call from the Labour Party (I am a member). "We'd like to know what's important to you, duc". Right then! I said, first of all, the LP will not get my vote in a GE unless and until I see some positive moves on the gender issue, making it clear that a few recent 'adjustments' by Shadow Cabinet members is nowhere near enough. In the end, he said, I can see you care about this issue very much. I said, yes, I do Then he started talking about 'green industrial revolution' and I said, I thought I read the other day that Starmer had reined back on that? He didn't argument the point. Then he said, anything else, and I said, yes, FUCKING Brexit! it was a shit idea before the vote, and a shit idea after it too. Why can't Labour be honest, and say what it thinks, not what it thinks people want to hear. I slipped in a mention of the Starmer/Rayner 'taking the knee' BLM horror-show. Also said about Starmer, "Every time he opens his mouth, I like him a little less". And no, I don't want to increase my direct debit, not by another penny a month. I said the guy, look, I don't want to be abusive, you've got a job to do, and I get that. But if you're going to ask me what I think, I'll take the opportunity to say so. And that I expect he'll come across a few people with views similar to mine.

Well said!

Haven't read the NS yet, only was delivered a few hours ago. There has been remarkably little on gender in it recent years, though, I think.

@duc748 that almost makes me wish I hadn't left the party in incoherent rage a few years ago. As things stand now, I'd love them to phone so I could give them a piece of my mind. I have plenty to say.

It was kinda what I'd be waiting for, Tric!

Well, you made good use of your opportunity!

Just come across this Kipling poem and am thinking that with a few adjustments it would make a good GC poem.

Suzanne Moore has an excellent piece in the Telegraph today - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/29/sir-keir-starmer-labour-trans-policy-duffield-russell-moyle/

It's on archive, which is where I read it.

Yeah, maybe ok. self-ID will be through a mate, though, so it's still shite. And the fucking brass neck of them. Bastards. Sorry, I feel VERY negative today when I think of how people have been trashed by these policies, supported to the hilt by Labour.

It does feel like something has shifted, though. I must confess to being a little emotional about it - friends and spaces lost, trust between family members lost, people who were close now distant. For this stupid lunacy. I've done very little, really, when you think of the sacrifices others have made but even in doing very little, the abuse and pushback was sometimes unbearable.

I think it's a step. But I'm more worried about the prevalence of queer theory and the influence of SW. But I'm a miserable bugger today and frankly not fit for human consumption.