Are you comfortable to talk about gender/sex openly?
Comfortable, no. But since a terrifyingly woke-bro boss about 5 years ago, I sense the office has become quietly & passively cynical, and it’s come up a few times, briefly.
Would you raise it at work?
I have a few times across the years, in some carefully worded emails and well-intentioned questions to a naive DEIJ trainer who, as people have experienced above, mentioned every possible form of discrimination but sex, cis-ing & identifying their way through the presentation in a way that made the omission less incidental (concerning enough!) than a fairly clear product of her support of the ideology. She seemed a bit bemused, but hopefully at least reflected on what I said.
Would you/do you raise it with your child's school?
At home?
On social media?
I worry about girls I know about to start secondary, wondering if I should suggest that their - I suspect, blissfully ignorant or reluctant-to-risk-speaking-up - parents keep a weather eye on things like toilets & resource providers...
Are women able to speak about these issues?
No! I literally shook for a period after the DEIJ chat. Each time I email the BBC etc. I can’t help wondering if I’m being put on some blacklist. And I‘ve wanted to email unis, but haven’t dared because I fancy going back for an MA/PhD sometime & worry it would lower my chances.
Have you done so and experienced consequences?
Family members were very uncomfortable - more from bemusement &, I suspect, a sense I’d fallen down a rabbit hole… until Isla Bryson. Interestingly, since then, several have shifted from effectively shutting me down (in a way I’d found pretty upsetting) to talking with me about it more freely when I bring it up, though I try not to go on too long (which is fair enough!) I find it infuriating in a way - I’d told them all this before the headlines! - but am, mainly, immensely relieved; it was like a weight was lifted. Friends, I’ve explained to a few, who were horrified, & one’s now an active Twitter warrior for the cause. But I’m very cautious.