Women's rights general conversations - Thread 6

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of Thread 5.

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 in the supermarket, grr"- that sort of thing).

Sometimes I wonder how gaslit I am. Obviously, I like to think not at all, but f me, it's everywhere so I'm sure to have inhaled some of it.

This is interesting a short film about a man with Klinefelter syndrome. He speaks of a doctor telling him he was 'starved' of testosterone. He now has regular shots and it's been life saving.

It made me wonder about damage that 'gender affirming care' may be doing to young men.

My thoughts are:
(1) Not surprised in the slightest at the confusion.
(2) It's a feature, not a bug.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4866443-a-third-of-britons-dont-know-that-transgender-women-were-born-male?page=2

I had a diversity and inclusion survey to fill in for work. It included my choice of pronouns so I ticked "other" and wrote I do not define myself by pronouns.

I don't know whether this thread on the contagious nature of self-harm among girls was linked to before - I didn't see it, but I didn't read all the Costa threads and it was a response to Costa's appalling advertising.

https://twitter.com/ParentsAcross/status/1686988408793546752

On one level it's saying nothing new - I observed it happening more than 50 years ago when I was in school - it was rife among ambitious socially conformist girls, us bookish layabouts were a different set and didn't need to join in, everyone middle class, some, particularly the cutters, upper middle, so it wasn't about material poverty. The anorexia tsunami hadn't quite hit at that stage, but a friend who stayed at that school (I'd moved countries) told me there was a lot of day drinking going on by sixth form.

We do that to ourselves, and the cops have decided that hating and abusing us is on a par with smoking a cigarette. What hope is there for young women?

But abusing a woman having a cigarette is so relaxing.

I posted somewhere (possibly not here) that I'd more or less given up on the News Agents podcast. But I gave today's episode a listen because it was an interview the man who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit. Absolutely fascinating and utterly damning of the police.

Awful for him, obviously, but also for the victim, who thought her rapist had been caught and punished - a fact that he acknowledged.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-man-jailed-for-a-crime-he-didnt-commit/id1640878689?i=1000623821273

I read a piece about that on the BBC website the other day. Awful story. 17 years!

Then trying to deduct 17 years worth of “board and lodging” from his compensation. Unbelievable.

I'm glad that they're getting rid of the deducting "board and lodging" from innocent victims now but it's disgusting that it was ever there in the first place and I'm surprised it still was. I remember hearing about it years ago in another miscarriage of justice case and being gobsmacked then. I saw/heard his lawyer on the news who said that the maximum compensation he can get is £1m which whilst a lot of money is peanuts given what he's endured. I would hope that as his time went on in jail and he refused to admit guilt, ending up serving far more time than necessary, other inmates believed in his innocence but at first and for quite some time I'm guessing that he was treated horrendously by his fellow inmates. He's currently homeless as well, I'm guessing being put up in hotels or something but without a place of his own. The whole thing is disgusting from beginning to end. I liked that he was very clear in his first statement outside the court when he was released that the woman who was raped had been failed as well. It shows his humanity that he could care about what's happened to her as well as what's happened to him.

I haven't listened to that episode of The Newsagent yet. I'm behind because I've been a cinema going dilettante!

The board and lodging deductions horrendous. I remember hearing about that when the Birmingham 6 were cleared.

Just watched a 6-minute segment on prostate cancer on BBC Breakfast. Two experts, 2.presenters, a very good, clear discussion about risk, testing, next steps, reassurance - impressive public health communication.

Why mention that here? Well - guess how they referred to men?

Men.

Many, many, many uses of the words 'man' and 'men; 1 'blokes'; 1 'feller'.Absolutely no mention of identities, TW, non-binary, AMAB or similar. Just men.

Over in feminism chat, the OP is asking for book recommemdations on gender and the biological basis (or lack thereof). www.mumsnet.com/talk/feminism/4867217-is-the-law-of-polarity-the-same-bs-as-trans-ideology?reply=128273339

I've commented but probably ignorantly as I'm ignorant of the whole thing. I was pretty sure, could be wrong, that we can't easily put brains into male and female categories.

I do know that the law of polarity is a pile of pure shite. I despise anything that tells a person if only they change themselves and it's nearly always women who are supposed to do the changing.

You're not wrong, brains are brains. (Of course they live in people and are therefore subject to lifetime of socialisation and different treatment and experiences, which shapes them. But they all start out essentially the same.)

Phew!

The only difference according to Prof Gina Rippon is, in general, size - which is because men, in general are bigger than women:

www.ginarippon.com/

Good article and good advice from Helen Joyce

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/august-september-2023/how-to-survive-twitter/

Thanks for linking. She is such a clear writer.

I love HJ.

"they/them man-baby". I shall hoard that one.

A person who has listened to hours of you discussing something that deeply interests them, only then to hear you say something with which they disagree, may feel it like a gut punch. But you aren’t actually their friend, and they can’t sit you down with you to hash it out.

I can't have been the only one reading that knowing that I could happily sit Helen in the corner of my room and just have her talk at me for hours on reading the bit 'but you aren't actually their friend' felt like I'd been punched in the gut? 😏😁

I know it's the middle of the night, but anyone fancy some skittles?

They've got ace new packaging

https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1690161917006864384?s=19

Nothing more appropriate than sexuality messages on kids' candy...

Joanna Cherry's event at the Stand disrupted by petulant staff members -

twitter.com/joannaccherry/status/1690054989467525137

petulant staff members

But they identify as brave and stunning warriors on The Right Side of History.