Emma Barnett interviews Endometriosis South Coast Steph Richards and Trustee Jodie Hughes

[ChristinaXYZ]

You can listen here - it starts around the 22 minute mark.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001scsj

The charity sounded a bit bizarre in their approach to endometriosis outwith appointing a transwoman transactivist CEO. They sounded clueless about what endometriosis is and talked about " not wanting to take away anyone's pain" where as I would have thought an endometriosis charity would be trying to reduce the pain women with endometriosis experience.

Enjoyed that. Nice one Emma. Finally these dick heads are coming under proper scrutiny.

Go Emma, she’s great. Very clever…

Why couldn't Jodie as the founder of this tiny charity be the "CEO"? Did someone persuade her otherwise? Maybe someone convinced her that the charity could do great things if only it had the right, experienced, older CEO. Maybe someone is taking advantage of her.

It sounded as though she needed a secretary.

I think you are right.

Best Monty Python being silly voice mixed with Little Britain.
smug voice "Ohhh I went to an Endometriosis support group tonight. It was lovely"
curious voice "EnzioMEtrosis? What's that then?"
smug voice "It's a special WOMANS problem. Down there! Didn't you know? It means I'm a real LAYDEE"
curious but also jealous voice "Oooohhhhh I'm a LAYDEE too! I must get me some of that EnzioMEtrosis too!"

It reminds me of the beginning of Fight Club where Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter's characters are going to support groups for medical conditions they don't have because it makes them feel better. The characters are parasites emotionally leeching off the problems of others.

Just caught up and listened.

Suggest this is another successful mission for operation #LetThemSpeak.

Great interview by EB probing the nonsense and laying it all out. I think I read somewhere that she suffers from endometriosis herself and although she was very professional, there was a hint of exasperation with the bullshit, I thought.

29 men with endometriosis?
Stop the world. Men are affected.

What a car crash

Yes, the language and profession of the author is a bit (lot!) eyeroll-worthy. But it is one of the few times that cisgender is a helpful, as it states 16 cisgender men, so we know they are talking about actual men. Though obviously if we just stuck to male and female descriptors then it would be even more useful!

But my point was that it is overwhelmingly a woman's issue, but the preview made it look as if I was saying , but what about the menz.
Edited for stray punctuation.

@Limth feel free to research who funds the charity.

Thing is I could post about 5 other medical papers that state that endometriosis is a benign all body disease and fully dismiss the retrograde menstruation theory, but it kind of derails the point of the thread.

The CEO of the charity is causing us more harm than good here, there needs to be a new endometriosis charity set up and run by women who have lived experience of endometriosis.

This is it, always. When they talk about women's rights they mean transwomen

I now wonder if Jody has also used this charity to capture EDI kudos to further Jody’s own future rather than necessarily working for women. I guess once you are on the awards circuit, it helps with all sorts of aspirations. As they are now being put up for awards etc, that seems to also be behind the selection.

Nothing wrong with ambition, except when you prioritise your ambition over the needs of the women your charity is supposed to be helping.

No, I agree with you, and thought it was a useful article too. Sorry for not making that clear! 🙂

Endometriosis UK? Or have I missed something?

Yes, I was thinking this too, that she was doing an exceptionally good job of remaining professional, in view of her personal experience. She wrote a very article in the Guardian a few years ago about a long struggle with endometriosis. She is a very good interviewer.

My take on it is that Jodie has founded her own charity to push her own view that endometriosis is an autoimmune condition rather than a gynaecological condition (and maybe to help her get subjects for her PHD research). I would be willing to place a large bet that this is the basis of her PHD. On another thread, it was pointed out that the description of endometriosis on the charity’s website was very different to the description on Endometriosis UK’s website. She may even be using the fact that a tiny number of men get endometriosis as part of her argument that she’s right and everyone else is wrong. The support part of the charity is irrelevant to her so it really doesn’t matter who the CEO is as long as the money keeps coming in, and the publicity of having a transwoman as CEO means that some gullible people will send money “in solidarity”.

Emma did an amazing job dissecting with poise. i listened to it live. It made my day. Both interviewees were utter morons. Especially the woman with endo - what an embarrassment. Apparently some people like being called terfs 😂

Janice Turner also listened to it. This is from her Notebook column in the Times today:

"Women’s pain
Fair play to the Woman’s Hour presenter Emma Barnett for calmly exposing the ludicrousness of the charity Endometriosis South Coast. Not only has it appointed a trans woman as chief executive — whatever happened to “lived experience”? — but Steph Richards, 71, has picketed feminist conferences and believes “man”, “woman” and even “child” are mere “social constructs”.
Richards is not, however, as bonkers as the charity’s founder, Jodie Hughes, who insisted endometriosis — an agonising condition whereby tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places — is not gynaecological as it affects men too. In truth, an infinitesimal number of males have endured endometriosis-like symptoms.
But although 99.999 per cent of sufferers are female, Hughes describes sufferers as “people with endometriosis”. Imagine telling Woman’s Hour the word “woman” is exclusionary while speaking to Barnett, whose life and fertility have been blighted by endometriosis."

Emma was on fire! It sounded so radical, to hear the word woman used with gay abandon, no apology and no inclusion of male type women.

It is a great example of what we lose by being 'inclusive'. The word woman has power. I won't give it up. It is my word.

There was even a suggestion made at a transactivists’ planning meeting that they should look for feminist causes and promote them so it would appear they had an interest in women’s rights. Period poverty was the cause recommended and for a while, the suggestion was actually taken up.

I won’t name names, as my post would be removed, but there are a significant number of men who claim they are women, who push their way into women’s charities or into roles where it’s important to be female, such as working in rape crisis, by making all the right noises, and then “suddenly realising” once they gain power that transactivism is actually very important to them.

I think this finally presented WH with the opportunity to reasonably reject a TW within bbc guidelines.

I do think there's been a change as the last time I can remember a trans woman being aired was over the sport issue. And Sharon was extremely on point. And the TW refused to be on iirc, they just played a previous recording.

SC is tricky within bbc guidelines as still currently medically classified as a woman - but Emma's questioning did draw out what she could to illustrate the issue.

And the time before that was staggering penis gate, at which Emma did emphasis with some sarcasm, was an ironic title for a 'woman.' And I'm wondering if that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

HJ is black listed by the BBC so I understand her wider criticism of WH generally, but I do think there's a slow change.

I am with Julie Bindel that this was a marvellous #letthemspeak opportunity worthy of a journalistic award.

Emma is a brilliant interviewer. When is she going? They really need someone like her to fill her shoes.

My eyebrows went up at the disclosure that 2 people nominated for Diversity Awards were happy with a job offer to someone they met at the awards over a cup of coffee rather than an equal opportunities recruitment process. For a reg’d charity, no less!

Just a biological note; I was extremely terfy and more fired up emotionally by tra antics in the first couple of years after my second child who's now 5.

I can't help wondering if she's getting to fuck this shit land as she's also got a one year old.

They’ve been doing this for a long time, pushing their way into women’s charities or organisations to prove to others just how womanly they are and obviously to gain the necessary validation from it. The added bonus is that they can further promote themselves and simultaneously lower women’s boundaries. The couldn’t care less about the actual cause.