What does GC gender critical mean?

[Itsholly]

What do you determine the definition of this term?

Is it a relatively new term, my understanding is that it means you are critical of gender - so if someone is born male and identifies as a different gender, say a woman, then I would be gender critical if I was critical of this particular circumstance?

Is it against the law or rules at work to openly admit you are gender critical? I mean, I am, but can I outwardly say I am?

Also - is gender critical what a trans person may refer to as a terf? Like, is it the same thing?

Thanks

I don't know - it does seem there are some genuinely dysphoric people who find relief from the various treatments,

But it should be made clear that there is no such thing as a 'sex change'. A man can't ever become a woman or vice versa. The newer terminology 'gender affirming surgery' is actually less inaccurate.

In my mind it’s not having gender stereotypes. So thinking women can be train drivers, men can like knitting, women can enjoy DIY, men can wear nail varnish and skirts if they want, boys can play with doll houses, women don’t have to be stereotypically feminine…..just some examples.

So I dislike stuff like “pirate and princess parties”. Because the insinuation is that boys will be pirates and girls will be princesses. Yes of course a girl could go as a pirate but then why not have Prince, princess and pirate parties.

So if you then think about this on the next level. If it’s ok for men to wear dresses and makeup then maybe they would be happy doing so without feeling the need to say they’re a woman? Because anyone can do anything as there are no stereotypes? Because let’s face it someone saying “I feel like a woman” is a gender stereotype. What are women supposed to feel like? Do ALL women feel the same? And this is where gender stereotypes become dangerous. Because if you have someone who doesn’t fit a mainstream stereotype then they feel there is something wrong. We should celebrate individuals rather than trying to categorise the whole human race into two boxes.

So if you then think about this on the next level. If it’s ok for men to wear dresses and makeup then maybe they would be happy doing so without feeling the need to say they’re a woman?

Ah, but therein lies the rub. If a man can't use a stereotype to say he's a woman, then he's just a man in dress.

In fact the term gender critical is as already said a shortened media friendly way of talking about gender critical feminism.

But in fact "gender critical feminism" is the watered down version of 70s feminism, ie Women's Liberation, because it effectively moves away from, allows people not to talk about the reality of women's oppression / discrimination which is her sex.

In other words feminism or women's liberation is recognising that women are a sex class oppressed by the male sex class. Included in that isof course gender stereo typing. But even if somehow gender stereotypes were got rid of women would still continue to be opressed because of their sex.

Sometimes its worth remembering (and the posts of here have reminded me) that the media helps corrupt and misdirect by it use of words.

So talking about or referring to being "gender critical" is in fact as much part of the deliberate masking of the reality of sex which TRAs (with the help of MRAs) instituted when newspapers stopped reporting someone's sex but started talking about their gender.

So in a sense, using the phrase gender critical is effectively having had our own words taken away from us, to undermine the reality of what we are up against.

ie that women are oppressed because of of their sex. not because of their gender (whether stereotypes or femininity, etc).

So this thread has made me think in using or being swayed into using the phrase "gender critical" have we in fact been captured. ie succumbed to the trans agenda that sex and gender are interchangeable.

Identifying as a "terf" is just a way of taking back what is intended as a slur and wearing it as a badge of honour.

Funny to think that back in the 70s it was radical to reclaim the word "woman" hence women's liberation, because at that time it was virtually an insult to say you were a woman (some sort of low life female) whereas you could be a lady or a girl!

So does this mean to identify as gender critical means we have been subconsciously subverted.

😲

at that time it was virtually an insult to say you were a woman (some sort of low life female) whereas you could be a lady or a girl!

This has made me think about the difference between 'ladylike' and 'womanly'.

I would like to make clear that as a resolute second waver, I also want pockets.

As said up thread the posts in response have set me thinking.

But also might explain that if the shorthand of "gender critical" has effectively cut that term off from its true origins (women as a sex class) it might explain why every now and again someone will say why has this topic been posted on the gender critical forum.

For those of use who subconsciously see GC as being part of women's liberation as a whole it is obvious that an issue specifically for women would be on what is after all the Feminism and Women's Rights forum.

But for others who have come to this after the phrase got separated from its origins, these parallel issues must appear strange because they are presumably seeing gender critical as being some sort of single issue campaign.

Funny they always used to say that the USA and the UK are two countries separated by a common language, and now it would seem that we might be having discussions on feminism where words and phrases dont have a common meaning or source.

Are we going to have to footnote our posts to provide clarification on the words we use and the links we think they have.?!

(For instance on the thread about the lesbian civil servant who got reprimanded it turns out Kool Aid signifies very different things, some say Merry Pranksters, some say Jamestown. Kool Aid being one of the phrases she was reprimanded for.)

I would like to make clear that as a resolute second waver, I also want pockets.

I can endorse that statement!

Yeah why is John Oliver so proTRA? Weird. He used to make sense . Now he doesn't

Terf is a trans exclusionary radical feminist.

From wikipedia:
Radical feminists view society fundamentally as a patriarchy in which men dominate and oppress women. Radical feminists seek to abolish the patriarchy in a struggle to liberate women and girls from a perceivedly unjust society by challenging existing social norms and institutions. This struggle includes opposing the sexual objectification of women, raising public awareness about such issues as rape and other violence against women, challenging the concept of gender roles, and challenging what radical feminists see as a racialized and gendered capitalism that characterizes the United States and many other countries.

Personally, I do not believe that share of voice, money and power between males and females is unequally held because of any gender expression, I believe it is because of sex. Neither do I believe that share of voice, money and power should be determined based on either sex or gender expression.

Every human should be free to dress how they please and not be discriminated against on the basis of how they present themselves. Roles, behaviours and other social expectations should not be categorised based on sex or gender, beyond biologically imposed functions around reproduction and lactation.

Until women have equal representation, share of voice, influence, money and power, I believe we cannot loose sight of the fundamental determining factor that divides those likely to have more power from those who do not and I believe that factor to be sex and not gender expression.

I do not believe that women as a class can opt out of their oppression and instead, as a class we should continue to challenge the structures that continue to entrench the differences between the sexes.

My feminism is not defined by gender but my sex class is impacted by the concept of gender roles, by misogynistic opinions, by patriarchal structures in society, by sexual objectification and sex based violence.

The fact that other people, including men, are the subject of poverty, sexual violence and marginalisation is important but is not relevant to my feminism.

I like to keep definitions simple.

To a trans-man - set a reminder for cervical screening.

To a trans-woman : make sure you check your prostrate.

I’m not gender-critical. I believe in safe spaces for people- sex based, religious. Rather than the binary categories imposed by organisations such as Stonewall.