Libraries promoting body mutilation as “joy” in Norfolk

[CarobBean72]

Anyone here from Norfolk?

Norwich Millennium Library has a display of “Trans Joy”, apparently aimed at children & young people, which IMHO promotes body mutilation & self harm of women & girls & glorifies drug use. In the wake of the Cass Report it’s incredibly irresponsible.

It includes images of hypodermic needles for injecting testosterone, a packer & mastectomy scars, with the slogan “Self-made men play God right”.

Most disturbing is a small figurine of a woman’s lower half, cut off at waist & knees, bearing what appears to be a hysterectomy scar & what is either a pseudo-phallus ( an appendage made from a flap of tissue removed from the woman’s arm or thigh, rolled up and sewn to the groin to mimic a penis ) or a hypertrophied clitoris, one of the often painful effects of testosterone on the female body.

The display is accessible to children as the cabinets stand only a couple of feet high, designed for a child’s eye line and it’s placed next to the 8-14 book section. The cases are by the entrance - not noticeable when you go in but inescapable when you leave.

I can’t believe someone okayed this. If it was promoting anorexia or cutting or glorifying steroid abuse to children and teenagers, we’d all see it for what it is. Instead, it’s promoting self-mutilation under the banner of “Trans Joy”.

It’s especially irresponsible in the week the Cass Review revealed how poor the evidence base for so-called “gender affirming care” is and how little followup there has been to assess regret and de-transition rates.

Ive been trying to find a contact for the head of Norfolk Library Services - it’s a woman called Kerry Murray, who is also the Safeguarding Lead! But I can’t find any email listing for her.

Any suggestions?

Sharing images with trepidation: it’s a horror show!

Post edited by MNHQ

Cool, I am studying crime & take great interest in it — if you have any reasons that interlink your job with how you view transitioning feel free to share as I'd like to learn more about your viewpoint. Normalising trans representation & creating awareness about minority groups alike shouldn't be taken as something that will cause harm to any vulnerable groups or "make them turn" — after all, it's nothing short of educating that different people live in this world. When exhibits about disabilities are held, I am sure people don't take it as the disabled community trying to encourage more people to "become" disabled.

Could you elaborate what about said paragraph concerned you if you can?

Do you think it's strange how there are high rates of LGBTQIA+ people seeking out wellbeing services? Statistically, they face much higher risks of abuse of all types due to hate crime which I'm sure you know leads to many difficulties. I'd say that many trans people especially face intense backlash so it makes sense why so many struggle psychologically as this world wasn't made with them in mind. I think it's great that services like MAP exist to help all people who struggle & high rates of said group just go to show that society makes it way harder for them to peacefully function. What are your thoughts?

Indeed. Maybe the poster will return at some stage having educated themselves about child safeguarding, the concept of age appropriateness, women's rights, the Nolan Principles as they apply to local government, feminist theory and a number of other fundamental principles missing from their "I'm here to lecture women" posts.

But I won't hold my breath 😂

I understand your thoughts on self harm scarring. As mentioned in the screenshot, some of the marks were stretch marks & some were self harm scars. I see you think that people shouldn't feel they have to mask their scars & I agree. There's a lot of art made by people who have struggled in that way to make people feel they're not alone & that it does get better. If you were someone who is going through hell, knowing that people have gone through hell & back & are still standing would be indeed lifesaving. It's not pretty but it's the reality of many. May I also mention that the self harm scars on the sculpture are fully healed? That implies perseverance & literal healing

I mean honestly it leaves me thinking that your behaviour is quite stagnant. It's important for a person to grow & develop critical thinking through actually processing other people's ideas with a receptive mind

Well that's us told, eh wims? Not even lunchtime on a Monday and we've been educated. How fortunate we are.

Well indeed!

I’d suggest to our prickly visitor that they spend some time on the Transwidows threads here ‘with a receptive mind’ and educate themselves thus.

Ah, but they are already enlightened. They don't need anything further as they have reached educational Nirvana.

Gender identity is simply your own identity within yourself. Unless you feel that you have no gender, you likely live as a woman or a man. Sex is a trait that describes one's reproductive organs, i.e. female, male or intersex. Gender is a trait that describes one's correspondence of their sex with their identity i.e. woman, man or non-binary. If you were assigned female at birth & feel that corresponds with how you feel internally then you are a woman. Everyone identifies somehow, & if you were lucky for your sex & gender to be aligned from birth then that's amazing for you — I understand that in that case it's not so clear cut to acknowledge that because you don't have to highlight your identity on the daily basis as it's more easily noticeable, you still identify as a certain gender.

Respectfully, cisgender is a medical term that was coined in 1990s to establish a distinction from transgender as before then there was not much awareness on transgenderism. On Wiki in the 'History & usage of the term' in the 'Academic use' section, they state that "Medical academics use the term and have recognized its importance in transgender studies since the 1990s.[13][14][15] After the terms cisgender and cissexual were used in a 2006 article in the Journal of Lesbian Studies[16] and Serano's 2007 book Whipping Girl,[17] the former gained further popularity among English-speaking activists and scholars.[18][19][20] Cisgender was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2015, defined as "designating a person whose sense of personal identity corresponds to the sex and gender assigned to him or her at birth (in contrast with transgender)".[21] Perspectives on History states that since this inclusion, the term has increasingly become common usage.[11]"

I very much appreciate that the women on this board have really thought about the issues. Not learnt to spout glib explanations designed to support particular positions, but actually thought.

I find it really hard to believe that after all that time that FWR exists and all the stick that MN got in the media for allowing women to talk about this issue there is still a single person out there who thinks they can share something with the women (and a few men) on here that they haven't heard/read/had mansplained to them many many times before.

Well, that's me convinced by a photo of the OED from Wikipedia.

Not.

you likely live as a woman or a man

Could you clarify what that means please? In case I'm not living correctly.

@BeHappyHedgehog

Gender identity is an un-evidenced belief. Please show me some evidence that such a confection even exists.

And again, cis-gender is not a medical term, it is an ideological one.

I don't understand it either.
I do some things that are thought to be stereotypically female.
I do some things that are thought to be stereotypically male.
Some of the things I have done have been driven by my biology.

Yesterday I was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt whilst watching football most of the day. Was I living as a man?

My god, you're patronising.

Sex is a trait that describes one's reproductive organs, i.e. female, male or intersex

Are you saying there are three sexes? Please could you explain what the reproductive organs of the third sex are?

I put my own bins out. Definitely man.

Yesterday my husband wore a pink shirt, had a long chat with his mum who was a bit upset about something, did the hoovering and made a cake.
Was he living as a woman?

Gender in the way it has been used since the 1990s is a nonsensical term connected with the whole 'trans' narrative. I do not have a gender. I do not 'live as a woman' , I just am a woman.

How exactly would one 'live as a woman' anyway?

Me too.

<Checks self for penis.>

Dear Wims

I made a cake yesterday but I did it wearing trousers inbetween watching the cricket and ordering some more moisturiser

am I living as a man or a woman

yours

deeply confused of FWR

Today I'm wearing men's trousers and working on the farm,but I also did the washing up. Won't somebody please help me and tell me if I'm living as a woman or a man?

Today I'm wearing a hoodie, no makeup and I'm going to saw up a fallen tree later. So far this morning I've done some tricky maths and sent a couple of firm emails. They did not include any softening language. Am I living as a man?

Yesterday DD accidentally knocked the toilet roll holder off the wall and came to ask me to fix it. So I got the tools out and did so. She didn't ask DH, because she knows that he can't tell the difference between an Allen key and a Phillips screwdriver. And anyway, he was busy making a banana loaf with the overripe fruit that was becoming Drosophila Central.

I think that means I'm living as a man and DH as a woman.

Me three… and that time Paula and I outed ourselves as “watcher of WW2 documentaries” definitely men.