Women's rights general conversations - Thread 8

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of Thread 7.

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).

My polling station is the local community club, so I'm happy that the club gets paid andI can have a beer after voting

Voting here is in the community centre (very much not a club, more a Nissen hut) about 80 metres from our front gate. It's a deeply depressing space! I need to ask the Labour candidate (otherwise a decent woman) "Rosie Duffield - yes or no?" and then make up my mind. One problem is a visceral loathing of Starmer, so it'll probably be a spoiled ballot.

Voting here is in a Baptist church hall. We feed our ballots into a machine that reads the little ovals we fill in (there are usually down-ballot races as well as the presidential election). We don't have to show ID to vote in this state (or any, I think - it's a hot political topic) but we do have to confirm our name and address to the clerks, most of whom are older than Moses and probably recognise the regulars.

I have a decent local Labour MP who works hard for her constituents. I’m not a single issue voter, and consider Labour overall the least worst national option for the next government. So, that’s where my vote is going. It’s not with any enthusiasm though.

i also like the ritual of going to vote in person, ever since I was yay high and went with mum when she voted and she showed me what was involved. I like how it hasn’t changed at all in the 50+ years I’ve been aware of it. I also got little talks from mum about how important it was to vote, especially as a woman because other women fought very hard so that we could vote. Also grandad served in the war so that we retained democracy - she told a story that when she got her first passport, he quietly said he hoped that she would always remember how many people died so that she could hold that.

I've done a stint or two, way back in the day, as a Poll Clerk. I remember there were to be no political signs in the room. Even the candidates, if they were to call in, were not supposed to even wear their rosettes. So, would it be permissible for pride flags or similar to be displayed in the room where people cast their votes.

I don't think I've ever seen anything political in the actual room at all.

I've had a postal vote on the last two GEs. The first time, work mucked my schedule up, so I was away when the ballot arrived and when the election was held. Last time, it came when I was away, but I was home beforehand.

But if the bus is full of shit, I won't get on it, whichever direction it's heading.

I'm imagining the infamous SNP campervan pulling up beside me, full of the gurning faces of Blackman, Nicolson, Oswald, and Wishart and me running in the opposite direction.

This is a fun Twitter thread of people who know what they’re talking about v people who don’t.

https://x.com/fem_mb/status/1804809291083202754?s=61&t=Q6bG6UpgNNK6wBpPUj7sDg

Bonus tweet:

https://x.com/membrane55/status/1804911621392793663?s=12

This morning's radio news headlines at breakfast about Labour and genderwang were the final straw. So I did it - with a heavy heart: spoiled my ballot again.

I wrote "'No self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex' - Susan B. Anthony" and then drew my own Party of Women tick box. In green and purple pens.

Off to the post box now.

Real name alert!

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/susan-b-anthony

There was an article in my local paper celebrating the Pride march we had last weekend. Transgender kids was mentioned and I commented: "Many people who have an issue with 'transgender kids' have it exactly because it is a way of transing the gay away. Gender nonconformity is great - so why should kids think they need to alter their bodies medically or surgically to conform to gender stereotypes? It's perfectly OK to be a feminine man or a masculine woman. You don't need anybody else to validate your identity." This was promptly disallowed as 'violating our community guidelines', so I removed the first sentence and that was allowed to remain.

I'm sensing hosiery on that responsibility thread. Or tag teaming. Maybe the kids have an essay to write. None of them remotely interested in female people with trans identities.

Ignore me, I'm an idiot. 😆

Seemed to me more like your common-or-garden fresh TRSOHers arriving to bestow their special Soul Vision BeKind Gender Wisdom on the damned.

I'm really frustrated, I wish I had a POW candidate to vote for. I'm in a solid Labour seat. The Tory candidate is beyond useless, other than that it's green, Lib Dem, reform.

My seat is usually Tory but Labour has a chance this time. Nobody else does. I will probably vote for Labour but not with a 1997 spring in my step. On the plus side, boring old Keir probably won't invade Iraq.

YouTube randomly showed me another video that I found quite sobering, how brief the exposure can be for irreversible changes

I don't know anything about the creator. He seems to have a lot of stuff on body building, but the information will apply to all women or girls given or taking these chemicals. It's thorough, matter of fact and short, there's no judgement...well very little and, perhaps, some compassion.

Made me look.😂I was mystified.

Hello all,

Sorry to change the subject from the election, but I wondered if any of you with adolescent girls could help me please? My deadline for data collection is looming and I'm starting to panic that I may not reach the number required to make my research viable. I know the language still isn't 100%, but my determination to help girls definitely is.

If you can help, here is the link to the original thread that introduced me to you all 😁

Research thread

Thank you

@EqualityinSports I have got DD1 to do your survey - she says she thinks she has finished it as it's gone to a blank page, hope that is correct. I'll ask DD2 to do it when she gets home from school.

Thank you very much and please thank your daughters for me.

Yes, I’ve not worked out how to get a thank you rather than a blank page.