Asked my Lib Dem candidate what a woman is

[Botheredbabybrain]

Not sure who to vote for. Lib Dem man posted some sensible stuff about an issue on the local fb group then tried to request me as a friend, I thought I’d gauge his response on this issue. Would be funny if it weren’t so fucking tragic.

I don't doubt the Lib Dem MPs are mostly outwardly lovely. They are politicians and need some charisma to be elected. But on this issue they have shown themselves to also be liars and/or stupid and/or cowards and I strongly feel those are not desirable attributes for elected representatives, so for that reason, it's a 'no' from me.

Have you waxed your moustache lately?

What, like Poirot?

And a fair point on the charisma. I once met Chris Grayling and quite liked him. Made me feel grubby the rest of the day.

I know my two local LD candidates well.

One was a friend unless he started bullying and regularly made digs about my brother. He wasnt TWAW. He was full on transphobic and a massive sexist pig. The way he treats his wife is awful. He has massive insecurity issues and hated me cos he knew I was smarter than him and he didn't like that. He regularly falls out with friends. Usually after he's been out drinking and gobbed off and they tell him where to go. He's got a reputation now for it. Total prick.

The other goes drinking with DH from time to time. Well, he has done but I've got fed up of his behaviour and asked DH to give him a bit of a swerve cos it always ends up badly. Because this guy is a raging alcoholic. He also is totally work shy. At a recent event he was asked to go help with something. He instead sloped off to the bar. He then proceeded later to say to everyone coming back from helping to say he missed when everyone else was asked. It was a barefaced lie. No one was surprised when I made sure of the stunt he'd just pulled. Seems again he has a reputation. I feel for his girlfriend who he treats like shit as he regularly goes on benders and disappears.

They really are scrapping the barrel with this pair. They couldn't get anyone else to stand. In the past there's been a few options but it's clear that these two waste of spaces were the only people who would agree to do it.

These two are probably the bottom of the list of people I'd vote for if everyone in the area was standing. That's how bad it is.

Aside from these two, I've got two Tories and a Labour candidate. Out of the five candidates I've got to pick two. It's dire.

Seriously considering spoiling my ballot for the first time.

TWAW doesn't even come into it.

Shame about their local councillors then innit?

Didn't the LibDems change their rules/constitution to adopt a very strict pro-trans policy? Even asking the question amounts to some heinous crime that gets you kicked out of the party.

I'd agree with local councillors generally being gender critical.

I'd also say that there's a massive problem with sexism amongst local LD candidates though.

You should see the agreement you have to sign to be a candidate at a gender these days.

It shocked me.

What shocked me even more was how many of its previous candidates and serving councillors wouldn't make the grade due to the contents of their social media. Or at least they shouldn't if they actually follow their own rules. At least one had questionable adult content on their twitter which was easily found.

I think we could have a few embarrassing episodes coming when the general is called.

No
No
Yes

This research is based on computational models of human functional brain organization, not actual human brains. Computational models are often flawed and biased because the data they are trained on is biased, as we've seen with computational models of faces used for AI facial recognition being trained on images of white people and hence failing to accurately black people. Without seeing the full article, I cannot comment on whether this study has taken adequate steps to prevent such bias. It does however seem likely that the models will be flawed, given that all prior work based on actual human brains has heen unable to consistently differentiate between male and female brains.

Whether this research is robust or not is irrelevant when considering the need for single-sex spaces. The need to have single-sex spaces is what motivated the OP's question. Your brain doesn't determine whether you can become or make someone else become pregnant.

Jesus, your Lib Dem candidate’s response is bloody depressing

He has described himself as 'an activist first, journalist second', and as far as I can see from a cursory Google has no claim to scientific expertise. I don't think I'll be looking in his direction for the next major breakthrough in neuroscience. (Try Gina Rippon instead.)

But as others have said, even if we did track down a few small differences on brain scans, and find they sometimes cross over¹ that wouldn't make men shorter, or weaker, or change their Q angles or violent offending stats. It wouldn't change the socialisation they receive from the moment of birth, based on their external bodies. It can't alter their immune system's response to oesteogen, or make them bleed from their non-existant wombs.

¹ Which raises its own questions. If there is a sex difference somewhere in the brain, but both forms are found in both sexes, in what way is it a sex difference?

If a woman is anyone who identifies as a woman, what other categories does that apply to? Is Rachel Dolezal black? I bet he'd be offended by that suggestion.

😂

@NoBinturongsHereMate

Which raises its own questions. If there is a sex difference somewhere in the brain, but both forms are found in both sexes, in what way is it a sex difference?

BOOM!

wtf does “gender fluid” even mean?! It’s a loo-loo saying trotted out to make people feel better about saying “sex is biological”. You can then caveat with some silly semantics to protect yourself from
screams of “transphobic”.

Sex and gender used to just be synonyms. Now gender is supposed to be a personality trait or a feeling.

No. You are a man or a woman. You can be a man who feels feminine or a woman who likes to behave or dress in a more masculine way or whatever but can we stop blurring the lines of biology with ridiculous, halfway expressions like “gender is fluid”.

It would be odd if there weren’t any differences between male and female brains, given that there are so many other differences between their bodies.
The important thing is that a male can’t have a female brain, and neither can a female have a male brain, not that it would be of any consequence anyway, as there is so much variation in behaviour and emotion within sex classes.

i personally think there is a difference between male and female brains. But I also don’t think you can have the wrong brain in the wrong body - it’s BS. There’s a reason why most people who are confused about their sex have mental health issues. They are just people, in general, who are looking to escape from who they are, by whatever means necessary. My cousin is one such person.

Not "gender -fluid". That is claiming to be a man or a woman as the mood takes you.

The pp said that "gender is fluid". Meaning gender stereotypes, gender expectations change over time and from place to place. Gender presentation varies from person to person as well.

But is there actually any decent evidence to suggest that trans women have female brains?

Don’t be ridiculous. Surely the fact that a stupidly high % of these people in jail are there for sex offices would demonstrate otherwise.

It's impossible to be an activist first and a journalist second.

What you become is a propagandist. That's not a journalist.

Sport is a case in point.

In the UK, football is largely seen as a men's sport, even though at national level our women's team is more successful than the men's. At primary school, if a girl likes football she would once have been labelled a tomboy, now it might raise questions as to whether she is an actual boy in a girl's body. (Ahh, progress!)

But in the US, "soccer" is a women's sport, so wanting to play the very same sport could be interpreted as being either gender non conforming or gender conforming, depending on which English speaking developed Western democracy with an Atlantic coast you happen to be in.

Similarly, according to Enid Blyton, hockey and lacrosse are girls' sports, but according to American Pie, they are for boys.

Maybe it goes with the territory of being a Lib Dem. If a man wants to be a woman sincerely enough, then he 'can' become one. Thus if the Lib Dems want to be the party of government sincerely enough, surely it is possible?!

Then again, why are they wasting time in campaigning to be elected in the first place, when they believe that you can become something, simply by identifying as it and declaring it as fact?!