Male friend on FB (a doctor no less), telling me that trans women are real women.

[Blondiebeachbabe]

I shared a meme on FB, about not supporting trans women in female sports.

A male friend of mine, who is a GP, commented that trans women are real women 🙄 I replied that trans women are men, and that my gripe was men in women’s sports, and men (rapists like Karen White), being housed in female prisons.

He then said that he knew lots of trans men, who just wanted to live a peaceful life, and I’m thinking well yes, because they are actually biologically female!

He then went on to quote all manner of statistics about violence from men against trans women and how trans women are at more risk of violence than cis women (I hate that term). and how cis women are more likely to be attacked by cis men than trans women.

It’s been annoying me all day. Here is another male telling me what to think, but also, whether the violence comes from normal men against trans women (who are men), or trans women against real women, this is essentially a male violence problem.

Because, we as women, aren’t the perpetrators in any of this. So men, stay in your own lane and sort out all your shit. You don’t get to throw the men you don’t like into our lane (bathrooms and prisons), and make us your collateral damage.

If a fox said that it felt like it was a chicken, you wouldn’t let it sleep in the chicken coup, just in case it was lying.

I may not have articulated this in the best way!

The overreaching goal is for women to feel safe around transwomen. It's not about satisfaction that they have 'won.' It's a constantly evolving topic as we gain more understanding about what it means to be trans, especially the issue in sports.

I don't have all the answers, and I can't tell you what it is like to be trans. I myself for a long time found it hard to believe. Because it is a strange concept, how can someone born a man, with a penis, be mentally a woman?

But I have educated myself, and my opinions have slowly changed.

There is no one answer to give all of you. All I can suggest is, be open to having your mind changed.

So women need to learn to feel safe? Rather than trans women learning that they can't always have everything they want?

Why?

"How can someone born a man, with a penis, be mentally a woman?"

They can't.

and that's your opinion

Well, yes.

If you believe that the word "man" means "male person", obviously a trans woman is one.

If you believe that the word "man" means something other than "male person", please tell us what you believe it means.

Can anyone be 'mentally a woman'?

What does a woman's brain do that a man's doesn't? Or vice versa?

Maybe it would be worth examining some of your own prejudices.

Online hate underpins real world violence.

how can someone born a man, with a penis, be mentally a woman?

im fascinated to know what this “a woman” is? Are all women the same that men think they are mentally one?? How does this mentally a woman manifest itself beyond the performance of female stereotypes?

im a woman but they only thing I have in common with all other women is a body designed around the production of large gametes and bearing children. That’s it, that’s all. No man has a body designed around the production of children.

Oh, you sweet summer child.

Around 90% of trans women have a penis, which is why Labour and the Lib Dems keep insisting that a woman can have a penis.

I don't know the answer to that. However, what I do know is many people describe having the same experience of feeling they are in the wrong body, which I would be a fool to boil down to 'mental illness.' I just think it's worth having an open mind about before making any conclusions.

That's all lovely and everything, but what does any of it have to do with what single sex spaces they should be using?

Respectfully, you could say that about anyone, regardless of gender, age, or profession.

I disagree with the idea that someone is more dangerous because they are trans.

Ah so privacy, dignity, fairness in sport, religious beliefs, fairness in access to things like scholarship don't matter then?

Gotcha.

People with anorexia describe their body has being “wrong” because it’s fat even when they are dangerously underweight. We don’t affirm that they are fat because that’s not true, instead we support them & treat them

no one is born in the wrong body, they’re born in their body. Rather than expecting the rest of us to deny reality or having painful surgery or taking hormones that have a catastrophic effect particularly on girls who want to be male, is it not much better to support, treat them and help them come to terms with the reality that no one can change sex

I thought the whole "wrong body" analysis had been massively rowed back on?

Am also intrigued as to how one is mentally a woman. Is it a concious thought at all times. As I sit typing on my laptop, am I mentally observing that I type in a womanly way?

Also, could someone confirm on the 95% don't have any physical transition - I thought the 5% included people who may have had for example facial feminisation surgery but doesn't necessarily mean that all 5% have had 'bottom' surgery - it could be a smaller % than 5....?

The kindest approach in all of this is to provide people who think they are born in the wrong body with intense and lengthy therapy.

No one can ever transfer over to the opposite sex. It is a biological impossibility.

It's actually extremely unkind to keep up and affirm this pretence.

There are literally billions of people who wish their bodies weren't they way they are. And there isn't a single other set of people with dissatisfaction with their body being told that "yes, you're right, what you have been 'dealt with' can change. And we'll help you change it"

It's just cruel.

People who peddle this belief should be ashamed of themselves. You're not being kind. You're giving false hope to people who need proper help.

It has to do with people's attitudes on the issue. I'm assuming you would be uncomfortable because you agree that someone is a man or a woman. However, if research shows that actually, it is less black and white than that, then people would be less apprehensive around trans people.

No shit Sherlock.

But what we do know, because we have an awful lot of statistics proving it, is that MALE PEOPLE are at least 50 times more likely to be a sex offender than FEMALE PEOPLE, which is a large part of the rationale for segregating certain spaces according to BIOLOGICAL SEX.

That is why we keep all men out of female only spaces, because even though we know most of them are not sex offenders, we know that keeping all men out of women's spaces is a very effective way of keeping sex offenders out of women's spaces. This offers women and girls valuable protection. Allowing male people to self ID into those spaces removes that protection.

TW are men therefore they are no more but equally no less dangerous than any man

men are responsible for well over 90% of the attacks on women

we keep all men out because it’s safer which is why my DH who is kind & gentle & wouldn’t hurt a fly doesn’t get to use women’s single sex spaces. He’s not a twat so he doesn’t take it personally

women are not support humans for unhappy men

If you can't answer the question, how can we legislate for it in law without clear definitions?

This is kinda important.

We can't legislate to protect women from the souls of those who would do us harm, now can we???

Otherwise we need to presume that anyone born with a penis is a male. You know 'sex'.

(Waits for the now inevitable part of the script. Yes let's see if we are going to go there...)

Do I get to shout bingo if we get the next part of the script?

Pretty please.

Its clearly not the 'trans-ness" that increases the risk - otherwise, we'd presumably see offending rates in TM to rocket higher than in women. Its the male-ness that is the risk factor and identifying as a woman doesn't (at a population level according to the evidence to date) reduce that risk

There aren’t enough bingo cards in the world for FWR today!

Not my opinion. FACT.
Sex change is impossible.

I can't ever know what it is to be a cat. I might IMAGINE what cat life is like or try to emulate it, but I can never actually know, because I am not a cat and I have no way of being one.

WOMAN is a biological descriptor. MALES cannot know what it is like to be a woman, all they can do is try to emulate what they THINK a woman is like (hence why you often get the exaggerated stereotypes).

You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own FACTS.