Women's rights general conversations - Thread 9

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of Thread 8.

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).

That looks excellent. And March is a good while away, so I might even manage to make it over.

Re: loos. A male friend expressed horror at the potential number of germs on handbags - "You put them ON THE FLOOR in toilets!" and was nonplussed when I pointed out that there is a LOT less piss on the floor in the ladies' loos than in the gents'. It genuinely hadn't occurred to him.

Don't gents loos have a hook on the door like women's usually do? (I don't think I've ever had to put my handbag on a loo floor)

No, because some drunken loon would probably fall backwards and impale himself.

Why would there be hooks in men's loos? They don't have anything to hang up.

If you have a bag, you could prob put it on top of the cistern.

Not when the cistern is hidden behind the wall, as it often is.

The BBC/Guardian/Buzzfeed merry-go-round: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1850456179849228419.html

That exhibition looks fascinating, fingers crossed I can make it.

I've just learned from an Internet rabbit hole that fingerprints are sexed - some patterns are more common in men, and some in women. Also that someone's sex can be identified from their prints - not by patterns, but by differences in the amino acids each print carries. So extraordinary.

Also, for sciencey people here, would taking opposite sex hormones change one's amino acid secretions to align with other sex, or is it just more evidence of immutability?

Interesting question. My gut feeling is that it wouldn't change - or at most only a small shift - but I've not seen any research on it.

I've had a very quick look, which indicates the differences are due to hormones but I couldn't find specifics as to which were involved. Also whether they'd tested post menopausal women.

A male dna test combined with a fingerprint result more typical of women might narrow down potential suspects.

A propos of nothing in particular, just because I think we need to be reminded now and again...
The Sisterhood is a Feminist Lie
https://unherd.com/2024/08/the-sisterhood-is-a-feminist-lie/?=refinnar
Article by Kathleen Stock.

I ventured onto the Guardian, to see if they'd reported on the MN chat with KB (don't think they have), and I noticed this

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/oct/24/second-homes-big-tech-smoking-we-want-your-views-on-divisive-issues

Not my cuppa at all, but thought I'd leave it here jic anyone is interested.

I hate yes/no questions. While some are an easy yes or no, some are far more nuanced. For example "Has woke culture gone too far." Putting to one side the definition of woke culture which may well be a PhD thesis, if I say yes I feel like a reactionary twat. If I say no I feel like I'm on my knees begging to be made a handmaiden. That said, good luck with that, my womb is a barren place were seed will find no purchase. Martha it is then.

My thoughts exactly, Mouse.

As my DM used to say, "ask a silly question, get a silly answer"

Mine too. Apart from the womb stuff.

Interesting research into detransition.

www.nytimes.com/2024/10/26/health/kinnon-mackinnon-detransition-research.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Interesting - and once again showing that girls and young women are very, very different from older men. Shocking.

One bit particularly struck me in the discussion of detranstition rates: "if you’re talking about people who just stop hormones, that estimate in North America would be betweenn16 and 30 percent. But there’s a lot of reasons why trans people may choose to stop hormones — because of side effects, or just simply because they’re happy with where they’re at."

Which I noticed because I'd just been reading this, about some of those side effects: x.com/CeriRosser/status/1851512924189172106? 

(To save clicking through, the key point was a study of transmen taking testosterone showed that 95% had pelvic floor dysfunction, and changes typically found in postmenopausal women. Their average age was 28. More than half also had sexual dysfunction.)

From that,
https://archive.ph/xAcW3

To no-one's surprise, probably, but horrifying all the same.

Thanks for doing the archive link. Those sites still aren't working for me. Fortunately a 12 ft ladder is enough to climb the Telegraph wall.

Happened across this article quite by chance

https://theconversation.com/we-solve-murders-by-richard-osman-demonstrates-the-impact-of-chatgpt-on-forensic-linguistics-242239

Look where the authors are from!

I read a review of this somewhere else and meant to flag it here but forgot, anyway looks like an interesting, possibly harrowing, read

https://archive.ph/qeL9o

https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/unfortunately-she-was-nymphomaniac-new-history-romes-imperial-women-joan-smith-review-j3lk8mpd3

Joan Smith's new book. The other review was better. The reviewer didn't spend so much of it talking about a different book, by a bloke.