Premiere of Trans Widows Film on Friday 30th Aug

[TinselAngel]

Vaishnavi Sundar's long awaited documentary that was three years in the making, is having a worldwide premiere on the 30th of August, 7pm UK time.

Behind The Looking Glass is a feature-length film about the lives of women whose partners have/want to medically transition.

This is the link for the premiere:

Just to add, big up to Tinsel for all the work and awareness raising you do. I have nothing but admiration for how you always put the women and children affected by these men first and foremost in everything you say.

This film is now also on X/ Twitter

x.com/vaishax/status/1837134170969317449?s=46&t=PSGltfjrMyZmBtYq2-AVIQ

Have only just watched, and was so affected and impressed by this film (133k views currently).
So much awe and appreciation for Tinsel and all involved in the film.

I also then caught this wonderful in depth interview with Vaishnavi Sundar about the film and more broadly too- that I hope is OK to add to this thread.

I expect Tinsel and anyone involved in the film might already be aware of it, but thought anyone else who had watched the film who wasn't aware of this interview might appreciate it.

What a deeply intelligent and compassionate woman Vaishnavi is. It really shines out in this interview.

open.spotify.com/episode/3rgIqSSHIPK89lsokvqi8x?si=MCAOlPMfS1Kk4ZAdHKBqag&t=0

I glad you liked it.

Vaishnavi is going to be posting each woman's story in full on YouTube, and the first one premieres at 7pm tonight

Thanks @TinselAngel, that's brilliant.

Great. Thanks!

Well I finally got round to watching this film, and blimey, it's so powerful.

The undeniable link between men wanting to become women and the sexual fetishes, narcissism and abuse that accompanies the cross-dressing, male>female fantasy, is too strong and dangerous to ignore.
I would go far as so say that forcing someone you have married, to treat you as the opposite gender to who they married, should in law be a recognised form of emotional abuse.

There is no harm in men wearing whatever they like when it comes to dress sense and makeup, nail varnish etc to express themselves (like the punks and new romantics) - the danger seems to come when men actually fantasise that they ARE women.

Some men who cross dress recognise this as a cognitive dissonance / gender dysphoria and do not ever actually call themselves women. But forcing other people (and society) to pretend you are a woman is a different level of danger altogether.

Women and children need extra protection from these men.

Thank you to those who made, and took part in, the film.

Some men who cross dress recognise this as a cognitive dissonance / gender dysphoria and do not ever actually call themselves women. But forcing other people (and society) to pretend you are a woman is a different level of danger altogether.

Unfortunately that's no guarantee of good intent.

Obviously I'm not suggesting any intent of any kind, as nobody knows the reason for his decision - but Grayson Perry's choice of groin attire at a children's charity event is certainly eyebrow-raising:

https://x.com/Glinner/status/1779655636218941541?t=gX_ThLA8ok9nvVrkXViE8Q&s=19

Especially so when he talks in his own autobiography about making his own dresses with lots of puffed up layers, so that his excitement is hidden. He wears these dresses on primary school visits too. He's quite open about it all.

Here he is at a school with Princess Kate:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2911257/amp/Every-inch-yummy-mummy-Duchess-Cambridge-pretty-navy-meets-arty-children-Grayson-Perry.html

I was too late for the edit button..

But just to add clarity: Grayson Perry doesn't have gender dysphoria but he does "cross dress" and doesn't call himself a woman. He positions "Clare" as a character/alter ego, with him being a man dressed in the way that he does.

If that photo is real @BonfireLady then I think a huge safeguarding error was made - when would it ever be justifiable for a man, or anyone, to wear a strap on phallus to a children's charity event?
The sound clip below of the same man talking to Kirsty Young and saying that he agrees that people feel uncomfortable around men dressed as women because they feel they have participated in something quasi-sexual that they did not consent too.
If this person admitted that they feel sexually aroused when dressed up as a woman then they fit the definition of autogynaephilic and should not be allowed anywhere near children dressed in attire that they know will sexually arouse them around children.

I'm gobsmacked that this is ongoing in this country.

For anyone curious, Perry's autobiography 'A portrait of the artist as a young woman' is illuminating.

The photo of him with a codpiece is quite real.

Can we not focus on a perpetrator on a thread about the victims, please?

Well, that's me told 👍

You're right of course.

The experiences of the victims never gets heard and it's so vital to hear these experiences to get protections in place.

We experience phallic drift everywhere, even on a thread explicitly about a film which was intended to address it.

Tinsel, I may need to steal 'phallic drift' as a phrase. It's brilliant.

Sorry, Tinsel.

I didn't even clock what thread this was, tbh.

I can't take credit for inventing it.

It is indeed a great phrase.

The reason I shared what I did (carefully worded, of course) was to illustrate that what may appear at first to be possibly innocuous may not be.

I'll need to carefully word this again as I wouldn't want to make any assumptions about Grayson Perry's wife but it's the "edge cases" like Grayson's, or Debbie Hayton's, where there's a public recognition of awareness on the part of the self-confessed paraphilic, which adds a specific risk of co-ercion. The wives of these people are in the front line of that risk, everyone else to a lesser degree but still with consequences (e.g. the charities or schools which then potentially become enablers) where perhaps they are telling themselves and the public what a great person their other half is while wrestling with their own discomfort about how openly that person talks about their "condition".... and in the case of Grayson, going one step further and acknowledging the discomfort that they know it brings to women.

My understanding with Grayson Perry is that Philippa Perry encouraged him to explore that part of his 'personality' in an artistic way with elaborate costumes (apparently his students were encouraged to design costumes for his alter ego Claire) and an element of performance art. I don't think Philippa Perry is a trans widow because Grayson has never claimed to be a woman as far as I know. Philippa Perry is a psychologist. I don't know where she stands on gender ideology but her approach to her husband's agp is an interesting one.

This shouldn't need re-posting already, but it is a fair ask.

I don't think Philippa Perry is a trans widow
I think this is an important topic to unpick, as edge cases are just as important because that's where boundaries blur (and where boundaries blur, risk occurs). Not specifically about Philippa Perry, but as per my previous post re the risk of co-ercion to wives when there is a partial concession of any kind regarding AGP. However, I'm going to stop commenting as unfortunately it all seems to have been recieved as a derail to the thread.

I just wanted to thank those who revitalised this thread because I would have missed it otherwise. What an amazing, well-thought out, well-presented and well-drawn documentary.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.