Women's rights general conversations - Thread 10

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of Thread 9.

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).

Cracking interview with Sharron Davies and Mara Yamauchi from about 26 minutes in. The interviewer is completely out of his depth, and SD in particular is taking absolutely no prisoners.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w173067qhlkv5vw

They are marvellous. Clear, precise, knowledgable, and utterly undivertable. The interviewer was totally out of his depth, and a textbook example of the shit job so may journalists have been doing.

Particular (slightly paraphrased) highlights on that front:

Sharon: "One thing that's been really upsetting is the centering of men's feelings."
Interviewer: "OK. First question - what about how the men feel?"

And

Interviewer: "We've spoken to a transwoman about her feelings. What would you say to a woman who ... [waffley question about the feelings of the poor left-out transwomen] ?"
Mara: "You said transwoman and then you said woman. Which do you mean?"
Interviewer: "Well, a trans athlete."
Mara: "[??? Surpringly patient explanation of the 2 types on offer]"
Interviewer: " Well, a , er, um, a transperson, er, trans athlete, [drat, I can't avoid this can I?], er, a transwoman."
Mara: "So, a man who wants to play in the women's team?."

A slightly disconcerting aspect for me was that it's the first time I've actually heard Mara speak and she has exactly the same accent and way of speaking as my aunt.

A slightly more ranty piece from Lionel Shriver in the Spectator. I agree with many of her points, but I do believe there are people who experience such profound misery at their sexed body that ultimately medical and surgical treatment may be the best way for them to be able to exist at peace with themselves.

https://archive.ph/Pu6BZ

That's a brilliant article. I agree with you, @SqueakyDinosaur (and so did the Cass Report IIRC) that there may be people who undergo medical and surgical treatment for their own peace of mind. I have no problem with that, or with how they dress and present themselves. The only thing I have an issue with is men who delude themselves that they are actually women and use that delusion to push themselves into spaces and roles reserved for women.

I'd just like to put this here. I an so proud of my club; at a time when 'inclusion' seems to mean draping the place in rainbow flags, here's a couple of great examples of inclusion done properly, making it a real community asset.

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2025/05/11/were-all-wigan-were-all-warriors/

Sport has such an important role to play, in mental health and community cohesion.

Second one:

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2025/05/07/edge-hall-road-community-stadium-open-day/

Those both look very good, moto. Proper community inclusion.

R.M.W. got 15 minutes on Women's Hour yesterday to be Very Concerned that the SC ruling means women won't be able to take very young male children to the loo at the cinema, etc.

https://x.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1921935156354404366

Poor old most marginalised and oppressed, etc.

As for this, well.

https://x.com/CConcern/status/1921455147256815804

Hope you're well, kuc. I think I noticed a (an?) "hello" from you a while back well after you'd posted it and I just rudely ignored it like a rude person.

I've heard a rumour that Women's Hour has finally discovered the existence of Helen Joyce, though, and is meant to have her on later in the week.

And you can't deny RMW has a marvellous voice for radio.

To quote the old joke he also has a great face for radio.😂

I've just read Naomi Cunningham's blistering take-down of a Righteous dude who identifies as a legal expert.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5335339-naomi-cunninghams-response-to-prof-norries-post-on-university-of-strathclydes-blog-on-the-sc-decision?

This concluding paragraph doesn't just apply to the essayist in question, but basically every Righteous poster we've ever encountered.

What is more disquieting is his approach to a conflict between men’s wishes and women’s privacy, dignity, autonomy and safety which displays a tender empathy for men who want to be women while stereotyping women’s meticulously evidenced objections as feigned or hysterical. Norrie’s call for kindness is in truth a thinly disguised demand for submission.

I see this as a wonderful example of men taking care of each other instead of expecting women to do it for them - well done Wigan Warriors, we need more action like that!

They have put a lot into the women's game too, and just opened a new community stadium for them and the women's football team, weekend training camps for kids of all ages, etc. It's all good stuff.

@Kucinghitamthat is a brilliant article - thanks for that and thank goodness we have brilliant legal minds like hers.

A friend's husband died very recently and she registered his death this week. She told me that one of the questions she was asked during the process was 'Were you pregnant at the time of your husband's death?'. She said she just looked at the woman and said 'I'm 84...' but there was no response.

This world gets weirder all the time.

I want to know what bint said!

I'm not sure what Bint said, but <waves hello to Righteous monitors> 😘

I imagine the Misogynistic Monitors as a drone, painted pink and blue, whirring overhead, occasionally bellowing 'transwomen ARE women!' and 'comply or else!' in a weird fucked up 'lady voice'.

A sensible policy here which, albeit almost accidentally, will disproportionately help women. Edit: Actually that’s probably not fair, although the policy is across the board, it seems that helping to prevent a lot of women going to jail is pretty central to the thinking behind it.

Major backs Labour plan that will spare thousands of women jail

Slashing short prison sentences will help to rehabilitate vulnerable mothers — and protect their children, the Conservative ex-PM says

https://www.thetimes.com/article/d8717ca6-307e-4917-90b9-61c46388a751?shareToken=4e9a8bad126316773c5d0ba132bb515c

It was a comment on Eurovision.

Jeez! What on Earth could have been deletion-worthy about Eurovision?