Boss sent me GT video and now seething

[TotesLegit]

so something happened at work this lunchtime and Im absolutely seething 😡😡😡

there was a discussion at our workplace about the bathrooms and labeling. i get all my information from MN so have been very clear that transwomen are not women because its basic actual science!!! 🙄

at lunchtime my boss sent me an email with a link to this video of some lefty looney and asked me to watch it its only short so I did and am furious at what my boss is implying and attacking my views and the view of science!

to save you having to watch the whole thing the bits that are most offensive is a reference to , the fact the Cambridge bloody dic has a defintion of woman that , the suggestion that people like us just want to be the center of our , and most insulting of all is the suggestion that we are anti-trans because our sense !

what i want to do is reply to my boss and quit but that seems like hes won and my opinion counts for nothing! 😡😡😡

AIBU?

sorry for the video appearing so many times but i dont know how to make it stop and only show the links!!!

still absolutely fuming at this ridiculous woman. in the second video she says 'the basic point is you are not born a woman but become one'! utter rubbish! and dangerous rubbish! does this person know nothing!? how are they a 'professor'!? im so ready to quit this job or take my boss to tribunal for sending me this 😡

You speak to hr

damn right i will!

In the first instance I think you email back and say that you’re quite offended. Thats it. Then see what happens next

Speak to HR and find out if his views reflect the companies. He has no right to relabel as per his beliefs if that's not the companies view, nor to pull you up on your beliefs. Unfortunately quite a few places want to avoid the issue altogether by making all the toilets unisex.

Ah, Butler again. The go to Prof of the terminally captured. All word soup and no facts.

I'd say to HR you were offended as it feels that your views, which are worthy of respect in a democratic society (cite Forstater) were being attacked and that this has made you feel unsafe in the workplace.

If I were feeling bold.

Your born a female child, your entire life is what makes you a woman.

Commiserations on your twattish boss.

In your email to HR I'd make it clear that you don't want to engage in any kind of ideological debate, that you understand that everyone brings their own perspective to issues like this and you are willing to be respectful and tolerant of differing beliefs but expect the same courtesy from other people. The Supreme Court ruling has made it very clear that single sex spaces must be exactly that and you would like some reassurance that the company will be complying with the law.

You get all your information from Mumsnet?? You might want to broaden your horizons.

Who's Simone de Beauvior (sic) ?

From the video, about The Second Sex: "The basic point is that one is not born a woman, but rather becomes one, that the body is not a fact. She opened up the possibility of a difference between the sex you're assigned and the sex you become."

GEE, I WISH!!! In fact, I daresay that all trans people wish that were true! All those of us who knew from childhood that there is a discrepancy between what we feel and what we see, sure wish we could have become the other sex somehow. But guess what? It's not possible. No amount of wishing, of living like the other sex, of taking hormones or having surgeries done, will ever erase the fact that there is NO difference "between the sex we're assigned and the sex we become." I was born female, I grew up to be female, I am female now, and I will die female.

As for "changing society": that's not a good thing in and of itself. Some proposed changes are good and should be supported. Some proposed changes are bad and must be countered. Just because someone proposes a change, doesn't mean it should be accepted mindlessly. It should be examined on its own merits - and not on the merits of other changes it tries to attach itself to. LGB is not T; trans rights are not another form of LGB rights.

"One problem is that many people who refuse to allow trans people to define themselves is that they feel that their own self-definition is destabilised. The idea that we can change reality, transform reality to be more open, inclusive, just less violent - there's an instability in that that's very frightening to people who want to understand their genders as fixed."

Right. Because gender critics are famously about enforcing genders. Also, great use of the confusion between gender and sex: it's not about genders being fixed; it's about sexes being fixed.

I understand why you're so pissed, OP. I wouldn't know where to start if I were in your position 😡

in the second video she says 'the basic point is you are not born a woman but become one'!
Kind of correct though as women are born girls who then become women. It's yet another spin to catch people out.

What is the reasoning behind the boss sending you the video? Was it as your boss discussing work business (therefore HR should possibly be involved) or as an acquaintance carrying on a lunch time discussion?

Your boss should no more be dictating that you watch that than a Ku Klux Klan video.

Butler completely misrepresents Simone de Beauvoir. No surprises there.

Really, your boss sounds like a total idiot. I agree with PPs that managers should not be trying to force their own political views on staff, any more than they should be forcing their religious views on staff. And your view is legally protected under the Equality Act. So a word with HR is very much in order.

As others have pointed out, SdB was not offering a lazy gotcha for delusional men of the future (despite what they claim) but pointing out that one is born female, but not intrinsically feminine: you're socialised into that behaviour because of the sex you're born into.

And BossTwat can send all the videos he likes, but HR has to act on the basis of the Supreme Court ruling, which unaccountably didn't seem to go with Judith Butler's interpretation.

Thanks for posting this film. I’ve heard of Judith Butler but never read/listened. I wonder if your boss understands how offensive some of the video is? It’s got a professor, much of what she says is well reasoned and balanced. Also nice production and music. So it must be ok - right? Well no.

Firstly the conflation of sex and gender. Did your boss notice the switch from reasonable fact based observation to interpretation? The quote about Simone de Beauvoir - the difference between the sex you are and the sex you become. Having just said sex and gender two things it’s a bit disingenuous to then mix them up again using the words of someone who was grappling with gender theory at an earlier stage when ideas were less well defined? Maybe your boss didn’t spot that? It would be interesting to know - presumably you both agree that while gender can be fluid that sex is not?

And then the dictionary definition quoted is definitely not balanced. Does your boss agree that the definition of Man includes anyone who says they are a man? Even if they are a goat who lived all their life as a man?

If you can tackle it gently you might be able to start a peaking… your boss may be well meaning but - like me until a few months ago - completely unaware of how words are being twisted to change meaning?

Even if you don’t peak them then at least they might understand that quiet people find this stuff very offensive

Did your boss send this as a social thing (you might be interested in this since our discussion) or as your boss (please watch this as part of your mandatory diversity training)?

If it was social I'd just pretend that I hadn't got round to it yet. Forever.

If it was work, ask what policy this training falls under and what you're required to do as a result.

I'm quite intrigued by a workplace that circulates philosophical videos after lunch break for better informed discussion. Shades of Victoria Wood.

I would speak to HR and say that I feel my boss shouldn't be pushing his beliefs on me since beliefs are a protected characteristic and my beliefs don't align with his.

Yes, this is actually. She must be turning in her grave at her words and ideas being so deliberately and maliciously distorted.

You could respond with a detailed critique or simply say 'thank you, I have viewed the video but I disagree with the speaker'. I don't think you can take your boss to a tribunal just for asking you to watch a video in work time, even if the content is nonsense.

She is correct. No one is born a woman. We are born babies, born females.

Woman = Adult Human Female.

Adult.

Another famous Simone dB quote is:

‘No one is more arrogant towards women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility’

i got sent this for speaking out against my works policy of toilets. they have said that trans people can use the toilets of the gender they identify with. which is not only mad because transwomen are men but we dont actually have any trans people in the company!!!

when i spoke out against this in our team meeting i was quickly shouted down and during my lunch my boss emailed me that video. 😡

now i have calmed down i don't think a tribunal is needed and i will sit on this instead and write a polite but firm email back tomorrow.

Well, this is now illegal and if they tried to censure you for pointing it out they would open themselves up to a whole world of litigation.

I think my email would simply be

Dear boss

Can you please explain why you sent me this video?

kind regards