The new WI equality, diversity and inclusion policy - it’s worse and includes the thought police

[Marmaladelover]

This is the new EDI policy all WIs have to sign and agree .

The last one was bad enough , the new one discriminates against anyone who doesn’t think Transwomen are women. Please note the sentence
We expect all those who engage in the WI movement to uphold the same values.

I am furious! So what to do about it ?

Main bits I disagree with copied below

Our inclusion of transgender women in activities outside of membership is based on our belief that being a woman is about biology and lived experience

One of the objectives

• Highlight and celebrate the diverse membership of the WI, and ensure that our wider movement offers support and fellowship to all women, including transgender women and others.

Aside from WI membership, we offer other ways to engage with the WI movement, locally, regionally and nationally, including being a WI Supporter and belonging to one
of our Sisterhood groups. We expect all those who engage in the WI movement to uphold the same values.

11. Transgender inclusion
The WI is an inclusive, supportive, and progressive organisation that offers different ways to engage in our movement for members and non-members. The WI provides
educational opportunities and the platform to campaign on important issues, whilst celebrating the WI’s long history of trans inclusion, and embracing the sisterhood and
solidarity of our movement.
Transgender women are welcomed to a range of local and national activities that are open to non-members, as well as our national Supporter scheme. Based on the WI’s
history of trans inclusion, we believe that including transgender women in these activities enriches our organisation to ensure we are a place for both biological women and transgender women to celebrate who they are and influence positive change in their communities.

Reputation with whom?

You may be a real person but your first post was written with AI, and I suspect either this one was as well or you are so steeped in an ideological framework your language has become unnatural and you can't even see it.

Why do I say that? Because phrasing like "I'm willing to sit with the discomfort of disagreement" is not the language of a natural reaction, it's the language of catechism and rehearsed responses. Do you realise that?

Like many women here, my journey started with accepting trans people's self narratives at face value. It was the process of examining my own views that lead me to the uncomfortable recognition that beliefs that I emotionally wanted to hold as true could not in fact be true, were in fact rooted in exactly the sexism that I was so conscious of in other areas of my life. So please do not patronisingly assume no one here has the insight to question ourselves sinply because we drew different conclusions to you.

So yes, I am happy to engage with you honestly exactly because I do examine my own beliefs, my own arguments, my own conclusions again and again. I do ask myself "why do I believe this? Is it just lack of insight, unrealised prejudice? Am I in fact the bad guy?" because this is the only way one can grow and learn.

But before I do, please search my username and read some of my longer posts. I have been here a long time. You will see plenty of evidence of the above and also far more nuance than I suspect you expect of the boogeymen you think you are talking to.

You asked me to ask you a question. Here is one.

[Your daughter] transitioned because her relationship to her body was unbearable in a way that had nothing to do with personality or interests or ways of thinking. She's still the same person she always was. She just isn't in constant distress anymore.

Do you believe there is anything meaningful and objective that connects female people to your male child's self image? If so, what is it and how does it change how female people must think understand ourselves and our own identity? Or if not, if you are happy to "sit with the discomfort" of totally unconnected groups of people simply using the word woman to label unrelated things, by what argument does this second group, the male women, claim the rights, history, cultural spaces and narratives of the first?

If [s]he is still the person [s]he always was and [s]he is male, in what way are you not saying womanhood is of the mind not the body?

Sexism isn't just stupidity like girls like pink, it's anything that reduces the breadth and possibility of humans because of social or personal assumptions or expectations applied tp our body.

Are you able to sit with the discomfort of acknowledging your own sexism? Are we "the same" as your male child because of something in his mind, or are we not particularly the same, but nevertheless expected to subjugate our own self image to acomodate his, place our needs and self knowledge as women secondary to his comfort as a male who nevetheless wishes to be named as a woman?

I feel that anyone who doesn't believe that some men are really women will break the code because they are expected to believe that they are. Look at what's happened in universities and the nastiness of some activists and ask if that should be part of WI values when no one has asked the membership what they think before they make the change.

The law says a woman is a biological description. The WI seem to be sneakily trying to overrule that if you want to be in their gang.

You're telling me that forcing women's organisations against their will to exclude trans women hasn't suddenly made them all hate trans women??

It's almost like forcing people to be exclusionary against their will doesn't work!

What about the lived experience of a woman who's been a victim of rape or domestic violence and wants to be in a female only space? Is this not important to the Cyber-WI? (With apologies to Doctor Who's creatures whose motto is 'you will be like US.'

They expect women to make some sort of anti scientific profession of faith, and pretend it has some basis/ link to science. Is it legal to only include women who state they hold and support the same anti scientific beliefs?

‘Lived experience’ really annoys me. No male person can have a ‘lived experience’ of being a woman. All they can do is cosplay their toxic stereotypes of femininity - skirts, make up, sparkles, heels, pink, coyness, submissiveness, long hair etc. None of those make them female or women.

WI members don’t hate men, they just want to be in a club that doesn’t have any men in it

newsflash: even men who really feel like women are men. They don’t belong in the WI

If that was true, then your comment would have been deleted. I know it's hard to get your head round this, but we don't have to agree with you or think that a man who says he is a woman is brave, daring, beautiful or anything else. They may be, but then again, they may not, and the same goes for women.

Yes, that's the WI transmaidens in a nutshell too: I want these men to access women because it's what they want and it makes them happy; but at the same time I want to be a good feminist. If I can convince myself to redefine what 'woman' means then I can do both at the same time.

I hope your daughter is going well amongst all this. Transition saved my life and turned me from an isolated and depressed boy into the confident and outgoing woman I am today. Supporting your daughter is so important and I know how much it will mean to her.

This place doesn't care how much it benefits your daughter to be the person she truly is, the people here only care about their existing ingrained prejudice against trans people's existence.

Reddit. Reddit has a tantrum about women speaking for themselves and being allowed to have an opinion which they can't ban.

Men who feel like they're women don't belong in the WI, but that's got nothing to do with trans women who absolutely do belong in the WI.

If you want a group that excludes certain women, why don't you go from it yourself instead of trying to force other women to do what YOU want?

I think it's the tone in which the homilies are being delivered that annoys me the most.

I understand the frustration. When an organisation we love seems to be telling us what we must think, it stings.

It's like they're talking to six year olds, in baby language 🤢

Unless of course that opinion is being pro-trans in which cause TERFs like to use lawfare and threats of legal action to force those women into submission

Women are not free thinking sentiment humans capable of forming their own opinions. They have to be told what they have to think.

We are already going back decades with this attitude alone.

When women do try to create groups that are just for biological women, @ATranssexualWoman, they get protesters throwing stones, insults and threats. We are not allowed to have single sex rape crisis counselling groups and counsellors, even though gender neutral services already exist.

Human beings cannot change sex, so no, trans women do not belong in the WI.

"Men who feel like they're women don't belong in the WI, but that's got nothing to do with trans women who absolutely do belong in the WI"

What’s the difference between these two categories of men? Do tell...

Another thread being dominated by men, they do it so well.

‘Transwomen’ are men who feel like women. They don’t belong in the WI. Just leave women alone for pity’s sake!

Sorry? If you look again you'll see that I agree with you and as I said before their is nothing in a trans identifying males "lived experience" that is remotely female or related to real women. Essentially either something is for women only i.e. actually female or if it insisted on admitting males who choose to identify as women then its mixed sex admitting both men and women.

I agree that women for any reason but especially those who have been victims to male violence and abuse should be able to rely on organisations like the WI not to throw them under a bus to appease the dubious desires of a certain group of men.

I think the ‘existence’ cliche has been covered.

Nobody is doubting that you live in this world, but as a biological male we see you as male. You see yourself as a woman, ok, and that for you is how you live your life. But you can’t demand that recognition from me. The Supreme Court has also clarified that your biological sex is what matters as regards what a woman is.

I know you’re offended that I don’t agree that you’re a woman. Maybe I’m offended when I see a man in my female changing room? Or when I see ‘cervix haver’ on a card in my local hospital? Or Eddie Izzard queuing in the female toilets? But my feelings don’t count, cause I’m just a woman.

I wonder if some men really believe they change into women? I mean I could say that I have changed into a beautiful sheltie. That it has changed my life and given me peace of mind. It would just be in my own mind though. No magic can in truth transform a person’s sex or species into something else. Maybe I just can’t lie to that extent. Or am unwilling to. I know some can go along with a falsehood due to inherent dishonesty, or even think they are kind by doing so.

Of course, we don’t know the wider intent or end game of many who promote men going into women’s spaces. I suppose there comes a point where you are quite wary of the intentions of the men who want to actively be in women’s spaces. Irrespective of superficial or cosmetic attire. Maybe that is just me. Considering that there are many other men who woudn’t dream of transgressing women’s boundaries by doing that. Cutting through the bull of men going ‘me, me, me feel so good’. You just think ‘yeah dude, I don’t doubt you’re getting something out if it alright’.

lol don't be daft

trans women are men otherwise they'd just be women wouldn't they?

I'd like to know this too. Exactly what is the difference between a man who feels he's a woman and a trans identifying man? No-one has been able to give specifics beyond their feelings and perceptions.