Would this women's social group put you off joining?

[purplestrip]

In my local town there is a group called the town's name girls collective. Its supposedly a social group for women to come along and take part in various activities like running, yoga or crafts as to make new friends. Sounds good right but on their socials they make it very clear that anyone who doesn't think transwomen are women are not welcome and presumably men themselves who imagine they are women are welcome. They also have a whole list of prerequisites of any potential joiner's political views such as being pro-Palestinian, opposed to ICE, pro asylum seeker, pro-refugee to be welcome yourself and that if you ignore the suffering of people in Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan, Iran and Myanmar then the community is not for you. If you think women's spaces should exclude males transwomen then this is not the community for you and so on.

Now for what it's worth I agree with most of their politics but I am gender critical but I also think that not every interaction has to be founded on complete political alignment and that they are actually being quite exclusionary.

Personally I'd be put off attending myself and I wonder how many other women they are driving away with such a confrontational set of requirements. I don't know if they have any males who go to their group but I do think its somewhat ironic that a group set up for women prioritises male inclusion over those of women they don't happen to agree with on everything!

Crikey, no thanks!

It's about creating a safe space for everyone. Sounds great.

If you have different opinions then just don't air them. Be respectful, and there won't be an issue.

Yeah a safe space for men in a woman's group, sounds super safe!

Exactly. A safe space for which women, exactly?

It should be billed as a mixed sex group then.

If I had the talent I'd join a gender critical crafting group (someone has to make those beautiful banners!) but not if they also wanted to dictate my views on a whole load of other unrelated political issues.

The organisers sound like a PITA. If they only want members who 100% agree with them about everything then the atmosphere is likely to be horrible. It sounds like this group is set up by and for "me, my best friend, and some other women (or aspiring women) who we can boss around".

‘Safe’ from possibly coming across people with opinions you don’t like.

Sounds like the organisers need to grow up a bit, that’s a very unhealthy way of being.

They sound insufferable.

And I share most of their views. Maybe crucially the one I don’t share is a need to hang out only with people whose thoughts aren’t going to challenge mine.

This ! Imagine the sanctimonious tyranny and find a funny friend to have cake with instead.

Well, no. By definition, it's about creating a safe space exclusively for people who think exactly like them. In other words, it's very much exclusionary and discriminatory.

Shouldn't you be able to express your views in a safe space? Weird to consider a space safe but have to stay quiet on what you think.

I have no problem with a group like that. It's obviously not a women's group though so presumably crafty men are also welcome?

A group like that is just as divisive and lacking in acceptance, as any right wing group. "If you don't agree with us, you don't deserve to be one of us" is the basic message from both types of exclusionary groups.

I actually agree with much of their opinions, but if go nowhere near them.

I'd avoid. They sound like hard work and quite intolerant.

How can it possibly be a safe space if people are told they aren't welcome if their opinions aren't exactly in line with the group think?

If trans people don't feel 'safe' when they are with people who don't agree with their mindset and worldview, why would anyone else feel safe with people who don't agree with their mindset and worldview?

Adults don't - and shouldn't - need a 'safe' space, if that 'safe space' is interpreted to be 'everyone needs to agree with me or I'll try to control the group and people in it by throwing out anyone who dares to step out of line with me and my Approved Opinions'.

If you can't cope with people having a different opinion to you, then that's a you problem. Time to go to therapy and work on yourself and your own tolerance and resilience.

No this isn't a safe space. You would be walking on eggshells all the time, wondering what opinion you would be asked about is wrong this time.
Because their opinions will come up, why else tell anybody who might want to join what the criteria are.

I like my social groups to be tolerant and welcoming to a wide range of people and backgrounds. So not this one.

It's about creating a safe space for everyone. Sounds great.

Sounds like a creche for Kiddolts.

My local GP surgery, dentist, opticians etc are friendly and polite to my son. They use his name even when his deadname's in front of them.

Some of them might be GC, who knows? But they're polite, respectful and professional toward him, creating a safe space in which he feels able to trust them. That's incredibly important.

Lots of people are quietly racist, homophobic or misogynistic, and view their bigotry as sincerely-held, evidence -based beliefs.They still know not to air those views in public spaces.

Although public transphobia is emboldening them. Enable one bigotry, open the door to the rest.

How do some posters always end up making every thread all about them. 😂

Terrifying group; or more aptly perhaps ; a murmuration of morons.

I would go nowhere near.

We should be allowed to raise things and have critical discussion and debates. Particularly ref Palestine and any discomfort with men, and their penises, donned under a dress within a woman's space.

"If you have different opinions then just don't air them."

I can't quite believe you've said that out loud. What the fuck is wrong with you?

I sometimes wonder how people manage to stand in a bus queue without checking to see if they are standing next to the person with the correct opinions.
I wouldn't go near it and whether I agree with any of it or not is irrelevant to me, I don't believe that things are necessarily improved by making more and more rules and I don't like the idea that if you have the right opinions you can express them but if not you should just shut up. I don't need a collective telling me what to think.

😁

Do you sincerely believe that the owners of that group would never air their own opinions around other members of the group? I highly doubt that.

Being gender critical isn't transphobia or bigotry its a legitimate position backed up by law. Its one thing to be polite to a person but its quite another to prioritise in this case the feelings of men who image themselves to be women over actual women.

Exactly, perhaps that poster is in favour of a sort of Stasi system where we are all reporting on each others wrong think?