Wonderful Bodies Connected Communities

[IwantToRetire]

This workshop will bring together cis women who have undergone breast surgery (due to cancer, or other health reasons) and trans and non-binary individuals (including those who do or do not undertake gender-affirming surgeries or hormone therapy). It will be a fun, safe, brave, explorative space. The main activity will be ‘body mapping’ where participants, if they wish, lie on big pieces of paper on the ground, on which an outline of their bodies is drawn. Participants then fill in their outline with pictures or words about feelings and experiences, which they can share with the group if they wish. Body mapping is followed by discussion on connections and differences between the two groups.

Full event listing at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wonderful-bodies-connected-communities-tickets-1999775422120

First reactions?

I’m in

And potentially a third group: males who feel that their sadness about having flat chests is in some way equivalent to the sadness felt by women who have flat chests due to cancer surgery.

This workshop is a sick concept. It’s basically using women as support humans and validation props . Not just any women, either. The organisers should be ashamed of themselves.

The more the activists try to make the logical end points of trans ideology normalized and force team it with women who genuinely have had life changing experiences requiring procedures like mastectomies etc, the more they in fact show up how far out of the scope of anything that could be called normal trans ideology is.
To think that you can put a woman who's had to lose her breasts for necessary reasons next to a woman who's chosen to lose her breasts because she's been told that's consistent with a fantasy, and consider the situations as equivalent, is barking mad.
Then again, trans ideology and the belief that gender temperament trumps biological sex <is> barking mad.

A disgusting forced teaming.
If the 2 'cis' women who have lost their breast because of a killer disease think they have something in common with a 'trans' who's presumably chosen to have her tits chopped off because she mistakenly thinks it will make her a man, then they're pathetic.
Perhaps they're attempting to deal with the trauma of a very frightening situation, if so it's a maladaptive coping mechanism.

https://forum.breastcancernow.org/t/commonalities-with-trans-non-binary-people/142231

'After diagnosis with DCIS, a mastectomy, and becoming a uniboober, I met up with a trans friend who also turned out to be a uniboober. They were taking hormones hoping to grow two breasts, but unexpectedly, just one grew. We helped each other feel good about our atypical bodies.
Although having cancer is completely different from being trans, we found we had a few things in common. For example, our bodies don’t fit with ideas about what is ‘normal’ for our gender. Cancer reducing and gender affirming interventions sometimes involve similar surgeries or hormone treatments. We are all trying work with health care systems that don’t always meet our needs. etc. And of course some people with breast cancer are trans/non-binary.'

archive.ph/ebDD8

'The workshop will be facilitated by a three-person team. One of us is trans, two of us are cis women who have had mastectomies.'

Is the 'trans' facilitator the man referred to in the post above?

This same workshop ran last year.

forum.breastcancernow.org/t/transgender-cis-women-mastectomy-sharing/137693

I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, I do think it is a bit daft, and possibly an example of forced teaming between fundamentally different bodily challenges. And, coming from the parasitised Feminist Library it does seem reasonable to think of it as possibly co-opting a specifically female challenge (mastectomy) to perform certain male bodily preoccupations.

But on the other hand, it is completely voluntary for all participants, and perhaps the women, as well as the men, feel some benefit from a joint exploration of different barriers to bodily self-acceptance. Yes, it all sounds a bit silly, but if the participants find it helpful, is there any harm? I guess I just don't feel very comfortable with mocking other people's choices. People do all sorts of things that others find daft.

My suggestion would be that if the 'trans' facilitator is a male, who is participating because his hormone treatment didn't go according to plan, this should be made very clear. It's presented as if it's a workshop for women, and the assumption from posters on here is that the 'trans' presenter is female who has had her breasts removed. It's quite possible it's a man.

A woman who has been through a traumatic experience deserves to be given clear, factual information so she can decide if she wants to attend.

So, yes, it's voluntary, but why is the information so coy? Why no mention of the 'trans' facilitator's sex? Consent is only consent when its informed.

Thanks for the info, I did assume the 'trans' was a woman who had had her breast removed, the fact that it might be a man makes it even more revolting, more fool any woman who goes to this. All the sympathy for the 2 'cis' women has now disappeared.

Well, we don't know. It could be anyone.

The workshop will be facilitated by a three-person team. One of us is trans, two of us are cis women who have had mastectomies.

Two women. One person who we are only told is 'trans'.

My concern is if a woman assumes it's all female, and goes along and there's a bloke there, will she feel comfortable? Will she feel able to leave?

Workshop 'will bring together cis women who have undergone breast surgery (due to cancer, or other health reasons) and trans and non-binary individuals (including those who do or do not undertake gender-affirming surgeries or hormone therapy)'

Those 'individuals' could be anyone. Any bloke with a creative gender identity.

Which, okay, fine. It's mixed sex. But it's presented in a misleading way.

Why not say it's for everyone?

It sounds in implication as if the women with breast surgeries are required for those with trans identities who may or may not wish to engage in surgery. It specifically states 'cis women' with breast surgery 'brought together' with people with trans identities.

The next obvious question would be why.

And my cynicism here comes from exactly what Arabella says - why is this simply not for everyone with unusual/surgery affected bodies if that is the actual focus and purpose and it is something positive in this way?

Why is it so very specifically the two very labelled groups, with those labels being so important?

Indeed. Women who have undergone breast surgery/removal due to traumatic history, and men who have other reasons for focussing on breast growth or lack thereof.

Lots of deletions today.

I wonder if the workshop organisers are reading the thread?

YOUR EVENT SOUNDS CREEPY. IF IT’S MIXED SEX THEN SAY SO

just in case, yanno?

It's voluntary - no-one's being forced into attending or taking part so it's not something I can get particularly agitated about. Live and let live!

Kind of. I mean the whole thing sounds awful so if you go then on your own head be it to an extent. But if the ‘trans’ organiser is a man then I could see attendees suddenly feeling obliged to be semi naked and or vulnerable in the presence of a man when they didn’t expect to be and don’t want to be.

As I said, if they were clear who the facilitators were/are and who was participating, then fine.

But this is far from clear. As far as I can tell, it's one bloke and two women facilitating, and it's open to

'cis women who have undergone breast surgery (due to cancer, or other health reasons) and trans and non-binary individuals '

Why only women who've undergone breast surgery? Why not anyone who has 'bodies don’t fit with ideas about what is ‘normal’ for our gender'? What about men with gynaecomastia?

Put it another way, who is excluded from this event?

Because it looks like they're trying to make it for 'women and men who say they are women'.

Which as we know, the Supreme Court judgment expressly dealt with.

Well, that sounds absolutely dreadful.
I can't imagine they'll get many takers, but I suppose there are always a few women who are eager to virtue signal their loyalty to the trans ideology, at the cost of their self-respect.