To whomever it may concern: RE: My Gender Identity Your gender identity isn’t the same as mine. Please respect this important piece of information. It is an objective fact. Whatever yours is, I can guarantee that it isn’t the same as mine. If gender identity is now the
Read moreHere is a selection of some of our best articles contributed by our supporters on what sex and gender really means to women: To whomever it may concern, RE: My Gender Identity Biological Sex Matters Masculine and feminine: we’re all genderqueer Being gender-divergent In a sexist
Read moreWe have written a series of short posts to guide you through some of the basic concepts in feminism and to help explain why modern transgender theory is concerning for some women. tl:dr – The words gender and sex do not mean the same thing! Part 1 – What is
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A quarter of pregnancies miscarry, and most miscarriages happen in public toilets. We wouldn’t need those safer spaces if the world outside the Ladies’ was fully accepting of women’s right to privacy & dignity, of our desire not to be stalked and groped, of our naturally unpolished looks and our hormonally-active bodies. But it isn’t. If we’re to be forced into sharing with males, they’re going to have to wise up and shut up.
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Each of us has our own character and talents. Our character, abilities and actions form our identity. In general, we find that some quirks – like a forceful attitude or delicate movements – come with one sex more than the other. But this is not a hard & fast rule: we all know people with ‘other gender’ qualities. And we each have some of those ourselves! It signifies nothing about being the wrong sex or gender. Every human’s both masculine and feminine – and unique.
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Kay Green explains why she says she’s a transgender woman. Branded a rebel as a girl, Kay never managed to be the kind of young woman other people wanted her to be. She soon realised the real problem was gender, but struggled to find her place. Now aware of her autistic traits and loving her life, she says the women’s movement needs to explain to gender-divergent men and women that you can’t change sex but can change your gender.
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Self-ID: It’s not about you. Well, actually, it is. The proposed new law affects a heck of a lot of people. Unlike gay marriage, it reaches far beyond the personal. The government only requested submissions from transgender representatives – ignoring women’s organisations, disability campaigners, HM Prison Services, healthcare providers and others. Yet, without public consultation, it protected male aristocratic succession from trans ID. So it’s all about them …
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Privilege is relative, but the people with the most of it are male. Catherine Drury looks at what privilege means for women as a class, and what intersectionality means. Should intersectional feminism include men, even if they’ve changed their gender? This is feminism 3!
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What’s the opposite of trans? You’re no longer a woman. You’re cis So yesterday we started by talking about the concept of gender and how we analyze it as a set of rules imposed on the sexes, controlling behaviour and punishing those who attempt to reject its constraints. The gender
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When I was younger I was told women and girls could do anything – no longer restricted, women have broken their chains and the world is their oyster. Those “chains” are sex roles enforced on us by a patriarchal society, with a set of rules that dictate what women are and what they can do. The rules say women are meek, subservient, less intelligent, enjoy menial tasks, want babies, are caring blah blah blah. Men are strong, clever, natural rulers, funny, etc etc etc.
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Scooting through 500 years of British male fashion in search of a reason why men shouldn’t wear lace pants. Social conventions are so powerful, it’s easy to see why most people just accept them, thinking something’s wrong when they don’t fit the expected gender box. Yet it’s all rubbish. Gender varies hugely by country, tradition and by era; this proves it isn’t some kind of natural law. It’s simply that we are taught our culture’s gender rules from the moment we’re born.
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I envied the way boys could pee up walls and really felt as if I was lacking. I tried to pee standing up. Being a boy meant strength, adventure, toughness and vigour; I felt trapped and imprisoned as a girl … Growing up meant loss of freedom, although at twelve I could not articulate that. As my body began changing, I felt a sense of wonder: a deep, but unexpressed, pride and excitement about my maturing female body. Where was the little boy of not long ago?
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Class analysis means looking at what generally happens with people who share a unique set of features. This sometimes confuses people. As a feminist, I might say “men oppress women”, then half a dozen people come along to tell me they know men who’ve never oppressed a female – otherwise known as NAMALT for not all men are like that. It completely misses the point of the analysis.
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Gender identity is the new black. No other recent movement has spiralled as quickly as that which questions ideas around gender and to the confusion of parents, more and more young people are ‘coming out’ as Gender Fluid, Genderqueer, or any one of the numerous new trans identities. Of course, questioning gender is no bad
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On my facebook feed the other night I saw a friend reporting that his two-year-old twins want to be an owl and a sheep respectively. Cue lols and hearts. I clicked on his page; they’d all just been on a half-term trip to a farm. There they were, beaming, with
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Gender sucks. It’s a load of made-up rules about what people must do and what they shouldn’t. It’s based on your biological sex, but it is in no way the same thing. It’s socially enforced through shame: this affects boys/men as well as women and girls, and hits women a
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