Is Jenni Murray right about transgender?

I don't think it's the lack of belief by talented females, I think it's the continuous over promotion of unqualified white men.

LPS, I really appreciate your posts. Very informative and you've helped me clarify my thoughts.

And Yy, to hysteria! When was a man last described as hysterical? And of course it derives from the Greek term hyster, for womb/uterus.

Or a shrill man hater! That one always gets me as most of the feminists I know are mothers and wives, it's so lazy.

As for the accusation of being a bad feminist, I have to disagree with that one. If we rewound this thread a hundred years or so we all know which of use would be advocating for women's right to vote and which of us wouldn't be!

Sue, I think the term was coined as the old medical practitioners thought that the womb used to go for a wander around a woman's body and drive us la la. Now we just get called hysterical and told not to mention wombs as it's transphobic as not all women have wombs!

Omg, really?? Your uterus wandering round your body?? What a thought!

SueDonim, you're now straying into domestic violence, sexual harrassment, inequality, etc just to add weight to your argument that women in the UK are not equal. I am a researcher, and a published book author plus I do another job where I work with women every day.
We have equality. We had it when we got an education and became qualified. That's when we gained our liberty and became emancipated.
OK, granted we are a work in progress but men get paid more because they work longer hours. You're free today to rant your opinions because in two WW wars it was men that stood in the front line and saved Britain. Women stayed away from the front line and in doing so they gained freedom AGAIN because while men were being shot in their 1,000's, women went to work. Their careers took off and they finally had an income and freedom of their own. Meanwhile men lost their freedom while women strode forwards into freedom.
When men returned home after war broken and battered women continued to work and began enjoying a newfound freedom thanks to our men winning the war. This was only 67 years ago and in this time we have achieved more freedom than any other country.

Go and read and history book and be grateful for the sacrifices our men made so you could go on to be free yourself. Anything we haven't got is a mere detail.

That goes for you to LSP. Quit your whining and go and find something useful to do.

To be fair nina it's men who fight and it is also men who start most of the wars around the world too. Toxic masculinity is deeply harmful to both sexes, particularly women and children caught up in the wars that rage cross our globe, women aren't safe in wars or protected, they die in their millions alongside their families.

Wow, Nina1959, that was rude of you. I haven't ranted anywhere.

As for your comment about the two World Wars, they were both caused by men, in case you've forgotten.

And please don't try pulling rank on me. You have no idea who I am or what I have achieved in life.

If by "stop your whining" you mean stop standing up for women and girls then no, I won't.

Blimey, whining, I wish I had printed off my feminist bingo card as I reckon I'd have a full house by now.

Ooooo, I forgot ranted! <marks card>

I've got a space for "rabid," come on, don't let me down now, it's my lucky bingo night.

When you consider the deaths from famine and disease caused by wars, holocaust victims, death by strategic bombing of civilian areas then people who die as infrastructure was knocked out. then there was huge migrations of people who died as they are forced from their homes, men, women, babes in arms. Millions die in war, and are dying still all over the world.

I'm sorry girls but you make me feel ashamed to be female with your comments about men. I'm not going to insult my own intelligence by replying further to either of you. I certainly don't need you batting for my corner of women's rights.

I'm done.

You maybe need 'entitled' and 'snowflake' there, as well, LSP.

I haven't made any derogatory remarks about decent men. I guess you've lost the argument, if you're done, Nina1959.

Could you point out which comment exactly you have found offensive particularly nina. Do you think it's women who cause wars, or do you think we are making stuff up?

I would be more than happy to back up anything that I have stated, I think I have but please tell me if I can clarify anything for you.

So I think for a lot of women, bravery and motivation got them a lot farther if they were prepared to stand up to any obstacles. A lot of women would have bowed down under pressure

In that case, in what way are men and women equal? Do men have the very same obstacles?

nina1959 I love the idea that being a "published book author" bestows some sort of authority. There are quite a few "published book authors" who are members of Gransnet – aren't we blessed?

I am curious about your statement that "men get paid more because they work longer hours". Have you found evidence of this in your research, as this view certainly contradicts government statistics and other reputable sources.

. I am a researcher, and a published book author plus I do another job where I work with women every day.

I cant see how any one of those things, or a combination, automatically makes you right, and others wrong.

absent, so much work that women do is unpaid and undervalued too.

Ankers I'm pretty over this debate but the fact that only 7% of Brits consider themselves feminist says a lot. To think we've made it this far only to be sunk by extreme radicals. Such a shame.

And only 20% in America. Must have been the pink pussy hats that finished them off. Smiles as waves bye.

At the root of this discussion there is something of an unsolvable problem. What exactly does "feeling like a woman" mean? Clearly, it has to mean different things to different people. Somewhere up the thread a poster stated something along the lines of I am a woman and feel like a woman. No doubt she does, but how much does her feeling like a woman match my feeling like a woman or that of any other woman? There is no way of knowing. My body is that of a woman, I am a mother, my lifestyle is that of a woman and my legal status is that of a woman. I have no desire not to be a woman so my feelings about myself are, per se, those of a woman.

When a biological, chromosomal man says he feels like a woman it is difficult to know what he means. That he does not feel like a man is a recognisable feeling, but can he actually feel like a woman or is it simply that "not a man" pretty much has to to translate into "woman". (I know that some have made asexual choices but I think that is different territory.)

The word gender has been hijacked – it was simply a linguistic concept and had nothing to do with sex. Now it has become a personal identity concept that still has nothing to do with sex. It is as if the sexual nature of human beings is being sidelined while at the same time the sexual identity is being highlighted. Can you have one without the other?

I apologise for sounding confused. It is because I am confused. And before anyone starts accusing me of prejudice or being transphobic, I have been very close to a MTF trans throughout his/her entire procedure.

That's the crux of the issue absent, I am an adult human female and have a personality, not a gender.

I fully support anyone who wants to wear any clothes that they like, I welcome it, I think it would be bloody brilliant if men could be feminine.

nina, when women won the vote about 0.00005% of the population ideantified as feminists, didn't make them wrong though.

Men who commit crimes can say they are women and be put in women only prisons?

Ankers, you posted this earlier I think? The answer is yes, happening already, some have had to be moved back to male prisons. There is case in the US, Fort Worth, Texas, where female prisoners are suing as they are having having to shower with men who are very obviously sexually attracted to them. they are being vilified as transphobic and told they should put up and shut up but that can't be right can it? They are all in prison and the women get a double dose of fear and humiliation and male bodied transwomen get their jollies.

Ian Huntley would now like to be known as Lian and moved to a female facility too, though it was in The Sun so could be a load of hooey.

The rapist Lisa Hauxley will be tried as a woman and housed with women.

A man who doesn't feel masculine isn't a woman, he is man who doesn't feel masculine. Women do not have a hive mind or an innate gender though we may share traits we pick up as we are socialised in a similar way. I am sure my woman feeling is very different from Ankers woman feeling, if I can be completely honest the only women feelings I have are tied to my biology, when my body works as it should and when it doesn't.

All the rest is just stuff I like and don't like, most of the same stuff that my husband likes too.

Blimey, maybe he's a woman!