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Is JK Rowling pushing the boundaries too far?

(908 Posts)
RosiesMaw Tue 02-Apr-24 13:31:14

digitaleditions.telegraph.co.uk/data/1662/reader/reader.html?social#!preferred/0/package/1662/pub/1662/page/3/article/NaN
Well pigeons, cat and among , but with reference to the particular examples she instances I am team JK.
Scotland is digging a massive hole for itself with regard to so-called “hate crime” and if it wasn’t that 1984 was 40 years ago I’d say it had arrived.

AGAA4 Fri 05-Apr-24 14:21:05

A man's hands are different to a woman's usually but it really doesn't matter whether you can tell or not they are still men.

GrannyGravy13 Fri 05-Apr-24 14:18:52

As for women who identify as men using men’s toilets Glorianny .Unless they have had an operation to manufacture a penis (which going by the photos I have seen look nothing like a penis) they are not going to be using the urinals.

Nor are they posing a physical threat to other men, especially if they have gone through pubity as a female.

If men find the idea of women using their space wrong or intrusive then it is down to them to campaign, after all they are usually exceptionally good at being heard over and above women.

Rosie51 Fri 05-Apr-24 14:14:29

Bonnybanko

Some of you gnetters are talking a load of twaddle

What an interesting, erudite post. Care to enlarge upon what and who is posting "twaddle"?

GrannyGravy13 Fri 05-Apr-24 14:12:23

Which is why at 09.18.29 I posted regarding Adams Apple Shaving Glorianny .

This surgery does leave a tell tale scar.

Rosie51 Fri 05-Apr-24 14:10:03

Glorianny

GrannyGravy13

Glorianny this thread is about men pretending to be women.

If you have a bee in your bonnet regarding black women in sport why not start a thread instead of using the topic as a diversionary tactic as you are unable to get anyone to agree with you.

GG13 I didn't introduce sport if you check back. But isn't it strange how when an unanswerable question is raised someone always chips in to accuse me of derailing or using diversionary tactics. I'm just trying to politely enter into a discussion. Most of which is totally illogical and based on inaccuracies. But I do try to introduce some aspect of reasonability.
I see the question of transmen in the ladies has completely been ignored once again

I see the question of transmen in the ladies has completely been ignored once again

I refer you to my post of 13:03:52 some 56 minutes before yours.

fancythat Fri 05-Apr-24 14:09:32

fancythat

SueDonim

My 2yo grandson has no difficulty knowing men from women. He went through a phase of not liking or engaging with men, not even his daddy. He’d happily chatter away to the female staff in our local supermarket but the transwoman? Nope, they’ll get the cold shoulder from him. Out of the mouths of babes…

Quite.

No one can identify transwomen anyway. Some people may claim they can but really can't. It doesn't matter anyway. Glorianny.

With respect, I think you may need glasses, or better ones.

I am not sure if anyone has asked you the direct question of, "do you really and truly believe that a transwoman is a real woman"?

Since you have not answered the direct question, I am going to assume you dont actually believe it to be true.
Good.
I would have been concerned, if you did actually think it to be true.

Glorianny Fri 05-Apr-24 14:04:00

Incidentally for those trying to recognise transwomen by their Adam's apple, surgery is now available. Oh dear gets more and more confusing doesn't it? newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/surgery-removes-adams-apple-without-scar#:~:text=Although%20there%20are%20several%20gender,

Still as some of you seem happy to let a two year old decide let's go with that. All gender will now be designated by two year olds, It's about as logical as judging you can always be certain who is a transwoman.

Glorianny Fri 05-Apr-24 13:59:15

GrannyGravy13

Glorianny this thread is about men pretending to be women.

If you have a bee in your bonnet regarding black women in sport why not start a thread instead of using the topic as a diversionary tactic as you are unable to get anyone to agree with you.

GG13 I didn't introduce sport if you check back. But isn't it strange how when an unanswerable question is raised someone always chips in to accuse me of derailing or using diversionary tactics. I'm just trying to politely enter into a discussion. Most of which is totally illogical and based on inaccuracies. But I do try to introduce some aspect of reasonability.
I see the question of transmen in the ladies has completely been ignored once again

Bonnybanko Fri 05-Apr-24 13:53:51

Some of you gnetters are talking a load of twaddle

fancythat Fri 05-Apr-24 13:39:13

SueDonim

My 2yo grandson has no difficulty knowing men from women. He went through a phase of not liking or engaging with men, not even his daddy. He’d happily chatter away to the female staff in our local supermarket but the transwoman? Nope, they’ll get the cold shoulder from him. Out of the mouths of babes…

Quite.

No one can identify transwomen anyway. Some people may claim they can but really can't. It doesn't matter anyway. Glorianny.

With respect, I think you may need glasses, or better ones.

I am not sure if anyone has asked you the direct question of, "do you really and truly believe that a transwoman is a real woman"?

Galaxy Fri 05-Apr-24 13:31:51

It would certainly make transmen safer. Which is why they generally are placed in female prisons for example.

Rosie51 Fri 05-Apr-24 13:03:52

therefore of necessity having transmen use the ladies? What necessity? There is absolutely no need to demand transmen use female toilets. If men object to transmen using their facilities (I thought nobody could tell?) then they can campaign to have them banned.

Rosie51 Fri 05-Apr-24 12:58:20

Perhaps a simple cheek smear for ALL athletes above a certain age, male or female, entering high level competitions before being accepted into the appropriate category, would be a fair way of allocating them to the right group.

I agree Elegran, but I wouldn't restrict it to only high level competition. Without the lower levels also being fair you will have females dropping out because they can't compete successfully against males. Maybe at age 12 if entering competitions? It's a one off test that can then record that athlete as their correct sex for any and every future event.

And back to the original question, no JKR isn't pushing boundaries too far. She recognises that transwomen being male are the patriarchy who want to rule over women just as much as the other males. "Feminists" who place male wants over women's needs just support the patriarchy despite their denials. What was the message for so long......Transwomen are women NO DEBATE

In other words to actual women who objected sit down and shut up

Glorianny Fri 05-Apr-24 12:49:56

Doodledog

Glorianny (I won't do nested quotes). It would have been more helpful to have an answer in your own words, but never mind. The legal position says (in summary) that in order to exclude a transwoman from a women's space there has to be a legitimate aim, which must be objectively justified. Both of those terms seem to rely on the Clapham omnibus test, which is not much help on a Friday night in a city pub, which is where my friend was assaulted by a man in the Ladies, in the days when men were not allowed in. As I have said before, it was only because the fact that a man was spotted going in there that the alarm was raised and he didn't manage to rape her.

Also, women's spaces are not protected by that, unless you believe that men can become women just by saying so. How is it ok to exclude men who say they are men from women's spaces but not men who say they are women? Is it all about the magic words?

So basically, there are no protections for women. Transwomen, yes - women, no.

Why can't I identify as a First Class traveller and have access to the FC airport lounges and turn left on the plane? Is it just about the ticket, or is it that having a FC ticket means that the traveller has paid for the privileges, and it would be both unreasonable and unfair to let anyone, regardless of what they'd paid, identify their way in because they fancy it?

Oh dear we're back to the loo in the pub discussion. So how will banning transwomen and making them use the gents and therefore of necessity having transmen use the ladies keep us all safer? I'm fascinated to understand how having people who look like men using our loos will protect anyone. Transwomen of course can happily be thrown to the lions.
I do question when feminism stopped being about changing the system and became about just tinkering with the bits some women don't like.

GrannyGravy13 Fri 05-Apr-24 12:39:28

Baggs

Government is in thrall to pressure groups.

Nail firmly hit on the head 👏👏👏

Baggs Fri 05-Apr-24 12:38:32

Government is in thrall to pressure groups.

Elegran Fri 05-Apr-24 12:24:51

People taking banned drugs as perfectly legitimate medication for a recognised physical ailment are not allowed to compete in competitive sports either, whether they are classed as male or female, so why should trans athletes get a special dispensation?

An athlete born as a woman who deliberately takes testosterone to enhance her training and performance deserves to be banned from competing, and no-one gets into a sweat protesting about it. A man competing against men who does the same thing also deserves to be banned.

Yet currently there are endless examples of a man who has trained for years under his own natural testosterone in a sport where a male physique is a distinct advantage (basketball, for instance) without making much progress in moving up the charts who then decides that he wishes to identify as a woman and compete in that category. He then immediately starts winning medals over competitors who have trained equally hard for equally as long with no chemical enhancement at all and are beginning to see success. His ranking zooms up from mediocre to championship level in record time - and on at least one occasion, he got to stand on a podium for a medal while the totally female competitor who had exactly the same number of points has to stand by and watch !!!!

Throwing in the case of an athlete who has an unsuspected genetic anomaly that means she didn't choose to be using that chemical enhancement doesn't cut it with reference to the ones who did choose. Whatever the source, she is in the same leaky boat as someone whose coach was feeding her testosterone pills and telling her that they were vitamins - she has an unfair advantage over her fellow competitors due to the presence of a banned substance. That is heartbreaking for anyone who has just discovered it, but the regulation is still being broken.

Perhaps a simple cheek smear for ALL athletes above a certain age, male or female, entering high level competitions before being accepted into the appropriate category, would be a fair way of allocating them to the right group. There could be extra groups open to all who preferred not to accept the cheek test, or who were DSD.

Boxers seem to survive having to fight only their peers.

GrannyGravy13 Fri 05-Apr-24 12:23:39

Glorianny this thread is about men pretending to be women.

If you have a bee in your bonnet regarding black women in sport why not start a thread instead of using the topic as a diversionary tactic as you are unable to get anyone to agree with you.

Iam64 Fri 05-Apr-24 12:18:10

Glorianny

Dickens

Rosie51

Glorianny As I said if you don't want to listen to black women that is up to you.
What all of them, they all speak with one voice? Except of course the black women who also don't want to race against males. Are they the wrong sort of black women? That's up to you I suppose. You do speak of black people as if they're unable to accept reality. It's very condescending of you, white female supremacy in action.

Ha Ha! Rosie51

I have weekly visits from nurses - from various ethnicities. Over the years we have chatted, as you do when nurses are coming into your home and establishing a relationship with their patients.

These women, from different ethnicities, are as varied politically, socially, culturally, as anyone else - and they also have their prejudices, like anyone else. We have had very interesting conversations.

So you are absolutely correct. I don't think any ethnic minority speaks with one voice.

The only thing we all agree on is that racism is an evil and ugly, dangerous trait.

Of course they are.
But if that group of women came in one after another and kept saying there was someone or some aspect of the system they disliked because it discriminated against them would you tell them not to be so silly and you knew better?
There are numerous articles by black women athletes and black women journalists that question the way black women are treated in sport. Which apparently you feel free to ignore. because they don't fit your ideas.Why?

Talk about making a row unnecessarily

Callistemon21 Fri 05-Apr-24 12:13:15

Diversionary tactics Rosie51

Or is it called a straw man argument on social media?

Glorianny Fri 05-Apr-24 12:09:03

Dickens

Rosie51

Glorianny As I said if you don't want to listen to black women that is up to you.
What all of them, they all speak with one voice? Except of course the black women who also don't want to race against males. Are they the wrong sort of black women? That's up to you I suppose. You do speak of black people as if they're unable to accept reality. It's very condescending of you, white female supremacy in action.

Ha Ha! Rosie51

I have weekly visits from nurses - from various ethnicities. Over the years we have chatted, as you do when nurses are coming into your home and establishing a relationship with their patients.

These women, from different ethnicities, are as varied politically, socially, culturally, as anyone else - and they also have their prejudices, like anyone else. We have had very interesting conversations.

So you are absolutely correct. I don't think any ethnic minority speaks with one voice.

The only thing we all agree on is that racism is an evil and ugly, dangerous trait.

Of course they are.
But if that group of women came in one after another and kept saying there was someone or some aspect of the system they disliked because it discriminated against them would you tell them not to be so silly and you knew better?
There are numerous articles by black women athletes and black women journalists that question the way black women are treated in sport. Which apparently you feel free to ignore. because they don't fit your ideas.Why?

Doodledog Fri 05-Apr-24 12:08:21

What do you want? Women to prove their biological sex at some check point?
Is that the bingo jackpot prize? It’s a full house!

AGAA4 Fri 05-Apr-24 12:08:16

SueDonim

My 2yo grandson has no difficulty knowing men from women. He went through a phase of not liking or engaging with men, not even his daddy. He’d happily chatter away to the female staff in our local supermarket but the transwoman? Nope, they’ll get the cold shoulder from him. Out of the mouths of babes…

Children see things as they are and we could learn from them. I well remember "Why is that man wearing a dress?"

Glorianny Fri 05-Apr-24 12:04:26

Dickens

Galaxy

Oh and if womens spaces are protected but its impossible to identify sex, then those spaces are meaningless. Say Boris Johnson wants to access a womans changing room, how are we supposed to decide if he can, after all we cant know what sex he is.

Oh and if womens spaces are protected but its impossible to identify sex, then those spaces are meaningless

Yes, quite. The complications that arise from glibly rolling-off this 'fact' are summarily dismissed. Yet the theorising about (as Doodledog says) the finer points of Caster Semenya’s medical records are expounded on, in great detail.

Frankly, I don't know how the legislation could / would work - I'm not versed in legal matters, others are paid to do that work.

So - how are these spaces protected if a TIM is legally allowed to use them? The answer is of course, that they are not.

Which leads me to ponder yet again - why can't transwomen be identified as transwomen - not women, transwomen?

There is nothing wrong with aligning your gender to the opposite sex - or even nonbinary, genderfluid, transgender, gender neutral, agender, and pangender, or whatever-gender.

Your inner sense of belonging defines how you feel, but it does not and cannot alter your chromosomes. It's all perfectly understandable, most of us have that 'inner self' that doesn't necessarily correlate with society's expectations of the way we look or behave.

So, again - why cannot transwomen be recognised for what they are - men identifying as women. Why do we have to pretend that a man who has gone through male puberty - and possibly still has his male genitalia (his "girl dick") has, because of his feelings - become a woman.

The last bastion of womanhood is our biological sex. If a man can remove that principle - then men will have complete control of women. The aggressive stance of TWAs demonstrates quite clearly that this is a power struggle.

I wonder when you last had any real proof of anyone's sex? Can you tell me?
The law is quite clear on identifying single sex spaces and when transwomen even those with a gender recognition certificate can be banned.
What do you want? Women to prove their biological sex at some check point? I for one wouldn't agree to do that nor would many women natal or trans.

Dickens Fri 05-Apr-24 12:01:04

Rosie51

Glorianny As I said if you don't want to listen to black women that is up to you.
What all of them, they all speak with one voice? Except of course the black women who also don't want to race against males. Are they the wrong sort of black women? That's up to you I suppose. You do speak of black people as if they're unable to accept reality. It's very condescending of you, white female supremacy in action.

Ha Ha! Rosie51

I have weekly visits from nurses - from various ethnicities. Over the years we have chatted, as you do when nurses are coming into your home and establishing a relationship with their patients.

These women, from different ethnicities, are as varied politically, socially, culturally, as anyone else - and they also have their prejudices, like anyone else. We have had very interesting conversations.

So you are absolutely correct. I don't think any ethnic minority speaks with one voice.

The only thing we all agree on is that racism is an evil and ugly, dangerous trait.