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Supreme Court makes ruling on definition of Woman

Amity Island said:
Do you ever get the feeling we are being divided? Whether it's Brexit, lockdowns, vaccines, net zero, gender, sex, climate change, tax, working from home, virtual relationships, human rights, race etc we seem to be in constant turmoil. To me it feels like despite people doing things with best intentions, there is a push to create tension and strife. Farage said the other day that China bought British steel to shut it down. In times past, wars were fought with physical battles, nowadays it feels like the country is being destroyed from within.
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It does seem that way, but then I'm old enough to have grown up in a simpler world.
 
Amity Island said:
I was contemplating about this last night. I was thinking as spiritual beings where our bodies are simply vessels which carry our soul, spirit and consciousness, how does one feel or get a sense of being a man or woman? I don't wake each day thinking I'm a man or I'm a woman. Is this sense of "being" a man or "being" a woman an innate feeling or is this sense given to us via cultural conditioning? How does one know if you feel like a man or a woman? If we were born in a field with no memories of anything, with nobody in sight, would we be sat there thinking I'm a man or I'm a woman?
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Our sex is realised by us in infancy. I am a woman because I have a female body. I am reminded of my sex most days though, simply because men and women are treated differently. My sex also makes me make different decisions, eg not walking by myself at night, not going alone to isolated areas. I probably share feelings with other women but also with men. There’s no one way to be a woman. We are a multitude of different feelings. A woman is simply a female human being.

Women are discriminated against on the basis of sex, which is why this judgement is an important one.
 
Inka said:
Our sex is realised by us in infancy. I am a woman because I have a female body. I am reminded of my sex most days though, simply because men and women are treated differently. My sex also makes me make different decisions, eg not walking by myself at night, not going alone to isolated areas. I probably share feelings with other women but also with men. There’s no one way to be a woman. We are a multitude of different feelings. A woman is simply a female human being.

Women are discriminated against on the basis of sex, which is why this judgement is an important one.
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You've reminded me, Inka, that a colleague of mine has pointed out that women are entitled (if they want to) to celebrate this 'victory' (including drinking alcohol in public, if they want, which of course has been criticised), without feeling that they have to put aside their own feelings to show empathy for another oppressed group.

The reality is that women and trans people are all threatened by cis men, so it's the job of cis men (such as me) to enable women and trans people to feel safe: women don't threaten (physically or sexually or in any other way) trans people.
 
Yes, we’re absolutely entitled to celebrate @CliffH :party: I don’t think people realise the **** women have been through to assert our rights nor the attempts at erasing us as a sex group, not to mention the threats.

You’re right that we don’t have to think about other people all the time, but part of gender says we do. Women are the sandwich-makers, bum-wipers and feelings-soothers of the whole world. As an example, if trans women don’t feel safe in male toilets, that’s a problem for men to solve not women. (Which reminded me of a good book I read: Invisible Women about how the world is designed round men.)

Good luck with solving the problem of male violence! That’s a far bigger topic than I have time for now!
 
Inka said:
Yes, we’re absolutely entitled to celebrate @CliffH :party: I don’t think people realise the **** women have been through to assert our rights nor the attempts at erasing us as a sex group, not to mention the threats.

You’re right that we don’t have to think about other people all the time, but part of gender says we do. Women are the sandwich-makers, bum-wipers and feelings-soothers of the whole world. As an example, if trans women don’t feel safe in male toilets, that’s a problem for men to solve not women. (Which reminded me of a good book I read: Invisible Women about how the world is designed round men.)

Good luck with solving the problem of male violence! That’s a far bigger topic than I have time for now!
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I think that all men have a part to play in reducing male violence. For example, a colleague pointed out today that I was guilty of 'mansplaining'. I was mortified: like many men, I suspect, I thought, "I don't do that".

However, I have to accept that sexism is something that I (as a man in his 60s) grew up with and that it's hard for me to discard it completely, however much I might reject it intellectually. So, all men can and need to do more to reduce our own microaggressions and avoid the complacency of thinking, "It's not all men".
 
Thanks for your support @CliffH A friend sent me these tweets and it reminded me of your comment that women should be allowed to celebrate:

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Well that’s clearly wrong @Merluza as trans women don’t need maternity protection. More than that, the exemptions of the EA make clear the need for single sex spaces. I’m sad that you and others value women so little. I suggest you read the judgement.
 
Inka said:
Our sex is realised by us in infancy. I am a woman because I have a female body. I am reminded of my sex most days though, simply because men and women are treated differently. My sex also makes me make different decisions, eg not walking by myself at night, not going alone to isolated areas.
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Hi Inka,

I am trying to establish where this "sense" of feeling "like" a woman/man comes from. If it is as simple as your sex, then if one is born a woman, then you must feel like a woman, then how do we account for trans people?

Is this sense an innate feeling, irrespective of those around you and culture etc. Is it a contextual thing, felt simply because of what others are doing , how they dress and behave?

I'm trying to pin down where this sense of one's sex comes from and you are the only person I can ask. Such discussions are essentially banned in offices and the like across the UK, due to people looking to be offended.
 
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Gender (sex) dysphoria exists @Amity Island People like my trans women friends felt disgust and discomfort at their male bodies. Why? I suppose it’s similar to other conditions related to bodily dysphoria. I know from speaking to them, how much it affected them.

However, recently the trans umbrella has been widened to include all kinds of trans people. In addition, the term ‘transsexual’, which is how both my friends refer to themselves was changed to transgender. This transgender umbrella also included people who were previously referred to as transvestites. Recently, it has also included people who wish to identify as trans due to various other reasons.
 
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