A man is deeply worried
But…it’s the Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill. It’s a bill about maternity. What can it possibly have to do with men who call themselves women? Men can call themselves women until they run out of breath but it will never make them able to get pregnant. Why is a man talking about a maternity bill in terms of “defamation” of trans women?
… said no transwoman seeking access to women’s safe spaces, ever.
I’m not familiar with Michael Cashman, but his profile photo suggests he’s gay. If he were then to stick to his own issue, he’d have to apply this statement to the Religious Right and their claim to have a “right” to maintain marriage as between one man and one woman. Must not sacrifice their right for his. Can’t look any deeper than that, because he’s not looking any deeper now.
Yeah, easy for men to “be concerned” about transwomen. They will lose nothing from transwomen forcing themselves into women’s spaces. They may even gain, by putting those ‘uppity’ women in their place.
And the fact that a bill about maternity brought up so much concern about transwomen is telling when they like to pretend this is all about the pretend ‘fact’ that men can have babies too. It makes it obvious that the only real issue here is transwomen who are, after all, men. And who have no stake in this bill at all, because they will have no need of maternity leave, except in some blissful utopian imagination where trans ‘women’ can have a fully functional uterus implanted and carry babies.
Are they complaining about the word “maternity” in the title of the bill? Because clearly that’s transphobic, right? They should change it to “parents with uterus allowances bill”.
(Aside: I see I get the red dots of doom under “transphobic”. Apparently spellcheck isn’t woke.)
Probably more like “Birthing Parent Bill”, though they might as well call it the “Fuck Off Women Bill”.
I don’t know about the red dots of doom; they may just be marking you as transphobic, letting you know how awful you are. I get it too, but that is not conclusive, since I am also one of those awful people who do not believe girls have penises (or women, either).
Sastra, Cashman, the one on the right in his profile pic, is a gay British former actor turned politician and now a member of the House of Lords. His biggest acting role was as an openly gay character in the soap opera Eastenders in the 1980s, and his character was the first to have an on-screen gay kiss in a British soap. He is also one of the founders of Stonewall along with the reprehensible Peter Tatchell.
He has done a lot of good work on equality and LGB rights over the years but has now gone the way of so many others in switching to centering the T in everything.
Indeed. Trans identified females are really only useful to TIMs insofar as their demands for “inclusive” language help to reduce women’s ability to name themselves and talk about things exclusively female. The point of the exercise is erasure. “Inclusion” is a smokescreen. If fewer people believe that “men can give birth” than “TWAW,” that’s okay. The latter is the more important of the two, as the “concerns” of Cashman make clear, as iknklast points out.
It’s a two pronged attack: expanding the definition of “woman” to include those who are not, and replacing words, including “woman” itself that describe exclusively female attributes, features, or experiences. The result? women no longer have words to describe and organize around their experiences as women. By confusing just who is and is not a woman, or female, men get to demand to be “included” and women are not allowed to use their own words to complain about it. Not that this is likely to really transpire, as most women already know there are many things that are far worse than being called a “transphobe.”
Yet Mr. Cashman is right there, happily sacrificing the rights of real women in order to make his fellow men happy. Guess Mr. Cashman sees us real women as non-humans.
No shit, Sherlock. Your rights aren’t under threat, only women’s rights. It doesn’t cost me anything to give rights to women. It doesn’t cost me anything to give rights to transfolx.
In fact, it didn’t cost me anything to get my rights; I was granted them simply by being born male / a penis haver / AMAB / or whatever other “name” you dream up.
Not so for my female friends, they have to fight for every crumb that falls from our table. Until their seat at the table is as high as mine, until their plate is as big as mine, until they can sit with fine wine while someone else cooks and waits on them, their fight is not over. And their fight is not Tran’s fight. It is theirs and theirs alone.