Secret briefings
Wait, who was unreasonable here?
Sandie Peggie’s legal team says it is seriously concerned about the content of secret briefings for SNP ministers prepared by NHS Fife and uncovered by The Herald.
Confidential correspondence between the board and the Scottish Government, obtained through freedom of information, contains unredacted details about the nurse, including references to her occupational health appointments and other internal employment matters.
The documents outline NHS Fife’s account of events surrounding the employment tribunal and seek to reassure ministers that the board acted appropriately throughout.
In them, the board suggest Ms Peggie’s “personal circumstances” may have “contributed to the incident” and that the nurse should have had the “skills and knowledge to de-escalate or remove herself from this situation”.
Excuse me? Why is it on her to have “skills and knowledge” to de-escalate the presence of an enormous man in the room where she needs to take off her bloodstained clothes? She was not the aggressor here; he was. Just think: if he had had the skills and knowledge to take his ass out of that room the instant she asked or told him too, this whole tribunal would have been unnecessary.
NHS Fife argues that while Ms Peggie is entitled to her belief that Dr Upton is male, the way in which she confronted her colleague was unreasonable in a workplace setting, and that it was therefore reasonable she was suspended and investigated.
Right. And by the same logic, if he had assaulted her, that too would have been her fault. She’s the powerful privileged person here and huge tall burly posh man is the cowering terrified underdog. What happened to good old intersectionality? Remember when that was a thing? Peggie is the underdog on every metric and Upton is very much the overdog on every metric. How does NHS Fife get away with reversing the under/over positions?
To put it another way, why wasn’t it his presence in the women’s locker room that was “unreasonable in a workplace setting” as opposed to Peggie’s objection to his presence there?
We’ll never be told.
Wasn’t her leaving whenever he entered part of the complaint? In other words, removing herself from the situation was part of the problem *and* part of the solution in their eyes.
Mike, when it comes to TERFery (real or perceived), there is only one right answer for a woman. Smile, do whatever she came in to do, and admire the penis he insists on swinging around, noting what a great ‘girl penis’ it is. There is no other way a woman can react without being ‘unreasonable’. I’m surprised they didn’t accuse her of hysteria.
The fact that Upton didn’t have the “skills or knowledge” to not enter the women’s changing room in the first place shows he’s a predator who, in other circumstances (i.e. sans claims of a supposed “gender identity”) WOULD HAVE BEEN ARRESTED.
Yes, Peggie was supposed to be there/not there simultaneously . She was supposed to be Schrödinger’s Woman.
The important thing is, whatever choice she made, she would be in the wrong, despite her inability to both be and not be somewhere at the same time. This is just a continuation of the foundational narrative of Upton’s blamelessness. All of the impositions, contradictions, impossibilities, and outrageousness were someone else’s fault, not his. He was always and ever, completely innocent, just minding his own business, doing what management was encouraging him get away with.
Upton needed Peggie’s continued presence to “validate” his “womanhood.” (That goes towards establishing the fact that he’s a predator who knows he’s not female.) He felt entitled to force his presence on women. But if they then leave, this ruins his fantasy that he’s just “one of the girls.” He can’t stage his play if the props aren’t available for his use. He doesn’t want his own facilities, he wants theirs, but it doesn’t count if they run away. Women’s avoidance turns any facility he uses into an unacceptable, invalidating “third space.” So they’re obligated to stick around for his performance of womanhood. Upton belongs in women’s spaces. He’s not the one who has to leave if anyone objects to his presence. They have to give way to him because trans. So it was Peggie’s responsibility, if she felt distressed, embarrassed, or threatened, to exit. But that would rob Upton of Peggie’s “validating” presence, depriving him of his management-sanctioned, state mandated, captive audience, thereby violating his “right” to “affirmation.”