Always been always will be

Comments

11 responses to “Always been always will be”

1. 

   Dave Ricks

   Sep 10, 2026 2:28 AM

   I first heard the word “ally” at one of the CFI conferences for Women in Secularism. It hit me wrong, as something I would not want to be, as part of a framing or political analysis and a system of rules that I would not agree to if they were all spelled out explicitly.

   Now I see the framing more explicitly, as what “intersectionality” has morphed into, as axes of oppressors versus oppressed groups. I do not agree with that analysis, and the rules that go with it.

   No “allyship” for me.
2. 

   Athel Cornish-Bowden

   Sep 10, 2026 3:29 AM

   It illustrates something that bothers me a lot. Why do so many real women side with fake women against their own interests?
3. 

   Dave Ricks

   Sep 10, 2026 3:43 AM

   I imagine real women declare “allyship” with fake women against their interests as an expensive signal, and expensive signals can be part of belonging to cults and religions.
4. 

   NightCrow

   Sep 10, 2026 5:26 AM

   Trans people haven’t always been around, so how could she have always been their ally?

   Samantha Niblett was born in 1979.

   Jan Morris (born James in 1926) published his/her autobiography Conundrum in 1974. I was a university student at the time and I can vouch for its attracting a good deal of attention. One student I knew slightly was encouraged on reading it to begin the process of transition. I can only speak from a British perspective, but the trans movement has been developing here for well over forty years.
5. 

   Holms

   Sep 10, 2026 5:36 AM

   Also, her argument is awful.

   The challenge with the new guidance is it’s not really very good. … if you’re to go into a changing room, the new guidance says, no matter what sex you were assigned at birth, that’s an indication of what changing room you should use. So if you have got a big beefy trans man, they’re expected to now go and use a female space. But you can also now have a cis man who can just claim to be trans, and he’s a wrong ‘un and he wants to go and do harm to a woman, he can now get away with doing that and enter a female space.

   Oh no! A man might claim to be trans to gain entry to a women’s space!! Where have I heard that before? …Obviously this is the exact same problem we have been pointing out all along: a man can simply identity as trans man man woman to enter. Except in our model, the entry criterion is something physical and therefore confirmable if needed – a person’s sex.

   And the guidance does not force trans men to use women’s facilities! The guidance recognises that women’s spaces are protected against the entry of men, but the reverse is not true, as men are generally not threatened by the intrusion of women. The decision runs one way and not the other specifically because of the biological inequality and the different threat profile this creates. Trans men are specifically mentioned as being permitted entry to men’s facilities, and in the case of a trans man who has taken substantial steps to change her appearance to that of a man, even advised to do so!

   Surprise surprise, a trans advocate lies about the law.
6. 

   Holms

   Sep 10, 2026 5:43 AM

   Oh and ‘big beefy trans man’ are you kidding? There’s a reason trans men skew small: they’re female. Testosterone helps put muscle on, but the frame is set for life.
7. 

   iknklast

   Sep 10, 2026 6:06 AM

   There’s a reason trans men skew small: they’re female. Testosterone helps put muscle on, but the frame is set for life.

   Holms, that isn’t quite true. I see a lot of Elliott Page type trans men, who do tend to skew small. Most of them may put on muscle with the testosterone, but the frame still skews female and small. But some of them are large. The two trans men I know well enough to know much about them are both large. One of them looks fully male now, but to be honest, it was difficult to tell before she began the transition. She was a large woman, and she is a large man, though her height is about average for a male. The other one looks more male every time I see him.

   Not ALL women skew small, but on average do. So the possibility of a big, beefy transman is there…it fits two I know.

   Not quibbling with your argument; it is true in most particulars. But we do need to be cautious, because the TAs will drag out cases like these to refute, and will believe they’ve created a complete refutation. I, for one, don’t relish having to explain averages to people, so I try to be careful how I word it.
8. 

   Holms

   Sep 10, 2026 7:43 AM

   I think this is perhaps an instance of wording choice resulting in missed meaning. By ‘skew small’ I meant there is a statistical bias towards small, far from claiming they are all small.
9. 

   maddog1129

   Sep 10, 2026 10:10 AM

   Some women who claim to be trans men do “pass” as male — more frequently, I think, than men pass as women — so they might get away with using men’s toilets or locker rooms. It’s a weighing up of pros and cons. It might be awkward and frightening, in both directions, for a trans man to use the facilities for her sex. Using the men’s facilities could alleviate the fright and the awkwardness of using the women’s facilities, but the trans man still retains the peculiar vulnerabilities of any other woman in men’s spaces. Men have raped trans men who dared to enter the men’s spaces.
10. 

    Acolyte of Sagan

    Sep 10, 2026 10:11 AM

    That ‘a man can just pretend to be a trans man to get access’ is something I’m seeing quite often and it always has the air of gloating. The TRAs (and their lapdogs and Aunts*, aka ‘allies’) know the mess they’ve created and are making sure that women know that they can never feel safe in their own spaces anymore whether or not they accede to the demands for trans access.

    * I was recently in an online discussion about trans access to women’s spaces, trying to make the point that the problem isn’t with them being transgender, it’s because they’re male and represent no less of a threat than any other males. One commenter announced that ‘as a cis woman I’m not at all threatened by transwomen. I welcome them into our spaces and will stand with them against any terf who objects.’ My reply of ‘Good for you. Every Gilead needs its Aunts to control the handmaids’ was not well received!
11. 

    Ophelia Benson

    Sep 10, 2026 10:36 AM

    It was well deserved though!