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I’ve been involved in the discussions that sprang up around Self-ID for several years now... and I keep a cool head.
I keep it in the face of women being threatened with rape, execution and murder.
I keep it in the face of women being threatened with rape, execution and murder.
I keep it while women have their meetings smoke bombed,the windows banged on,their rape shelters decorated with a dead rat, their faces punched at speakers corner etc etc. I keep it while people reduce us to a collection of body parts;now we’re uterus havers&people who bleed.
I keep it when women who’ve suffered FGM are told they’re ‘terfs’ for calling it *female*. I keep it as endless women are patronised,told they’re no longer allowed to have any spaces that are female only,as they’re lied about,sneered at&called horrible names for being lesbians.
I even keep a cool head when presumably well-meaning people, mostly men, bumble up to me without a clue to explain with misguided dismissal why none of this matters or why it’s a mistake. Or why, you know, maybe I should relax.
I keep the candle flame of anger under its quiet glass when a brave trans person stands up for us against the tide of malice&is mistreated by the kind of insufferably self indulgent person who has spent the last forever denouncing women as transphobes, too.
I, like many of us, cope with the deluge of personal remarks, insinuations,attempts at shaming,threats&misogyny despite how often it reaches a level that makes me afraid for women&girls. I keep a cool head because I’m English,which makes politeness a bad habit,&I want to be fair
I also know that the women who shout and protest are ruthlessly dismissed. No one believes angry women...but then they don’t really believe the polite ones either. So we all have to pick our battle. Mine is saying please but with steel behind it.
This week,though,watching rape victims told it’s bigotry to want female examiners has been awful. Orgs coming out to talk about them asking for that provision,&getting it,as an attack on trans rights has broken some kind of guitar string inside me I’ve been holding taut for years
The level of dehumanisation towards women is bottomless&my anger at that is immense. It could part oceans&it could drive back the stars. It could write “how dare you” on the moon
They’ve placed too many stolen aces on my personal house of cards
I will still not be horrible BUT
They’ve placed too many stolen aces on my personal house of cards
I will still not be horrible BUT
Anyone who believes that any person is *entitled* to examine rape victims against their will or shame them for requesting the smallest act of understanding&humanity at such a time is abhorrent.
They need to go stand in a forest, listen to the birds, look up at the leaves above them and learn how to be humane again.
Somewhere along the way they have forgotten.
And I am so, so not ok with that.
Not one woman should have to bear what they keep doing.
Somewhere along the way they have forgotten.
And I am so, so not ok with that.
Not one woman should have to bear what they keep doing.
