As I walked through the bustling Wanhua District of New Taipei, the rain began to fall, casting a gray hue over the cityscape. Amidst the typical urban hustle, something caught my eye that embodies a growing issue affecting women worldwide—the silent disappearance of women's only spaces, including restrooms, under the guise of inclusivity.

A row of restrooms, standing stark against the rain, proudly displayed signs that offered options for men, and for "all genders." Noticeably absent? Any restroom specifically designated for women. Men retain their dedicated space, yet women are seemingly lumped into "all gender" categories, erasing our autonomy and privacy in one fell swoop. This unsettling trend is one that I’ve encountered more frequently in Taiwan, as it becomes the norm in Western countries that Taiwan seeks to emulate.

For years, women’s toilets have been a place where we could take refuge, gossip with friends, handle period mishaps, or escape unwanted attention from men in bars. Not anymore. Now we are seeing the consequences of militant gender ideology, imposed without consultation or consent.

Throughout Taiwan, as the country follows the Western trend of embracing the anti-woman stance of gender identity ideology, I have seen organizations proudly proclaiming their inclusivity and progressive values by removing female restrooms and making them “for all genders”. Data from the Taiwan Ministry of Environment show there are more than 46,000 public restrooms nationwide, found throughout 12 types of venues including public enterprises, tourist sites, traditional food markets, bus and train stations, and public parks. The Ministry of Environment said it is to invest NT$280 million (US$8.76 million) over the next four years to double the number of gender-neutral public bathrooms nationwide. We are witnessing the erasure of women's single-sex toilets in Taiwan in real time.

Credit: UDN News Taiwan

In one district of Taiwan, officials brag that in a restroom converted for use by men and women together, “menstrual products are also available in the toilets to eliminate menstrual poverty and menstrual stigma.” Let’s be real; very few, if any, grown women would opt for the option of using a public restroom with men, let alone accessing menstrual products with men present. Under only the most dire of circumstances would a girl, having her period and in need of hygiene products, feel comfortable getting those products and using them in a space also used by men.

In fact, this issue is notably prevalent in schools across the UK, where many schools have replaced their single-sex toilets with gender-neutral ones. In many cases, girls have expressed fear of using these facilities due to concerns about harassment from male students. Alarmingly, doctors have reported that female students have developed medical issues, such as infections, as a result of avoiding the use of gender-neutral toilets.

I have found in Taiwan that the men’s restrooms are often left intact, while it is the women’s restroom that is modified, changed into a “gender neutral” space, effectively making it yet another male restroom.

Photo taken in Taipei, Taiwan. Can you find the women’s restroom?

This is not progress; it's a step backward dressed up in progressive rhetoric. As men’s restrooms remain untouched, women’s restrooms are becoming the battleground of "inclusivity”.

What does the law say?

In Taiwan, there is no formal law governing the implementation of gender-neutral toilets, leaving the regulation of public restroom spaces somewhat ambiguous. While there are specific codes outlining the ratio of male to female toilets in certain public buildings, such as schools and train stations, the term "toilet" in these regulations refers only to the fixture itself (urinals or stalls) rather than the entire restroom space, which traditionally separates men and women.

For example, buildings like train stations and schools require a ratio of one male toilet stall for every five female stalls (a requirement as of 2006), while government buildings must have a one-to-four ratio. However, local authorities can override these requirements based on specific conditions. This flexibility has led to confusion and loopholes, particularly concerning gender-neutral restrooms.

The issue arises because no law in Taiwan explicitly guarantees single-sex spaces in restrooms. Why? Because restrooms were always single-sex, they were considered commonsense, a non-issue, a no-brainer. As a result, many restrooms, especially female ones, are being converted into gender-neutral facilities, leaving no legal grounds to contest the changes. Despite the push by some local municipalities to adopt gender-neutral restrooms, these efforts are based on non-binding "guidelines" rather than laws or executive orders.

The absence of clear regulations has created a situation where women's restrooms are often repurposed under the guise of progressiveness, without legal recourse for those opposed to losing access to single-sex spaces.

What’s the big deal?

Radical gender activists often use the argument that they ‘just want to pee’. They say that either trans-identified males should be allowed into women’s bathrooms, or that gender-neutral facilities should be standard. They claim that the reaction from many women against gender-neutral bathrooms is overblown.

But I’m pretty sure that in Taiwan, women just want to pee, too.

Women use the bathroom more frequently than men do, in part because of biological differences between male and female urinary tracts. Women have a higher occurrence of UTIs, and women are the only sex who breastfeed children and often want to do this away from the sightline of men. Menstruation requires a level of privacy and sanitation that is often compromised in gender-neutral spaces, where the presence of males can lead to discomfort or even a lack of essential facilities like disposal bins for sanitary products. Additionally, single-sex restrooms provide a safer and more comfortable environment for women who may feel vulnerable in mixed-sex spaces, especially in public areas or during high-traffic periods.

Women are cleaner than men. We all know this is true, and I would be loath to share a public restroom with men. Women do not stand and aim at the toilet but rather sit on a seat (if it’s a Western style toilet). More than half of all men don’t even wash their hands after using the bathroom. I do not want to share a bathroom with men. And it may be a surprise for you to learn that “gender neutral” bathrooms are dirtier than either men’s or women’s restrooms.

Safety is a huge concern for women in spaces shared with men. Digital sex crimes and voyeurism have become a growing problem in Taiwan in recent years, especially in public toilets and spaces modified to be "gender neutral". Pinhole cameras, some as small as fingernails, have been used to record and disseminate photos and videos of people secretly filmed. Most of the victims are women and girls.

Female students at Sun Yat-Sen University were secretly filmed in the bathroom of an “all-gender” dormitory.

A male student from National Taiwan University was sentenced to three months in prison for secretly filming female classmates while hiding in “all-gender” restrooms. This could be why according to statistics collected by NTU, less than 20% of women use “all-gender” bathrooms on campus. Despite this, the university continues to provide female students with “all-gender” restrooms. Where are 80% of the female students on NTU’s campus using the bathroom? I don’t know, and NTU doesn’t care.

A 26 year old man in Taipei made headlines after he was found to have secretly filmed more than 160 women and girls in Taipei and New Taipei City. Among his victims were girls as young as 13 and 14 years old. The majority of his spycams had been placed in women’s and “all gender” restrooms in various schools and universities in the city.

Predatory men like this would have free and open access to women and girls, anywhere and at any time, once they become “all-gender”.

Where Do Women Go?

The concept of a women’s only space, particularly in public restrooms, isn’t just about convenience—it’s about safety, dignity, and respect. Women have fought long and hard for rights that include access to private spaces free from male intrusion. Now, those rights are quietly eroding as society rushes to embrace inclusivity without fully understanding its impact on women. While gender-neutral toilets and changing rooms are becoming more common, most women do not prefer this option. When a woman or girl enters a women’s changing room or toilet, she has a reasonable expectation that the space will be shared exclusively with other females. She also expects service providers to uphold lawful single-sex policies that ensure her privacy, dignity, and safety. Women have the right to a space free from male presence.

By reducing women’s spaces to "all gender" facilities, we risk compromising these fundamental needs under the misguided banner of inclusivity, creating an environment where women’s safety and comfort are deprioritized.

Where does that leave us? Where do women go when our restrooms are transformed into spaces that we no longer feel safe in, or are reduced to a category labeled "all gender"? The answer is as uncomfortable as the reality women now face: we are left with fewer options, less protection, and a gnawing sense of erasure in the name of inclusivity and “progress”.

Jaclynn Joseph is a Hawai’i born — now Taiwan-based — Ph.D. student, university lecturer, and co-founder of the Taiwan Women’s Association 臺灣女性協會
https://JaclynnJoyce.substack.com/

Two boys have sparked heated debate across Hawaii after competing in — and winning — multiple girls’ track and field competitions. Lana Huff and Frankie-Lyn Mocilio were permitted to compete on the Kea’au High School girls’ track team because they “identify” as girls.

Lana Huff, who previously ran boy’s cross country as Brandon Huff, went from being ranked 72nd in the girls' 200-meter race to number 19 in the state rankings all within one week. He won a medal for both the 200 meter and pole vaulting, and in the process took a state qualifying spot away from a female athlete. Huff ended the season as one of the top 24 female athletes in the State of Hawai’i, qualifying him for the state championships. Only 24 girls statewide can claim this honor thanks to their hard work and dedication — but, with Huff’s participation, that number goes down to 23 girls eligible for a spot.

Huff would have ranked 565th in the state for the boys if he hadn’t switched to the girls' team.

Boys Now Make up Half of the 'Girls' Relay Team at Kea’au High School

Huff is not the only trans-identified male on the school’s team. He and his teammate Frankie-Lyn Molcilio (another male), make up half of the 'girls' relay team at Kea’au High School.

There is also a third male track athlete who identifies as “trans” at the same school. However, he has chosen to compete on the boys’ team — an option also available to Huff and Molicilion. Yet, they choose to compete with the girls where they can rank higher.

In November of 2023 Huff, a sophomore was awarded the girls' 'Outstanding Athlete' accolade at Kea’au High School, and was lauded on the school’s Instagram page in a since-deleted post.

Huff’s rapid ascent to a top spot and state championship qualifying time within a week highlights the disparity between male and female athletes. Erika Manikis, a Hawai’i island resident whose daughter competed against Huff, believes there should be separate categories for male and female athletes.

“My daughter, a Waiākea High School vaulter, recently competed in the pole vaulting event at the BIIF championships,” Makikis told 4W. “She achieved a 4th place finish, while her competitor, a biological male identifying as a girl, took 3rd place.”

While Manikis respects that some students may be gender non-conforming, she knows that biological males still retain an advantage in sports. Although her daughter still qualified for states, she told me she believes the situation was unfair to the female athletes.

Head coach of the Waiākea track and field team, Nathan Cockett, agrees with Manikis. He voiced his concerns over the boys competing in the female division to the track and field officials and was told that there was nothing that could be done to stop it from happening. Cockett told 4W that the rules allowing the boys to compete with the girls should be changed, or that a new sports division should be created for trans-identified athletes that is completely separate from the female events.

Hawai’i Island track and field referee and retired coach Jordan Rosado told 4W:

“Almost everyone I’ve talked to seems to think it (boys in girls sporting competitions) is wrong. The powers that be don’t seem to be able to do anything about it. I’ve heard it said that they have to oblige them. Something about Title IX. I didn’t find out about this (males competing on the female teams) until the third or fourth track meet. When I found out I asked who they were, from what school, and no one would tell me. I figured it out by observation.”

Despite growing opposition to allowing males to compete on the female teams, Rosado says, “Many people are reluctant to share their views.”

Cynthia Montelone Leads the Push to Save Women’s Sports in Hawai’i

At the forefront of the pushback to stop this is Cynthia Montelone, a renowned American track athlete, particularly known for her achievements in the 400 meters. She is a World Champion in Masters athletics, a high school and Olympic coach, and a concerned mother and community member. Originally from Maui, Hawai’i, and now based on Hawai'i island, Monteleone has spoken out against the inclusion of trans-identified male athletes in women's events, citing concerns about fairness and safety. “Many of the Hawai’i coaches and Athletic Directors are afraid to speak out. I am not afraid. Someone needs to have a voice for these girls”, Monteleone told 4W.

Both Cynthia and her daughter have been forced to compete against males in sports. At the 2018 World Masters Athletics Championships in Málaga, Spain Monteleone raced against Yanelle Del Mar Zape, a trans-identified male from Colombia. Monteleone narrowly defeated Zape by a few tenths of a second to advance to the final round of the 200-meter race. When Cynthia raised concerns about the fairness of a biological male competing in women's events, USA Track and Field administrators advised her to remain silent, saying, “For your own safety, you might want to keep your mouth shut.”

Cynthia’s daughter, Margaret, at the time a sophomore at St. Anthony School on the island of Maui, faced a similar situation. Margaret competed against a biological male in a high school track meet, placing second behind the boy in her first and only meet of the season before COVID-19 interrupted the competitions. The student had previously been playing on the boy’s volleyball team.

Currently, Hawai’i High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) allows male athletes to simply self-identify into female competitions. HHSAA has no formal or written policy regarding trans-identified athletes competing, but they claim to follow The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the body that writes the rules of competition for most high school sports and activities in the United States. The NFHS advises sports organizations to create their own policies. Heading into the 2023-2024 school year, ESPN released an article regarding transgender athlete laws that stated, "The Hawaii High School Athletic Association has no discernible policy, and the state has no law. Bills that would prohibit transgender girls from participating in girls' and women's sports have been filed, but none has passed." This is a loophole that no one seems to want to take responsibility for.

However, the Biden administration’s Department of Education recently introduced a new rule requiring schools to allow biological males who “identify” as female to compete in women’s sports. This rule undercuts the very purpose of Title IX, while also threatening Title IX funding for schools that fail to comply.

The principal of Kea’au High School, Dean Cevallos, has said that he is following the State of Hawai’i Department of Education policy which allows self-identification into female sports. Monteleone has had an active civil rights complaint against the Department of Education (DOE) since 2020,  which is still being investigated. The complaint states that DOE oversees HHSAA and is violating Title IX by discriminating against females.

In an interview with Island News on May 8th, Principal Cevallos was asked if he's heard any complaints as a result of trans-identified athletes participating.

"I've never received any complaints, not to my knowledge", he responded.

Monteleone, who has been vocal about her concerns for years, has shared with 4W two emails sent to Cevallos, dated May 1st and May 6th, in which she stated her concerns. Principal Cevallos did not respond to a request for comment from 4W.

Most people don’t realize how firmly the history of Title IX is rooted in Hawai’i. Congresswoman Patsy Mink, a twelve-term Member of Congress from Hawai’i, played a pivotal role in developing and defending Title IX. Mink fought for women and girls to have a place to safely showcase their unique physical abilities in a level playing field.

The principle of fair play, which is fundamental to competitive sports, is being challenged by what is happening in Hawai’i and across the USA. Historically, fair competition has been ensured by categorizing athletes based on various physical differences such as age and weight, and by separating sports into male and female divisions. On average, male bodies are larger, faster, and stronger than female bodies. Female sports offer women the opportunity to showcase their top physical abilities, which they would not be able to do in mixed-sex competitions.

In Hawai’i now, it appears that it is more convenient for athletic organizations to showcase men who identify as women as symbols of social justice, "diversity," and "inclusion" rather than addressing the real issues faced by female athletes.

Girls deserve fair competition at every level in sport — and this can only be achieved in a category exclusive to female athletes based on sex.

If you’d like to express your concern over this issue, please email the HHSAA at: info@hhsaa.org

*Editor's Note: A previous headline of this article incorrectly referred to Huff as "Hawaiian." This was an error by the editor and not the author. The headline has been updated to reflect that Huff is a resident of Hawaii.

Also new by Jaclynn Joyce:

Court Approves First “Female to Male” Self-ID in Taiwan

This marks the second case of self-identification, and first ‘female to male’ self-ID, in Taiwan.

4W - Feminist NewsJaclynn Joyce

Yesterday morning, the Taipei High Administrative Court announced that a female plaintiff, who sued the Department of Household Registration for denying her request to change her legal sex marker to 'male,' has been granted permission to make the change. This decision allows her to update her registration without needing any medical certificate or prerequisite surgeries. Traditionally, in Taiwan, changing an individual’s sex on a national identification card required applicants to provide a diagnosis certificate from two psychiatrists and a certificate from a qualified medical institution confirming the completion of gender reassignment surgery.

This marks the second case of self-identification,  and the first 'female to male’ self-ID, in Taiwan.

The woman, living in Taipei, applied to change her registered sex from female to male two years ago. The Household Registration Office rejected her application because she had not undergone sex reassignment surgery. She filed an administrative lawsuit, becoming the first case in Taiwan where an individual sought to change their registration from female to male without surgery. Today, the Taipei High Administrative Court ruled in her favor, requiring the Household Registration Office to change her registration and identification to male. The decision can be appealed.

This is the second case of self-ID being allowed in Taiwan, the first having occurred on September 23, 2021, when the Taipei High Administrative Court issued a ruling allowing a trans-identified male calling himself “Xiao E (小E)” to change his legal sex to female without sex reassignment surgery.

During the recent elections in Taiwan, the country’s first trans-identified male politician, Abbygail ET Wu (吳伊婷) pledged to fight to remove the barriers of undergoing sex-change surgery placed on those wanting to change their sex legally. He argues for intact males to be able to change their sex marker on all forms of identification at will, and for them to be allowed into female spaces.

In 2022, scholars working at various universities across Taiwan conducted an online questionnaire survey, sought to understand the general public’s views on self-identification, meaning surgery-free change of legal sex,  in Taiwan. The questionnaire had a sample size of more than 10,000 people, and the survey report has been published in the academic journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Poll results show that more than 90% of Taiwanese people strongly oppose changing someone’s legal sex without so-called sex reassignment surgery.

Those concerned about the encroachment of gender identity ideology have formed No Self ID Taiwan, the main organization leading the growing opposition movement against self-ID in Taiwan.

Jaclynn Joseph is a Hawai’i born — now Taiwan based — PhD student and university lecturer.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, took to social media on May 8 to ask for clarification from the Brazilian government about the cancellation of her visit to the country in 2023. Ms Alsalem was made aware of the existence of an audio recording obtained during a series of talks at UnB (University of Brasilia) in August last year. In the audio, an advisor of the Women’s Ministry on LGBT affairs, Maria Luísa (Malu) Aquino, is heard saying that the Brazilian government postponed “indefinitely” the UN Rapporteur’s visit for her “anti-trans” position. The UN Rapporteur tweeted that if this was true, the information revealed would be “concerning.”

In a statement for 4W, Ms Alsalem said: “The permanent mission of Brazil to the United Nations in Geneva and I are scheduled to meet, where I intend to seek clarification.” Although the UN Rapporteur stated after the cancelation that a new date was proposed for 2024 - which she was willing to accept - she wrote to 4W that she informed Brazil’s government in January she was no longer going to carry out any visit to the country. “I do not consider the conditions to be in place for my visit to be successful. It is unfortunate, as visiting Brazil was and continues to be a priority for me as rapporteur, given the situation of women and girls in the country.”

The leaked audio recording was originally posted by Brazilian activist Nine Borges on her Instagram. In the audio, subtitled here in English by association MATRIA, Ms Aquino can be heard saying in Portuguese (translated here) that “Bruna” [Benevides], a member of ANTRA, a Brazilian group for trans people, is her “main source within the trans women's movement.” She continues: “We talked a lot about a situation we had just now: the Special UN Rapporteur, Reem Alsalem, had a visit scheduled to Brazil and the Ministry for External Relations was articulating that with the [Women’s] Ministry.”

Ms Aquino asserts that “Brazil cannot deny receiving [rapporteurs], we have an open invitation to all UN rapporteurs.” However, she said that the Women’s Minister, Aparecida Gonçalves, had access to information about Ms Alsalem’s social media activity, and that the UN Rapporteur was “retweeting far-right profiles that talk about freedom of expression, in this far-right format with an anti-trans speech.” Then, the advisor is heard saying that the Women’s Minister asked to postpone Ms Alsalem’s visit to Brazil.

4W obtained access to the complete audio and, according to Ms Aquino, there was an online meeting in 2023 with a group of “radical women", which she described as “one of the most tense moments” she had within the ministry. The advisor is heard saying: “the profile of those women, of that group that was at that meeting online, they scared me.” Ms Aquino then tells the audience that these “groups of radical women” are to be blamed for “grinding” the work of the Women’s Ministry. “Today, dealing with these groups of radical feminists who end up greatly delaying the work of the ministry with these [issues]... is one of the challenges we have,” mentioning that the Women’s Ministry had received about 20 requests for public information following the scandal.

Maiara Silveira, representative of MATRIA, a Brazilian women’s association, told 4W that the feminist organization is working to identify the cause of the canceled visit. “From the audio,” Ms Silveira said, “it seems like it was Bruna Benevides (from ANTRA) who showed her/the Ministry tweets that they considered to be transphobic, resulting in the ‘indefinite’ postponement of Reem Alsalem's visit to Brazil.”

Since its creation in July, 2023, Ms Silveira said that MATRIA requested several FOIs (Freedom of Information) to the Women’s Ministry, such as the definition of “who is considered a ‘woman’ for public policy purposes,” as well to explain why the visit of the Rapporteur’s visit to Brazil was canceled and when it would be rescheduled. They also asked why Brazil did not present itself to the CEDAW Committee when called to talk about Parental Alienation Law and sent complaints regarding the persecution of women by trans activists.

On January 26, 2023, less than a month after the creation of the Women’s Ministry, representatives from ANTRA met with Aparecida Gonçalves, the Women’s Minister, to deliver a dossier called “Murders and violence against Brazilian transvestites and transsexuals.” The claims of this dossier, however, have been debunked by MATRIA, in a report called “False statements about the self-declared trans population in Brazil,” published last March.

A Women’s Ministry that “refuses to speak to women”

At the end of April, 2024, Brazilian Women's Ministry created a new working group to fight against political violence against women and chose a member of ANTRA, a male transvestite who adopted the name Bruna Gurgel Baptista, as one of the representatives. Nine Borges, the activist who first shared publicly the leaked audio, posted the full list on her Twitter, commenting about the new working group that the Women’s Minister “refuses to dialogue with women.”

“The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, was set to visit Brazil to discuss the issues around self-identification policies and how they impact women and girls’ rights by increasing the chances of putting their safety at risk,” Ms Borges told 4W.

She said that the Minister’s aide, Ms Aquino, “confirms [in the audio] that the Minister Aparecida Gonçalves has canceled Reem Alsalem’s visit based on her self-identification and gender critics’ views.”

Ms Borges said that the “correct approach” should have been a “balanced debate that includes plural ideas” and that the Minister’s “ideological position” showed the intention to silence and “alienate women from the truth, not providing them with the opportunity to learn and understand the serious implications of allowing men into women’s spaces.”

Ms Borges continues:

“Right after canceling Reem Alsalem’s official visit, the Ministry is seen taking a public ideological stance on the issue, inviting the National Association of Tranvestites and Transexuals (ANTRA) to grab a seat at the decision-making table. While refusing to define what a woman is and refusing to dialogue with women, the Ministry honors and dialogues with an Association that falsifies data, spreads fake news, gaslights women, and more importantly, whose members are not women. Brazil has an official relationship with the UN, therefore, the UN should thoroughly investigate why the Brazilian Women’s Ministry has refused to receive one of their representatives. The UN shouldn’t let this slide.”

Official visit about parental alienation was articulated before social media’s controversy, says Brazilian collective

Ms Aquino also claimed in the audio that the UN Rapporteur was “disguised as a UN rapporteur of women who worked on the parental alienation law.” However, Brazilian collective CPI Voz Materna contests this claim, as the organization sent a complaint from women to CEDAW about parental alienation law in 2020. The complaint was accepted, the Brazilian government was questioned and CPI Voz Materna sent a Shadow Report to the UN in 2021.

Sibele Lemos, a representative of Voz Materna, said that after the report was sent, there was a call for mothers to send reports of their cases of rights violations using Parental Alienation Law, to the UN special rapporteur Reem Alsalem in 2022. The group then contacted Ms Alsalem, who held two online meetings with Brazilian mothers. The UN Rapporteur sent a letter to the newly elected Brazilian president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, asking to revoke the Law and ban the term. “This letter has not yet been responded to”, said Lemos, but a visit was scheduled for July 2023.

Another collaborator of CPI Voz Materna, Ivana Moura, said that the visit’s cancellation was “an obstacle to the advancement of discussions on violations of the fundamental rights of Brazilian women and children regarding the use of Parental Alienation in the judiciary system,” and that the Women’s Ministry even “started avoiding collectives that work in the fight for the repeal of the law.” Ms Moura recalled that, in 2023, the Women’s Ministry did have an online meeting with feminist group Raizes Feministas, who advocate for sex-based rights, which is the organization that Ms Aquino allegedly refers to in the audio as a group of “radical women.”

Natalie* had been housed with Tremaine Carroll in a prison cell in Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) for just a few days when she says he attacked her in the shower and raped her. According to charges filed by the Madera County District Attorney’s office - which includes enhancements because Tremaine has prior sex offenses - there was at least one other victim at the prison besides Natalie.

Before California passed SB 132, “The Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act”, the law already allowed males who had surgery, and were deemed to not pose a “management and security risk”, to request housing in women’s facilities. However, the law did not allow men with penises, or those who were considered too dangerous, to be housed with women, regardless of gender identity. That all changed when California passed SB 132, which went into effect in 2021.

Tremaine Carroll: Male Inmate in Women’s Prison Charged with Rape

After serving nearly two decades of his sentence, Tremaine began identifying as a woman and seeking transfer to a women’s facility shortly before SB 132 went into effect. The law was intended to facilitate the transfer of male inmates like Tremaine, who had penises and did not meet security standards for “gender identity” based housing in the women’s prison.

SB 132 is being challenged by four women who have already experienced harm from this policy: Janine Chandler, Krystal Gonzales, Tomiekia Johnson, and Nadia Romero, who are represented by the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF).

Tremaine is one of four intervenors in the lawsuit, represented by the ACLU of Southern California and other advocacy groups supporting the right of male prisoners to self-identify into women’s prisons. Even if they have ordinary male anatomy. Even if they are sex offenders. In a sworn declaration to the court, Tremaine stated, “I am not a threat” to the women at CCWF.  Now, he is charged with forcibly raping two of them and has been moved back to the men’s facility.

The Transgender Law Center and ACLU of Southern California, representing Carroll in the case, did not immediately reply to comment.

CDCR Confirms Pregnancies After Women Housed with Male Rapists

Tremaine is just one of the many dangerous men with whom the women in California prisons are now forced to live. One-third of the men requesting transfer into California women’s prisons are sex offenders. According to FOIA records, 50% of men in federal prison who identify as women are sex offenders. This is likely understating the problem - Tremaine himself is not considered “sex offenders” under this definition, despite his first- and second-strike offenses being for a kidnapping which included “forced oral copulation.”

Amie Ichikawa, Executive Director of Woman II Woman, revealed that there are now 16 pregnant women housed at California Institution for Women (CIW), another one of California’s women’s prisons. Some women may enter prison pregnant, but CDCR has confirmed via a new Public Records Act request that at least one woman this year has already become pregnant while incarcerated at CCWF where the male rapist was also housed.

"I wish I could say that Tremaine was abusing SB132/TRADA or that it’s being taken advantage of in some way," said Amie, "but I can’t. The law is being used exactly the way its author intended it to be: without guardrails and with complete disregard to the safety and well-being of women.”

Advocacy groups like Woman II Woman and WoLF have warned the California Department of Corrections of Rehabilitation (CDCR) for years about the risk of pregnancy and rape when women are forced to be housed with men. The state acknowledged this risk by providing condoms to the women’s facilities for the first time in 2021, immediately following the implementation of SB 132. In 2023, a Special Review by the Office of the Inspector General reiterated this concern, stating: “Because not all transferees have undergone gender-affirming surgery, the potential exists for pregnancies… in prison.”

“We don’t need the state or anybody else to acknowledge the risk, because we all know how babies are made,” WoLF Executive Director Sharon Byrne told 4W.

“Housing men in women’s prisons is California’s progressive patriarchy. The state has an obligation to keep everybody safe to the best of its ability. It cannot throw incarcerated women under the bus when there are alternative ways to keep men at risk of sexual violence safe in men’s prisons, such as by getting a waiver to provide a third space.”

On the Frontlines of Fighting SB 132

Lauren Bone, WoLF Legal Director, says that “Rape and pregnancy are the foreseeable and avoidable outcomes of laws like SB 132. But even with knowledge of actual rape and pregnancy, the state continues to house intact men at the women’s facility.”

On May 4, WoLF announced the group had erected a new billboard on California State Route 99 between Madera and Chowchilla to raise awareness of the impact of SB 132 on women in California’s custody. The sign reads, “NO MALES IN WOMEN’S JAILS!”

WoLF and Woman II Woman are hosting a press conference outside of the Madera County courthouse on May 17 — the day Tremaine Carrol will face his preliminary hearing for rape.

For more information or to support this lawsuit, visit stopsb132.com

* For the protection of the victim, Natalie is a pseudonym

Nina Paley, a free culture and feminist activist, has denied permission to The Vagina Museum to screen her 2019 film Seder-Masochism, citing the organization's pattern of "woman-erasing language."

According to a statement released by Paley last night, this is the first time the artist has ever denied permission for any of her work to be screened. Paley is an outspoken free culture activist, and her work does not require permission for use.

Seder-Masochism is an award-winning, animated, feminist retelling of the traditional Passover Seder. However, it has been repeatedly pulled from venues as Paley has faced years of cancellation for her feminist views.

The Vagina Museum's History of Misogyny

According to a glowing profile in Time Magazine, The Vagina Museum's goal was to "educate visitors about women’s health and destigmatize the female body."

But the London-based museum quickly pivoted away from any discussion of women or femaleness, completely erasing women from the conversation about their very own bodies.

According to the Vagina Museum's website, "We believe that defining women by anatomy, as so many patriarchal institutions have done before, would be trans-exclusionary."

However, the museum does exactly this. They call women things like "people with vulvas" and "bleeders."

My Visit to the Trans-Inclusive Vagina Museum

Placards declare “Menstrual blood is the equivalent of semen” and all references to women are removed

4W - Feminist NewsMichaela Young

Free Culture and the Art of Cancellation

Charlie Corubolo (They/Them) reached out to request permission to screen Seder-Masochism despite the film being free culture – meaning that Paley has rejected copyright and no permission is required to screen or use the film however they want.

Paley's website states:

"Please don’t ask my permission to re-use my work. YOU ALREADY HAVE PERMISSION. Please copy, share, re-use, redistribute, edit, modify, sell, etc."

Despite this, Paley chose to deny the Vagina Museum's request, taking advantage of the opportunity to raise awareness of the organization's misogynistic erasure of women.

“How can I, as a woman, work with organizations that cancel women? I would be working against myself and my sisters,” Paley wrote.

In response to having their request rejected, the Vagina Museum took to Twitter to claim they were being harassed and abused:

Neither Paley nor anyone she is aware of harassed or abused anyone at the Vagina Museum.

Paley describes the request to screen Seder-Masochism as "cancel bait" and says such requests are often insincere, or quickly revoked.

"That email looked so much like other emails I have gotten where someone invites me to screen or speak and then cancels me," Paley told 4W. This, she says, happens four to six times per year.

"The UKVM is a misogynistic institution... I'm confident if I had responded affirmatively they would cancel me once they found out I am gender critical."

Still, the film remains available for anyone – including the Vagina Museum – to screen or use.

"It's hilarious to anyone who understands free culture and my stance on it, because they can totally screen it anyway," Paley said.

You can watch or download Seder-Masochism for free at: https://sedermasochism.com/download/

The generous support of our readers allows 4W to pay our all-female staff and over 50 writers across the globe for original articles and reporting you can’t find anywhere else. Like our work? Become a monthly donor!

On the heels of a presidential election, commercial surrogacy looms on the horizon here in Taiwan. A hot topic in the Western media, with celebrity couples seemingly popping up with a newly purchased baby every week on social media, Taiwan is ready to jump on the surrogacy bandwagon. Announced in December, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is poised to present draft amendments to the current Assisted Reproduction Act, anticipated by the end of 2024. These proposed changes are geared towards enhancing access to assisted reproduction and making all forms of surrogacy legal in the country.

During our recent presidential elections, surrogacy was a hot topic. During election debates, Taiwan People's Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je made legalizing surrogacy a key pillar of his policy platform, highlighting the growing importance commercial surrogacy in the country.

Some women’s rights groups in Taiwan, have raised concerns that disadvantaged women might be exploited as surrogate mothers, or that legalizing the practice might reinforce the pressures on women to have children. The main concerns regarding surrogacy include: adequate protection of the surrogate mothers, as they face health risks from pregnancy; ethical considerations about using surrogates as a treatment tool for infertile couples; and the legal status of the child.

The Assisted Reproduction Act in Taiwan currently prohibits all forms of surrogacy. Despite efforts to amend the laws, as recently as 2017, such attempts have faced opposition from women's and children's rights groups, leading to unsuccessful outcomes. “A woman's body is not a commodity or a tool. We oppose rich people exploiting poor women and buying them as surrogate mothers," said Huang Sue-ying, chairperson of the advocacy group Taiwan Women's Link.

However, Taiwan emerged as a new and potentially explosive market for surrogacy after it became Asia’s first country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019. This small island nation was bombarded by commercial surrogacy agencies who promised to help couples purchase wombs in exchange for a child of their own. And the potential for making money hand over fist is sure to overturn any ethical or moral opposition to female exploitation.

The initial valuation of global fertility services was approximately $21 billion in 2018, as the market research firm Data Bridge estimated. The industry is projected to experience significant growth in the next few years, reaching an estimated worth of $41 billion by 2026.

American surrogacy agencies have flooded into Taiwan after the legalization of same-sex marriage four years ago. While commercial surrogacy is still illegal here, the agencies work around this by arranging IVF and surrogacy in the relatively unregulated United States. The average cost of purchasing a child? Around 140,000USD, which is nearly ten times the average national salary in Taiwan. It’s big bucks to sell children.

The grotesquely named Men Having Babies, a New York-based misogynist group that claims to "help gay men become fathers through surrogacy", hosted a conference in Taiwan for prospective buyers of female wombs this year. They will host their next event here in 2025, and every two years after that, spreading information on their agencies, clinics, law firms, and other surrogacy providers.

What’s the problem with surrogacy?

Not being discussed in any of the news reports are the negatives associated with surrogacy. Paid surrogacy is illegal in much of Asia, but one should be aware that many surrogacy operators offer back-channel surrogacy with alternative arrangements for couples who come to Asian countries. After having been forbidden in neighboring Thailand (nicknamed the “Womb of Asia” in 2015), after a series of horrific high-profile cases, with Cambodia following suit soon after. In the scandal in Thailand in 2011, fifteen Vietnamese women were discovered being forcibly kept in an apartment in Bangkok, seven of them pregnant. It was a baby-making farm.

Unfortunately, as of 2023, Thailand has been in the process of amending its surrogacy laws to permit foreigners to engage in surrogacy arrangements with Thai women. The proposed revisions also include the commercial exportation of women's eggs. This initiative comes after Thailand imposed restrictions on the surrogacy industry, prompted by concerns raised when David Farnell, an Australian convicted pedophile, was granted custody of a child born through a Thai surrogacy clinic. In what might be the ultimate in outsourcing, Western couples are increasingly traveling to unregulated India to have their baby delivered by a surrogate mother.

Despite the bans, would-be parents are drawn by Asia's lower costs, as compared to wealthier countries. Who would want to pay a woman a higher price for her time and physical labor, when you could get it so much cheaper in Asia? Surrogacy exploits women, particularly those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who may be driven to become surrogates due to financial need. Taiwanese women won’t be the ones selling their bodies to make babies for the wealthy, that task will instead fall to the same women who come here and do the dirty work no one else wants to do. The domestic help, the factory workers, and the migrants from Southeast Asia that face discrimination and are easily exploitable…and expendable.

Pregnancies involving surrogacy are inherently categorized as high-risk due to the elevated likelihood of health complications for both the surrogate mother and the baby. In fact, all surrogate pregnancies are medically classified as “high-risk” due to the use of hormones involved, and even egg donation confers risks of developing endometriosis, infertility, or the fatal condition of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). This increased risk is particularly associated with the practice of implanting multiple embryos, a common strategy to enhance the chances of a successful pregnancy. Surrogate mothers undergoing this procedure face various health hazards, including ovarian torsion, reproductive cancers, stroke, premature menopause, placental abruption, and, in extreme but not unheard of cases, death. The necessity for a Cesarean section (C-section) is also more probable in pregnancies with multiple gestations, introducing a range of associated risks.

Research conducted on surrogacy in developing countries revealed instances where women underwent C-sections purely for the convenience of the "commissioning parents” aka the paying customers. This raises ethical concerns regarding the medical procedures chosen for the sake of timing rather than the well-being of the surrogate mother.

Furthermore, infants born through surrogacy, often referred to as "surrogacy babies," confront their own set of health risks, such as low birth weight, prematurity, and the possibility of miscarriage. A study discussed in an article on the ethics of surrogacy in The Journal of Medical Ethics highlights that a significant proportion of infant mortality can be attributed to complications arising from prematurity, with infertility treatments being a contributing factor.

The emotional and psychological impact of surrogacy on the surrogate is a concern. Some worry about the potential long-term effects on the surrogate's mental health, especially if she forms a strong emotional attachment to the child. The truth is, this practice and the justifications surrounding its regulation bear striking resemblance to prostitution. The debates often revolve around women's "freedom" to lease their wombs, altruistic intentions, and the undeniable desire of those who commission surrogacy to fulfill their dream of starting a family. However, what remains obscure is the darker side: the prevalence of poverty, human trafficking, the exploitation of impoverished nations for surrogacy tourism, the dehumanization involved, and the myriad risks to the emotional and physical well-being of all parties involved.

The Problem with Adoption

In some East Asian cultures, like Taiwan, there is a  strong emphasis on biological lineage and carrying on the family name. Taiwanese on average simply don’t like to adopt children. Laws were changed to promote domestic adoptions in Taiwan, with little effect. There is a notable disparity between the number of children awaiting adoption and available adoptive parents, with the former outnumbering the latter by two- or three-fold. Even in cases where there is a willingness to adopt, prospective adoptive parents in Taiwan frequently have specific criteria for the children they are open to adopting, such as a young age, good health, and a family background with an unblemished history. This means many children are growing up without loving homes, while couples seek commercial surrogacy at sky-high prices.

But it’s not a human right to have a child. This is a narrative we hear time and time again on the topic of surrogacy. It is born of the notion that an individualistic desire for a child translates to a necessity for a child and therefore a right to a child. Couple this delusion with the lie that women, usually economically disadvantaged and marginalized women, are little more than sexual and reproductive resources to be used and exploited and you have a justification for surrogacy.

Lack of Information

Western mainstream media and organizations claiming to support human rights advocate for the censorship of those who acknowledge women’s sex-based oppression. Similarly, there is little to no information being provided to the public in Taiwan showing the negatives of commercial surrogacy. This coincides with the push for the acceptance of gender identity ideology in Taiwan, which was greatly influenced, like surrogacy, by Western ideology and thinking. In 2021, the Taipei High Administrative Court issued a ruling allowing a trans-identified male calling himself “Xiao E (小E)” to change his legal sex to female without sex reassignment surgery — the first ruling of its kind. Until then, individuals could not change their sex on an ID card unless they provided medical certificates confirming a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and proof of a sex change operation. The Chinese language news outlets that covered this case (UDN News, ET Daily, Apply Daily, LTN Liberty Times) all did so with no comment on how these changes would impact women in Taiwan. Across the board, they printed copy and paste statements from groups representing trans activist interests and offered no counter opinion or discussion of potential harm to women and girls. The two English-language news outlets to discuss the case — Focus Taiwan and Taipei Times — provided the barest of details and also failed to discuss the negative impacts on women.

What the media fails to do, time and time again, is show how these issues affect women negatively. The media conceptualizes surrogacy as some sort of empowerment of women in the forms of self-reliance, self-confidence, and the social and economic movement out of poverty. However, this empowerment framework appropriates feminist language to the extent that the ‘Third World’ woman (typically from Southeast Asia) has to align herself with Western market systems in order to demonstrate her “agency”. The concept of “choice” is not free from exploitation, and the systems put in place for surrogacy do not at all prioritize the women that surrogacy supposedly “empowers”. A surrogacy contract will appear financially attractive to poor women with the payment being marginal compared to the time invested in the service. The formal language of the contracts in addition to cultural barriers often discourage these Asian women from reporting exploitation or seeking help, which, in turn, restricts the surrogate mother’s understanding of what they have signed and any information on regulations that could have protected them

Taiwan continues to be influenced by Western trends, from gender ideology to the commercialization of women’s wombs for profit. The DPP, the political party of both the former and incoming presidents, has said that the surrogacy act should be amended to allow single women and female same-sex couples to receive assisted reproduction so that they do not have to risk going abroad and spending a lot of money on procedures. While I am also resolutely in favor of same-sex parenting, I am angry that Taiwan is currently leading the way in destigmatizing a deeply unethical practice. Rather, they promote the idea that one must use their wealth to rent women’s wombs, whilst child welfare authorities are struggling to find foster or adoptive parents for those many children in care. There is no tabloid fawning over those unwanted babies in Taiwan, or anywhere else in the world.

Follow the Money

Public opinion on surrogacy in Taiwan has been divided, and discussions on the topic have involved ethical, legal, and cultural considerations. But in the end, I believe that Taiwan will allow commercial surrogacy into the country. Why? Because it will bring in a lot of money. It’s as simple as that. There is simply too much money to be made from it. Already commercial surrogacy agencies in Taiwan take huge sums of money to place couples with foreign surrogates. And when there is money to be made from women’s bodies, the sharks will circle.

Advocates of the surrogacy industry, encompassing both profit-driven medical professionals and affluent infertile couples capable of purchasing a child, contend that women receive generous compensation for their "services" and are therefore not subjected to exploitation. They assert that it is within a woman's right to utilize her body as a workplace, akin to a vending machine. This narrative closely mirrors the arguments put forth by supporters of prostitution, emphasizing personal choice. However, I maintain the perspective that all forms of surrogacy involve exploitation. These women are reduced to mere vessels, their essential human needs often overlooked in favor of prioritizing the desires of the "commissioners" who claim ownership of the developing baby.

Despite the availability of children who need homes, surrogacy will be the primary choice for the wealthy on this island nation. Unfortunately, the ethical fix for delayed pregnancy, not wanting stretch marks, for same-sex couples, or even for infertility, is not to exploit women. No one has the “right” to have their own biological child, and certainly, no one has the right to use a woman’s body for their personal benefit.

To quote feminist writer Rachel Klein; “Pared down to cold hard facts, surrogacy is the commissioning/buying/renting of a woman into whose womb an embryo is inserted and who thus becomes a ‘breeder’ for a third party.” While many people have strong emotional desires to have children, there is no “right” to have a child genetically related to you. The moral claim for surrogacy is an illusion.

To most, childhood is regarded as an innocent, nostalgic time filled with fun and freedom before the cruel nature of reality inevitably hits one hard, when and how heavily the truth of this world rears its ugly head to the innocent predetermined by things out of one’s control and thereby forcing the unfortunate to prematurely mature.

Girlhood, in particular, centers the experiences of female children. But what exactly does girlhood entail? There's way too much controversy around this topic. What does it mean to be a girl?

Makeup, princess/fairy dresses, pink poorly painted nails, sparkly fluffy rainbow unicorns, going to the mall, whispered conversations between strangers in bathroom stalls as they exchange hygiene products under the stall divider things, or playing truth or dare at sleepovers as you gossip and fawn over boys... when you hear the word "girlhood", which of these caricaturized Hollywood-movie-like stereotypes come to mind? do you think of Dylan Mulvaney's infamous "Days of Girlhood" series on TikTok? Is girlhood prancing around in the woods in heels giggling while being scared of bugs?

Is girlhood a universal experience? Is it a state of mind/way one acts? Is a "not-yet-mature-enough-to-call-myself-a-woman" just a societal construct, a biological reality for being female? when do "girls" become "women"? Why does any of this even matter, and why is it being debated?

I'm just gonna say right now that the fetishized AGP skirt-go-spinny version of girlhood is far from reality for a majority of girls.

Girls are said to mature faster than boys, both physically and metaphorically. Actually, a lot of women associate girlhood in its entirety with trauma and abuse, and some people seem to praise transwomen for their sparkly-lens view of girlhood for some reason which makes absolutely no sense but that's not related rn.

The easiest way to know what something means is by reading the dictionary definition of these words.

so, what is girlhood? Google says "the state and time of being a girl"

huh. then what is a girl?  "girl" means "female child".

now here's a big one, what is " female"?

before I answer that, here is some backstory: I am a teenage, Muslim, woman of colour. I was lucky enough to grow up in Canada since my parents immigrated here to give us a better life but things were still very difficult for me growing up.

Oh, and by white feminism, I don't mean that white women are evil, white feminism usually refers to how this certain brand of feminism centers the experiences of middle-class white women or whatever leaving WOC and the poor to be ravaged to shreds by the wolves, but by white feminism I mean that gender ideology centers the experiences/worldview/feelings/"reality" of some of the most privileged people on the planet: Homophobic, misogynistic, white/first-world-country-residing human heterosexual males, "transbian" people, as they like to call themselves. I'll elaborate on this later, and here's an article that really inspired me to write this, but anyway, let me finish my story.

I was still raised according to the sexist desi culture my parents brought with them so I grew up being taught that my needs always came second to men's.

In general, As someone at the near bottom of the hierarchy, I was always taught that I was below others.

Women were supposed to serve men, we were gentle, kind and subservient, we were to do all chores, cook and clean and prioritize accommodating for their comfort even at the cost of ourselves. We be quiet and obeyed. We slave away in the kitchen creating meals while men relax in the living room and wait to be served. Girls take care of kids and do dishes from early childhood while “boys will be boys”. Play video games and be favoured by mothers. Whenever someone’s having a baby they wish for it to be a boy (my grandma always does this, she always wishes they have fair skin too, a lot of colourism and messed up stuff because of it, like how Eurocentric our faces should look to be beautiful, the massages given to babies to try and shape their facial structure, specifically noses, etc). Boys work and support the household financially, women are burdens we need to give money away for (like dowry, thank god Islam does the opposite of dowry with mehr, I love how much rights Islam gave to women). That’s culture. (people always confuse/mix culture and religion/islam for no reason and it's wrong).

We were lesser, we were commodities, we were burdens. We needed to be beautiful and fair-skinned, we needed to hide our bodies and bodily functions, we needed to serve and never fight back. Puberty made things worse, stricter. Maybe before we could play with boys almost as equals, now though? We needed to be ashamed of the fact we were women. things I learned as I went through puberty from my mom was like, to always hide my chest and used menstrual pads, wrap them up in toilet paper before throwing them, because like, how dare I develop during puberty PUBERTY AND GAIN have curves? Cover them up you’ll make the brothers uncomfortable. Allah gives women a break from prayer and fasting when they get their period... but my mom said I must Fake pray to please my brothers. You got your period you’re not allowed to go on the school trip. You’re filthy. Be quiet and obey, don’t tell anyone you get hit, don’t tell anyone you got touched, it brings shame to the family, you need to be housewife material, you also need to be smart and perfect, expectations expectations expectations. Don’t leave the house/be outside at night/after dark. Never walk alone, cover up in modest clothes. There's also the societal thing of " Dress like a slut and you’re asking to get raped".  No one’s going to believe that you got ___. Get married at a young age have kids do chores for your in-laws (after slaving away at home for years), be a housewife know how to cook and clean etc. The more you grow up the more innocence is lost.

This is what girlhood and womanhood is like. I am female, so I’ve been abused in like every possible way, in my other article I wrote on why sexed spaces enrich my life (another detailed read, whoa its weird knowing I wrote a whole article) mentioning trauma like how I was repetitively sexually abused when I was like a toddler by a white boy tenant who was older than me and other males in my home being super abusive, the only good man I met in my life was my dad.

But then again, good things don't last long. Eleven-year-old me could only be reminded of the cruel actuality of existence with my father's sudden diagnosis of stage 4 bile duct cancer.  My life was already hard enough as it was, on top of being the youngest of 7, but, as always, the world did not accommodate me or make it so I would be able to have a somewhat of a normal childhood. The world is not kind or fair, it never was. It cruelly and relentlessly keeps piling more and more hardship onto me, day by day.

Humans forget how tiny and insignificant they are in the grand scheme of things. It is humbling to remember that time will always move on, with or without you. The earth will keep spinning, life will flourish, grass will keep growing and the wind will continue blowing regardless of your existence. Life waits for no one. Time will not wait for you. There was no time for recovery, much less for any of those experiences that childhood is known for. Have you heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs? One has to address more urgent matters like food, water, shelter, those physiological things, then even safety to be able to set that foundation of survival before they can build upon that and do less important things in order of how necessary it is. You have to be alive to find love and belonging, to manage mental health and build healthy self-esteem, to dedicate time to cognitive development, and finally work toward self-actualization. Modern society makes it so many are privileged enough to have been cared for and provided for, making it so many can work on their individual wants and function ideally in a capitalist society based upon individual success. In my case and honestly many others, life was always in survival mode. We cannot reach the stage of self-discovery and focus on wants when we are deficient in basic needs. We cannot properly build on a foundation full of holes.

The truth is, no one is going to come and save you. Everyone is on their own, busy with their own lives, and, in the end, the only person one truly has is themselves. No one else is truly responsible for you or will truly suffer the consequences of what you let happen to yourself other than you. Life will move on with or without you, we are all just another nameless face among many others. no one will stick around with you for your entire existence, the only person forced to stay with you is you. You are the only person that really needs yourself to be cared for. Sure, even though everyone is going through something and no one’s life is perfect, one cannot claim that everyone has had equally hard lives. If life were equitable and accommodating for all, we wouldn’t have to still fight for rights. There is a clear hierarchy in human society.  As long as things like glass ceilings, white privilege, homophobia, islamophobia and racism and all those other forms of oppression and unnecessary hate caused by ignorance that exist, no one will ever be equal or given a fair chance in this world. Being someone who is basically marginalized by society in every way, I can not be blissfully unaware of certain issues like the ones who don’t have to deal with this stuff.

Unfortunately, some people in society think that the world needs to bend backwards to accommodate their narcissism. we need to reframe our whole worldview and life experiences to center them and their bs privileged self-identification. they have the gall to claim to be the most oppressed and vulnerable people in the world and take big words that affect my people like genocide just because someone refuses to play along with their luxury delusions about changing sex or that gender stereotypes actually even matter.

It was isolating to live the way I did, carrying the weight of all the misfortunes I had experienced. My lifestyle had alienated me from my peers and I found difficulty in trying to relate with them. It was as if they were speaking a different language, memories rich with positive, normal children's activities, talking about their food (they got lunches packed by their moms every day! plus they got snacks, and didn't seem to eat cereal that had bugs in it! they could afford hobbies like playing video games, they could talk about luxury shoes instead of having to buy shoes bigger they'll grow into from Walmart every couple of years!) discussions about more topics and interests than I could ever imagine were possible. It was okay for them to be immature, there was no imminent danger for many of them. There was no intense situation that was more important than having time to indulge themselves and develop their personalities.

Why is it that while in elementary school, I had to watch my dad slowly weaken, day by day, and deal with whatever the hell was going on at home that day because of my crazy family but while at school I would silently observe my classmates (ngl I was lucky to even be in school and have classmates but anyway) cheering about going on the expensive ski trip or the camping trip, bragging about all the games and places their parents bought them but still wanting more. More? What seemed like a dream come true to me was not enough?

The disorienting Culture shock had introduced yet another layer of conflict and unknowns that I desperately tried to rationalize. I didn’t know what to believe and, as I was, I had to think twice before every action, and craft an appropriate response to every situation. I had to consider how I could never afford to go on some of those trips, lest I be a burden upon my family.

My mind was always busy, calculating ways to keep myself safe and keep my priorities straight. I could not afford to be vulnerable. I thought ahead and reflected as I desperately tried to guide myself on my own. I could not afford to make mistakes and I had to play my part. I had to be the mature child, or rather, the child nobody had to worry about. Someone being told that they are mature for their age isn’t anything about them acting adult-like, it’s just code for how they are acting like someone without needs. This phrase is a great way for adults to manipulate and ensure these low-maintenance children stay less of a hassle. A technique to prey upon the insecurity and innate desire in every child to grow up and be independent, the feeling of freedom and control they expect to get to give them a sense of satisfaction and the feeling of having an identity that they mean something, that they are unique and important… just a single sentence that can misguide a child and tear them away from their dependence upon their guardian despite them not having the mental capacity to do. It is an effective trick, it surely has the pedophiles’ seal of approval, that's for sure.

My mind was always chaotically occupied, aware of and trying to make sense of multiple, conflicting perspectives of reality while crumbling under the weight of knowing that the cancer, like a parasite sucking away at his life force, was deteriorating the man who was the foundation and stability of my family. It was all just unfathomable.

Like any young child, my parents were like God to me. All my naive, developing sponge of a brain could understand was what I had been exposed to up until that point. Were humans really that fragile…? Even my father? My father is the strongest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet, a man who supported the entire family and more on his shoulders alone, without ever faltering or complaining. An immovable mountain, that, despite its intimidating stature, was loving and kind. He was home, safety, warmth, and peace, always carefully nurturing every life no matter if the recipients are grateful or not. He was the provider, but just like every kind and selflessly giving resource, he was taken advantage of.

It is always the giving that are abused, taken advantage of, and eventually destroyed by the ungrateful. My father was the ideal man, but what is the perfect man other than one that has fallen prey to adhering to all expectations and stereotypes that he must conform to?

My dad flawlessly played out all the roles he needed to, from being a father, a hardworking immigrant/employee, a Muslim man, a brother, a son, a husband… there were multiple roles, each with standards and expectations seemingly set in stone by human society that he had to conform to. Just like a mountain, he stood strong, yet even the strongest rock is eroded by a misplaced stream of water, like the tiny, individually insignificant droplets of water that slowly went drip drip drip from the roof onto the driveway, over time creating a huge crater. Everything piles up and destroys you if you are not careful. It was my naive view of human mortality that had my hair standing on end as I stood in the hospital late in August, right before middle school began.

Summer is supposed to be a fun break, where one my age goes swimming at the beach to escape the heat, their hearts bursting out of their chest with excitement due to all the freedom and activities they could do before summer ends. No worries or responsibilities, what a dream. My body was too busy trying its best to manage and adapt to conflict occurring both internally and externally.  I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, yet I continued trying my best to fight back. The gentle warmth of the summer sun everyone basked in was instead scalding to me, the radioactive rays of light coming from the outside mutating me into something different, something dysfunctional that will never be the same again. But nothing my body did when faced with the oven that was the external situation was enough to even slightly thaw the sinister, icy fist of reality crushing my heart, ready to shatter me into nothingness. But I kept running. There was no time. The last thing I expected to see when I burst through the curtains of the emergency room was the state of my father. A kind, jolly man, one who was always the pillar of support… how could this once chubby man be the same as the skin and bones sprawled upon the hospital bed?

With much effort, my previously innocent eyes met his… yet all I saw were tired, sunken eyes that I could not register as my youthful father. I walked up with to him a false smile and pretended that my dad wasn’t so weakened that he couldn’t say a word. Yet his once firm hands, the same hands with those gentle fingers, ones that caressed my little cheek to wipe my tears away and carried me to bed when I pretended to fall asleep in the car…those same hands, that were once the most stable grounding thing I’d ever known… despite how they were shaking, despite how bony they had become, despite how much the man attached to them was suffering… these hands reached out to me as I approached the bed and tried to comfort me? I stood in shock as my facade shattered into nothingness. Instead of the 12-year-old standing there, I felt like a child being comforted after a nightmare, the loving hands and the attempted patting of my head… in that state, he is still trying to comfort me? ME? The dam broke. I couldn’t hold the tears back, or keep the smile plastered on my face, I turned away, attempting to hide the distress peeking out of the shattering mask, proof I was too weak and unable to keep the strong exterior that my dad always had.

I was not enough, running like a coward to hide my unworthy face, yet I could not run away from the truth. The clock was ticking and as the days passed, I thought everything was going to be okay. Dad was invincible, right? Yet rage burned inside me as I failed to understand why my cousin was trying to comfort me and ease me into the implication that my father could die…? Was it rage or perhaps bitterness that had me internally seething, I refused to accept these powerful emotions, this hard-to-swallow truth because there's no way it can be the truth, it can't be true… or rather, what does it mean if it is true? I blinded myself, seemingly unaware that this anger redirected toward my cousin was truly just a mask hiding many powerful feelings of pain, insecurity, and fear. I was aware at some subconscious level that I was being irrational, that this hopeless denial I held on so tightly and my unconscious bargaining prayers to god were just coping mechanisms, that my cousin wasn’t to blame, yet my feelings were so intense that I didn’t allow myself to feel or process that. I didn’t want to… but the next time I saw Dad, his skin was cold to the touch. I stared at his body, catatonically, desperation clawing out of the depth of my soul and BEGGING his chest to rise and fall one more time. Just one more time. Time stood as still as my teary eyes remained glued onto the hollow, unrecognizable corpse. There is no way… that could not be my dad… there is no way that could be the same dad that I knew and loved!! That body did not have the warmth and life that my Dad's body usually held, yet even so, I refused to blink, intently watching the mockingly still body for any movement, for any sign of life no matter how small and insignificant. Please, breathe at least one more time. Please. Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease…! But no matter how much mental gymnastics I did, no matter how many hoops I jumped through to try and cope, I could not deny the truth. No amount of hope would change the fact that I didn’t even get to reach my teenage years before I had to experience the death of a parent. I had 0 control over anything.

Most would assume that it is just rebuilding yourself after this, that there is time for recovery and getting back on your feet after every hardship or trial, but no, I was not that lucky. My life just fell further apart as the impact of my dad's passing had torn apart everything I knew of life until that point. There was no time to sit and process, no time to bandage the gaping wound in my chest. It took the moment of his last breath to completely turn my life around for the worse, and it wasn’t merciful enough to let it end there.

After all, everything has consequences. The domino effect of my father's death was like rubbing salt in the wound… no, it was not as simple as that, it was as if someone dug into the wound and ripped it apart with their bare hands, never to heal again, never to be the same again. We were all thrust into a world unknown, one that my dad single-handedly shielded us from as the sole provider of the household. You never know what you have until it’s gone. Ignorance is bliss, but our ignorance and complete dependency on Dad rendered us useless as we watched in horror at everything falling apart. we were all so young, and our dad was the only one financially supporting us. My mom is a housewife, she doesn't know how to speak English much less do all the things that were now her responsibility. Most of my siblings were still in school, two in high school, three in uni, one graduated, and one taking a break from uni to take care of her kids… there was one working yet he was unreliable, selfish, and toxic. Was the emotional damage worth the bit of rent he gave when he felt like it? To give him a point of leverage he could use to manipulate us?

School was 6 hours a day, and I spent the remaining 18 hours at home. As a 12-year-old at the time, all I truly knew about life thus far was my family/home life and whatever it is I learned over the eight years I attended school. Father's death was a great change, and to cope with change, one takes comfort in what they know, clinging on for dear life to what they know for a fact will ground them as they are plunged into true depths of despair and help them accept and move on, right? To deal with grief you reconcile with loved ones over shared memory.. and eventually, adapt to the new normal. But… Why is it that everything I knew of life was completely shattered like glass?

All these years, I knew only of my family to be my main support, for whatever guidance they could give me or that I’d learn by observing… the death of a parent usually brings everyone together to mourn and take comfort in each other. In general, siblings are the only people to share the same traumas with you and have relatively the same upbringing and views… but why is it that my family broke apart? Why did my siblings move far away like it was every man for themselves? Why was I all alone, if not even more so? Was it the situation or just myself that makes it so? We didn’t have much money as it was but now even more so... I just graduated elementary and now had to attend a new school, I barely had friends but I lost all those too. There was so much confusion and conflict between every aspect of life. Everything was different. I didn’t know what to do, no one told me what to do… I was expected to already know.

I did what I could to go with the flow and adapt. I had little control over anything but myself. I attended school, tried to keep things small and manageable. I attended my new middle school and made a new friend or two. I did what I thought I was supposed to do. I started some new anime to try and cheer myself up because anime always cheered me up. I clung to that, was it escapism? I found difficulty managing myself, my dishevelled appearance was now my new normal. Everything was different, everyday there were new problems, new changes, everyone did what they needed to do independently to move on. Move on, move on, move on. Leave home and do what you need to do. Everyone is moving in with life even though they are hurting. Why can’t I move on? I’m mature for my age, right? I can take care of myself?

My mom was a complete wreck after losing her husband. Understandable… I’ll take on the weight of doing what I can to help her. That’s the least I can do as a daughter, that is what I’m expected to do. I don't want to be a burden, I’ll take on the weight of managing myself. Guiding myself. I will treat her like I’d want to be treated. Mom smiles when I get good marks. Get good marks and please your family! Do what you can to make everyone happy again. It hurts seeing them suffer, it hurts having to suffer. I’d know. That’s the least I can do. I have to make everyone else happy, even at the expense of myself. Be strong like Dad, don’t crack or break. Smile. Become successful, look at how smart you are! More pressure, more weight. More expectations.

I was so... afraid when I started going through puberty. I was so scared when my chest started growing bigger than b cup. I didn’t want to be viewed as a sexual object. I didn’t want to be raped/sexually abused again. In middle school, there were always... lingering hands, brushing against my curves. I convinced myself that maybe it was unintentional, 'maybe the boys did it by accident? they touched me like that because their friend had a crush on me, I do not know what sort of power play that is and why I was an object in the game... but damn, I was so scared to be a girl, I wanted to bind my chest so tight that my ribs would break, I am a brown girl so I am hairy, I had a mustache and a unibrow and hairy arms and legs and I could easily pretend to be a boy.  I would have done anything to escape the oppression, I could've been captured by the gender cult because I was the perfect victim, I was never that feminine, and I like girls, I thought I was defective, I thought looking more masculine would make me safer when I walk outside, the fear of males was real. my body issues were definitely caused by trauma. To this day I have some sort of eating disorder, I do not eat... I rarely drink water, I am severely mentally ill (and I'm getting better!) but I am sane compared to those entitled cult members. If I was a boy I would be safer, I would be strong, I could be me. but I didn't become a boy, y'know why? because that's impossible and there's no point. Wake up, there is no escape, this is reality. Y'all are failing and harming the actual most vulnerable people in society wit your luxury beliefs.

Everything is adding up. When I barely get the hang of the situation a new issue pops up. Each falling domino piece added a crushing weight to the ever-growing accumulation of anguish that was my psyche. I can’t keep up… repress and avoid, try to manage what you can. Try to keep up with what you can. But this mess would not be addressed just yet, it would be swept under the rug and pushed under the bed, repressed into every crevice until I eventually combusted… but that is a problem for later, right? It can be addressed later… right? There's no time now… there are bigger problems to address. Yes, Priorities. But… when will there be time for things I unknowingly deem insignificant? Seemingly insignificant things that pile up and become an even bigger problem?

Just live on… keep living.. suffer quietly until you die. That’s all I knew. That’s all I observe.  That’s all I thought I could do. Isn’t that what my dad did? It was too much. Way too much. I can’t handle it. My life is naturally in a constant state of chaos. I tried to cope with creating a rigid structure of what to do, what is expected of me, what to become. I stuck to what I knew, what I was taught. It was like a broken record: Do what you can. Please everyone. please god. live for others. help and value others more than yourself. Being a good person is happiness. Being a good person will get you loved. Treat people the way you’d want to be treated, even though they’d never do the same for you. I don’t want people to hurt and suffer as I do. Be quiet, do what he says. Be quiet, obey. Your needs don’t matter. This is normal. You are not normal. pretend to be normal. Mental health is stigmatized, no one will support you. You are smart, you can manage yourself and figure it out. Be grateful for what you have, people have it worse. Your problems are nothing compared to what they can be. Be happy. Pretend to be happy? I don’t care. I don’t care anymore. Why don’t I care? Pretend to be what you’re supposed to be, not what you want to be, you cannot be who you want to be. repress. avoid. deteriorate. Become dysfunctional.

It is a cycle, as most things are. Everything is interconnected, and humans are generally a product of their environment. We behave like little mirrors, all our experiences and how we react to them are reflected in who we are today and in every action we make. Our brains are like sponges, especially during childhood. We learn from experiences and act based on what we learned. We never stop learning, no matter at what stage. Childhood is crucial for development. Have a happy, healthy childhood and you’ll most likely grow up to be a happy, healthy, functional adult. There is a reason why cycles of abuse like generational trauma don’t stop unless one consciously puts extra effort to make it stop.

My friend often complains to me about her dad. It really hurts… like at least you HAVE a dad?? Aren’t you happy your family is small and therefore has a close bond with you? That they try their best?? There is no point in comparing, though, I understand… it is just painful that even though I’ve been set back by my experiences I still have to fight and make up for it when others can go further than me because of their advantage. The system in our society, capitalism, is really flawed. It is built on oppression, on exploitation. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There is inequality everywhere in this patriarchal society. The world runs on money, greed and power, we abandon morals because of these things. We cannot fight back against China for literally committing genocide of innocent people because of the abnormal amount of power they have in this world. None of us have power, the ones who do only prove how much power corrupts. Some people are lucky, some people are not. Privilege is a problem, no one will wait for you or accommodate you. Look at it this way: We are all in a race, but there isn’t a set starting line. Some people are ahead of others, getting an unfair headstart. Some people have obstacles in their way or weights attached to their legs. Some people are way behind the starting point… you get the point.  There are so many factors that play into success, and luck is a big one. If you aren’t lucky that’s just too bad for you.

No one talks about it and actively silences those who do try to advocate against the discrimination of half the human population. People who’ve live through it aren’t lucky enough to deny its existence, we’re not privileged enough to deny it exists. In fact, our desperate pleas for help are now “evil” and I really don’t understand… my parents have come from a place where it’s illegal to tell people the sex of their baby until it’s born because of the disproportionate rates of female infanticide. Not that it stops them from murdering the baby after it’s born, and even if the baby girl survives, she gets treated like a commodity just because she is from the female sex. The subjugation of females begins THE SECOND OUR SEX IS OBSERVED IN THE WOMB. And like, while it is less in first-world countries it still exists there too. Why do people pretend the sexes are not biologically different? Why do people get offended about the truth, by our existence, by our material reality that is a universal experience? It’s so privileged to reject this, and it’s actively harming us. Every aspect of my identity/existence is marginalized, I can’t escape or pretend this doesn’t exist because me and MANY OTHER GIRLS are living through it, dying because of it, constantly getting pushed aside and ignored to please entitled individuals who live in a privileged bubble and are at the top of the hierarchy, because my life is ALL about pleasing others and being kind just because of my biological female sex that I never chose. There is FGM too, a cruel practice that is unnecessary and Doesn’t even help girls in any way.

like when I was little I was pretty tomboyish since I grew up close in age to my brothers. even my cousin, she's a year younger than me and she feels insecure about her femininity because her family is mostly boys and she is tomboyish too, her voice is deep,  she doesn't live up to a lot of stereotypes and beauty standards, she likes anime like me, we both had a talk about it and I opened up yo her a lot. were both desi girls, her family treated her a certain way bc she's a girl too, she always even at like age 9 would have to cook and make chai for the guests, she and I both were forced to babysit our sister's kids, etc. her house was pretty violent too and ger parents uninvolved, mine were also busy too cause they had so many kids and were tired and we're the youngest girls so we got neglected but anyway.

I remember during middle school my sister-in-law would just give her baby to me when I got home and I'd be taking care of him for the whole evening and get no homework done. I was just everyone's official babysitter for free, they'd dump their kids on me and didn't have a choice. I didn't have a choice in many things I was dragged around and forced to doll up, I'd ruin the family's reputation if I didn't, it was my role, something expected of me, my place in the family and I didn't want to be a burden.

I really wanted to be a normal girl and stuff and that meant getting a dollhouse but I of course also didn't wanna be a burden or waste money so I made my own out of cardboard and paper. similarly, me and my brother used to play with our hands like they were action figures having an epic battle, he used to make sound effects too and he made our hand/doll/action figures fight, etc. Actually, toys shouldn't even be gendered really but it's profitable to uphold this system and actually, they're making it worse since back in the day they didn't even care as much about colours!

I learned the hard way that life will never be the same and I cannot become the Fatima that existed before the hardship. I can not undo the impact that my experiences have had on me, they will be part of my life forever, and now all I must do is accept it and see what I can do from here. Regrets get you nowhere, you cannot change the past. It’s not anyone's fault that they were victims of misfortune, life doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t matter how kind you are, how Everyone just has to deal with the trials life hurls at them.

My life has shaped me into someone that I don’t even know if I’m happy with, and it is very difficult to accept all the changes in my lifestyle and within myself. I can’t give up. Yet there is always a ray of hope that comes with the future. The feelings and experiences are valid, but that doesn’t mean that I must continue to suffer. Feelings are not bad, they are meant to protect us, but not all thoughts are rational. It is important to question thoughts, yet not so much that you are stuck analyzing every single thought ever. Life is about balance, a balance that my experiences and lack of knowledge skewed my views of.

Many are not fortunate enough to establish healthy habits, to be guided and taught coping strategies, for some it comes naturally, but for some, they do not have the privilege to build upon that. Just because we are behind doesn’t mean that we can’t learn and change. Even if it takes us extra work, we do deserve to feel better. I've got a long way to go but I’ve learned that maybe there are things that I can kind of control, that I can move on and get my life back on track. I can still get back on my feet, supports are there, and just because I’m set back doesn’t mean I won’t recover. Better late than never. I am just as capable as anyone else. Life has meaning only if you give it meaning.

So perhaps it is true that a strange childhood and unpleasant experiences were very detrimental to me, my view of the world, and my mental health. Humanity is foolish, and when the sparkly lens of childhood fades away one is filled with despair at the state of the world… but, that doesn’t mean everything is all over.

sometimes I try to tell people my story or try to explain to them,  but I don’t even know where to start with their replies, like, their arguments are very unsound and close-minded.  pointing out the absurdity of their statements and some of their misguided, surface-level views in general.

Whether or not they have the reading comprehension to understand is not my problem, but if they don’t read a word of what I wrote and try to attack me over things I answered in my threads then I just know that there is no point in having a conversation with them, and they really need to reevaluate themselves and what they're standing for because it definitely isn’t freedom of self-expression and body autonomy like they claim.

A lot of their claims are based on nothing but accusations, and they often seem to be putting a lot of unnecessary anger in place of any actual logic. They should Take a deep breath and think logically, as close as they can get to not seeing things through a biased lens, and look at the full picture. The first step is acknowledging that opinions and perspectives other than yours can exist. The world does not spin around you or anyone else, we share this earth, and if you cannot understand this there is no point in reasoning with you.

The struggles of each group are unique to themselves and do not mesh well together, a better solution has to be made to accommodate for everyone’s needs to be somewhat met and actually work. There are better compromises than removing decades of women's rights activism to give way to another "marginalized" group. Both are struggling in their own ways, ways that those who do not suffer in that way have no right to speak of what it’s like because they’ve never truly experienced it.

This isn’t a competition, we are not in the oppression Olympics. Do you think people who do not have a choice but to be born with undeniable traits out of their control want to be a victims? To be seen as subhuman? To not be seen and heard? Why hurt one struggling group to help another? To silence views and people and be the one to yell louder than the other side of the argument.

The youngest child throws a tantrum, screaming crying and blowing things out of proportion to selfishly disservice their siblings and get them punished, pointing fingers and going after pity points to be unfairly coddled by the authority figures that are their parents and feel superiority.

We tolerate a lot, but this is getting ridiculous. How many freedoms are stepped over when eliminating sex-only places? How many issues that these same-sex rules were set in place to combat are being reintroduced? Goodbye to religious freedoms, safety and privacy (separation can even help women psychologically) but I’ll elaborate on this later. How far will this be pushed? Where is the limit?

I do not hate trans people. While I do not agree with the ideology as it strays away from body dysmorphia, I majorly dislike the regressive misogynistic and homophobic views and approaches that a bunch of people throw around in favour of the trans community. No one is truly winning from these changes and views.

You blow things out of proportion because you do not have a perspective outside of your own biased and privileged lens, and you refuse to listen to criticism. So ask yourself: why is it we separate males and females in the first place? Why is it necessary for these laws to exist? There is a lot to consider, the world is larger than just one group's feelings. Be aware of your privilege, many factors come into play.

The generally weaker sex shouldn't get taken advantage of and suffer even further under the patriarchy, we do not want to see more rape and sexual harassment so we’ve separated the sexes. And don’t jump to the conclusion of “Oh she thinks all trans people are rapists?!?!4$29191? what a bigot/terf/transphobe/fascist” I am not even talking about trans people here.

After everything I have been through being who I am, buzzwords and illogical mantras do not hurt, some of these conclusions are so idiotic, twisting words and making illogical conclusions to vilify someone and “justify” the harassment and bullying many of you dish out to silence those who are tired of being controlled after years of suppression. Years of having the short end of the stick for traits out of their control.

Why is it fighting for and to maintain women's rights being treated as a crime again? Threats and silencing are nothing new to women, it’s ridiculous that women's rights are still up to debate by men. Redefining words and abolishing laws that don’t need to be changed is just regressing society even further.

You can change words but you cannot change reality, women and men are simple terms that describe biological states of being that have been constant within the human race for centuries. Intersex is the only other, albeit less frequent, "variation" of bodies one can be born in, but then again they can be categorized as either male or female, plus they are an extremely minute percentage of the population. The binary of sex is because of gametes. Large gametes mean female, and smaller gametes mean male. there is no third gamete. Gender is a social construct, so I don’t even need to get into that.

This is basically making everything unisex, which literally goes against statistics and the needs of our sex class. it is such a surface-level answer to this issue, it's insane! completely detached from reality! Public Showers, changing rooms and washrooms are separated by sex for a common need for privacy and consideration for safety. To prevent sexual harassment/abuse, from groping, and unwanted sexual advancements to harassment on the streets. a good quote about this is "Good men stay out so bad men stand out".Keeping males out ensures we can witness and safeguard women and girls by keeping all males out so its harder for predatory men to access children without getting caught, preventing it altogether in some cases.

Some countries have a lot of women-only spaces, like women-only train cars, and many countries have special parking spaces for women, some even just for pregnant women, be it for safety or accessibility.

It is quite beneficial for people with similar problems to lean onto each other over their shared suffering, to seek refuge and comfort in each other, there is immense value in being able to speak with same-sex people who can truly understand issues related to their similar biological functioning and the oppressive views of society based on the sexed-body one is born in and how it affects their lives, the solidarity that comes with the support as a GROUP. Women can be abused by men, and men can be abused by women. Victims of sexual assault can and will feel incredible distress at seeing something that reminds them of their traumatic experience. They can sometimes even feel how it felt as if their trauma is happening again, It is just a reminder of how much biological sex matters.

Women are a class of people, and by removing what it is that gives them the title of woman you’re just pushing society backwards. Sure, not all women menstruate, but ONLY women can menstruate. Not all women can carry children but ONLY women can carry children. Like, only women possess the biological capacity/capability/parts to be able to do these things. In sports teams, biological men facing against women is objectively unfair.

It doesn’t matter how much estrogen they’re on or how much plastic surgery they‘ve undergone (is a transracial person the race of their choosing? From the Oli London dude who transitioned into a Korean or whatnot, who btw is kind of a legend for defending JK Rowling, was there not a huge fuss over cultural appropriation and racism.. why does this not apply to this situation? If trans-racial people are just transracial people, then Trans"women" are trans"women", using regressive stereotypes to try and prove you’re the thing you transitioned into is wild), their anatomy is that of a male and therefore gives them an advantage over the bodies of biological females when it comes to sports and Olympics.

Trans"women" possess a lot of women's sports achievements, from weight lifting to swimming… this is a controversial and ethical dilemma of sorts, but it’s most definitely unfair to biological women. Women are discriminated against because of sex, denying this is ridiculous.

Across the world, babies are being aborted just because they have a vagina instead of a penis, some measures have been taken which remove the right of parents to know wherever the baby is a girl or a boy through ultrasound, to prevent this from happening. Even so, some parents go to the extent of killing the baby after she is born, or even going through with honour killings if she disobeys sometime in the future or something.

Women are still fighting for rights to this day, fighting against glass ceilings, fighting for body autonomy, fighting against being denied so many things just over their sex, women even today are bravely advocating for a better future, for not only the female sex but for men who suffer under these ideologies too. Some “feminists” are extreme, going to the point of becoming anti-men or whatever… they give people who actually want positive change a bad reputation, there are bad eggs in every group, I suppose.

What happened to getting rid of gender roles… fighting for women to have equal opportunities like men like a right to education, of not having to deal with discrimination in the workplace or healthcare, of doctors dismissing your symptoms, of how men in the parliament vote against even a woman who carries the child of her rapist or a woman who has a fatal pregnancy where both the mother and child are highly unlikely to survive… why do they take these rights away? Not all countries are at the same level of advancement, all these “ism”s and "phobia"s and “ite”s that are thrown around, all these words being butchered into meaningless terms through misuse and changing definitions… where are we going as a species? Where do we draw the line?

The world does not run on black-and-white ideals, there is a HUGE gray area. Biological sex is a reality that cannot be erased, no amount of mental gymnastics and confirmation bias when it comes to scientific studies about it will change this fact. It will not make decades of ongoing sex-based violence and oppression magically disappear. And no, I know someone will blame me for not mentioning how oh-so DIFFICULT it is to be trans to dismiss my argument, or hide behind the names of “what about infertile women/intersex/suicidal teens/etc (as if they actually care about them and not just using them as a gotcha)” but as I said before, I’m not saying trans individuals don’t need protection and help or that they deserve to be raped or something, none of that! I am just saying that we have to be considerate to other people too, and that safe spaces for trans people can exist WITHOUT trampling over other crucial rights and freedoms, is it truly justice to potentially harm and distress others to have another group not feel that way? Not in the privileged way of “dem gosh darn immigrants are stealing all the damn jobs” and getting angry that now the people like the individual can't dominate over other classes of people and have more competent workers to compete within the field they desire.

Just how some people want unisex bathrooms or public spaces doesn’t mean everyone wants every washroom to be unisex and that’s OKAY! We don’t live in a perfect world and money doesn’t come out of thin air, that doesn’t mean it’s right to force women to accept and do all this hard work yet by consequence erase the hard work they did to get their rights that are now being abolished. And why does no one talk about trans"men"? Like, just like in sports isn’t it unfair for them to face against biological men? Just as estrogen puts trans"women" at a disadvantage against other biological males would the testosterone not boost the performance of trans men if they were pit against biological women?

Besides, What position are Tras in to ignorantly speak for the entire world? To pretentiously explain oppression to ones who suffer and simply refuse its existence? To decide what counts as justice, trauma and rights that every human is allowed to have? To force everyone to accept your views and not allow anyone to disagree even though the things you can will most certainly negatively affect a lot of people? Who chooses what is allowed and what is not? does a biological man truly know what it feels like to have a period, the pain of childbirth, or to overall just to be a woman in a patriarchal society?

Does a white man have any authority to tell a black person anything about their experience with racism is fake? They’ve Nothing more than secondhand accounts to go off, it is just as frustrating as dealing with mansplaining. If you were to substitute any of this with another issue you can truly see how ridiculous this all is. Are all societies The same and have the same views over gender roles and whatever? if countries are wrong do we do colonialism part two and “fix the savages” just like the olden days?

This is not how to bring change or get the respect and support of any other human. Omg the FUNNIEST argument I got was when someone said that there being two sexes is some sort of white supremacist belief like wtf, do these people think people of colour couldn't tell the difference between male and female until a white man came and educated us? were we too stupid to know humans and most animals and even plants are sexually dimorphic? Are we that uncivilized different to you? the racism and sexism that so-called progressives have is mindblowing.

There is so much hypocrisy and double standards here. I understand It may hurt to acknowledge that body dysphoria is a mental illness. ignoring this fact doesn’t make it disappear, it inadvertently just makes the problem worse. Social justice is an inherently good cause and you probably believe you're doing what's best but there's more to this dilemma that you are not considering. I can basically hear some of you scoffing at “why should I listen to someone who is ___” and that is honestly a really sad, egotist worldview some of you have. And do not forget: No one is responsible or obligated to accept or validate anyone else, your problems are your problems alone.

It hurts to hear, sure, but the world is cruel, and we have not advanced far enough as a species to have gotten rid of even basic problems all across the globe. I know denying reality is your specialty and many play along with your fantasy but the world is bigger than you and I, so when making negotiations to create a better plan we have to be OPEN-MINDED and see the full picture.

How can there be justice without EVERYONE'S VOICE and making a plan that is adjusted to help all, that discusses all points of view and determines the best solution? Just because you see it as a solution doesn’t mean everyone does, why is your opinion more valuable than others, why does your voice matter more than others?

It’s easy to fall under the illusion of the bubble that many of us are fortunate enough to live in, but don’t forget there are extremely urgent matters all across the globe, I assume you guys want justice because otherwise, this would just be a self-serving way to get control over others so I encourage you to worry about the other less-privileged humans too. No this isn’t the “kids in Africa are starving that’s why you must eat all your food” argument, I'm not invalidating your struggles but I am trying to give you a bit of perspective.

If you want everyone to support you, you need to support others, isn’t that part of things being “fair”? If another kid wants to blow out the birthday girl's birthday cake candles I won’t let the birthday girl's candles get blown out just because the other kid would cry if they don’t get their way, that other kid can blow their own candles out later, the birthday girls Candle is important to her, it’s her special day and it would not be fair to let the other kid ruin it. That doesn’t mean I hate the kid it means I love them both and want to keep peace, a good functional relationship and home. for the greater good.

Let’s all work together and live in a more accepting, logical and understanding world...

...a utopia wherein we didn't have to be trapped in this never-ending cycle outside of our control due to systems built up over millennia, wherein people didn't have to suffer like me and could actually live out their potential and advance the world instead of having their hope squandered, a perfect, equitable world where people weren't virtue signalling hypocrites and actually cared...

Imagine a woman is at a party. She meets someone who appears friendly and engaging at first glance. However, she pays attention to certain cues that could indicate potential risks. Are they using aggressive body language? Are they evasive when answering questions? Are they slurring their speech? She trusts her gut feeling. If something about the person makes her feel uneasy or unsafe, she takes that feeling seriously, as intuition can sometimes pick up on subtle cues that the conscious mind might miss. We have all, at some time or another, been that woman at a party.

"Thin slicing" is a concept that originated in psychology and has relevance for me as a feminist student of philosophy, particularly in discussions related to perception, intuition, and decision-making. In psychology, thin-slicing refers to the ability to make quick, accurate judgments or decisions about a person or situation based on a limited amount of information. This concept was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book "Blink," where he explored the idea that our subconscious mind can rapidly and accurately process small amounts of information to form judgments or make decisions. In the field of epistemology, which is concerned with the nature of knowledge, there is a debate about the reliability of intuition as a source of knowledge. Thin-slicing can be seen as a form of intuitive judgment, where individuals quickly assess a situation or person based on the limited information available.

The world of online activism has undoubtedly reshaped the way we engage with social and political issues. It has provided a platform for marginalized voices to be heard, but it has also given rise to a disturbing trend – the harassment of feminists who don’t tow the gender ideology line. We’ve all experienced it…the ubiquitous “TERF” name-calling, the threats of cancellation (often ironically from people who aren’t exactly high-ranking on the social hierarchy), the messages sent under safe cover of FB messenger so reminiscent of junior high…delete her or we can’t be friends!

Often, these harassments are rooted in the rapid judgments and stereotypes that underlie thin-slicing, exposing the insidious ways bias persists in the digital age. Thin-slicing as described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book "Blink," refers to the human ability to make snap judgments based on limited information. It's a cognitive shortcut that helps us navigate complex situations quickly. This tool, innate in us humans, has been a powerful one that women especially have used for generations to mark danger. Imagine you are walking down the street at night, alone, and you briefly encounter someone you've never met before. You exchange only a few words, and you notice certain physical characteristics like facial hair, a deep voice, and a masculine clothing style. Based on these limited cues, you may quickly infer that this person is male, and that you should be wary of your surroundings. We women have been doing this from the beginning of recorded history. Our brain is like a computer which processes knowledge instantly to give a first impression. Thin-slicing allows us to make decisions in person, quickly, that can be as good as those made cautiously and deliberately. This technique can be learned through practice and controlled to the point when you know you can trust your instincts or not.

Part of the problem with gender identity ideology is that we are told to no longer trust our instincts, our natural gut reaction, thin-slicing, and to train ourselves to lie. No, this isn’t a man, this is a WOMAN. The “real self” is something other than the physical body, in a new form of Gnostic dualism, and we must disregard what we see in front of us. Gender identity can sound a lot like religious identity, which is determined by beliefs. But those beliefs don’t determine reality. A person either is or is not a man, regardless of what anyone—including that person—happens to believe. I find it hard to believe that, a few years ago, feminists’ rallying cry was #BelieveAllWomen. How times have changed.

Thin-slicing can be a very powerful tool that allows us to get below the surface of a situation quickly. However, it becomes problematic when these judgments are tainted by preconceived biases and stereotypes, which is often the case in online spaces. In the digital realm, feminists who question gender identity ideology often find themselves at the center of intense debate.

Here's where thin-slicing comes into play: when individuals encounter anti-genderist feminist ideas, they may immediately resort to quick judgments and stereotypes, without delving into the nuances of the arguments. These judgments may stem from society's deeply ingrained biases about feminists, especially those who challenge the status quo, and gender ideology. The giant computer that is our brain silently crunches all of the data given us: that good people are compliant and faithfully repeat the mantra “transwomen are women”. Those who question it are BAD.

The harassment of feminists online can take various forms, including doxxing, threats, trolling, and character assassination. These attacks often result from thin-sliced judgments that dismiss their ideas and instead target them as individuals. Such harassment has a chilling effect on free speech, as it discourages people from speaking out on controversial issues. It also shows, disturbingly, that one's stated values (acceptance, inclusivity, love) can be utterly incompatible with their attitude (violence, threats, personal attacks) and how they behave in the world.

Thin-sliced judgments often reinforce existing stereotypes about anti-gender feminists, labeling them as "radical extremists." These stereotypes can be used to justify harassment and discredit their arguments without substantive engagement. Instead of engaging in constructive debate, harassers resort to personal attacks, dismissing anti-genderist feminist ideas based on preconceived notions. This stifles important discussions about gender inequality and social justice. Harassment discourages many other men and women from participating in online discussions, limiting their ability to advocate for change and share their perspectives. Rather than engaging in open and respectful dialogue, some individuals resort to quick judgments and stereotypes, dismissing important ideas and contributing to a hostile online environment.

In the past, there was a movement to #BelieveAllWomen and trust our instincts. Today, we find ourselves in a profoundly changed world, where a new generation of young women is being instructed to suppress the fear they might experience in potentially dangerous situations. They are advised not to rely on their intuition and, if they express discomfort in environments like bathrooms, changing rooms, or shelters for survivors of sexual abuse, they are sometimes met with accusations of bigotry and even receive threats.

The message today’s young women are getting is that if their inner voice says it feels wrong when someone with a penis undresses in front of them, or is present when they undress, in a space designated for women, there is something wrong with them. It appears that institutions, politicians, and so-called progressives are happy to sacrifice women at the altar of inclusivity. They demand we keep quiet when we feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Ironically, instead of teaching us to keep ourselves safe and fear violation, the women’s movement teaches us to fear being labeled as bigots.

We are setting a dangerous precedent. Think about the young women watching the way that those of us who speak out are being treated. They will surely conclude that they must suffer to accommodate the small handful of males that want to make everything about them. They are now being given access to female prisons, domestic abuse shelters, rape centers, locker rooms, spas and public toilets, as well as changing rooms.

It would be unreasonable to assume that all individuals who identify as transgender are seeking to harm girls or women. Conversely, it is also unwise and overly optimistic to believe that there are no male predators who may exploit this system. They have, they are, and they will continue to do so. What is particularly disconcerting, however, is that we are pressuring women in general to doubt their own judgment. We are advising girls and women to disregard the discomfort that arises at a subconscious level and to suppress their instincts. When a woman perceives danger, the last thing she needs is for her ability to make sound judgments to be compromised by the additional fear of facing social consequences if she takes steps to protect herself.

And all of us who are abused or who witness the abuse that women who speak up are being subjected to are expected to remain silent. All of us whose little voices, our thin-slicing,  are telling us that there’s something wrong with prioritizing men’s feelings over women’s safety are told we are wrong. Undermining our ability to thin-slice, this fluid, intuitive, non-verbal kind of experience that helps keep us aware and safe, makes us vulnerable. Insight isn’t a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It’s a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out. We have to keep the flame burning.

France has retained a reputation of being the melting pot of numerous ideas, philosophies, and movements that have catalyzed global transformations across the rest of Europe and, subsequently, the world. With the nation and its people known for their quest to challenge the extant status quo and bringing about numerous ground-up upheavals, it comes as no surprise that feminism, too, has a rich history in France. Of particular importance are the works that illuminated the minds of France’s people toward the close of the 18th century. Besides the boiling cauldron that wrought forth the French Revolution, the same period was also quintessential in kickstarting societal recognition of a woman’s role in the world. While today’s bookshelves and reading lists might have a wealth of feminist literature, trying to script the story of feminism’s progress without taking into account French literature’s contributions would only lead to an incomplete exercise.

As the masses aimed to create an established framework for their ambitions of liberty and freedom, the stereotyping and denigration of women became evident through the works of pioneering French feminist writers. This included stalwarts like Simone de Beauvoir and Madame de Staël, who wrote of women breaking free from their expected gender roles. Radical and revolutionary, the consciousness spread rather rapidly with numerous female writers furthering their cause through literary flair. French contributions to the origins of feminism, specifically during the tumultuous era of revolutions are all the more significant. They undoubtedly led to the blossoming of an inalienable ideology of the modern world, which provided women across the world with the freedom they’re innately born with.

The Origins of Feminist Thought in French Literary Circles

The dawn of a coherent feminist approach and the consolidation of women’s demand for equal representation in spheres of public life go back to the chaotic era of the French Revolution. Both men and women played an integral role in curtailing the powers of the monarchy and nobility. However, the role of women in the revolution was seen as controversial despite their significant contributions to the concretization of the revolution’s aims and ideals. Women’s participation in demonstrations and riots over affairs such as rising prices was seen as unseemly even by male revolutionaries who were protesting against similar issues, and the sentiment against women consolidated in the Legislative Assembly by 1793. Women were still viewed in their stereotypical roles and were held to absurd standards from earlier notions of womanhood.

The dawn of the Age of Enlightenment also witnessed the questioning of religious impositions and the arrival of individual rights. Writers like Rousseau, Diderot, and Voltaire stirred the pot by questioning existing hierarchical paradigms and advocated strongly for a humanistic ideal that drew from Renaissance-era awakenings surrounding the role of man. Invariably, the rights of women, too, were put into question and the othering of women in this process of catharsis was very prevalent during the French Revolution. Regardless, pioneering female literary figures like Madame de Staël and Olympe de Gouges penned works that would set the stage for a renewed identity for women in the social as well as creative spaces. Strong female leads became the norm in de Staël’s works like Corinne and Delphine, while de Gouges went on to write the radical Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen in response to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The declaration proved to be a key document that laid the foundations going right up to the Suffragette movement in France, calling for equal rights and voting privileges for women.

The closing years of the 18th century brought forth several feminist thinkers who indulged not only in literary expression but also in intellectual discourse, which would set a benchmark for arguments in favor of women’s rights. Literary gatherings and salons with women thinkers spearheaded the discourse on pitting women’s rights as a key issue in public thought. Intellectuals like Madame Geoffrin organized and participated in numerous discussions that brought about the necessity for women to carve out an independent identity for themselves beyond the traditional gender roles ascribed to them and one beyond societal expectations of a woman. While the transition into the 19th century was still rife with gender stereotypes and a considerable degree of discrimination against renegade women of the time, it became evident that the age-old oppressive structures were finally exhibiting fractures.

First Wave Feminism and Concentrated Effort

Feminism in both French literature and popular French discourse began coalescing into a formalized movement over the 19th century, following a period of healthy synthesis in the initial half of it, succeeded by a more potent effort in the latter part of the century. The ideas generated during the French Revolution, regime changes, and political turmoil took a new form under numerous thinkers. Feminism was conjured as a rebellion not only against mere gender roles but also the overall framework adopted in the immediate aftermath of the revolution. While Enlightenment values still prevailed, female thinkers realized that even the transformative Enlightenment age values defined women only in their roles associated with men and were parroting older tropes, albeit in a repackaged fashion. Writers like Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin wrote powerful works under the pen name George Sand, and explored complex themes like female autonomy and a tapestry of emotions in her popular works Valentine and Indiana. Her works featured strong and independent women in lead roles, offering readers a fresh perspective of what women’s autonomy would seem like at the time. She, too, challenged gender roles by sporting men’s clothing and accessories in her personal life, inspiring other women to rethink their predicaments and resist prevailing gender dynamics in French society.

Works like The Red Virgin furthered the cause of gender reform and were penned by other feminist writers like Louise Michel. On the journalistic front, journals like La Voix des Femmes and La Gazette des Femmes communicated feminist ideals and spoke of women’s rights and autonomy with vigor. These journals were founded by feminist writers including Eugénie Niboyet and George Sand. The othering and complete sidelining of women despite revolutionary change was made more evident throughout the 19th century, essentially making way for the initial leg of first wave feminism in France and French writings.

20th-Century Feminism and Identity

The closing years of the 19th century and the initial decades of its successor allowed symbolism to make its mark across literature, and French literature, too, witnessed rich works with a wealth of symbolist elements. Apart from the rigid structures of earlier works, symbolists preferred to write about the mystical world and the inner workings of the human psyche and the emotions that drive it. Feminist literature became infused with symbolist influence as well. Writers like Rimbaud captured complex depictions of emotional expression through their writings, and the trend was quick to catch on. Women were associated with the element of beauty and mystery, triggering widespread depictions of women as ideal beings who possessed a magnetic aura around them. However, challenges to these notions would soon follow, given that these depictions also stemmed from stereotypes and traditional female gender roles. Both female writers as well as artists aimed to break free from such depictions and do away with the cliché depictions of women as ethereal beings, enigmatic personalities, and seductresses. Playwrights like Rachilde delved into highly provocative themes for their time, which included free expression of female sexuality. Later feminists who came in the latter half of the 20th century would approach earlier symbolist works and critique them at length for subconsciously furthering biases against women and their roles in societal frameworks.

The second half of the 20th century brought about the synthesis of second wave feminism, which furthered women’s interests and autonomy in several other domains. Going beyond the basics, it catalyzed the demands for women to become more active participants in the economy and other aspects of social life including politics. Stalwart feminists like Simone de Beauvoir emerged during this period, enlightening the discourse with a philosophical take on feminism. The mid-1940s and 50s witnessed a slew of French existentialist philosophers who contributed extensively. Beauvoir, too, was an existentialist philosopher who wrote a seminal work—The Second Sex—which, even to this day, is considered to be a foundational text for modern feminism. Beauvoir dealt with feminism like no other contemporary, unpacking the facets of historical ills, the notion of othering, societal marginalization, and subconscious oppressive constructs. Moreover, conceptualizations of how social and cultural roles condense to create a female identity were also outlined in her works. Other writers like Marguerite Duras also explored the requirement for female bodily autonomy—a key element in second wave feminism. Literary figures of the time were also prominent activists, often paving the path for access to abortion and birth control in the medical niche, while also demanding increased economic benefits and incentives for women in the workforce.

Contemporary French Feminism and the Future

Modern French literature from the closing decades of the 20th century and in the 21st century has been a mix of several voices, themes, and reflections. The dawn of intersectional feminism and its adoption by French feminist writers and thinkers has been of major importance in French literary spaces since third wave feminism came to be. Topics such as postcolonial experiences of women from formerly subjugated populations, lives of migrant women, and voices of LGBTQIA+ contributors have been of particular interest. Authors like Virginie Despentes have drawn together complex linkages between identity, sexuality, and feminine expression in their works, illuminating present-day women’s issues. Numerous factors affecting the 21st-century woman have been explored in more recent feminist literature, including elements such as race, trauma, sexual orientation, privilege, and socioeconomic standing. Writers like Chantal Chawaf have paid specific attention to immigrant women and their experiences in current-day France. Feminist literature in France has also fomented considerable activism that has pushed forth metacognition, making the movement more inclusive, bringing women from all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and roles to present a united front for the motley issues faced by them. Advocating for the rights of marginalized groups within literary and feminist spaces has been a key aspect of the movement today.

Literary criticism has been another prominent part of contemporary French feminist literature. An assessment and breakdown of classic works in the language have been attempted by numerous authors, leading to a rich culture of literary critique. Works from celebrated authors such as Victor Hugo and Marcel Proust, too, have been assessed and critiqued for their depictions of women and the undercurrent of othering. Representation and reclaiming perspectives for women have been another integral part of contemporary French feminist works. French writers like Alice Zeniter have also explored convoluted themes of belonging and how it ties to intersectional aspects of women’s issues in her work The Art of Losing. Further, the policing of women’s bodies and their autonomy has been fiercely challenged by contemporary authors like Pauline Harmange.

Overall, French feminism has also had significant implications for the movement across the world. Like all social philosophies, French feminism in literary circles and beyond is still evolving as the world warps with the numerous perspectives put into discourse. The digital revolution and its consequences like the arrival of artificial intelligence will further add varied elements to extant paradigms. As women continue to reclaim their narratives, French literary feminism remains a fine source of both inspiration and insight.

This post was edited several times on 23 August 2023 at after being originally published on 22 August 2023 to include additional information.  These updates appear within the article to assist in a narrative flow based on the time the events occurred, and do not appear at the end of the article.

On Sunday, the Spanish women won the FIFA Women's World Cup in Sydney, Australia by defeating a talented English side 1 - 0.  The team's lone goal was scored by 23-year-old Real Madrid player, Olga Carmona.

This was a team that was not highly favored to win the tournament, despite the depth of talent on the squad and possessing the current balon d'or winner because of behind the scenes issues that saw fifteen players send a letter to the Spanish football federation, RFEF, in September 2022 to say they did not want to be selected for the national team until reforms were made to team management.   At the time, the women did not intend the letter to become public, but the RFEF published the private letter anyway to retaliate against the players and then threatened the players publicly with additional consequences.  Behind the scenes, the players had a few specific complaints.

This included that the coach, José Vilda, required players leave their hotel doors unlocked until midnight so he could inspect their rooms and monitor their activities, that their bags were often checked and searched for no reason, that he was controlling, cold and condescending.  They also had specific footballing complaints like Vilda was not prepared tactically, that his training sessions were poorly run, that the training facilities were not up to modern footballing needs, that they chose to take long bus trips instead of shorter flights which left players tired and exhausted and less ready to play, and that they had made previous complaints which the RFEF had ignored.  Privately, there were also issues with team selection with accusations of favoritism with some of the best players being left off the squad.

While the players had not specifically called for Vilda's resignation, it was clear that they were trying to force him out.  His ability to lead, or not lead, had been an issue for many fans of women's football in Spain and #VildaOut often trended on X, formerly known as Twitter, in the past two years whenever the Spanish team was in action.

This created a tense atmosphere inside the Spanish locker room and inside the community of supporters of Spanish women's football.  This was overlaid onto a culture of club factionalism inside Spain, where the count of how many players from which clubs often has been a huge issue as Spain can sometimes be a country where it is club before country, unless the Spanish team is going to win a major tournament.

All this tension meant the expectations for the Spanish women going into this tournament were reduced.  Only three of nine of The Guardian's women's football writers predicted Spain would make it to the final.  Those three had Spain meeting Australia, Brazil and the United States with Jonas Eidevall, Jeff Kassouf, Kieran Pender all having someone win other than Spain.  Kassouf even mentioned the issues as a potential hinderance to making the final, saying, "In Spain’s case, they have to overcome dysfunction at the federation level".

Spain's victory was amazing because of everything that happened behind the scenes. Spain celebrated like it was 2010, except less prepared because of the heat wave and because local governments underestimated the huge amount of interest Spanish fans had in the team.

There was always a feeling in Spain, and certainly among the more diehard supporters, that the women could win it and it would matter but what came after would be the real story because it would be a moment of reckoning related to all the things that occurred inside the RFEF, including the previous women's coach, Ignacio Quereda,  being fired after years of complaints for doing things like pinching players butts. and saying things like, "Let's see if you take care of yourself: you're fat," and "What you need is a man".  If Spain won, the fear was this day of reckoning may never come.  If Spain lost, that would be sad considering the generational talent Spain has and how much work the women have put in on the club level and through their protests, with four of the original fifteen having made the decision to not make themselves available for team selection because they did not see changes having been made. Among them Patri Guijarro and Mapi León, who should be balon d'or nominees even if they are not going to win but likely lost that chance by sticking to their principles.

It turns out the moments of reckoning did not even need for the game to end before they took place, though some of this would occur later.

‌                                                                       Upload

Vilda grabs the breast of Spain's second trainer

• ‌

During the match, appearing live on Spanish public television's RTVE Channel 1, national team coach Jose Vilda grabbed the breast of the team's second trainer in celebration of a good moment on the pitch.  While he went on to touch some of the male trainers, he did not touch or linger on their nipples nor did he grab their testicles.

Speaking of testicle grabbing, someone else did feel the need to celebrate Spain's win by grabbing testicles.

‌                                                                       Upload

Spain's queen in red, the princess in red with a striped top, and a man grabbing his testicles

• ‌

‌                                                                       Upload

A man grabbing his testicles and thrusting to celebrate Spain's victory

• ‌

Unlike Vilda who went with grabbing a woman's breast, the president of the RFEF, Luis Rubiales, did feel like the moment called for testicle grabbing.  So standing very close to the Spanish queen and the Spanish princess, who is a minor, Rubiales on public television, grabbed his testicles and thrust in celebration of the success of Spanish women winning the World Cup.

The RFEF also felt like this was a moment of celebration.  They were ready on Twitter to celebrate the women's victory, a historic victory, where Spain's women won the World Cup and became only the second nation to have won both the men's and women's World Cup.

‌                                                                       Upload

• ‌

"#VildaIn" the RFEF said in defiance of all those who criticized the federation for allowing this allegedly sexist, controlling, non-tactical coach to stay on.  It was a response to all the critics of the coach who regularly tweeted, "#VildaOut".  That did not go over well.

Vilda, meanwhile, initially celebrated on the pitch with other coaches while his team's players were elsewhere.  Then Vilda's initial comments to the media used the word campeones to describe the team, not campeonas.  Spanish is a gendered language, and his comment could roughly be translated as "men's champions".  His usage of the word was such that even the notorously sexist Real Academia Español criticized him obliquely.

‌                                                                       Upload

• ‌

The masculine word choice reflected criticisms by others of his sexist attitudes, as calling it a victory for men by using the masculine word choice was about center Vilda and his accomplishments instead of the accomplishments of his players.

At this point, with the women celebrating, the RFEF president having grabbed his balls while standing next to the Spanish queen and princess and the coach referring to the women as men's champions in order to include himself among them, it feels like enough of a reckoning.  Except this is Spain.  And this is a federation where RFEF President Rubiales was being investigated for allegedly using RFEF funds for a private party in Granada where six to eight female escorts were hired to entertain guests. Oh, and where Rubiales had been caught criticizing the professionalization of the women's football league in Spain.  This is a country where the RFEF President did not show up to give out medals to the women's Super League winners.  Instead, players had to pick them out of the case themselves, such is the contempt of the federation for an event they hosted.

‌                                                                       Upload

Barça players picking up their winners medals. No one from the RFEF was there to hand them to the campeonas.

• ‌

Of course there was more. How could there not be given the level of dysfunction?

‌                                                                       Upload

Rubiales forcefully grabs the head of a player and kisses her on the lips.

• ‌

Rubiales grabbed most of the women and lifted them up in a "spontaneous display of emotion" after a victory in a match he did not play in.  He did this while standing next to Spain's princess.  When it came to Jenni Hermoso's turn, Rubiales went one further: He grabbed her by the head, and then kissed her on the lips.  This was a situation where there was no way for Hermoso to say no, there was no polite way to extricate herself and any sort of retaliation she took would have led to massive victim blaming.  This is a World Cup winner and a past balon d'or nominee.  She was sexually abused on the world stage, in front of cameras from around the world, by the RFEF President.

Gross. Later, Hermoso was on Instagram live and asked about the kiss, to which she said something like, "I didn't like it but what could I do [in that moment]?"

‌                                                                       Upload

Rubiales kissed more subordinates without their consent after the medals ceremony.

• ‌

Rubiales, the president of the RFEF was not done with non-consensual, non-mutual kissing of his subordinates on public Spanish television.  When one player had taken a camera and was filming herself celebrating, Rubiales decided to photo bomb that moment by kissing her on the cheek to.  He didn't stop to ask something like, "Campeona, ¿un beso por favor?" Nope, he just kissed Olga Carmona.

‌                                                                       Upload

Rubiales posing for the camera

• ‌

The only one who looked comfortable after Rubiales second unwanted kiss was Rubiales as can be seen in the after kiss picture.  She scored the winning goal.  And shortly after this, she learned from the RFEF that her father had passed away.

Bad.  All bad.  But you know, when you're going down this road, well, Rubiales continued to go down this road and into the Spanish women's team locker room and have another chat with Jenni Hermoso.

‌                                                                       Upload

• ‌

Among the topics Rubiales apparently talked to Hermoso about his how he'd love to marry her. Er.  What?  Hermoso, who had said on Instagram she didn't like the kiss, has had her body language extensively analyzed in this widely shared image.  While Rubiales has his arm around her to prevent escape, Hermoso tried to put as much physical distance using her hips between herself and the man who assaulted her on the world stage.

At this point, the story starts to really gain traction. Spain has an active feminist community and a lot of very avid football fans.  Twitter and other social media start complaining. At this point, two of Spain's major sport dailys, Diario AS and Marca, decided it was time to support the RFEF president through tweets and news stories.

‌                                                                       Upload

• ‌

They compared Rubiales grabbing a woman's head so she cannot escape to kiss her on the lips to a consensual kiss between a player and his then journalist girlfriend after the Spanish men won the World Cup in 2010.  Iker Casillas, who at one point came close to challenging Rubiales for president of the federation, was not amused and asked why Rubiales hadn't resigned yet.

‌                                                                       Upload

L'Equipe was like, "What? Why are they kissing? We have no knowledge of a relationship!"

• ‌

The international media though was a lot less supportive of Rubiales engaging in grabbing the head of someone whom he has institutional power over and forcefully kissing her on the mouth.  France's L'Equipe was like, "We have no knowledge of a relationship between Rubiales and Hermoso."

This is all very, very, very bad optics for a federation dealing with accusations of corruption, of sexism, of racism. A media consultant should have said, "Stop this train wreck now." Nope.  Spain is special.

‌                                                                       Upload

Hey critics, Rubiales said, you're ass holes / gilipollas.

• ‌

Rubiales felt like the criticism was wrong, and then he called those who disagreed with his spontaneous display of mutual emotion over a victory, among other things, ass holes.

The RFEF shortly released a statement saying that the Hermoso and Rubiales both said it was a mutual kiss of shared celebration.

And then the Spanish contingent, all 300 of them including family members, players, coaches, staff, federation officials, got on a chartered Iberia flight back to Spain with a stop in Doha.  This flight included Rubiales, Vilda, Hermoso, Olga, Hermoso's family, the ethics person for the RFEF...

And then obviously, Rubiales got the message that this was a huge issue and it was not going to go away.  The pressure was on. Rubiales as discretely as you can on a plane with 300 people tried to get a message to Hermoso that would she please plase please please please appear with him in an apology video to be filmed when the plane stopped for refueling.  When this did not work, Vilda was sent to talk to Hermoso's family three different times to try to get her family to talk Hermoso into appearing in an apology video where mutual desire for the kiss was to be acknowledged.

‌                                                                       Upload

Rubiales, alone in a video

• ‌

Yeah, that did not work.  Hermoso stuck to her principles.  She was  world champion.  She wanted to celebrate this.  This was a distraction away from her and her team's well earned victory created by Rubiales.  His problem.

So Rubiales did a solo video. He did not mention that he forcefully grabbed the head of a woman over whom he has authority and kissed her.  He did not issue a personal apology to Hermoso for the distraction he created.  He did not acknowledge that despite all the video evidence he violated RFEF internal policies regarding how superiors should treat their subordinates.  He did say he made a mistake and apologized to those who were offended.

Are you still following? Did you catch that? At this point in the narrative, RFEF policy had been dug up.

‌                                                                       Upload

• ‌

RFEF regulations specifically prohibits kissing with force.  Also, excessive touching and hugging. In the case of Vilda, it also prohibits the touching of breasts and genitals.

Rubiales apology does not go over well.  It was viewed as a non-apology aimed at trying to maintain his position, his status and minimizing damage. Women's football fans, feminists, people who don't like sexual assault were not having any of it.

‌                                                                       Upload

The plane lands in Spain with the campeonas, er campeones

• ‌

The Spanish delegation finally arrived back at Madrid's Barajas airport where the doors open and the trophy is ceremoniously taken out of the plane for the Spanish people witness.  In 2010, the trophy was brought out by player Iker Casillas.  He led the exist and did so by himself. In contrast, when the women brought the trophy out, both Vilda and Rubiales made sure they were there, at the front, flanking team captain Ivana Andrés and in all the pictures.  The football players who won the trophy were unable to celebrate it as players but instead had to be surrounded by men in the Spanish delegation.  The decision by Rubiales and Vilda to make this moment about the women about themselves did not go over well, especially given the 2010 moment.

‌                                                                       Upload

Rubiales touches Jenni Hermoso at the airport.

• ‌

As the Spanish delegation collected their bags and readied to depart Madrid Barajas airport for Principe Pío for a public celebration of the team, a moment was caught by television station La Sexta between Rubiales and Hermoso.  In it, Hermoso walks past Rubiales without acknowleding him at all.  Nonetheless, and despite awareness of the controversy he created that resulted in making an apology video where he did not apologize to Hermoso during the return trip, Rubiales felt the need to touch her and squeeze her shoulder.  She did not react or acknowledge his unwanted touch.  Marca, who have a history of sexist coverage of women's sports, asked what this meant on the morning of 23 August regarding the seriousness of the allegations and the nature of the relationship between the two.

‌                                                                       Upload

• ‌

The night before, on 22 August, Radio Marca interviewed Ignacio Quereda about the Rubiales situation. Quereda, as noted above, had been dismissed from his job as the women's national team coach for inappropriate behavior towards players including telling them they needed a man and pinching their butts.

Spain's politicians on the left also began to speak out, aided by the fact that within a couple of days there will certainly be a return to a left wing government supported by regional nationalist parties.  The left wing government can afford to piss off right wing misogynists.  This included people like Irene Montero.  Rational people do not want Spain to be associated with sexually predatory men.  It is bad for women, bad for the tourism sector and bad for Spain's chances of hosting the 2030 FIFA Men's World Cup.

The calls for Rubiales to leave just continued to amplify, except among the usual actors who also supported the racists who made monkey noises at Real Madrid's Vini Jr.  (The right has issues with women's football, historical ones, finding it rather unfeminine and possibly making their daughters into lesbians.  Franco stomped it out and the right wing leanings of the RFEF always meant women's football was not supported as a result.)

Meanwhile, over in Australia, despite loads of evidence of what in Spain would legally be considered sexual abuse, the New South Wales Police Force appear to have done nothing.  There is no news about opening an investigation.  There are no Australian politicians making loud calls for the police to investigate.  To a degree, even some Australian feminists who care about women's football appear to have moved on. The chances of any criminal complaint about Rubiales assault on Hermoso appear unlikely unless she goes there and files it herself.  And even then, from the Australians I have consulted in writing this article, that likely would go nowhere. Sexual abuse is generally not prosecuted.

FIFA, UEFA, the AFC and other institutional bodies not directly representing players have also failed to issue statements or announce investigations.  This contrasts with messaging where they said they would help women in federations in places like Africa and the Americas deal with sexist federations that were not paying players or engaging in other problematic issues that almost derailed some teams like Jamaica from actually participating and where Zambia's coach was accused of sexual misconduct during the tournament by players after the tournament ended.

Sorry.  Derailed.  Jenni Hermoso stuck to her principles and didn't appear in the Rubiales apology not to Hermoso video.  And then it came out that the RFEF fabricated a quote from her where she said the kiss was consensual.  She refused to do interviews when she landed.  Her mother made one statement, which was along the lines of Jenni Hermoso was focused on celebrating her victory and being a World Cup champion, and was not going to focus on the other stuff as she didn't want to take away from the moment.

‌                                                                       Upload

The Relevo article in Spanish saying the quote by the RFEF from Hermoso was fabricated.

• ‌

The acting Spanish President Pedro Sánchez has spoken out against Rubiales actions this time when he greeted the team at Palacio Moncloa.  His quote was, "What we saw was an unacceptable gesture, I think apologies are not enough, and even not adequate."

‌                                                                       Upload

"What we saw was an unacceptable gesture, I think apologies are not enough, and even not adequate"

• ‌

The ceremony at Palacio de Moncloa involved acting President Sánchez standing in a receiving line.  Every Spanish football player got a traditional Spanish double cheek greeting kiss.  Many of the women leaned in first for this.  No lip contact made.  Culturally appropriate greeting. In contrast, Rubiales stuck his hand out first to prevent that traditional kiss from happening.  Rubiales also did not wear the traditional attire of a federation president, a suit and tie, and instead chose to wear an outfit that made him appear as part of the technical delegation, like those of the coaches and trainers.

Other cabinet members have also spoken out.  With Rubiales, Vilda and the RFEF all making clear no personnel shakeups are imminent, it seems increasingly likely that these complaints will be passed along to the CSD and action may be taken to avoid continued international embarrassment over women's rights, a topic Spain is already sensitive to given issues related to the Yes is Yes law resulting in a number of rapists having their prison sentences reduced.

‌                                                                       Upload

Every Spanish women player got a traditional double cheek kiss greeting.

• ‌

And back to the sexual abuse aspect.  Spanish lawyers were also analyzing the situation, and writing a number of well thought out pieces about it in various media publications.  It turns out that because this situation occurred between two Spanish citizens who are residents of Spain, because of the sexual abuse aspect and the abuse of power aspect, Spanish courts can legally charge Rubiales for sexual abuse despite the fact that this alleged crime that was occurred on Spanish public television happened in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.  Will the courts actually do that? Unlikely, but they can.

Another question remained.  How do you get rid of Rubiales? The RFEF itself has the mechanisms to do so but appears unwilling to do that.  Their ethics guy refused to address the issue after he got off the plane and has refused to comment to Spanish media since then.

The other option is that the Tribunal Advo. del Deporte (TAD) can force him out if charges are forwarded to them by Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD).  Charges had previously been brought the CSD against Rubiales, but the government had not referred those charges on to TAD.  It became a waiting game to see if that would happen, if people would bring charges to the CSD related to the Hermoso kiss and Rubiales other activities including the Carmona kiss, the marriage reference and the Vilda's touching of the second trainer's breast.  If charges were brought, then the CSD could pass them on to the TAD who could then force Vilda out.

Vilda at this point this afternoon, 22 August, was still talking about how he was staying in power.  As he makes €1850 a day in his role as the president of the RFEF, Rubiales has every reason to stay as many days as he can.

The others trying to force Rubiales out option via TAD and the CSD appears to have started. Escuela nacional de entrenadores de fútbol (CENAFE) President Miguel Galán, the guy in charge of the national school to train coaches, has formally denounced Rubiales to the CSD.  His complaint was given the number 3905/2023. Then later in the day, former First Division referee Xavier Estrada Fernández also filed a complaint with the CSD against the RFEF over Rubiales actions.  That is two complaints.

In the afternoon of 22 August, the Asociacion de Futbolistas Españoles (AFE) also published a statement condemning the actions of Rubiales and said they were going to submit a formal denouncement to the Consejo Superior de Deportes.  This would make them the third if they did so.  They also demanded that the government enforce the law that prohibits that sort of touching of players, especially if Rubiales did not resign immediately.

‌                                                                       Upload

The AFE letter.

• ‌

The left wing populist political party Sumar became the fourth group to formally denounce Rubiales to the Consejo Superior de Deportes later the evening. They cited the serious breach of RFEF Protocol against sexual violence by Rubiales. Sumar also stressed that Spanish law, Article 105 of the Law requires Federations and Leagues, requires all federations to  have protocols for prevention and action against situations of harassment, abuse and discrimination.  The law is in place for specifically situations such as that one.

‌                                                                       Upload

Marca's 23 August cover even acknowledges the avalanches of petitions to the CSD

• ‌

Liga Femenina de Fútbol President Beatriz Álvarez Mesa made her own statement in the afternoon on Tuesday about Rubiales, adding to some of the institutional pressure coming from within Spain's football community towards Rubiales and Vilda.  Her letter said in part, “I feel ashamed of the world image that Spanish football is giving because of the unacceptable behavior of the President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation. I am receiving innumerable calls and messages from soccer players, coaches, managers and colleagues, even from other world leagues, who are scandalized by what happened."

Álvarez Mesa's letter goes on to say, ""it is not only about the fact of the kiss, but about the general behavior in the delegation box, on the field, in the locker room, or when a few hours after such behavior, the president of the Federation has dared to publicly insult all the people who criticized such a disgusting attitude."

She continued, "I take this opportunity to say that I am in that honest group of "idiots, stupid, assholes, losers and assholes", as the President described us on Cadena Cope . A group that thousands of people join minute by minute, not only in Spain but throughout the world.”

Álvarez Mesa then said, "Unfortunately, I am not surprised by this attitude or the inappropriate behavior of the president of the RFEF in the ways and manner of proceeding and addressing people. It is not something isolated, much less spontaneous. Aggression, arrogance and continuous contempt have always been present in personal and institutional treatment. What has happened is that the character that many of us know in private has been seen publicly”.

She continued, saying, that Rubiales actions were "unforgivable [given] that the greatest success in the history of Spanish women's sport has been tarnished forever by the actions of the president of the RFEF, stealing the limelight from the only ones who deserve it: the soccer players . Surely the Government of Spain will understand that these actions, and not others, do damage the image of Spain and the candidacy of the 2030 World Cup”.

Álvarez Mesa concluded saying, "As the president of professional women's soccer, as a former soccer player, and as a woman, I feel obliged, responsible, and entitled to say that soccer, Spanish sport, and female soccer players deserve much more. There are limits that cannot be exceeded . And they have exceeded. This will remain for the history of world sport, and how the Government of Spain acts, too."

On the evening of 22 August, according to El Partidazo de COPE, the RFEF said that Rubiales would not be commenting further on this situation.  He was very touched by the situation, especially as it represented the biggest internal crisis of his career.

‌                                                                       Upload

It is official. They are going to meet to discuss Rubiales.

• ‌

Later that date, the RFEF announced plans to convene an Extraordinary General Assembly for Friday at 12 at the Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas. Among the topics for discussion at the meetings were issues related to integrity of the federation and institutional protocols. The meeting came about after the Federaciones Territoriales del Fútbol Español specifically requested the RFEF hold such a meeting.  Federaciones Territoriales were particularly concerned about the allegations that the RFEF had issues false statements about Rubiales actions on behalf of Jenni Hermoso.

‌                                                                       Upload

El Chiringuito TV can apparently change their tune.

• ‌

El Chiringuito TV has been famous for their support of the worst of the excesses of Spanish football.  This cost them sponsors at one point when they condemned Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr. over his comments last season about racism in Spanish football and racism in Spain.  Initially, El Chiringuito TV took the stance that there was nothing wrong with what Rubiales had done to Hermoso.  By Wednesday morning, 23 August, even this program that supported Rubiales and other controversial figures had changed their tune.  This was so noteworthy that #ChiringuitoRubiales started trending on Spanish football.

They were not the only media organization who had initially supported Rubiales and the RFEF narrative to begin to change their tune and start reporting his actions as sexual abuse.  Marca also began doing the same by Wednesday, the 23rd.

On Wednesday morning, a female RFEF staff member accused Rubiales of asking her inappropriate and sexually loaded questions.

‌                                                                       Upload

FC Barcelona, the club with the most representatives on women's national team, not including striking players, have refused to take a position on the Rubiales situation. It came out on Wednesday morning, that their official position would be to wait and see what happens.  Barcelona was waiting and hoping that Rubiales would have a good explanation for his actions at the extraordinary session.

‌                                                                       Upload

• ‌

FC Barcelona's refusal to act stands in contrast to that of Getafe CF.  Their president called for the resignation of Luis Rubiales as the president of RFEF.  Getafe CF were the first men's La Liga team to back the women's national team.

‌                                                                       Upload

Revelo again breaking the news that Getafe CF president called for Rubiales resignation.

• ‌

Escuela nacional de entrenadores de fútbol (CENAFE) President Miguel Galán official denouncement had been given a number but was still pending admission for processing at lunch time on 23 August.

Consejo Superior de Deportes President Victor Francos told Cope and Cadena Ser that, "There has never been a dismissal of a federation president by the CSD, ever."  He also said, "I have a lot of messages from friends and acquaintances saying: 'Kick this guy out.' Let everyone be clear that I am going to follow the procedures. I have to say that I also have messages from the other side, eh? They are very conflicting positions on these issues and therefore I have positions on one side and on the other that are being sent to my phone."

CSD President Victor Francos confirmed that the CSD would begin the process on Monday to analyze the denouncements brought to it regarding the RFEF and Rubiales.  He affirmed the body's goal to act within the law regarding the situation.

The Unión General de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores (UGT) on the afternoon of 23 August also called for the immediate resignation of Rubiales.

The afternoon of 23 August also saw Liga F, Spain's women's professional football league, officially denounce Rubiales to the CSD in response to the alleged sexual abuse by RFEF'S president.

Against this backdrop of allegations of sexism in Spanish football, a second smaller controversy started to arise. Unai Simón played in Pamplona against Osasuna for Atletic Club de Bilbao on Saturday, the day before the World Cup final.   He was subjected to homophobic abuse. Among the comments shouted by him at fans were, "Die, you son of a bitch. Maricón, puto maricón". Maricón is similar to the word faggot in English while puto in Castellano translates more as damned.  This differs from Latin American Spanish where it translates more as prostitute or gay. By Wednesday morning, the stories of his being subjected to homophobic abuse at the match began to get more traction in parts of the footballing media as pictures emerged seeking to identify the fans involved.

Like the alleged Saudi Arabia corruption issues involving Gerard Pique, many Spanish women and Spanish football fans on social media remain skeptical that any change will happen in Spanish women's football.  They do believe if there might be a moment for it to happen, it would be now but they've been down that road before.  Still, Spain is worth watching to see if televised sexual abuse by men in power has consequences or if the women who won Spain's first women's FIFA World Cup.

Congratulations to the Spanish women's national football team.  They are winners.  And if these Spanish women manage to get real and lasting change to happen as a result of this circus, they deserve even further honors for protecting women and saving women's sport.

About two weeks ago, in mid-July, Estudios Sobre la Experiencia Lésbica published their second study.  This one was about lesbian and bisexual women's experiences and attitudes towards Pride in 2023.

Their study aimed to be inclusive of lesbians with very different perspectives, including those who were radical feminist, queer and apolitical.  It included lesbians as a point of comparison because there is so little actual research that has been done specifically related to lesbians about Pride that there is no real ability to draw comparisons to other studies or other members of the LGTB collective.  They ended up with 313 women from 29 different countries participating in the study, ranging in age from 16 to 78, representing lesbians and bisexuals from rural areas, small towns, the suburbs and the cities.  

The authors published their key findings, which can be found in the image below. (Alt text provided.)

Delving into the study itself, there were a number of interesting points not mentioned in their executive summary or key findings.  One of the major ones is that while lesbian and bisexual women responded in questions in ways that made LGBTQIA+ synonymous with transgender, these women did not make the same connections between "gender critical" feminism, radical or abolitionist feminism, and women's sex based rights.  The authors' findings suggest about a quarter of the LB women community see these terms as synonymous.  

Another point of interest, and one that is supported by the findings of the Cotton Ceiling survey which sampled a much different population, is that most lesbians and bisexual women do not have a gender identity.  That is, lesbians and bisexual women who are biological women do not identify or label themselves as "cis" women.  That the authors replicated this in a second study with a different audience feels important, especially given the broader lack of research, specifically research inclusive of queer friendly lesbians and lesbians with other feminist philosophies, being done aimed at the lesbian community around their identities.

The review of research highlights that most of the existing research around lesbians and LGBTQIA+ tourism says lesbians, and women who belong to the collective more generally, are different than men.  Lesbians tourism and travel activities tend to be focused around spending time with partners, with their children, with friends and with family.  This stands in contrast to gay men who do LGBTQIA+ tourism looking for other members of the collective, and looking for potential sexual partners.  The findings of the "Lesbian and bisexual women’s activities and attitudes towards Pride in 2023" support that existing body of research.

There are three tables that show this phenomenon rather well. The first looked at travels plans to attend Pride and travel plans to avoid Pride.  Women were not, on the whole, travelling to attend Pride.  In quotes provided to explain why, male sexuality on display at Pride was mentioned a number of times.  More women planned to travel to avoid Pride activities, with some quotes indicating a lack of need to travel as Pride activities were not taking place near them.

A second table that demonstrated this was planned participation in Pride marches based on locality, sexual orientation and gender identity.  For lesbians and women without a gender identity, location played a key role in the decision to attend Pride. Those in cities were much more likely to attend Pride, while those in other locations were not. Women in those other types of locations often would have had to travel to attend these events and they were not willing to do so.

The next two tables that demonstrate this spending by sexual orientation and country.  Even accounting for some lesbians and bisexual women planning to spend money in support of female specific businesses and artists, lesbians and bisexual women were spending very little money on Pride in 2023.

Some of the differences between lesbian and bisexual women in this study were very pronounced.  One example is bisexual women were more likely to buy Pride merchandise because of the aesthetics related to it, while lesbians had a greater diversity in reasons for buying Pride merchandise.

There were also a number of key findings that should be considered by Pride organizers and LGBTQIA+ activists seeking to be inclusive of lesbians and bisexual women.  One quote related to this says, "There is a large enough percentage of women who are traveling to avoid Pride because of fears of violence or not wanting to be exposed to certain elements prevalent at Pride that this may offer an opportunity for some places to offer counter programming or holiday type travel packages for these women, especially if they can do so while tying in a community type aspect; despite a desire to not be part of the community represented by Pride, a number of respondents indicated in this and the question about Pride in general the desire to feel part of a community but not the broad LGTB community."

In relation to activism, "When women could not or would not be involved with activism during Pride month, they primarily cited fear of the consequences of being an activist as their reason why. This included fear of violence and fear of losing their job."  LGBTQIA+ activists and Pride organizers need to work hard to alleviate fears of potential violence within their community aimed at other members of their community.  

Social media usage related to Pride also created fears. "Fear of in person consequences diminished some participation in discussing Pride on social media but not for most women. [...] The level of risk assessment though meant some women only felt comfortable talking about Pride in general, especially in parts of Europe."  Pride organizers and LGBTQIA+ activists need to create an environment where lesbians can be visible on social media without fear of other members of the community.

The last section that potentially should be of interest to Pride organizers and LGBTQIA+ activists relates to LB women wanting to know more about the history of Pride and the history of LB women.  "One of the key takeaways from these questions is that there appear to be three large sections inside the LB women community when it comes to history. One section is always interested in the topic of lesbian and bisexual history, and its intersections with other groups from a lesbian perspective. This group craves this type of information year-round, not just at or because of Pride. A second set of LB women want this information to be able be better activists, to be able to better educate others and to be able to counter misinformation being spread by transgender rights activists. The third group is largely disconnected from history, because they either lived it or learned the history already, or there is no community near them for such knowledge to feel meaningful or because they do not want to be connected to a movement that appears to have erased them and to which they do not feel a part of."  Activists and Pride organizers need to heed this, and correct historical information or not spread it to begin with.  They should also take steps to make this history meaningful to members of the community, to connect it to the community and to engage in the sharing of such history on a year round basis.

Together, the two studies by  Estudios Sobre la Experiencia Lésbica provide insights into the lives of lesbians.  These lives are less visible, as they are often folded into the broader narrative of a queer community.  The two studies show lesbians, and to a lesser degree bisexual women, are marginalized inside the queer community, are not supported by the queer community, and are intentionally made invisible by the community.  Lesbians are at risk of violence from members of the community, be it physical violence at Pride, loss of employment because they are targeted by members of the queer community for their sexual orientation during Pride, or by sexual coercion from transwomen.

Romanian prosecutors filed an indictment against Tate and his brother, Tristan, on June 20th for human trafficking and forming an organized crime group, operating in Romania, the United States, and Britain.

Andrew Tate’s charges should serve as a wake-up call to liberals keen on the full legalization of prostitution and the promotion of the sex industry as empowering for women.  

The methods used by Tate to lure and subjugate women are textbook methods used by pimps/sex traffickers, the same individuals many mainstream liberals inadvertently support today through advocacy for the full legalization of prostitution and rhetoric painting pornography as empowering for the women who appear in it.

In reality, Tate is a typical sex trafficker.

A common method used to prostitute women is for the trafficker to pose as a love interest, taking the targeted girl or woman out on dates, gaining her trust, and becoming her boyfriend. After a relationship is established and the victim is attached, the trafficker will often find ways to remove her from her environment and/or any external support system she might have, so sexual exploitation can begin. These traffickers are sometimes referred to as ‘loverboys.’

This is the tactic used by Tate. He admitted this on a now defunct program he had on his website to teach other men how to groom and sexually abuse young women for financial gain. It was called the PHD, which stood for the Pimping Hoes Degree.

As shown on Matt Shea’s documentary on Tate, the website stated, “I’ve been running a webcam studio for nearly a decade. I’ve had over 75 girls work for me ... Over 50% of my employees were actually my girlfriend at the time and, of all my girlfriends, NONE were in the adult entertainment industry before they met me.”

It is also common for pimp/traffickers to brand or tattoo those they are trafficking/prostituting with the trafficker’s own name as a symbol of ownership.

In January, two of the women identified by investigators as potential victims of the Tate brothers denied that the brothers mistreated anyone. One of the women has a tattoo that says, "Property of Tate,” and the other has one that says, "Tate Girl.”

The Tate home, surrounded by security guards with guns, housed these women and those who webcammed for his benefit, turning all of the money over to Tate.

What does set Tate apart from the men like him is that he seeks the spotlight and has had more social media success than most when it comes to marketing the methods he uses to manipulate and abuse women.

Furthermore, Tate doesn’t hide behind liberal talking points to appease elites who turn a blind eye to abusers who are willing to virtue signal.

Feminists have been pointing out the inherent misogyny of the commercial sex industry—including pornography—and claims of third-wave feminism for decades. Statements claiming that women in the sex industry are empowered and that women who say they consent to being strangled and slapped during sex are empowered reflect one thing: cognitive dissonance to cope with a world seeped in misogyny.

UK advocacy group We Can’t Consent to This has been working since 2018 to combat the rise of the “rough sex” defense to injuries and even murder of women by men. The normalization of violence against women during sex has allowed for claims of consensual sex “gone wrong” to proliferate news and court rooms when men kill women.

Andrew Tate was part of the UK reality show Big Brother in 2016. He was removed from the show when a video of him beating his ex-girlfriend with a belt emerged. Tate then released a video of his ex-girlfriend saying, “It was just pure game. It’s just what we used to do.”

After the video release of his ex saying the beating was not abuse, people treated it like it was indeed normal.

So, Andrew Tate started off by claiming the leaked abuse of his ex-girlfriend at his hands was part of a “kinky game” and released a video of her attesting to this. Some people bought it because of the cultural acceptance of abuse being consensual when it occurs in the bedroom. He then built himself a platform by spouting blatant misogyny mainstream liberals decry (for good reason). He also promoted the engagement of women in pornography/webcamming, an act that also receives widespread cultural acceptance under the guise of female empowerment and sexual liberation.

What Tate’s rhetoric, coupled with his promotion of “consensual” sexual abuse and pornography, should reveal is the attitudes men who promote such sexualization hold toward women. The mask is off, and the cognitive dissonance should be dissipating.

The generous support of our readers allows 4W to pay our all-female staff and over 50 writers across the globe for original articles and reporting you can’t find anywhere else. Like our work? Become a monthly donor!