Gender again. Sorry!

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I think all demographics should be able to have their own spaces and services. Black student groups shouldn't have to admit white students. Social clubs for the disabled shouldn't have to admit able bodied people. Services set up for trans people shouldn't have to cater for non trans people.

We all know this is fair and necessary. But when it comes to women's single sex spaces and services suddenly it's 'nuanced' or 'complicated'. Funny how this nuanced approach almost always disadvantages women and advantages men.
 

winjim

Welcome yourself into the new modern crisis
I think all demographics should be able to have their own spaces and services. Black student groups shouldn't have to admit white students. Social clubs for the disabled shouldn't have to admit able bodied people. Services set up for trans people shouldn't have to cater for non trans people.

We all know this is fair and necessary. But when it comes to women's single sex spaces and services suddenly it's 'nuanced' or 'complicated'. Funny how this nuanced approach almost always disadvantages women and advantages men.

Astonishingly this is from page 74 of this thread, when I had already essentially given up on it and just posted this to ease my own frustration. Nearly 400 pages later...

Sorry but I keep screaming at my phone every time it's mentioned so I have to write something for the sake of my own sanity before I go and crawl back into my safe space.

Race is a social construct.
Race is subjective.
Race is not recorded on ones birth certificate.
Records of race and therefore policy on race relies on self identification.

It's been a while since I read it but I seem to remember that was a major point raised in the OP, the consideration that we might start thinking about sex and gender in the same way we think about race...

I don't actually disagree that there might be circumstances in which cis women might need their own spaces and facilities but black and disabled people are terrible examples to use and only serve to undermine your point. Both groups are social constructs with self identification. You can't objectively define who is black or who is disabled. So yeah, all of those cases are nuanced.
 
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there might be circumstances in which cis women might need their own spaces and facilitie

Might, what like toilets, changing rooms, hospital wards, women's refuge's.

These are essential, not a whimsical choice.
 
Even if race and disability are social constructs, they exist in the world and have effects. You wouldn't dismiss the effects of racism as unimportant because it's based on a social construct. Further just because categories have fuzzy edges does not mean they are not meaningful classifications.

Funnily enough these socially constructed rather fuzzy categories are treated with quite a bit more respect than the material reality of biological categories.

When someone self-identifies as black to gain a scholarship or job people are outraged because it disadvantages black people. When someone pretends to be disabled to gain advantage it's met with disdain because it disadvantages disabled people. When a man self-identifies as a woman and demands access to women's spaces and services .... people fall over themselves to justify it as a perfectly reasonable request.
 
Even if race and disability are social constructs, they exist in the world and have effects. You wouldn't dismiss the effects of racism as unimportant because it's based on a social construct. Further just because categories have fuzzy edges does not mean they are not meaningful classifications.

Funnily enough these socially constructed rather fuzzy categories are treated with quite a bit more respect than the material reality of biological categories.

When someone self-identifies as black to gain a scholarship or job people are outraged because it disadvantages black people. When someone pretends to be disabled to gain advantage it's met with disdain because it disadvantages disabled people. When a man self-identifies as a woman and demands access to women's spaces and services .... people fall over themselves to justify it as a perfectly reasonable request.
Are you now equating a disability as an advantage, and that anyone "pretends to be disabled" are doing so just to gain access to disabled spaces?

Disabled toilets, we're back to them again, are unisex and are often the only one's that are left open for anyone to use. Men and women, able bodied and disabled.
 
As I said

What would they be exactly though? Everybody on here is 'It's nuanced' but nobody seems to want to say when women can reasonably have single sex spaces and services and when they can't. Except for the ones who think they shouldn't have them at all obvs.
Are you now equating a disability as an advantage, and that anyone "pretends to be disabled" are doing so just to gain access to disabled spaces?
No. I said if someone self-identified as disabled does that disadvantage disabled people? I would say it does.

Disabled toilets, we're back to them again, are unisex and are often the only one's that are left open for anyone to use. Men and women, able bodied and disabled.
No, we aren't. Disabled toilets aren't unisex. They are single occupancy. There aren't both sexes in them at once. Able bodied people shouldn't use them unless it's absolutely necessary.
 
What would they be exactly though? Everybody on here is 'It's nuanced' but nobody seems to want to say when women can reasonably have single sex spaces and services and when they can't. Except for the ones who think they shouldn't have them at all obvs.

No. I said if someone self-identified as disabled does that disadvantage disabled people?(1) I would say it does.


No, we aren't. Disabled toilets aren't unisex. They are single occupancy. There aren't both sexes in them at once. Able bodied people shouldn't use them unless it's absolutely necessary.(2)
1) No you didn't, your words were "When someone pretends to be disabled to gain advantage".
And your moan throughout these threads has been "dignity and privacy" for the group concerned. Only you don't apply this to any other group. You'll use them, to try and make a point, but there any empathy ends if it was there in the first place.

2) Like it or not, they are unisex. You'll have trouble seeing seperate disabled toilets for men and women. They're large enough inside to allow a helper in at the same time.
 

winjim

Welcome yourself into the new modern crisis
What would they be exactly though? Everybody on here is 'It's nuanced' but nobody seems to want to say when women can reasonably have single sex spaces and services and when they can't. Except for the ones who think they shouldn't have them at all obvs.

I don't know, there are undoubtedly people with better qualifications and experience than me who can offer more considered opinions than I could. I'd rather defer to experts.

No. I said if someone self-identified as disabled does that disadvantage disabled people? I would say it does.

You did say 'pretend' which is not synonymous with self ID. But when it comes to disability I think self ID can be fluid. For example I consider myself disabled in some contexts but not in others, largely dependent on the environment.

No, we aren't. Disabled toilets aren't unisex. They are single occupancy. There aren't both sexes in them at once. Able bodied people shouldn't use them unless it's absolutely necessary.

Slight tangential disagree on that as not all disabilities are physical and I think we should think of such facilities as 'accessible'. They're often used by families and have the changing table in there anyway. But that's not important for this discussion.
 
1) No you didn't, your words were "When someone pretends to be disabled to gain advantage".
And your moan throughout these threads has been "dignity and privacy" for the group concerned. Only you don't apply this to any other group. You'll use them, to try and make a point, but there any empathy ends if it was there in the first place.
You're the one advocating for men in women's prisons. I'm not sure you're in a position to lecture me on empathy. I could list you a load of times when people have pretended to be disabled to gain advantage but you can google it yourself if you think it never happens. Try the Spanish Paralympics basketball team for starters. Is self ID in that situation ok?

2) Like it or not, they are unisex. You'll have trouble seeing seperate disabled toilets for men and women. They're large enough inside to allow a helper in at the same time.

It's not unisex when only one person (or one and a carer) can use them at once. Surely you can see the difference between being in a toilet or changing room with a stranger of the opposite sex and being in one with a carer you know well - who will often be the same sex - helping you use a disabled toilet?
 
You're the one advocating for men in women's prisons. I'm not sure you're in a position to lecture me on empathy. I could list you a load of times when people have pretended to be disabled to gain advantage but you can google it yourself if you think it never happens. Try the Spanish Paralympics basketball team for starters. Is self ID in that situation ok?


It's not unisex when only one person (or one and a carer) can use them at once. Surely you can see the difference between being in a toilet or changing room with a stranger of the opposite sex and being in one with a carer you know well - who will often be the same sex - helping you use a disabled toilet?
If the law says they are a woman, then they go where the law says they should. With due processing carried out along the way.

I know of a few people that have said they have a disability, in order not to have to do something or go somewhere.

Disabled toilets can be used by men and women, making them unisex/gender neutral.
 
I don't know, there are undoubtedly people with better qualifications and experience than me who can offer more considered opinions than I could. I'd rather defer to experts.
This is just dodging the issue surely. Who do you consider experts on whether women and girls need single sex services and spaces? Can you honestly not form an opinion on whether women who have been raped are reasonable or unreasonable in wanting to exclude male bodied people from a support group? Or whether a woman or girl can reasonably ask only for a same sex carer (and men of course too)?

Slight tangential disagree on that as not all disabilities are physical and I think we should think of such facilities as 'accessible'. They're often used by families and have the changing table in there anyway. But that's not important for this discussion.
I agree. I wouldn't challenge anybody who used a disabled loo because their need might be related to a heart condition or something else unseen. Able bodied was the wrong phrase. I would hope though that people would respect that those separate facilities are necessary and not use them if they don't need to.
 
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