The Interview (4)
by
Angharad.
The problem with the ruling of the supreme court and its definition of a woman is that its effect is very personal and emotional. I felt very angry and disappointed in the decision but at the same time felt that I would carry on regardless and would treat authority with the contempt it deserved by acting as I had for umpteen years. I had survived before I received a gender certificate and would continue to do so. I looked the part, so unless they knew something about me, they shouldn't suspect I'm anything but female.

The girl who was cruel to Fiona was given a stern warning from the principal about discrimination which would not be tolerated. I entered the classroom, a laboratory and was amazed to see Fiona holding court. She was explaining how transgenderism was not something that could be helped anymore than purely physical attributes, such as eye colour, it happened in the womb before birth so there was nothing the individual could do about it as life would ensure that you dealt with it. How you did depended upon the strength of the compulsion and your circumstances, so some may never need to change anything, others would have to do so as children, it was very variable. In my case it was something that happened in childhood which I wrestled with until university, in an atmosphere that was more comfortable than the present.

I listened to Fiona without saying very much and several students asked me if what she had said was correct. I told them that it was probably the case. One of the more astute girls, a very pretty one, asked why this had happened now and what could she do to help support both Fiona and her friends. Why do they ask such easy questions.

I thought through this very quickly and offered an answer but said once I had spoken we changed the subject and got back to pondlife and the pollution of waterways. That seemed to satisfy them. I prefixed my response by saying this is a personal response based upon observation for a number of years. I also added, as a woman, my answer may seem slightly biased. I could see the girls all smiling at that

The country is very misogynistic generally and despite feminists of different hues trying to fight it, the country was just as bad as it ever was. It is also racist and homophobic. I saw some nodding amongs students of colour and some girls. I suggested that it took something like 800 days from a rape being reported until it went before a court and the girl of woman might be destroyed by the experience. So we needed better protection for all women, including transwomen who may have had reassignment surgery and were more vulnerable than cisgendered women because such surgery is probably not as robust as the home-grown variety, so a rape could be physically devastating as emotionally so, but transwomen were now excluded from women-only refuges, but where they now went was not mentioned.

One of the most effective ways of winning any sort of contest is by divide and conquer strategy, which got Trump another shot at the Whitehouse. The sooner you start such a strategy the better it becomes and I had noticed a stirring in the female community for several years. This planted the absurd idea that transwomen only went into ladies toilets to watch women in a state of undress, a form of voyeurism. There was a low level laugh at this and someone asked Fiona if that was why she was transitioning. She denied any such thing.

Absurd as that may seem, I went on, it became quite a widely held belief in parts of America, but then they still believed in the tooth fairy. People were now feeling much more relaxed and seeing how it was all rather silly. I went back to the fact that the transphobia had been building for umpteen years and was being stirred up by social media and rightwing press or political groups, imported from America, the home of the free and all sorts of bigots. It was also a country of very strong misogyny, extremist views and guns.

So we were witnessing a growth of lies and misinformation and disinformation on all sorts of media, but especially social media. Then various groups were being stirred up, the TERFS and other women's groups were misled to believe transwomen were increasing and threatening the woman's movement, a tactic used in the 1960s. Then it was suggested men were having sex-changes to infiltrate the woman's movement. I asked if they could conceive someone putting themselves through the ordeal of painful surgery and psychological investigation just to infiltrate the local feminist group? I was pleased that they all thought that was absurd. I added that it seems one of the features of minority groups that they were paranoid to some degree.

Having got the women all worked up, the next thing was to stir up the activists, especially in the trans camp by getting them to compete in sports against biological women. Transwomen had some advantages in bone density and muscle mass but the argument ran and ran for years, working up both camps, the social media increased and all sorts of happened on both lies sides. There was now some bad feeling occurring on both sides and the rightwing groups who were fomenting it clapped there hands in glee.

In America the Republican party labelled the trans people as the cause of all things from Covid to the earthquake of 1906, and laws were passed against trans kids receiving treatment. It was becoming more and more absurd but then, think of the worst case scenario you can and the USA will probably out do it, as Trump is proving. The foment in this country was also becoming worse with transactivists making all sorts of accusations and the other side doing the same. It was almost like a civil war between two groups who should have been fighting for each other not against each other.

Then well meaning politicians in Scotland tried to make it easier to self declare yourself as trans or indeed female, which pushed the feminists into a frenzy and financed by a well known author they brought a case to the supreme court. The supreme court ruled in favour of the feminists because that was the way public opinion was leaning, all stirred up by the transphobic rightwing media, which included most newspapers like the Sun or Daily Mail, which both trumpet misinformation almost daily, they don't do news, instead they offer opinion to a readership which they have primed for many years to be conservative, narrow minded and self-interested. The Times and Telegraph are equally devoid of broadmindedness.

The whole thing, in my opinion is a distraction. With common sense both the feminists and transwomen should be seeking more protection for all women, the enemy is misogynistic men who are largely in control of things, including that they tend to earn significantly more than women, are stronger physically and more aggressive. They treat women like chattels or objects, they objectify women's bodies and often trade in older models for new ones, the response from the compliant younger women shows us to be our own worst enemies.

It is my belief that we need to find a solution to this which would be resisted because many men think it is their's by right and until we educate boys to respect girls and women, we are never going to resolve that many women of all sorts will face a threat by aggressive or sexually aroused males. The factions of the women's groups cisgendered and trans need to unite to deal with this and then we may see fewer assaults on women and suicides among depressed or disillusioned young transwomen, who can't see any way out of their misery or problems because it isn't an NHS priority and waiting lists grow longer by the day. We need to stop the misogyny and take it from there.

I stopped and gave the students a chance to ask questions. The first was asking how I knew so much about transwomen. I was worried that this could arise and I had pre-thought an answer to some extent.

"I have been involved with education for a number of years, I've done three degrees including a doctoral one, so I have known a lot of people over that time including some transwomen and transmen. I have learned lots from them and how they have been vulnerable or suffered at the hands of various groups including macho men to even more macho females who raised the old chestnut of toilets. All women's toilets here have cubicles, so no one can see who's inside unless they climb up those that don't go to the ceiling or look under the doors. Either way, no one can see who's inside.

Changing rooms may be a more realistic complaint but have transwomen change in disabled toilets or have a cubicle system in place. It's not insurmountable but it costs money so governments don't seem interested and also they themselves are often misogynistic, just look at America at both state and national level. There is not enough respect or protection for women and I include transwomen who are statistically one of the most vulnerable of all groups, add in transwomen of colour and you hit the jackpot of vulnerability."

The next question was about activists. Did I think they made things worse? "I think they do but we should always have a right to complain, for instance I heard stories of both women and transwomen being discriminated in healthcare. I can believe it because now that something is being done about the menopause but there are loads of women who have difficulty with periods that are just fobbed off by doctors because it's very difficult area to investigate, but it shouldn't be so. Activists who raise money for campaigns to resolve these issues or similar things with men, prostate or testicular cancers, they all need services improved to sort these things, (there was laughter at the mention of testicular cancer) but I showed my disdain at that. Men had issues as well as women, they were very ignorant of health issues compared to women and they deserved respect too. I tried to point out that we each needed respect from the others but unless we showed it how could we deserve to receive it."

Finally, we finished and we stopped for lunch, several students came by and thanked me for enlightening them and I smiled in return, Fiona waited until they had all left and she thanked me. "I learned a lot and began to see that the problem are forces who just want to set people against each other."

"I think that they do it to cause disruption and because it is all very personal, people get very upset and deal with their own feelings instead or seeing the cause, it's often quite subtle and is often so well established in public consciousness that we forget times before or after it. But we have to strive to protect women and educate men and boys against ingrained misogyny. Right I'm starving and going to lunch, keep well and let me know if anyone is causing you trouble." she nodded and left so did I locking the lab as I went.

After lunch we analysed more samples and tried to see specifics like damage to invertebrates cause by chemicals, things like stunting of growth or development. I showed them how to work out the age of things like caddis larvae by looking at number of segments, were there wing buds and numbers of gills if present, we did the same with Mayflies and a few other insects which had an aquatic stage. Dragonfly larvae were the largest but it also meant killing them was more difficult and we made a class agreement that dragonfly larvae were not studied and we had a look under a microscope and then released them before they died. I used to take them down to the river and pour them gently back in, after all they hadn't done anything to us, so why should we hurt them. We also usually chucked any fish back unless we were studying them and we could put those in aerated tanks while we needed them and then release them back into the wild. Diane hated catching them before we did this, but she was the technician, I was senior teaching staff so more expensive to use on such things, but I used to do a bit in the name of staff solidarity and I know it was appreciated. I hoped both my staff and students knew I would support them if they had issues, but some were easier to do so than others.

When I eventually got home I tried to analyse my day, I hoped I hadn't given myself away. I had known several trans students, one intimately viz. moi. I ate dinner marked some assignments watched some inane telly and went to bed where I worried in the we sma' 'oors about what I had done, then thought if I did give the game away, it was done and trying to undo anything now would only make matters worse. I hoped my apparent reputation of a 'know-it-all', might protect me, we'd have to see.