"Learning about gender": workplace training

submitted by teacherterf from self.GenderCritical

My school's diversity and inclusion ambassadors have taken it upon themselves to teach us about gender. Yay! In this workshop, they plan to "answer all our questions about gender identity". So: what are some good questions about gender identity, and has anyone had any luck asking them in events like this? For what it's worth, I'm not afraid of being fired, but I don't want to be openly hostile - my goal is to get the low-information, why-can't-we-all-just-be-nice participants to start questioning this stuff.

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[–]MarkTwainiac 19 insightful - 2 fun19 insightful - 1 fun20 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I'd ask what's the difference between telling kids that they were "born in the wrong body" and telling them that there's something deeply wrong with them?

[–]lefterfield 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Hmm... what about "What if there is a student that frequently has a new gender identity/preferred pronouns, what should I say to other students who might not be able to keep up with it?" Don't let them try to claim that's never a problem, there's a kid like that in my discord group(college student) that many people are sick of dealing with. I tried to phrase it in such a way that it's about the reactions of other students, not the gender-switcher. It should still make the fence sitters question, a little bit. Or even something like "I've heard students talk about TERFs or gender critical feminists, but I'm not sure what that means. Can you explain it?"

You'll likely get more response if you phrase questions like you're genuinely asking for advice on things you don't understand. At the same time, just bringing it up may raise questions or inspire other people to look into it further. So long as you phrase it like a question about recent events, you can probably slip a lot of GC ideas into the discussion subtly.

[–]hmmdmm 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The risk of asking a question about TERFs is that they'll mischaracterize us as nutcases who call for violence against trans people, whereas in reality a lot of just want to keep women's spaces for cis-women. That might completely shut people down from looking us up.

[–]lefterfield 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Not necessarily. A lot of people are still going to want to see just how awful those TERFs are. Besides, if they do mischaracterize us, she can keep asking questions to force a contradiction. "But why do they believe X?" "What do they think gender means?" TRAs always contradict themselves when they try to answer these questions. They can't help it, their entire ideology is contradictory.

[–]BiologyIsReal 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Here are some ideas. I tried to frame these question as less hostile as possible, but I don't know if I succeded.

"Should we let the trans girls compete on the female sport teams? Isn't that unfair and, depending on the sport, dangerous for the cis girls? We have sex categories on sports because men have an atletic advantage over women and trans girls are still biologically male."

"Could you help me understand how a trans woman know that she feels like a woman? It's just that I'm confused because I never have this womanly feeling."

"I heard that some judges in the UK have said that trans health care for children is experimental and a child could not consent to it. Could you explain to me what this health care consits of and what are the risks? What is evidence in favour of this treatment?"

[–]NeedMoreCoffee 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I would ask them what research says about dangers of confusing kids and complicating puberty and making them more self-conscious about themselves in relation to peer pressure and malleability of teenage minds. Considering this a lot of gender things result in medical procedures or medication. even if its just binders, those are dangerous

[–]ElectricSheep 8 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Even funnier would be if nobody had any questions and you all just sat there in silence.

[–]teacherterf[S] 10 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That would be awesome but it's not going to happen. Based on how the last one went, there will be a dozen questions along the lines of "how can I make absolutely completely sure that I never ever offend any student who might possibly be genderspecial???"

[–]uwushallnotpass 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Maybe frame it in terms of freedoms, to help the undecided start to think about the restrictions that gender roles impose on people?

"If people were just free to wear whatever they wanted, and we were more accepting of that as an organisation and a society instead of placing these unnatural expectations on people due to their gender, how would anyone know they were trans? Wouldn't it be more freeing for everyone if we were more open to that?"

[–]MinisterOfTerfery 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I have a nephew who was questioning his gender identity, but he changed his mind and told me he realized gender identity is just gender stereotypes and having long hair doesn't make him a girl. Would you say the same and if not, can you explain what gender is if not gender stereotypes?

[–]zephyranthes 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What is the difference between transgenders and transracials?

  • Nkechi Amare Diallo (formerly Rachel Dolezal)
  • Satchuel Cole (formerly Jennifer Benton)
  • Jessica Krug
  • Christina Vitolo-Haddad

(the latter two are in academia)

Why is it ok to refer to Ms Diallo by her "deadname"? Vitolo-Haddad and Cole are women who don't "identify" as women - why aren't they allowed identify out of whiteness, too?

He'll probably try to dismiss race as "a social construct" - point out how racist it is, how it "invalidates identities" of people of color, and that it really isn't a rebuttal - if racial boundaries are policed more strongly and it's "just" a social construct... eh? eh?