Anonymous writes of a human rights violation in plain sight – placing trans-identified men in the female prison estate
As a child, it never occurred to me that women were lesser humans than men.
Seeing the Queen, Thatcher and Madonna on TV regularly made that thought seem absurd. But at a certain point, there was a definite shift in how I perceived and experienced things.
Your brothers get more freedom than you. You realise you are not meant to play with your boy chums. You realise you aren’t as safe as your brothers by virtue of you being a girl, regardless of being a tomboy.
Treated as less than human
As a girl, you get the talk about how babies actually do grow inside you and how they get there in the first place. You realise that as the person who has the babies, your life will change for a whole number of reasons not of your choosing. Life as mother would change things dramatically. Not so much for a father.
I realised early on the “motherhood” change was not for me. I opted to take the route of making change for sisters so we could enjoy the privileges afforded to my brothers.
I sincerely thought that significant change had been achieved. I took my eye off the ball. I suspect there are thousands of us who did the same.
We have reached a stage where women are now treated as less than human. Not just in life but in law.
Patriarchy’s power in action
On July 2, 2021, the High Court in England made a ruling that should make the blood of everyone who cares about human rights run cold.
In that ruling, it was acknowledged that women will be at risk from men, that men and women are different sexes.
But even if a man is a violent offender or convicted of sex crimes, locking them up together in a cage is not a problem because a man’s feelings trump a women’s right to actual physical safety.
Nothing shows the power of patriarchy more than that the most disadvantaged women in society can be further abused for no reason other than they are considered of less importance than of making a man feel better about himself.
UK law is putting women at risk
It is worth noting that no trans men (women who identify as men) have ever asked to be moved to the male prison estate. It would be insane to think that a trans man would be safe there.
The argument that men need to be moved to the female estate to help them manage their feelings holds no water. It is simply that those men want to be in a safer environment for them. Putting women at risk is immaterial to them.
Currently, UK law supports that.
Women must reclaim their spaces from men
In a sane world, the issue of male safety in the male prison estate would be dealt with by making men in the prison estate make space to address the privacy, dignity and safety of those men.
Instead we have a situation where women are viewed as mere “support” humans and are expected to make space for men and forego their needs for the same rights as men.
That this is happening in plain sight with public support is obscene.
It is not up to women to make men feel better about themselves.
Men need to make space for other men and women need to reclaim their spaces.
#WomenWontWheestht
#sexmatters
#WomenVotingWithOurFeet
#WomenVotingWithOurFeet 