One of the things I really wanted to say on this International Women’s Day is that it’s a day to celebrate all women, to think about the various barriers that women face across the world. Women have all sorts of different experiences and it’s important that they are listened to because it’s by understanding what needs to change that we make the world a better place. Quite a simple concept. It’s also, for me, a simple concept that International Women’s Day is for everyone who identifies as a woman. No exceptions.
I say that because Women’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray wrote one of those “I’m not transphobic but” articles in the Sunday Times this week. She questioned the right of transgender women to identify as “real women.” She justified her argument by talking about transgender women saying things she didn’t agree with. One was a vicar who had talked about clothes and the other had said that women should wear high heels and shave their body hair. Apparently they were “playing into the stereotype – a man’s idea of what a woman should be.”
I would suggest that this was nothing to do with being transgender. I’ve heard cis women express similar views. It was only in the last decade of her working life that my mother felt able to wear trousers to work. I might utterly disagree with their opinion, but I’m not going to question anyone’s identity.
How someone identifies is absolutely not up for discussion. I don’t consider it any of my business and I also take the view that they know their own innermost and deepest feelings a darned sight better than I do. How about a world where we just accept people as they are and don’t cause them grief? How a person expresses the core issue of their identity doesn’t harm others and in a liberal society their right to do so is sacrosanct.
Why can’t we just accept people as they are? It would make life so much easier for everyone.
I’ve met cis women who have expressed similar views about body hair and clothes as Murray attacks one trans woman for. We don’t say that they aren’t women. It’s perfectly possible to disagree on the issue without questioning someone’s identity.
My concern is that articles like Murray’s cause harm to people who are dealing with issues relating to gender identity, whether they are out or not. These articles make the environment less secure, more dangerous for trans people. We need to be very aware of that.
Stonewall came up with a really reasoned and moderate response to Murray’s article:
Whether you are trans or not, your identity is yours alone. I do not question your identity Jenni, and in return, I wouldn’t expect you to question mine – or anyone else’s. What right would you have to do so? My experiences of being a woman are undoubtedly different to yours. However, their differences do not make them in any way less valid.
Trans women have every right to have their identity and experiences respected too. They are women – just like you and me – and their sense of their gender is as engrained in their identity as yours or mine.
Being trans is not about ‘sex changes’ and clothes – it’s about an innate sense of self. To imply anything other than this is reductive and hurtful to many trans people who are only trying to live life as their authentic selves.
Articles like Murray’s actually cause harm. If you are a young person who is trying to work through how to express your gender identity, you may well feel under attack. Trans people generally are subject to abuse. An LGBT Youth Scotland safety report reported high levels of hate crime and only a smidgen over half of transgender young people felt safe using public transport.
I was moved by this article by our wonderful PPC for Chippenham, Helen Belcher.
Murray’s position relies on a philosophical argument about who is entitled to define themselves – because it seems that trans people, almost uniquely, are not. Lord Cashman last night on Twitter recalled being called not a real man, because he was gay. That particular debate has gone away – but it persists for trans people. Somehow, we’re not allowed to call ourselves in terms of who we are, but are expected to be humble enough to accept some lower status, where one is gifted the crumbs from the equality table. In fact, why is it even acceptable to state in national media that one particular group of people isn’t real?
I will stand with my transgender sisters when they have to deal with the dismissive, inhumane approach taken by Jenni Murray and many others. Every liberal should – because if someone is allowed to invalidate one the identity of one group of people, where does it stop? Not in a good place.
I am proud to be a member of a fantastic gender equality organisation in Scotland – Engender. Their membership policy is simple: “All self-identified women who agree that they are feminists are welcome.” I wish everyone would be so inclusive.
Comments on this post will be pre-moderated.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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One Comment
Yes , Caron is correct and Dame Jenni is not.
Serious point Caron make however, and the tendency , unlike her in the above, to ignore Mill and the Harm Principle, is what debases our discourse and politics at times today.
What on earth does it matter to some people whether those people who have gone as far as any transgender pre or post op woman or man, has a different stance or attitude to others of their gender.
I was regularly made fun of and called a sissy in school for liking old music , and having a best friend who wanted to be a priest , and that was in a decent Catholic school !
Mind you , they got a surprise if they tried, I won the arguments and more than one fight when started on !
A good , if unecessary training for politics at , alas , its most macho !