jill bedford

Interested in political, economic, social, environmental changes to survive and thrive

[Janet Murray @jan_murray]

Dear Lush (cc Chelmsford City Council),

As a woman who had half a breast removed last year due to cancer, I am writing to raise my concerns about your “Proud of My Stripes” window display.

I am also, on behalf of other women who have experienced breast cancer, respectfully requesting its removal.

Because mastectomies are not a fashion statement, an identity marker or something to be celebrated.

They are something women undergo because they are ill, because they are frightened, because they are trying to stay alive.

Around 59,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year. Many will undergo surgery - a mastectomy, lumpectomy or other procedure.

Others choose preventive mastectomies because they carry a high-risk BRCA gene mutation.

If a woman chooses to have her breasts removed to affirm a gender identity, that is her personal choice.

I honestly don’t know the number of women who have elective mastectomies for this reason.

What I do know is that it is a tiny number compared with those for whom breast surgery is medically necessary and not something to be celebrated.

I think I speak for many women who have experienced breast cancer - and for their families - when I say this:

Breast removal surgery is not something I regard as cute, playful or empowering.

Nor is it something I believe retailers should be celebrating.

For that reason, I am requesting that the display be removed and that @ChelmsCouncil apologise for promoting it on social media.

Yours sincerely,

Janet Murray

[Maia Poet🦎 @thepeacepoet99]

Teen girls (like the one I was) who think they’re transgender 🏳️‍⚧️, are being told it’s safe and reversible to bind their breasts.

But here’s what girls like me were NEVER told:

That not only will long-term binding destroy our healthy breasts, but potentially our skin, lungs, nerves, necks, and spines as well. That this damage only gets more painful with time, not less.

That we will live with lasting pain and disfigurement to our chests sustained because of breast binding, whether we continue onto mastectomy or whether we do not. That mastectomy will not ‘erase’ or undo the harms of binding.

Those who argue that “gender affirming” breast binding is “just social transition” akin to a change of clothes are either simply ignorant or they are simply LIARS. I am done mincing words here.

I no longer care whether the people who peddle these dangerous ideas via bad arguments call themselves trans activists, gender critical activists or detransition activists.

An identity label or activist label of any kind does not entitle one to blatantly mislead the public about the most common source of transition-related injuries that young women experience.

Breast/chest binders are medical devices with approved clinical uses in post-surgical recovery for very short periods of time under strict medical supervision to monitor harms.

There is no legitimate medical reason for a healthy girl or woman to be compressing her entire upper body (especially during development) for 8-12 hour days, stretching into months and then into years at a time. It will neither make her happier, nor healthier, nor more functional. It will only damage her body, cause her a potential lifetime of devastating pain and make her desperately want her now irreparably damaged breasts, removed.

How do I know?

Because I was one of those young women who was lied to.

Because my whole generation was lied to.

And because so many people, both trans activists and gender critical activists continue to equivocate about “safe” ways to bind your breasts without so much as study showing it can be done safely.

Thank you to the team at @genspect including the spirited, determined and energetic @stellaomalley3 for giving me a platform to raise awareness about the cause of (by far) the most common but least discussed sources of transition injuries faced by young women, and of course, for allowing me to share my thoughts on gender identity ideation, desistance, detransition and to say a few words on how these themes overlap with autism.

[Dr Sam Inés de la Cruz @Strobe_Lightly]

@DawnButlerBrent @AlexSobell @Beverleyknight Ms Butler, perhaps you could explain to me, a transsexual of several decades vintage, exactly what rights are denied me that every other UK citizen enjoys. The answer is, of course, none. It’s sad to see one of my socialist heroes supporting a virulently anti-feminist ideology.

[Jill Marinelli @JillMarinelli1]

Men can’t breastfeed. Everyone knows that.

It seems absurd, but here in Australia, a woman is being dragged before a court for criticising trans advocates for saying that they can.

Her name is Jasmine Sussex.

She’s a breastfeeding counsellor with 15 years of experience and she’s now facing a vilification complaint for defending basic biology against claims by men that they could breastfeed babies.

She was stood down from her role. Cancelled from the internet. Shamed in the media. Hit with a court case. All for telling the truth.

Stand with Jasmine Sussex and show this country that Australians won’t be intimidated.

[Wales-Women’s Rights Network 💜🤍💚🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @WRNWales]

We somehow become ‘people with a cervix’ and ‘birthing people’ when it comes to health literature. Not women. Not girls. Not mothers.

Please consider signing this petition 👇 to research the impact of all this erasure on women’s health.
https://t.co/pbcawNbpiH
@justsay_mother

[For Women Scotland @ForWomenScot]

We have no issue with Dr Upton "existing in public", we have no issue with him doing his job.

We do have an issue if this public existence means that he gets to stand in his underpants while unwilling women are made to strip off for him.

We don't think life is "unlivable" if you can't engage in what many consider amounts to sexual harassment.

[Lilith Grey @LilithGMarshell]

Zack.

Im a disabled, single woman. Someone who will need intimate care at some point.

That intimate care will be in my home. My home where I have been single for 13 years due to a life time of male violence and manipulation.

You, are the type, who will label me transphobic because I want a woman doing my intimate care in my home.

That is what YOU are advocating for.
YOU are advocating to take MY rights as a woman away from me.

So please Zack. Openly call me transphobic because I would refuse a man who calls himself a woman to change my nappies and clean me up when im physically unable to so.

[Amy E. Sousa, MA Depth Psychology @KnownHeretic]

“You’ve probably never even met a trans woman.”

I hate to break it to you…

[Dennis Noel Kavanagh @Jebadoo2]

This is quite extraordinary. Unison doesn’t mention the word “woman”. Doesn’t mention that a workplace policy was found to be unlawful. Doesn’t address the question of dignity and safety at work for the nurses. This is what complete capture looks like.

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

Now, might be a good time for govt to drop Palantir from its recent NHS and Military contracts.

Quite rare that stupid gets a second chance.

[WDI.Afghanistan @WDIAfghanistan1]

Message from Afghan woman

Please read and share:-

Life for a woman in Afghanistan is beyond belief. Many people may know what is happening outside the home — but what happens inside, behind closed doors, is even worse.

We are forced to endure abuse from both husbands and mothers-in-law. I cook, clean, and wash all day, but I’m still mistreated. My husband beats me.

Once, my mother-in-law told him that I was secretly studying on my phone — and he took my phone away. I feel completely trapped.

Sometimes I think about ending my life, but when I look at my little daughter, I stop — for her. Still, I feel powerless.

Yet whenever my husband is not home, I study in secret.

I want to share my voice with the world.

Please read my message, support me, and be the voice for Afghan women.

[No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen @NoLieWithBTC]

More than 200,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland.

They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”

[Paul Lewis @paullewismoney]

There is no water shortage in the UK. Just a shortage of water management. They want the public to be responsible for managing water rather than doing the job they are very well paid to do.

[Shayghan @kkeishayghan]

@paullewismoney Water scarcity isn’t nature’s fault it’s mismanagement. Since UK privatized water, 25 reservoirs sold off, no new ones built. Public control means better care!

[SEENinSport @SportSEENuk]

After ⁦@FA⁩ dragged a teenage footballer through the disciplinary process for calling a male player on the women’s team “a man”, ⁦her charges have been quashed on appeal

Shocking treatment of girls the FA are trying to encourage to play football https://t.co/aC6MUHJKms

[Helen Joyce @HJoyceGender]

Great work. Very glad to be a member

[Humanists UK @Humanists_UK]

We've warned that if this prosecution for burning a Quran in protest is successful, it would effectively subvert the will of Parliament and re-establish blasphemy laws in England and Wales by the back door.

https://t.co/ygIylWK6vo

[RoyalCollegeObsGyn @RCObsGyn]

The College restates our call for abortion to be decriminalised in England and Wales, following the verdict of the Rex v Nicola Packer illegal abortion trial at Isleworth Crown Court. Read our full response: https://t.co/CfLTdSzB8H

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

'Women who want sex-based rights should be punched and hanged'. Same vibe, different fundamentalist religion.

[Wales-Women’s Rights Network 💜🤍💚🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @WRNWales]

Stop the press! @BBCWalesNews have reported on the Supreme Court outcome.

Actually, sit back down, they’ve focused on a sad man who says he’ll have to move abroad as he’s lost his ‘rights’. Although he hasn’t. Sigh.

We are quoted 👇
@JournalismSEEN

https://t.co/OuEYBXBb3O