Super interesting read - I find it so refreshing to see “women’s spaces” described as a place of organising power. In the current political climate of anti-trans rhetoric parading as feminist, the term is so often used to suggest an innate and inherent weakness in cis women that requires sheltering, and I worry there’s a wave of men claiming to want to “protect women’s spaces” as a guise for being paternalistic. When a woman’s space is a public bathroom they’ll sound off about protecting it, but when a woman’s space is a forum in a bookshop for sharing information, or a literary journal that doesn’t prioritise men after centuries of literature doing the same, suddenly they’re being excluded.
thank you! and yes i fully agree. i hate the paternalistic and transphobic notions of women’s only spaces that are so commonly spoken about, i wish i addressed this in my essay too. we really need to push for an understanding of women’s spaces as not some protective, infantilising measure but as an empowering one where liberation can be fostered.
Super interesting read - I find it so refreshing to see “women’s spaces” described as a place of organising power. In the current political climate of anti-trans rhetoric parading as feminist, the term is so often used to suggest an innate and inherent weakness in cis women that requires sheltering, and I worry there’s a wave of men claiming to want to “protect women’s spaces” as a guise for being paternalistic. When a woman’s space is a public bathroom they’ll sound off about protecting it, but when a woman’s space is a forum in a bookshop for sharing information, or a literary journal that doesn’t prioritise men after centuries of literature doing the same, suddenly they’re being excluded.
thank you! and yes i fully agree. i hate the paternalistic and transphobic notions of women’s only spaces that are so commonly spoken about, i wish i addressed this in my essay too. we really need to push for an understanding of women’s spaces as not some protective, infantilising measure but as an empowering one where liberation can be fostered.