I spent Twixmas in the West Country. Bath, to be precise, and what a Bath-ing I had. Water, water everywhere. Someone clearly misinterpreted my meaning when I said I am going to Bath. Had to buy an (emergency) pair of Wellingtons to see me through the rainstorm. Don’t think I have ever had a pair of Wellies before. But needs must.
Anyway, I am not here to bleat about floods and whatnot. Interesting though that topic may be and is the foundation of many a British conversation. No. I am about a more serious matter. Crucial matter.
It’s come to my notice of a certain situation. Someone booked a bed in a Female Only dorm room at an establishment in Bath on Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee weekend (early June). When the person turned up at said establishment, they identified as male. By the way, at this establishment, one must produce a photo ID and I suppose the ID this person produced stated that this person was male.
That being the case, the management refused to let this male stay in a Female Only dorm. Because of the Jubilee weekend, other alternative rooms were fully booked and nothing else was available. So, he couldn’t stay there. But he was still charged as he had booked in advance. The man was quite aggrieved and basically cussed out this otherwise splendid Bath establishment with its five-star reviews.
Now, I’m thinking. For what reason would a man be booking into a Female Only dormitory when he could have booked into a Male one? What was he up to?
As you know, we live in a world that enables men to self-identify as women, which allows them to enter women-only spaces. So, imagine this. On the weekends, they are roughing and toughing it out with their testosterone-fuelled mates. Then, on Monday morning, they turn up wherever, claiming to be female, to be treated as such and to be allowed to enter Female Only spaces. Can this be right?
And, speaking of rights, whose rights is it anyway? As a woman, I want to feel safe when I go to the ‘Ladies’ or when I am buying clothes and need to get undressed to try on an item in the Female changing room. I certainly don’t want a man with a stiff cock or otherwise in the same space as me. Particularly in such an enclosed space. Let me say here that I do not have a problem with transgenders. And this is not what this piece is about.
Male-free spaces exist for a reason. It’s a proven fact that when males are allowed access to spaces where women are undressed (or asleep), some males will abuse this and thus undermine women’s privacy and safety. Ninety per cent of all sexual incidents reported happened in unisex changing rooms. We should be shocked at this. A nurse in one hospital reported that a patient who identified as a transgender woman became sexually aroused on a female ward, causing distress to elderly patients. And in another hospital a female patient was raped by a man simply identifying himself as a woman and therefore admitted to a Female Only ward.
And it doesn’t end there. Karen White, whose manhood was physically intact as convicted paedo Stephen Wood, went on to sexually assault two female prisoners at a women’s prison while on remand, awaiting a rape trial. Where’s the sense in this? Again, I ask, whose rights is it? Don’t women have a right to feel safe? Or are their rights overridden by men who can simply turn up, any day of the week, anywhere and claim to be a woman and thereby must be granted access to women-only spaces?
In this regard, it’s not only women’s privacy and safety that is at stake but allowing men with sexual abuse on their mind to take advantage of this lacuna begs the question, is this fair to women? Is it fair that one section of society is given priority over others which could lead to detrimental consequences? As they say up north, think on, Ministry of Justice!
