276 Comments

Excellent blog, as always, Janice. One of the key issues here is that feminists not only seek to change men's spaces but, when they do, to impose their rules about appropriate behaviour in these spaces. When small numbers of women first entered the armed forces, or started work in traditional male industries, or demanded entry to service clubs like Rotary, no longer were soldiers or factory workers allowed pictures of sexy girls pinned up on wall, or bawdy jokes, or locker room talk. This noisy group of activities have demanded to control male behaviour that even in places men were once free to be themselves. In Australia, men started the Men's Shed organisation specifically to allow men to support each other and here too women are now demanding access and then control over how people behave. Feminists are such a menace, and it is shameful we have allowed them to take over so much of our societies.

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I've been chafing at this injustice for more or less my entire life, and have always felt it to be distasteful. To be honest, seeing women's spaces getting invaded by trans-women, and the resulting leftist autophagy between the TERFs and autogynophiles, has been quite delightful.

I suppose the chivalrous thing to do would be to oppose this and rise to the defense of women's spaces, but chivalry was one of the first norms to be put to the sword by feminism.

Perhaps women will reconsider their role in the Longhouse in light of the trans invasion. If a plurality of them start listening to you, and shaming the sisterhood into backing off, then perhaps we can restore some balance and sanity.

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This is gold, Janice. The gross hypocrisy of our times must come to the fore of public discourse, now that the circle is complete with the current "trans" circus. I will cross-post this to my own (fledgling) substack as well as mention it where I can in comments to other stackers' posts.

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Another bravura analysis, I must say. Of course, I say so because it agrees with what I have been thinking and saying for years, brought into sharper focus by the transsexual mania of late. In sum, it always struck me as the height of arrogance for women to demand entrance into traditionally all-male spaces and activities, then to demand that men stand up for them when they faced competition from the not-men who suddenly appeared on the scene. I just can't drum up a whole lot of sympathy for their plight . To be sure, Ms. Gaines, the swimmer who was absolutely jobbed out of her rightful place on the top of the podium by the ersatz female, "Lia" Thomas (who, it must be emphasized, is reputed to have retained his male sexual organs, and displayed them in the girl's locker room) does deserve our support, particularly since she has been physically attacked by some prime specimens of the new "transgender" phylum. But she is ultimately the victim of radical feminism, to be sure. When one talks constantly of "equal rights for women," without taking into account the differences between men and women, it is like using a battering ram to open the cupboard door. Women who demand elimination of "separate but equal" accommodations to compete with men in academia, business, and other arenas really have no right to complain when their "separate but equal" sports endeavors are taken over by "transwomen."

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Apr 8, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

I have been in tech for decades. Over the years, women have made the workplace progressively worse.

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard things along the lines of "we need more women in tech". Really? Who's "we"? How many more women? Are you open to discussing why it might not ever be 50/50, or will you ruin my career for even trying to discuss why this might not be feasible?

I recently arrived at the conclusion that women who do this actually have no objective. They are simply affirming one another - providing each other with validation.

Men like me - the engineering type - think in terms of risks, tradeoffs, if something is feasible, how much it will cost, etc. Women like this invade these pragmatic spaces and turn them into a sort of therapy session with unwilling participants... And they have no clue at all - none - why men might consider this behavior obnoxious.

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Apr 8, 2023·edited Apr 8, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

A similar but very little talked about phenomenon happened in the Anglican church in the West (i.e., UK, Canada, USA, Western Europe) West starting in the late 70s. This is when women were allowed to be ordained as priests, which on the face of it sounds like a good thing for equality -- but the results have been far from encouraging. These denominations are now in sharp decline. The Anglican Church in Canada admits that in a few years it will cease to exist. There is a reason for this: the corrosive effect of feminism.

If you review the graduation photos from the 1960s to the present, the demographic shifts from all young men to almost all middle-aged women. There was a concurrent shift in theology, from traditional Christianity to feminist Christianity -- which has now led to the pulpit being used to advance transgenderism, Marxist liberation theology, Black Lives Matter, and a host of other Leftist causes that misuse the Gospel to advance political agendas anathema to Christian faith. One United Church pastor (a feminist of course) famously declared hat she was an atheist and was permitted to retain her role as pastor for several years, despite that.

Your article made me think of this because the brotherhood of priests was at one time a male 'safe space' (one could say) but now in most liberal denomination seminaries you're hard pressed to find men interested in being ordained. And the theology -- and by extension the society -- has suffered accordingly. At a time when the West is in dire need of traditional Christian faith, it is instead being given Leftist ideology masquerading as the Gospel.

You are not likely to find too many conservative heterosexual men entering the Anglican and Episcopalian priesthood anymore. This is true of some other denominations as well. Tucker Carlson just did a great episode showing a feminist trans Lutheran pastor using the pulpit to compare Audrey Hale to Jesus, instead of being critical of the murder of Christian children.

I met a trans priest (a biological male) who told me that Jesus was trans and in fact we are all trans but don't know it! Another feminist pastor gave a sermon saying that the purpose of the faith was to "fight toxic masculinity and white supremacy"! Apparently faith in Christ is no longer the central focus of the church.

Now the Roman Catholic church is under pressure to allow female priests and they're resisting it, to their credit. The current Pope may be a Marxist but the Church leadership apparently has enough sense to realize how badly things have gone for Anglicans by allowing the priestly role to be ruined by feminism.

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Great piece Janice. Clear and well said. I know what you mean when you said in the comments that there is more to say. Indeed.

As I was reading this I remembered back to the 70's and 80's when men's spaces were starting to be dismantled. I clearly remember thinking at the time that it was the right thing to do. Not even a stray thought of it being hurtful to men. Man, brainwashing is powerful! lol

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Apr 8, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

There is a difference between any gathering that includes both sexes or only men. As a man I like a bit of both. I am a member of a male only club created in the 19th century that last year voted overwhelmingly to retain the male only rule. It's a space where men can gather and talk without the inevitable sexual distraction of women.

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Apr 8, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

Both boys and girls need separate rituals helping them into man and womanhood. Boys need to go out into nature and girls need to learn how to appreciate men and masculinity and avoid becoming a feminist.

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Apr 8, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

“Now, after years of forced accommodation to feminine norms and requirements, men are expected to rise up in defense of female spaces—allegedly against a renewed patriarchy.” If anyone has been following the Riley Gaines fiasco at SFU, it appears that real men may, once again, have to do what only real men have been called on to do since time immemorial…protect real women.

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Apr 8, 2023·edited Apr 9, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

This article will be helpful background history when having soc media discussions about transwomen entering women's spaces. It shows women's thirst for entering and destroying male spaces - which also included sporting clubs, pool halls, male only saloons, wilderness retreats, recreational activities, workplaces, bathrooms etc. And now they are trying to stop men entering their spaces, and asking men to care? I think we can all understand the reason for men's apathy about loss of exclusively female spaces.

I know you've seen this anecdote Janice, but will add it for the benefit of readers who haven't: Feminist professor Judith Lorber wrote, in 1994, that she and her friends had "liberated" many male-only bathrooms by walking in and using them, and she lamented that one woman was arrested for doing so.

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OUTSTANDING essay!!!~

As a man I am humbled with gratitude for the excellent expose of this nation's and it's feminazi counter-culture's double standards.

THANK YOU!!!~

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Apr 8, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

Where do we go from here? Pandora's box really has been opened in this regard. Even myself, as a socially conservative Christian, gets nervous at the thought of an undiscerning, knee-jerk pendulum swing.

I see traditional gender roles and spheres as worthy of personal, sacrificial pursuit and societal honour but I also don't desire a world where everone is automatically sorted into rigid boxes either because the people who enjoy doing the enforcing are generally the least wise and discerning of us all.

Even in conservative church circles, where one might still see traditional gender roles functioning in the wild, there is a very great difference between men who are spirit-led servant-leaders of their families and those who are merely operating from an external template. The one I trust, the other not so much.

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Apr 8, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

Narcissism seems to be the driver for women entering into male spaces. We used to continually hear that somebody or another was "the first woman to" enter some place or another, complete with photograph of a woman beaming with pride at entering a previously-male arena and thus drawing a great deal of attention to herself. At my boy's school in the 1980s, the first girl to enter was this extraordinary person who drenched herself in perfume to the extent that it was clear where she had walked even several minutes after her passage.

It's obvious to everyone except feminists that the transgender movement and the bizarre behaviour of people like Dylan Mulvaney is an impersonation of the obsessive entry into male spaces by women, a way of grabbing attention fed mostly by narcissism.

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Apr 8, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

Very glad to see you call out this double standard.

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Apr 8, 2023Liked by Janice Fiamengo

Excellent. I agree 100%. In these new gender (ideology) wars I am firmly on the side of women, but I am absolutely aware of the hypocrisy of the feminist movement, and that in the end, they are reaping the whirlwind they unleased. And I remain mad as hell that the Boy Scouts have been co-opted, and yet the Girl Guides (in Canada) remains proudly single-sex. Its is ridiculous.

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