
gonochoric
297 posts




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




135 British MPs are fighting guidance that would deny ‘Paula’ the right to enter women’s and girls’ changing rooms.







The vast majority of people still sees sex as binary, that you are either man or woman, and nothing in-between. However, science has so far has not been able to agree on any single or objective way to define sex. There are at least six markers of sex: chromosomes, gonads (testes and ovaries), hormones, secondary sex characteristics (body hair, square jaw, Adam’s apple, body shape etc.), external genitalia and internal genitalia (uterus, prostate, etc.). None of these characteristics are binary, all of them can vary within individuals, resulting in various combinations. Chromosomes can be more than XX and XY, there can also be XXY, XXXY, XYY and other varieties. The chromosomes are not the whole story though. Each chromosome is full of different genes. On the top of the Y chromosome for instance, there is a gene that functions as an on/off switch. If that switch doesn’t turn on, a person with XY chromosomes will, to a large extent, present as a person with XX chromosomes. All the other genes on the X and Y chromosomes can also either not kick in or mutate, and thus create variety in how they work. These kinds of variations are usually called intersex or difference of sex development (DSD). In fact, few people know their genetic sex as it is rarely tested. It is estimated that 600.000 Americans have chromosome formations other than XX and XY and four million more Americans have an anatomical sex that doesn’t correspond to their genetic sex. & Hormones such as testosterone, oestrogen and progesterone are not sex-specific, everyone has them. The supposedly male hormone testosterone is not only produced in testes but also in healthy ovaries and adrenal glands, and by conversion form peripheral tissues. While on average men have higher testosterone levels than women, there is a lot of variation and a considerable overlap. This does not mean that women and men have the same testosterone levels. It means that on average men have higher levels of testosterone than women, but that there are some women who have really high levels of tesotosterone and a number of men who have low levels of testosterone. Hence, women and men can have testosterone levels that are far from the average levels, and as such, focusing on levels of testosterone renders a false sense of understanding someone’s body. Small quantities of testosterone can have big effect on a body, and big amounts can have small effects. Testosterone is often mislabelled, being considered ‘only’ a sex hormone, while in reality it is vital for many bodily functions, including the liver function and bone density. Gonads and internal reproductive organs can also vary. Women may have undescended testes and/or an absence of an uterus and ovaries, due to intersex variation and hysterectomies. External genitalia look different on every individual, and secondary sex characteristics vary enormously between individuals as well, with for instance some women having a lot of body hair and some men having almost none. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11…




@tonyvtree Yes, we are soooo weird for being anti child mutilation! Why didn't I think of that before?!

Fuck me, this shit is tedious Home school FTW

Just watch this.





Calm yourself my love. No teenage girls are having their healthy breasts removed, just teenage boys are having their gynaecomastia resolved so they can live in freedom in their bodies. Also - BTW - puberty blockers prevent the need for top surgery - FYI 😘 Oh and well done to @LushLtd for recognising all teens.


@WomenAreReals @SF_TERF_CENTRAL @Sac_TERF_Ca @SashaAguilar69 @BLoquaciou72958 @aVeryGoodTyrone @AmandaKovattana @mellow_vello @marli_ca The Jon Lovett - Ari Schwartz story is one of the craziest of the 2020s. He’s a famous gay guy, she’s a successful beautiful woman working for him. Then she goes trans during the pandemic apparently. Imagine the therapist sessions.

Remarkable conversation between two men that touches on women’s boundary violations & young women’s struggles to accept their sexuality, yet somehow the men can’t (or won’t) see how it all connects to women. You know, the female kind. It shows how close some men can get to seeing the problem, only to keep wandering in the wilderness: 1) @jonlovett brings up Sam Brinton, but the only comments are sarcastic: It was pretty exciting. Not a good look. It was fantastic. 2) Sedaris observes young women’s distaste with the word “lesbian,” but no deeper analysis here. 3) Sedaris correctly observes that “queer” doesn’t tell him anything and goes on to detail a story about a “queer 12 year-old.” Lovett dismisses this as an “edge case” and quickly changes the subject. Later in the conversation Sedaris mentions his irritation that “queer”includes people in heterosexual relationships, which is ironic since Lovett calls himself gay and is currently married to a woman. @Glinner





