This is beautifully written. I really can’t read it in full right now as I have dust in my eye but I’m definitely not crying or traumatised by our ongoing erasure 💜🤱💜
you are wonderful. all of this evil seems like a weird waking dream sometimes. impossible but also happening. there is the feeling of running without moving, jeopardy. the silent dream scream. but, sadly, no waking.
Dear Lucy, you really got me thinking about this “feeling like a woman” business. Let me say this out loud: I think this is a huge scam!
Does anybody really “feel like a woman”, or is it just me who does not see what that really means? Is industry playing with concepts…hoping to make me feel that there is something wrong with me, so I’ve better take these pills, buy this product…harm myself?
I wake up in the morning, I brush my teeth, I prepare my coffee, I drink it, I take the trash out, I smile to my neighbor, I do my best to be kind to others. I feel like a human. I do not believe that my male partner’s experience differs much from mine when he goes about his day.
When do I stop to consider myself a “woman” or a “non-male”? Well, this happens in everything that relates to my reproductive organs, and in admitting that they make me vulnerable. Sexual intercourse makes a woman vulnerable in different ways because we might emerge pregnant from a sexual encounter. The side effect of female contraceptives makes us vulnerable. Menstruation, its effect on our mood, cramps, our choices of pads/tampons/silicon cups/reusable towels, their potential side effects on our health, and on the environment… make us vulnerable. Making choices over our reproductive potential makes us vulnerable. Taking drugs that have not been tested on women (as is often the case) makes us vulnerable.
Giving birth to other humans made me so very vulnerable. My need to be there for my babies and to protect them makes me ridiculously vulnerable.
There is one kind of woman; and I thank you, Lucy, for highlighting how damaging it is to go around calling ourselves “cis”. Other biological women who are being pushed into confusion by unethical practices around the construct of gender dysphoria will need us one day to help them come back to health. We need to stay strong, stay clear, and continue to foster kindness and compassion. It’s a human thing.
And LLL refuses to answer or even acknowledge questions about breast binding or elective double mastectomy. It's a fluffy organisation of anti-intellectuals that pretends to be about love and kindness while burying women who examine any uncomfortable truths.
I appreciate your comment Barbara, but I don't think the entire organization is "infected" with this virus that threatens us. Lucy is proof that there are many Leaders out there who are working in concordance with the Mission Statement that centers mother to mother support. We haven't all lost our way.
Dear Lucy, thank you for another great post. May I ask you to write the LLL mission somewhere so we can all see it? Since my first contact with LLL in 1993, I felt so drawn to it. I wonder if it changed.
Thank you Lucy. This is a very clear mission that includes well know words like mothers, breastfeed, mother-to-mother, breastfeeding, and baby and mother. It simply recognizes reality.
Some of my closest friends were LLLL. I wasn't limiting my comment to the current trans ideology. The organisation has always silenced mothers who step out of line. They broke my heart.
Barbara, I agree with some of the points you make, and I am happy you make them. Thank you! Any organization that supports breast binding or elective mastectomy should 'attempt' to do so responsibly by addressing issues regarding the long term wellbeing of anyone electing these interventions, impossible as this may seem. But I do worry about generalizing. LLL has had an undeniable impact in the world, in the WHO, in the direction of research, in science, and in the breastfeeding experience of hundreds of thousands of mothers worldwide... And it has been powered by well-meaning volunteers. What it is happening right now, I think, is about how a handful of people pushing agendas that have nothing to do with the original mission of the organization. They are a minority but they are bullies. Any large organization that is run by volunteers is imperfect. I don't think that LLL was ever perfect, but I believe that its mission was. I learned so much about love and kindness in action, about being respected as a mother, from LLL Leaders. I believe those Leaders are still out there, but they are afraid to speak up.
It is important to be clear. And hold the line on language all ways. It is a handful of women who make their money from exploiting mothers milk and women’s kindness.
A woman began her first round of puberty at around 9 weeks or so when estrogen production at levels not unlike that at at sexual maturity begin to model her growing body for eventual reproduction, and establishes a lifetime supply of eggs - in the millions.
Immediately after birth another more subtle round of mini-puberty begins with full teen-like levels of female hormones and continues for some time to establish a second round of preparation for her later sexual maturity.
Subsequently, her body then focused energy almost entirely on physical growth, outstripping males in height, and intellectual growth, as easily recognized in their being taller and doing better academically than boys as they both entered puberty.
Finally as a woman entered her teens, a last round of puberty began, maturing her neural system, bones, and muscles as she attained reproductive and sexual maturity, and her physical growth waned. She stopped growing taller as boys entered their own growth spurt, and she began having periods as those eggs already developed in the womb are cyclically presented via ovulation to initiate reproduction.
Except this last phase does not happen for women who have had final reproductive, intellectual, physical and sexual maturity permanently disrupted chemically, in a false, grotesquely cruel belief that they could change sex.
This disruption leaves them in a pre-pubescent state with no chance to make up time lost during final growth, because only female hormones could have guided completion of growth on the scaffolding built in her mothers uterus and at birth. Foreign hormones will distort but not complete the maturation path that her genetics initiated. Once growth stops she can’t re-initiate it, incomplete adulthood has arrived.
There is no amount of female hormones given to a male which will alter a male scaffolding into a woman. Only a woman can create this self-synchronized orchestration and growth into an adult, which began at birth and concludes decades later.
Were this to be clearly understood in plain English I would hope the entire gender and trans debate would evaporate. There is no mystery of what is a woman.
This is beautifully written. I really can’t read it in full right now as I have dust in my eye but I’m definitely not crying or traumatised by our ongoing erasure 💜🤱💜
you are wonderful. all of this evil seems like a weird waking dream sometimes. impossible but also happening. there is the feeling of running without moving, jeopardy. the silent dream scream. but, sadly, no waking.
Amen, amen, amen!
Dear Lucy, you really got me thinking about this “feeling like a woman” business. Let me say this out loud: I think this is a huge scam!
Does anybody really “feel like a woman”, or is it just me who does not see what that really means? Is industry playing with concepts…hoping to make me feel that there is something wrong with me, so I’ve better take these pills, buy this product…harm myself?
I wake up in the morning, I brush my teeth, I prepare my coffee, I drink it, I take the trash out, I smile to my neighbor, I do my best to be kind to others. I feel like a human. I do not believe that my male partner’s experience differs much from mine when he goes about his day.
When do I stop to consider myself a “woman” or a “non-male”? Well, this happens in everything that relates to my reproductive organs, and in admitting that they make me vulnerable. Sexual intercourse makes a woman vulnerable in different ways because we might emerge pregnant from a sexual encounter. The side effect of female contraceptives makes us vulnerable. Menstruation, its effect on our mood, cramps, our choices of pads/tampons/silicon cups/reusable towels, their potential side effects on our health, and on the environment… make us vulnerable. Making choices over our reproductive potential makes us vulnerable. Taking drugs that have not been tested on women (as is often the case) makes us vulnerable.
Giving birth to other humans made me so very vulnerable. My need to be there for my babies and to protect them makes me ridiculously vulnerable.
There is one kind of woman; and I thank you, Lucy, for highlighting how damaging it is to go around calling ourselves “cis”. Other biological women who are being pushed into confusion by unethical practices around the construct of gender dysphoria will need us one day to help them come back to health. We need to stay strong, stay clear, and continue to foster kindness and compassion. It’s a human thing.
Solidarity sister. Otis a woman thing.
And LLL refuses to answer or even acknowledge questions about breast binding or elective double mastectomy. It's a fluffy organisation of anti-intellectuals that pretends to be about love and kindness while burying women who examine any uncomfortable truths.
I appreciate your comment Barbara, but I don't think the entire organization is "infected" with this virus that threatens us. Lucy is proof that there are many Leaders out there who are working in concordance with the Mission Statement that centers mother to mother support. We haven't all lost our way.
Dear Lucy, thank you for another great post. May I ask you to write the LLL mission somewhere so we can all see it? Since my first contact with LLL in 1993, I felt so drawn to it. I wonder if it changed.
My pleasure: "Our Mission is to help mothers worldwide to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information, and education, and to promote a better understanding of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and mother." https://llli.org/about/policies-standing-rules/psr-mission-statement/#:~:text=Our%20Mission%20is%20to%20help,of%20the%20baby%20and%20mother.
Thank you Lucy. This is a very clear mission that includes well know words like mothers, breastfeed, mother-to-mother, breastfeeding, and baby and mother. It simply recognizes reality.
And there are no instructions to help biological men do anything around parenting. There is nothing in Leader training about this either.
Some of my closest friends were LLLL. I wasn't limiting my comment to the current trans ideology. The organisation has always silenced mothers who step out of line. They broke my heart.
Barbara, I agree with some of the points you make, and I am happy you make them. Thank you! Any organization that supports breast binding or elective mastectomy should 'attempt' to do so responsibly by addressing issues regarding the long term wellbeing of anyone electing these interventions, impossible as this may seem. But I do worry about generalizing. LLL has had an undeniable impact in the world, in the WHO, in the direction of research, in science, and in the breastfeeding experience of hundreds of thousands of mothers worldwide... And it has been powered by well-meaning volunteers. What it is happening right now, I think, is about how a handful of people pushing agendas that have nothing to do with the original mission of the organization. They are a minority but they are bullies. Any large organization that is run by volunteers is imperfect. I don't think that LLL was ever perfect, but I believe that its mission was. I learned so much about love and kindness in action, about being respected as a mother, from LLL Leaders. I believe those Leaders are still out there, but they are afraid to speak up.
It is important to be clear. And hold the line on language all ways. It is a handful of women who make their money from exploiting mothers milk and women’s kindness.
A woman began her first round of puberty at around 9 weeks or so when estrogen production at levels not unlike that at at sexual maturity begin to model her growing body for eventual reproduction, and establishes a lifetime supply of eggs - in the millions.
Immediately after birth another more subtle round of mini-puberty begins with full teen-like levels of female hormones and continues for some time to establish a second round of preparation for her later sexual maturity.
Subsequently, her body then focused energy almost entirely on physical growth, outstripping males in height, and intellectual growth, as easily recognized in their being taller and doing better academically than boys as they both entered puberty.
Finally as a woman entered her teens, a last round of puberty began, maturing her neural system, bones, and muscles as she attained reproductive and sexual maturity, and her physical growth waned. She stopped growing taller as boys entered their own growth spurt, and she began having periods as those eggs already developed in the womb are cyclically presented via ovulation to initiate reproduction.
Except this last phase does not happen for women who have had final reproductive, intellectual, physical and sexual maturity permanently disrupted chemically, in a false, grotesquely cruel belief that they could change sex.
This disruption leaves them in a pre-pubescent state with no chance to make up time lost during final growth, because only female hormones could have guided completion of growth on the scaffolding built in her mothers uterus and at birth. Foreign hormones will distort but not complete the maturation path that her genetics initiated. Once growth stops she can’t re-initiate it, incomplete adulthood has arrived.
There is no amount of female hormones given to a male which will alter a male scaffolding into a woman. Only a woman can create this self-synchronized orchestration and growth into an adult, which began at birth and concludes decades later.
Were this to be clearly understood in plain English I would hope the entire gender and trans debate would evaporate. There is no mystery of what is a woman.
A woman is an adult female human.