Mid-life Bassist

A tale of two EU conferences: On Tuesday afternoon, two events will take place in the centre of Brussels' EU district. Both of them are on the topic of women. One of the conferences will host a panel of women who have been punished materially, socially, professionally, or otherwise, for insisting that women are real, that we are adult human and female, and that that definition matters for any law or policy that claims to protect or advance our interests. One of the central themes discussed on the panel will be the treatment doled out to these individual women who have refused to abandon this material definition of womanhood. Court cases, physical violence, social exclusion, threats... you name it, we've been on the receiving end of it. Another topic for the panel to discuss is a much wider and arguably worse: the steadfast refusal of the people in the same Brussels EU district -- from the media, to elected MEPs, to EU Commission officials - to acknowledge the role that they have played in these panellists' being treated this way, and their role in the erasure of sex as a coherent and important factor in the organisation of society. For at least a decade, the powers-that-be in Brussels have pretended not to notice the erasure of sex in law, all while they have been themselves been advancing and promoting it. Exceptions, of course, come from traditionally right-wing parties (with some particularly relentless championnes, in the form of @MargaPisa @LaurenceTrochu @Barbarabonte and some notable others). Athena Forum founder Faika El-Nagashi has told me that she thinks most EU officials (elected or otherwise) are not aware of the issue, as opposed to pretending not to be aware. I think she is far too charitable. I myself had my employment contract terminated by EU officials because my insistence on the material definition of woman. I wrote on the European Commission internal message board about the danger (and stupidity) of pretending women and girls are not a definable phenomenon all while purporting to have a raft of policies and laws that are "for" us. A recent FOI request revealed that the Commission officials considered my views on material reality of sex to be contrary to EU values. Which brings me to conference number two that will take place on Tuesday. The other conference is about women as an idealised set of stereotypes that can be adopted or discarded at will, a concept that is open to ownership by any man who enjoys being seen by others as a woman - which a lot of men apparently do (usually as part of a distressing and all-consuming sexual paraphilia). I had assumed, in my naivety, that once people in power heard the message that it harms women and girls - especially if you come from a lower class background, which I do - to pretend sex isn't real and doesn't matter, that they would do what was necessary to roll back the damage. I thought that once I presented the evidence that most men who claim to be women are motivated by sexual arousal, that politicians would find the courage stop causing more damage. I was very, very wrong. And those are the people who will be attending this other conference on Tuesday, the "gender" conference, which will kick of "Gender equality week" in the European Parliament. There's no point in attending, because we know exactly what they will say. Empower, glass ceiling, leadership. They will not mention sex, or Athena Forum, or the punished women on the panel *just down the street* (no Parliament invitation was offered to Athena Forum for this, the week of celebrating "gender" equality", which I think tells you everything you need to know.) As it happens, the woman-is-a-feeling gender event finishes right at the moment that the @AthenaForumEU event begins (6.30PM). Take of that symbolism what you will. I will be at the women's conference, and I will be tweeting it minute-by-minute. I hope to get some video interviews with some of the (truly courageous) women who will be there. Zsófi Balogh Rona Duwe Sodfa Daaji Anne Kalvig Silvia Carrasco Helen Joyce Faika El-Nagashi