Thread by @Scot_Feminists

Before everyone goes back to school/work tomorrow, we have some homework for you. Look at this image and tell us what you make of it, and what you'd think school pupils might make of it. 1/
#SaveOurSchools #Genderbread

Hands up if you get a very strong whiff of unscientific gender woo from it, with their coy suggestion that sex may not just be female or male or there is such a thing as "woman-ness" (I wonder if we'd pass?) and "man-ness". 2/

This nonsensical little trope is used to teach pupils about the difference between sex & whatever gender identity/expression is. So proud of it, some of our independent Scottish schools are boasting about its use 3/ @macmorrisons @Kilgraston @esmsedinburgh
genderbread.org/resource/gende…

“We use the ‘genderbread’ diagram as a useful way of exploring these issues with pupils ...we work with the pupils to create a glossary of LGBTQI+ words so that everyone is clear about the meaning of terms, clearing up myths & misunderstandings”" 4/
thetimes.co.uk/article/4db59a…

We're not convinced about "clearing up understandings" based on this diagram alone. There's no sliding scale of sex, there's no 3rd sex, "intersex" is an outdated term for either male or females with a medical condition & your guess is as good as ours what a "Mtf female" is 5/

The organisation "teaching" this unscientific woo in Scottish schools is called @JustLikeUsUK . They create "teaching packs" for primary and secondary schools for inclusions in several subjects. Science? We're sorry, what? 6/
justlikeus.org

The Just Like Us website doesn't explain who funds them (never a good sign for a charity) but we've found out a little more from the Charity Commission. They've reached over 18k pupils in 2021 (presumably more in 2022). 7/
…of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search…

Looks like the National Lottery is providing the biggest chunk of funding for them and a surprising number of investment companies (presumably all keen to tick their Corporate Social Responsibility boxes?). 8/

We wonder if the National Lottery has seen the report on @JustLikeUsUK by Transgender Trend? "Examination of this group’s resources reveals that they are not compatible with the DfE’s own latest RSE guidance on resources from external providers."
transgendertrend.com/just-like-us-f… 9/

Incorrect advice on toilets for "transgender pupils" (presumably pupils the volunteers at Just Like Us or the teachers have diagnosed themselves as having gender dysphoria? Wonder if they bothered to tell the parents? 10/

Oh, of course not! And we already know this is an issue in our public schools as well, as reported by the teachers, parents and children of Queen Anne High school in Dunfermline, only this week) 11/
thetimes.co.uk/article/teache…

The more we read, the more we worry about what pupils in these schools understand about sex, &their ability to establish boundaries for their own privacy and safeguarding. Is it okay for a male teacher to tell female pupils they are really female for example?
12/

Sex exists on a spectrum? Really? What sort of spectrum? A rainbow-coloured woo spectrum, with multiple sexes that can be changed, apparently. 13/

Every week we are reading more stories, each worse than the last, of schools bringing charities in to teach about diversity & inclusivity (but only some aspects, right?), spreading unscientific, unverified, unsupported nonsense. We're bloody furious, are you? 14/

Ask to see a copy of the material being taught to your children. If you don't like it, tell your Cllrs, your MSPs, @sos_scotland @AcrossParents @ForWomenScot, your friends, the press. Sunlight is the best disinfectant #SaveOurSchools 15/