Maya Forstater

Fighting oppression of women is about fighting structures of patriarchy. To me this means securing the space & rights of all people who don't have the privileges that come w/being cis-male. So to Maya's original Q, only panels made up of primarily cis-males should be challenged.

Well, only panels made up of primarily cis-males should be challenged for lacking diverse perspectives based on gender (to me that's what manel means). That's not to say that we shouldn't challenge panels & other platforms for lacking diversity in other ways-e.g. race, geography.

What about diversity of sex? Sex and gender are different things (and are not related) why are we treating them interchangably, whereas we don't treat diversity of race, geography, age etc... as interchangeable with diversity of sex?

(obviously manels thing is small, but it is interesting to think thru). i.e. yes the typical manel we are reacting against is four old, posh, white men. Sex diversity is not the only thing we care about. But a panel of men of different ages, races & backgrounds is still a manel

In my opinion the manel issue is about under-represented genders & I find your fight to make it about only people of female gender and born with female sex displaced. It seems to come at the back of a gender that in many setting is even more discriminated against than cis-women.

It's not just in an abstract sense interesting, but can be very hurtful to a small group of people who often feel that they are not accepted anywhere. That's it. I'm out. I said my piece.

Oppression based on sex & gender are both consequences of patriarchy so I would be wary of pitting the two against each other (as also mentioned by @DinaPomeranz). As discrimination against trans people is particularly bad, focusing on gender is more inclusive.

I do think it's important to include trans in our fight for rights & representation if we want an inclusive movement (as mentioned by @_alice_evans). But in practice trans make up small %, so fighting along gender lines is largely compatible with fighting for sex-diversity.