Feminist Current

It's only recently that we are beginning to hear the stories of family members of men who have begun identifying as women, from the “trans widow” to, now, the children of transitioners. Emma Thomas is the founder of the campaign group, Children of Transitioners, a group that questioned the University of Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust on their “perinatal care policy for trans and non binary people policy." Children of Transitioners inquired about “safeguarding concerns about the sexual and emotional abuse of babies and children of transitioners” and asked about evidence supporting the claim that the “milk” produced by trans-identified men after taking a combination of drugs is “comparable to that produced following the birth of a baby.” Emma's own father "came out" to her as "trans" when she was nine. In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with her about her childhood, her father, and her concerns about protecting kids and babies from trans ideology. Feminist Current is a fully listener-supported podcast. Please consider becoming a ⁠paid subscriber⁠ on Substack or ⁠supporting us with a donation⁠.

Sasha Ayad⁠ is Licensed Professional Counselor who has treated adolescents for over 13 years. She began feeling concerned about the trans trend reaching teens, and after learning about Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) so began looking into the “trans kid”phenomenon more deeply. Sasha became a founding board member of several organizations fighting for a more cautious, science-based approach, including ⁠Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine⁠, ⁠The Gender Exploratory Therapy Association,⁠ and ⁠Genspect.⁠ She is co-host of Gender: A Wider Lens⁠ Podcast⁠ and co-author, alongside Lisa Marchiano and Stella O’Malley, of a new book called, ⁠When Kids Say They’re Trans⁠.  In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with her about what’s really behind teenagers' desire to transition and what parents can do when dealing with a teen identifying as trans. Feminist Current is a fully listener-supported podcast. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack or supporting us with a donation.

Helen Joyce is a journalist, editor, and the author of Trans: When ideology meets reality. Helen is also a founder of Sex Matters, a campaign group advocating for clarity about the two sexes—male and female—in law and in life. In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Helen about new political developments in the UK around gender identity legislation and women's sex-based rights, why women's bathrooms matter, and her spat with Matt Walsh.  Feminist Current has been fully independent since 2012. Please consider a donation to support our work. 

In February 2020, Laila Mickelwait, Exodus Cry’s Director of Abolition at the time, published an op-ed titled, “Time to Shut Pornhub Down,” bringing attention to the fact that Pornhub was hosting child pornography and videos of trafficking victims on the site. This sparked a petition and accompanying campaign, Traffickinghub. Then, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Nicholas Kristof, published a scathing exposé in the New York Times, titled, “The Children of Pornhub," leading the company to leap to action, deleting 80% of their content overnight — about 10 million videos. Visa, Mastercard, and Discover cut ties with the site. In 2021, Canadian parliament began to investigate the Canadian-based company that owns Pornhub, MindGeek and a number of lawsuits were filed against the company on behalf of survivors. NCOSE — the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation — filed several of these lawsuits, representing victims seeking justice against MindGeek. NCOSE was featured in a documentary released on Netflix last money, purporting to address the scandal, called Money Shot. In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Haley McNamara, Director of the International Centre on Sexual Exploitation in the UK and a Vice President at the U.S. based National Center on Sexual Exploitation, about the situation at Pornhub, the Netflix documentary, and NCOSE’s efforts to stop exploitation in porn.

The issue of prostitution in Canada has been left mostly uncovered. The debate in the public sphere tends to centre around questions of "women’s choices," and the left chants "sex work is work" in an effort to frame the problems in the sex trade as being limited to labour standards. Meanwhile, the men who pay for sex and exploit women in trade are ignored.  In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Andrea Heinz and Kathy King, co-authors of a soon-to-be-released book, “When Men Buy Sex: Who Really Pays?”   Andrea Heinz is a Canadian feminist who spent seven years in Edmonton’s licensed and regulated sex trade. She is completing a University degree in Governance, Law & Management and is married with three young children. Kathy King is a clinical social worker (BA, BSW, MSW) with over five decades of professional employment and volunteer advocacy. In 1997, her passion became personal when she lost her only daughter to drug addiction, mental illness, and exploitation. Her story is shared at MissingCara.ca

Porn and people’s relationships to porn has changed immensely since the advent of the internet — even moreso with apps like OnlyFans and other social media tools that connect consumers directly to women. Many argue these tools are a means to empower women — allowing them freedom, independence, and the ability to make a lot of money. But is that really the case? To learn more about the realities behind platforms like OnlyFans, Meghan Murphy speaks with Alix Aharon, Co-Founder of Partners for Ethical Care (PEC), the Founder of the Gender Mapping Project, and a porn researcher.  

Robert Wintemute, a professor of human rights law at King's College London and a lawyer for the LGB Alliance, was scheduled to give a talk called called “Sex vs. Gender (Identity) Debate In the United Kingdom and the Divorce of LGB from T,” at McGill University in Montreal last week. The event never happened, though, cancelled shortly after it began as protesters stormed the venue shouting profanities and slogans like, "Trans rights are human rights," threw flour at Robert, and unplugged a projector he used for the event. Robert rightly called the protest “extremely anti-democratic.” In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with him about the protest, as well as how we came to a place wherein trans rights have superseded women’s sex-based human rights in law.

Scottish women suffered major blow in December when the SNP government passed a bill that will allow anyone to get a gender recognition certificate through self-declaration without a diagnosis of "gender dysphoria" or doctor’s assessment. They will need only to claim to have been "living as a different gender" for three months. Teenagers will become eligible to apply to change their legal sex on the day of their 16th birthday. For Women Scotland was founded in June 2018 amid fear exactly this would happen, leading to an erosion of women’s rights. In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with director of For Women Scotland, Susan Smith, about the group's fight for women’s sex based rights in the country and what happens now that the Gender Recognition Reform Bill has passed.

Marissa Darlingh was an elementary school counselor with over a decade of experience working with students in culturally diverse public school districts when she was fired from her job at Allen-Field Elementary School in the Milwaukee Public School District. After speaking at an April 23 rally in Madison against gender identity ideology in schools, a campaign was organized to get Marissa fired, and her supervisor began an investigation. Marissa was subsequently suspended, then received a no-trespass order. She received a letter of termination on September 30, and filed a federal lawsuit, arguing this was a violation of her free speech rights. Her attorneys also argued the district violated Darlingh's constitutional right to due process by not giving her sufficient notice before she was suspended from her job on June 14. In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Marissa about her work, her case, "allying with the right," and why she spoke out against teaching kids about gender identity ideology.

Two months ago, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini traveled from her hometown in the province of Kurdistan to the Iranian capital, Tehran, to visit her brother. She was arrested by the morality police getting off the subway for failing to cover her hair properly, in accordance with Iran’s Sharia law. Three days later, she was dead, beaten severly in the head. Iranian women said "No more," and launched an uprising. Protests and demonstrations have been ongoing ever since. In this episode, Meghan Murphy speaks with Maryam Namazie, a secularist, feminist, and human rights activist, about the uprisings, the history of Saria law and women’s rights in Iran, and how Western feminists can better support Iranian women in their fight for freedom.