Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Victimhood Poker - UK style

In the American version of the game, Muslim trumps transgender. How will it pan out in the UK ?

A sex swap instructor at an all-female driving school was left devastated when the Sheffield husband of one of her pupils threatened to sue her firm - for sending a man to teach his Muslim wife. Emma Sherdley - formerly a married dad of two called Andrew but now legally a woman - has the full support of her boss Joanne Dixon who says she is a popular and respected instructor with 32 female pupils on her books who have no problem with her past.

Emma, aged 42, has a birth certificate and a "gender recognition certificate" to prove her legal status as a woman although she is still waiting for final surgery to make her transition from male to female physically complete. She says she has never had a problem with any of her other pupils and says the complaints made by the man from the Meadowhall area of Sheffield, were: "hurtful, offensive and deeply upsetting".

Joanne, who set up Laugh n Pass with all-female teachers designed to put ladies learning to drive completely at their ease, told The Star: "Emma is a popular and very well-respected instructor.

"That man accused us of being racist, yet his attitude towards Emma showed prejudice of the very worst kind."

The problem began when the man booked a two hour driving lesson for his wife. Emma travelled from her Holmfirth home to Meadowhall and collected the woman from her home and the lesson began. But after the first hour of the lesson she told Emma she would have to cancel the remainder of the lesson because she had to go home to breast feed her baby.

Joanne said: "Then the husband rang me and said he was going to sue us. He was saying, 'You have sent me a man, send me a proper female, how dare you send a man with a deep voice'. Then he claimed we had deliberately sent a man disguised as a woman because he was a Muslim. His attitude and his behaviour was outrageous and has upset me and Emma and everyone else who works here. We are not racist, we are not sexist - if anyone was being so it was that man."





Some feminists would agree that 'they'd sent a chap'. For Julie Bindel, he's just 'a man in a dress'. Turns out gender's not a social construct after all !

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having seen the pic I have to go with the 'man in a dress' meme.

Whats the point of going through the whole sex swap business if you are just going to end up looking like Les Dawson in drag.

Anonymous said...

The Julie Bindel article is a scream

Think about a world inhabited just by transsexuals. It would look like the set of Grease.

It does seem that every transsexual plays a cartoon version of the genders.

it got to the stage where my mum was wearing jeans and trainers rather than her usual skirts and heels, I started to feel a bit like the wonderful Daffyd from Little Britain. Too many straight women looked like they might be lesbians, and I wanted to be the only gay in the village!

When I went to university in the 1980s, all the women I knew wore monkey boots and jeans. Most of those reacted strongly by the 1990s, opting for heels and skirts.

Anonymous said...

"Emma, aged 42, has a birth certificate and a "gender recognition certificate" to prove her legal status as a woman..."

That doesn't, of course, actually make him a woman. No more than the 'pregnant man' in the news yesterday is really a man, no matter what her official legal certificate may say.

For probably the only time in my life, I agree with Julie Bindel.

Anonymous said...

Southpark got it...

http://www.southparkzone.com/episodes/901/Mr.-Garrisons-Fancy-New-Vagina.html

Ross said...

Can't they just stick him/her in a Burqa? That way everyones feelings are catered for, particularly my desire not to see Emma's photo again.

Anonymous said...

South Park?

Nah, it's Babs' Cabs

DJ said...

This best line about 'sex changes' is over here:

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/008708.html

DJ said...

Ooops... make that:

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com..

..../archives/008708.html

Anonymous said...

Whats the point of going through the whole sex swap business if you are just going to end up looking like Les Dawson in drag.

Many thanks for giving me the biggest laugh of the day!

Anonymous said...

And there are people in Britain who look to Canada as some kind of luminary. These are usually people with the word "gender" somewhere in their job title.

Anonymous said...

For young un's who don't remember the late great Les Dawson, here is a pic:

http://www.born-today.com/Today/pix/dawson_les.jpg

Anonymous said...

It seems that we are sinking into a parallel universe, in which "On the Town with the League of Gentlemen" passes for normality.

Some real wimminfolk have a tendency to look just like Les Dawson in drag though. What is their status in the victimhood organisation chart?

If this cabbie was half way serious about becoming an Englishwoman, he ought to start behaving like one. He should have stormed out of the vehicle and hammered the bloke, preferrably with a cast iron frying pan. Then he should have cordially invited the cringing passenger to "get in't bloody car an shut up".

Now that would have worked out nicely all round.

Monty

Anonymous said...

''Joanne, who set up Laugh n Pass with all-female teachers...''

but ...''we are not sexist''

Am I missing something?

How far would someone get setting up an all male teacher driving school I wonder

They all deserve each other

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