I don't want to give out too many details, but there has been so many people I have met in person recently who are gender critical/radfem and it's so refreshing! We have worked together for about a year, and I actually had a difficult time connecting with her initially. I had pinned her as being non-binary identifying and as a result of that assumption avoided talking about certain topics with her (but I did second guess this assumption very briefly when I saw leg hair haha). We still worked well together, and there was mutual respect, but I was still sort of a little distant and operated behind a professional curtain and I think she did too. I also just struggle in general with anxiety and being emotionally vulnerable with people, in addition to the fear of experiencing strong reactions for not believing in gender ideology if that was ever discovered about me.

But we had an amazing talk together on a day we found ourselves alone in the office about women's issues, and a broad discussion about feminism narrowed into other things until we were both speaking to how much we appreciated and agreed with second wave feminism. I was so, so anxious at the end of it just because I'm afraid of talking about gender critical issues with anyone, especially in a professional setting. But I also felt super bonded with her by the end of this experience, and since this deep talk our professional and personal connection with each other feels so much more grounded and deeper. We're not best friends or anything by any means, but it's just a comfort to know and work with someone who's on the same page.

She also isn't the first. This woman who was very confident and seemed very popular in one of my graduate programs that all the other students adored I also had assumed was non-binary or trans-identifying a few years ago. She was hilarious and outspoken. I was really reserved and shy and didn't interact with her or really much of anybody in that program, so I was surprised when she reached out to me and asked to hang out after the quarter had ended. We hung out a few times until one day when walking in the woods we had sort of a similar discussion regarding feminism and then out of nowhere she just outright stated she didn't consider TIMs as being women and felt they didn't understand women's issues at all, lol.

And, lastly and perhaps one of my most powerful experiences was when our professors had an Instagram influencer who was male but identified as non-binary as a guest speaker for one of the topics pertaining to diversity. He and his experiences had extremely little to do with our program - we were an environmental science program. After his talk, the professors had us gather into small groups of 3-4 to discuss what we learned. In my small group, which was comprised of myself, one other woman, and a male student, we all slowly got to the same point that we didn't agree with identity politics and it felt absolutely invigorating. Then the professors had the entire class come together to discuss as a larger group, and while it was slow to start, all but four students (three trans-identifying, one "trans ally") agreed that we didn't align with the speaker's views and didn't feel it was very relevant to our program. It was a very outspoken, autistic woman who was a former middle school teacher who was the first to verbalize her genuine thoughts, and she basically said, "I'm sorry but he [the speaker] talked about being more sensitive and not using phrases such as 'this weather is bipolar today', and as a neurodivergent woman it never occurred to be that I should be offended by such statements. I consider myself liberal, but sometimes I wonder if I'm not liberal enough for this school". LOL. After a few more students spoke their minds, I joined in and stated that at one point I had to mute my speakers (his talk was over zoom) when he stated that biological sex was outdated. The two professors (both male, one openly gay) actually looked RELIEVED. lol.

And, more recently, I also discovered my own sister was gender critical. :)

It's amazing how many of us there are!!!