{"id":625474,"date":"2026-06-07T05:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625474\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T05:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:17:15","slug":"hampstead-heath-ponds-ruling-is-an-insult-to-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625474\/","title":{"rendered":"Hampstead Heath ponds ruling is an insult to women"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of London Corporation has ruled<\/a> that the Kenwood Ladies\u2019 Pond at Hampstead Heath is to remain open to biological males. At first glance, this may not seem in keeping with the definition of a ladies\u2019 pond. However, according to Chris Hayward<\/a>, the Corporation\u2019s chair, it\u2019s in keeping with \u201cthe character and unique spirit of the ponds\u201d. It appears a female-only space would just ruin the vibe.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time this argument has been used to suggest that, even if the For Women Scotland judgment<\/a> affirmed that, for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, \u201cwoman\u201d should mean \u201cbiological female\u201d, only churlish people would actually take it seriously. Take parkrun, for instance. If you are a nice, inclusive person, you understand that the character and spirit of parkrun is that of a fun run, and only an evil bigot<\/a> would care about the age and sex placings that are given out for no reason whatsoever. Similarly, if you are the kind of person who wants to chill at a woman-only pond, you would understand that woman-only means open to everyone. Otherwise, you\u2019re just not \u201cwelcoming\u201d enough to fit in.<\/p>\n

According to Sex Matters\u2019 Fiona McAnena<\/a>, CLC members \u201chave voted to unlawfully discriminate and harass women using the Ladies\u2019 Pond\u201d. The CLC\u2019s counter-argument would be that most respondents to their public consultation (86%) voted to keep all pools mixed-sex. Of course, this is not how they phrase it \u2014 the term favored is \u201ctrans-inclusive\u201d, in keeping with the idea that this is about being kind to the vulnerable. In accordance with this view, the minority that still wants woman-only to mean woman-only no doubt deserves a little unlawful discrimination for the sake of the greater good.<\/p>\n

Is this what feminists thought would happen, back when we celebrated the April 2025 ruling<\/a>? Certainly, things have not run as smoothly<\/a> as we might have liked. In some quarters, the backlash has been intense, with defenders of trans-inclusion behaving as though adult human females were a recent invention, dreamed up for the sole purpose of making others feel sad. The Supreme Court victory followed over a decade in which the dominant media narrative pitched poor, marginalized trans people against wicked, selfish Terfs. By the time the law was reaffirmed, this narrative had already become deeply embedded. It may take a decade or more to undo, something that cannot be achieved by the law alone.<\/p>\n

McAnena is right when she says \u201cfemale users don\u2019t expect to encounter male people in bikinis or sometimes even naked in the showers at the Ladies\u2019 Pond\u201d. I suspect this is true even of some female users who voted in favor of \u201ctrans inclusion\u201d, picturing something entirely different. Because \u201ctrans\u201d is defined so vaguely \u2014 merging gender-distressed teenagers, children who may otherwise grow up to be gay, and adult men who have watched too much sissy porn \u2014 it is very difficult to express what is happening in simple terms: that trans inclusion permits men to enter any spaces they choose, and it will be the most disrespectful men, not the most vulnerable, who will select the female-only spaces. Instead, the #BeKind narrative would have it that McAnena is smearing innocent people who want to swim.<\/p>\n

In an ideal world, the Supreme Court victory would have been followed by humble apologies from all those who misrepresented the law. There would have been an understanding that consent is not transferable and that in a male-dominated world, mixed-sex spaces force many women to self-exclude. Instead, organizations such as Girlguiding<\/a>, the Women\u2019s Institute<\/a>, and every major trade union<\/a> have gone out of their way to alienate those who value single-sex spaces. Even when forced to obey the law, they have made clear their belief that this is not what good people do.<\/p>\n

This does not mean feminists have won the battle but lost the war. It does mean right now every victory is painted as an act of aggression, rather than a reclaiming of what should never have been taken in the first place. When Chris Hayward tells women who want a women-only space that their desires go against \u201cthe character and unique spirit of the ponds\u201d, he\u2019s the one being exclusionary. He\u2019s the one telling a minority that they don\u2019t belong anywhere. We need to keep telling this story, the true one, until we have more than just the law on our side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of London Corporation has ruled that the Kenwood Ladies\u2019 Pond at Hampstead Heath is to remain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[212099,29660,59,24758,57,58,212100,50,2173,1354,56,1955,54,55],"class_list":["post-625474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-chris-hayward","tag-for-women-scotland","tag-gb","tag-gender","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-hampstead-heath-ponds","tag-news","tag-supreme-court","tag-trans","tag-uk","tag-uncategorized","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}