Note (to you and anyone else): As I said (EDIT: Actually, I didn't exactly say that. But. Um. That's what I think :)), I think this is a valid issue, but it's really NOT what I feel like talking about. I'll address this one comment because I have stuff to say which ties into my main point, but on the whole I'd rather any conversation about it be taken elsewhere (if you make a post about it I will link to it. But then you have to deal with any resulting Drama :D).
I think "Should men feel more welcome at discussions of gender at Gynaecon, and if so how do we fix it?" is a valid question (and one I've discussed with Cam), but the problem is that discussing it gets into all these complex issues about men in women's spaces etc, and I know from past experience that that can just lead to circular arguments and Drama, and the the much less fraught question of "How do we make Gynaecon more welcoming to the people we definitely do want to feel welcome?" could be derailed. And I'm pretty sure once you answer that question you'll almost certainly fix a lot of the "men feel unwelcome" thing, and it'll be a lot easier to untangle what's going on with any remaining unwelcomeness felt by men.
That said: I think discussions of Xism need as much as possible to be controlled by and centered on people who experience oppression X. But I think men should be as welcome at discussions of gender as, say, white people at discussions of race, and since I have run panels on race (and there were issues around that, but in one case at least I think it was better I ran it than it didn't happen at all) I can hardly object to men being heavily involved in stuff like Gynaecon assuming they approach it the right way.
Also, I think it's important to have a variety of types of discussion. There should be a place for women(*)-only discussions of gender AND a place for much more broad open ones.
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I think "Should men feel more welcome at discussions of gender at Gynaecon, and if so how do we fix it?" is a valid question (and one I've discussed with Cam), but the problem is that discussing it gets into all these complex issues about men in women's spaces etc, and I know from past experience that that can just lead to circular arguments and Drama, and the the much less fraught question of "How do we make Gynaecon more welcoming to the people we definitely do want to feel welcome?" could be derailed. And I'm pretty sure once you answer that question you'll almost certainly fix a lot of the "men feel unwelcome" thing, and it'll be a lot easier to untangle what's going on with any remaining unwelcomeness felt by men.
That said: I think discussions of Xism need as much as possible to be controlled by and centered on people who experience oppression X. But I think men should be as welcome at discussions of gender as, say, white people at discussions of race, and since I have run panels on race (and there were issues around that, but in one case at least I think it was better I ran it than it didn't happen at all) I can hardly object to men being heavily involved in stuff like Gynaecon assuming they approach it the right way.
Also, I think it's important to have a variety of types of discussion. There should be a place for women(*)-only discussions of gender AND a place for much more broad open ones.
(*)Or "not cis men", etc, as relevant