I have had breast cancer and I didn't get a breast reconstruction. This makes me quite sensitive about being seen undressed. I was in the changing rooms at Myer Melbourne in the city store and came out of my cubicle half-dressed to check my appearance. There was a man standing in the common area where the mirrors were.

The changing cubicles also have curtains and which do not necessarily ensure privacy as the edges might not go straight to the wall.

When I complained to the Myer staff they said that men's rights meant that they couldn't stop men from coming into the women's changing rooms. Although my experience didn't involve a male who claimed to be of anything other than his biological gender, the Myer staff said that when they asked men to leave the changing rooms, men would say that they were transgender or transitioning and that the staff were being discriminatory.

I don't mind if people what to claim that they are whatever but I do feel as if transgender men are stealing women's space. It is not unusual for minorities who are less powerful to feel as if their spaces are being stolen from them e.g. African Americans not liking white Americans using terms from African American English dialects.

It is interesting that men by birth don't seem to mind women who transgender to men taking their space.

We all find it very offensive when white people claim that they are from black and other oppressed minorities ... why can't women protect their identity and space?

I also find that the aggressiveness of the transgender supporters is very unwomanlike. The little things that oppress women are men's often unconscious way of using their greater size, louder voices and aggression ... these attributes continue to oppress women when it is a transgender person who is dominating the conversation.

Thank you for listening to this rant. It is time that those of us who are women-born and endowed with XX chromosomes can defend our culture and identity. #australia #melbourne #womensculture #changingrooms #bodysensitivity #privacy #dignity