Tag: feminism

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Others

Having lost jobs and promotions in the 1970s and 1980s for being female and pregnant I would not want women to lose their legal protections

I care deeply that women should retain their hard earned rights. Having lost jobs and promotions in the 1970s and 1980s for being female and pregnant I would not want women to lose their legal protections.

I have “lectured” my poor book group who are all women and were astounded to hear what has been going on. I have liked and followed on social media but have to be careful about who notices that.

I am unable to speak as I would wish online and in real life as I have a very close family member who is gay and believes that TWAW. He was one of those responsible for badmouthing Rachel Rooney He works in the same field as her and uses social media extensively. I don’t want to fall out with him but he is so wrong. However I know he would never listen to me.

KLK, Lifelong feminist

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Self employed / entrepreneurs

I have an impressionable 12yr old son who I worry would be easily dragged into this madness

I care because I am a woman and the old-fashioned kind of feminist who cares about the rights of women and girls.   I care because I have an impressionable 12yr old son who I worry would be easily dragged into this madness that I view “woke” as.   Also, I don’t like being told what to do – I don’t want to be in the situation where pronouns are always requested. 

I have debated online and with friends.   I have raised issues at governing body meetings at my local school. 

I have been involved in quite hurtful social media spats.   On my Facebook page I posted an article about “Karen” White and commented that penises should not be in a women’s prison.   For this I was called homophobic, disgusting, and a disgrace by a work colleague.  

Vic

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Healthcare Public Sector

I quickly realised it was largely abuse survivors and women worried about their children speaking up

It was, in the first instance a bullying issue for me. I was a Labour Party officer, responsible for membership in our CLP and was appalled at the way a small local group were being allowed to mistreat and slander women.

When I started talking to people, I very quickly realised that it was largely abuse survivors and women worried about their children who were speaking up and in both cases, they seriously needed back up. I was a ‘known terf’ by then and thought ‘oh well, I’m out there – may as well get on with it.’

I have written blog posts, and articles for newspapers.

 I have attended planning groups for women’s organisations, and spoken at a WPUK meeting.

I spent as much time as I could spare visiting women’s groups in different areas, and having one-to-one meetings with people I felt could use more support and/or had something to teach me about the issues involved.

I did try to put a motion through my local Labour Party but, after my branch passed it almost unanimously, the LP withdrew it as ‘controversial’ after a man had a tantrum in another branch.

I have been extensively slandered on social media and in my home town – bizarrely, this has had positive consequences as well as negative ones – a colleague and I organised a WPUK meeting in my town which was an enormous positive overall, but led to members of the local Pride group sending slanderous letters about us to the council and to any venue in town they could think of so, I’m self-employed, and have probably lost business through being ‘controversial’ and have certainly suffered a lot of stress.

I was turned down by the local Labour Party as a council candidate. The stated reason was that there was a complaint about me in process but, when I went to an appeal hearing, the reason given was they didn’t like my blog.

Did I lose friends? Not really – losing false friends leads to finding new and more interesting ones.

Kay Green, socialist feminist, former Labour Party officer

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Healthcare Others

I feel excluded from forums that previously welcomed me

As an old rad feminist I’m genuinely frightened by what’s happening. This is the biggest attack on women’s rights since we first gained them; it’s a huge safeguarding issue; it’s directly linked to the rise of misogyny, to the pornification of society.

I’ve joined public and private GC women’s groups, supported others through crowdfunders, with advice and on line, written to my (Labour) MP and met with them (to no avail), made FoI requests of our devolved government about a lack of an EA in their trans policy (no joy), leafleted the Welsh Labour Party conference, talked to friends and family to try to raise awareness.

I became a member of our Children’s Commissioner’s advisory group but have yet to find a way to have the necessary face-to-face discussions. Mainly personal stress/distress at the lack of political concern/interest (at best) and outright hostility at worst. I am involved in social justice / community-building initiatives and had an excellent relationship with local politicians. This has come to an end, undermining my capacity to make a positive difference. I feel excluded from forums that previously welcomed me.

Vanessa, old, tired, disenfranchised but still fighting

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Lesbians

We banned him from lesbian events for touching women without their consent

I’m a lesbian and was for years active in a women’s centre which acted as a hub for local lesbian activities and groups and support. I and other volunteers held monthly brunch meetings for lesbian women, we had a monthly lesbian feminist group, a monthly cafe event, a newsletter that publicised everything from walks and bike rides and dining clubs and festivals and weekends away to personal ads. We probably reached the best part of 1000 women. We had innumerable women tell us we’d been a life-saver for them. People actually moved to this area because they knew there was this wonderful, open, established lesbian network they could plug into.

Then a trans-rights activist in a wig and lipstick and long nails came to a couple of our events. 

He stood out because he didn’t look like the rest of us. We asked him to leave. He refused. He came to a brunch, made a speech about how he’d come to educate lesbians about transgender issues and, as women tried to leave the room, forcibly hugged them. They made complaints to us. We banned him from lesbian events for touching women without their consent and took the issue to the police who did nothing. The trans-identified man said he’d take the women’s centre down. And he did.

He applied to become a committee member. The committee at that time was dominated by straight white Momentum Labour women who welcomed him. The BAME women, many of whom are not allowed by their faith to attend events where there is a man present, took their funding and left. Many of the lesbians boycotted the women’s centre events in protest. The women’s centre closed down. The lesbian women’s movement fractured as some women took a GC stance and others took the ‘poor transgender people’ stance. Friends fell out. Younger lesbians told off older lesbians for their failure to be kind and reasonable. This fracture in the lesbian community is still festering and I can’t see a time when we will ever be able to rebuild what we had.

I have educated my MP about this, but while she’s sympathetic and makes GC noises to my face she still maintains a supportive pro-trans public persona.

I’ve written 50+  letters and emails to the BBC, the Guardian and other media organisations, occasionally with success (ie, articles have been changed, headlines have been changed) Lots of emails to Radio 4!

I send postcards of support to many women, particularly whose who are fighting alone within their professions/ institutions.

I’m out and proud as GC on my very secure FB page and found that as soon as I started talking about it, quite a few others started saying that they’d felt the same way but had felt uncomfortable about discussing such things.

I’ve taken a firm, rational, non-emotional GC line in lesbian social groups etc and while some people are offended, I usually find that the majority even if they’re silent at the time, sidle up later to say they agree.

I belong to a Resisters group and have stickered and gone out on the streets leafleting. Again, the majority of people agree with a GC line.

Once you start talking to people you realise that 80% are GC, 10% are confused or don’t care and fewer than 10% really take the TWAW line — and even then can’t justify that belief.

I’ve lost several people with whom I thought I’d be friends for life. I had a lesbian GP friend who is now so deeply enmeshed in transgender ideology that she has gone off to specialise in transgender medicine and refers to me openly as a TERF. She spouts all the Mermaids stuff about hundreds of trans teens killing themselves and won’t hear a rational response. It’s brought out a sort of Messiah complex in her: she’s going to rescue and protect all the poor transpeople. It’s profoundly disturbing to realise that even someone like her — clever, educated, years of experience in public service in the NHS — is so emotionally and intellectually susceptible to irrational ideology. 

I’ve also been very badly patronised by younger women friends who think their brand of feminism (intersectional feminism) is better than my 1970s/1980s feminism. It’s come as a real shock to realise that these apparently impeccably feminist young women don’t centre women in their politics. Some of them treat me as if I have learning difficulties. You know: ‘You can’t blame Issilly for her opinions, she comes from the medieval school of feminism where women hate all men…’

The biggest negative consequence has been realising how irrational and misogynistic and homophobic the world still is, under the guise of being ‘nice’. Lesbians are under attack from all sides, including other lesbians. I feel really glad to have had a wonderful 30 years of positive lesbian feminist culture and so sorry for younger lesbians who have nothing that I had to cling onto.

Issilly, who was just a lesbian until she discovered she was actually a radical lesbian feminist

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Healthcare Self employed / entrepreneurs

There can be no equality; there can be no ‘MeToo’ movement, if we cannot talk about sex

I care about this issue because I know how much women have had to fight for the rights they currently hold and I can see how easily they are being eroded. Single sex spaces and the ability to define women as a sex class are both integral to being able to fight against and record male violence.

There can be no equality; there can be no ‘MeToo’ movement, if we cannot talk about sex and protect single sex spaces. As a parent, I also care about this issue because equating biological sex with gender stereotypes is regressive and endangers all our children. Children should be able to play with and wear what they want, without being told their age appropriate child development means they are ‘trans’. Further, I am appalled that an untested medical pathway is being promoted as a solution to ever younger people, despite having poor outcomes.

I have written to organisations that have elided sex and gender. I have contacted groups that have jeopardised safeguarding including the NSPCC and Girlguiding. I have completed the GRA consultations. I have contributed to crowd funders and signed petitions. I have joined feminist groups and attended events. I have leafleted. I have also discussed this issue with family, friends and colleagues. I have changed our household purchasing habits in response to companies’ capitulating to trans rights activists and sacrificing women’s rights to placate bullying campaigns.

I have had some awkward conversations with friends and received some hectoring on social media. However, generally, in real life, I find most people agree with the need to maintain the definition of woman and to protect single sex spaces.

MM, Writer, Editor, Feminist

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Healthcare Others

I have a niece who insists everyone refer to them as “they” and they want to get a double mastectomy- they are 17

I care about this issue because gender ideology seems so obviously harmful, with more children and young adults wishing to become permanently medicalized and feeling they have to change their name simply because they don’t want to confirm to rigid sexist stereotypes.

I have a niece who insists everyone refer to them as “they” and they want to get a double mastectomy – they are 17. Other than that, they remind me so much of virtually all of my friends when I was 17. Edgy, into the latest cool look, playing around with image, being provocative in all sorts of ways. The most we did was tattoos, piercings and food-colouring hair.

Double mastectomy?? New name?? Abusing people for using normal pronouns? It’s like a generation has no new ways left to be shocking and this is it.

Ultimately, I care about protecting women’s spaces from this absurdity.

I’ve donated a lot to crowdfunders who aim to protect women’s spaces. Donated to to eg yours Maya, Posie Parker’s, Jennifer James… Many more, but I mentioned JJ because I remember the Labour keep All Women Shortlists female Only campaign was a turning point for me.

Women are excluded from politics, not because they stick some lippy on, but because they are of the sex who fall pregnant, and everything that comes with that.

Unfortunately the JJ campaign seems to be completely stuck in the mud, but that’s where trying to come up against the Labour Party will get you I suppose.

I have replied to more petitions than I can list here.

I have tentatively raised concerns (WRT women’s spaces) with friends and have, to my relief, found many agree with me. My brother is too woke at the moment, but my Dad has been diamond.

Well, my brother said I was “like a racist” because I thought Transwomen shouldn’t be in women’s sports or prisons, and appears to have typecasted me as a bigot, despite myself being very lefty and liberal, so our relationship has soured a bit.

I got “ghosted” by a Canadian friend who works at the BBC, after I stated I wasn’t 101% supportive of R McKinnon (winning women’s world records). I actually thought they might be different.

I haven’t raised the issue with my child’s school or at work at all. I know how risky it can be.

Ophelia Forte, Mum, feminist, gender free

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Others

If we don’t have a word for ourselves then we can’t protect our rights

This matters to me because it is a massive women’s rights issue. It is important for women’s safety, privacy, women’s sports, and women’s rights in general, because if we don’t have a word for ourselves then we can’t protect our rights.

I was very active anonymously on Twitter (before getting permanently banned for referring to a male paedophile as “he” and saying women don’t have penises and other such “hateful conduct”). I have attended local feminist meetings on the subject. I have delicately broached the subject with a couple of friends, but not as forcefully as I would like (I am afraid of being branded a transphobic before being given a chance to say my piece).

I have spoken openly in local and national Labour Party Facebook groups but I haven’t said anything publicly on my own Facebook page as I am afraid of the reaction from a few friends (even though I am certain the vast majority of people would agree with me once they have heard the full story, as I’ve said, I’m worried that one or two of them could write me off before giving me a chance to explain my view).

I was suspended several times from Twitter before being permanently suspended (for such heinous crimes as referring to a male paedophile as “he” or saying women don’t have penises). I have had minor arguments with friends (which has put me off talking to any other friends).

Amy S, 31, Bristol

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Self employed / entrepreneurs

I am self employed, and also too old to worry about my career

As a parent of a child who was somewhat gender non- conforming as preschooler and at primary school .. . As an elderly feminist who hated many aspects of ‘becoming a woman’ myself (and still do) with lesbian friends of my own age who have said openly that growing up in the current climate they would have believed themselves aged 14 or so ‘ a boy’, no question – rather than the adult lesbians they became. It was immediately clear to me that the basics of feminism as I understood them were being undermined.

I cancelled Guardian subscription (over (non) reaction to your case Maya and JKR’s response) and retweeted the editorial response to Glinner and Mumsnet. Written to MP. Got into a couple of Facebook arguments. Retweeted and shared a number of articles. Had serious email exchange with my very serious but uninformed sister (with lots of woke friends) when she put a trans tenant in to live with existing female tenant in our deceased mother’s house. She agreed existing tenant should be informed her new co-tenant was trans. (She was fine about it apparently . . But may have felt she had no choice).

I have been called a transphobic bigot etc of course!  And I’m sure I have been blocked by some on social media. But I feel able to speak my mind partly because I am self employed, and also too old to worry about my career!

Sarah G, Writer, dancer, musician, mother, feminist

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Self employed / entrepreneurs

I could not work out how it was supposed to be ok for an adult male to bash an adult female in the boxing ring

Fairness and safety are the main reasons for my involvement in the issue. Fallon Fox was my entry point to the debate and I could not work out how it was supposed to be ok for an adult male to bash an adult female in the boxing ring. Not fair nor safe for most female sports. Nor is it safe to allow men into women’s single sex spaces like prisons or hospital wards. It certainly is not fair to allow men to take political spaces reserved for women when we have such shockingly low political representation anyway.

I support all the fabulous GC women on Twitter and occasionally on Mumsnet. Support entails sharing information, writing comments, meeting radical feminists in my locality for meetings and talks, attending two WPUK meetings as well as their awesome conference. I did lobby my MP several years ago about the objectification of women in the British press and think the huge underlying problem of male violence against women is why we are pushing back so damn hard.

I am an early career researcher and have remained semi anonymous as Universities seem particularly susceptible to the GenderWoo. Totally dreadful bullying of current female academics just makes me think I will never get employed in an already difficult competitive field if my views are widely known. That said it is obvious to those that do know me who I am online and I lock my account when applying for jobs.

KB