Who to vote for as a feminist

Robin 4 has s good point, there's no point in voting for a woman if she's gone over to the dark side - the patriarchally identified side . Think Margaret thatcher!!! I'm going to have a mooch around the main parties manifestos and vote for the one that is pro actively delivering on the The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). I want to see policies that support woman into work or to stay at home and raise children, the criminalisation of purchasing sex, accessible free childcare, investment in woman's aid services and several other gender equality policies. If not - I might just start my own independant feminist party

Interestingly (certainly in relation to this thread) my local Labour MP has just tweeted this "If you think decriminalisation will make prostitution safe, look at Germany's mega brothels. www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/if-you-think-decriminalisation-will-make-prostitution-safe-look-germanys-mega"

His wife has done some excellent academic work in relation to sex trafficking, I'm not sure I should really take that into account when voting but it does influence me.

That second thread is appalling. The irony is the very male language and actions depicted when they appear to be saying they are women. Is femininity/compassion/elegance not part of being a woman? It certainly doesn't put trans people in a good light, which is really sad considering they want to use loos etc because they FEAR men!

I'm another one who was thinking of voting Green (I did the policies not parties poll and came out 75% Green and 25% Labour) but I've been put off by the stance on prostitution and the whole "TERFs" debacle.

They're really good on other feminist issues though such as abortion.

OddBoots that's not a bad compromise. I will look into it, too.

Oh. Righto. I've stumbled into a mire of new ideas (for me) here. I haven't given transgender rights or their effect on feminism much thought . I think it is perhaps a relatively new gender argument that is in a huge time of change and evolution, and one I am not at all qualified to give an opinion on at the moment. I've got the gist though, I think! Thank you for explaining a little to me.

A couple of weeks ago I wasn't just going to vote for them I was about to join, no more.

I'm going to take a few more weeks researching but for now I think I will re-join the co-op party, I can't quite bring myself to financially support the main Labour party but I like the co-op strand of their politics.

lol Grimble!

I would have voted Green, but for their anti woman bent. A lot of their policies, while a touch out there, make a lot of sense.

fayyive: and here's another random titbit of info. In order to vote green I would feel the necessity to don a diaphanous gown, thread daisies in my hair and dance barefoot through a field of buttercups.

The Greens are lovely (well except for the fact that they think prostitution is a good idea) but they have a rather tenuous connection with the real world.

So?

Just a random titbit of info- the Green membership has now overtaken the membership of UKIP and the Lib Dems

Annie - yes exactly - A lesbian porn star has been called a TERF because she won't have sex with Transwomen because they still look like men iykwim. (will carefully look for a link & post later ..!) So essentially this is now coming down to women not being able to say who they will have sex with. MtF trans who are attracted to women then identify as lesbian. Lesbians who don't want to be in a relationship with them are labelled Terf. This is referred to as cotton ceiling.

As if a porn star is a radical feminist - so the term TERF has become a catch all phrase to fling at anyone who questions gender. So the argument that it is a descriptive phrase is bullshit.

They're not threatening "people" though Annie, just women. None of this rage is directed at the men who actually do assault and murder transwomen and none to men who are so dangerous to transwomen that transwomen can't use men's bathrooms.

Fuck me. I feel ill. I mean, I knew TERF was a slur but that second link is mind bogglingly full of hatred.

I just can't get my head around people getting so wound up about their personal cause that they think it's okay to threaten other people who don't agree them with rape and death.

But never mind, as long as we all know it's feminists who are being unreasonable around this particular issue.

fayyive and Lion, you might find these two blogs useful:

"How TERF Works" by Sarah Ditum: sarahditum.com/2014/07/28/how-terf-works/

and "Documenting the backlash": documentingthebacklash.blogspot.co.uk/p/transgender-identity-politics-rely-on_24.html

I see people saying "it's just a descriptive acronym"! but that ignores both that many really horrible slurs are just "descriptive", and that TERF is used against any women, whatever her views, when the speaker wants to make them an unperson. You can't tell anything about a woman's political viewpoint by noting that they have been called a TERF, only that the speakers (often lefty men) want to dehumanise them and shut them up.

It's ironic but I also see many people who identify as "cis" calling gender-critical trans women "TERFs" (and "truscum"), too. Which makes it very clear that they don't give a shit about trans people, just that they want to shut up anyone that disagrees with whatever they are pushing.

There is a thread in Site Stuff - apparently this is happening on a number of threads.

ah, it has reappeared. clearly a weird blip

I can still see it, right above mine.

That's weird. There's no deletion message, it's just disappeared. I checked on my phone and it's gone there too.

has lion's post disappeared or is my browser being weird?

Lion yes you have found an incredibly biased article there and TERF is a term of abuse directed at any woman who questions the current transactivist dogma. You could be accused of being a TERF because you said "changing your gender" and the current dogma requires unquestioned belief that a trans person is their "identified" "gender" from birth and that there is no such thing as a female or male biological body.

Lion, in a nutshell, some feminists quite rightly question the balance of rights when transwomen are fully entitled to occupy women's spaces (such as public bathrooms) with no regard whatsoever for the concerns or rights of biologial women who are uncomfortable/fearful of people with a penis in a space they had previous been able to consider "safe". Both sides have valid points, but apparently if you even dare to question cases where trans rights seem to trump those of biological women, you get called a TERF. There are worse examples, such as some trans activists who say lesbians who don't want to have sex with transwomen (who still have a penis) are transphobic.

So yes, there are a lot of "TERFs" out there - inasmuch as it is used by trans activists to define women who are (rightly) upset about their rights being eroded by people who were born biologically male and have male social conditioning, no matter which gender they currently identify with (NATWALT, obviously). It is a controversial term and IMO yet another way to silence women who speak up for themselves.

TERF is a pretty controversial term, Lion.

I am completely at the tweet from Benalu Hamdache. Cocky, childish and arrogant. Something I would have expected from Conservatives, not Greens. I then looked up what TERF means and marginally disentangled my judgy pants - WTF? www.transadvocate.com/you-might-be-a-terf-if_n_10226.htm There are people who say changing your gender is supporting rape culture? shock Now I am sure the world has gone mad.

I'm back to pondering now. Anyone found any other parties talking about women as humans and wanting to put some policies in place for us? This issue is a bit too layered for me and I am wondering how many people it really effects - how many of these TERFs are there, have I found a particularly biased article to explain them? I'm scratching my head about it all still.