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Original poster

Is this really a feminist board?

619 replies

GaspingShark · 21/05/2018 17:11

I am a crap feminist. I haven't read a single book on the subject. Not De Beauvoir, not Greer, not Butler. The reasons for that are to do with a disability that I'd rather not go into, but I am a woman with a brain, and the Republic of Ireland is having a referendum on repealing the 8th this week. There it is, look, thirty threads down. And this "Feminism and Women's Rights" board's primary concern seems to be "What it will really take the peak trans the world?"

So I'm asking you, because I genuinely, honestly, cross my heart and hope to die, believe you are all better read and/or have more experience and/or more knowledge of being a woman than I do.

Doesn't that bother you? Doesn't it bother you that, four days away from the repeal vote, there's one thread on that in the bottom third of a fifty-thread page, and two or three dozen trans-related threads covering everything from Amnesty International to Jordan Peterson to exactly what Munroe Bergdorf told Venice Allan? Does it give you any pause for thought?

OP posts:
AssassinatedBeauty · 21/05/2018 19:54

Oh, shit, sorry @Rufustheyawningreindeer you're right. My psychic abilities are a bit below par at the mo, given that I don't actually believe I have any.

NoSuchThingAsAlpha · 21/05/2018 19:52

Damn

No. It's an echo chamber for the allies of the alt-right and religious extremists to spread antitrans propaganda.

I think that's the most inaccurate description of MN I've ever read. Reads a lot like the "Red Tory" accusations levelled at anyone who has the temerity to be merely left-of-centre.

Rufustheyawningreindeer · 21/05/2018 19:52

The point is assasinated that you havent made any threads gasping actually wants to read

What the hell is wrong with you? C'mon get to it

TransplantsArePlants · 21/05/2018 19:51

I know. Middle aged leftie atheist. Not feeling a yen for jackboots actually

Bowlofbabelfish · 21/05/2018 19:48

No. It's an echo chamber for the allies of the alt-right and religious extremists to spread antitrans propaganda.

Really? This ageing leftie atheist is a tad miffed to be labelled alt right.

But its interesting you think that. You understand that TRAs are a segment of the alt right? That the TRA and MRA ideology actually springs from the same well as the alt right? We’ve actually explored this link in some posts on here before (I’m sure a quick google will turn them up.) but as far as I recall, the thinking was that the alt right is a rejection of diversity is society. It’s basically a bunch of slightly substandard white males who would previously have been in privileged positions purely because they were white and Male. Now that people of colour and women are starting to gain more equality, these men find themselves having to compete in a much bigger pond. They no longer get a pass for being a white male - they have to compete against a shit hot Indian graduate, or a female programmer, or a manager from Nigeria. And these people are good. So just being a white male is no longer enough.
And they don’t like it. And that rage manifests as this white supremacist and Male supremacy movement - the alt right.
They have the same tactics as MRAs and TRAs - fake news, denial of reality, the paranoia/gullibility mix that makes them suspicious of everything but lacks critical thought capacity. They dont like women, and they need to be put in their place (see alt right spin off movement, the incel chaps) and they don’t like people of colour (see.. well, the alt right generally.)

So I am fascinated that you conflate the alt right with feminism because I can’t think of less likely bedfellows.

In general feminism is a movement that has a social conscience and is far more associated with more left wing ideology than right. It’s the very antithesis of the alt right movement.

Although the way labour are going at the moment, we are looking a little homeless politically

SardineReturns · 21/05/2018 19:48

Yes there are plenty of places with awful abortion laws, that many people would be surpised about probably.

I'm not sure why the Guardian is implying that Ireland is way out of step, incongruous, when it's not true at all.

Here in the UK, we have places with super strict abortion laws FGS.

Maybe just ignorant reporting?

AssassinatedBeauty · 21/05/2018 19:44

What is you point then?

DisturblinglyOrangeScrambleEgg · 21/05/2018 19:39

"Ireland is the only western democracy with such strict rules"

Malta - where the rules are even stricter - no abortion under any circumstances.

I've posted on abortion threads regarding northern Ireland (and had my arse handed to me a touch for comparing to Malta/Argentina), but, not being Irish, or ever having lived there, or really planning to ever live there, all I can be is supportive. I don't have any in-depth knowledge on the matter, and nothing to contribute to a discussion on it.

Trans stuff, well, that affects me and my kids, I have opinions, I can affect the laws, so yes, I participate more on that. I also participate on UK (excluding N. Ireland) based abortion threads when they've happened in the past.

Not sure what you want here - start a thread, talk about it - no-one's stopping you, and you can't make other people talk about what you want to talk about.

Original poster
GaspingShark · 21/05/2018 19:38

Social media, sorry.

I do feel like whenever the Irish abortion issue has been raised on here, there has been a bit of a 'you UK feminists are so ignorant about the work that has been put in by irish feminists on this issue' and it's sometimes been a bit shut down? Like UK based feminists don't really have a right to comment on it? It's hard to know what to say on the issue to be honest.

Given that they seem to be doing self-ID without the phobia and that the whole bloody diaspora came back, in person, on what looked to me like a wave of rainbow love to the support the gays in the same-sex marriage vote, you're absolutely right, we shouldn't be trying to dictate anything to them. That's not my point.

OP posts:
Damnthatonestakentryanother2 · 21/05/2018 19:38

This reply has been deleted

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AssignedPuuurfectAtBirth · 21/05/2018 19:36

Ireland is a CATHOLIC country.

It stands to reason that the abortion legislation took longer than other countries to happen.

If Oliver Cromwell had his way, then perhaps the path to abortion would have been more swift

Blaming Brits for it is bizarre in the extreme

TransplantsArePlants · 21/05/2018 19:35

Op

You don't sound like a shrinking violet to me. Your started this thread but you were too scared to post on a thread, the subject of which you feel so passionately about as to start this thread

I think you've mistaken us for people substantially more stooopid than we are

SardineReturns · 21/05/2018 19:33

Is it techincally the only democracy in the georgraphic west of europe with such strict laws throughout, which is a bit of a different statement.

Not sure.

AssignedPuuurfectAtBirth · 21/05/2018 19:31

Ah. Duh

Thanks!

AssassinatedBeauty · 21/05/2018 19:31

Social Media ?

SardineReturns · 21/05/2018 19:31

Weird statement in the guardian ariticle

"Ireland is the only western democracy with such strict rules"

What about NI. IoM, jersey / guernsey / poland (not western?) sure there are more...

That statement feels a bit sweeping to me.

spontaneousgiventime · 21/05/2018 19:30

Social Media.

heateallthebuns · 21/05/2018 19:30

I think you can buy stuff from the online shop if you're not Irish / resident in Ireland:
www.togetherforyes.ie/shop/

AssignedPuuurfectAtBirth · 21/05/2018 19:30

"We're many of us quite happy to vocalise on SM though."

Can anyone tell me what 'SM' is?

SardineReturns · 21/05/2018 19:29

link

prob more on google

SardineReturns · 21/05/2018 19:28

@heateallthebuns

they have had a lot of trouble with money flooding in / social media stuff being generated from outside Ireland ie USA anti abortion lobby

Facebook have shut a load of stuff down.

That may well be why donations are restricted to ? either side...

Concerns about democratic process in one country being influenced by outsiders.

Not that any of us are following this of course...

heateallthebuns · 21/05/2018 19:28

Hmmm I think there is I will investigate

SardineReturns · 21/05/2018 19:26

"people have no qualms about invoking African FGM"

Invoking?

Uh-huh.

OP will be starting on about "white feminism" in a moment.

All of this is about making women shut up.

We're talking about the wrong things / talking about them in the wrong way / using the wrong language / overstepping the mark / stepping out of our lane / etc etc

I mean if you don't want us "invoking" FGM then I'm not sure why you think as a UK board, we have any more right to discuss the abortion laws in Ireland. A different country.

You might have had more of a point if you'd talked about abortion laws in NI for eg or IoM ... Just a thought.

Elendon · 21/05/2018 19:25

I'm beginning to think this thread is a way around the Facebook ban.

We see you

AssignedPuuurfectAtBirth · 21/05/2018 19:25

It was a comment by a TRA on twitter that started this shit. Possibly from the sprout one but can't remember and can't be arsed to look because he's one alarming dude.

It's the usual policing of what women/feminism are supposed to be concerned with if they were actually real feminists

(for that read: 'things I think women ought to be concerned with')