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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

The Handmaids behind Extinction Rebellion

41 replies

Silentlyobserving · 19/11/2018 04:32

Yes those people who blocked London bridges and prevented emergency vehicles getting to hospitals and had all their sheep trailing after them:

The current members of the Holding Group are:

• Gail Bradbrook, mid 40s, raised working class white cis, straight woman, since educated to PhD. level. She’s a mother and lives in Gloucestershire. She’s helped run a small charity for 15 years and has a variety of skills as a result, for example fundraising and strategy. She’s been involved in tax and economic justice work, and was a Director of Transition Stroud.

• Jay, mid-thirties, white and middle class, educated to degree level (but the real education definitely started after leaving), queer, gender non-identifying but assigned female at birth. A mix of interests and involvement, including permaculture, teaching and facilitation, community work, migrant solidarity, queer organising, art, bodywork and nature connection, all of which will hopefully be put to good use in the hugely inspiring RisingUp!

• Stu Basden, thirties, non-binary, white person with a middle class background who studied an MA in Philosophy, Theology and Psychoanalysis in Toronto, Turtle Island (aka North America). They have organised with Toronto350.org around climate issues for over three years, and towards the end of that time increasingly became focused on issues around indigenous sovereignty. Having participated in various struggles, activist camps and resistance communities in Europe for over a year, they decided to get involved with RisingUp!, and so moved to the UK, settling on Bristol as a place from which to organise and put down roots.

• Lizia Woolf, early 20s. Second generation Malaysian British vegan Londoner. Dropped out of private sixth form in pursuit of empowerment, connection and ‘real life’. She’s dedicated to learning and preserving various arts and skills that can be incorporated into a sustainable, zero-waste lifestyle. She believes very strongly in the power of the individual and that change begins from within. She’s had years of experience in performing and teaching. Within RisingUp! she’s eager to hold the welfare of people as people are at the centre of everything we do.

docs.google.com/document/d/1l3h6R4kWJGYGxJd3sLbQdG8zjV4sj5bmlM4Z-9Tk5X8/edit#

Taken from the website: rebellion.earth/who-we-are/

How are people so sodding gullible?

OP posts:
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MsJeminaPuddleduck · 20/11/2018 09:43

I'm still not sure why this topic is in here but thank you to Socrates11 for the review on the Diamond book re 'Guns, Germs and Steel' - I'll check it out.

My feminism is also linked to environmentalism - the rampant individualism in late capitalist culture is built on instrumentalising both women and nature. However I don't think that's relevant to this board.

BackWhenIWas4 · 19/11/2018 20:07

We can't all be experts in everything. If their focus is climate change then their understanding of climate change is more relevant than whether they are GC or not. I would not withhold my support from their movement just because we disagree about gender. Climate change is too important for that.

frogsoup · 19/11/2018 15:18

Oh, very sorry RedRose! I'm laid up with flu so possibly not at my sharpest today!

RedRoseReb · 19/11/2018 14:41

Frogsoup you have misinterpreted my admittedly irrelevant and reactive post.

Fwiw I studied stem and I have volunteered in environmental projects and have funded work (in my own tiny way) too.

Silentlyobserving · 19/11/2018 14:24

Given that FWR users are rightfully up in arms at some of the language used by gender activists, it just seemed somewhat ironic that people protesting about climate change do no seem to understand science and use terminology that most people think is patently ridiculous. Hence the reason for the post.

OP posts:
Needmoresleep · 19/11/2018 13:57

It is a good example of a silo/herd mentality at work.

If you are Labour you are supposed to be Guardian reading/pro trans/anti austerity/ etc, anything Tory/Mail etc is bad.

However the reality is that:

women, lots of them in all shapes, sizes, ages, religions, political pursuasions and colours are worried about self-ID

people, lots of them in all shapes, sizes, ages, religions, political pursuasions and colours are worried about climate change

frogsoup · 19/11/2018 13:27

Stillathing, no, exactly the opposite! At the time I posted, the op had implied that climate change activism and transgender activism were somehow part of the same plot, and at least one other poster agreed. Which is obviously nuts.

Sunkisses · 19/11/2018 13:19

I can see the relevance of this post. It shows how trans activism is even dominating climate activism. It will mean that climate activism will remain niche and unappealing to ordinary people who don't have a clue what 'cis' means, but know they want a planet fit for their kids to survive on

HomeStar · 19/11/2018 13:15

LOL I wonder if this is someone trying to "redpill" us.

OP got quite agitated in a condescending sort of way when people were discussing the Communist party.

stillathing · 19/11/2018 13:08

This kind of thread makes GC feminists look like total nutjobs, and I say that as someone firmly GC.

not sure how this conclusion was reached when the entire thread disagreed with the OP? unless the comment meant that to be concerned about climate change one must be a "nutjob"?

onalongsabbatical · 19/11/2018 13:00

I think OP was trying on a bit of goadyness for size Prawnofthepatriarchy, nothing more interesting than that.

Prawnofthepatriarchy · 19/11/2018 12:53

This has nothing to do with feminism, @Silentlyobserving. Why post it here?

onalongsabbatical · 19/11/2018 12:51

OP gone?

onalongsabbatical · 19/11/2018 12:03

I was there, on Waterloo Bridge. Struggling to understand your post (or frankly can't be bothered because it's rubbish).

AngryAttackKittens · 19/11/2018 12:01

Ecofeminism is definitely a thing, but not what OP seems to be getting at. I think it was just the wanky bios?

Socrates11 · 19/11/2018 11:56

Good point AngryAttackKittens , what has this topic got to do with feminism?

There were plenty of tweets in the same vein on Twitter disparaging the ER protest. This OP was unusual in directing the attack at other women and making inferences as to their 'gullible' politics. Rather uninformed I thought hence my reply.

My feminism is fairly radical and replacing broken/oppressive systems includes, for me, strong environmental politics. The first letter I wrote to my cloth-eared Tory MP in 1990ish was about pollution in the sea and the harms it could do my children so feminism and environmentalism have always been linked for me.

NB In the first bio for Gail, a Transition Town is to do with sustainable living en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_town

VickyEadie · 19/11/2018 11:26

WTFITDOFWR?

AngryAttackKittens · 19/11/2018 11:26

The self-descriptions are a bit wanky, but I assume they're expected to present themselves that way and if they didn't they'd have a hard time recruiting and working with young volunteers.

gendercritter · 19/11/2018 11:24

Op I get your point (I think). I completely support anyone wanting to protest about climate change. I think this group has genuinely good intentions. It's the fact it looks like it's led by the same type of middle-class, non-binary, privileged bit desperate not to be individuals who are actually being pretty thuggish in the trans debate.

I suppose at least in this instance they are working for change which badly needs to happen.

AngryAttackKittens · 19/11/2018 11:18

Wait, where they all wearing red robes? Did you mean that kind of handmaiden?

Confused
Needmoresleep · 19/11/2018 11:09

Blimey...even the Mail, with campaigns against plastic, get this one.

Climate change, plastic polution etc is absolutely terrifying. I wish governments, supermarkets, individual consumers, etc would do much, much more. People protest in different ways. My nearest bridge was closed, so I used a Boris Bike to go the long way round. Good for them.

53rdWay · 19/11/2018 11:09

You realise ‘handmaiden’ doesn’t mean ‘woman doing something I don’t like’, yes? Confused

Bowlofbabelfish · 19/11/2018 11:09

The earth is effectively a finite system.

Unrestricted growth in a finite system doesn’t work. We sort it or we die. It’s fairly simple.

I’m not sure what you’re getting at in your OP? Do you not believe we are straining the life support systems of the earth? Water, land, biodiversity - all under great strain.

Can you explain what you mean?

AngryAttackKittens · 19/11/2018 11:03

Not sure what this has to do with feminism, OP.

UpstartCrow · 19/11/2018 11:02

People have been protesting the effects of human activity on the planet since the 70's; they aren't handmaidens, they aren't nutjobs, and they aren't holding up the patriarchy.

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