Armchair activism! What can we do?

Now, does anyone know anywhere that sells suffragette jewellery?

Lily Maynard mentions some market sellers that were at #WomensLib2020 - and there may be some items that catch your eye.

lilymaynard.com/womens-liberation-2020-a-wpuk-conference/

Now, does anyone know anywhere that sells suffragette jewellery?

I hadn't realised there was such a thing! After Googling, I am positively enamoured

Al1Lang you've probably already found the gorgeous antiques and the lovely custom items on Etsy... They're a bit out of my price range at the moment (though I'll be dropping hits way in advance for Christmas). However, I did find some fab pieces on Wish - search for "peridot amethyst" and scroll through, I've ordered myself a lovely pair of drop earrings and a ring for just a few pounds.

You also inspired me to invoke my teenage skill of making friendship bracelets in appropriate colours

Very useful thread, thanks.

Thanks for starting this thread, I’m very much of the mindset of doing what I can to contribute to the greater project.

Stealth’s list is a handy checklist when communicating with any organisations about this, I can see it proving useful.

Today i’m Going to complain about Evan Davies on PM yesterday.
Tomorrow i’m Going to ask why our new HR system at work categorises staff by gender and not sex.
When she is back from mat leave I am going to arrange to see my MP - who it appears, now has the portfolio for women.
Next month, I plan to attend my first resisters meeting.

Everyday, I will continue to challenge micro aggressions, I will contribute to the debate on here and elsewhere on social media and I will keep on asking questions.

Now, does anyone know anywhere that sells suffragette jewellery? I work for an organisation that bans all political symbols, so naturally we have a transwoman who wears a trans rights bracelet. and I’d really like to start wearing something green & mauve to reference the giants on whose shoulders I’m standing.

I wonder if this needs a co-ordinated writing campaign to NHS England/as appropriate?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3823499-Three-NHS-trusts-to-adopt-guidelines-written-by-a-trans-activist

I haven't seen guidance from FiLIA or WPUK but I might have been using the wrong terms. Is there a good way to do this?

I'm a labour member and currently getting messages asking to volunteer for london assembly candidates - i am unsubscribing from each email with an explanation of why.

I'm also signing the labour women declaration in the hope of pushing back on this anti-women agenda. Next step will of course be to expel myself...

@ChattyLion please start new thread on that new consultation? We all need to complete it. If the hate crime stats are being used to prove need, women need to be included in those stats as a sex class. We all of us deal with misogyny with depressing frequency, and getting it recorded may be a step towards having it taken more seriously. Which will help here, but also with getting eg domestic abuse centred in the public eye, as these things are inextricably linked. Misogyny is on a spectrum and even when a woman is killed it's often all about the man's issues, in reporting. Not a hate crime. We need to change the argument, and hate crime stats could help do so.

WellWellWellWhatHaveWeHere

Have you tried the Resisters web site? resistersunited.org/ they have a list of groups.

And there was a thread on here about joining up locally. NOt sure if anything came of them
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3747490-Any-radfems-in-Notts
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3567713-Anyone-up-for-a-Glasgow-Gender-Critical-Coven
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3691286-How-to-meet-like-minded-GC-women

Or you could post on here giving an idea of the area you are in?

Also- responding to public consultations is really effective. Most of the government ones only give three months to respond at the most, so it’s worth keeping an eye on what’s coming up.

In mid- 2020, the Law Commission will be consulting the public on whether protected characteristics relevant to hate crime should also include sex. The Law Commissioners will then make recommendations to government for law reform. The LC are very influential with the government so really worth making our voices heard to them, also copying in our MPs so they know their constituents’ views. MPs will ultimately be the deciders on this.

www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/hate-crime/

I think the most positive thing we can do is sign up to the existing orgs, rather than creating new ones. Sign up to FiLiA and attend their meetings - they're broad church feminism, which is wonderful and also what we need, because our case is solid, and in a calm, open environment the opposing arguments melt away. And even if they don't - other women retain the right to hold them. Still sisters, even in disagreement. What matters most is that there are no claims of bigotry, all positions welcome as long as they are women-centred.

Women's Place UK is clear that trans rights must be protected alongside women's sex-based rights. They also have a mailing list and meetings that need women to vote with feet (as we are doing - and it's hardly a hardship!) That's another thing we can do: show we won't back down in claiming and asserting our rights to organise as a female collective. Screw male tantrums.

I think there's a risk in creating too many orgs and thinktanks. We have plenty of brilliant women with vast expertise across so many areas involved now. We need to support en masse, so we can become a force that must be reckoned with. Women do, as one amazing speaker put it, have skill in getting things done. We can channel that here. We also have a skill in collectivism, and we can channel that.

Supporting the groups that are fighting for us is the biggest way we can turn the ship as a group. That means supporting and turning up and donating, where we can. Individual action is also key, but there's power in numbers.

@WellWellWellWhatHaveWeHere Safe Schools Alliance say they can put people in touch with one another, as there's support in numbers. If you contact them with your details they can facilitate contact.

Write and share standard answers to often stated questions/stuff. I find I get flustered and irritated.

Can anyone recommend a way to find likeminded people in your own local area? I would very much like to be more active - from an armchair or otherwise- but have really really struggled to find groups near me. Google turns up.... nothing really.

Also going to sticker in Starbucks and order a coffee, ask about the biscuits and say "huh Mermaids, didn't a judge ban them from having contact with a child? Oh yeah and they had a male predator contact kids on the private chat room..."

I write to my MP all the time, it is best if you can see in person.

Even sending off quick emails to libraries on DQST or FOIs on WhatDoTheKnow can be a way of taking action.

I often can't get to protests so I send money and share loads on FB.

I recommend asking schools exactly what their policies are and what lesson content covers. I honestly think schools and libraries are so key to this, they serve children and the wider community and if we can target this, sort of from the bottom up, by asking questions about safeguarding I think those in power won't be able to ignore multiple complaints or questions.

However if asking basic questions around safeguarding becomes a hate crime it's going to be harder to challenge but challenge we must.

There was even talk of setting up a new think tank/lobby group a while back
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3744217-Shall-we-start-a-feminist-think-tank

Though with left wing party politics eating itself at the moment, we should probably be aiming to form a new political party

Every time you hear the phrase 'assigned male/ female at birth' leap in/ write an email/ send a complaint. Now I'm over my initial fears I say 'What on earth are you talking about? Were you just randomly assigned male at birth?' and it surprising how far you can get from there because of course everyone has to acknowledge that it's a stupid thing to say. So many complaint to the BBC about it but now Justin Webb and Jane Garvey at al are challenging it too. It works, steering people back to reality.

Great thread. This one had some good ideas too
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3329362-Get-offline?pg=1&order=

Talk about it with everyone you can. Put links to useful articles on your FB and Twitter accounts and any other social media to signal that you're GC to others. Form your own online GC women's circles to keep each other informed and keep your spirits up.

You can email the BBC every time you hear someone use the word 'gender' when they should have used the word 'sex'.

You can email congratulation to people like Justin Webb and Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey and Emily Maitlis every time they chip anoher hole in the protective wall the BBC built around the trans issue.

You can email or write to all the potential Labour leaders who've signed up to the trans-rights charter and ask them to define a woman and explain how they believe TWAW.

I'm currently involved in a little project contacting the police forces in my area and asking to know how they record crimes committed by transwomen and transmen – by sex at birth or by stated sex? We will be demonstrating outside those police HQs that record crimes committed by self-IDing transwomen as crimes committed by women. You just phone and email and fill in FOI requests.

I will be stickering in Starbucks shortly – but I suppose I'll have to get out of my armchair for that.

Today i have donated to 4 women's orgs - small amounts but important if you can - women's place, nia, southall black sisters and centre for women's justice.

I have also finally dared to contact friend who i was pretty sure was gender critical - and had a positive response!

Am going to email my mp, lisa nandy and keir starmer.

I'm also going to start the sending thank you cards to women who do speak up abd venues that support us, like ucl. This is a great idea that i hadn't thought of.

Sorry - should have said, good thread. We cant all be at the forefront but can take small local actions. If we are all doing that it helps create a context for the bigger actions.

It may even be as simple as "liking" certain groups on facebook as it shows the level of support they have.

I think it is also important to act locally. So if you have a local paper or local facebook group, its worth monitoring them. The spread of for instance talking about gender rather than sex is something a quick email can bring attention to. And local toilets of course!

Great idea for a post OP.

Agreed with the above.

Other everyday things too:

• discuss with your friends / family / work colleagues about the issues and why they are important - if/when you are able

I.e Friend is a senior school teacher - 4 x trans boys (girls) in his school - he didn’t have a clue about affirmation, puberty blockers, Tavistock issues, detransitioners etc. Now he does.

• Correct gender with sex when you see conflation and sex is what is actually meant.

Sunlight is an important strategy.

Great post by Stealth; thank you for sharing.

Mixed sex wards in psychiatric hospitals equalling significant levels of sexual assault for women - this was reported last month, I think? But this is not a new issue - the Independent appear to have forgotten that they mounted a campaign for the first ten years of this century, because of things such as this. That story is almost 30 years old, yet we seem to be suggesting that we make unisex provision the norm.

Unisex settings are grossly unsafe for vulnerable women.