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Original poster

The Big Lie - how the WEP was always about gender rather than sex

111 replies

Ereshkigalangcleg · 23/10/2020 10:50

An anonymous blog by a WEP insider hosted on Graham Linehan's website.

"^When the Women’s Equality Party (WEP) was co-founded in March 2015 by author Catherine Mayer and TV presenter Sandi Toksvig at the annual Women of the World festival, held at the Southbank Centre in London, tens of thousands of women rushed to join, feeling for the first time that a political party had been formed that was dedicated to us. After all, we were in the name!

Since then thousands of women have been leaving, feeling let down by a party that was meant to be for women & girls and our rights. But it is a mistake to think that WEP was captured by gender ideology – it was founded on gender ideology. We women will never ‘recapture’ it as it was never ours to begin with.^

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-big-lie?r=7vhv8&utmcampaign=post&utmmmedium=email&utmsource=copy

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wellbehavedwomen · 23/10/2020 11:43

From that webchat, from a Mumsnetter whose name I don't recognise:

I increasingly hear people talk about feminism as 'inclusive/for everyone/about equality for everyone. It really isn't! It's about liberation of women from patriarchal power structures.

The insistence now that feminism is about 'empowerment' and 'choice' is based on a very Capitalist/Neo-liberal axis and it seems to me to be based on the ideas of us as consumers than about any real desire to see women rise up. So many women genuinely believe that equality has been achieved because they themselves are okay. In the meantime, we are in the middle of the biggest global rollback of women's rights in around 30 years. The portrayal of feminism as a fluffy cool 'club' that everyone can join seems to me to be a deliberate attempt to dilute it's power and misdirect the focus away from women, by persuading them that everyone is more oppressed than they are. In the meantime, hey! Look at that great lipstick!

Precisely. Women are being gaslighted, and the language that exists, and that we need, to defend our own interests is being morphed into new definitions that does the very reverse. Feminism, woman, even female - they are being massaged into new terms that do not allow women any way to define who we are, and how we can improve our situation. Feminism is now worthless unless women are centring all other groups, and promoting individualism. Women and even female are being erased as sex class descriptors. And the likes of Owen Jones positively salivate at the opportunity to grandstand and posture over their own nobility, while allowing their base misogyny free rein.

Thanks for sharing that webchat, and this information. It's depressing, but unsurprising.

Original poster
Ereshkigalangcleg · 23/10/2020 11:33

We also recognise that the binary words “woman” and “man” do not reflect the gender experience of everyone, and support the right of all to define their sex or gender or to reject gendered divisions as they choose.

I'm going to reread all the webchats to see how clearly this came out. As I remember Sandi Toksvig and Sophie Walker being quite evasive.

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FindTheTruth · 23/10/2020 11:16

Yes. literally the opposite of women's equality. wish I'd known before paying membership back then 🙄

FindTheTruth · 23/10/2020 11:14

Wow, Catherine Mayer

Thanks OP

the party’s first policy document published in October 2015 stated “We also recognise that the binary words “woman” and “man” do not reflect the gender experience of everyone, and support the right of all to define their sex or gender or to reject gendered divisions as they choose.”

Original poster
Ereshkigalangcleg · 23/10/2020 11:14

Have some wine on hand, or at least a cup of tea!

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thinkingaboutLangCleg · 23/10/2020 11:13

That's a shock. I wonder why they did that? No time to read the webchats now, but I’ll save them for later.

Original poster
Ereshkigalangcleg · 23/10/2020 11:03

Women on Mumsnet were sceptical from the start! It's worth reading the webchats.

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gardenbird48 · 23/10/2020 11:01

wow - that's so rubbish! We should get them under the trade descriptions act - Women's Equality Party - nothing could be further from the truth!!

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Original poster
Ereshkigalangcleg · 23/10/2020 10:55

Regulars around a few years ago will remember that Mumsnet was a key target audience for the Women's Equality Party and webchats were held with the then leader, Sophie Walker, and the co-founders Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnetlivee_events/2617026-Webchat-with-Sophie-Walker-leader-of-the-Womens-Equality-Party-and-London-Mayor-candidate-Tuesday-19-April-at-noon

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