The Feminist Library Has Fallen

'Feminist' and 'women's oppression' has become linguistically rather like the word 'kind'. Doesn't mean what you think it means or what it used to mean

"Feminists" have to "be kind", because that's a feminine thing to do, right?

Hence Kellie Jay starting her "#femalism" campaign. Doesn't seem to have got much traction yet, but she's got a point. Maybe it is time to explicitly start a new movement with a much blunter name.

So true, Michelle. 'Feminist' has become a buzzword for managerial elites. Anybody who's vaguely switched on is very cynical.

Had a random conversation with some book shop workers before lockdown about how all the 'feminist' book covers were pink, and it was all a big con and sell-out. So interesting to sense the pent-up rage that they have to sell this crap. (Sadly, this will also have a negative impact on important feminist work that has managed to stay in the mainstream.)

Can't wait for the forbidden females to rise up in revolt ...

Well the whole point of co opting the group and making statements like that is to try and decouple feminist/women from female humans, because otherwise male humans aren't front, centre and everything it's all about. Making an apparently value based decision not to look for one excuses everyone from having to notice the biological elephant thundering up and down.

'Feminist' and 'women's oppression' has become linguistically rather like the word 'kind'. Doesn't mean what you think it means or what it used to mean; it's utilised as a tool to achieve a political aim. What the utilisers don't seem to process is that this only works at first, when people still trust that the word means what they originally thought it meant. Trust= now gone. Cynicism = on high. And being driven higher daily.

we believe that there is not a singular, universal origin point for all women’s oppression across the globe nor should we attempt to find one

WTF?

This will only stop when gay men realise it is happening to them too. It's taking longer to cuckoo them, because disempowering women is the priority. But gay organisations (which, let's face it, usually means gay men's organisations) are also being infiltrated by heterosexual people calling themselves queer, and by TRAs.

Once gay men finally wake up, there will be push back. But it will still take decades to unpick.

It’s incredibly demoralising. See also my post about the new Hachette “feminist” book subscription: twitter.com/thebookseller/status/1354738489582002188?s=21

They want to be “truly inclusive” for ‘women and all underrepresented genders’. Not quite shitting on the work of women in the same was as the feminist library, but given the history of the Virago list, it’s close. Feminist library, feminist publishing, all run by people who don’t understand feminism.

They weren't leaned on. There was a very nasty period of time when queer activists infiltrated the organising collective, and after sucessfully hounding out women who had put hours of their life into it, just turned into something about them.

Yes, that sums up what happened. I distinctly remember it as it was what opened my eyes to the TRA agenda and its overlap with an MRA one.

Is there anywhere we can deposit our archives safely these days?

The single, universal origin point of all women's oppression across the globe is their sex

Which is the only thing every woman and girl has in common.

Carefulvulvadriver

I'll try to answer! It's difficult because these people speak another language, but in my understanding, "gender violence" is basically a new team for sexual violence, including rape, sex assault, sex trafficking etc.

So, gender ideologists mean sexual violence when they say "gendered violence" and it is not particularly dependent on the gender identity of those involved.

I’d be tempted to go there incognito and just not tell them I’m a secret free-thinker. I like to access information before someone else has decided its forbidden.

rape trigger warning for my comment below

This from their statement made me curious:

"At the Feminist Library, we believe that feminism is a political framework that we can use to end all gendered violence and transform the world for everyone"

I'm not trying to be provocative; I'm genuinely curious about the phrase "gendered violence". If a man rapes a transman, is that still "gendered" violence? It seems to me it would be sex-based violence. It couldnt be gendered violence as both would be of the same gender; he's raping the transman because they are a different sex.

Poe's law strikes again.

Being discussed on another thread too, but you do sometimes get the idea that the main problem with womanhood is all the bloody females in it.

the point is only to own them

Quite.

I think there may have been a naiive belief that if all women's orgs and groups were captured, owned, refocused and run to enforce the political lobby view, then the only women's voices and agendas would be ones properly focused on the right kind of thing.

Instead of which the lesbian groups wanting to stay female only have gone under ground, so have many other groups, and a whole lot of grass root groups have appeared, and this kind of tactic gets pointed out daily on public forums, as is happening here.

The vegan thing is particularly apt as for years, vegetarians have been struggling with people who vocally call themselves vegetarian but also eat fish, which impacts on vegetarians who don't want to be served fish!

OhGodWhatTheHellNow

I am guessing they don’t read the contents of the libraries, the point is only to own them and have them in the power of adherents to the new ideology.

@MichelleofzeResistance - I like the vegan steak-eaters simile. Very apt.

Michelle: Pretty much all feminist organisations have been targeted and subjected to a take over while eliminating any female people who set it up, invested in it and would want to focus on female type issues. Thereby permitting male people to direct feminism themselves without any bloody females messing it up, getting in the way and interfering with the making use of the organisation name and history to further male centric political objectives.

www.theonion.com/man-finally-put-in-charge-of-struggling-feminist-moveme-1819569515

Poe's law strikes again.

We are inclusive of all feminisms.

Except actual feminism centred on actual biological women.

If your veganism doesn’t include steak, it's not veganism. Be kind.

We understand gender and sex as constructed ...
We aim to be inclusive of all feminisms ...
We believe we can record and preserve the discourse around oppression and the struggle for rights without including literature that is published with the intent to cause harm ...

The word 'we' is doing an awful lot of work here because means 'either shut up or leave'. I'm familiar with this tactic by now.

But seriously, if they are getting rid of some classics, can I have Janice Raymond & Mary Daly, please?

WootMoggie It's the dizziness accompanied by thinking "which side is UP?"