Anyone else left wing and gender critical?

transactivists have successfully positioned it as a right wing stance because they know that will scare left wingers off.

They do this because they know that they don't have any credible arguments and would lose any serious debate on this issue. So they have to resort to flinging shit and hoping some of it sticks, and one way of doing this is to position GC as a 'far right' ideological stance.

90% on MN regulars I'd say. The right don't own being GC, transactivists have successfully positioned it as a right wing stance because they know that will scare left wingers off.

This. And tbh I really dislike all the vitriol that is directed at people who choose to vote differently- I've noticed that a lot of the time it's directed from the left towards conservative voters.

one of the problems I have with the whole “how could you vote Tory” message is that who really believes that Starmer, Rayner et al would do SO much better in other areas that it negates the concerns over the rights of women?

The Labour Party has its own issues with racism and sexism to contend with and plenty of local Labour led councils, and Labour MPs of old, have demonstrated that it’s not just the Tories who know how to do financial backhanders and sleaze.

Lefty feminist TERF here 👋

@Oddessafile I dislike pretty much everything about the Tories and their policies since they came into power in 2010. I completely disagree with all of the cuts to all public services that they have made. I had no legal aid myself when l left my abusive ex husband and had to engage a solicitor. I was unemployed, with two young children at the time, not exactly in a position of privilege.

To me personally the most pressing issue politically is women's rights and they won't come back if they are stolen away. I will vote accordingly. I want to see women's rights protected and once this happens, other issues will become more important to me again.

Also centre left and as a feminist I am by definition critical of gender, as the hierarchy that is used to subordinate women.

Do people who believe that being critical of gender ideology means you are right wing think JK Rowling is right wing and anti-choice?? Not just her of course but (nearly) all the other women who have come to prominence over their stance on this issue?

But, I can believe it, if people don't think critically about what they consume, read widely or bother to check facts/sources themselves.

Yes, I should have said:

Also quite confused about how the OP could have missed the fact that most GC women in the UK on Mumsnet come across as left wing.

If we are looking at MN in general, posters are generally left leaning, definitely in favour of abortion, and gender critical. This is of course at odds with the narrative that TRAs are trying to push, and I have to say their rabid appropriation of the current abortion issue in order to try and further push the narrative that Gender Critical feminists are also anti-abortion is particularly grim. Just fuck off!

Outside of Twitter GCism is completely cross party. Loads of people, from all political sides, do not believe one can change sex, do not believe that a woman is any man who says he is a woman, and do not believe in pumping kids full of powerful drugs to stunt their growth and development. Its not a 'left/right' thing.

Just adding my voice to say I'm left wing and GC too.

Also quite confused about how the OP could have missed the fact that most GC women in the UK are left wing.

Maybe it's because articles from the Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail are shared on here so there's an assumption that that's what we're reading. Or that prominent GC women like M Forstater and Suzanne Moore speak through the Daily Mail rather than any other publication.

If the Guardian or any other left-leaning news source were writing articles about these issues, we'd be sharing them too. Personally, I'd be delighted. But unfortunately they don't.

Labour supporter for most of my life. In my experience, that's pretty typical for GC women. You are in good company.

@LunaMoonHare what's your opinion of tory underfunding of the prison and probation service ? Those same women you claim to want to protect from predatory transwomen..or the loss of legal aid again which affects poorer women ? Or is trans stuff the hill you are prepared to die on ?

I'm neither right nor left, I think I'm somewhere in the middle.
I'm probably going to be chewed out because of my thoughts, but here goes...
I agree with LGBT+ rights, it goes without saying, however...

1. I don't believe male to female trans people should be allowed to be in women's sports teams, prisons or hospitals.

1. Simple biology should not have to change because it MAY offend a trans person such as "men and women having periods" plus the whole NHS nonsense about "chest feeding" and "frontal births".

Cue hysterical shouts of "TRANSPHOBIA!!"

Well, you would think so, but all the members of the opposition, the Greens, the Lib Dems have said that they do believe it whenever they have been asked on TV and radio.

Eventually this TWAW will be over, and then they will look mighty stupid.

Well, you would think so, but all the members of the opposition, the Greens, the Lib Dems have said that they do believe it whenever they have been asked on TV and radio. These are the people that are asking us to vote for them so that they can make the rules and run the country. They have made it clear that they do believe humans can change sex, that males should be allowed into women's spaces whenever they want etc.

Oh I know. They parrot it, but I'd eat my hat if many of them were true believers.

@Pluvia you've just said it so much better than me! Excellent examples.

The Tories have replaced David Isaac (former Stonewall head) with legal experts Baroness Falkner and Akua Reindorf at the EHRC. Baroness Nicholson, Jackie Doyle-Price and other Tory women have been putting themselves on the line beside Rosie Duffield for the last few years while most female Labour MPs are still stifled and live in fear. In the HoL a number of Tories have presented a GC/ pro-women case. Liz Truss overrode Maria Miller and has made it clear that there will be no self-ID. Back in 2018 David TC Davies, a Tory, organised a last-minute meeting in the HoP when the venue that Venice Allen had booked to hold a GC meeting fell through after pressure from TRAs.

That's just a few examples of Tories doing the right thing on this issue. Others will remember more. The Tories have listened to women and for that they get a thumbs up from me. Labour has completely ignored us — indeed is hostile towards us.

We are where we are and I don't see much point in blaming the Conservatives for what's happened so far. Trans ideology was deliberately spread by stealth (see the Dentons document). Practically every administration in the western world was infiltrated, not just the Tories, and I have no doubt that things would be even worse if Labour or the Lib Dems or the Greens had been in power. All of those parties were quicker to fall to transactivism than the Tories. The Tories listened to women, stopped the flood and now they're putting things right.

For the record, I have never voted Conservative.

Think what you like but I'm absolutely not posting in bad faith. I was a Labour Party member before and have only ever voted Labour but I will either not vote or will vote Tory because this is the most important issue to me at the moment.

I agreed with an earlier point that a lot of this has come in on the Tories watch and so they clearly have made massive mistakes. I'm not happy with that. But it's what is being said in the here and now and the Tories are the only ones saying anything encouraging on the matter. They need to follow it up with action and SJ appears to be starting that with the review on the impact of gender dysphoria treatment. I hope other action will follow.

Well, you would think so, but all the members of the opposition, the Greens, the Lib Dems have said that they do believe it whenever they have been asked on TV and radio. These are the people that are asking us to vote for them so that they can make the rules and run the country. They have made it clear that they do believe humans can change sex, that males should be allowed into women's spaces whenever they want etc.

The majority of people where I work believe TWAW and it gets mentioned most weeks in some form, as does SWIW. This from mainly 20s, plus some 30s, mainly women but the men's voices are louder. I used to love my job, honest :)

I think the only people I know irl who genuinely believe TWAW are teenagers. Everyone else (of whatever political persuasion) is either openly gc or would prefer not to say so, but when asked directly will mumble a bit about being kind but draw the line at the more obviously bonkers things like lady penises, males in women's sport, 'people with a cervix' etc.

It might be rare to find a gender ideologist who is right wing, but gc people are spread right across the political spectrum. They are undoubtedly the vast majority, even if many of them keep quiet about it. I mean... seriously... what proportion of the global population actually literally believes TWAW?!

I would have described myself as LW but i'm pressed to describe myself as a Labour supporter these days.
This issue is cross party though. For different reasons, but it's not an exclusively left/right wing topic in the UK.
Although, as has been said many times already, people with these views are not welcome by the left or liberal parties.

Does anyone have any connections to the Labour Party who could share this thread? They need to see this.

There are so many women who feel like the majority here.

I'm very interested in how the council elections will turn out due to this issue.

I can't help feeling if the tories do better than they should in light of the absolute dishonest corruption omnishambles they are currently showing, part of the reason must be to women turning away from labour in their droves.

Why are they not polling on this to try and understand if this issue is costing them elections?

I am confused how anyone who has even dipped their toe into this subject has concluded that in the UK, GC + left wing is an unusual combination.