On FWR we gave had threads about how women who claim they are feminist but socialist first, are at best partonising, and some hell bent on insulting women who are gender critical but have no other political allegiances for being right wing sympathisers and so on.
This is a post from facebook which the writer has said can be shared annonymously.
About ten years ago when Stonewall and others started lobbying for both self ID and the removal of the single sex exceptions in the Equality Act that allowed for women only services it was feminists on the left, in the VAWG sector and trade unions who first raised concerns.
The Women and Equalities Select Committee didn't take evidence from any of them before backing both proposals, which were then taken up by the then Conservative government.
Women who tried to meet to discuss the proposed changes to the law were prevented from meeting, smeared and demonised. Some were physically attacked.
It is the first time I had seen a movement propose legal change and at the same time saying that there should be no debate about these changes.
Groups like WPUK were formed, by women on the left to organise meetings around the country. Their meetings were open to all and they platformed trans women. These meetings were attacked. There were attempts to get them cancelled, bomb threats and physical attacks..Any attempt, no matter how careful and compassionate to say that this was a complicated issue that needed discussion was described as transphobic.
The needs of women prisoners, disabled women wanting same sex intimate care, women who needed a female only space to recover from trauma, lesbians who wanted to meet alone were ignored.
It should be entirely possible to meet the needs of these women, and the needs of trans people. To ensure that trans women are safe in prison and at the same time prevent male sex offenders being able to move into a women's prison on the basis of self ID. To ensure that there are services for trans and non binary people recovering from trauma and services for women who want a female only space. But that can only happen if through dialogue that respects the needs of everyone.
Women on the left tried to have those discussions. They warned that if the left failed to engage with these issues it would give ammunition to the far right.
There are currently services that try to meet everyone's needs. For example rape crisis centres that provide a universal service and also female only space and/or group therapy sessions that are female only and group therapy sessions that are trans inclusive. There are refuge services that provide single sex shared accommodation and self contained accommodation for trans women (and women with older teenage boys). There are prisons that have a wing specifically for trans women so they are safe from the rest of the prison population. There are sports that have moved to a female category and an open category. Sometimes the mix of services is by the same provider, at others it is different providers.
All of this is possible. The supreme court judgement confirmed that it is legal, while also confirming the protection of trans people under the Equality Act. It should be the start of a conversation about how to meet everyone's needs and respect everyone's rights, which many feminists have been trying to have for a long time.
But that can't happen if women who want female only spaces and services are smeared with guilt by association because Trump has spotted the mess the Democrats have got into on this issue and taken advantage. It's about as meaningful as pointing at Isla Bryson every time someone talks about the rights of Trans people and saying 'you are on the side of rapists'.
So not sure about anyone else but this makes me really angry and sad.
Are there really women who think only socialist women and women in TUs did anything about countering the trans narrative, or is it just the usual we are so superior we dont even have to acknowledge the existence of other women?
So not wanting to make it too personal, but it was written by someone who has been part of what is called the VAWG sector (violence against women and girls) and has got lots of likes.
It is this sectarianism that has allowed the TRAs to take advantage of differences, so that campaigning against them has been splintered etc..
And also grossly underestimates how many women as individuals, throught for instance FWR on MN, have become active.
Let alone the many newer feminist groups that have formed to campaign on this issue.
As I said on another thread, many of these VAWG groups are the very ones that exist based on the SSE, and this in fact may be their crunch time.
If they cant even make a simple statement about of course single sex (biological) services are absolutely crucial and the core of our work, but we also have and will continue to provide appropriate services to TW.
Again on another thread I suggest starting (yet) another one just to record the responses from women service providers.
All these women, such as the writer of the post above, in the old days of women's liberation would have gone out of their way to communicate and interact with women who were campaigning for women's sex based rights. Maybe even taken the time to explain themselves and their work. But instead they have stayed silent throughout the years, and now seem to think it will all go back to them being "professionals" who only talk to each other and dont have time for "the woman in the street". And claim victory as socialists.
In years gone by it was a sort of joke that the socialist feminists, far from being about equality, operated as though they were the Lady of the Manor, or even the Memsahibs in the British Empire. ie they were the lightening rod of appropriate thought and behaviour, and they very kindly took the time to tell those of the lower orders what to think and how to behave.
This could have been a revival of the link between local women and local women service providers, but I now very much doubt it will happen.
This doesn't just make me angry, but makes me sad and dispair.
(NB!! I somehow didn't include the opening paragraphs so sorry to those who read the quote and thought it didn't make sense)