Who‘s coming to FiLIA?

They may as well tell us then.

Learning from experience. Far too many events have been sabotaged by the TRAs complaining to the venues & getting them to cancel.

It’s very obviously going to kick off at some point. Especially with where it is. Not a reason not to hold it there, just the reality of the situation.

Are there many venues in Brighton that can accommodate 1000 people?

Do you know where the actual venue is? I'm a bit irritated that they won't tell us.

The first one I went to was in London around 2016, something like that, & very gendery. A lot of women objected to that & it gradually improved.

The last few FiLIA conferences I've been to have been very terfy. Ditto WPUK, and Fair Play for Women. WDI and WRN of course!

But there are other activist campaigns and issues ... part of the problem of fighting the TRAs (and believe me, I've been in the trenches for that, in a way that has affected my career and MH, but it could never be a public case) part of the problem of the TRA nonsense I've observed since at least 2012 is that it's been a necessary but annoying diversion from other really important causes: surrogacy, prostituted and enslaved women internationally, or even locally, the basic sex pay gap ...

How would one know about this change in attitude?

Oh, fantastic!

It’s difficult not to be “wound up by the head girls narrative” when they try and manage you out of a movement that you spearheaded.

I'll be there. The feeling of being in an auditorium with about 1000 other women is something that all women & girls should experience. Reminds me of the Women's Lib conferences I went to in the late 1970s as a teenage feminist. And I like the way that FiLIA reminds me that there is a feminist activism beyond turning back the TRA madness (as important as that is!). There are so many other vital fights & activists to keep in our sights - or at least to try to learn about. FiLIA is particularly good on the nternational and global South aspect of the broad femnist movement. As is Women's Declaration International, a smaller but equally interesting & excellent grass roots group. And the Women's Rights Network, which is doing sterling work with Afghani women.

And some things don't change - the internal disagreements & hurt feelings, and hierarchies and attacks in those hierarchies. In my teen years it was mostly about straight v lesbians ("How can you sleep with the enemy?") and also between the socialists and the liberals - between revolution, and what was the long slow work of changing laws via the civil service & law reform (by what we called "femocrats"). There was fairly regular sniping between various groups.

Which is/was a pity because in the end, we're all aiming for roughly (not exactly) the same things.

I really don't think we should be too wound up about the "head girls" narrative. Feminism is a widespread and grass roots movement, and there are bound to be disagreements - on aims, and means of reaching those aims.

We all do our bit - small, large, private, public, all efforts are important. No-one owns any feminist activism, or feminist narrative.

Kath Stock said years ago that she thought women needed to learn to disagree with each other (and be disagreed with) and to find it less traumatic or difficult. I have thought a lot about this since I heard her say it, and tried to learn more about how to disagree and be disagreed with, and not to feel I'm an awful person. Feminine socialisation runs deep, and consciousness raising is a lifetime's work. [Anyone here a veteran of a 70s CR group? IYKYK]

I’m going to her book launch in Brighton on Friday 10 October. They’ve got Jo Bartosch too.

She rules. Being quoted in her last book is one of my proudest achievements!

I’m not going this year but to be fair, I think it’s a long time since they’ve had that attitude.

Sheila Jeffreys is a brilliant speaker, I’ve been lucky enough to hear her about 4 times.

Just for clarity, none of the women who are on the panel are to blame for my exclusion.

Yes being in the same category as Sheila Jeffreys is pretty cool, but I’d rather they credited me for my work given I pretty much built trans widows single handedly from nothing.

Agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly.
I always go to FiLiA with a small group friends, we use it as part of our social calendar, as we no longer live close to each other, so we rent a holiday cottage, enjoy the day, meet up in the evening, discuss what we’ve seen, love the women only club night.
We booked tickets for this year way in advance, prior to the location being announced. Since confirming it is to be held in Brighton one friend has definitely decided not to go and the rest of us are considering our position.

I don’t believe that any area should be off limits to women, but we have all experienced the fear of TRAs protesting against women meeting (not just at FiLiA but including - credible bomb threats, attacking buildings, having to be escorted in/out by police, being spat on, witnessing physical assault and in the case of the WP meeting in Brighton which two of us attended as we were in Brighton as LP delegates - the fact that Sussex Police did absolutely nothing to assist our safety) and, even without the recent Supreme Court ruling, we think this was an ill advised choice of venue.

I have often felt that there was some kind of power struggle within the organisation and having read some of the earlier responses, particularly TinselAngel, I now feel more unease at attending.

I’ve always seen them as a bit head girly/WPUK, but I know women I know go and get a lot out of it, so I don’t want to harsh their buzz. It’s an important event. I don’t agree with the way they treat some women though.

Don’t know why. But apparently Sheila Jeffreys can’t do a talk about her book and nor can Fiona Mcanena (spelling??). For some reason. Not sure what.

Is it? Why is that? I just don’t know so am interested. Are they like the party of women sort of feminists?? As in not feminists at all.

You’re not the only ones they’re excluding. FiLiA is now an utter joke.

Interesting. Wonder what the toilets will say this year, particularly given the location

When I first went to Filia, there were 2 blokes hanging round the reception desk, the toilets were renamed 'gender neutral' and when I asked where the female toilets were, was told there was one upstairs.

Never trusted them since. Seems a wise decision. No idea why people get so excied about them.