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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Cancellation of WRN NI event at Féile festival.

321 replies

SexRealistic · 21/07/2026 21:15

Did anyone catch up with the cancellation of WRN NIs event at Féile and Phobail festivak today?

Apparently it’s ‘anti trans’ except the event was about women’s voices being heard.

JKR offered to fund….

Cancellation of WRN NI event at Féile festival.
Cancellation of WRN NI event at Féile festival.
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52
334bu · 28/07/2026 20:59

"But I kind of get where AM is coming from. She did an opinion piece and got loads of abuse from RW nutjobs. She is naturally going to be on the defense against the right wingers abusing her"

I think she thinks anyone who disagrees with her is a right wing bigot. Most of the criticism was simply other women asking for the right to single sec spaces.

TooBigForMyBoots · 28/07/2026 22:44

Me and my DM(75) discussed this tonight. She didnt know much about it until Feile cancelled the WRN discussion. Today's debate was on in the background of a women only info service she was attending.

It was a productive chat.☺️

TooBigForMyBoots · 28/07/2026 22:56

334bu · 28/07/2026 20:59

"But I kind of get where AM is coming from. She did an opinion piece and got loads of abuse from RW nutjobs. She is naturally going to be on the defense against the right wingers abusing her"

I think she thinks anyone who disagrees with her is a right wing bigot. Most of the criticism was simply other women asking for the right to single sec spaces.

Maybe you're right. But I've read and listened to AM for years now and I've never heard her that defensive before.

She's intelligent. She's passionate about VAWG. She's in a place many of us have been in the past. She'll get it soon.

UtopiaPlanitia · 29/07/2026 00:16

TooBigForMyBoots · 28/07/2026 20:53

That was a hard listen.Sad

But I kind of get where AM is coming from. She did an opinion piece and got loads of abuse from RW nutjobs. She is naturally going to be on the defense against the right wingers abusing her.

What she doesnt realise is had she done a different opinion piece she'd have received the same abuse, from LW nutjobs.

Edited

I went and had a wee look at her TwiX timeline earlier today, from what I could see it's mainly her being defensive (and bloody obnoxious) to, and about, left-wing gender critical women (and men) who are pointing out where she got information wrong and were not having a go at her.

I think, given she mischaracterised WRN, Sex Matters , Gaels for Fair Play etc as right-wing organisations that she may also be mischaracterising the gender critical people disagreeing with her as right-wing.

For someone who entered into this debate, with a very definite opinion, she is woefully under informed, I would normally expect better of her than this. She doesn't seem to have been keeping an eye on developments in this area of law/policy/society for the last number of years.

TooBigForMyBoots · 29/07/2026 02:29

I know Squinter from way back and then a wee bit less back when The Portadown News was my closest thing to home.

He was always a spineless, gutless fucker. I see he hasn't changed.

DeanElderberry · 29/07/2026 07:53

Allison Morris is on RTÉ radio fairly often and clearly has the same 'blind eye to the telescope' attitude to the new misogyny. Huge silence and denial.

It is different from, but reminiscent of, a sad incident late in Gay Byrne's Radio 1 career. On the radio and on the Late Late show he gave a voice to so many people, particularly women, on the changing attitudes to sex, sexuality, pregnancy, authority, religion, etc etc etc. The public conversation he facilitated had a huge influence on the opening of the collective mind around social issues.

Some time in the late 1990s came the morning he introduced a guest we'd all be interested to hear. A middle aged paedophile 'Stephen' who liked picking up 14 year old boys for sex. He whinged on about his feelings and his needs, Gaybo fawned on him, the hair on my arms stood up. And then later, not sure whether the next day or that day, after the interview, Byrne's fury. People were still so intolerant in Ireland, when 'Stephen' left the studio he found some listener had phoned the cops, and there were two officers waiting to take him for an chat.

I have no idea how that went, but found the indignant wittering comparing him to people who used contraception and to gays and to divorcees and to unmarried women who had children both horrific and revealing.

The old joke used to be the Irishman stranded on a desert island asking 'is there a government here? I'm against it!'. We seem to have evolved a commentariat (often supported by public money) who ask 'are there protections for women and children? I'm against them!'

Sex is good, anyone who tells a man to keep it in his pants is bad.

DeanElderberry · 29/07/2026 07:55

tl dr: omnicause Irish style, an all island aspiration, trust our respectable leaders

MarieDeGournay · 29/07/2026 08:05

UtopiaPlanitia · 29/07/2026 01:40

Squinter from the Andytown News has his usual balanced take on all things Genderist:

https://x.com/treesey/status/2082187425237880960?s=20

https://nitter.net/treesey/status/2082187425237880960?s=20

I was struck by his reference to HJ being a 'southerner'- HJ is only a 'southerner' if you recognise the partition of Ireland and the creation of Northern Ireland.

HJ is not from the south of Ireland.
Like me, she's from from around the middle of Ireland, over to the right. That's not the south.
We're both from the Republic of Ireland, but parts of that are further north than Northern Ireland.

Scrabbling around for any put-down of WRN he can think of, obviously.

WrongKindOfFeminist · 29/07/2026 08:32

UtopiaPlanitia · 29/07/2026 00:16

I went and had a wee look at her TwiX timeline earlier today, from what I could see it's mainly her being defensive (and bloody obnoxious) to, and about, left-wing gender critical women (and men) who are pointing out where she got information wrong and were not having a go at her.

I think, given she mischaracterised WRN, Sex Matters , Gaels for Fair Play etc as right-wing organisations that she may also be mischaracterising the gender critical people disagreeing with her as right-wing.

For someone who entered into this debate, with a very definite opinion, she is woefully under informed, I would normally expect better of her than this. She doesn't seem to have been keeping an eye on developments in this area of law/policy/society for the last number of years.

The viciousness and nasty tone to her comments reveal defensiveness. It can be very hard when lots of people respond to you , even if the individual comments are not attacks. It feels like it.

She's going to dig in. There's also the phenomenon where proof of the converse of your belief actually hardens your hold on the falsity.

RoyalCorgi · 29/07/2026 08:48

MarieDeGournay · 29/07/2026 08:05

I was struck by his reference to HJ being a 'southerner'- HJ is only a 'southerner' if you recognise the partition of Ireland and the creation of Northern Ireland.

HJ is not from the south of Ireland.
Like me, she's from from around the middle of Ireland, over to the right. That's not the south.
We're both from the Republic of Ireland, but parts of that are further north than Northern Ireland.

Scrabbling around for any put-down of WRN he can think of, obviously.

I'm probably missing something, but I don't see why being from the Republic of Ireland is considered to be a bad thing.

It's quite funny that they claim the WRN spokespeople were running scared when for years trans activists refused to debate gender-critical people on radio or tv, or even in public. (You might remember that what really kick-started the gender-critical/sex realist movement in 2017 was when Stonewall pulled out of a debate with feminists about the government's consultation on gender self-ID. The feminists went ahead anyway, and while they were all waiting in Hyde Park to hear where the venue was, Maria MacLachlan was assaulted by trans activists.)

I find women like AM and her ilk both disturbing and pathetic. They have pinned their political identity on their wholesale commitment to a lie – that men can be women. Their fury at other women who refuse to accept it is off the scale. They can only express this fury through abuse: you are terrible people, you are right-wing, you are unkind, you are part of the patriarchy etc.

They cannot, they simply cannot, engage in rational argument because they know, either consciously or unconsciously, that there isn't one. How do you persuade other people that men can be women when it's obviously not true?

ItsCoolForCats · 29/07/2026 09:56

I hope it goes well for the WRN in court today 🤞🏻

LifeInAHamsterWheel · 29/07/2026 10:17

ItsCoolForCats · 29/07/2026 09:56

I hope it goes well for the WRN in court today 🤞🏻

Yes, I'm really keen to hear how it goes.

I listened to that 'debate' late last night and wished I hadn't, my BP was sky high by the end of it and it took me an age to calm down. Needless to say I had a very bad nights sleep!

I'm so so sick of the 'far right' slurs now. It's so lazy. As well as being full of rage I was also full of sadness. How many women are like AM, willing to throw the safety and dignity of women & girls under a bus to appease perverted men. It's awful. Shame on her/all of them. Women like Helen, JK, Maya, Nora etc do give me some hope, but it's a bleak picture overall Sad

MarieDeGournay · 29/07/2026 10:17

RoyalCorgi I'm probably missing something, but I don't see why being from the Republic of Ireland is considered to be a bad thing.

It's just that I was surprised that the poster - who I gather is from a Nationalist background- used the word 'southerner'.

Being 'from the Republic of Ireland' is just a fact; but the term 'southerner' has a shedload of historical implications and undertones, some of them very definitely 'a bad thing'.

It's also geographically incorrectSmile

LifeInAHamsterWheel · 29/07/2026 10:20

Honestly I think West Belfast in particular is like a completely isolated and stand-alone country! I have relatives and (old) friends there and they seem to live in a bubble. They are completely disconnected from the reality of everyday life as the rest of us experience it. It's actually fascinating to observe (albeit infuriating and worrying too)

Savvysix1984 · 29/07/2026 10:44

So it looks like the judgement went Feiles way according to their statement

Savvysix1984 · 29/07/2026 10:47

Can’t find any more details

Cancellation of WRN NI event at Féile festival.
ItsCoolForCats · 29/07/2026 11:01

Savvysix1984 · 29/07/2026 10:47

Can’t find any more details

Oh no 😞

TheKeatingFive · 29/07/2026 11:02

MarieDeGournay · 29/07/2026 08:05

I was struck by his reference to HJ being a 'southerner'- HJ is only a 'southerner' if you recognise the partition of Ireland and the creation of Northern Ireland.

HJ is not from the south of Ireland.
Like me, she's from from around the middle of Ireland, over to the right. That's not the south.
We're both from the Republic of Ireland, but parts of that are further north than Northern Ireland.

Scrabbling around for any put-down of WRN he can think of, obviously.

Rightly or wrongly, it's very common for people from NI to refer to 'the south' and 'southerners'.

But I also don't see what the issue is supposed to be with coming from the Republic. It's supposed to be one Ireland, right?

WrongKindOfFeminist · 29/07/2026 11:22

Savvysix1984 · 29/07/2026 10:47

Can’t find any more details

They'll need to be careful they don't further defame people, here.

MarieDeGournay · 29/07/2026 11:31

Savvysix1984 · 29/07/2026 10:44

So it looks like the judgement went Feiles way according to their statement

Oh no! I can't think on what basis - OK so An Fhéile can invite or uninvite who they want to, but surely the issue was the claim that WRN are 'anti-trans' was incorrect and therefore not a valid reason to exclude them.

So did the judge decided that WRN are 'anti-trans'? How else could it be OK?

WrongKindOfFeminist · 29/07/2026 11:35

'....called for an urgent investigation around funding from public bodies for Feile an Phobail.
"They are young people, many of them born after the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and yet we are seeing this type of glorification of terrorism which is absolutely unacceptable," she told the BBC.
"Shouting about paramilitary organisations, talking about the things they've done in the past in such a way, celebrating that, glorifying that..

"That is never an acceptable form of cultural expression, regardless of whether that is the IRA or any other paramilitary organisation. We are in 2022, this is not the Northern Ireland that we need to be building."'

Why is the Right Side of History so drawn to play-acting terrorism?

TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 29/07/2026 11:38

Savvysix1984 · 29/07/2026 10:47

Can’t find any more details

Disappointing, I wonder what the details are. 🙁