Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want to hear anything about the suffragettes

285 replies

BrandNewAndImproved · 08/10/2015 23:21

How am I meant to support a movement that was disgustingly racist just because I benefit from it being a white female.

The feminist movement is still subtly racist with a lot of white feminists refusing to see white privilege.

The argument of being of its time doesn't wash. Racism is racism and I refuse to support it.

OP posts:
Junosmum · 08/10/2015 23:32

YABU.

brokenvases · 08/10/2015 23:35

I don't know much about it to be honest shamefully. We certainly did not cover the movement at school. From what I can gather from what I have read there were people who were not white in the British movement. The American movement seems to have been the worst for this. I know they suggested white women get votes to drown out the voice of the black man.

I don't know enough to comment though to be honest.

TrollTheRespawnJeremy · 08/10/2015 23:36

I think that historically suffragettes were in line with the racism of the time. It's not nice but it is what it is.

Modern day feminists are not racist.

Never call somebody racist again with a daft opinion based on nothing.

Liomsa · 08/10/2015 23:37

Surely no ones asking you to 'support' a historical movement which disbanded when its goal was achieved?

wreckingball · 08/10/2015 23:38

Yes dear.

Awholelottanosy · 08/10/2015 23:42

I assume you've never voted then? As without them you wouldn't have had the vote! We all owe them a debt of gratitude so yes YABU

wowfudge · 08/10/2015 23:42

Are you talking about Emmeline Pankhurst's quote, 'I'd rather be a rebel than a slave' which has been used to promote the film released this week or something else? I don't really see how you could support a movement which existed 100 years ago.

brokenvases · 08/10/2015 23:44

Actually I have just looked at the feminist group Sisters Uncut who were involved in the protest on the red carpet yesterday and they seem to represent many heritages.

wreckingball · 08/10/2015 23:45

Pity you missed the webchat with Meryl Streep earlier, you could have asked her what she thought of your pov.

Original poster
BrandNewAndImproved · 08/10/2015 23:45

I haven't named names and called anyone racist. To say it doesn't exist is still today is ignorant.

I will link pages tomorrow to support what I'm saying but I'm off to bed now.

It really annoys me we are supposed to be so grateful to the suffragettes brand of colonial feminism and all the racism that went along with it.

OP posts:
EnthusiasmDisturbed · 08/10/2015 23:45

Lots of people are unable to see white privilege some may also call themselves feminists though I think those that identify themselves as feminists are probably less likely too as their awareness of lack of equality

And yes I can understand that feminism does sometimes feel as though it's coming only from and deals with mainly mc white women

Suffragettes were of their time not excusing history but were it not for them where would all women stand in society now

Duckdeamon · 08/10/2015 23:46
Confused
wowfudge · 08/10/2015 23:46

Eh?

Weathergames · 08/10/2015 23:48

YABU and ridiculous.

There would've been no Women's Institute (who also would have been initially rascist) without the Suffragettes either and they played a massive part in the domestic side of the 2nd World War.

wowfudge · 08/10/2015 23:49

That was directed at the OP for starting a thread, failing to explain herself and going to bed instead! I have never considered the suffragette movement to be racist - they weren't fighting for votes for white women; it was simply votes for women.

Original poster
BrandNewAndImproved · 08/10/2015 23:51

Hold on so your saying we should be grateful for one racist group helping the war against another racist group? And your calling me ridiculous...

With regards to having woc on the British suffragettes side a lot of these women have gone on to say once they helped support the white women it got thrown back in their face after and they were left still fighting their causes without the returned support.

OP posts:
Weathergames · 08/10/2015 23:54

You are comparing the Suffragettes to the Nazi's?

Do you work in a call centre?

TheDowagerCuntess · 08/10/2015 23:55

I'm not that close the the British suffragette movement ('we' gave women the vote in 1893). Maybe you can educate me.

Where only white women given the vote in 1918? Or is your gripe with the fact that the suffrage movement itself was white?

ComposHatComesBack · 08/10/2015 23:55

The op is living proof that a little knowledge and an inability to understand historical context is a dangerous thing.

Original poster
BrandNewAndImproved · 08/10/2015 23:56

You have just stated the WI was racist. You have also stated they played a huge part in the war against the nazis... I find that hypocritical in itself.

OP posts:
Weathergames · 08/10/2015 23:56

How many black women were in the UK during the Suffragette movement anyway Confused

Genuinely don't know....

wowfudge · 08/10/2015 23:57

What does woc mean OP - I don't understand.

Also isn't it the case that women in the suffragette movement were calling for all women to get the vote so members were mutually supportive. Stating that some of them were supporting the white women strikes me as an odd way to look at it.

NickiFury · 08/10/2015 23:58

Hope you've never been to the British museum or natural history museum. Many of the artefacts there were contributed by the husband of a wealthy plantation owner. He was basically able to travel all over the world collecting them financed by the profits made on the back of slaves working on her plantations.

Also hoping you've never visited any stately homes either, where do you think the vast profits needed to finance such huge projects came from? Care to make a wild guess?

Do you take sugar in your tea or in your good at all. The fact that we use sugar at all and it has been made such a staple part of our nations diet is linked to the slave trade all those years ago.

I could go on. Fact is slavey is indelibly imprinted on our nation and how we have evolved. Suffrage is just one more example.

wreckingball · 08/10/2015 23:58

Women aged 30 and over got the vote in 1918, it was only in 1928 that all women over 21 got it.

Original poster
BrandNewAndImproved · 08/10/2015 23:59

Countess my gripe is that the suffragettes are being applauded for all they've done while glossing over the bad. There was so much racism in it how can I support it and be proud?

OP posts: