Starmer, JKR, what's most important to most women?

[PupInAPram]

In my more than 60 years, decades of being a single working parent, many experiences of being on the bones of my arse, Labour Party policies have made huge beneficial differences in my day-to-day life. Worrying if there is a man in the next toilet or feeling uncomfortable with a trans woman has literally never been on my radar. If I'm making a decision about voting for the politician who can bring about the greatest good for the greatest number, it's Starmer every time. I wish JKR would just pipe down.

I don’t agree that JKR should pipe down. I think she has been courageous and clear eyed about some of the very ant feminist impetuses behind the trans movement. I fully support her position on most of this.

But I do think the issue has mushroomed to a ridiculously disproportionate position in a lot of people’s political consciousness and I think arguing that this is a reason to vote Tory is specious and misguided. There are considerations which take greater priority for me in terms of my voting intentions.

I think saying you will vote for Sunak because “Starmer doesn’t know what a woman is,” and ignoring a long legacy of anti feminist politicies by the Tories is pathetic.

Deleted as didn’t mean to post as a reply

I want to know what party JKR is standing for. She's supported Labour in the past but now seems adamant she won't vote for them. I understand why, and I agree with her.

She speaks my language which is common sense. I just wish we had some better alternatives.

So.. the ideal government would do what exactly to support a trans woman who has been abused by a man? How will they protect her? She can’t go to a “women’s” shelter.

My point is we keep trying to fit a non-binary concept into our binary world. The answer is to change the world not change or deny the people.

I would greatly prefer the labour party to focus on addressing social issues caused by wealth, class, sex and race inequalities than faff about trying not to upset a tiny minority of men who would prefer to be women. However they are still by far the strongest hope I have for the country. I also think JKR is great.

JRK does not speak for all women. Certainly not for me.

Bahahaha! Damaging his chances of a majority?!?

Have you seen the polls? Do you really think there is a question on who will be PM on 5 July?

Five years ago me and two friends ran a successful local cycling group for women who just wanted to ride bikes for fun and fitness but without any of the lycra clad male cycling club culture . We were then told by the sports governing body we had to included transwomen but men had to be turned away.
The group doesn’t exist now. The participants left, first the Muslim ladies then everyone else who did not want a mixed sex group.
Then the volunteers left because the governing body called them bigots for just wanting their group for women run by women.

Women and girls are in danger of losing every female only space we’ve created for ourselves and Starmer has zero skin in the game so doesn’t care.
I will not vote for a party that cannot accept that sometimes, it’s ok for women and girls to have their own spaces and thank goodness someone as high profile as JKR is speaking about it.

I have concerns about Keir Starmer's views on this issue. He's very vague about his actual opinion. It's as if he doesn't want to alienate anyone. In doing so, however, he will probably drive away a lot of female voters.

Yes we can worry about more than thing at once, of course, but it’s becoming the main focus a lot of the time even though it affects a small % of people.

51% of the human population is not "a small % of people"

This mindset is exactly the problem. It's not about trans people. It's about women.

This with bells on.

I am totally unclear how a political party who is apparently unable to either recognise or protect women's rights is seen as a viable contender for Government. What did we fight for? What did our ancestors fight for? this is not a trivial issue. It is an issue that goes to the heart of respect, safety, safeguarding and equality.

If you think it's trivial then you are kidding yourselves.

There is so much incorrect nonsense here I can’t even start but wow. Wow.

I think JKR is just pointing out the massive misogyny in the Labour Party. The Labour party thinks women should just pipe down and give up their single sex spaces and other rights and #bekind so that they can win the general election.

I don't want another Tory government, but I also don't want men on my hospital ward or to be called a cervix owner. I want my daughter to be able to change for PE with the other girls, and not to be taught as a fact that removing her healthy breast tissue will make her a boy.

I don't know @SergeantDawkins what a government would do to protect a transwoman who has experienced violence from another man. That's for transpeople and the government to work out, perhaps a dedicated space for them although it would seem they don't want that as they want to be in with the women - wonder why that is 🤔

I'm focused on women's rights and keeping them safe. Women have enough to sort out without having to do things for another group if men.

I'm glad we've got JKR as a strong voice.

When politicians are stupid enough to make statements implying they don't understand/believe in biological facts (only women can have a cervix, women don't have a penis etc) I'm grateful to anyone, especially someone with as much reach as JKR, who stands up and points out how ridiculous that is. So no, she shouldn't 'pipe down', quite the opposite.

She has used her own money to set up the only single sex service for female rape victims in Scotland.

Yeah it's shocking once you realise it's all true. We've all been there.

It's not incorrect if you know anything about these issues or have followed anything in the past 5 years.

If you have not and are happily ignorant then fine. But don't you DARE tell us this is incorrect.

If I'm making a decision about voting for the politician who can bring about the greatest good for the greatest number, it's Starmer every time

You should probably vote Labour then. Not sure what the AIBU is?

@SergeantDawkins well perhaps you should start as all those points are completely factual.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/opinions/2024/6/20/no-party-deserves-the-feminist-vote-in-the-uk-election

I think this sums it up for me. I understand the reluctance to vote for either. But...

"During their long stints in power, Tories have consistently failed to adequately fund services for women escaping violent relationships, ignoring the plight of women at the very bottom of the barrel. They also all but destroyed the criminal justice system, ensuring most perpetrators of violence against women and girls never even see the inside of a courtroom. Tory support for women’s rights has always focussed solely on breaking the “glass ceiling”, which affects only about 5 percent of women who are already the most privileged."

I fundamentally disagree with the way our government have handled everything - most recently underfunding a bait and switch "funded" childcare offering which affects, of course, women. Both users of the service and nursery staff. I don't believe any of their "we know what a woman is" bollocks.

2 nurseries have closed locally. Guess which parents are taking time off work or scrabbling for the alternative.

Actually, it’s about men. Our fear of men. Men’s violence against women.
But a violent man in a dress in the toilets is not a trans woman.

So.. the ideal government would do what exactly to support a trans woman who has been abused by a man? How will they protect her? She can’t go to a “women’s” shelter.
”The Government “ has never really done a damn thing to support women who have been abused by men! Women’s refuges were initially set up by women, in their own homes often, for women precisely because the authorities did not consider domestic violence a problem.
They have struggled on as organisations on a shoestring,
If men who don’t want to be men want to set up refuges for themselves I fully support that endeavour. And I’m
sure they would get oodles of lovely council funding to do so (unlike women…)

Things that I am concerned about are the loss of sure start, austerity, underfunding of schools and hospitals, the ever widening gap between rich and poor in our country, entrenched social inequalities. Men in dresses have not blighted my life or the lives of ordinary women around me.

It's right, so why don't you make a start so we can see why you think it's wrong?

Your wowing is just showing your woeful understanding.