Oxfam training document blames women for "the root causes of sexual violence"

[ChristinaXYZ]

Original thread was deleted. Reposting according to advice received from MNHQ

The article below from the Telegraph appears to be from an Oxfam training document called Learning About Trans Rights and Inclusion

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/09/oxfam-training-guide-blames-privileged-white-women-root-causes/

An Oxfam staff training document says “privileged white women” are supporting the root causes of sexual violence by wanting "bad men" imprisoned.

I wonder how many of the women working away running their shops realise the contempt this organisation has for them.

Wtaf.

Of all the posts I have read and the education I have received in mn regarding such topics this one makes me cry. How has the world got to such a state where a huge once reputable charity is doing such damage. Why/how do organisations that should have caring as their central tenet stray so far from their committed duty and fgs get away with it. Just no, I cannot grasp it but grieve so much.

The women who were abused by Oxfam didn't have power.

This document just closes the loop by justifying the silencing of women who might be in a position to speak out.

Wow, there are TWO Alison Phipps, both academics. I was getting very confused. One looks like she does really interesting, valuable work, many publications, lots of international projects, UNESCO chair, etc.

The other one has written a book criticising feminism and has a badly laid out blog.

The appropriation of that serious argument about the police prisons racism in USA made by black Americans. By white people in the UK to discredit women who disagree with them. Is crass, insensitive, silly, intellectually hopeless and I suspect actively damaging for those working in the USA. As there will be pushback against their arguments and words, as they've been stolen and bastardised.

You're absolute right. Sometimes I wonder if people like Phipps are agent provocateurs (not quite the right term but I can't think of a better one right now). Maybe they are just plain stupid though.

WTF???????
I will never set a foot into Oxfam again and will encourage everyone I know to do the same. I have stopped giving them donations a while back when the reports about sexual abuse in developing countries was reported. I also find their stuff is hugely overpriced and Oxfam is the epitome of white privilege, disgusting.

The charity sector needs to be much more scrutinised. There are so many unorthodox, empire building personalities hiding their selfish and unsavoury intentions behind a veil of do-gooding.

@CleaningMy

The charity sector needs to be much more scrutinised. There are so many unorthodox, empire building personalities hiding their selfish and unsavoury intentions behind a veil of do-gooding.

Yup!

I went down a rabbit hole. I am white and privileged.
Funnily enough being white and privileged doesn’t stop you being abused. It might mean your abuse in the media and with the justice system is more listened to. But as far as I am aware that’s the fault of the systems (made by men) not me? Systems that “all feminists’ are challenging”
But then I’m culpable? And it’s my fault?

Also none of her stuff makes any sense. It reminds me of people who write academic papers who think, oh I’ve got a 3000 word paper to write, I’m going to use 2800 fluff words and then maybe no one will realise I don’t have an argument.

I am so saddened by all this - I stuck with Oxfam through the previous scandals but I think I'm done. I'm considered to be a 'lead' volunteer, DBS checked, a key holder and I also do volunteer support with staff. This might be the end of it all for me but i'm going to contact a paid member of staff that I know and ask her what sort of resistance there is from the inside. Sometimes the only way we can change things is by being in the organisation.

@guinnessguzzler well said.

I am so saddened by all this - I stuck with Oxfam through the previous scandals but I think I'm done

Agree.

The circulation of this document after the Haiti scandal demonstrates that the problems are institutional, and not ‘a few bad apples’, if ever they were.

@NiceGerbil

No that's not the argument.

It's a thing from the USA about women falsely accusing black men of rape if they had a grudge, a consensual relationship was going to be found out etc. In the days and areas where lynching black people happened.

In the USA there is an imo definite point about. The police (who are not all trained it recruited the same like here) being racist and lots of white people too. And how a white person esp a woman who calls them and says there's a black man I'm worried taps into those lingering cultural things. And the white woman will have the police say right we'll rescue you and the guy might be beaten or shot.

The prison system over there is a racist shitshow as well. Google USA stats black men prison. It's a mess.

It's not our mess though. We have different messes.

So it's saying that white women 'leverage' their position to get black men in trouble.

If I had time I'd look into the USA situation more tbh but I don't.

So yeah. It's about the USA. And the idea that white racist women use the racist police courts etc to fuck things up for black men.

The appropriation of that serious argument about the police prisons racism in USA made by black Americans. By white people in the UK to discredit women who disagree with them. Is crass, insensitive, silly, intellectually hopeless and I suspect actively damaging for those working in the USA. As there will be pushback against their arguments and words, as they've been stolen and bastardised.

Your posts made me wonder if 'someone' is using American thinking to put out academic stuff as their own ideas.

And I agree with you that Catey should take the job for the reasons you stated.

caillin and NiceGerbil

It's not just about material conditions in the US.

Another well-spring is the criticism of second-wave feminism. Which, apparently, is founded in a reductive notion of power and a premise that only the powerless (&victims) can be virtuous.

In short, the argument runs that second-wave feminism created a narrative of women as victims of male power in order to seize power in the name of 'women'.

This also masked women's own complicity in power networks (eg racism) and their naked power-grab.

And ... thd result of this narrative is a 'subjectivity', where women truly believe they are victims of male abuse.

Of course, all the women are white ... 🤷‍♀️

You can see why it's popular - it creates a marketable niche in academia. And an edginess that can work well for these start-up training companies.

From the being annoyed at Oxfam point of view it is about more than Alison Phipps it seems. They have an LGBT group so up-to-their-eyes in this kind of ideology that they have put put out the document quoted, "Learning About Trans Rights and Inclusion", which does not seem to be about either trans rights nor inclusion but about women-blaming and stirring up racial division. Oxfam appear to have stood by and watched this happen with no intervention with regard to the rights of women and children nor with regard to the safeguarding issues they've already had such problems with during previous scandals. They either don't know or don't care what is happening.

I would have liked to read the doc and not just take the journalist's word for it but can't find it. Perhaps like that NHS glossary that was doing the rounds earlier in the week it has been hidden, locked or removed.

I don't understand why the awfulness of this is not headlines everywhere by now. Will Woman's Hour cover it? Some hope.

Hello - I regularly use charity shops for books and dvds. Not going anywhere near Oxfam from now on but does anyone know if any other charities that have high street shops have any links to stonewall, mermaids or GI?
I don't want to be giving any money to organisations that are remotely like Oxfam

Phipps's beliefs are the central problem with liberal feminism. Male behaviour is never challenged, it's all about adjusting female attitudes to male behaviour. The world will continue exactly as it is but women will be re-educated to be happier about their oppression. I think it's the most dangerous ideology in years. It used to be that women rejected marriage because they were ugly frumps, then that they were anti-porn because they were prudes; now it's ramped up to women who are upset about being raped are hateful, stuck-up racists. It's all about creating an atmosphere where women are too fearful of opprobrium to do anything other than endure and smile.

@EsmaCannonball
Absolutely spot on.

Alison Phipps has written some particularly unpleasant woman-hating stuff over the past few years. Despite being white herself, she is wont to describe anyone she disagrees with (including black people, I seem to remember) as "white feminists". It's not much of an argument.

My mum's been volunteering in an oxfam shop for over a decade. She's writing to them stating that as 98% of their volunteers are women, an awful lot, including her, will be leaving.

@RoyalCorgi

Alison Phipps has written some particularly unpleasant woman-hating stuff over the past few years. Despite being white herself, she is wont to describe anyone she disagrees with (including black people, I seem to remember) as "white feminists". It's not much of an argument.

It's enough to see her moving from one well-remunerated academic post to another.

It's odd how Kathleen Stock etc. were challenged by their students with the probability that their presence on campus creates an unsafe environment but there are no concerns about the likes of Sally Hines and Alison P, despite their somewhat combative twitter presence and various interviews/podcasts.

Someone may have posted the DM link above but here it is www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9671555/Oxfam-staff-training-document-blames-privileged-white-women.html

"An Oxfam staff training document blamed 'privileged white women' for 'supporting the root causes of sexual violence' by wanting offenders fired or thrown in prison because it disproportionately affects minorities.

The charity, which has been hit by a slew of sex scandals including claims that employees used teenage prostitutes in Haiti, compiled the document through its LGBT network after the group complained to bosses that the debate about women's rights was part of a 'patriarchal and white supremacist narrative'.

Accompanied by a cartoon of a crying white woman, the training brochure claims that mainstream feminism supports 'the root causes of sexual violence' and even suggests that reporting rape is 'contemptible'. "

The liberal left (and right for that matter) needs to keep standing up to the work cancel culture left including when we have a clash of protections - women v colour, women v trans etc (never mind the age old religious protections v gays - the gay wedding cake case etc)

@Tesla73

Hello - I regularly use charity shops for books and dvds. Not going anywhere near Oxfam from now on but does anyone know if any other charities that have high street shops have any links to stonewall, mermaids or GI? I don't want to be giving any money to organisations that are remotely like Oxfam

I would think it is a bit like shopping. Large firms, especially multi-nationals are like to be woke with highly paid top staff. Small, independent family run firms - your local baker, butcher, market stall holder are less likely to be woke.

As for charities - everything I donate to shops goes the local hospice shop now. It is shame but without inside knowledge it is hard to know which international charities are genuinely value for money and woke-free. I would like to help people outside the UK too but it is hard to know where to turn. I know Baroness Nicholson has a charity that works in Iraq and Lebanon www.amarfoundation.org/ and I can't see her presiding over the kind of rubbish that Oxfam are generating. If I have spare cash I think that's wear I would send it at the moment.

@TinselAngel

Does this mean that the aid workers who hired prostituted women in Haiti were actually empowering them rather than exploiting them?

That was their argument at the time

They denied any were underage

They said it was employment and money available to earn during the emergency