Radfem 2013 and the MRAs

[MooncupGoddess]

As many of you will remember, the Radfem 2012 conference in London was explicitly open only to born women and consequently attracted lots of condemnation and anger from people who saw this as transphobic. It was kicked out of its original venue at Conway Hall and went underground (very successfully in the end).

This year Radfem 2013 has not explicitly banned transwomen... but instead it's come under attack from Men's Rights Activists, who have staged a demo at the planned venue, the London Irish Centre, while making lots of unpleasant and ridiculous claims about how radical feminists want to murder small boys and the like. As a result the venue is threatening to cancel the booking.

www.mralondon.org/

bugbrennan.com/2013/04/20/statement-from-rad-fem-2013/

I have mixed feelings about the whole trans issue but have no hesitation in declaring the MRAs utter misogynist knobbers and am disappointed the London Irish Centre has seemingly caved into them.

Sample line from the MRA London page:

'the group's co-founder, Andy Thomas said, "We don't believe in shutting down debate. However, it is vital that there is someone speaking up on behalf of men and boys. And for the first time ever, they now have a voice."

It's always distressing when a venue or an organisation doesn't have the strength or commitment to stand up to protests, especially if it's a cause you espouse.
It will be interesting to see exactly what reasons and excuses the LIC come up with to justify the cancellation, if that's how they choose to proceed.

However, some of the quotes that the MRA use are quite disturbing, and give them quite strong ammunition to use against RadFems. How accurate are the quotes from the Radical Hub website? The ones that they are using to rally opposition to RadFem2013?

They are not very good at facts, are they? They say Radfem2012 was aborted. Er, no guys.... it was merely moved to another venue.

The Radical Hub website has closed now, and I never really used it, so I don't know how accurate the quotes are. In any case, though, using a few quotes from internet nutters to discredit an entire movement is wrong on every level. (And if one's going to play that game, it really wouldn't be hard to discredit MRAs based on the many vile quotes from them I've seen on the web and elsewhere.)

Had fun at that cancelled Radfem 2012 :)
2013 will be even funner

I agree that it is wrong to selectively quote from unverifiable sources, but they can be used to stir up fear and resentment amongst a group that feel they are being targeted.
Does the venue have to give a decent reason for cancelling, or can they just say no. Presumably there are insurance issues if they cancel this late.

Has radfem 2013 been cancelled then at the london irish centre? It's not clear from the links.

It won't be cancelled. If the London Irish Centre decide they can't be bothered with all the harassment the MRAs are giving them (whether or not they believe the loony stuff they are being told about how the radfems want to kill all the boy babies) it will move to a different venue and we will have the conference in peace and quiet like Radfem2012 did last year.

It always amuses me when nutters accuse rad fems of wanting to kill boy babies.

Do they not think we could do that if we wanted to?

We produce some of them, FGS.

Idiots.

No of course it won't be cancelled.

Dysfunctional violent misogynist men are not going to stop women meeting, talking and dancing.

They can fuck off.

Wouldn't feminists be uneasy about using an Irish cultural centre, given what happened to Savita Halappanavar in Ireland recently? Her death is inextricably linked with the culture of Ireland.

It does not seem to have occurred to the man posting that blog that there are, in fact, radical feminists who are also (shocker) Irish.

Seems like an odd sort of an oversight.

So I should not mention the issue? It has nothing to do with the nationality of the participants, but the issues are linked whether you like it or not.

Her case has been a massive point of discussion on here and yet I could not see that anyone else has raised this point. I am sorry if the fact that a man mentioned it has upset you.

Oh please.

I suppose we should boycott any American venue as well, because of the introduction of trans-vaginal scans and the attempts to abolish safe, legal abortions.

And British ones because 72% of government cuts fall on women.

I've got an idea. Why don't rad fems choose their conference venue without reference to what hostile men think?

How bout running with that?

Was that in response to me?

I wasn't responding to your post, I was responding to the OP.

The "man in the blog" I mention is the man in the blog in the OP.

In that, it appears to have literally not occurred to the man in the blog that there are Irish people who are radical feminists.

Which makes him a bit closed-minded, in my book.

Well, actually those are good points. What about using a place with links to more 'female friendly' societies, such as the Scandinavian or Icelandic countries?

And hi, Basil. Haven't seen you since your 'Porn sick men/babygro' thread.

No, no, it was in response to OMC.

This is a thread about violent woman-hating men wanting to ensure women don't meet together, and some bloke comes on and demands women account for their venue decisions.

Apologies NiceT, I misunderstood.

Haven't seen you either NMC.

I've missed you.

Have you got contacts at smorgasbord establishments in London NMC?

I'm sure rad fems would be glad to know about it.

Maybe he can get us a discount on the pickled herring and rye bread

I take it back. It's not as straightforward as I thought it might be. I can only find a couple of possible venues;

texture-restaurant.co.uk/ - the chef is Icelandic,

or

www.iceland.co.uk/ - hire one of their stores and gorge on frozen vol-au-vents.

Wherever you end up, I hope you have fun

I like the Iceland plan. Will contact the organisers and suggest it.

We could re-create Borgen...

And do traditional Scandinavian things

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