Who to vote for as a feminist

[WorkingBling]

I am really struggling ahead of the elections. I have decided that commitment to feminist principals needs to be a strong part of my voting decision making process. But I honestly am not sure this helps.

Lib dems have terrible track record and while I like nick's wife, I can't vote for a party where there's only one woman I am impressed by.

Instinctively i am more of a labour supporter but with the exception of Harriet H I honestly feel underwhelmed by their female representation and view on women.

This leaves the conservatives. There are a number of woman in the party who impress me. But Dave doesn't strike me as a man who really believes in feminist principals.

Help please. All you lovely informed women must have some thoughts.

Flora we're getting off topic but great post at 19.59.

This has been a really fascinating thread, thank you!

I am voting Green, because I see feminist and environmental issues as very intertwined, especially on an international level as in less developed countries it is likely that women will be impacted most severely by climate change.

As a mother, I also feel that protecting the environment is a kind of minimum requirement that all other policies need to be built on, because without wanting to sound too simplistic, otherwise my children won't have a natural world to support their lives.

I am a Green Party member but last time round voted Conservative because I fell for their 'greenest government ever' spin. This time I will just vote for who I believe in a trust that this is better than trying to strategise. I live in a Conservative area, and we are unlikely to get a Green MP, but I think the more people join the green surge as it is being called, the better.

I can't help but be influenced by the fact that the GP is the only one with a female leader at the moment - and for quite a long time. I am so fed up of seeing leader's summits in the papers with one or two women if that around a huge table of men. Men are often wonderful, but 50% of their wonderfulness would be perfect

puffins I agree, it makes no sense. I think it is because the Greens are a mixed bag of ideologies. Some are libertarians and others have more of a class analysis. I don't think they have a clear ideological foundation.

Thanks Phaedra. I do think it's on topic as the OP is "who to vote for as a feminist". It's a shame that the current voice of feminism has to a large extent been portrayed as an "anything goes" libertarian clap trap. There are certainly lots of us around who don't buy into that. I'm heartened that it is changing.

justanotherlurker I read Rupert Read's blogpost when he wrote it two years ago and I thought it was thoughtful and intelligent. It's a shame to see him give up on his principles and give in to political pressure. It's another thing that puts me off the Greens. I don't know what are their core principles.

Just out of interest Flora, do you think cannabis should be legal for medical and/or recreational uses?

The smoking of cannabis... no problem at all, if people want to suck chemicals into their lungs when they don't have to, that's their choice. Fucks given = 0

The production of cannabis is more problematic. It involves criminality, violence and awfulness. I doubt this would stop even if it were to be legalised, it hasn't stopped people illegally producing cigarettes or alcohol, despite their being legal.

If you could get rid of the attendant problems with the production of cannabis or marijuana, then I would see no dramas with legalising it.

However, Holland, which decriminalised it to an extent has seen a marked rise in the amounts of other drugs being trafficked through it's borders, which has a negative impact on the countries which border it, as well as wider Europe. Unfortunately, it seems that when you decriminalise things, it is taken by criminals to mean carte blanche for all kinds of other criminal behaviour, and not just drugs.

fayyive maybe I just lead a very sheltered life but policies on prostitution and cannabis aren't really a priority for me.

fayyive is that a feminist issue? I have a view but I don't see how it's relevant in this discussion.

I do however agree that the legalisation or otherwise of cannabis isn't really relevant to a discussion about how to vote as a feminist.

"The production of cannabis is more problematic. It involves criminality, violence and awfulness."

If it were legal then users would not have to buy it from the black market, reducing the number of street dealers and the associated crime.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/a-year-after-marijuana-legalisation-in-colorado-everythings-fine-confirm-police-9989723.html

In Colorado impaired driving, property crime, violent crime and [recreational] drug use among young people are reported to have declined since cannabis was legalised just over a year ago.

Feminist issue? What about women who use cannabis to treat them-self or their family for health reasons and get wrong for it from the law?

www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/mar/07/ukcrime

www.naturalnews.com/047932_cannabis_oil_medicinal_marijuana_alternative_medicine.html

Well presumably there are men who use it for medicinal purposes too? Although the first link you posted frankly is unconvincing.

So far as the Colorado link, I don't know enough about it to make much comment but the gist seems to be certain non- gendered crime levels are dropping. If correct, good but how is that a feminist issue?

Did the point make a whooshing sound as it went over your head?

Production. Not sale.

Not relevant to the discussion.

No matter how many times you raise it. You want to talk about your version of drugs being a feminist issue? Start a new thread.

re production if it were legal then it would be grown in legal regulated farms instead of people's homes and attics.

Your naivety is utterly breathtaking.

It's still not relevant.

I care about animal rights, particularly animal welfare standards in farming.

Those aren't feminist issues either.

fayyive it may have escaped your notice but women are actually people too. Perhaps if you could let that thought settle in you might realise that all political issues affect women as well as men.

It is the issues that affect women as a class that are feminist issues. Women don't only care about feminist issues but that doesn't mean all issues that women might care about or be affected by are feminist issues.

Breathtaking that this needs to be spelled out. I suppose if you have so little consideration for women, it's not surprising you support prostitution.

Glosswitch has written a good article about Rupert Read.

glosswatch.com/2015/01/24/choosing-between-misogyny-and-feminism-a-practical-guide/

Is it considered a given in this MN topic that women constitute a class?

Feminism does tend to discuss "men as a class" and "women as a class", yes.

I should add: I'm not a man, and not a man who uses prostitutes, and not a supporter of the Green position on prostitution. I have been on MN for many years, I haven't been on Feminist threads for a few months, but in the past have been quite a lot. Hence my question. I did study Latin, and was awfully good at it, if that helps at all.

In the context of feminism , yes.

I personally think the question is irrelevant as I won't be basing my decision on who to vote for after analysing their policies from the view point of feminism.

Even if I were there is clearly the scope for disagreement about whether policies are good or bad for women.

If a woman doesn't define women as a class, and men as a class, does that make her not a feminist, in your eyes?

I would think not did. What do you think?

Didyou

Err, not really. I'd find it hard to think about feminism without thinking that men and women as classes (or groups, if you like) have a set of different experiences because of their sex characteristics, just as i would find it hard to think of homophobia without believing that gay and straight people have some different experiences of the world because of their sexual preferences.

But if you don't think that way, I don't think you're not a feminist, I'm intrigued as to what feminism means to you though?

I'm not clear for whom it's OK to post on these threads; I certainly wouldn't define women as a class, so does that mean I may not?

you can think and post what you want did. Do you think of yourself as a feminist? If so, what does feminism mean for you?