Labour's pink bus

[Poofus]

Is this really the best way the Labour Party can think of to woo women voters?!

I was quite impressed with Labour from a feminist perspective, but this is the most hamfisted attempt to win over the "women's vote" I could imagine.

It's embarrassing. And insulting to assume that wimmin have special wimmin issues that they care about to the exclusion of all else. My main concerns politically are the economy, energy and the environment, planning, and workers rights. Very little to do with my gender.

Yes lots of women have never voted, but neither have lots of men and no is trying to lump them all together.

There's an amusing series of tweets from Sky reporter, Sophie Ridge

Sophy Ridge ?@SophyRidgeSky 1h1 hour ago

Man to Harman: "You're dividing up men &women...You're making it them v us...Are you thinking of getting blue van"

Sophy Ridge ?@SophyRidgeSky 1h1 hour ago

A man is confronting Harriet Harman at Asda - "It's patronising and wrong" to divide women and men

Sophy Ridge ?@SophyRidgeSky 1h1 hour ago

Bobby Smith - who confronted Harriet Harman - says he will now no longer vote Labour because of the women's campaign

Also their "Woman to Woman" slogan is misguided.

The vast majority of MP's and even candidates are men, so is it just the women who want to talk to women? It's not - my males MP engeges with me very well - the slogan is rubbish.

i also wouldn't want male MPs to assume that they could disengage from women voters because the (small number of) women MPs will sort that out for them

I fully support attempts to engage women voters, but does it have to be done in such a patronising, othering manner?

I don't need politics to be watered down or made fuzzy. I need to feel listened to, just like the men folk want to be listened to.

This from the same people who brought us #patronisingBTlady

I really hate this idea that women are such a strange, nevermind homogenous, group that we require special issues in a special fucking pink bus! Truly from the Thick of It!!

Labour party - newsflash - women are human beings. They make up 51% of the population. They are not some glitter brained sub set of species that require a pink van and a bloody kitchen table before you can converse with them.

You are really scooping out the dregs of ideas with this one. It tells you exactly what (some) Labour politicians think about women.

Just go and do one will you?

I came on to say exactly what lostatthestation has said. Getting so irritated with Twitterati and Guardianistas WANGING ON about the pink. FFS.

Who cares.

9 million women didn't vote at the last election. A woman who's spent her entire political life fighting for feminism and getting a LOT of personal crap for it is trying to do something about it.

Outside that tiny (and yes it is tiny) pool of people who give a stuff about gender politics - and I'm one of that tiny pool - lots and lots of women like pink. THEY DO. IT'S SCIENCE. DON'T TRY TO FIGHT IT. If Harriet Harman turns up outside their local Sainsbos in the bus they definitely will not be standing around saying 'oh that's so patronising and have they even thought about the gender politics'.

Someone said rightwingers would be crucified for this - well Emily Thornberry got crucified for implying very vaguely that white working class people have vans. But apparently it's fine for Guardian readers and navel-gazing liberals to imply that every woman who likes pink is too thick to be bothered with and that if you haven't written a blog post about The Feminine Mystique then political parties shouldn't reach out to you.

Beginning to think people should have to present evidence of ever actually having met a working class woman who feels like politicians have left her behind before they pile in on this one because I've never read so much patronising misdirected garbage as I've read in the past 24 hours.

If you think those women who didn't vote last time around don't care about childcare, domestic violence, carers' issues etc - these are the things the bus tour is about - then I respectfully suggest you ought to think again.

//breathes//

The point is, if you voted in the last election and you're fairly sure you'll vote in this one, then this bus isn't about you.

I think politicians should treat women as adults - not barbie dolls. A lot of people don't vote - men and women. How about talk to us all as adults.

I like pink. I am currently wearing a pink and mauve striped sweater. I am not left wing. And I still think the idea is crap.

They're talking about domestic violence, childcare, women who work f/t AND look after grandchildren AND look after older relatives, women in low-paid work... how are these not adult concerns?

I didn't say these things were not adult concerns. I said they should treat women as adults. Quite different.

Well if they have an actual pink bus then I will totally vote for them - as long as my silly little head doesn't forget.
I've totally forgiven them for screwing up this country now they have a bus in a colour I can relate to.
Arseholes!

But they are treating women as adults. You can tell because they're specifically devoting a lot of time and campaigning resources to talking to women about grown-up things.

On a fucking pink bus.

I dislike HH and don't feel the urge to discuss anything with her.

I'm neutral on pink as a colour but dislike pinkification of products aimed at girls and women.

The van looks magenta to me too so I find myself agreeing with HH!

soccer my post above ^^ responded exactly to the point that it was about the nine million women who didn't vote. and i still don't understand why "pink is for women who don't vote" is a good message, in the context of pinkification

and lol at WOMEN LIKE PINK IT'S SCIENCE

i like HH a lot. will be interested to see what she says in the webchat. tbh i'm a bit annoyed that the hooha over the bus will probably be overshadowing other discussions about women and politics

It's cringey. Far too like Barbie's car. Definitely a case of pinkification.

I would feel patronised by it, as well as the "kitchen table politics", but I assume it's not intended for women like me who already vote and aren't stuck in the kitchen. It seems to be aimed at women who might not have considered voting if not tempted by a nice pink toy.

Normally I like HH and would approve of her flagging up the importance of issues such as DC, childcare, eldercare etc. But the barbie bus is just too belittling.

Sorry Petula I missed that. But tbh and yes yes this is anecdote not data my v large and proliferating working class family would suggest there's a pretty strong crossover between women who think politics is useless and stupid and don't vote, and women who buy a lot of pink things. If it gets women down to the bus, or at least doesn't actively repel them, why does it matter? By and large these women have never heard of 'pinkification' and would probably think you were being pretty hostile to them and their choices if you started talking about it.

Also (and you will enjoy this if you love pictures of Ed Miliband...) fairly compelling evidence that this actually is Labour's signature colour for all things

So the colour thing is actually a complete non-story

the fact that labour branded their conference pink has also been mentioned upthread. are all their other vans pink then?

It's Red-lite.

"tbh i'm a bit annoyed that the hooha over the bus will probably be overshadowing other discussions about women and politics"

Random thought, but perhaps that's the whole point. Bus fuss will nicely camouflage all the policy gaps (assuming policies in this area are of a similar ropey quality to all the rest).

Perhaps you're right. Or (thinking about this further) maybe it could be that the misjudgement of the bus stuff implies an inherent lack of understanding of how to reach women and include them as an equal and integral part of policy-making. I don't know