"Womens" Equality Party

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

www.womensequality.org.uk/nov_17_statement

Have just put out a very confused statement.

"Women, as a class, are discriminated against and oppressed. There is a shared experience as a class but that discrimination and oppression will often express itself differently for cis women and trans women, just as other factors such as age, ethnicity, economic background and disability are likely to have an impact"

So TIMs are women.

"WE are committed to addressing the very real oppression of trans people as well as the social structures that oppress and sometimes erase cis women and damage all genders. Cis inclusivity must never mean trans exclusivity, nor vice versa"

But cis and trans are different categories that experience different issues...

As an aside, who is it they (I suspect) are about to throw under the bus?

@dinosaurandtea, the problem is that if you redefine the word "woman" to mean "anyone who identifies as a woman" then it becomes meaningless. It means the same as "people". I appreciate that if you believe that transwomen are women then this is an inevitable and unsurprising consequence, but it has unintended (or perhaps intended) consequences for women's rights.

Having read some of the guest thread, may they had better just drop the word 'women's'.

They’re still the Women’s Equality Party, they’re just explicitly including trans women in the definition (which they have since they were founded)

1. "Transwomen" are not women (although transmen of course are)

1. If you believe that Transwomen are women that kind of renders the WEP obsolete. After all they are fighting for things like equal pay for men and women which becomes meaningless if you suddenly include men as a subset of women.

That statement is really interesting. WEP have toed a completely uncritical 'trans women are women' line since they started.

To me, this statement looks very awkward and grudgingly-agreed-by-committee. My bet is there are now some disagreements behind the scenes in WEP about whether women and transwomen are in fact exactly the same or whether they are different in important ways.

Conversations are at last being had and opinions are gradually starting to shift. I predict this won't be the last garbled message we see from women's orgs as they start to work their way through their cognitive dissonance.

I'm about to hand in my Labour Party membership card over the GRA. Now I can't even join the bloody women's party. I despair.

Sent them a very stroppy email telling them they've just lost a potential new member.

The right to define our own age perhaps? I'd be happy to start claiming a pension now, despite having been assigned the age of 0 when I was born in 1988. Perhaps I could also demand to buy a large house for about £10 grand rather than struggling as a 29 year old to get on the housing ladder.

I can identify as tall all I like but I still need a stepladder to reach the top shelf.

Well to be fair, in theory, if a trans woman is able to pass for a cis woman surely she's likely to suffer a lot of the same discrimination ?

I think I might contest 'a lot' in that sentence, and you're only talking about a small subset of transwomen (the ones who pass).

No transwoman will ever be pregnant, so they'll not be impacted by anything around that, or periods, they won't have been raised a girl so will have skipped all the baggage that comes with that (they will have their own, different baggage).

So basically, not really, no. A small subset of transwomen will be affected by a subset of women's discrimination.

Ah, I just read the full statement. They are investigating complaints against an elected party spokesperson for conduct that 'promoted prejudice against the transgender community.'

PencilsInSpace

Conversations are at last being had and opinions are gradually starting to shift. I predict this won't be the last garbled message we see from women's orgs as they start to work their way through their cognitive dissonance.

I hope so. I had heard there were mutterings behind the scenes at the WEP.

Re transwomen are women

Can I ask if you believe this literally? Or do you mean transwomen should be considered women for all practical purposes? Or something else?

I’d also love to know exactly what this means.

This statement came about because of complaints about the WEP spokesperson, Heather Brunskell-Evans. She has been accused of transphobia after appearing on Moral Maze and tweeting:

"I will do my best .. we have to #ROAR about the harms of transgenderism for children and young people"

Clearly, in the current climate it is considered unacceptable to say that there might be any harm involved in transgenderism.

I really do feel scared about the future. Free speech is no longer allowed, we can't debate or discuss issues that matter, we have to allow others to redefine who we are without our consent and we are not allowed to even protest. I feel like I'm living in 1984.

Ah, I just read the full statement. They are investigating complaints against an elected party spokesperson for conduct that 'promoted prejudice against the transgender community.'

Burn the witch.

Clearly, in the current climate it is considered unacceptable to say that there might be any harm involved in transgenderism.

There is a thread in AIBU at the moment about the suspended maths teacher.

Even though I’m sure many of the women are gender critical (up to a point), they are still shackled by their need to be kind.

I can almost feel their conflict coming off the screen.

Because it’s about an individual child. Would you misgender them because you disagree with the ideology, and in doing so hurt the feelings of a possibly already vulnerable child?

And of course, I think many people would say no I wouldn’t.

But not only is this an example of how you can’t disagree (lest you be suspended) , it’s an example of how difficult it is to greet disagree when you’re actually at the coalface.

It’s easy to tell a 6 foot four perv in a dress to fuck off with his demands for pronouns.

It’s different if they are children.

Perhaps a slow burn solution is for as many gender critical women (and men) to join political parties and aim for change from within.

It may seem counterintuitive at the moment as all of the parties are all so intent on backing various misogynistic policies, (pro prostitution with the greens & labour, pro GRA from them all, awful reduction in state benefits for vulnerable women etc etc, however it seems self defeating to leave politics to the behest of bully men.

I was so saddened by Anne Ruzylo’s treatment by those abusive trans activists. And while I understand why she and the entire committee resigned, it seems so awful to lose another female voice from politics.

I may join the WEP, precisely for this reason.

I am hoping that, assuming the WEP doesn't come down on the pro-women side, there'll be a breakaway WEP that actually does.

Countess
Yes, called the WLP, Women’s Liberation Party!

You inaugurated it right here Quarks

This is what my local WEP branch is doing today - so pleased to see they are giving men a much needed platform!

twitter.com/wepworcester/status/931505965106696192

Just seen on Twitter.

And also the The Sunday Times: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/feminist-accused-of-promoting-prejudice-kwjz9nvcc?shareToken=d5a64dc0fda657a51f02fa3dd6454981