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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Woman's Place UK meeting in London, 27 Feb

519 replies

PlonitbatPlonit · 05/02/2018 21:52

Just announced on their twitter and Facebook, Woman's Place UK are doing a meeting in London. If it's anything like the Bristol event it will sell out....

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-womans-place-is-making-a-stand-tickets-42865237078

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TheGoodEnoughWife · 27/02/2018 23:26

I agree Nora about meeting again.

Is anyone going to the one on 14th March?

CertainHalfDesertedStreets · 27/02/2018 23:29

And - after all the hype - call that a demonstration? I mean I know it's cold but c'mon cisters - you can do better than that surely?

FloraFox · 27/02/2018 23:31

Did anyone see what happened when there was a bit of a scuffle and someone seemed to fall down the steps?

MyTerfNeedsRolling · 27/02/2018 23:31

Im going on the 14th and should be there early enough to meet up beforehand

TheGoodEnoughWife · 27/02/2018 23:32

It did have a nice rhyme? I mean they were talking bollocks (literally) but with a catchy tune!

TheGoodEnoughWife · 27/02/2018 23:33

One of the bouncer type people pushed them and they slipped and fell backwards down the steps.

SweetGrapes · 27/02/2018 23:33

Great evening! Was lovely listening to and meeting everyone!!

Am going to get the Scottish consultation done first thing tomorrow.

Hope everyone got home safe and sound.

The demonstrators were so little Sad and all girls/very young women (who I saw). Where were all the shouty blokes?? Keyboard warriors?

TheGoodEnoughWife · 27/02/2018 23:33

Great MyTerf, me too.

Hulo · 27/02/2018 23:35

Home snug and warm and having a cuppa! Inspiring meeting and glad to have met everyone

TheXXFactor · 27/02/2018 23:42

Isn't the Birmingham one on the 15th?

RaininSummer · 27/02/2018 23:44

It sounds fabulous. Thank you for sharing sharing the highlights.

cista · 27/02/2018 23:46

What?!? Who got pushed down the stairs? A TRA?

TheGoodEnoughWife · 27/02/2018 23:51

The one on the 14th is 'Trangenderism and the War on Women' in London

purpleanorak · 27/02/2018 23:54

ellaoldie - thank you so much! I am so pleased you could go. Thank you all for the updates.

What’s next?!

Cunstancemarkiewicz · 28/02/2018 00:05

AMAZING evening. It had everything: eloquent speakers, personal testimonies and a bit of drama thrown into the mix! Like mouthandtrousers I was also sitting next to Karen Ingala Smith *swoon*she's lovely. I met loads of great women before, during and after the event including the legendary Datun.

The whole thing was genuinely moving. I have loads to take in. As someone said, we've been reading and posting about this for so long but it was new to hear things being said out loud.

Well done Women's Place UK. Flowers

nicentoasty · 28/02/2018 00:32

Reports of an assault at the end of the night:

twitter.com/E8Emma/status/968606750080421889

Maybe the bouncer's move was in reaction to that?

TheGoodEnoughWife · 28/02/2018 00:46

Could have been, was hard to see - there was some kerfuffle!

Mouthandtrousersall · 28/02/2018 01:32

There was a bit of handbagging going on, the young protesters were surging up and down five or six icy steps shoving cardboard in faces so it was more of a slip, not surprising really f you are going to shove people on steps. No one seemed hurt. People were concerned to keep them safe to be honest. We stood benevolently laughing at them and chanting back trans women are men. I kept saying they are all men, nope they're men, still men. Which was a bit childish of me but it amused me.

Finally just made it back to Southampton, I won't be able to sleep. I will post more tomorrow but what a success.

Mouthandtrousersall · 28/02/2018 01:40

It really was an interesting dynamic at the end. A handful of very young women or girls chanting away, whilst all the grown ups just watched them. Or gently took the micky and laughed. They looked totally nonplussed at our lack of hate frankly.

Datun · 28/02/2018 02:56

Brilliant night.

So many amazing women. And famous faces.

Sophie 'shit or get off the pot' Walker banged on about being slow and listening and taking notes. Good of her to brave the 'opposition' though.

Then Heather B-E took the mic. I'm not sure if either of them knew each other was there, prior to that.

And said, something like right well I shall tell you exactly what happened.

And explained how she was hounded out. At which point Sophie could be heard saying none of that's true.

I wanted to shout out, well bloody let's have it then. Right here, right now, let's hear it all.

But no one seemed to have the heart for it.

There was a woman from the Lib Dems there, saying she was listening.

Lucy firefighter was amazing. A really strong speaker. With fire in her belly.

The protesters started yelling as the meeting began. Then disappeared, presumably bogging off to the pub, because it was freezing. And showed up again 20 minutes before the end.

Interestingly, I recognised the one in the orange neon jacket. The exact same woman that was yelling burn it down at the speakers corner meeting.

It seems as though they only have a handful of foot soldiers that they deploy. All women. Funny that.

Miranda Yardley set up a counter chant, to their transwomen are women, yelling women don't have penises and transwomen are men.

The protesters started to crowd on the doors as people were trying to leave and Helen Steel (I think?!) stretched out her arms to create a channel for people to leave. Brave.

She inadvertently touched Orange Neon, who, on a knife edge of righteous tension, barked at her (don't touch MEEE) at which point Helen said well bloody well move back then. The 'you twit' was silent, obvs.

A bunch of misguided, passionate kids, really. And not a man in sight, freezing their arse off and putting themselves on the line.

Brilliant, too, at the pub afterwards.

Lilly Maynard, Stephanie Davis Arai, Julia long, Miranda Yardley, Maria Mac, and Alan and her husband, Marcus (who dissected Julia Seranos theories), Venice Alan and loads more.

Mumsnetters were prevalent, throughout.

During the meeting, we got several mentions, and every time someone said the word mumsnetters, a big cheer went up across the venue.

We were told, in no uncertain terms, that politicians are 'petrified' of us.

I'm reminded of the that quote by Caroline Aherne.

So, Mr Politician, what first attracted your concern over the TWELVE MILLION women on mumsnet?

For me, the evening was shot through with solidarity and unity. A wonderful coming together of like-minded people, each drawing inspiration from the next.

The speakers were good some of them were bloody good. But little was talked about that is not already regularly debated here.

Mumsnet is at the centre of this.
We are rated and feted.

And mumsnetters made it, quite simply, an awesome experience. Drinking, laughing, talking, piss taking and snorting.

You women rock.

mamaryllis · 28/02/2018 03:23

I am WELL JEL.
Good job everyone.
Interesting that Sophie W is claiming HBE's version is incorrect. But fair play for being there. I just realised that one of my former tutors has a chapter in HBE's new book, so I've ordered it. I'm curious what has pissed off WEP (but chuffed that I have identified another academic that is openly critical and alive and kicking on the activism scene.)

EmpressOfJurisfiction · 28/02/2018 07:08

The one upside to this fight is the number of amazing women you get to meet.

Agerbilatemycardigan · 28/02/2018 07:18

Managed to follow it on Twitter, as loads of brilliant people were tweeting the proceedings. Almost as good as being there, except I didn't get to go to the pub Grin

Cwenthryth · 28/02/2018 07:24

Sounds like an amazing night, I wasn’t able to get there in the end as work ran late and I wouldn’t have been able to get there until 8.30 Sad stupid work.

I am so relieved that SW was there at all, tbh, as what feels like the only gender critical MNer WEP member hanging on by my fingernails. I’m so disappointed and quite frankly embarrassed by how the party has dealt with these concerns so far. I’ve felt unwelcome in the party to be honest (when bringing it up at a local branch meeting I had one younger member ‘disagree’ - she didn’t accept that discrimination against women is based on our biology - and the rest of the room just looked confused or uncomfortable at actual debate). How HB-E has been treated is a disgrace.

So SW accepted that the WEP response has been inadequate thus far - listening and taking notes, hmm. We need a working party on this.

If anyone is going to be going to the We Need To Talk event in March I’ve got that day off and hope to meet some of you wonderful women there.

Thankyou those that made it there to make our voices heard.

rb67 · 28/02/2018 07:34

I made it just. And managed to get home thank goodness.
I found Sophie WEP quite moving and she was very brave. She then dug a hole and chucked herself in.
The few children outside were really a bit sad and silly. But their shouting helped me fins the venue.
Jennifer James was interesting - a letter going out to Labour on Friday asking them to clarify position on AWS.