Petition: Tell a public LIBRARY to remove exhibition of weapons intended to kill women

[SuitedandBooted]

www.change.org/p/tell-san-francisco-public-library-to-remove-exhibit-of-weapons-intended-to-kill-feminists?recruiter=363046376&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial

Has this also gone in AIBU (or are petitions not allowed there?)

Petitions are not allowed in AIBU.

I have signed.

I've signed. That is the most revolting display I've ever seen - what on earth were they thinking??

Just signed this. I support freedom of speech, but not one-sided, violence-inciting propaganda.

Unbelievable that anyone thinks this exhibition is OK
But does demonstrate the power of violent men .

If you donate a couple of quid it will be seen by more people. Too bad we can't do that with the parliment petition.

signed

and really thinking this morning about the various ways in which women become de-humanised and othered by language, so that they become a legitimate target for attack.

"TERF" is an obvious one, leading to exhibitions like this being deemed acceptable.

was listening to a news segment about Jack the Ripper this morning where the male interviewer and the male interviewee did not mention the word "woman" once.

why does the class of woman not retain the power over the language used to describe themselves in the same way as, for example, people of colour or disabled people?

I disagree, this exhibition is a public record and display of the violence and misogyny of the trans activists. Rather than saying "it is glorifying violence against women" we should say "look at this - this is what people want to do to women". If someone tells me I'm being violent when I say that women don't have penises, I can point them to this exhibition and show them what really violence is.

I also think that we cannot win the argument that these things need to be debated if we start wanting to shut down and silence those who disagree with us - however offensive

drwitch i agree to an extent, but don't you think people just think its about violence towards "terfs" and we all know how bad they are?

not sure how many people realise that they too are hugely transphobic terfs?

I think this exhibition is extreme enough to make people rethink their position. The more we try to close it down, the more the narrative of us being exclusionary gets more credence. Far better to push for a gender critical follow up exhibition

I had a bizarre though last night when I was reading the tweets directed at the library. I find the whole thing disgusting, but then I wondered, is this actually doing our job for us? Is it highlighting the violence towards women from TRAs? I couldn't help remembering how I felt when I visited one of the slave forts in Ghana and saw the evidence of the inhumanity and violence they suffered and how that impacted my understanding of the slave trade.

I'm stuck between the two camps.

Possibly swinging towards drwitch here.

An axe with the transgender flag on is a peculiar object when separated from its owner which makes you think...

Holy shit.

The details on that link are so much worse than I thought they would be from the title and post!
Is this really for real?
I assumed it was maybe an exhibition of historical weapons or similar, and was leaning towards drwitch 's pov.

But this crosses the line into incitement to violence (actual violence, not the "literal hurt feelings" kind).

Context matters too: an exhibition displaying weapons for the purpose of highlighting and condemning a problem with violence is COMPLETELY different to an exhibition celebrating the weapons.

I disagree, this exhibition is a public record and display of the violence and misogyny of the trans activists. Rather than saying "it is glorifying violence against women" we should say "look at this - this is what people want to do to women".

I agree, but the way the exhibit is introduced and explained is very much not presenting the exhibit as bad or shocking in terms of threatened violence against women.

I think this exhibition is extreme enough to make people rethink their position. The more we try to close it down, the more the narrative of us being exclusionary gets more credence. Far better to push for a gender critical follow up exhibition

I agree it the extremity will shock people.

I disagree that asking a museum to take down an exhibit that openly incites violence against women is a bad idea in case some people see it as exclusionary.

You would think that the trans community themselves would want this closed down. I can't see how they can claim that violent transpeople are a minority and have little influence, when they can have this displayed. Maybe this opinion is more representative of the trans community after all?

I actually think it is a good idea. To many people forget how hard women had to fight for equality and just how vulnerable women were in a world made for men. I think it is a timely reminder of how little value a woman's life has of she has no rights.

Had there been any critque in the press out of curiosity?

Catherine Bennett made the connection to other violent misogyny in the Guardian and is getting monstered for it.

If there was an equivalent exhibition by ANY group against the trans community, I would equally be demanding it be taken down.

Can you imagine if that exact same exhibition was put together but by feminists and lesbians, substituting 'cis' for 'trans' etc? There would be total outrage. And quite rightly.

That a museum would even CONSIDER putting on an exhibition like this is a horrifying testament to how normalised the idea of it being ok to use violence against women who disagree with politics that affects their rights.

Leaving the exhibition up as it is currently presented is contributing to normalising that violence IMO.

Library has been removing people's comments about this:

mobile.twitter.com/MamaSaid16/status/990030094151376896

I looked at the library's webpage for this after seeing it mentioned in the Guardian saw this:

Note: This exhibit contains strong language, blood and mentions of transmisogyny and police violence.

No warning on the misogyny. Says it all really.