Appointing yourself to decide how people discuss inequality

[lisamuggeridge]

So with austerity, there was political consensus, rule of law was undermined for women and there wasnt a peep. In that time I also learned that in the UK very posh people, some of the most privileged eole in the country., have been 'identifying as feminist' or the left and thought that meant they were the peole who decided if anyone was allowed to discuss it. So quite a lot of people are dead and we still didnt discuss it. But there was a movement about those systems, and only a coule of months after the GRA deadline we appear to be having the same conversatoin.

Can someone explain how you qualify to be in this central authority who decides how people can discuss inequality and powerlessness? COs am quite sure it makes no sense for the entry to that to be an elite university, and being part of hte social network around the left.

Is there a way to bypass this cos I havent found it, and have never had any confirmation that this is an officially recognised layer in our democracy. So confused. I hd heard something about women standing u and being heard but here we are again..

The implications of feminism as a gatekeeper, which is what we are discussing, a gatekeeper to women discussing inequality are profound, when that gatekeeper is almost uniformly extremely privileged there would seem to be issues here about power we are not discussing when we ask how far Posie Parker should be wedged under buses.

Julia hasn’t taken half the hammering that Posie has had.

Trousering - it's a derail because the thread is about power dynamics with austerity being a possible example, not about austerity. Very interesting you don't see beyond welfare rates in your one-person insistence on making it about austerity, however.

Trousering I felt like using a stronger insult than person but yeah okay.

I will repeat then. The reason those figures you quoted look high is because councils have hardly any housing stock and therefore the money is spent on private rent. The housing was sold off and much is now in the hands of buy to let landlords. People on benefits often struggle to feed themselves and pay for utilities.

Could you kindly explain why there are so many people living in such extreme hardship if the welfare state gives them close to the average income?

Where is money being made from feminism? Where do I get my cut?

Flo the academics have condemned Julia too but I guess because Posie has a much higher profile in social media and in the media that she is seen as the instigator. I absolutely cannot see why it is being painted as a class thing. She is very far from working class or the ordinary masses. Also, working in a university doesn’t make you automatically elite anyway.

Many people are uncomfortable with her tactics and with other comments she has made about marginalised groups. It’s not because they look down on her for her social status.

For me, the austerity thing is highly relevant because I see poverty as the main root of female oppression. That is why I can never say I am on the same side as someone on the right who wants a minimal welfare state and blames people for ending up in poverty. It doesn’t matter whether they say they don’t like penises in the top shop dressing room. That is such a minor thing affecting women when you compare it to what our country is doing in terms of disempowering a whole class of people (women) by taking resources from them. A ban on self-ID will not lead to a material change in most women’s lives. An end to austerity and a properly supportive and funded welfare and subsidised childcare system actually would.

Very interesting you don't see beyond welfare rates in your one-person insistence on making it about austerity, however.

OK, thanks for the sarcastic "very interesting". At the moment I am making it about the insults being directed at me for challenging the statement that "welfare is collapsing".

As long as people keep posting insults I will excercise my right to report them.

Of course the thread is about austerity. The OP talks about it repeatedly.

poster QuietContraryMary Sun 03-Feb-19 01:28

(Apart from the last bit about wives)

I haven’t said it was class thing. I said she wasn’t in their club.

The housing was sold off and much is now in the hands of buy to let landlords

Capping housing benefit is a direct response to this of course, to stem the continuously increasing money flow to buy to letters, and ease presure on the rental market.

I think there are ways of doing these things. So Floral bunting for instance Is never attacked on these threads (Or not that I see) Despite having views that would be considered by many to be inimicable to their feminism because you can tell that she respects other people’s viewpoints And has probably gone through a considerable inner struggle. Though as Mary says above, it’s also because she doesn’t come across as powerful. Working at the food bank doesn’t give you much power…

No, Flo but given that her current closest ally is most definitely in their club, I think the reason they condemn it is not snobbery but political stance.

Interestingly Jane Clare Jones and Louise Moody are also not in their club. Despite their doctoractes they have never held a full academic post. Precarious academics are horribly discriminated against and in no way can be described as elite. Yet these two women have also turned away from Posie.

pomobrokemypogo

I havent been nasty, am not required to pretend that that doesnt happen every time I post and as I am unsafe o participate in social media politics or movement based politics OR democracy itself and you are responding to a strategy responding to a direct derail within a pattern that is now ten years old I will not accept I have been nasty. IO am sorry I cant feign that its new because it is to you, you lose that ability after 3 years or 4, I am on 10. So no. When it is the same syntax, same poattern, repeatedly multiple times a week and has no relation to thread then no. Your accusation I have abused power relations on this thread is not about me, not in ANY conceivale way. Now you may be able to turn a lind eye to that being something i deal with several times a week for a decade, but I cant. Sorry.As for the idea that I would indulge the disgusting things said to me y that poster, to make you feel better. No. Thats you pretending not to see spomething and I am not responsible for the impact of that.

Yeah someone with PTSD, in poverty, who has had social media based politics and movement based politics made unsafe is being nasty by not being derailed y that and expressing what I have expressed on this thread? No/ NOt remotely an accusation made in good faith. Not remotely.

I should also say that if Posie has no real power, the academics speaking against her probably have even less. If you know how universities work, you will know that, even as a high rank member of staff, you are at the mercy of financial considerations. These women are being very brave by speaking out, but if the universities notice a loss of revenue from student applications, their positions will be in danger. People like Louise Moody have made themselves virtually unemployable within academia. To suggest that they wield power is a misunderstanding.

Of course the thread is about austerity. The OP talks about it repeatedly.

Yes, she does. In the way discussion of it is moderated by power dynamics. Power dynamics being the topic she wants to discuss.

I haven't called you any names and I don't think anyone should be calling anyone else names. I am playing the ball and not the (wo)man.

What does (wo)man mean?

One of the criticisms expressed by other women of PP is that she is a 'straight woman' (this is a direct quote, from a lesbian feminist).

This is not I think referring only to sexuality but also to how she complies to a gender role.

The views she is contradicting, those of the Labour party more-or-less, are one where a woman is expected to perform a certain role - Tulip Siddiq putting off her C Section to vote in Parliament is doing just that. She's fighting for her cause while exercising her autonomy over her female biology, and that's what educated women on the left are expected to do.

Being a 'housewife' is not an acceptable female role for the left, and women have told Posie this directly.

Oh and Pomo, while the delusions of grandeur involved in not being derailed y someone spouting disgusting things at me on a thread on a parenting website are flattering, the power you believe is exercised here that leads you to ignore what is happening in front of you is in your mind. Not reflected in the person actually posting on a Mumsnet thread. You want to say disgusting things about single parents and welfare on this thread, I take it at face value and offer it as a demonstration, I do not indulgfe that as valid in a country where the debate has moved on because we have institutiuonal failure. The tories cant use that rhteoric any more and know it so am not going to indulge an attempt to derail me using it. No political utiluty at all in that nonsense. None.

What does (wo)man mean?

It means, the phrase uses man but we are in a women's space and I don't know if you are a man or a woman!

I thought rather obvious?!

Being a 'housewife' is not an acceptable female role for the left, and women have told Posie this directly.

Oh, interesting! A non-conformist conforming, thus resulting in cognitive dissonance!

disgusting things about single parents and welfare on this thread

Please can you quote these posts? I'm struggling to find them.

I think your interpretation of being in the club is different from mine funky. I don’t want to further derail this thread cos it’s not specifically about Posie but to me it’s clear as daylight that she doesn’t belong.

I can’t see anyone saying disgusting things about single parents and welfare here? My mum was a single parent on welfare, I’d be the first to defend any such attack.

A comment was made about the collapse of welfare. Is it a derailment to reply to that? The derailment occurred with the multiple insults that followed.

I think people need to despair less And just take a break from each other and go back to their roots and do the work that nourishes them.

Being a 'housewife' is not an acceptable female role for the left, and women have told Posie this directly.

I’ve definitely seen a lot of criticism about who or what she is, rather than what she says.