Issues of poverty are being neglected by social justice movements because of the overwhelming focus on sexuality...

[MaryRoseSatOnAPin]

...a comment heard at a conference today.

Would you agree? The person who made the comment was speaking from a Latin American context, criticising the Western focus towards the developing world. Has the West disappeared down a wormhole of LGBTQ+ rights whilst people in the global South, ignored, continue to starve?

I'm an avid lurker on the feminism boards, but haven't posted before. Asking here because you are a knowledgeable bunch - someone, somewhere must have written articles on this, but I can't find anything! It is a controversial viewpoint, but I'd be interested to read more.

And that's what you take from my post. Point proven really.

The most well researched and recognised indicator of poverty and human suffering (infant mortality).

No- fanny symbols on packets is so much more important...

See? It's this kind of shite that drives people into the arms of UKIP etc.

No one is saying poverty isnt fucking important for FUCKS SAKE but you are an idiot if you think poverty gets votes sells shite sandwiches or gets published no one cares that poor people die the more the fucking merrier then the world will be free of there inconvenience but what people dont understand is by allowing women to be erased your fucking things up even more because rich people and trans people dont care about poor unless they want to raid a womb or two then they are easy pickings while you sit bitching about poor people not getting a look in how many meals have you cooked how much have you donated how many people have you ACTUALLY HELPED people are waking up to the trans lobby being a shite storm happening right now and they are not going to be dissuaded by people claiming there are "bigger issues"

Look, I live and grew up in one of the poorest areas in Europe. Not just the UK.

People are rejecting the Labour Party because they think (not unreasonably) that it doesn't care anymore. It's no good telling that they're wrong or stupid or need to read more. That won't work. What will, is some genuine campaigning for stuff that matters to them. What matters round here are the kids. No matter how hard their lives are, every bodies kids are their shining beacon of hope.

Schools are shit, sure start is gone, crime is growing, Park is falling apart, they're having to go to food banks, that shit school has suddenly decided that all uniform has to come from one expensive place....

Mental health problems and the resulting substance abuse problems are growing- the support group lost their venue.

Why should people dealing with all that give a shit about all the identity bollocks or extinction rebellion?

@slipperywhensparticus

Ahem.

The poor people themselves care.

And they have the right to vote.

A school in my town was given an award for inclusiveness and I recently saw a poster at the Scottish Parliament building declaring their inclusiveness. But inclusiveness seems to stop a GBTQIAXYZ. Certainly the school is not known for its inclusiveness towards SEN pupils - quite the opposite in fact! (But the Scottish Parliament bookshop did have a range of ‘Queer’ books on their GBT+ display.

Ahem

I AM a poor person you Moron yes I vote yes I still think trans can FUCK OFF MY SPACES I might not have much but the right to piss in public without a "lady" with a sword stick being in my space should be a right I should dam well be able to keep and as a carer I think its vital to protect sex segregation for the vulnerable

No- fanny symbols on packets is so much more important...

See? It's this kind of shite that drives people into the arms of UKIP etc.

You’re really obsessed with the word fanny, aren’t you? Women fighting to protect our rights are driving people bigots into the arms of UKIP. Women to blame for the ills of the world. Some things never change.

You do know we’re capable of fighting for the protection of females AND dealing with poverty, etc, don’t you? Since poverty and abuse, affects so many women, especially single parents, then protecting female rights, dignity and safety will amount to fuck all, if we can’t even guarantee them a man free space or they lose the right to claim their own sex.

There you- calling people bigots for voting for the party that promises to do something for them.

Fanny, foof, fanjo, cunt, call it what you will.

And it's not just some of the dafter feminists, the TRA's, extinction rebellion can also take the blame.

And having the fanny symbol on the packet is not a right worth fighting for. If taking it off makes a few TRA's happy let them have it.

And the word 'moron' is disabilitist.

extinction rebellion can also take the blame

Uh, what?

Just a quick show of hands, has anyone else, ever heard the term 'fanny symbol'?

It's a totally new one to me, not something I've ever heard said by any woman ever.

Also so interesting how important it is to some to tell women over and over again that it doesn't matter, even on threads not about it. It's as if there's some reason why women having feelings about this have to be silenced, as if them talking about it is causing some kind of problem somewhere.

dunno wtf a 'fanny symbol' is

our new visitor seems kind of angry in an unfocused way....

The problem, is that shite like this is sucking the oxygen of publicity from left wing politics.

Is has sod all to do with what is causing infant mortality to rise. Nothing. Same can be said of extinction rebellion.

This is how much of the country is starting to view the left- a bunch of naval gazing fools (men and women) who only care about latest, fashionable cause and sod the working class.

This is part of the reason we have Brexit, UKIP and the like.

Calling me names and claiming I hate women won't change this.

Dead babies make me angry. In fact, I'm fucking livid.

We have the government we deserve as the momentum, we truly do.

Dead babies make me angry. In fact, I'm fucking livid

good

it should make any reasonable person fucking livid

why are you here being livid about it? because it seems like you hold the women on this board in some way responsible?

tumbleisatwat - on this thread, you've gone from identifarian paranoia about free speech publications to a kipperish isolationist view of the politics of domestic poverty. I am struggling to know where you're standing politically.

The OP's point was about identifarian issues imposed on the global south as a middle class enterprise and entirely unhelpful. Most of us here agree with that. And so does the traditional left, which has always been about class struggle both domestically and internationally. Workers of the world unite and all that.

If I answered that, I'd simply be repeating myself.

How did this thread turn into such a mess?

I work in international aid and a lot of the funding which used to be available for projects targeting gender inequality and discrimination has been updated to explicitly reference support/inclusion for LGBT communities. This is positive in that it encourages organisations to consider this issue (as they should) and how to include those populations. It is however tough in areas where there aren’t active/out LGBTQ communities (we work in isolated rural areas and have never had a beneficiary identify as this, despite staff sensitivity training and openness) because we are now excluded from funding we could apply for before because they explicitly want us to explain how we engage LBTQ communities. We try but the reality is the focus of our work is on engaging communities to reduce child marriage, keep girls in schools, support domestic violence survivors and widows etc. We have strategies in place but it is not the priority need in areas where we work, and we can promote inclusion but we can’t create a population to work with in areas where that group are not coming forward. I think an issue is that in communities struggling with starvation, poor outcomes for children, high gender based violence etc is that identity politics is not as high on their hierarchy of needs as basic security etc and so it is challenging to do real work in that area

I thought it was Brexit causing the damage, thousands of people using food banks but all is fine, we just need to be out of Europe.

But LatinAmerica tends to be rabidly homophobic so I am not surprised they are blaming the problem in the attention the LGBT issues can take... I myself think that if they prayed less and acted more, things would be very different.

The Guardian " A venerable publication".

ROFL.

Ooohhhh "I won't read Spiked".

Well I won't, and can't, take anything you say seriously, tumbledisatwat.

Yes. I have pondered this myself. Poverty on a domestic and global scale is being ignored because of the obsessive focus on 'gender identity' and sexual kinks.

And it's not only the issue of poverty that is being ignored. Others have touched on this already, I see.

Lots of people, young and old, think the idea of gender identity is bonkers. It's political correctness that is stopping people speaking up and taking a stand, because if you do, you are branded a bigot and your livelihood and reputation would be stripped and hung out to dry. At least that is why I don't speak out or have taken any meaningful stand against the absurdity of gender politics.

I dgaf about left wing politics. I am a working class girl with delusions of grandeur - I was brought up in the middle east by my draftsman/night educated (Remember proper funded adult education that up-skilled the workers?) /Imperial college graduated father and working mum.

I do however care about women and girls and I will vote for anyone upholding their sex based rights.

(This includes discrimination on the grounds of benefit poverty, assault by males, the state and health care providers (including but not limited to maternity and senior care) and infant mortality. )

Still struggling to understand why a Kipper would object to Spiked...

@LangCleg

Me too... 😜

Paid up member of the Labour Party here- I used a bit of vernacular language and you assumed that I'm a bit thick. Your prejudices are showing.