Conservative landslide - how are we feeling as feminists?

[Cwenthryth]

I feel very mixed this morning. So worried about what this means for public services, policing, NHS, social care, mental health services, housing, in-work poverty... all of which disproportionately affects women, either as those needing these services or picking up the pieces when dependents cannot access what they need. We now have an openly misogynist prime minister (we did before, but now he has a secure mandate), who won’t even acknowledge all of his children whilst slagging off single mothers, and has had the police called out due to neighbours fearing for the safety of his partner from what they could hear through the wall.

But there’s a tiny silver lining of it seeming that it seems very unlikely that self-ID would be brought in under this government, at least in the form the Lib Dems were touting for, so we are probably more secure on retaining sex-based rights than we would have been with any other result.

To be honest it’s not really much comfort to me right now.

Sailing into the choppy waters of the unknown with Boris at the helm, on Friday 13th. What could possibly go wrong?

I'm sorry but self Id is a small drop in the ocean compared to this Conservative cluster fuck. I feel it's selfish to think otherwise, as op acknowledged, there are so many other elements which will disintegrate womens rights so think people need to be looking at the bigger picture here.

What do people think of the effect of Boris himself normalising his behaviour & attitude to women might have? The police being called to their flat, the skeletons in the closet, his appalling record as a husband and father etc.

I am delighted. We have a strong government that can be judged on what it delivers over a term, there can be no blaming of a hung parliament for a lack of decision and direction.

What do you think this majority government will deliver that would delight you for women, Duchess? For sake of clarity, I ask this in a genuine spirit of trying to find some light in what feels like a very dark time for many of us.

I feel bit sick, to be honest.

Stand by for Brexit, indyref, and the break up of the UK.

I'll be interested in any age breakdowns on voting. Did the young largely not vote or were the left leaning assumptions wrong?
Good idea about getting onto our newly elected MPs btw. I have a Lib Dem female MP, will invite her to re-look at their self-ID policy.

Mourning the loss of Caroline Flint and Laura Pidcock.

Same. These two are exactly the type of people the Labour Party needs. Instead, we're stuck with the likes of Dawn Butler.

Do you seriously think it was self id/gender critical which caused the Labour defeat?

I think it was just one of a number of uncompromising attitudes that turned people away from Labour and made them seem remote ‘metropolitans’. We won’t know yet about the vote share among different demographics but the number of women voting Labour in 1997 made a huge difference to the size of their majority. Where have they gone?

Haven’t seen an age breakdown yet - BUT, a record number of women MPs again, just. Slowly slowly.

1- "You thick bitch it's all propaganda"

2- "To any body whose parents vote Tory, they are cunts and I hope they fuck off and die"

First one barked by a lad to a girl in my daughter's class after she said she was worried about the anti-Semitism in labour.

Second one posted by a girl on a group chat.

These were both yesterday before they knew about the Tory landslide. God knows what will be said today.

One thing I won't miss if momentum implode is the tribalism that many on the left push where if you vote Tory you are scum and literally a nazi.

I have a new Tory MP. I will be writing to her with questions about self ID, single sex spaces and medical treatment for young people.

I’m a Tory voter living in Scotland, and I’m praying that Boris stands by his pledge to refuse another independence referendum.
He’s the only thing standing between Scotland and financial suicide, judging by the bloody SNP vote yesterday.
As for women’s rights- I trust a party that puts its money where its mouth is and has had two female prime ministers, plus is not pro self ID, over the other woke misogynists who only pay lip service.

I have to say that over the last week or so I have found many posts from "gender critical " posters extremely off putting and lacking in much sense.

And perhaps if you'd listened with open ears, you'd realise that what you were hearing was the distinct sound of Wokeism cannot win elections. Not leftism: bourgeois liberal Wokeism, even when it LARPs as leftism.

Wokeism is what the electorate has rejected, including but not limited to, a rejection of genderism as part of the Woke project.

Tin ears won't win elections. Neither will patronising intelligent and politically engaged women with general ad hominem and no actual analysis.

I'm here, having stood in the polling cubicle for ages... vascilating and not voting Labour.

Their anti women stance was the reason I am no longer a card carrying member (32 years of active membership, gone, not valued) and was the reason I started to question the party stance on all sorts of things.

Momentum, Free Unicorns etc just solidified that!

bourgeois liberal Wokeism, even when it LARPs as leftism. Thanks for that

Women get blamed for poverty: see BJ’s comments about single mothers, the Tory approach to benefits (third child etc)
Women are disproportionately affected by poverty. Who picks up the lack of care for disabled children, aged parents with dementia?
Women are disproportionately affected by every cut and austerity measure, every idea logically driven cut and reduction in public services, from health to lack of legal aid to lack of police.

As a feminist I am in despair... but resolved more than ever to stand in solidarity with the cause of women.

The self Id issue is an important principle and I will continue to advocate the GC position, but in the end I don’t care who is in the changing room if I can never afford to buy new clothes.

Bojo is a populist, not an ideologue. Austerity under Cameron was not based on economic prudence, it was based on his and Osbourne's ideology (less government). BoJo likes to be liked. He doesn't want to be head of the nasty party, he wants to be the Saviour of Britain. He's a big egoist who needs to be loved by all.

My hope is that, now he has a healthy majority, he can ditch the Marc Francoises of his party and drag the Tories back to the middle ground. He's not in coalition, so doesn't have to give 30 pieces of silver to the woke crowd for their votes. Hoping for a more moderate Brexit, ending austerity, a decent solution to stop the NHS falling into the abyss.

Right now, he's one of the strongest leaders in Europe. Hopefully he can capitalise on this strength and look to repair the damage with Europe rather than tarnishing his new, shiny legitimacy by getting into bed with Trump, who may well be gone in 12 months' time.

He's still a colossal prick, and this might be pie in the sky thinking, but what else can you do? Labour is broken, the last time they did this badly was under Michael Foot. LibDems are static and leaderless. Somebody on another thread suggested women join the Tories en masse and try to change them from within. I never thought I'd ever think about doing that, but maybe watching from the sidelines in an impotent rage isn't the way to go anymore.

I’m pondering joining Labour now, to work towards an effective opposition strong on women’s rights for 5 years time. I’m still technically a WEP member on paper although have disengaged with them almost completely since their shitshow of a performance on self-ID and Sophie Walker feeling she had to leave. WEP was/is an attempt to change the system; unfortunately the system invaded it and it’s just a pressure group, as effective as the greens were (not) decades ago. This is the system we have, and perhaps it’s not going to change by working from the outside.

“He’s the only thing standing between Scotland and financial suicide, judging by the bloody SNP vote yesterday”

But Brexit will bring financial suicide to all of us!

Laura pidcock was my mp. Voted labour all my life. Did not vote for her. She is part of the cohort that has destroyed the labour party. I thought she was going to be brave about self id but then she fudged it. There was a strong chance that if she had kept her seat she would have become leader once corbyn had gone, that would have been a disaster for the labour party.

@Babdoc please leave and go south, your views are more aligned with England and you are in the minority here.

Very sad about Caroline Flint but very pleased that Labour got the kicking they so richly deserved.

I actually feel hopeful about the future now. I never wanted to leave the EU but was outvoted on that one so hope that it will go as well as it possibly can.
I think that Boris will pull the Tories back to the middle ground. What Labour do now I do not know but the way I feel now I shall never vote for them ever again. I hope that the woke brocialists crawl back under the misogynist stones they lived under never to be seen again.

Just come across the bottom of the rolling news that a record number of female MPs have won.

Do think labour will finally trust a woman to lead them?