The Feminist Ask Your MP Thread

[BadgertheBodger]

Following on from many of us on FWR feeling utterly despondent as to which way to vote, spoiling ballots and making very personal, very tough decisions, we now have a Conservative government with a strong majority.

However you feel about that (and as a disabled woman I do not feel good), I thought we could have a thread highlighting the topics we want them to focus on, what questions we could be asking our MPs and what we can do generally to ensure women are not shat on for the next 4 years.

I’m going to write to mine in a few weeks when the dust has settled to sound her out on what she thinks of self ID. She’s a Tory, they’ve held the seat but our previous MP stood down. She was cautiously GC and I’ve high hopes for the new one being so as well.

I’m going to ask her about Self ID and publishing the results of the consultation, all linked in to medicalising and experimenting on children. I’ve learned from writing many emails on the subject that it’s easiest to pick a small area of the whole sorry mess and go with that. I also want her to back the no “rough sex” defence campaign so brilliantly pushed forward from We Can’t Consent to This.

Any other ideas?

I’ve already emailed my Tory mp and asked for (another) meeting. As I said on another thread, I’m not letting this go.

I know you don’t mean it this way badger, but the following on from .... we now have....

Sounds a bit like it’s as a result of vote spoiling, not tactical voting, not voting etc

I know that’s not your intent but it was the rhetoric of plenty the last while when anyone discussed vote spoiling and it no doubt will be now and I think it’s important to step away from anything that might suggest that’s an ok line of thought. We most likely would end up with this government anyways, and that’s the fault of Labour not individual voters.

I think we remember mps are supposed to work for us, to represent all their constituents needs and voices, and remind them of that when contacting them. I think pursuing the other candidates and pointing out how they get our votes in future is necessary too. I will start next week because I need a head break and if I leave it until after Xmas I will get stuck procrastinating.

I'll be asking my Tory MP to focus on what has been happening with schools and education with children being groomed by totally unsuitable adult groups. Swinson has actually done us a huge service by her inability to define what a woman is. It has enabled the media and the population to finally start discussing what has been cloaked with threats and intimidation to silence all questions. Lots of sunlight and lots of discussion needed.

I’d like to write to me mp on some of these points but all quite new to this and don’t know where to start. I’ve written to him in the past and always had a considered response so I want to be sure to get the right points across on self ID.

Swinson lost by a tiny margin.

Perhaps if she hadn't been so insistent that my rights don't deserve protections I, and 150 other women, might have voted for her.

LD will have to look at this nonsense they spout and consider whether it is a vote winner, or stupid.

I’m a bit despondent. While I think the LibDems and Labour got the drubbing they richly deserved the divide between Scotland and the rest of the UK is so stark the future looks like one of unending strife. I think this will eclipse any concerns about women’s rights within the SNP giving the trans lobby more time for the shadowy machinations at which they excel. My SNP MP held his seat with an increased vote share. I have been emailing my SNP MPs, MSPs, MEPs and their women’s convener for months and have yet to receive an answer, so don’t think more emails are going to have any effect. I suppose the next move would be to make an appointment to see him but I am not much good at face to face debate, can’t hold onto the thread of an argument or put my point across effectively. I much prefer having time to consider and order my thoughts logically in writing but what is the point if nobody replies?

Our constituency went back to the Lib Dems from SNP.

I don't know anything about the Lib Dem now in place but I'll try to contact her in the new year.

SNP guy actually seemed ok as an MP, but never replied to my questions last year. 🙄

Katz there are older threads with template letters, Twitter normally has similar links going round, and sites like fair play for women are helpful.

Imho stick to how this effects women, we don’t need to argue for transwomen third spaces or whether or not they need to transition to be ‘real’ trans or what they should be termed. That’s their job not ours, don’t take the fight to their turf keep it on ours.

There’s women and girls safety and dignity - from prisons to Muslim women in change rooms to rape survivors avoiding smears from tw, safe guarding in schools, to women getting (literally) beaten by men in ffemale sports like boxing. (Ofcourse these things effect all women but if find specific examples are more relatable.

Then there’s parents concerns- our sons are not daughters because they like wearing pink skirts, why are we back to regressive sex role stereotyping, why does mermaids ignore the NICE guidelines of wait and see and advocate for untested medicating of children. Why are unregulated groups like mermaids (and all the others) being given authority in our schools, why is their advice to teachers to not inform parents of their concerns go against safe guarding guidelines that all school are expected to follow in all other cases.

Then there’s the legal and political implications of making women a meaningless catagory by letting men opt in. The first two, with examples like Karen White, make people think. Explaining how ‘women’ being a group that contains men erases women’s sex based protections and makes any evaluation of women’s experience of women’s issues meaningless. Of course the misogynistic mps love this reality of course, but plenty might click at this. This also effects homosexuals of both sex, as how can we prosecute gay hate crimes if the perpetrators can claim they assumed one of the men were self IDing as a woman. I doubt gay men want prosecuted for transphobia for stating they only date men.

Then there’s no platforming. Free speach is important, women have a right to speak on issues that effect them. We don’t close down Christian churches because it’s ‘offensive’ to Muslims. We don’t make it illegal to say we don’t believe in any other circumstances. Flat earthers can meet and form clubs yet women can’t?

Then point out how many votes are up for grabs from those who are actually women.

As someone who never imagined I'd ever request a meeting with my MP, I did and it was a very positive experience. They meet people from all walks of life and it is their job to listen to us. Much better to have a face to face meeting as emails are often read by underlings.
My initial focus is on keeping womens prisons just for women as I can't see how any human can justify locking up vulnerable women with someone who has a penis. Then also the harms of trans ideology on children and protecting sex segregated spaces-lastly get rid of GRCs.