Julie Bindel on twitter

[Anonymouswasawoman]

Did her account get deleted?
twitter.com/bindelj/
Twitter is telling me it doesn't exist

Thing is, it SHOULD be out in the open, disagreements should happen and be transparent. The main issue I find is the skirting around shit, say the names or shut up.

Being shady and purposefully vague causes more crap and more misconceptions. Call it, and move on

I've reread the JCJ thing but I nearly lost the will to live. It's particularly galling to be lectured by blue ticks for being anon and behaving not up to scratch when shit like this is going on with that lot! Vicky Pollard for academics.

I found the screenshots enlightening and persuasive for the point of view that JCJ is arguing against, actually. So kudos to her for putting across the arguments of the people she disagrees with.

THANK YOU to those being supportive. It's not gone unnoticed 💛.

I haven't actually read JCJs entire thread (because 98 tweets struck me as excessive). I'm not overly impressed with what seems like a completely unprompted lashing out, no - I do not know JCJ and have only met her once. Neither do I understand the need to make public pronouncements about who you are (or aren't) politically aligned with. But it is her social media and what she says is obviously up to her.

For myself, I'll continue to work on my project, with my groups, and keep doing my thing. Things are beginning to materialise after months of chat and I'm happy about that.

Enjoy your weekend all.

I didn't read all the screen shots, but the whole piece read to me like someone who is mentally and emotionally shot away and really, really needs other people to understand why.

She's mentioned about her experiences of being bullied in the playground for being a 'weirdo' before - this has all obviously affected her at a very deep level.

She was also very clear that her opposition to PP is political, and why this is important to her. It's more complex than 'we all want the same thing' - the route that you take and who you travel with also matters.

Anyway, I hope that Jane gets some head space and rest and has a decent break from the toxicity.

I am genuinely sad that she has been affected by school bullying to this extent, and (I really don't mean this unkindly), there is no shame in talking therapy to work through this sort of thing.

That said, such a situation is not - unfortunately - unique. I was bullied for pretty much the same reasons, and you can imagine how the deaf kid was treated. Her experience, as she tells it, is not especially worse than anyone else's, and does not justify naming myself and others (who have nothing to do with the pushback some have received for criticizing anonymous accounts), thereby risking replicating the very behaviour she has understandably found distressing in the past.

I'm sensing some displacement going on here.

I may be completely off the wall with this, but I think some feminists might just be a tiny bit angry that it may well be a Conservative government, via Liz Truss and some Conservative peers and MPs, who actually sort all this shit out.

I think that has shaken a few people, rocked their foundations in a way, because so much of their 'identity' is wrapped in '"Tories are all bastards and the left cares about people".

It has been hard enough for them to deal with the fact that the left has let them down, let women down in particular, but if the Tories now ride to the rescue of women and children's rights, reverse some of the institutional capture, well, that's going to cause a fair amount of cognitive dissonance.

Yeah you may well be on to something there MrsSnippyPants.

There are a number of people who have helped shift the ground in this debate who aren't on the left and some of them men.

I don't really think this is a left/right issue to be honest and it's not especially helpful to see it that way.

Excellent observation @MrsSnippyPants. I didn't think of that, could well be a huge factor

Ha, and someone just sent me this tweet, which I hadn't seen before I posted.

At least Ruth Serwotka agrees with me

I've been at work all day, and I've come home tired and stressed, and catching up with all this has honestly infuriated me.

In a week where we have leapt forward due to the hard work and commitment of this movement of women, making huge inroads in the legal aspects that have been so insidiously embedded over the past few years, actually managing to convince allies in influential government positions, and watching a 14 year old girl stand up to be counted, anonymous though she be, some women have decided this is the time to have a spat about who is better/nicer/more right/pure what the fuck ever.

I was elated a couple of days ago. But this shit is fucking ridiculous and I'm exhausted and angry. Are we all going stir crazy in lockdown or something? Fucksake.

I agree Floral. All of them need to get over themselves... all of them ! We are finally getting some traction. This is bigger than the self.

Unmumsnetty hug Floral.

I think there's been a general acceptance for a long time that the Labour left has abandoned women. Julie Bindel amongst other feminists have used right wing press like The Spectator and Telegraph as mouthpieces for years as the used-to-be-leftists have sat on their hands and cowtowed to the gender ideologists.

I think it's true that once you feel like you're winning and that having a 'common enemy' isn't enough to unite you with others, the cracks start to show.

It's unfortunate, very unfortunate that they were played out so publicly. I think people like Selina Todd and Rosa Freeman use Twitter much more sensibly and self-protectively than esp Julie and Jane.

That said and with all due respect Dr LouiseJMoody, it's not really on for you or anyone else to decide that someone's experience 'isn't especially worse than anyone else's'. Being bullied isn't a game of top trumps and there's not necessarily a clear correlation between extent of harm caused to you and your mental health.

Although it's more than fair enough for you to call Jane out for naming you in her criticisms if they were unjustified.

The blurring of the public and private worlds that SM encourages, and illustrated by Jane's moving between discussions within Twitter and slack groups, sends many people around the bend it would seem.

I did not mean to imply that JCJ has not been deeply affected (she clearly has). All I've said was that, unfortunately, her experience is not unique, and that I don't think it is a reason to publicly name, and criticize people, that you do not personally know. A 98 tweet thread which has resurrected a painful episode for some looks very much like the bullying that she has regrettably experienced in the past. And given the personal, unnecessary nature of the attacks, I think I'm being quite charitable.

Well, you said that from what you know her experience isn't especially worse than anyone else's, which is a bit different.

Like you, I didn't read all the tweets and do agree with you that it's up to individuals how they use their own social media.

I think it's fair enough to call someone out for any implication that their trauma (cos that's what we're talking about) gives them the right to treat others badly. It can be an explanation as to why they do, but not an excuse.

It makes no difference who has the biggest trauma, who is most impacted by it, but to suggest that when someone says they were hurt by something that they're then not able to be critiqued in relation to it, even by someone who odds on went through at least as bad situations, makes no sense.

In fact it's exactly a technique that TRAs use.

Honestly, this is quarantine fever.

I don't know anyone who's found the last week a walk in the park.

Its a shame all this is going on as floral says after certain steps forward recently, especially the bravery and hard work put in by some, but just like the maniacal behaviour my eldest has had to day and the ratty irritation of my husband, you'd have to be stone cold hearted not to be finding the current climate insanity inducing.

We are all living on social media right now and it's doing our fucking heads in.

ahumafemale are you saying that JCJ has used the techniques that TRAs use?

There's an interesting exchange in the comments section of JCJ's blog about this. Posie has posted a long comment, and Jane gives her pov.

I've just seen that an American pro-Democrat woman has tweeted at a woman who has accused Biden of sexual assault, saying she believes her, but Biden is still her guy. That's where this bollocks ideology-over-supporting-other-women gets us.

I'm logging off for a bit. I'm actually sickened.

I’m on a social media hiatus so I didn’t see all this.

I loath being lectured about being anon. Many women don’t have a bloody choice, for a myriad of reasons, and those who accessed enough education and contacts to make a career in academia and journalism sometime seem to miss this spectacularly.

My only personal contact with JCJ was positive. She was one of very few academic feminists who was openly supportive of genderfree while it was going on. She even flew the genderfree flag for a while. Most of the “professional feminist” crowd, with a few notable exceptions, criticised it or ignored it.

On the wider issues, BustedWench makes a pertinent point that women who don’t plant their flag as being firmly on the left get lambasted by the same people who fawn over Harry. And MrsSnippyPants suggestion about motivations, given Truss’s actions, is food for thought...

Floral

I can't believe that all these damaged egos are still crying over the fact that over a year ago PP and JL were impolite to a powerful person with a dangerous agenda. Or that they attended some meetings held by people with a different political perspective to those with the egos. What the actual fuck?

Who exactly are they trying to appease when they try to distance themselves from the actions of PP and JL? In whose eyes are they trying to appear pure? Are the opinions of anime obsessed wankwipes on Twitter so important to these academics that they feel the need to trash other women?

I admire all of them in various ways, but this is making the best of them look batshit crazy.

Hi @LouiseMoody!

Wasn't going to post again on this thread but just saw you replied! I asked upthread if someone could point me to your work on the trans issue. I'm keen to read widely but couldn't see a website in your Twitter bio. Is there much of your writing in this area that isn't behind an academic paywall?

Thanks so much.

unwashedanddazed from what I've read, JCJ is very clear that she isn't trying to appease anyone by publicly distancing herself from PP and JL's politics. Or more non-politics, I think.

PP is very clear that she doesn't care what politics someone has as long as they can come together on the woman=adult human female and that the dangers of trans ideology being imposed on children and young people. JCJ says that she can't support any allegiance with orgs like the Heritage Foundation, however much they share views on the other issues.

If you haven't been imbued in politics for years, I think it's hard to understand how central it is to some peoples' lives. Ditto, if you have, it's hard to understand how it isn't central to others lives.

Have a look at the exchange between the two at the bottom on the comments section on JCJ's latest blog - it outlines the impasse of the past couple of years and current hostility between them.

But yes batshit crazy to thrash out in the public domain, but important for people who feel that they have been bullied to name who they perceive to be their bully, so people having a break for a bit is probably the best thing, for their own well being and also for the broader feminist cause.