Fully clothed demo(s) for women's sex based rights

[Jeeeez]

So.. how could we go about this?

Should we go for one big demo in say London? Possibly to coincide with a Posie event at Speakers Corner? Several events on the same day across the UK? Just encourage local groups to organise their own thing? What do you think? Would you attend? Any thoughts or suggestions...

Lets not go to work. Much better.

One big one in London would be more impactful, but I know that it’s tricky for a lot of people to get to London, especially at the moment.
I for one would be able to get to London, in fact I was contemplating going up to attend one of Posie’s Speakers Corners.

I've been thinking about a Twitter # thing. 24 hours of tweeting about the war on women, women's sex based rights. People all over the world tweeting about why it matters, what matters - one single # to bring them all together, to show how many people believe in this. It would get traction and coverage. Thoughts?

I have been mulling this over too @HDDD

My idea was to have the logo of the dictionary definition of Woman on my facebook ad twitter pages. I don't have much of a media presence but want to make my feelings known.

Tried to mock something up but couldn't get it to load on facebook.

Anyway, it's a way of having a common thread with the 24hr tweeting

Surely it's much more constructive to challenge Stonewall policy, school guidance, pay for court action and speak up here about how important the EQ2010? This is stuff that makes a difference.

Absolutely @Portnlemon 100% in agreement

but when pushing a big boulder up a hill, sometimes a bit of collective action can make the load a little lighter

We can certainly join the immediate priority and write to MPs, borough councils, and schools about checking the appropriateness of the new educational toolkits as per Baroness Nicholson’s call for action.

Sadly, any tweeting campaign might be significantly diluted by activist activity. Either by posting anime, kpop, redirecting hashtags to donations for organisations that are only about affirming gender ideology. Whereas a physical march on multiple locations has a strong barrier to being overwhelmed.

All good ideas. I think using a combination of approaches is probably best, and depends on individuals strengths and circumstances e.g. where they live, financial circumstances and precariousness of their work.

I like the idea of a 24hr social media event- it's bound to be seen, gets our message and accurate information out there, shows otbers that there's a huge well of people who agree so empowering. And would hopefully generate a momentum that would help with other issues eg encourage more people to get policies changed and build momentum for things like a strike. And it's free which is always good!

I'm pretty useless at social media but can ask others for help/ideas.

*cross post

Let's see what others say. Am trying to gauge how many might come out on the streets...

🙋🏻‍♀️ I'm in, whatever it is! I'm in London so speaker's corner and march sounds good 😌

WPUK were holding very successful meetings before Covid. Let's hope they can start again soon.

Any sort of physical demo requiring both travelling and the possibility of too-close contact is simply irresponsible. Imo most women are too sensible to do that (partly because we take family responsibilities seriously) and it'd be a poor turnout.

Twitter isn't a serious medium and is far from a neutral platform. I suspect any attempt by women to use it would be frustrated by blocks, bans etc.

Sorry if this sounds negative but if something is touted as a big event it has to work. And for that reason, planning it on a public, 'monitored' forum such as MN probably isn't too wise.m

@ErrolTheDragon definitely not planning, just floating ideas, but absolutely take your point.

So just gotta wait for covid to go (or a vaccine) and/or for some decent politicians to do the right thing then...!!

Carry on doing whatever can be done (PP upthread have valid suggestions)?

A combination of several methods is always good, and women can pick and choose which activities suit them best.

Keep writing to MPs / MSPs, keep a close eye on policies used in schools, flag up areas where gender or gender identity is being substituted for sex. All of the political parties are having an internal struggle, so you might find it worthwhile to join or rejoin a party and help influence policy by voting for candidates that are willing to acknowledge and protect women's sex-based rights.

Keep an eye out for consultations and other upcoming legislative changes. Send in your submissions.

Sign up to newsletters of various women's groups so you can stay informed of upcoming events or gatherings. I think Standing for Women have planned more events at Speaker's Corner in London over the coming weeks, so go along and show your support - get talking to the other women there. Make in-person connections that seem trustworthy.

Maybe you will discover a few other women who live in the same area as you. Keep in touch and plan some local actions together - like print some leaflets or make some posters / placards and speak to passers-by if you feel up to the challenge. In-person activism is so much more effective. Talking to someone face-to-face is more likely to get them to engage. The vast majority of the public are unaware and aren't going to be on twitter. You might have some very productive conversations, but might also encounter some rude people. All part of the process of trying to engage with people on a difficult and complex topic.

If you're feeling a bit disobedient, you can leave stickers or leaflets around.

twitter is already entrenched. i would suggest a facebook campaign to reach the people who know less about whats going on.

I'm definitely up for a march and I'll even make a placard!! Never marched for a cause in my puff but this one I feel so strongly about. I'm also trying to get some GC friends together for Posie's Speakers Corner on 30th August. I'm absolutely fuming about what's going on, raging in fact, so I need an outlet and a march would be ideal. 👍

What is it you want a march to do? If it's to bring women together and raise morale then maybe, but only if a lot show up. But if it's to raise public awareness, then I'm doubtful. 'Retain Sex based rights and spaces' doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. Most people wouldn't know what we were talking about.
I also think of marching and shouting as a very male thing.
I think we need to be smarter than that. A couple of posters (might have been on the naked demo thread) suggested Man Friday style activities. A bit of imagination and humour can get the message across much more effectively and don't require massive numbers.

Have just been back to look at the Man Friday stuff. That was really good, had no knowledge of it. Lock down obviously got in the way but that's the sort of thing that gets the imagination fired up!

I agree with Errol. Travelling to London for a mass gathering isn't something I'd be willing to do right now and unfortunately, I also agree that activism via social media is challenging given that the status quo is stonewall rules. Challenging, though not necessarily impossible.

I also think even if a million of us demonstrated, the BBC and other main news channels would ignore it.

The campaigns that have taken off this year have had a feel good element, Captain Tom Moore & clap for carers couldn't be ignored.

So is there something we do that will get picked up by various media outlets?

Could something around women's sport work? Hundreds of separate events in multiple locations?

Let's put our many heads together.

What about Sports Days, country wide..............men against women, boys against girls? This would have to be organised enough so that participation would be known and wouldn't end up being an embarrassment

We need Freddy Flintoff making a guest appearance for a women's cricket team the next time they play Kent....

Not that specifically but something along those lines.

We're told that we "weaponise our trauma".

The truth of the situation is that many women never report DV, rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment. Reasons due to grooming, culture of blame or shame, retraumatising by police and courts, police attitude, the cases that won't be sent to court for various reasons, culture of disbelief, safety risk with violent partner, etc.

(Can't find the link but someone posted a good essay that said contrary to popular belief, male victims of these types of crimes are more likely to report to the police.)

Transphobic hate crimes are on the up. In reality this means situations like Sarah Phillimore having a police file on her due to having the audacity to tweet about biological truth in her own name. Women don't report, AND misogyny is not even a hate crime.

I am sick of reading false statistics gathered in a unfairly biased system. How can we be "weaponising our abuse" when so much goes unreported? I wonder about making a collation of all the unreported male pattern crimes we've experienced but never reported?

@highame

Have just been back to look at the Man Friday stuff. That was really good, had no knowledge of it. Lock down obviously got in the way but that's the sort of thing that gets the imagination fired up!

Can you point me to the Man Friday stuff please, thanks